Anand and Topalov first meet in China
16 June 2009, 22.37 CET | By Peter Doggers | Filed under: Reports | Tags:
Viswanathan Anand and Veselin Topalov, who will play a World Championship match next year, first meet each other behind the chess board twice in September in China. The two will play in the 2nd Nanjing Grand Slam together with Magnus Carlsen, Teimour Radjabov, Dmitry Jakovenko and a Chinese player yet to be announced.
Gujuan Tzu, who runs the Sina Chess News Blog and is becoming a valuable source of information for chess in China, informed us that the 2nd Pearl Spring Grand Slam tournament will take place September 27th – October 9th in Nanjing, China.
The field is close to being finalised and it can be announced that Veselin Topalov, Viswanathan Anand, Magnus Carlsen, Teimour Radjabov, Dmitry Jakovenko [and] a Chinese player will be competing.
It seems most likely that Wang Yue will be the last name to be added to the participants list, as the highest rated player of the July 2009 FIDE rating list. (The English version of the official website has not been updated yet, but on the Chinese pages the photo of Bu Xiangzhi is shown.)
Again, the tournament will be a 6-player double round robin and just like last year, but this time officially, it will be the first tournament of the new Grand Slam series. Shortly before the tournament, during the first two weeks of September, the 2nd Grand Slam Masters Final takes place in Bilbao, Spain with Grischuk, Karjakin, Shirov and Topalov.
Also in Nanjing from September 27th to October 9th the 2nd Fide Women Grand Prix tournament will be held, with again 12 female top players competing. The 1st edition in the 2009-2010 series was held March 5-20 this year and was won by Humpy Koneru.
Links
- Official site (in English, not updated yet)
- Official site (in Chinese, with more information and pictures)
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Peter, this is old news, any details if Vishy will go to Khanty for the WC? I read this in CD and CG forums, but no official confirmation.
I mentioned this news several weeks ago here. Besides the women’s tournment, there are some kids events too, like simul, grade lvevels tournments.
We hadn’t mentioned this yet here at ChessVibes as it didn’t seem to be officially confirmed. This week’s email by Gujuan Tzu reminded us to check the official website, where the five players’ photos are shown on the Chinese version, which appears enough confirmation.
Latest report is changed as Topalov,Ivanchuk,Aronian,Movsessian,Svidler & Bu Xiangzhi.
Base is
Website in English is,
http://www.chess-pearlspring.com/www/ch … yindex.htm
The hyperlinks to the English and Chinese versions of the website were given in the article, while “not updated yet” should also explain why the English version is still showing the six players of the 1st edition.
Good to see Jakovenko finally getting some credit.
My list is of 17th June is from English Version of the official Website.Click the photo & get the name.Jakovenko,Anand,Radjabov,Carlsen are not playing as can be seen in my list,which is updated yesterday.Repeating again,
Topalov,Ivanchuk,Aronian,Movsessian,Svidler & Bu Xiangzhi..
Peter Doggers could have updated about 22 hrs back.
Peter, could you include some news on chinese chess, the other chess, Xiang Qi?
Just wondering.
Dear Jagdish, do you really thank that a) the English site is more up to date than the Chinese, b) the Chinese site places photos of Carlsen, Radjabov and Jakovenko just to make people confused and c) that they have invited exactly the same players as last year?? Which, of course, I already tried to explain in my comment of yesterday, 14.01.
@Dimitri Ehm, no, sorry.
wouldn’t the highest rated chinese player on july be Wang Yue?
@Peta: Yes, as actually stated in the article … but since Wang Yue already played several supertournaments this year (ALL of Corus, Linares and MTel) it might make sense to invite another Chinese player this time – even if his rating is slightly lower.
Ni or Wang Hao would be nice for a change- after his stellar (not counting in the last two games) performance at the chinese championship my favorite would definitely be Wang Hao, although I am not completely sure he is “there” yet. But unlike Wang Yue he stands for attacking chess and we’d get some great games.
@ Jagdish
It’s quite common that the website first gets updated in the mother tongue of the country the tournament is taking place in (means here: Chinese).
I have often seen the english version of a tournament being updated only really late (or not at all) and until then they kept the version from last year in english.
Just like this time.
I hope you will have the human grandeur to realize your mistake and apologize to Peter for an insolent comment like “Peter Doggers could have updated the 22 hours ago.”
