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Our 600th Blog Post!

We're all dancin' around here to celebrate!

Fischer's Estate Still Tied Up In Court Appeals

Source: Chessbase

According to MBL the District Court of Reykjavik has made a ruling in the legal case of Alexander and Nicholas Targ, Bobby’s nephews, vs Miyoko Watai, over his fortune, where their claim for official distribution of his estate was rejected. Still it is expected that the findings will be appealed to the Supreme Court of Iceland for final ruling. They were made to pay legal fees of €1200 to the defendant.

This lengthy lawsuit has twice earlier been remitted to the Supreme Court over formalities. The bottom line of the verdict which has now been published is that the claim of Mrs. Watai for private distribution of Bobby’s Estate is confirmed on the grounds that they were a married couple according to a confirmation issued by the Japanese Embassy in Reykjavík January 30 2008. It is further stated that their marriage certificate, issued on August 17 2004, was registered at the Ota Ward region town authorities in Tokyo on September 6 2004, after it had been certified by special means that the groom was the person he claimed to be, as his passport was not available, and nor was the necessary information from the US Embassy. Later, confirmation papers were forwarded to the Japanese Department of Justice. After thorough investigation by the authorities and a visit by their representatives to the Ushiku Detention Center on 5 November 2004, where Mr. Fischer was kept in custody, the registration of their marriage was finally certified on January 28 2005 by the Japanese Minister of Justice. It is further stated that Bobby and Miyoko had lived together “de facto” for several years.

Bobby Fischer’s artifacts presented to Laugardaelachurch
Shrines with some artifacts related to Bobby Fischer’s memory were recently delivered to Laugardaela Church, his resting place, for preservation. One of the shrines includes the In Memoriam book, which many people – chess players, the public and officials alike – signed after his death.

Report in MBL

USCF Cancels Girls Championship

The USCF announced last week that they have, in effect, ended the national girls champtionship. This event had been founded and organized by Susan Polgar. At their Executive Board Meeting, they chose to not renew the contract with Polgar. They have not announced a replacement event or the intent to put one out for bid.

Susan Polgar is allowed to hold a girls championship on her own, and the players will have their games rated by the USCF, but the event will no longer be recognized by the USCF as a national event.

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In a related story, this brings to a climax a long controversy between myself and various figures within the USCF regarding how USCF politics ought to be reported to the outside world. I first broke this story last month when I stated that the USCF "may" not renew the Polgar contract. People took issue with this statement, saying that without any official announcement, such speculation was unwarranted. My position was (and is) that chess politics ought to be reported like regular politics: all factors ought to be taken into account when deciding on the merits of the story, not just whether or not officials have made a statement.

In any case, my story turned out to be true.

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And in yet another story related to this, a plethora of challenges were raised to my after-the-fact questioning of the USCF Board's official actions. USCF folks didn't want this story to come out before the event and they opposed the story coming out after the event, too.

Footnote: The announcement.

The contract between USCF and Susan Polgar to recognize the Polgar Invitational as a national event expired with the 2009 tournament. This has been a fine event, has an outstanding sponsor in Texas Tech, and we hope that it will continue. Even though it is no longer a national, Susan Polgar has the right to organize it, as well as other tournaments, as USCF-rated events.

Bill Goichberg

Chess & Celebrities

I came across a website today featuring various articles on chess and a server to play the game. Chessboss.com is a pretty awesome site.

I came across an article entitled "Chess And Celebrities". It's definitely worth a read.

The celebrities mentioned as enjoying chess or being chess fanatics are Madonna, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bono, Will Smith, Sting, and Jude Law.

I can't quite call this article unique because the information wasn't new to me. However, as far as I know this is the first time that all of those celebrities have been mentioned in the same article. Madonna and Sting are the most fanatic about chess and they take up quite a bit of media space in the "chess and celebrities" category usually.

I encourage you to read the full article!

The 1970s - The Golden Age For Chess Blunders

It's been awhile since I read from the Streatham & Brixton Blog. They still produce gems of chess knowledge and culture and it is refreshing to see it still going strong!

