The Philippines pass overrated Myanmar in a 12-round Scheveningen
Posted by Webmaster on 05 Jun 2008
The Philippines finished strongly as it started, beating Myanmar, 4.5-1.5, in the 12th and final round to rule the first “RP-Myanmar Dual Match” chess tournament at the Lake Garden Hotel over the weekend.Overall, the Filipinos finished the tough, 12-round tournament with 46.5 points against the Burmese’s 25.5 points.
Except in the 11th and penultimate round, the Filipinos dominated all rounds.
Myanmar averted a shutout by edging the Philippines, 3.5-2.5, in the 11 th round thanks to the lone victory by FM Kyaw Lin Naing over Andador. All five other matches were agreed drawn.
Nolte emerged as the Filipinos’ leading scorer with 10 points on eight wins and four draws.
Gonzales was a close second with nine points on six wins and six draws, while Barbosa was third with eight points on six wins, four draws and two losses.
Other Filipino scorers were Andador with 7.5 points on six wins, three draws and three losses; Dino Ballecer with 6.5 points on two wins, nine draws and one loss; and Reggire Olay with 5.5 points on two wins, seven draws and three losses.
GM Win Lay Zaw, at 45 the most senior member of the six-man Myanmar team, leads the way with seven points on four wins, six draws and two losses. IM Aung Aung finished with five points on two wins, six draws and four losses. IM Zaw Htun Wynn, the highest-placed Burrmese player in the recent Subic Open, has 4.5 points two wins, five draws and five losses.
The other Burmese players were: IM Oo Kyaw Nay, 3.5 points ( 0-7-5 win-draw-loss); FM Kyaw Lin Naing, 3.5 points ( 1-5-6 win-draw-loss) ; and FM Kyaw Soe Kyaw, two points ( 0-4-8 win-draw-loss).
May 26 - 31, 2008, Tagaytay City, The Philippines - Myanmar 46.5-25.5
See detailed results on NCF Philippines site (no games available)
Statistical note: as expected, Myanmar players performed much worse than Elo predictions. Given Myanmar's average Elo was 2496 compared to Filipino 2353, predicted result of 72 game match was ca. 50-22 in favour of Myanmar. The 25.5-46.5 loss rates them at 2243, well 250 Elo points below nominal level.
The Quiz: Continental team championship
Posted by Webmaster on 01 May 2008
It high time to find some free time to match the chess history quiz for your idle amusement. This time you are going to cope with 12 questions testing your knowledge of history of continental team chess championships (6 for Euro tch, 3 for Asia, 2 for the Americas and 1 for Africa). The questions are usually quite hard, but beware! - all of the answers are somewhere inside the database. Have you performed badly - it is more than certain you did not study OlimpBase archives as dilligent as you should!You are kindly asked to provide with your nickname (or real name if you wish) to make it possible to add your result to the top score list. Your email will be kept strictly confidential, so don't worry, no third party will get it. Since we assume our quizzes should not be subject of hacking or cheating there is neither CAPTCHA filter nor IP check tool installed. Please submit only once. If you like it and want more quizzes please leave your proposal as a comment below.
Enjoy! Click here to solve quizzes from the past
Overview of incoming team chess events
Posted by Webmaster on 30 Apr 2008
There is a number of international team tournaments scheduled for forthcoming months:The 27th Mitropa Cup will be held from 24 May to 4 June, 2008 in Olbia, Italy at the Archaeologic Museum. The organizer of this event is Italian Chess Federation. The tournament will be organized with two separate sections, for men and women.
The participants will be the chess federations of Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, Slovenia and Switzerland. The organiser is the European Chess Union. Each team will be composed of four men plus one reserve (for men`s section), two women plus one reserve (for women`s section) and one team captain. Time control will be 90 minutes for 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes to finish the game, with 30 seconds increment after each move starting from move 1. Each team is provided full board accommodation in one triple room and three double rooms in Hotel **** stars. Additional single rooms and accommodation for accompanying persons can be organised.
The Web site of the tournament. Read FIDE note here.
Downloads: Regulations (pdf), Registration Form (xls)
The annual European Youth Team Championship will take place in Szeged, Hungary, 13th-22nd June. The championship is open for players born after January 1st, 1990. All European National Federations affiliated to FIDE/ECU are kindly invited to participate in the championship. Each European National Federation affiliated to FIDE/ECU has the right to be represented by one or more boy's team of four players and one reserve and by one or more girl's team of two players and one reserve player.
