Karjakin finishes sole first at the Norway Chess Tournament

Chessdom reports: Karjakin finishes sole first at the Norway Chess Tournament.



[player]Sergey Karjakin[/player] finished half a point ahead of the world number 1, challenger to the crown, and host country player [player]Magnus Carlsen[/player].

Webster U freshman GM So leads Calgary by full point after 5

Susan Polgar: Webster U freshman GM So leads Calgary by a full point after 5.



He has to, he's the highest rated player in that tournament.

Anand vs. Carlsen: World Championship 2013

So it's gonna be [player]Magnus Carlsen[/player] challenging [player]Viswanathan Anand[/player] for the World title come November 2013. Who are you rooting for?

I'll go for the youth, of course.

Sao Paolo-Bilbao Masters 2012 Update: Caruana Leads at the End of First Leg

[caption id="attachment_1128" align="aligncenter" width="480"] Photo credit: www.bilbaomastersfinal.com[/caption]

With 3 wins and 2 draws, [player]Fabiano Caruana[/player] leads the pack of 6 top players in the [event]Sao Paolo-Bilbao Grand Slam Final 2012[/event]. He started the campaign with a win in Round 1 against [player]Magnus Carlsen[/player] (replay game here), followed by two more wins against [player]Sergey Karjakin[/player] and [player]Francisco Vallejo Pons[/player] in Rounds 2 and 4, respectively.

The SPICE Cup Invitational 2012

The SPICE Cup Invitational is happening in St. Louis, Missouri from October 16 to 20, 2012. It is expected to be a Category 18 tournament, just four notches below the highest FIDE tournament category.

The participants for this event (Invitational category) are six members of the Top 100 FIDE Ratings List (with their respective September 2012 ELO ratings and countries):

• [player]Maxime Vachier-Lagrave[/player], 2697, [country]France[/country];


• [player]Ding Liren[/player], 2694, [country]China[/country];


• [player]Le Quang Liem[/player], 2693, [country]Vietnam[/country];


• [player]Csaba Balogh[/player], 2668, [country]Hungary[/country];


• [player]Wesley So[/player], 2667, [country]Philippines[/country];


• [player]Georg Meier[/player], 2656, [country]Germany[/country].

We at ChessHive, being fans of [player]Wesley So[/player] and [country]Philippines[/country] chess, will certainly bring the updates as they unfold. So stay tuned!

Sao Paolo - Bilbao Grand Slam Final 2012

The Grand Slam this year will be held again in Sao Paolo in [country]Brazil[/country] and Bilbao in [country]Spain[/country]. It won't be a grand slam if it were not participated by the heavy weights in the world of chess:

• [player]Viswanathan Anand[/player], [country]India[/country], current World Champiion;


• [player]Magnus Carlsen[/player], [country]Norway[/country], currently the world's No. 1 in ELO Rating;


• [player]Levon Aronian[/player], [country]Armenia[/country], world's No. 2 and member of the champion team in the Istanbul 2012 Chess Olympiad;


• [player]Sergey Karjakin[/player], [country]Russia[/country], world's No. 7;


• [player]Fabiano Caruana[/player], [country]Italy[/country], world's No. 8; and


• [player]Francisco Vallejo Pons[/player], [country]Spain[/country], the pride of one of the host countries of this tournament.

The first round-robin matches will happen in Sao Paolo from September 24 to 29, while the final rounds in Bilbao from October 8 to 13, 2012. Check out the website.

ChessHive will bring you the updates about this grand event, so stay tuned.

Tromso 2014 World Chess Olympiad

Following the end of the [event]Istanbul 2012 World Chess Olympiad[/event], everyone is looking forward to the next biennial Chess Olympiad, to be held at the City of Tromso in [country]Norway[/country], the home country of [player]Magnus Carlsen[/player].

Here's Magnus promoting Tromso when they were yet campaigning last year:



For sure, ChessHive.com will still be around to cover the event two years from now, to bring you the latest, especially about Team [country]Philippines[/country].

Ivanchuk Wins over Wang Hao in Round 11

Check out the excitement in [player]Vassily Ivanchuk[/player] when he was about to win over [player]Wang Hao[/player] on Board 1 of Round 11 [event]Istanbul 2012 World Chess Olympiad[/event].



