Topalov - Kamsky finally sealed

ICC's Macauley Peterson and Chessdom were the first to report that the final deal on the match Topalov-Kamsky has been reached. The match will take place on 16-28th February in Bulgaria.

Novak Djokovic grabs Masters Cup

Serbia's Novak Djokovic crushed Nikolay Davydenko 6-1 7-5 to win the Masters Cup Sunday, underlining his credentials as a major challenger to Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer at the top of men's tennis.

The Australian Open champion, who lost all his matches without winning a set on his debut at the season-ending shootout last year, earned $1.24 million to move to within 10 ranking points of world number two Federer.

New York Times

Novak Djokovic was the focus of the tennis world at the beginning of this year when, at the age of 20, he won the Australian Open, defeating Roger Federer, then the No1, in the semi-finals.

The young Serb's progress has slowed a shade since, although he finished the year as he began by winning the season-ending Tennis Masters Cup with a 6-1,7-5 victory over Nikolay Davydenko, the Russian who knocked out Andy Murray in the semi-finals.

Djokovic came close to claiming the World No2 spot during the French Open from Spain's Rafa Nadal. This week he was much closer to capturing that position from Federer, and will begin next season just 10 points behind the Swiss. Indeed had Djokovic won his final round-robin match against France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, then Federer would already have been relegated to World No3, which when the year began would have been inconceivable.

The Guardian

Serbian tennis has had a good year with Jelena Jankovic the number one woman and Nenad Zimonjic teaming up with Belgrade-born Canadian Daniel Nestor on Sunday to win the Masters Cup and take the number one spot in doubles.

"I think Serbia’s getting used to number one so I’ll have to work on that, I guess,” joked Djokovic. “Probably the fact that we didn’t have the best possible conditions gave us more motivation to succeed."

Yahoo! Sports

IHT about Chess Olympiad

American grandmaster Yasser Seirawan called the U.S. open team "the strongest team that America has ever fielded."

While he did not favor them for a medal, Seirawan said that first board Gata Kamsky of Brooklyn, New York, and second board 20-year-old Hikaru Nakamura of White Plains, New York, "are brimming with confidence and are dangerous players who can beat anyone on a given day."

American grandmaster Larry Christiansen said the "Americans are underrated in general compared to the Europeans. If they avoid jet lag, they can finish in the top five."

The Russian team is led by former world champion Kramnik and is the highest-rated team ever to participate in an Olympiad.

Seirawan predicted that Russia would win the Olympiad, with Armenia and Azerbaijan taking silver and bronze.

More on IHT

Forget The Guarantee

The Bulgarian Chess Federation will be re-awarded with the event if it accepts in written form, by 14 November 2008 12:00 GMT, to hold the match with a prize fund of 250,000 USD plus 50,000 USD as contribution to FIDE and all organising expenses covered. In this case, the dates of the match Topalov - Kamsky remain as already announced (29 Nov. - 12 Dec. 2008) and I intend to nominate FIDE Vice President Mr William Kelleher of USA as the FIDE Supervisor of the Organising Committee (*duties of the FIDE Supervisor as annex 1 to this announcement).

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov says in a press release posted on FIDE website. He also explains how Chernenko abused his trust and so the guarantee is valid no more.

At this point I must say that I have deeply regretted the trust which I had shown to Alexander Chernenko, concerning the reliability of his offer. The actions of Mr Chernenko indicate an abuse of right to invoke my guarantee which was declared after his own request and in good faith to help him secure the necessary funds.

Back to earth

Barack Obama elected as US President. Doubt anything will change for Cuba though.
Chauvinist uses the opportunity to lecture us on racism.

Homer Simpson voting...

Unfortunate Carragher

While English media are celebrating (or just tagging as "lucky") Harry Redknapp, the new manager of Tottenham Spurs who have just beaten the leading Liverpool 2-1, I think Jamie Carragher was unjustly left out from headlines. The usually reliable defender has put in his third goal in the matches against Tottenham - but all of them in his own net!

It took him ten years of waiting to accomplish this, as he previously scored own-goals against Tottenham way back in 1998 and 1999. Can he keep it up? We'll know next spring.

Pinoys warming up in Bad Wiessee

The 2008 Dresden Chess Olympiad is starting in about two weeks, but Philippines' squad is already in the heart of Europe for the final tests before the games start. GM Wesley So is absent though, making the team captain GM Eugenio Torre (2560) highest rated Pinoy in the starting lineup of 18.000 Euro worth Bad Wiessee Open. Torre is seeded 5th, while top favorite is Russian GM Vladimir Burmakin (2625).