The Hungarian Chess Federation intends to provide boys and girls during their vacation for a competition in order to promote their chess development, and - at the same time - for organized holidays in a pleasant youth summer resort at river Tisza. The General Assembly of European Chess Federation (ECU) was in favour of having such a European Youth Team Championships U-18. This tournament is declared as official European event.
The tournament will be seven round swiss. Time control: 90 30. Final standings will be decided by game points.
The Web site of the tournament. Read FIDE note here.
Downloads: Invitation (pdf), Registration Form (xls)
The 4th World School Chess Teams Championship will be held in Pardubice, the Czech Republic from 9th to 17th July 2008. The organizers of this championship are: FIDE, The International School Chess Union, The Chess Federation of the Czech Republic, AVE-KONTAKT Pardubice agency. The Children Clubs Championship will be organized within the frame of the World School Championship. The tournaments for school chess teams will be in categories U10, U12, U14, U16.
Each national federation may enter an unlimited number of school teams and clubs. Team composition for School Team Tournament is four pupils from the same school and in the same age`s group; any combination of boys and girls is possible. The tournament will be organized in four age categories - U10, U12, U14 and U16.
The event will be seven round Swiss. The time rate should be 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an addition of 30 seconds per move starting from move 1. FIDE shall award the title of FIDE Candidate Master to each player of the winning team, subject to the individual achieving 50% from games played.
Read FIDE note here.
Downloads: General regulations (pdf)
The 38th Chess Olympiad will take place in Dresden, Germany, the Congress Centre from 12th till 25th November. The organisers are the City of Dresden and the German Chess Federation (DSB). The World Chess Olympiad is open to all Federations affiliated to FIDE as members, each of which can nominate one team for the open and the women’s section, respectively. For the first time in the history women's teams will play at four boards. The number of players in both men's and women's teams was set to five (four players and one reserve). The event was shortened to 11 rounds. Time control is 40 moves in 90 minutes and 30 minutes more to finish the game. There is an increment of 30 seconds added on for every move from move 1.
As for April 15th, as much as 75 nations pre-registered, including newcomer team of Maledives. There are 150 men's and 120 women's team expected with over 1,500 players on the board. The event will be assisted by ca. 150 arbiters and 400 journalists.
The Web site of the tournament.
Downloads: Pre-tournament bulletin (pdf)
Historical Elo tables 1971-2000 now available
Posted by Webmaster on 24 Mar 2008
That missing Elo ratings from the past are tough challenge for any chess historian is no surprise to anybody. The official FIDE site only provides ratings from 2000 onwards and benoni.de site allowes to check ratings back to 1990. Unfortunately due to fact it operates on FIDE IDs it does not handle player federation transfers well. It does not provide historical info on deceased players either.This should no longer be the issue since with the support of many people of good will OlimpBase men finally compiled complete Elo rating list 1971-2000. Based on official, registered data solely, so no rubbish. Ratings prior to 1975 were taken from Chessmile site (not available anymore) while the rest were provided by indispensable Mark Weeks as appeared in past Informant volumes. See Mark's blog for more details.
Things are not so simple though. Over decades nobody took care of preserving rating history. To compile the reliable and standarized list is still a challenge. The provided list does not deal with the problem of unproper spelling of some of players' names or even some rating calculation errors which were common in pre-computer era. It is because the rating lists originate from different sources. Some lists used only acronyms of first names, and some did not. Spelling is sometimes inconsistant over years too (very frequent as far as Arab or ex-Soviet players are concerned). It isn't so bad e.g. with Krasenkov, M following Krasenkov, Mikhail, but what about Tseshkovsky and Cheshkovsky? Not to mention that some more complicated names seem to appear in more than two variations (check e.g. Arne Vinje-Gulbrandsen).
For practical purposes our table should be fine, but for sake of purity, and probably future incorporation on to FIDE official database, we should do our best to make the database top quality. So far only names starting with letter "A" have been standarized. The rest of alphabet still waits for its turn.
We are looking for wit volunteers who would contribute a few days on providing the most complete and standarized Elo table database to World's chess community. Please contact us for details.
Most of corrections needed to be input are fairly simple, like merging Vilela, J L and Vilela, Jose Luis into one record. More difficult ones may be discussed separately one by one.
