Carlsen, Gashimov & Wang Yue win Baku

By beating Bacrot, Carlsen caught the tournament leaders and together with the two surprises of the tournament, Gashimov & Wang Yue, he won Baku 2008. full story »

R12: Gashimov beats Grischuk

And then, after a few less interesting days, the penultimate round in Baku was suddenly full of excitement, with great openings, great fights and great… results!? full story »

R11: Wang Yue joins Grischuk again

This morning it was nice and sunny again in Baku. However, ain’t no sunshine for Etienne Bacrot, who today played probably the worst move ever in his entire career, against Ernesto Inarkiev. The only other decisive result was Wang Yue-Svidler (1-0) and so the Chinese GM has joined Alexander Grischuk once again in the tournament standings. full story »

A rainy day in Baku

It was raining cats, dogs and half points today in Baku. Six, to be exact. When I took this photo a cheerful Radjabov said: “Romantic isn’t it?” but later he would be the only player to lose his game today, against Cheparinov. full story »

Grischuk back in sole lead

By beating his compatriot Ernesto Inarkiev, Alexander Grischuk has taken sole lead again today in Baku, since Gashimov and Wang Yue both drew their games, against Cheparinov and Bacrot respectively. full story »

Inarkiev & Mamedyarov win

After yesterday’s drama we witnessed a much more quiet round today in Baku. Five draws didn’t change anything in the top of the standings. Inarkiev avoided timetrouble and beat Navara in a good game. Mamedyarov defeated Karjakin, who blundered a pawn in the early middlegame. full story »

Gashimov beats Kamsky, joins leaders

In the best round so far in Baku, Gashimov beat Kamsky and joined the leaders Grischuk and Wang Yue, who drew against each other. Updated report with videos. full story »

Kamsky joins the leaders

After their first rest day, most players obviously were full of energy again, and it showed. A good round with nice games and three decisions, one of them scored by Cheparinov - he beat Inarkiev. Svidler won a nice game against Karjakin and Kamsky the joined tournament leaders Wang Yue and Grischuk by defeating Adams. full story »

Wang Yue & Grischuk share lead

Not much happened in the fifth round of Baku 2008, except for the fact that Wang Yue, not exactly the favorite for tournament victory, climbed up to a shared first place. And Cheparinov scored his first half point by the way. Now with videos too! full story »

Press conferences Baku - like at Corus!

The press conferences with demoboard are always a big hit during Corus, and we’ve done the same twice now in Baku. So today more of this top material - enjoy! full story »

Round 3: Grischuk takes lead

In the third round was lots of fighting chess with no less than five decisive games. After beating David Navara with the black pieces, it’s Alexander Grischuk who has taken the lead with 2.5/3. He’s followed by Karjakin, Radjabov, Gashimov, Carlsen and Kamsky who are on 2. The unfortunate Cheparinov has lost three games in a row. Many photos today! full story »

Back to start: round 2

And before we know it, another day has passed. Much has happened, much I learnt, and changed my mind. I’ll publish my round reports here as well anyway, so that even more peope will read what I’m writing in Baku. full story »

Notes from Baku

The first day in Baku was a bit of a chaotic one, which stayed unnoticed for the players by the way, which is good. As a content manager slash webmaster of both grandprix.fide.com and baku2008.fide.com I’ve learnt the hard way why “first days” are so infamous… full story »

Upcoming: Grand Prix!

It has been very quiet until today, but now that both websites are up, it’s about time for the announcement of the first Grand Prix tournament, which starts next Monday already: Baku 2008. And: ChessVibes will be there. Yes yes. full story »

FIDE publishes participants Grand Prix

Today, FIDE has published the list of confirmed participants for the first Grand Prix series. Kramnik, Anand, Topalov and Morozevich are not playing, but still the average rating is above 2700. full story »

Morozevich: “No Grand Prix for me”

Bad news for Global Chess, the organizers of the new Grand Prix tournaments. In an interview, Alexander Morozevich criticizes the new series and says he won’t play. full story »

Dates & venues Grand Prix announced

FIDE has announced the dates and venues for the 2008/2009 Grand Prix Tournaments: Baku, Krasnoyarsk, Doha, Montreux, Elista and Karlovy Vary.
full story »

Qualification criteria Grand Prix published

We haven’t heard from Global Chess BV for a while, the company financed by Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and runned by Bessel Kok and Geoffrey Borg. But behind the scenes they’re busy working on a more professional organisation of international chess. A vanguard: the Grand Prix Series. Today the qualification criteria for the 2008-2009 have been published and the first batch of qualifiers is: Kramnik, Anand, Topalov, Kamsky, Shirov, Carlsen, Karjakin, Ivanchuk, Mamedyarov, Leko, Morozevich, Aronian, Radjabov and Gelfand. full story »