The history of Asian Cities tournament
Posted by Webmaster on 12 Feb 2011
The Asian Cities Championship takes place every two years and is open for city teams from affiliated chess federations in Zones 3.1 to 3.7. The format is nine round Swiss for teams composed of 4 players plus 1 reserve. The winning city is awarded custody of the Dubai Cup, which cannot be acquired in perpetuity.The championship was first held in the Hong Kong in 1979 (won by Singapore) and quickly became popular and strong chess meeting held on biennial basis. Of 16 editions held so far, Chinese cities won six times, Kazakhstani three times, and Indonesian teams twice. Shanghai and Pavlodar made it three times each.
The event saw many top-class GMs like GM Vladimirov, GM Kotsur, GM Graf, GM Kasimdzhanov or GM Ghaem Maghani, just to list a few. The 2011 edition is scheduled in April in Jakarta.
Along with the Asian Cities history we added detailed coverage of the World Cities which took place only twice (1997 and 1999). As it saw little intereset outside Asia the series is no longer continued.
See Asian Cities Champoinship summary
See World Cities Championship summary
By the way, there is brand new chess history/result site available, and it is the only and excellent source of chess info&data from Indonesia.
See IndonesiaBase
Chess Olympiad 2010 news from all continents
Posted by Webmaster on 17 Sep 2010
5 days before the start of the World Chess Olympiad in Khanty Mansiysk, international mainstream media has launched multiple reports on the most important national teams event of the year. Guided by hope for medals and inspired by the strong participation, teams are preparing for the 2010 Olympiad all over the world. A total of 1380 player will participate in the two sections for the medals of the top team event in chess. The statistics are impressive - 772 titled players will be present, out of them 247 GMs, 63 WGMs, 160 IMs, 87 WIMs, 81 FMs, and 80 WFMs.
And all this accompanied by on the spot commentary by Blue Gene super computer, Stockfish analysis at Chessdom Chessbomb live games platform, live commentary by IM Ipatov, GM Bauer, IM Perunovic, and invited guests at Chessdom.com.
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Cuba will carry the flag and travel 11 000 km to the Olympiad
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India questions the absence of Anand and Koneru Humpy
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Philippines at the Olympiad without GM Antonio
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Botswana happy to be at the Olympiad
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Pakistan women for the second time at Olympiad
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Peru worried about captain
Read more at Chessdom.com
World Team Championship finishes in Turkey
Posted by Webmaster on 16 Jan 2010
Russia beat Israel 3:1 in the last round of the World Team Chess Championship to successfully close the campaign and take home the gold medal. European Champion Evgeny Tomashevsky and Nikita Vitiugov brought the key points on the boards with white pieces. The team Russia collected 15 match points, having only lost against Greece in round two and tying the match against Armenia in round seven. Vitiugov brought 5.5 points from six games and Vladimir Malakhov contributed 5 points from seven games.The United States and India finished with 13 match points, but the silver medal goes to the United States thanks to the higher sum of individual points. It was a fantastic run for the young American team, who even held the lead in the Championship until succumbing to the Olympiad winners Armenia in round eight. Hikaru Nakamura was in marvelous form and scored many beautiful wins on the top board. With 6 points from 8 games, he took the gold individual medal, while his teammate Alexander Onischuk achieved the same feat on the second board, with 6.5 out of 9 games. The success is even greater because the US played without Gata Kamsky, one of their best players, who in the meantime won the strong Reggio Emilia tournament.
The well rounded team of India fought hard and deservingly reached the third place and bronze medal. Krishnan Sasikiran held the top board well in the competition with the world's top players, while Asian Champion Ganguly Surya Shekhar contributed a lion's share of points on the third board, where he also claimed the individual gold medal.
Greece played each match until the bare kings and signed four wins and five losses, without draws. They stunned the new World Champion Russia and 2008 Olympiad winner Armenia. The inexperienced but quickly progressing home team of Turkey finished the last, but they are boosting the victory against Olympiad silver medalists from Israel.
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov from Azerbaijan had the best individual result in this Championship, with incredible 8 points on the fourth board.
Final standings:
Russia 15
USA 13
India 13
Azerbaijan 12
Armenia 12
Greece 8
Israel 8
Brazil 4
Egypt 3
Turkey 3
See games, complete results and statistics at www.olimpbase.org
/ taken from FIDE website /
Vietnam and India are newly crowned Asian champions
Posted by Webmaster on 01 Jan 2010
The Tata Steel Asian Chess Team Championship today came to a close in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, at a grand prize giving and closing ceremony at Town Hall, Kolkata, with Asia powerhouses India and Vietnam emerging champions in their respective categories. Organized by Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy with All Sport Management India for the All India Chess Federation from 20-29 December 2009, the championship involved 19 teams from 9 countries including host India, and in competition over 7 successive days using the Swiss tournament system, the men's championship was won by India A, and the women's championship by Vietnam.
