The FIDE World team (with Anand, Kramnik, Shirov and Karjakin) is leading by a point againt Azerbaijan (with Radjabov, Mamedyarov, Guseinov and Gashimov) after two rounds of the President's Cup in Baku. The coverage on the official website has been disappointing so far and even the games are not yet available and / or incomplete.

Last year the President’s Cup was a strong open in Baku, held directly after the 1st FIDE Grand Prix. This year a completely different event is organized to honour national leader Heydar Aliyev. The 2009 President’s Cup, from May 7th to 9th, is a rapid match (Scheveningen system) between the strongest players of Azerbaijan (Teimour Radjabov, Vugar Gashimov, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Gadir Guseinov - Rauf Mamedov is also listed but hasn't played yet) against a “FIDE World” team with World Champion Viswanathan Anand, former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, 2007 World Cup runner-up Alexei Shirov and 2009 Corus winner Sergey Karjakin.

Although it's not the same as the Soviet team, who played several matches against "ROW" (Rest of the World) in the 70s and 80s (Mig has a nice wrap-up of previous matches like these), Azerbaijan is cleary a strong force. Currently the country is fifth in the world, behind Russia, China, Ukraine and Israel.

And indeed, in the first round the Azeri GMs started sucessfully with three draws and a victory by Mamedyarov over Shirov in his favourite 3.f3 Gr?ºnfeld. However, the second round FIDE World struck back with wins by Anand (against Gashimov) and Shirov (against Guseinov).

Unfortunately not all games are available, at least complete, yet. We've tried to reach the organizers and we'll update this article as soon as possible.

Games rounds 1-2

Anand wins Chess Oscar

During the opening ceremony of the President's Cup, Vishy Anand received the 2008 Chess Oscar. The winner is always selected by a poll of chess experts and journalists across the world. The award comprises a bronze statuette titled The Fascinated Wanderer. The award had its genesis in 1967 with journalists accredited at chess events voting for the best grandmaster.

The awards were given away uninterrupted until the year 1988. The award resumed in 1995. Since then, it has been coordinated by the Russian chess magazine 64. Previous winners: Larsen (1967), Spassky (1968, 1969), Fischer (1970, 1971, 1972), Karpov (1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977), Kortchnoi (1978), Karpov (1979, 1980, 1981), Kasparov (1982, 1983), Karpov (1984), Kasparov (1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1995, 1996), Anand (1997, 1998), Kasparov (1999), Kramnik (2000), Kasparov (2001, 2002), Anand (2003, 2004), Topalov (2005), Kramnik (2006), Anand (2007, 2008).

Links

• President's Cup website
• Games in PGN