"That’s the problem with modern chess. There’s no authenticity in wacky explanations for blunders anymore - and that's just one more reason why chess was better in the 1970s."

The following photo appears above the caption "A decade summed up in one small picture –
The 1970s: bad hair, bad clothes, great chess"

Source: The Streatham & Brixton Chess Blog

What is Sean March Doing Right?

As far as product reviews go I think Sean Marsh is a very good blogger. I enjoyed my visit to his blog and wandered around for quite some time. what drew me there? Chessbase has linked to Sean's Blog "Marsh Towers".

Some time ago here I ran an article on Robert Pearson called "What is Robert Pearson Doing Right?".

Let me break down just exactly what Sean has done right... and how this blog and my own experience differ:

1. Establishing Yourself - Marsh Towers has articles dating back to 2001 ... sometimes the age of a blog is a big help in its popularity. The older a blog gets the more it is generally assumed that it has a devoted fan base. It's true!

Chessvine is still in its youth. While I have been experimenting with blogging for many years this is just the second year for Chessvine.com.

2. Muted Color & Color Variety - Too often I see chess blogs or websites in general using strong colors. The webmasters sometime underestimate the mute color tones. However, there are some blogs that consist mostly of text. This is a terrible mistake! the more color the better!

The color of this blog is Grayscale. That totally violates the rule but I like the Newspaper feel. Then to add insult to injury Chessvine's sidebar is full of scattered color. This gives my blog a more homie and 'used' feel.

3. Content vs. Depth - There is a constant battle in the average blogger to balance frequency of blog posting with the depth of content. Sean's compromise is to post fairly in-depth articles but only posting every few days.

There is little or no depth to most chessvine postings but I post nearly every day. I want to get the most pressing news out to the chess commun ity as fast as possible. That leads to relatively small posts, short visit lengths even from frequent visitors, and almost no decent writing samples from me. It hurts my journalistic career but it follows my real goal. Getting the chess news to you ASAP!

4. Professional Appeal - "Marsh Towers" gives the feeling of a blog put together by an extreme professional. neat, organized, and evenly put together.

Chessvine is almost completely unprofessional. What do I care if the chess politician in a fancy suit overlooks this blog. This is a site for the people ... you.

5. Blogosphere Connection - A prominent feature of Sean's blog is the links to other blogs. It shows a real connection with other bloggers and the world of chess blogging.

I have difficulty trusting that other bloggers will be around in a month. Only established blogs that I've actually read frequently end up on my blogroll. I've never been good about making connections in the chess blogosphere. I have different goals from the average chess blogger.

FIDE World Cup Pairings Announced

Source: Chessvibes

The FIDE World Cup 2009 will be a knockout tournament of 128 players, held from November 20th till December 15th, 2009 in Khanty-Maniysk, Russia, just like the previous two World Cups won by Levon Aronian and Gata Kamsky respectively. After the publication of the new rating list, FIDE immediately announced the pairings of the first round.

Khanty-Mansiysk is an oil boom town in Russia, the administrative center of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug. It is located on the Irtysh River, 15 km from its confluence with the Ob. Besides the World Cups, Khanty-Mansiysk was the venue of the 2003 Biathlon World Championships, and in 2005 the first Mixed Biathlon Relay (4×6 km) took place there.

World Cup format
There shall be 6 rounds of matches comprising two 2 games per round, with the winners progressing to the next round, plus the final seventh (7th) round comprising of four (4) games.
Round 1 (November 21-23): 128 players
Round 2 (November 24-26): 64 players
Round 3 (November 27-29): 32 players
Round 4 (November 30-December 2): 16 players
Round 5 (December 3-5): 8 players
Round 6 (December 6-8): 4 players
Round 7 (December 10-14): 2 players

The time control shall 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 from move one. For the first 6 rounds, each match shall be played over 2 games and the winner of a match shall be the first player to score 1.5 or more points. The final 7th round will be a match played over 4 games and the winner of the World Cup will be the first player to score 2.5 or more points.

