To find out more about the Guelph Pro-Am series of CFC tournaments, click here.
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To find out more about the Guelph Pro-Am series of CFC tournaments, click here.
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News from The Chess Express!(Hal Bond goes a-BLOG-ing) Bond’s Eye Blog November 23, 2009What a great week in chess! Let’s start from the top. Magus Magnus Carlsen shines At the Tal Memorial just in time To watch his 19th year expire In four more years he can retire.
The 18 year old from Norway, Magnus Carlsen has done it! Following his crushing performance in China, where his rating soared over 2800 to become the number 2 player in the world, expectations were sky high at his next stop in Moscow. Not only did Magnus deliver, he overcame adversity to do it.
The Tal Memorial was the strongest tournament of the year. Among the elite, only Topalov was absent. Alas, Magnus was in poor health for most of the tournament, and drew his first 7 games. He emerged in the 8th and 9th rounds ready to play. Ruslan Ponomariov of the Ukraine and Hungary’s Peter Leko were his unlucky final opponents. Magnus disintegrated the Ukranian with the white pieces, and then used Pono’s variation as black to defeat Leko in round nine. He captured second place in the tournament, a half point behind the hometown fave Vladimir Kramnik. The result pushed Carlsen’s rating to 2806, one point of Topalov.
If this result was unconvincing, Magnus proceeded to dominate the field at the World Blitz Championship which followed. He score 32/42, a full 3 points ahead of World Champion Anand, who outpointed Kramnik by the same margin. One of Carlsen’s rare losses came at the hands of Women’s World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk. Go girls!
Meanwhile back home, or should I say in Antalya Turkey, Canada has scored a precious medal at the World Youth Chess Championship. Congratulations to Richard Wang of Edmonton, Alberta. He scored 8.5/11 to finish on third in the Under 12 Boys division. His performance rating was 2243 and the result pushes his rating over 2100. Awesome Richard!
A few miles north, in Khanty Mansiysk, Siberia, Canada’s 2009 Champion IM Jean Hebert has been eliminated from the World Cup by no less a player than Peter Svidler of Russia. The World Cup is the culmination “grassroots” phase of the World Chess Championship cycle. Every member Federation of FIDE can register their representatives to play in “Zonal” competitions which lead to the World Cup. Canada is one of 4 countries in the world which is a “Zone” unto itself, so our champ qualifies directly to the World Cup. The winner of this event is seeded into the Candidates matches.
The roster of this tournament is incredibly tough, and the knock out system of short matches is a very different experience from swiss system or round robin events. Here, the highest plays the lowest, next highest to next lowest and gradually the players become more closely matched. By rating, the lowest board in the tournament has the toughest match of the round.
Wesley So of the Philippines is the top 16 year old in the world, at 2640. He has made it through the first round after a rapid (half hour) playoff against Gadir Guseinov of Azerbaijan. This tiny country is becoming an incredible force in the world of chess. Watch out for their top seed. Vugar Gashumov is my early pick to win it all.
Here is an interesting stat - top countries by participation:
Russia 27 USA 10 China 9 Ukraine 9 India 7 Egypt 6 Azerbaijan 5 Netherlands 4 France 4
The World Cup finishes just before Christmas. Stay tuned for more updates here.
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