Because of this win, [country]Ukraine[/country] edged out [country]China[/country] to take the 3rd spot and bring home the Bronze medal in Open category of the tournament.

Check out how the game went on from: Vassily Ivanchuk vs. Wang Hao.

Philippines vs. Romania Results in Round 11 Istanbul 2012

Team [country]Philippines[/country] certainly has run out of luck in the last three rounds of the [event]Istanbul 2012 World Chess Olympiad[/event]. It started with a devastating loss to China in Round 9, a draw to Vietnam in Round 10, and now a loss to Romania in Round 11.

[player]Wesley So[/player] in Board 1 is the top player we expected to deliver the upsets against the opposing teams, even against the higher-rated players as he used to do in the past, has settled with 2 wins and 9 draws in the course of the tournament.

The final tally for the final Round 11 is: Philippines (1) vs. Romania (3):

Bo.	Philippines	Score	Romania
1	Wesley So	1/2-1/2	Constantin Lupulescu
2	Oliver Barbosa	1/2-1/2	Mircea-Emilian Parligras
3	Eugene Torre	0-1	Levente Vajda
4	Mark Paragua	0-1	Vladislav Nevednichy

Check out the games in the following pages:

• Constantin Lupulescu vs. Wesley So


• Oliver Barbosa vs. Mircea-Emilian Parligras


• Levente Vajda vs. Eugene Torre


• Mark Paragua vs. Vladislav Nevednichy

At the conclusion of the tournament, [country]Philippines[/country] (Open) finished No. 21, even behind Bulgaria, Moldova and England which it defeated in the earlier rounds.

For more info: see: How Team Philippines Fared in Istanbul 2012 World Chess Olympiad.

Round 9 Results for Team Philippines in Istanbul 2012

It was a devastating defeat for Team Philippines against China in Round 9 of Istanbul 2012 World Chess Olympiad. The score: 3.5 vs. 1.5, in favor of China. Only Wesley So on Board 1 managed to avoid a loss -- he drew his game against another 2700+ ELO rated player Wang Hao.

Bo.	Philippines	Score	China
1	Wesley So	1/2-1/2	Hao Wang
2	Oliver Barbosa	0-1	Liren Ding
3	Eugene Torre	0-1	Xiangzhi Bu
4	Mark Paragua	0-1	Chao Li

These were the first losses for Eugene Torre and Mark Paragua in this tournament. So far, only Wesley So has no loss, with 2 wins and 7 draws.

There are only 2 rounds left, so we can only wish more luck to our team Philippines!

You can replay the games from these pages:

• Wesley So vs. Hao Wang


• Liren Ding vs. Oliver Barbosa


• Eugene Torre vs. Xiangzhi Bu


• Chao Li vs. Mark Paragua

After this heartbreaking loss to China, Philippines is ranked No. 12 going into the 10th round, which they will be up against Vietnam.

Vietnam is ranked No. 16 after 9 rounds and was seeded 27th at the start of the tourney. Check out the profile of Team Vietnam.

Garry Kasparov in Istanbul 2012 Chess Olympiad

Garry Kasparov present at the Istanbul 2012 World Chess Olympiad -- as a spectator this time.



At least, there'll be no one to arrest, beat and bite him in that side of town.

Photo Credit: Istanbul 2012

Round 6 Results - Istanbul 2012 Chess Olympiad (Philippines vs. Bulgaria)

The big news: a turnaround win by Oliver Barbosa vs. Kiril Georgiev on Board 2.

All analyses lead to Barbosa already losing the game beginning from his 50th move, when 7 moves later, on Georgiev's 57th move, he (Georgiev) made a big blunder, which cost him the game, and his team the match.

Just like in 2010, the Wesley So vs. Veselin Topalov matchup ended in a draw. The former world champion, GM Veselin Topalov, may have been aggressive going to the middle game, but the underdog, GM Wesley So, never lost his grounds. Eugene Torre and Mark Paragua halved their points as well with their respective opponents.

The final tally: 2.5 to 1.5 in favor of The Philippines!