Extended tiebreak
This edition will feature an extended format for tiebreaks. A maximum of four rapid games will be played, and if the score is still equal, there will be up to five pairs of blitz games. If the tie is broken after any pair of games, the tiebreak will end. Failing that, an armageddon game will be played, where players will have three-second increments beginning with move 61.

Prize fund
Round 1 losers: 64 x USD 6,000 (net 4,800) USD 384,000
Round 2 losers: 32 x USD 10,000 (net 8,000) USD 320,000
Round 3 losers: 16 x USD 16,000 (net 12,800) USD 256,000
Round 4 losers: 8 x USD 25,000 (net 20,000) USD 200,000
Round 5 losers: 4 x USD 35,000 (net 28,000) USD 140,000
Round 6 losers: 2 x USD 50,000 (net 40,000) USD 100,000
Runner-up: 1 x USD 80,000 (net 64,000) USD 80,000
World Cup winner: 1 x USD 120,000 (net 96,000) USD 120,000

Total: USD 1,600,000

Pairings round 1
Table White Fed Black Fed

1 1 GM Gelfand, Boris ISR - 128 IM Obodchuk, Andrei RUS
2 2 GM Gashimov, Vugar AZE - 127 IM Sarwat, Walaa EGY
3 3 GM Svidler, Peter RUS - 126 IM Hebert, Jean CAN
4 4 GM Morozevich, Alexander RUS - 125 IM Abdel Razik, Khaled EGY
5 5 GM Radjabov, Teimour AZE - 124 IM Ezat, Mohamed EGY
6 6 GM Ivanchuk, Vassily UKR - 123 GM Bezgodov, Alexei RUS
7 7 GM Ponomariov, Ruslan UKR - 122 GM El Gindy, Essam EGY
8 8 GM Grischuk, Alexander RUS - 121 IM Sriram, Jha IND
9 9 GM Jakovenko, Dmitry RUS - 120 GM Rizouk, Aimen ALG
10 10 GM Wang, Yue CHN - 119 GM Kabanov, Nikolai RUS
11 11 GM Eljanov, Pavel UKR - 118 GM Al Sayed, Mohamad N. QAT
12 12 GM Karjakin, Sergey UKR - 117 GM Rodriguez Vila, Andres URU
13 13 GM Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar AZE - 116 GM Kosteniuk, Alexandra RUS
14 14 GM Shirov, Alexei ESP - 115 GM Kunte, Abhijit IND
15 15 GM Dominguez Perez, Leinier CUB - 114 GM Smerdon, David AUS
16 16 GM Movsesian, Sergei SVK - 113 GM Yu, Yangyi CHN
17 17 GM Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime FRA - 112 GM Yu, Shaoteng CHN
18 18 GM Alekseev, Evgeny RUS - 111 IM Pridorozhni, Aleksei RUS
19 19 GM Tomashevsky, Evgeny RUS - 110 GM Ivanov, Alexander USA
20 20 GM Wang, Hao CHN - 109 GM Friedel, Joshua E USA
21 21 GM Navara, David CZE - 108 GM Laylo, Darwin PHI
22 22 GM Malakhov, Vladimir RUS - 107 GM Amin, Bassem EGY
23 23 GM Bacrot, Etienne FRA - 106 GM Nijboer, Friso NED
24 24 GM Rublevsky, Sergei RUS - 105 GM Morovic Fernandez, Ivan CHI