Download Elo tables 1971-2000 file (8,9 MB, includes auxillary file useful for volunteers only)
A true story: Nigerian master fights for 1998 Olympiad Medal
Posted by Webmaster on 18 Mar 2008
IM Odion Aikhoje is embroiled in a row with the Nigerian Chess Federation over the rights to his gold medal he won in the 1998 Chess Olympiad in Elista, Russia. The issue has dragged on for nearly a decade, but the situation has recently become acute after Kunle Elegbede has ramped up the pressure by deferring to government officials. The details of this saga are recounted in a very detailed essay at the Nigerian Chess blog run by Elegbede. What it boils down to is an official holding the medal from the Sports Ministry as a leverage for reimbursement money he was owed. The Ministry was to formally present the medal to Aikhoje, but it was intercepted by the one, Theophilus Caifus. The question remains as to why Aikhoje is being pushed in the middle of a battle between Caifus and the Sports Ministry.Read full story at The Chess Drum, the Pan-African chess site maintained by Daaim Shabazz.
Nigeria chess players forum - another good reference site
Meet Klara - Teresa's younger sister!
Posted by Webmaster on 26 Feb 2008
It was a long, sleepless, stirring night! On Ferbuary 26th, at 6:46AM, near the daybreak time, with the first sunbeams shyly penetrating the air my wife delivered our second daughter Klara Bartelska. She is so little and so helpless just mewling to get a portion of mother's milk once in a while. Klara weights 8lb 30oz and is 1'10'' long. Both she and her mother are tired but feel well. 
It's hard put in words how happy and proud are Klara's parents. I am still amazed by the very marvel of life manifested in the presence of this little girl. Do not forget that our elder daughter Teresa already turned two in December. Let's hope both girls will grow up righteous women and hopefully play chess and love the game the same as we do. Keep your fingers crossed!
Robert Fischer passes in Reykjavik at 64
Posted by Webmaster on 18 Jan 2008
Chess - Bobby Fischer once said - is life. It was the chess master's tragedy that the messy, tawdry details of his life often overshadowed the sublime genius of his game. Fischer, who has died at the age of 64, was a child prodigy, a teenage grandmaster and - before age 30 - a world champion who triumphed in a Cold War showdown with Soviet champion Boris Spassky.But the last three decades of his life were spent in seclusion, broken periodically by erratic and often anti-Semitic comments and by an absurd legal battle with his homeland, the United States.
He was the pride and sorrow of chess - said Raymond Keene, a British grandmaster and chess correspondent for The Times of London. - It's tragic that such a great man descended into madness and anti-Semitism.
Fischer died Thursday of kidney failure in Reykjavik after a long illness, friend and spokesman Gardar Sverrisson said Friday.
A giant of the chess world is gone - said Fridrik Olafsson, an Icelandic grandmaster and former president of the World Chess Federation. Noted French chess expert Olivier Tridon - Bobby Fischer has died at age 64. Like the 64 squares of a chess board.
In another bit of symmetry, his death occurred in the city where he had his greatest triumph - the historic encounter with Spassky.
Chicago-born and Brooklyn-bred, Fischer moved to Iceland in 2005 in a bid to avoid extradition to the U.S., where he was wanted for playing a 1992 match in Yugoslavia in defiance of international sanctions. At his peak, Fischer was a figure of mystery and glamour who drew millions of new fans to chess. Russian former world chess champion Garry Kasparov said Fischer's ascent of the chess world in the 1960s was "a revolutionary breakthrough" for the game.
The tragedy is that he left this world too early, and his extravagant life and scandalous statements did not contribute to the popularity of chess. - Kasparov told The Associated Press.
Rival and friend Spassky, reached at his home in France, said in a brief telephone interview that he was "very sorry" to hear of Fischer's death. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, president of the World Chess Federation, called Fischer a phenomenon and an epoch in chess history, and an intellectual giant I would rank next to Newton and Einstein.
An American chess champion at 14 and a grand master at 15, Fischer vanquished Spassky in 1972 in a series of games in Reykjavik to become the first officially recognized world champion born in the United States. The Fischer-Spassky match, at the height of the Cold War, took on mythic dimensions as a clash between the world's two superpowers.
It was a myth Fischer was happy to fuel. - It's really the free world against the lying, cheating, hypocritical Russians, he said.
But Fischer's reputation as a chess genius was eclipsed, in the eyes of many, by his volatility and often bizarre behavior. He lost his world title in 1975 after refusing to defend it against Anatoly Karpov. He dropped out of competitive chess and largely out of view, spending time in Hungary and the Philippines and emerging occasionally to make outspoken and often outrageous comments. He praised the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, saying - I want to see the U.S. wiped out and described Jews as "thieving, lying bastards." Fischer's mother was Jewish.
