NEWSLETTER 147 (March 10, 2014)

EXCELLENT ORGANIZATION OF THE EICC’2014 IN YEREVAN According to the ECU President Silvio Danailov the European Individual Chess Championship which is running in Yerevan, Armenia has exceptional organization and prize fund. The Championship started on 2nd March and will continue until 15th March. It is dedicated to the memory of the World 9th Champion Tigran Petrosian whose 85th birthday is celebrated this year.

259 chess players from 27 national federations are competing for the title. The organizers have prepared a rich prize fund: 160 000 Euros – 25 main and 15 special prizes are included.

The first symbolic move of the EICC’2014 was made by the ECU President Silvio Danailov. He took part in the official opening ceremony and met with the President of Armenia and the Armenian Chess Federation, Mr. Serzh Sargsyan and the FIDE President, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.

Silvio Danailov wrote in his twitter account:”Proud of the brilliant organization of EICC2014 so far! Many thanks to Armenian Chess Federation and the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan”.

After the firts half of the tournament, Russian Grandmaster Alexander Motylev takes the sole lead. In the decisive game of the 6th round he defeated fellow countryman Alexander Riazantsev in Caro-Kann two Knights.

Gabriel Sargissian drew with Dmitry Jakovenko, while Radoslaw Wojtaszek defeated young Russian Vladimir Fedoseev on the third board. Hrant Malkumyan, Viktor Laznicka, Pavel Eljanov, Baadur Jobava and Pavel Tregubov were also successful in the 6th round against Ivan Cheparinov, Igor Kovalenko, Alexander Ipatov and Zoltan Almasi respectively.

Yesterday was a rest day. Some of the top pairings of today’s round 7 are: Wojtaszek vs Motylev, Melkumyan vs Laznicka, Eljanov vs Sjugirov, Jakovenko vs Najer, Jobava vs Tregubov, etc. Round 7 will be played at 3 pm local time.

Ranking after the 7th round – first 20 positions Rk. Title Name FED Pts. TB1 TB2 TB3 TB4

1 GM Motylev Alexander RUS 5.5 2568 18 20 5

2 GM Wojtaszek Radoslaw POL 5 2611 20 23 4

3 GM Melkumyan Hrant ARM 5 2606 19 21 4

4 GM Laznicka Viktor CZE 5 2558 18 21 4

5 GM Goganov Aleksey RUS 4.5 2657 20 21 3

6 GM Riazantsev Alexander RUS 4.5 2613 21 24 4

7 GM Eljanov Pavel UKR 4.5 2612 18 21 3

8 GM Jakovenko Dmitry RUS 4.5 2608 19 21 3

9 GM Najer Evgeniy RUS 4.5 2605 21 24 4

10 GM Solak Dragan TUR 4.5 2591 18 20 3

11 GM Kotanjian Tigran ARM 4.5 2582 18 20 4

12 GM Jobava Baadur GEO 4.5 2580 18 21 4

13 GM Sargissian Gabriel ARM 4.5 2575 20 23 3

14 GM Smirin Ilia ISR 4.5 2567 20 23 4

15 GM Tregubov Pavel V. RUS 4.5 2556 17 19 3

16 GM Akopian Vladimir ARM 4.5 2555 18 21 3

17 GM Sjugirov Sanan RUS 4.5 2530 18 21 3

18 GM Bartel Mateusz POL 4.5 2522 16 18 3

19 GM Onischuk Vladimir UKR 4 2687 20 22 2

20 GM Pashikian Arman ARM 4 2652 21 23 2

Video from the Championship you could find here: http://www.eicc2014.am/content/video

For all information, visit the official website of the Championship http://www.eicc2014.am/

DOUBLE CROWN FOR MAXIM VACHIER-LAGRAVE After entering the top 10 in the World, French Grandmaster Maxim Vachier- Lagrave won both French Blitz & Rapid National Chess Championships, which were held in Paris/France, 1-2 March, 2014.

Blitz Championship was played on Saturday, 1st March. The winner Vachier- Lagrave gained amazing 8.5 points out of 9, with 8 wins and 1 draw, in the last round. Silver went to Russian GM Vladimir Dobrov, and bronze went to GM Pavel Tregubov, also from Russia, who tied for the second place, but thanks to the better tie-break, Dobrov won silver medal.

Final ranking of the Blitz Championship can be found here: http://idf- echecs.com/pages/images/Tournois/2013-2014/RB/Blitz/BlitzAs2014Ga.htm

In the Rapid Championship Lagrave made the same result as in the Blitz tournament: 8.5 points out of 9, and without any difficulties he won double crown! Second place went to IM Jean-Noel Riff from France with 7 points, and the third place went to GM Vladimir Dobrov from Russia, also with 7 points, but worse tie- break.

Final ranking of the Rapid Championship can be found here: http://idf- echecs.com/pages/images/Tournois/2013-2014/RB/rapide/RapideAs2014Ga.html

For more information, you can visit the link below http://idf-echecs.com/pages/

LELA JAVAKHISHVILI WINS GEORGIAN CHAMPIONSHIP IM Lela Javakhishvili (ELO 2430) became the new Georgian Champion for 2014! She won the title after 11 exciting rounds, with amazing 9.5 points! Javakhishvili convincingly triumphed with 1.5 points ahead of IM Nino Khurtsidze (ELO 2456) and GM Bela Khotenashvili (ELO 2527), who scored 8 points. Thanks to the better tie-break, Khurtsidze took the silver medal, and Khotenashvili the bronze. Final Ranking – first 5 positions

Rk. Title Name FED Rtg Pts. TB1 TB2 TB3

1 IM Javakhishvili Lela GEO 2430 9.5 47.75 8 0.0

2 IM Khurtsidze Nino GEO 2456 8.0 38.50 5 0.0

3 GM Khotenashvili Bela GEO 2527 8.0 35.50 7 0.0

4 IM Gvetadze Sofio GEO 2334 7.0 31.00 5 0.0

5 WGM Arabidze Meri GEO 2374 6.5 26.50 6 0.0 The 2014 tournament took place in Tbilisi/Georgia from February 17 to March 2, in the famous Tbilisi Chess Palace.

