Nakamura wins ICC’s trip to Mainz

Second seed GM Hikaru Nakamura (Smallville) of the USA reasserted his authority as one of the top dogs on ICC on Sunday by winning the Mainz Chess Classic online Chess960 title. full story »

The Mainz Attraction II

ICC is pleased to announce they’re collaborating again with Chess Tigers, organizers of the popular annual Mainz Chess Classic in Germany, for a 2nd Chess960 Internet Qualifier for the FiNet and Ordix opens. full story »

Sammour-Hasbun: ICC’s Cinderella Man

Who says lightening doesn’t strike twice? Last year’s Cinderella-story winner of the Internet Chess Club’s annual Dos Hermanas blitz tournament, Jorge Sammour-Hasbun (ICC NECF-InSchools), proved that lightening does indeed strike twice as he retained his title. full story »

Kramnik plays Werle & Sebag

This afternoon, at 14:00 CET, in Enschede, the Netherlands a special event takes place: in a simultaneous exhibition, former world champion Vladimir Kramnik plays IGM Jan Werle & WGM Marie Sebag. full story »

Dos Hermanas (internet) starts today

For the ninth year running the XIX Internet Chess Tournament “Ciudad de Dos Hermanas” (Spain) is being held on the ICC playing zone. Registration for the event is completely free both for ICC members and non-members!

This event is clearly the most important Internet chess tournament in the world, featuring the biggest number of participants. In the 2007 edition, nearly 2000 players from all over the world took part. The winner, former child prodigy and under-10 World Champion IM Jorge Sammour-Hasbun, overcome an impressive field of 300 IM/GM’s, including top players Shahriyar Mamedyarov, Tigran L. Petrosian, Gata Kamsky, Hikaru Nakamura, Kiril Georgiev and Sergey Shipov.

This year the prize fund is $12,000 (equivalent of 7,700 Euro), with $3,400 (equivalent of 2,000 Euro) for the winner. In addition, there are many class prizes and special cash prizes for amateur players. Also, winners can achieve the opportunity to travel to Dos Hermanas for the main Event, with Topalov, Shirov, Polgar and Vallejo, at the end of April.

As in previous editions, the playing system is as follows: twelve 12-round Swiss qualifiers using the playing rate: 3 minutes per game. Qualifiers are held twice a day from March 28th to April 2nd, and the finals are held on April 4th and 5th. The 12 qualifier winners plus the 20 best scores qualify to the 32 KO final.

Full rules, guidelines and registrations can be found at ICC’s special Dos Hermanas website.

John B. Henderson,
ICC

Tigran L. Petrosian wins ICC’s Gibraltar qualifier

There must be something in the name after all. The young Armenian with the famous namesake, Tigran L. Petrosian, proved yet again he’s one of the top dogs on ICC after winning his second major online qualfier of the year. Petrosian, who beat Gata Kamsky earlier in the year to win the Mainz qualifier, this time beat GM Gadir Guseniov to win an all-expenses paid trip to the Gibtelecom Master in Gibraltar, coming up in January 2008. full story »

GMs longing for the Hilton in Mainz

The first Chess960 online qualifiers, organized by the Internet Chess Club in conjunction with Chess Tigers (organizers of the popular annual Mainz Chess Classic in Germany), has been a stunning success. All of last week, qualifiers were held on the ICC (and on their new service of World Chess Live), where 959 unique players (1546 in total over 10 events) battled it out for the coveted spots in the 32-player KO final, to be staged 14-15 July on the ICC. Players such as Gata Kamsky, Krishnan Sasikiran, Ivan Sokolov, Kiril Georgiev and Mikheil Mchedlishvili are still in the race for that one round trip ticket to Mainz, including hotel room and breakfast at the Hilton Mainz. full story »

The Mainz Attraction on the ICC

(This is an ICC advertisement)

The Internet Chess Club, in conjunction with Chess Tigers, organizers of the popular annual Mainz Chess Classic in Germany, are offering a unique chance to play in a free online qualifier to win a round trip ticket, 600 Euro ($811) cash, hotel room and breakfast at the Hilton Mainz Hotel, by the banks of the Rhine, just 1 block from the picturesque Old Town, from August 15 to 20 (5 nights and 6 days!). full story »

Watch Anand for free day on ICC

On Saturday 21 April you can play on ICC for free (even if you tried a 7-day trial once) and watch Anand raising funds for his favorite charity Vidya Sagar. At 12:00pm Eastern Time (16:00 GMT – 18:00 CET), Anand will be playing a 90-minute simul against opponents who have all bid on eBay for seats to play. Not only can you watch all the action as it happens on the board, you can also watch ICC’s exclusive AnandCam that will show the world #1 playing the simul live from his home in Spain. The event is hosted by Mig and Macauley. More info at ICC.