September 2012 Updated FIDE Official Ratings List Top 100

The official FIDE Ratings list is out for the month of September 2012, and we see Magnus Carlsen still No. 1 at ELO 2830, inching closer to the 2850 level. The second and third top chess players, Levon Aronian and Vladimir Kramnik, retained their ratings at 2816 and 2797, respectively.

Check out the full list of the Top 100 below:

Rank	Name	Title	Country	Rating	Games	B-Year
1	Carlsen, Magnus	g	NOR	2843	10	1990
2	Aronian, Levon	g	ARM	2816	0	1982
3	Kramnik, Vladimir	g	RUS	2797	0	1975
4	Radjabov, Teimour	g	AZE	2788	0	1987
5	Nakamura, Hikaru	g	USA	2783	10	1987
6	Anand, Viswanathan	g	IND	2780	0	1969
7	Karjakin, Sergey	g	RUS	2778	9	1990
8	Caruana, Fabiano	g	ITA	2773	0	1992
9	Ivanchuk, Vassily	g	UKR	2769	0	1969
10	Morozevich, Alexander	g	RUS	2758	2	1977
11	Grischuk, Alexander	g	RUS	2754	9	1983
12	Topalov, Veselin	g	BUL	2752	0	1975
13	Svidler, Peter	g	RUS	2747	9	1976
14	Kamsky, Gata	g	USA	2746	9	1974
15	Wang, Hao	g	CHN	2742	10	1989
16	Gelfand, Boris	g	ISR	2738	0	1968
17	Gashimov, Vugar	g	AZE	2737	0	1986
18	Leko, Peter	g	HUN	2737	0	1979
19	Jobava, Baadur	g	GEO	2734	4	1983
20	Giri, Anish	g	NED	2730	10	1994
21	Tomashevsky, Evgeny	g	RUS	2730	0	1987
22	Ponomariov, Ruslan	g	UKR	2729	11	1983
23	Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	g	AZE	2729	0	1985
24	Dominguez Perez, Leinier	g	CUB	2725	0	1983
25	Jakovenko, Dmitry	g	RUS	2724	9	1983
26	Adams, Michael	g	ENG	2722	0	1971
27	Volokitin, Andrei	g	UKR	2718	11	1986
28	Andreikin, Dmitry	g	RUS	2718	9	1990
29	Fressinet, Laurent	g	FRA	2714	10	1981
30	Shirov, Alexei	g	LAT	2714	6	1972
31	Bruzon Batista, Lazaro	g	CUB	2713	9	1982
32	Wojtaszek, Radoslaw	g	POL	2713	4	1987
33	Almasi, Zoltan	g	HUN	2713	0	1976
34	McShane, Luke J	g	ENG	2713	0	1984
35	Bologan, Viktor	g	MDA	2712	8	1971
36	Naiditsch, Arkadij	g	GER	2712	0	1985
37	Riazantsev, Alexander	g	RUS	2712	0	1985
38	Sasikiran, Krishnan	g	IND	2707	0	1981
39	Bacrot, Etienne	g	FRA	2705	20	1983
40	Korobov, Anton	g	UKR	2705	11	1985
41	Movsesian, Sergei	g	ARM	2705	11	1978
42	Nepomniachtchi, Ian	g	RUS	2704	0	1990
43	Areshchenko, Alexander	g	UKR	2702	11	1986
44	Malakhov, Vladimir	g	RUS	2700	10	1980
