NEWSLETTER 52 (November 28, 2011)

GROS XAKE TALDEA SAN SEBASTIAN IS THE NEW TEAM CHESS CHAMPION OF SPAIN FOR 2011

Gros Xake Taldea San Sebastian is the new Team Chess Champion of Spain for 2011. The team wins the Honor Division for the first time in its history. Second finished Naturgas Energia Sestao CA, third is College-EIKM Marcote.

The Championship was held on November 21st - 26th in Melilla, Spain.

The Champions

Final Ranking after 7 Rounds

Rk. Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Des 1 Des 2 Des 3

1 Gros Xake Taldea * 2 ½ 5 ½ 3 ½ 4 5 4 10 24.5 0

2 Naturgas Energia Sestao CA 3 ½ * 3 4 ½ 4 ½ 4 ½ 3 10 23 0

3 College-EIKM Marcote ½ 3 * 4 3 ½ 4 4 9 19 0

4 CA Reverte Albox 2 ½ 1 ½ 2 * 2 5 4 4 17 0

5 CA Linex-Magic 2 1 ½ 2 ½ 4 * 1 4 ½ 4 15.5 0

6 CA Solvay 1 1 ½ 2 1 5 * 4 ½ 4 15 0

7 Cajacanarias 2 3 2 2 1 ½ 1 ½ * 1 12 0 The team composition of the Champions was: GM Ruslan Ponomariov (UKR), GM Alexei Shirov (ESP), GM Etienne Bacrot (FRA), GM Loek Van Wely (NED), GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov (UZB), GM Christian Bauer (FRA), GM Pablo San Segundo Carrillo (ESP), IM Alejandro Franco Alonso (ESP), IM Santiago Gonzalez De La Torre (ESP), IM Iñigo Argandoña Riveiro (ESP) and FM Martin Alvarez, Inigo (ESP).

Official web site: http://feda.org

MAGNUS CARLSEN WON 6TH TAL MEMORIAL’2011

Norwegian GM Magnus Carlsen won Tal Memorial’2011. He finished on the shared first place with GM Levon Aronian, but won the tournament for the reason of the first tiebreak rule, concerning the number of the black games. On the shared 3rd-5th place finished GMs Sergey Karjakin, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Vassily Ivanchuk. 6th Tal Memorial’2011 was held on November 16th – 25th in Moscow, Russia. The tournament was 10-player round robin with rate of play 100 minutes for 40 moves + 50 minutes for the next 20 moves + 15 minutes for the rest of the game + 30 seconds increment per move, starting from move one. In the Memorial took part GMs: Boris Gelfand (ISR), Hikaru Nakamura (USA), Ian Nepomniachtchi (RUS), Levon Aronian (ARM), Magnus Carlsen (NOR), Peter Svidler (RUS), Sergey Kariakin (RUS), Vasily Ivanchuk (UKR), Viswanathan Anand (IND) and Vladimir Kramnik (RUS).

Final Ranking crosstable after 9 Rounds

Rk. Name Rtg FED 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Pts. TB1 TB2 TB3 1 Carlsen Magnus 2826 NOR * ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 5,5 5 0 3 2 Aronian Levon 2802 ARM ½ * ½ ½ 1 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 5,5 4 0 4 3 Karjakin Sergey 2763 RUS ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 5 5 0,5 3 Nepomniachtchi Ian 2730 RUS ½ ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 5 5 0,5 3 5 Ivanchuk Vassily 2775 UKR ½ 0 ½ ½ * 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 5 4 0 3 6 Svidler Peter 2755 RUS ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 * ½ ½ 1 1 4,5 5 0 2 7 Anand Viswanathan 2811 IND ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½ 4,5 4 0 3 8 Gelfand Boris 2744 ISR 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ * ½ ½ 3,5 5 0 2,5 9 Kramnik Vladimir 2800 RUS ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ * ½ 3,5 4 0 2,5 10 Nakamura Hikaru 2758 USA 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 0 ½ ½ ½ * 3 4 0 2

Official web site: http://russiachess.org/

GM STELLAN BRYNELL WON MALTA OPEN

GM Stellan Brynell from Sweden won Malta Open with final result of 7.5 points. On a half point distance from the winner finished GM Vladimir Epishin – second and GM Vladimir Burmakin – third. In the tournament took place 122 players from 22 countries, including 7 GMs.