Charity simul Anand

World #1 Viswanathan Anand of India is once again utilizing the services of the Internet Chess Club to champion a cause that is close to his heart: Vidyasagar, a non-profit organization that strives for inclusion of children with autism and cerebral palsy. Hereby an invitation to play against Vishy and support this organization. full story »

Jorge Sammour-Hasbun surprising winner Dos Hermanas

Jorge Sammour-Hasbun became the surprising winner of the ICC Dos Hermanas online tournament. Who? Many were wondering that of course. Sammour-Hasbun has been away from the game for ten years, but at some point he was a true prodigy. He won the world championship under 10 in 1988 and later also the Wch under 12, when his name was still Jorge Zamora. Jorge’s family emigrated from Palestina to America and there, at the age of 15 he already had a USCF rating of 2500. Amongst others he beat Gata Kamsky in those days. full story »

Dos Hermanas heading for the finals

In the Dos Hermanas internet tournament on ICC there haven’t been any surprises yet. Most top players, with the exception of Ivan Cheparinov and Ian Nepomniachtchi, have qualified. Among those players are: GM Hikaru Nakamura, GM Tigran Petrosian, GM Shahriyar Mamedyarov, GM Zhang Zhong, GM Gata Kamsky and GM Daniel Fridman. They might get good company tonight, as it looks like Magnus Carlsen, probably right from his hotel room in Monaco (where he enjoys a restday), will play one of the final qualifiers tonight! full story »

Eight edition of Dos Hermanas starts tonight

The world’s biggest internet tournament will have its eigth edition starting tonight. The tournament, which was won last year by GM Fabian Doettling (before e.g. Carlsen and Kamsky) traditionally exists of twelve seperate twelve-round Swiss qualifiers using the Fischer System playing rate: 4 minutes + 1 seconds. The 12 qualifier winners plus the 20 best scores qualify to the 32 KO final. All qualifiers are open for everyone, you only have to sign-up for a free trial-account(!). The tournament has a prize-fund of 7700 EUR and the winner takes EUR 1800. full story »

Kramnik does not flinch

It was Topalov again who came with a theoretical novelty today, which indeed gave hem some opening advantage. But Kramnik slowly but surely equalised just by putting his pieces on optimal positions, while Topalov probably played a bit too conservatively today. full story »

Sterke bezette toernooien op internet

Morgenavond barst het 7e Dos Hermanas-toernooi los. Dit is het grootste toernooi ter wereld dat op internet gespeeld wordt. Het heeft een prijzengeld van 6100 euro en trekt ieder jaar vele titelhouders aan. Dit jaar hebben zich reeds 23 GM’s, 54 IM’s en 50 FM’s ingeschreven.

Het toernooi begint met 12 aparte voorrondes, waarvan de winnaars zich plaatsen voor de finale. Deze 12 worden aangevuld met de beste 20 ‘verliezers’. Deze 32 gaan de knock-outfase in, waarna de winnaar er met 1800 euro vandoor gaat. Vorig jaar was Daniel Fridman de gelukkige.

Tot nu toe hebben slechts negen Nederlanders zich ingeschreven, onder wie GM Harmen Jonkman (Flycatcher) en FM Bart Karstens (Bartali). Inschrijving voor het toernooi is gratis en een trial-account op icc is voldoende voor deelname.

Stellwagen en van Wely in hun freestyle match
foto: www.chessevents.nl
Waar er bij Dos Hermanas altijd een strenge controle en ophef over valsspelen is, zal bij het PAL/CSS Freestyle Chess Tournament het gebruik van computers alleen maar worden aangemoedigd. In de voorgaande edities werden GM’s van het bord gezet door 1400-spelers, die blijkbaar beter met een computer overweg konden! Dit toernooi heeft een prijzenfonds van 16000 dollar en is opgezet door ICC’s concurrent Playchess. Inschrijven kost hier 10 dollar. De voorrondes zullen in een knock-outvorm gespeeld worden in het weekend van 18 en 19 maart; de finale als round-robin in het weekend van 8 en 9 april.

Veel plezier, toeschouwer, vanuit de luie stoel!