Gracing the event that was made possible by financial and logistical support from the Government of India and of West Bengal together with title sponsorship from Tata Steel, was Dr Ashim Das Gupta, State Minister of Finance, West Bengal.
Dr Ashim congratulated the organizers, stating that it was the duty of the state to support the organization of an event such as the Asian Team Championship, and going on to say that he understood and appreciated the benefits chess could bring and looked forward to receiving a proposal from Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy and the West Bengal Chess Association for a chess in schools program in West Bengal so all children could benefit from the game.
Other guests of honour included Mr Peeyush Gupta, Chief Marketing & Sales, Tata Steel, representatives from the city of Kolkata and various sponsors together with sports personalities such as Indian Cricket Legend Madan Lal. The participants were billeted at the excellent 4 star The Peerless Inn, conveniently located in central Kolkata in the bustling New Market shopping district and near major tourist attractions like Eden Garden, Howrah, and the Victoria Memorial.
In the men's championship, India "A", with an all grandmaster line up including four players rated 2600+, was the runaway winner, getting all 14 points possible and defeating second placed Vietnam 2.5-1.5, and third placed Iran 3.5-0.5.
Vietnam, while a deserving winner with 13 points, however had a little help from India "B" who beat India "A" 2.5-1.5 in their individual encounter. Before that Vietnam had drawn its match with India "A". So India "B" finished second with 11 points and India "A" third with 10 points.
On the final two days, chess lovers from all over India were treated to live broadcast of the games by Doordarshan (National TV) Sports of the last two rounds together with commentary provided by the organizers.
The final standings:
Men:
1. India "A" 14/14; 2-3. Vietnam, Iran 11/14; 4-5. India "B", Indonesia 8/14; 6-7. Bangladesh, Singapore 6/14; 8. Sri Lanka 3/14; 9. Yemen 2/14; 10. Nepal 1/14.
Individual Board Medals: 1. Le Quang Liem (VIE), 2. Sasikiran Krishnan (IND), 3. Ganguly Surya Sekhar (IND), 4. Negi Parimarjan (IND), 5. Nguyen Anh Dung (VIE).
Women:
1. Vietnam 13/14; 2. India B 11/14; 3. India A 10/14; 4. Iran 7/14; 5-7, Indonesia, Singapore, Bangladesh 6/14; 8. Sri Lanka 3/14; 9. Nepal 1/14.
Individual Board Medals: 1. Harika Dronavalli (IND), 2. Paridar Shadi (IRI), 3. Nguyen Thi Thanh an (VIE), 4. Nguyen Thi Mai Hung (VIE), 5. Hoang Thi Nhu Y (VIE).
Official Website: www.asianteamchess09.com
Tournament Blog: www.kolkata2009.blogspot.com
/ taken from FIDE website /
Euro Rapid 2009: Malakhov, Ivanchuk, Wojtaszek
Posted by Webmaster on 24 Dec 2009
The 2009 European Rapid Chess Championship took place in Warsaw, Decmber 19-20. With ca. 700 players participating and GM Gashimov being top seed, GM Malakhov of Russia took gold ahead of GM Ivanchuk and incumbent champion GM Wojtaszek of Poland. The tournament happens to be Stanislaw Gawlikowski Memorial too.
see details at http://www.poloniachess.pl/amplico2009/
Photo: Chair of Polish Chess Federation Mr. Tomasz Sielicki hands silver medal to GM Vasyl Ivanchuk. Malakhov on the left. Smiling in the back Wojtek Bartelski, owner of olimpbase.org
Russian sides pick European Club trophies
Posted by Webmaster on 15 Oct 2009
The 25th European Club Cup was held on 4-10th October in Ohrid, Fyrom. The Russian club Economist-SGSEU-1 from Saratov won all seven matches and convincingly claimed the first place with perfect 14 points. This compact team was represented by Grandmasters Alekseev, Eljanov, Tomashevsky, Bu, Ni, Moiseenko, Andreikin and Roiz. The Championship was very exciting, but with 50+ teams competing, it should be definitely extended to nine rounds.Mika Yerevan, featuring mostly members of the Olympiad winning Armenian national team, reached clear second place with 12 points. It is interesting that last year the same team had Magnus Carlsen and Boris Gelfand on the top two boards, yet they finished on tied 7-13th place.
Third place was shared by the last year champions Ural Svedrdlovskaya, this time playing without Teimour Radjabov and Gata Kamsky, and SPbChFed from Sankt-Peterburg, but Ural took bronze medal on better tiebreak score. Peter Svidler from SPbChFed scored 5.5/7 on the first board, for the highest rating performance of the competition - 2920.