@ Peter
Good to see you keep your cool…jeez.
Wang Yue has been confirmed as the Chinese player to play in the tournament. He is of course by far the strongest player ever in China.
Sorry Peters,I am also keeping cool,Be satisfied please
OK.Michel83 on June 18th, 2009 19.00
Thank you Both.
@ Jagdish
No worries, mistakes happen.
Have a nice day.
@Call Zorbin:
1) What is your source (”Wang Yue has been confirmed …”)?
2) Why do you think Wang Yue is _by far_ the strongest player ever in China? Is the difference between his rating (2738) and those of Ni Hua (2724), Bu Xiangzhi (2704) and Wang Hao (2696, all April 2009 FIDE list) THAT significant?
3) [own addition]: an interesting and “funny”/unexpected choice would be Chinese champion Ding Liren !!?? It won’t happen (yet) – it would considerably drop the tournament category, and he probably first has to confirm his recent success in some “sub-top events” … .
Apparently source is that – http://www.chess-pearlspring.com/www/chess_pk/index.htm. New foto of Wang Yue and no anymore foto of Bu.
I guess that organizers want to achieve higher average rating and fullfilled XXII FIDE tournament category
This is going to be a great tournament.
Just some doubts I´d like someone to help me with:
Nanjing is now in the Grand Slam Series along with Sofia, Wijk aan Zee and Linares.
Is Dourtmund no longer i the series?
It never was, Mauricio.
@Mauricio: It seems that the Grand Slam was (is?) interested to have Dortmund “in” – but not the other way around: Dortmund prefers to stay out of Danailov’s influence … .
@Thomas:
Thank you so much for the answer.
I guess Dourtmund prefers to stay on Kramnik´s side since he has won the event 8 times.
Keep up the good work.
@Mauricio (and others): To substantiate my previous post, here is a link and quote for an interview with Carsten Hensel (earlier pointed out by acirce on Dailydirt). The interview is from July 2007, Hensel is no longer Kramnik’s manager, but I guess the content still holds.
http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=3983
“Q: What about the Grand Slam idea proposed by Silvio Danailov? Why is Dortmund not participating?”
Hensel’s answer: “In its current form I don‚Äôt believe in it at all. Apart from the fact that it should be in the hands of FIDE and Global Chess, it seems to be an attempt by certain people to gain influence in the chess world. Dortmund is not participating because it doesn‚Äôt want to lose its independence. The Grand Slam is, in my opinion, nothing but a PR stunt. …. One central point of criticism is that the manager of one of the top players is the organizer of one of the tournaments, in Sofia, and also of the Grand Prix.”
Own comment: Some new supertournaments (Nanjing, the upcoming London event) seem to be eager to obtain the “Grand Slam stamp of approval” – MTel is also still relatively new on the scene. Dortmund (just as Corus and Linares) existed long before the Grand Slam and, by its own opinion, doesn’t depend on it!?
The latest news we – the Chess Tigers – received from the World Champion directly: Anand will not play in Nanjing!
@Deep Mikey: Interesting … did he give any reasons?
Consistent with an Anand interview on CNN-IBN (pointed out by Chessbase: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=5538). He mentions Tal Memorial (in November) and Corus (January 2010) as his next rated tournaments – after some rapids, obviously including Mainz.
@Thomas: Yes…
Chessdom just confirmed that the Chinese player will be Wang Yue (after all), and still mentions Anand as one of the participants. I have no reason to doubt the inside information by Deep Mikey (and Anand himself), but … do the Nanjing organizers know already?!
They could know it if they would ask him.
@Deep Mikey: This starts turning into a soap opera!? Of course I don’t know how much (more) inside information you have and want to/are allowed to disclose … . I see two possibilities:
1) Anand _did_ sign a contract to play in Nanjing – then he should at least contact the organizers immediately (no need for them to ask him!!?).
2) Anand was invited, but did _not_ sign a contract (nor did he formally decline the invitation?). Then it is very odd that the Nanjing organizers mention his name as part of the field.
Still rather early to speculate: What would happen if Anand, still to the surprise of the organizers, simply fails to show up at the opening ceremony? Would Bu Xianghzhi or Ni Hua be available as last-minute replacements??
It is quite simple, Thomas. Anand (and Topalov) wont play in Nanjing and I’m quite sure, chessvibes will soon publish an explanation. On the official site you can see that both players have been deleted.