25 25 GM Jobava, Baadur GEO - 104 IM Robson, Ray USA
26 26 GM Motylev, Alexander RUS - 103 GM Hess, Robert L USA
27 27 GM Kamsky, Gata USA - 102 GM Antonio, Rogelio Jr PHI
28 28 GM Vitiugov, Nikita RUS - 101 GM Gupta, Abhijeet IND
29 29 GM Bologan, Viktor MDA - 100 GM Adly, Ahmed EGY
30 30 GM Naiditsch, Arkadij GER - 99 GM Hou, Yifan CHN
31 31 GM Bu, Xiangzhi CHN - 98 GM Pelletier, Yannick SUI
32 32 GM Polgar, Judit HUN - 97 GM Pavasovic, Dusko SLO
33 33 GM Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter ROU - 96 GM Lupulescu, Constantin ROU
34 34 GM Sargissian, Gabriel ARM - 95 GM Li, Chao b CHN
35 35 GM Onischuk, Alexander USA - 94 GM Flores, Diego ARG
36 36 GM Cheparinov, Ivan BUL - 93 GM Kryvoruchko, Yuriy UKR
37 37 GM Efimenko, Zahar UKR - 92 GM Milos, Gilberto BRA
38 38 GM Sutovsky, Emil ISR - 91 GM Zhou, Weiqi CHN
39 39 GM Najer, Evgeniy RUS - 90 GM Ghaem Maghami, Ehsan IRI
40 40 GM Tiviakov, Sergei NED - 89 GM Iturrizaga, Eduardo VEN
41 41 GM Areshchenko, Alexander UKR - 88 GM Corrales Jimenez, Fidel CUB
42 42 GM Sasikiran, Krishnan IND - 87 GM L’Ami, Erwin NED
43 43 GM Smirin, Ilia ISR - 86 GM Ehlvest, Jaan USA
44 44 GM Baklan, Vladimir UKR - 85 GM Shabalov, Alexander USA
45 45 GM Ganguly, Surya Shekhar IND - 84 GM Filippov, Anton UZB
46 46 GM Fier, Alexandr BRA - 83 GM Khalifman, Alexander RUS
47 47 GM Fressinet, Laurent FRA - 82 GM Sjugirov, Sanan RUS
48 48 GM Meier, Georg GER - 81 GM Petrosian, Tigran L. ARM
49 49 GM Grachev, Boris RUS - 80 GM Bartel, Mateusz POL
50 50 GM Caruana, Fabiano ITA - 79 GM Bruzon Batista, Lazaro CUB
51 51 GM Sokolov, Ivan NED - 78 GM Fedorchuk, Sergey A. UKR
52 52 GM Milov, Vadim SUI - 77 GM Negi, Parimarjan IND
53 53 GM Timofeev, Artyom RUS - 76 GM Leitao, Rafael BRA
54 54 GM Inarkiev, Ernesto RUS - 75 GM Gustafsson, Jan GER
55 55 GM Savchenko, Boris RUS - 74 GM Shulman, Yuri USA
56 56 GM Kobalia, Mikhail RUS - 73 GM Sandipan, Chanda IND
57 57 GM Tkachiev, Vladislav FRA - 72 GM Le, Quang Liem VIE
58 58 GM Tregubov, Pavel V. RUS - 71 GM Akobian, Varuzhan USA
59 59 GM So, Wesley PHI - 70 GM Guseinov, Gadir AZE
60 60 GM Granda Zuniga, Julio E PER - 69 GM Sakaev, Konstantin RUS
61 61 GM Laznicka, Viktor CZE - 68 GM Papaioannou, Ioannis GRE
62 62 GM Andreikin, Dmitry RUS - 67 GM Nyback, Tomi FIN
63 63 GM Mamedov, Rauf AZE - 66 GM Zhou, Jianchao CHN
64 64 GM Amonatov, Farrukh TJK - 65 GM Volkov, Sergey RUS