45	Moiseenko, Alexander	g	UKR	2699	11	1980
46	Sokolov, Ivan	g	NED	2699	10	1968
47	Vitiugov, Nikita	g	RUS	2699	9	1987
48	Polgar, Judit	g	HUN	2698	0	1976
49	Short, Nigel D	g	ENG	2698	0	1965
50	Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime	g	FRA	2697	21	1990
51	Vallejo Pons, Francisco	g	ESP	2697	14	1982
52	Ding, Liren	g	CHN	2694	13	1992
53	Le, Quang Liem	g	VIE	2693	0	1991
54	Rublevsky, Sergei	g	RUS	2693	0	1974
55	Sargissian, Gabriel	g	ARM	2693	0	1983
56	Wang, Yue	g	CHN	2691	10	1987
57	Navara, David	g	CZE	2691	0	1985
58	Van Wely, Loek	g	NED	2691	0	1972
59	Harikrishna, P.	g	IND	2690	11	1986
60	Efimenko, Zahar	g	UKR	2689	11	1985
61	Cheparinov, Ivan	g	BUL	2689	10	1986
62	Georgiev, Kiril	g	BUL	2687	25	1965
63	Akopian, Vladimir	g	ARM	2687	0	1971
64	Sutovsky, Emil	g	ISR	2687	0	1977
65	Kryvoruchko, Yuriy	g	UKR	2686	0	1986
66	Berkes, Ferenc	g	HUN	2685	0	1985
67	Eljanov, Pavel	g	UKR	2684	11	1983
68	Kasimdzhanov, Rustam	g	UZB	2684	0	1979
69	Bu, Xiangzhi	g	CHN	2683	9	1985
70	Inarkiev, Ernesto	g	RUS	2683	0	1985
71	Alekseev, Evgeny	g	RUS	2682	9	1985
72	Edouard, Romain	g	FRA	2678	21	1990
73	Dreev, Aleksey	g	RUS	2677	10	1969
74	Ragger, Markus	g	AUT	2677	7	1988
75	Bauer, Christian	g	FRA	2676	21	1977
76	Laznicka, Viktor	g	CZE	2675	6	1988
77	Gyimesi, Zoltan	g	HUN	2674	0	1977
78	Tiviakov, Sergei	g	NED	2674	0	1973
79	Grachev, Boris	g	RUS	2672	11	1986
80	Onischuk, Alexander	g	USA	2672	8	1975
81	Ni, Hua	g	CHN	2671	0	1983
82	Zvjaginsev, Vadim	g	RUS	2671	0	1976
83	Balogh, Csaba	g	HUN	2668	0	1987
84	So, Wesley	g	PHI	2667	9	1993
85	Zhigalko, Sergei	g	BLR	2667	0	1989
86	Li, Chao b	g	CHN	2665	0	1989
87	Najer, Evgeniy	g	RUS	2664	0	1977
88	Gareev, Timur	g	USA	2663	18	1988
89	Potkin, Vladimir	g	RUS	2663	9	1982
90	Gharamian, Tigran	g	FRA	2663	0	1984
91	Matlakov, Maxim	g	RUS	2663	0	1991
92	Nielsen, Peter Heine	g	DEN	2662	0	1973
93	Kurnosov, Igor	g	RUS	2660	11	1985
94	Jones, Gawain C B	g	ENG	2658	11	1987
95	Negi, Parimarjan	g	IND	2658	9	1993
96	Motylev, Alexander	g	RUS	2658	0	1979
97	Fridman, Daniel	g	GER	2657	9	1976
98	Petrosian, Tigran L.	g	ARM	2657	9	1984
99	Meier, Georg	g	GER	2656	20	1987
100	Gupta, Abhijeet	g	IND	2654	9	1989
101	Bartel, Mateusz	g	POL	2654	0	1985

