Archive for the 'Asia' Category

GM Hou Yifan vs. GM Koneru Humpy The Women’s World Chess Championships between champion Hou Yifan of China and Humpy Koneru of India starts at 2pm GMT (9am EST) on Monday 14th November 2011 in Tirana, Albania. This will be the third match between the two Asian rivals with Hou winning the previous matches in [...]

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Armenia has garnered great success in the past several years in team play and hope to continue the trend today as the 2011 World Team tournament goes into its final four rounds. The Olympiad champions from 2006 and 2008, Armenia has always had tremendous team chemistry which helps when trust is needed in crucial moments. [...]

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In a recent ChessBase article, Uzbekistan’s Rustam Kasimdzhanov made a pronouncement about the state of professional chess and its appeal to sponsors. In a very stark admission, Kasimdzhanov opened with, I am writing this open letter, addressed both to FIDE and the entire chess playing world, due to a certain crisis, in which our noble [...]

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The bienniel World Team Championships will commence with round one on Sunday, July 17th. The ten teams are comprised of host China, Russia (defending champion), Ukraine, Israel Hungary (2010 Olympiad finishers), Azerbaijan, Egypt, India, USA (the continental champions) and Armenia (nomination from FIDE President). The field will prove to be very challenging and represent some [...]

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Both chess and draughts have claimed different parts of the African continent. There is a new game in town… that is the Japanese game of shôgi. Lionnel Kouassi of the Ivory Coast (Côte d’Ivoire) wrote an article of the activities currently being conducted in Africa to spread the shôgi. The article was written in French, [...]

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Anand analyzes!

Chessvibes produced two videos of World Champion Viswanathan Anand analyzing his game with Magnus Carlsen at the London Chess Classic. In the second video, he analyzed a couple of intricate endings. This Anand-Carlsen game was followed by thousands of chess players and was an entertaining bout. The game was very instructive and Anand goes through [...]

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GM Hou YifanWomen’s World Champion Since becoming one of the youngest Grandmasters in history (14 years, 6 months), the chess community knew that good things were to come for the diminutive girl from China. GM Hou Yifan, 16, would compete for the Women’s World Championship in 2008 losing to GM Alexandra Kosteniuk in the finals, [...]

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2010 Women World Chess ChampionshipFINALS (Hou Yifan vs. Ruan Lufei) Player ELO Nation Flag Player ELO Nation Flag Hou 2591 CHN Ruan 2480 CHN Preview: The stage is set and at the end of this final match, the glory will be China’s once again. However, who will win the Women’s World Championship Chess match? If [...]

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2010 Women World Chess ChampionshipRound #5 Pairings # Player ELO Nation Flag Player ELO Nation Flag 1 Ruan 2480 CHN Zhao 2474 CHN 2 Koneru 2600 IND Hou 2591 CHN Preview: As if on cue, China has made a statement on the world stage once again. They will boast three of the last four players [...]

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IM Oladapo Adu (right) set to face off against the ever-tough IM Enkhbat Tegshsuren. Photo courtesy of Oladapo Adu. IM Oladapo Adu had a succcessful month which included joint first place finishes at the LPO Chess Open and the North Virginia Open. In the most recent tournament in Virginia he tallied 5/5 and tied with [...]

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Three 2800s Square Off!

While Viswanathan Anand (India), Magnus Carlsen (Norway) and Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria) have played in a number of tournaments together, the Nanjing International will be the first recorded tournament where three players with 2800 FIDE ratings will compete. This tournament is in its third edition and features six strong Grandmasters. Rounding out the field will be [...]

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The Olympiad has come and gone. It was a magnificent event where many of today’s stars shined. However, these elite players do not get a break from the action. Four of the top ten will face off in Bilbao, Spain for the Bilbao Masters, a six-round double round-robin event. World Champion Viswanathan Anand of India [...]

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Viswanathan Anand at 2006 Olympiad. Photo © Daaim Shabazz. Of course, Viswanathan Anand is one of the most influential player in recent history. To recount all of his accomplishments would be redundant, but he represents all that is good about chess at this point. He is generous, humble, polite, alturistic and certainly a great ambassador [...]

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The Honorable Florencio Campomanes has passed away after suffering from cancer. He had become an icon in the Karpov-Korchnoi match in Baguio, Philippines and for initiating reforms in FIDE when he took office in 1982. He officiated over the five Kasparov-Karpov championship matches including the historic 1984-85 match which lasted 48 games. He will be [...]

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Many of the world’s top chess federations will assemble in the Bursa province of Turkey for the World Team Championships. Some of the notable teams represent perennial powers Russia, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Israel and USA. Also included in the field is India, the world’s #6 team Despite the fact that World Champion Viswanathan Anand is busy [...]

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Round #4 will feature a healthy dose of 2700 battles. We can expect shorter draws and perhaps longer matches. A few marquee matches are on tap including Svidler-Shirov, but Ruslan Ponomariov may be lurking in the wings hoping the field has forgotten that he has won this tournament back in 2002. The Azeri duo (Mamedyarov [...]

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Key matchups are on tap for the FIDE World Cup. While most of the top seeds moved on, they will face stiffer tests in round two. Judit Polgar will start her first match today against Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu of Romania. This tournament may see the rise by a number of young players. By contrast, players like [...]

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African chess experienced a brush with greatness the past week. Viswanathan Anand’s recent visit to Africa has been the subject of conversation this past week. What was not emphasized in the media was his short stop in the Kwa-Zulu Natal province in South Africa prior to Botswana. The World Champion stopped in Durban, a city [...]

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CHESS DRUM EXCLUSIVE! World Champion Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand lands in Botswana by Kenneth Boikhutswane Anand arrives in Gaborone, Botswana. The reigning World Chess Champion, Grandmaster (GM) Viswanathan Anand of India, touched down this afternoon at 1640hrs local time. The GM was afforded the status befitting of a player of his status, this signified by that [...]

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Tomorrow Viswanathan Anand will set foot down on the African continent. This is reportedly his first visit which is significant for a number of reasons. First, no other sitting World Champion has visited the continent in recent memory (or perhaps ever). This is revolutionary for a number of reasons and may represent a “homecoming” of [...]

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