Tournament website

Corsica Chess Masters

The annual Corsica Chess Masters took place over the last several days, deeply in the shadow of Kramnik-Anand match and Cap D'Adge Rapid. For a tournament with fantastic 100.000 Euro prize fund, it is incredible that organizers do not bother to provide better internet presence. Leo Battesti, president of the local chess federation and once a man with great ambition in FIDE elections, never answers the emails, what else should be said...

More important, GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov from Azerbaijan won this knockout tournament after beating Pavel Tregubov in the semis and then European champion Sergei Tiviakov in the final match.

The Late Start

Kramnik was well aware that it is nearly impossible to turn the tables while trailing three points behind Anand in the World Championship match, but he expressed a hope that he could at least win one game. And he succeeded so in the 10th game to spoil the prepared coronation of the new/old King. Most of the commentators agree that his chances for overall win didn't improve much, but finally he scored much desired win.

The warning bells should have rung in game 9, when Anand, leading 5.5-2.5 took on Kramnik in one of the sharpest openings in modern chess. Kramnik not only handled the complications well but also, most importantly, stayed level on the clock with Anand and only a panic attack on move 35 gave the Indian a chance to squirm out with a draw.

Kramnik is famous for his World Championship come-backs but trailing 3-6 with three games to play looked too much even for him.
Yet in Game 10 Kramnik simply destroyed Anand; a quiet position turning bad with astonishing speed. "I didn’t do anything special," admitted Kramnik, "but the position became winning. It was a surprise."

Read GM Ian Rogers' blog on the uschess.org

Meanwhile, GM Adrian Mikhalchishin castigates Kramnik's team for the repeated loss in Meran defence.


Offtopic: After Youtube and Wordpress, the EU-candidate Turkey has Blogger banned as well. Update: the court has lifted the ban while awaiting further evidence.

Scandal Meister

When there are no real scandals in this crazy chess world, Chessbase's big boss jumps in to make some out of nothing. We all remember the heated discussion on why is Great Britain fielding several teams in the qualifications for Football World/Euro Cup and how he enjoyed the mess that he created. He is also the man who sent the "video proof" of Topalov's cheating to Kommersant, but that circus didn't produce the anticipated effect because most of the people disregarded it as plainly stupid.

And now last week, being too lazy to update the website about all the events, he neatly pardoned himself with malicious comments about internet access in Kallithea, Chalkidiki. I didn't care about it until I stumbled to a Greek Chess Blog that shows at least 20 people using wireless internet at the hotel's reception.

Anand, Kramnik, Topalov, Kamsky

Now that Anand is almost certainly winning the WCC match against Kramnik, it is possible that FIDE will take the final steps to arrange the match Kamsky-Topalov to take place in the originally planned time frame.

There have been rumors that in case of Kramnik's win in Bonn, Alexander Zhukov's influence in FIDE would have blocked the other match just long enough for Kramnik to claim that he is not obliged to play against the winner.

On the other hand, had Kamsky or Topalov threatened with the Sport's court in Lausanne, which Danailov already used once to great effect, FIDE would be forced to act with greater efficiency.

Chess at the World Mind Sports Games

World Mind Sports Games have started today in Beijing, China. Jennifer Shahade blogs on the USCF website while Chessdom has pictorial reports.

WMSG website

Chinese Chess raised 50 million dollars

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov: "You know, as FIDE President, back in 1996 I was invited to attend the meeting of the Communist Party of China Central Committee. It dealt with the country's integration into the world community, the entry into the WTO. And the Chinese were already planning to make a breakthrough in many areas, including chess. I remember the commission has allocated 50 million dollars on the development of the game, enormous money. For example, China has introduced a system of compulsory chess education at school... No wonder China's women team won three consecutive Chess Olympiad."

From Ilyumzhinov's interview to Izvestiya

IHT About GM Kenneth Rogoff

Rogoff said an understanding of chess had helped him learn economics: "The whole logic of game theory, which is a big part of economics, came easily to me."
Knowing chess also helped him in his career, he said. "I was the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund from 2001 to 2003, and you are involved in a lot of high-stakes negotiations," he said, "and chess teaches you to think about what the other person is thinking."

Read more

Via The Kenilworthian Blog

Greg nominated to become the Leader

Greg has the three essential qualities in a Leader: he's scrupulously honest, highly competant and doesn't piss people off. He's got lots of experience in creative chess organization/ management: the New York Masters, the US Chess League, the US Chess School.
He knows everyone in the chess world and has no enemies. Total strangers buy him chocolate...

Read more on Elizabeth Vicary Blog