1. RUS Economist-SGSEU-1 Saratov - 14
2. ARM Mika Yerevan - 12
3. RUS Ural Svedrdlovskaya - 11
4. RUS SPbChFed Sankt-Peterburg - 11
5. GER OSG Baden-Baden - 10
In the women's section Vidnoe had a slow start, with draws in rounds two and three, but then they won the remaining matches and convincingly claimed the trophy, full three points ahead of the chasing pack. Fourth board Kateryna Lahno had an amazing performance of 5.5/6, or 2772 elo.
Cercle d'Echecs Monte Carlo, who dominated the European scene over the last two years, had many problems throughout the competition and only in the last round did they reach shared 2-5th place. The team won the silver medal on the best additional criteria. It is interesting that the top two teams haven't met each other over the board.
The event had only 11 teams participating, which is a huge decline after the last year's 18 in Kalithea.
1. RUS Spartak Vidnoe - 12
2. MNC Cercle d'Echecs Monte Carlo - 9
3. GEO Samaia Tbilisi - 9
4. RUS Economist-SGSEU Saratov - 9
5. MNE T-com Podgorica - 9
/ taken from www.chessdom.com /
OFFICIAL SITE :: COMPLETE STANDINGS :: EUROPEAN CLUB CUP HISTORY
China wins World Women Championship again!
Posted by Webmaster on 13 Sep 2009
In a stunning last round China clinched the World Women Chess Championship title. The Asian team finished with the same match points as Russia, but half a game point advantage gave them the title. Before the last round China had a match point advantage over the contenders. Ukraine, Russia, Armenia, and Poland were tied at second place, all aiming at the medals. However, none of the teams in the chasing pack had any hope for first, as China had to meet the 400 ELO points average lower team of Vietnam.
Having this setup, the events of the last round were more than dramatic. The team of Vietnam have tried on several occassions to get a victory, and was left several times half a game point from it. This time they put up a real battle against China, and in less than 40 moves the star team of Hou Yifan, Zhao Xue, Ju Wenjun, and Huang Quian were all held to a draw.
Russia immediatelly jumped on the opportunity. After defeating the six rounds in a row leaders from Poland, they had the difficult task to meet the unpredictable China 2. IM Nadezhda Kosintseva proved she is one of the top players of the event, by scoring yet another victory. WFM Gunina followed suit and scored on board 4. And just as everything looked fine for Russia, IM Tatiana Kosintseva and IM Kovalevskaya were held to draws to leave Russia just half a game point behind China in the final standings.
Poland could not withstand the pressure and gave in to Georgia with a 3:1 score. This was immediatelly used by Armenia and Ukraine, who had to decide the medals in a direct encounter. A gold medal and shared first with China was possible for Ukraine in case of a 4:0 victory. An early draw on Zhukova - Mkrtchian eliminated this possibility. Armenia took the lead after Danielian defeated Ushenina on board 1, but heroic Gaponenko and Zbedska gave the victory and the bronze medal to Ukraine.
1 China "A" 12 21.5
2 Russia 12 21
3 Ukraine 12 20.5
4 Georgia 11 20
5 Armenia 10 18.5
6 Poland 10 17.5
7 India 9 17.5
8 USA 6 16.5
9 China "B" 6 16
10 Vietnam 2 11
The best player of the competition was Valentina Gunina. Despite her forfeit for being 1 minute late, she scored the fantastic 6,5/8.
/ news taken from chessdom.com /
tournament history :: tournament coverage :: all-time statistics
Elo ratings 1970-2001 :: the new tool!
Posted by Webmaster on 20 Aug 2009
More than a year ago we prepared the spreadsheet file with compilation of all available, historical Elo ratings. Today we have something much better - the very special tool for fast and easy browsing of all historical lists and legible, comfortable player cards documenting all past ratings, placings, spellings and other data.FIDE ratings have been for many years computed and set together manually, which is why they are plenty of bugs, calculating mistakes, dupe entries, nonexistant players, terrible spellings etc. What we provide are the only available lists at the moment, so there is nothing like flawless or ratified lists. We have to live with that. To discover who and why hides behind mailformed names might be tasty challenge as well! The lists are obviously not complete, many players drop out from the list only to appear the following year, or, say, after 15 years. Another example: the 1974 list has no women at all. 1998-1999 lists are particularly thinned out (ca. 25% players are not in there, and FIDE have no idea what happened to them!). FIDE ID's were only introduced in 1998, so for many years there was no anchor to avoid spelling mistakes. (...)
>> Click here to use the tool <<
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