Alexandra: "Telegram from President Medvedev"

Source: Alexandra's Blog

Hi all!

I just want to share with you the nice telegram that came from Russian President Medvedev congratulating the Russian women's team (Alexandra Kosteniuk, Nadezhda and Tatiana Kosintseva, Valentina Gunina and Marina Romanko) for our Gold medal at the recent Novi Sad European Team Chess Championship.

The original news is on the Kremlin web site and the telegram is here. By itself it does not seem to be such a big deal, but in fact I think it's great that somebody as important as a country president values the results of their chess team. If all the countries did the same (and also supported their teams with some budgets for training and for traveling to important competitions), I think chess would be even more popular than it is now

Alexandra Kosteniuk, Women's World Chess Champion www.chessblog.com

World Youth Champion U20 Vachier-Lagrave

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave from France won the U20 World Youth Championship after a dramatic last round, in which he caught Sergei Zhigalko in the standings. The two finished on 10.5/13, but Vachier-Lagrave won the title due to a higher sum of the ratings of the opponents. WGM Swaminathan Soumya from India took gold in the girls section.

The World Youth Championship 2009 took place October 21 – November 4 in Puerto Madryn, Argentina. Originally it was supposed to be held in Mar del Plata but just a few weeks ago FIDE communicated the switch to Puerto Madryn, a city in the province of Chubut in the Argentine Patagonia.

It was a big Swiss of 13 rounds and 84 participants in the boys section and 45 in the girls section. The rate of play was 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 one.

The tournament ended dramatically for Sergei Zhigalko (2646, Belarus), who had been leading the standings throughout the event. In the last round he drew with Ivan Popov (2582, Russia) and in doing so he allowed top seed Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2718) to finish on the same number of points – the Frenchman beat Dmitry Andreikin (2659, Russia) in round 13.

As it turned out, the first tiebreak rule, the sum of the ratings of the opponents, was in favour of Vachier-Lagrave. Michal Olszewski (2544, Poland) won bronze on tiebreak after finishing shared 3rd with Popov and IM Alex Lenderman (2542, USA).

The girls section was won by WGM Swaminathan Soumya (2297, India) while the silver medal went to WIM Deysi Cori Tello (2361, Peru). Cemre Betul Yildiz (2224, Turkey) who recently played in the 2nd FIDE Women Grand Prix in Nanjing, took the bronze medal. All three ended on 9.5/13.

CPAI on Humpy vs. Sundar

CHESS PLAYERS ASSOCIATION OF INDIA
(Reg. No.- S / IL / 26405)
FD-437, Sector-3, Salt Lake, Kolkata-700106, Ph: 92310 94201
Email : cpai64@gmail.com; website: www.cpai.in

Press Release
The Chess Players Association of India wishes to register its concern about the ongoing issue between Grandmaster Koneru Humpy, the 2nd highest rated woman player of the world, and one of the young and prominent Chess players of the country, and the All India Chess Federation.

By perception, the following appear to be the facts of the issue:

GM Humpy has proclaimed that she has decided to withdraw from participation in the Asian Indoor Chess Championship to be held at Vietnam in the first week of November `under stress due to …not (being) in a position to participate in a prestigious event for the country’.

Humpy’s father, Mr. Koneru Ashok, is her personal trainer and accompanies her to all the tournaments she plays, which has been their practice since her childhood. Humpy has also stated that when the All India Chess Federation refused to bear Ashok’s expenses when accompanying her on official trips, Ashok offered to bear the expenses himself. But Humpy has stated that the AICF laid a pre-condition that Mr. Ashok will be accommodated as part of the delegation only if Humpy would participate in all the official tournaments representing the country.

The All India Chess Federation has formed a rule that any player who wishes to play a Chess Tournament out of the country has to get the Federation’s approval for the same. In the past, this has been followed by most of the players who take part in all the tournaments abroad, and the AICF has given such permission routinely. However, Mr. D.V. Sundar, as the Secretary of the AICF, has refused Humpy permission to participate in the Gibraltar Chess Festival to be held in Jan – Feb 2010 because the AICF will be organising an International Open Chess Tournament, an unofficial event.

The CPAI feels that the developments between GM Humpy and the All India Chess Federation have been unfortunate, and that soon an amicable solution for all the issues be found. However, we wish to put forward our views on the same herein:

That when GM Humpy feels that her father accompanying her to all the tournaments helps her perform better as a player, such a practice should not be discouraged by the Federation, especially when the player is ready to bear the trainer’s expenses. After all, it is the freedom of any player to choose his/her trainer, and sporting / performance considerations should be the most important of all.

Looking at the career graph of GM Humpy, it is obvious that we have in her a player of international repute and great promise, and it is interest of the country and Federation that such top performers should be encouraged by giving them extra leeway and flexibility, thus ensuring that such potentials will be able to fulfil their promise.

Players should be allowed the freedom to choose the events that they wish to play, as long as they do not fail to fulfil any official commitments or representation of the country. And we strongly feel that Open Chess Tournaments – organised by whomsoever – inside the country cannot be the reason for a player to be refused for permission to play abroad. After all, a player selects participation in Chess tournaments based on many sporting criteria such as strength of the event, Playing Schedules, Time Control, playing conditions and a host of many such considerations.

