Gold for Malakhov at European Rapid Ch

After a very successful World Cup tournament, Vladimir Malakhov managed to keep his top form this weekend. The 29-year-old physicist from Russia won the European Rapid Championship with 11.5/13, beating big favourites such as Gashimov, Ivanchuk and Shirov. Update: games added. Read more

Vugar Gashimov: “I think in 1-2 years I can become even the number 1″

And you thought you had seen the last chess moves of 2009 from the top players. Well, no, there’s one more gig with 2700 players before the year ends: the 9th European Rapid Championship, the upcoming weekend, with Vassily Ivanchuk and Alexei Shirov among its participants. We have an interview with top seed Vugar Gashimov, by GM Bartlomiej Macieja. Read more

World Cup: Gashimov, Gelfand, Jakovenko, Malakhov and Ponomariov also through

After Karjakin, Mamedyarov and Svidler, today five more players qualified for the World Cup’s quarter-finals: Gashimov, Gelfand, Jakovenko, Malakhov and Ponomariov. Pairings for tomorrow’s 6th round: Karjakin-Mamedyarov, Gelfand-Jakovenko, Ponomariov-Gashimov and Svidler-Malakhov. Read more

World Cup: favourites through, Li Chao & Wang Yue forfeited and out

Favourites Gelfand, Gashimov, Svidler and Grischuk all reached the World Cup’s 4th round yesterday, winning their minimatches in the tiebreaks. The story of the day was the forfeit of Li Chao and Wang Yue in their second rapid game. They arrived too late at the board, having a smoke in between games. Read more

World Cup tiebreaks round 1: more Chinese successes

After Yu Yangyi’s surprising success of yesterday, two more famous grandmasters were eliminated by Chinese rising stars in the tiebreaks today. Gabriel Sargissian lost to Li Chao and Emil Sutovsky went down against Zhou Weiqi. Tomorrow is already the second round and we’re left with 64 players. Read more

Anand beats Karpov 3.5-0.5, 2nd rapid match Kasparov-Karpov cancelled

Part of this year’s Corsican Circuit was a rapid match of four games, held in both Bastia (games 1 and 2) and Ajaccio (games 3 and 4), between Viswanathan Anand and Anatoly Karpov. Anand won the match 3.5-0.5 on the same day that the 2nd Kasparov-Karpov rapid match, scheduled for December in Paris, was cancelled. Read more

Kasparov wins rapid match 3-1 (UPDATE: video added)

On the second day of the Kasparov-Karpov rapid match, the Valencian spectators were treated to some high level chess by both legends. Karpov won the third game in good style but again handled the clock poorly in the fourth to lose the match 1-3. At the press conference Kasparov said he regretted the fact that time had played such an important role in the rapid games. Update: video added. Read more

Kasparov crushes Karpov on first match day in Valencia (UPDATE: video added)

The first day of the match between the two K-legends in Valencia evoked mixed feelings all over, but did put Garry Kasparov in the lead by a comfortable margin of 2-0. Remarkably, Anatoli Karpov lost both games on time. Report, games and many photographs. Update: video added. Read more

Efimenko-Short match starts today

Nigel Short, England, former world championship contender, currently rated 2706, the world’s number 29. Zahar Efimenko, Ukraine, second of Pavel Eljanov, rated 2654, the world’s number 83. The two play a six-game match in Mukachevo (Ukraine), which starts today. Read more

Kramnik wins Zurich Jubilee rapid

Vladimir Kramnik won the Zurich Jubilee Rapid Tournament on Sunday, finishing on an undefeated 5/7, half a point ahead of Viswanathan Anand. Local hero Werner Hug managed to draw with Khalifman, Topalov, Kramnik, Karpov and Polgar. Pictorial report on the Saturday simuls and the Sunday rapid. Read more

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