Check may also want to check out the September 2012 Top 100 Women, Top 100 Juniors, and Top 100 Girls.

Chess Olympiad 2012 Round 4 Results for Team Philippines

Team Philippines incurred its first team loss (and even its first player loss) in the fourth round in the ongoing Istanbul 2012 World Chess Cup, against one of the toughest teams -- the 3rd seed, in fact -- Armenia.

Team Armenia is of course headed by the current second highest ELO rated player in the person of Levon Aronian.

The final tally: Philippines is 1.5 as against Armenia's 2.5, as Oliver Dimakiling bowed to Gabriel Sargissian in Board 4, while the rest of the boards were draws:

Bo.	Team Philippines	Rating	Result	Team Armenia	Rating
1	Wesley So	2652	1/2-1/2	Levon Aronian	2816
2	Oliver Barbosa	2554	1/2-1/2	Sergei Movsesian	2698
3	Mark Paragua	2508	1/2-1/2	Vladimir Akopian	2687
4	Oliver Dimakiling	2428	0-1	Gabriel Sargissian	2693

Although a loss, I'd say it was a decent loss, and the team did really fought a good game. After all, they came clearly as the underdog, a 35th seed up against the 3rd seed, before the start of the round.

You can replay the games from these pages:

• Wesley So vs. Levon Aronian [Chess Olympiad 2012] [R4]


• Sergei Movsesian vs. Oliver Barbosa [Chess Olympiad 2012] [R4]


• Mark Paragua vs. Vladimir Akopian [Chess Olympiad 2012] [R4]


• Gabriel Sargissian vs. Oliver Dimakiling [Chess Olympiad 2012] [R4]

Download the PGN: Philippines vs. Armenia Round 4 Istanbul 2012 World Chess Olympiad.

Updates

After four rounds, Team Philippines is ranked no. 20.

In the fifth round, Team Philippines will be up against the 51st seed Iceland, who shares the same standings with 3 wins and 1 loss (0 draws).

Check out Team Iceland Profile.

Team Philippines (Open) Round 3 Results in Istanbul 2012 World Chess Cup

After beating Kazakhstan 4 games to nil in the third round of the Istanbul 2012 World Chess Olympiad, the Philippine team is now ranked 8th overall.



Check out the games at the links below:

• Rinat Jumabayev vs. Wesley So


• Oliver Barbosa vs. Anuar Ismagambetov


• Petr Kostenko vs. Mark Paragua


• Oliver Dimakiling vs. Kirill Kuderinov

Download PGN of the games.

In the fourth round later, Team Philippines will up against Armenia and one of the members of the 2800 club, Levon Aronian.

All I can say is Good Luck guys, go for the win, not just a draw.

World Chess Olympiad 2012 Android and iOS Apps

Great news! The 2012 Istanbul World Chess Olympiad now has an official mobile apps for both the Android and iOS platforms.

Basically, the following are available in the app:

• Results;


• News and Announcements;


• Schedule;


• Photo Gallery;


• Venue; and


• Contacts.

The official games start on Tuesday, 28th August 2012. We'll try our best to bring you here at ChessHive the results of our own Team Philippines.

You can grab your own copy of the app for free from the Google Play and/or the iTunes App Store.

Vladimir Kramnik's My Path to the Top

Chessbase releasing a video DVD about and with GM Vladimir Kramnik.



But seriously, has Kramnik really been to the top? #sarcasm!

Chess and Hedge Fund Management

This article from New York Times suggests that top chess players can actually make good hedge fund managers. It just shows how the deep analytical skills of chess players can help in jobs that involve complicated analysis like in a hedge fund.

So I guess besides enjoying playing chess, a good-paying job opportunity awaits you in case you don't really get it to the top of the chess world.

Kasparov Plays Blitz 2011

Kasparov was seen lately playing blitz vs. FM Ghannoum in a fundraising in Naples. One of the games was recorded in this Youtube video:



The game went as:

Game 1: Ghannoum vs. Kasparov
1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 a6 3. f4 b5 4. Nf3 Bb7 5. d4 cxd4 6. Qxd4 e6 7. Bd3 Nf6 8. h3 Qc7 9. Be3 d5 10. exd5 Nxd5 11. Nxd5 Bxd5 12. O-O Nc6 13.Qb6 Qxb6 14. Bxb6 Nb4 15. Be2 Rb8 16. Bf2 Bd6 17. a3 Nc6 18. Be3 O-O 19. a4 bxa4 20. Rxa4 Rxb2 21. Bd3 Nb4 22. Bd4 Nxd3 23. cxd3 Rb3 24. Rxa6 Bxf4 25. Ne5 Bxe5 26. Bxe5 Rxd3 27. Ra7 f6 28. Bd6 Rc8 29. Rc7 Rxc7 30. Bxc7 h5 31. Rf2 Kh7 32. Kh2 e5 33. g3 Bf3 34. Bb6 g5 35. h4 g4 36. Bc5 Rd1 0-1

GM Wesley So Knocked Out in World Chess Cup 2011

Unfortunately, GM Wesley So failed to deliver the supposedly biggest upset in the second round of the World Chess Cup 2011 vs. the top seed GM Sergey Karjakin.

The second round between So and Karjakin started silently with draws for the first two standard games. It went to the tie-break with a draw in the first game while So was playing white. When it was Karjakin's turn to play white, So committed a bad move at his 21st move. The game immediately wound up to the end game where Karjakin is up by a pawn, and eventually won the game.

This will send Wesley So packing for the Philippines. While there are no more Filipinos bidding in the tournament, we can now concentrate on analyzing some of the good games here.