Happy New Year to all chess fans around the world! The team of Chessdom.com wishes you all the best in 2008, lot's of health, happiness, and wishes that come true. We also wish all active players reading Chessdom to rise their ELO with at least 100 points in 2008 :)
It may be New Year's Eve, but chess events are going all around the world. Besides, many tournaments start as soon as January 2nd. Here is a quick report on ongoing events and a preview of the first chess tournaments in 2008.
Francisco Vallejo Pons wins Ciudad de Pamplona
Francisco Vallejo Pons routinely drew with white against Wang Yue in the last round to claim clear first place at the Internacional Ciudad de Pamplona. Two wins at the start were good enough to keep him on the poll position. Combative Baadur Jobava and solid Wang Yue are tied on the 2nd place with four points each.
More info and replayable games
Morozevich wins the Russian Championship
Alexander Morozevich won the Russian Championship with 8,0/11, a full point ahead of the second Alexander Grischuk. Third place is for Tomashevsky with 6,5. Places 4-8 are shared by Inarkiev, Dreev, Jakovenko, Vitiugov, and Sakaev with 5,5/11. Svidler completed his fantastic end of 2008 with a poor score of 5,0/11 to take the ninth place. Amonatov is with 4,5,Rychagov is with 4, and Timofeev with 3,5.
In the women section there was a four way tie between Tairova, Korbut, T. Kosintseva, and Ovod with 7,0/11.
Hastings Chess Congress 2008
Three rounds have been played of the Hastings Chess Festival 2008. In the Masters tournament there are 13 players with 2,5/3 on top. These are Bindrich, Chatalbashev, Haslinger, V. Georgiev, Neverov, Flear, Hebden, Williams, Gormally, Conquest, Tahirov, Sengupta, and Pert. Many surprises with rating down to 1900 follow with 2,0/3. Most of the upsets happened in round 1, where the underdogs surprised all the top boards.
Chess festival Groningen
Greek chess players conquered the Groningen chess festival. GM Stelios Halkias finished on top with 6,5, same points as his countrymate GM Mastrovasilis, but better tiebreak. Third, fourth, and fifth places are for GM Ernst and GM Adly with 6,5 points. Sixth place is for another Greek player, GM Banikas with 6,0.
January FIDE rating list
The January FIDE rating list has been released. Vladimir Kramnik is on top with 2799, the same points as the second Viswanathan Anand. However, Kramnik has played more games and this brings him the first place. Third is Veselin Topalov with 2780. Morozevich, Svidler, Mamedyarov, Shirov, Leko, Ivanchuk and Aronian complete the top 10. You can see all standings (men, women, juniors, and girls) at the FIDE rating report
January 2008 Chess Calendar
January 2008 is a month full of interesting chess events. Top picks for sure are Corus Chess Wijk aan Zee 2008 and Gibtelecom Chess festival. However many chess events start as soon as January 2 and will be full of quality chess players and interesting games
Australian Chess Championship 2008
The Australian Chess Championship will take place from the 2nd January 2008 to 11th January 2008. Entriesuntil now include GM Dejan Antic, IM Stephen Solomon, GM Darryl Johansen, IM George Xie, IM Gary Lane, FM Igor Goldenberg, IM Herman Van Riemsdijk, FM Igor Bjelobrk, FM Greg Canfell, FM Jesse Noel Sales, FM Douglas Hamilton, Tomek Rej, Vincent Suttor, etc.
Alongside the Australian Championship will be a number of other chess tournaments. These are the Australian Major (Under 2100), Australian Minor (Under 1600) and Australian Lightning Championship.
The Australian Championship, Major and Minor tournaments are all to be 11 rounds, with time control 90 minutes plus 30 seconds a move from the start.
25 Open Untergrombach
The 25th Open Untergrombach chess tournament will take place January 2-6 2008 in Germany. It will be a 7 round Swiss system with solid international field. The prize of the open is 3500 eur.
Memorial Salvatore Nobile
Accademia Scacchistica features several events in January 2008. They start with Memorial Salvatore Nobile with a nice prize of 18 bottles of top notch Italian wine for the winner. It is a 7 rounds event fron January 10 to January 21. Besides, the club organizes two blitz tournaments, on January 5th and January 19th.
Prague Open 2008
The Prague Open 2008 will take place 11.-18.1. 2008 in Prague, Czech Republic. It is a part of the Czech tour series and is a Swiss system of 9 rounds, 2 x 1,5h + 30s/move. Until now 100+ players have registered. Top rated is IM Nikolay Ninov (ELO 2518), followed by IM Vigen Mirumian, GM Evgeni Sveshnikov, GM Viesturs Meijers, IM Spas Kozhuharov, GM Mikhail Ivanov, IM Peter Vavrak, GM Eduard Meduna, etc.
Courtesy @ www.chessdom.com