In 2004, Fischer was arrested at Japan's Narita airport for traveling on a revoked U.S. passport. He was threatened with extradition to the United States to face charges of violating sanctions imposed to punish Slobodan Milosevic, then leader of Yugoslavia, by playing a 1992 rematch against Spassky in the country.Fischer renounced his U.S. citizenship and spent nine months in custody before the dispute was resolved when Iceland - a chess-mad nation of 300,000 - granted him citizenship.
They talk about the 'axis of evil,' - Fischer said when he arrived in Iceland. What about the allies of evil ... the United States, England, Japan, Australia? These are the evildoers.
In his final years, Fischer railed against the chess establishment, claiming that the outcomes of many top-level chess matches were decided in advance. Instead, he championed his concept of "Fischerandom," or random chess, in which pieces are shuffled at the beginning of each match in a bid to reinvigorate the game.
I don't play the old chess, - he told reporters when he arrived in Iceland in 2005. - But obviously if I did, I would be the best.
Born in Chicago on March 9, 1943, Robert James Fischer was a child prodigy, playing competitively from age 8. At 13, he became the youngest player to win the United States Junior Championship. At 14, he won the United States Open Championship for the first of eight times. At 15, he became an international grand master, the youngest person to hold the title. Tall and striking-looking, he was a chess star - but already gaining a reputation for erratic behavior. He turned up late for tournaments, walked out of matches, refused to play unless the lighting suited him and was intolerant of photographers and cartoonists. He was convinced of his own superiority and called the Soviets "commie cheats."
Chess is war on a board - he once said - The object is to crush the other man's mind.
His behavior often unsettled opponents - to Fischer's advantage. This was seen most famously in the championship match with Spassky in Reykjavik between July and September 1972. Having agreed to play Spassky in Yugoslavia, Fischer raised one objection after another to the arrangements and they wound up playing in Iceland. Fischer then demanded more money and, urged by no less than Henry Kissinger, he went to Iceland after a British financier, Jim Slater, enriched the prize pot.
Fischer is known to be graceless, rude, possibly insane. I really don't worry about that, because I didn't do it for that reason. - Slater has said. - I did it because he was going to challenge the Russian supremacy, and it was good for chess., he added.
When play got under way, days late, Fischer lost the first game with an elementary blunder after discovering that the TV cameras he had reluctantly accepted were not unseen and unheard, but right behind the players' chairs. He boycotted the second game and the referee awarded the point to Spassky, putting the Russian ahead 2-0. But then Spassky agreed to Fischer's demand that the games be played in a back room away from cameras. Fischer went on to beat Spassky, 12.5 points to 8.5 points in 21 games. In the recent book "White King and Red Queen," British author Daniel Johnson said the match was an abstract antagonism on an abstract battleground using abstract weapons ... yet their struggle embraced all human life. In Spassky's submission to his fate and Fischer's fierce exultant triumph, the Cold War's denouement was already foreshadowed.
Funeral details were not immediately available. Fischer moved to Iceland with his longtime companion, Japanese chess player Miyoko Watai. She survives him.
/ Written by Gudjon Helgason. Taken from www.bobbyfischer.net. Associated Press Writers Jill Lawless in London and Mansur Mirovalev in Moscow contributed to this report. /
See Robert James Fischer's Chess Olympiads' summary
China grabs double victory in Asian Team Championship
Posted by Webmaster on 15 Jan 2008
The Asian Team Championship was held from 2nd until 10th January 2008 in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India. The event drew barely eight teams, both in men's and women's competition, representing seven nations. The number of participating countries diminishes steadily from its peak of 20 achieved in 1995. The men's event could have been way more combative had only strong Filipino team obtained Indian visas in time.Judging from Elo lists it seemed obvious that both men's and women's tournament would be a two-horse race between India and China. As both major teams scored surprising draws in the opening round of men's event against India "B" and Vietnam respectively, they won all other matches drawing with each other in round 4. With both teams finishing at 12 match points the Chinese won on game point count. Vietnam easily grabbed third spot.
In the women's event leaders China and India won five matches in a row to meet on penultimate day. The Chinese, having half of a point advantage in hand beat India 2.5-0.5 to pick their fourth ever Asian Team Championship. Vietnam took bronze on tie break.
Best individual results were scored by the Chinese: Wang Hao and Zhou Jianchao in men's event (5/6) as well as Zhao Xue and Shen Yang in women's contest (6.5/7).
Even though the event took off already in 2008 it is strangely referred to as "Asian Team Ch 2007" in the official documents (see the logo at the top).
Tournament website: http://www.vizagchess.net
See detailed results of men's competition
See detailed results of women's competition
See all-time medal table: men, women
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