Atousa Pourkashiyan of Iran was eliminated but has a bright future.
Photo by FIDE.

ChessBase Report: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4879

The Rising Stars trounced the Veterans 33½-16½ and were paced by Wang Yue’s who posted a 2892 performance. He will get a spot at the next Amber tournament.

Rising Stars:
1. Wang Yue (CHN, 2704) – 8½/10; 2. Cheparinov (BUL, 2687) – 7½; 3. Caruana (ITA, 2630) – 6½; 4. L’Ami (NED, 2638) – 6; 5. Stellwagen (NED, 2616) – 5.

Experience:
1-2. Bareev (RUS, 2655); Agdestein (NOR, 2583) – 4; 3. Ljubojevic (SRB, 2555)- 3½; 4-5. Korchnoi (SUI, 2602), Jussupow (GER, 2587) – 2½.

http://www.skakistis.gr/path/to/openkalamarias#tabs-mini-panel-openkalamarias-middle-1

In the American Presidential campaign Senator John McCain has touted his “experience” as why he should win the office of the President. Barack Obama said in his acceptance speech that he doesn’t question McCain’s experience, but his judgement. Maybe the young stars were listening. They may not have the experience, but they certainly are using better judgment at the board.

Offical Site: http://www.nhchess.com/

Unfortunately, Georgia will not send a team due to the political tensions with Russia. The Georgian team stated that would not play if the tournament was in Russia, but it was too late to change the venue. Both championship Nona Gasprindashvili and Nona Alexandria supported the protest.

A total of 64 participants will be competing for the title. Xu Yuhua is the defending champion and there will be a strong Asian contingent looking to carry on a winning tradition after the Soviet-bloc nations dominated for decades.

Official Site: http://nalchik2008.fide.com/

Nakamura polished off Akobian in their encounter will a nice tactic. This Nakamura-Akobian position was shown on uschess.org’s site. After 30…Kxd6 the following position was reached.

Nakamura uncorked the nice 31.Nxf6! I must admit I saw it immediately, but is a beautiful shot and shows that venom lurks in seemingly drawn positions. Nakamura is posting comments about the tournament on his blog. It’s good to see him keeping us informed on his progress.

Alexei Shirov came in last… also hard to figure out. He was robbed of his championship shot, but his brilliant tactics are tarnished by his sporadic results. Shirov is one of the few GMs to have studied under Tal, but his mentor would not be pleased with his performance.

ChessBase: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4869

If anyone had any doubts about Wang Yue’s strength, they should be quashed now. He is having another strong outing scoring at a 3034 performance in the Rising Stars vs. Experienced Players match held in Amsterdam. His score is an amazing +6.

Wang is leading his team to a 24.5-10.5 drubbing and continues his club up the FIDE rating chart. With his continued performance, he will get an invite to Amber Blind/Rapid tournament. He has already accepted an invitation to play in Corus “A”. There are four rounds left to play.

This tournament features young stars Wang, Ivan Cheparinov, Fabiano Caruana, Erwin L’Ami, Daniel Stellwagen and legendary veterans Evgeny Bareev, Simen Agdestein, Viktor Korchnoi, Artur Jussupow and Ljubomir Ljubojevic.

ChessBase: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4868

The Tal Memorial is taking place from August 17th-31st in Moscow, Russia at the Exhibition Hall of GUM mall on Red Square. There are 10 players which include: Alexander Morozevich (#2 on FIDE ELO list), defending tournament champion Vladimir Kramnik (#3), Vassily Ivanchuk (#4), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (#8), Alexei Shirov (#9), Peter Leko (#10), Gata Kamsky (#17), Boris Gelfand, (#18), Ruslan Ponomariov (#19), and Evgeny Alekseev (#26).

Here are the games from round five. Mamadyarov had a nice win against Kamsky. (See Games)

GM Abhijeet Gupta and IM Dronvali Harika have won the World Junior Open and Girls Championships. Singh defeated leader David Howell to end on 10-3. Parimarjan Negi of India placed 2nd with 9.5/13. In the girls competition, Harika ended with a draw against WGM Katerina Nemcova to earn a well-deserved title. Harika was the top-seed and led the tournament throughout.

Absolute madness going on at World Junior. The leaderboard has changed yet again. David Howell had taken the lead after beating former leader Maxim Rodshtein of Israel. India’s Abhijeet Gupta also now shares the lead after beating former leader Arik Braun of Germany. Howell has the best tiebreaks of those with 9-3.

Gupta’s compatriot Parimarjan Negi also pulled in to joint first with a win over Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son of Vietnam. This is the first time the Indian duo has been in the lead and they may have peaked at the right time. Both have winning streaks. Rauf Mamedov of Azerbaijan has bounced back after a poor start.

Pairings Round 13 on 2008/08/15 at 10:00

Bo. Name Rtg FED Pts Res. Pts Name Rtg FED
1 GM HOWELL David 2561 ENG 9 9 GM GUPTA Abhijeet 2551 IND
2 IM BRAUN Arik 2533 GER 8½ 9 GM NEGI Parimerjan 2529 IND
3 GM SAFARLI Eltaj 2527 AZE 8½ 8 GM RODSHTEIN Maxim 2605 ISR
4 GM AMIN Bassem 2561 EGY 8 8 GM MAMEDOV Rauf 2627 AZE
5 GM NGUYEN Ngoc Truong Son 2579 VIE 8 8 GM SO Wesley 2577 PHI
6 WGM HOU Yifan 2557 CHN 8 8 GM LE QUANG Liem 2577 VIE
7 GM LAZNICKA Viktor 2601 CZE 7½ 8 IM MELKUMYAN Hrant 2507 ARM
8 GM ZHIGALKO Sergei 2583 BLR 7½ 7½ IM ASHWIN Jayaram 2436 IND
9 IM SJUGIROV Sanan 2545 RUS 7½ 7½ IM KARTHIKEYAN Pandian 2402 IND
10 GM RAMIREZ Alejandro 2531 CRC 7½ 7½ GM WEN Yang 2487 CHN

Standings

In the Girls Junior Championship Dronavali Harika is dominating the field with 10-2 followed by WGM Mariya Muzychuk of the Ukraine on 9/12. International Master Harika only needs a draw to clinch.

Standings