The Championship was played as a Round Robin tournament, with 12 participants in 11 rounds. The time control was 90 minutes for 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game + 30 seconds increment per move, starting from move one. The Chief Arbiter of the tournament was International Arbiter Margalita Tandashvili. For more information, you can visit the official website of the Georgian Chess Federation http://www.gcf.org.ge/ Photo courtesy by Goga Chanadiri.

KRUMOVA AND STOYANOV NEW BULGARIAN JUNIOR CHAMPIONS U20 Ani Krumova and Ivaylo Stoyanov won Bulgarian Junior Chess Championships 2014, which were held in Sofia/Bulgaria 20-26 February 2014.

The Championships were organized by Bulgarian Chess Federation and NSA Vasil Levski. The Chief Arbiter of both tournaments was IA Radilsav Atanasov. In the Open section Ivaylo Stoyanov (ELO 2022) won the title with 6 points out of 7. Silver medal went to Hristo Mitov Hristov (1918) with 5 points, and bronze went to Radi Danov (ELO 2084) with 4.5 points. The first seed Lyubomir Danov (ELO 2226) was the only one to defeat the winner Stoyanov in the 2nd round, but eventually barely missed a medal by finishing in the 4th place. Boys played according to the Swiss System in 7 rounds, with the time control 90 minutes for the whole game + 30 seconds increment per move. Final ranking can be found here: http://chess-results.com/tnr124670.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=7&wi=821&turdet=YES In Girls section the winner became Ani Krumova (ELO 1974) with 5 points out of 7. Tsveta Galunova (ELO 2033) finished second with 4.5 points, and Simoneta Ivanova (ELO 2035) won the bronze medal also with 4.5 points, but with worse tie-break than Galunova. Girls played a Round Robin tournament with 7 participants in 7 rounds, with the time control 90 minutes for the whole game + 30 seconds increment per move. For more information, visit the website of the Bulgarian Chess Federation: http://www.chessbg.com/

TOP 50 PLAYERS – MARCH 2014

Name Title Country Rating Games B-Year Rank

1 Carlsen, Magnus g NOR 2881 5 1990

2 Aronian, Levon g ARM 2830 5 1982

3 Kramnik, Vladimir g RUS 2787 0 1975

4 Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2785 0 1975

5 Caruana, Fabiano g ITA 2783 5 1992

6 Grischuk, Alexander g RUS 2777 0 1983

7 Nakamura, Hikaru g USA 2772 5 1987

8 Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2770 7 1969

9 Karjakin, Sergey g RUS 2766 0 1990

10 Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime g FRA 2758 12 1990

11 Svidler, Peter g RUS 2758 0 1976

12 Dominguez Perez, Leinier g CUB 2757 0 1983

13 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar g AZE 2757 0 1985

14 Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2753 10 1969

15 Gelfand, Boris g ISR 2753 5 1968

16 Adams, Michael g ENG 2751 10 1971

17 Vitiugov, Nikita g RUS 2747 9 1987

18 Giri, Anish g NED 2745 4 1994

19 Bacrot, Etienne g FRA 2739 4 1983

20 So, Wesley g PHI 2738 0 1993

21 Wang, Hao g CHN 2734 0 1989

22 Nepomniachtchi, Ian g RUS 2732 0 1990

23 Leko, Peter g HUN 2730 0 1979

24 Eljanov, Pavel g UKR 2723 11 1983

25 Jakovenko, Dmitry g RUS 2723 0 1983

26 Morozevich, Alexander g RUS 2722 0 1977

27 Ponomariov, Ruslan g UKR 2721 0 1983

28 Korobov, Anton g UKR 2719 9 1985

29 Ding, Liren g CHN 2717 0 1992

30 Malakhov, Vladimir g RUS 2717 0 1980

31 Wang, Yue g CHN 2717 0 1987

32 Jobava, Baadur g GEO 2716 9 1983

33 Harikrishna, P. g IND 2714 12 1986

34 Khismatullin, Denis g RUS 2714 9 1984

35 Shirov, Alexei g LAT 2713 4 1972

36 Wojtaszek, Radoslaw g POL 2713 2 1987

37 Radjabov, Teimour g AZE 2713 0 1987

38 Moiseenko, Alexander g UKR 2712 9 1980

39 Tomashevsky, Evgeny g RUS 2711 10 1987

40 Kamsky, Gata g USA 2709 10 1974

41 Fressinet, Laurent g FRA 2709 2 1981

42 Andreikin, Dmitry g RUS 2709 0 1990

43 Le, Quang Liem g VIE 2709 0 1991

44 Almasi, Zoltan g HUN 2707 0 1976

45 Naiditsch, Arkadij g GER 2706 6 1985

46 Kryvoruchko, Yuriy g UKR 2706 2 1986

47 Rublevsky, Sergei g RUS 2706 0 1974

48 Areshchenko, Alexander g UKR 2705 4 1986

49 Li, Chao b g CHN 2700 19 1989

50 Navara, David g CZE 2700 10 1985

Official website: www.fide.com