The tournament was held on November 20th – 26th, 2011 in the mediterranian island of Malta.

Final Ranking – first 10 positions

No title name elo pts buchh. BuSu 1 GM Brynell,Stellan 2495 7.5 50.5 426 2 GM Epishin,Vladimir 2543 7 56 438.5 3 GM Burmakin,Vladimir 2588 7 55 458.5 4 GM Teske,Henrik 2529 7 54.5 435 5 GM Rausis,Igor 2497 7 52 430 6 IM Lund,Silas 2388 7 51.5 432.5 7 GM Heberla,Bartlomiej 2526 7 49.5 423 8 IM Smith,Axel 2488 6.5 50 434.5 9 IM Ziegler,Ari 2341 6.5 49.5 400.5 10 Sucher,Johannes 2200 6.5 45 417.5

Official web site: http://www.chessorg.de/malta.php

LAUNCH OF FIDE’S RAPID AND BLITZ RATING LISTS IN 2012

The Executive Board meeting in Krakow approved the launch of "Rapid" and "Blitz" rating lists in 2012. It is hoped that tournaments of all standards will be submitted, not just those of a high level. It will be possible for players without any current FIDE rating to enter the rapidplay or blitz list by playing games against rated opponents. All FIDE rating fees for these events will be waived during 2012.

The framework of the new lists will be as follows:

Tournaments commencing on or after 1st January 2012 may be registered. This should be done as early as possible, but not later than two days before the start. The Laws to be followed will be as set out in the Laws of Chess, Appendices A and B. All "Rapidplay" games will be eligible for rating. That is, each player must have at least 15 minutes, but less than 60 minutes thinking time; or the time allotted + 60 times any increment or delay is at least 15 minutes, but less than 60 minutes for each player. Only those "blitz" games where each player has at least five minutes, but less than 15 minutes, after adjustment for any increment or delay mode, will be rated. Thus, the time control of 3 minutes plus 2 second increment or all the moves in 5 minutes is acceptable. Both players must have the same allotted time. For players with existing FIDE ratings, their initial rating on both of the new lists will be that rating. Their rapid play or blitz ratings will be adjusted depending on their results in those forms of chess.

The method used to calculate ratings in each list will be the same as currently used, with the exception that the K factor used will in all cases be 20. For unrated players this has the effect their rating, if they score higher than 50%, becomes Ra +10 for each half point above 50%, with a maximum of 400. If any player plays 35 games or more in a period, his new rating will be based solely on those games.

The first pair of new lists will be published at 1st July 2012. It is anticipated that there will by then have been enough tournaments rated for the new ratings to be meaningful. Thereafter, lists will be published on the 1st of each month. The minimum rating for these lists will be 1000, in line with the lowered floor in the main list.

New rules will be added for players who play more than 35 games in one rating period; or for new players who play a large number of games, to reduce the swings in Rating. Amendments may be needed to the regulations in the light of experience in the first six months of 2012.

Decisions concerning any charges for either tournaments or players from 1st January 2013 will be made at the FIDE Congress in Istanbul in 2012. Federations are reminded that it will be possible to remove players from the new lists if the financial burden causes them too many problems. (Source of the text: FIDE)

Official web site: www.fide.org

DEEP JUNIOR WON THE WORLD CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP FOR COMPUTER PROGRAMS

Israeli computer program Deep Junior, developed by the programmers Amir Ban and Shay Bushinsky, won the annual World Chess Championship for computer programs held in Holland. Deep Junior finished the Championship without of single defeat. The tournament was organized by the World Association of Computer Games. In the Championship participated 9 programs, without Houdini and Rybka. Photo by Stuart Ramson

Source of information: www.isra.com