In case the AICF feels that International Tournaments abroad attract Indian players more than events conducted inside the country, it is up to the organisers / Federation to find the reasons for the same, and thus get our Tournaments organised better, so as to attract better participation. After all, Indian players financially have to stretch themselves to play tournaments abroad on their own, and International Tournaments inside the country getting organised in a better way will be welcome development for our players, and consequently for the development of the game itself.

We urge Grandmaster Humpy and the All India Chess Federation to have a positive and open discussion on all the above issues, for the sake of her career development and the promise that she holds as a performer for the country, a settlement of all the issues be found at the earliest.

Atanu Lahiri
Secretary, Chess Players Association of India

See the Full Chessbase Article

Chessmaster For PS2

Check out the Review by Gamespot.

I'm an avid videogame nut but I've been stuck in older generation machines (PS2,Gamecube). I was wandering around my local Gamestop and happened across a fairly advanced (over Grandmaster strength) version of Chessmaster for the PS2. I'm about to leap out of my chair as I write this note. I'm just so excited. I don't know quite how I missed the 2003 release of this chess engine onto the PS2 platform. I remember the older Chessmaster for the Playstation that possessed the old flaws of previous chessmaster releases. This version fixed alot of those errors.

check out this screenshot featuring my favorite board template (because I'm used to the 2d chess sets on most chess playing websites:

This is going to be a good training tool in my opinion. I recommend it to all my readers ... it's a good alternative to the mind-numbing mediocrity of today's videogames (which are more like interactive movies than actual challenges, it's fun don't get me wrong).

Happy Belated Halloween

While I don't enjoy the celebration of this pagan holiday ... I do enjoy eating a ton of candy and feeling ill. Enjoy!

Feud Between English And Bulgarian Chess Teams Still Aflame

English and Bulgarian grandmasters continue feud during European Team Championship
Leonard Barden
Saturday 31 October 2009

There is history between English and Bulgarian grandmasters. Four years ago when Nigel Short was a commentator at the world championship in San Luis, Argentina, some players told him of suspicions that Veselin Topalov, who won the title after a fast start, was receiving outside help. Short later called for an inquiry, though he did not join the cheating claim. Nothing was ever proved, but Topalov and his manager blamed Short for damaging the current world No1's reputation.

So last year at Corus Wijk aan Zee Topalov's aide, Ivan Cheparinov, refused Short the traditional pre-game handshake, and was forfeited. After an appeal the game was rescheduled along with the handshake, and Short won in impressive style.

Relations were still cool last weekend when Bulgaria and England were paired in the European Team Championship at Novi Sad. The Bulgarians were favourites, since the British champion David Howell and Short as his coach were away at the world junior in Argentina. But weakened England got a gift one minute after the start when a Bulgarian's mobile phone rang, an automatic zero under Fide's draconian rules. The incident, captured on an internet video, rocked the Bulgarians and, although Topalov won, Cheparinov was crushed and England won 2.5-1.5.

See the Full Article

Meglerhuset Arctic to sponsor Carlsen

Chess addict and top broker Mads Syversen became chess genius Magnus Carlsen's main sponsor. "Magnus is special. He represents the pinnacle of the analysis and implementation, he is ambitious and hard-working," says Mads Syversen, whose company logo will accompany Magnus Carlsen's outfit in the next 24 months.

The new sponsor company says Magnus will be a good example for the employees with his accuracy and performance and believes that the sponsorship will be a success for both sides.

The deal is for a 2 years period, as Magnus will receive 1 million kroner (175 000 dollars). So far the main income for Carlsen has been from prize funds. The company Magnuschess AS has reported 1,8 million kroner income in 2008, which is a large increase to the 40 000 reported in 2007.

See the Chessdom Article

Chess & Autism

I have read many interesting articles on Chess as a therapy to help Autistic individuals cope but this new article from chessbase really put faces to the illnesses that are soothed through chess (Asperger’s Syndrome & Autism).

">Jaap de Vries has Autism