NEWSLETTER 97 (November 05, 2012)

THE ECU PRESIDENT SILVIO DANAILOV OFFICIALLY OPENED THE KING’S TOURNAMENT IN BUCHAREST UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF THE ROMANIAN PRIME MINISTER VICTOR PONTA The ECU President Silvio Danailov officially opened the King’s Tournament, which is held from 07th to 14th of November, 2012 in Bucharest under the patronage of the Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta.

During his visit, Mr. Danailov met with the Romanian Ministers of education and sport – Ekaterina Andronesku and Carmen Tocala.

Besides President Danailov, FIDE Executive Director Mr.Nigel Freeman, ISCU President Mr.Alexander Kostiev, ECU Vice President Mr.Ion Serban Dobronauteanu, together with Mrs.Elisabeta Polihroniade (organizer of the tournament) attended the meeting.

The discussion was mainly focused on the "Chess in Schools" program. The guests were assured that the program will soon become active in Romania.

King’s Tournament is part of the Grand Slam chain, founded by Silvio Danailov in Sofia in 2006. The tournament belongs to the super category 20, according to the rating system of FIDE.

Four grandmasters are playing between each other in two rounds: Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), Fabiano Caruana (Italy), Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine) and Liviu Dieter Nisipeanu (Roumania). This is the sixth edition of the King’s Tournament. Winners in the previous editions were: Alexander Khalifman (2007), Nigel Short (2008), Vassily Ivanchuk (2009) and Magnus Carlsen (2010 and 2011).

For more information about the King’s Tournament you can visit its official website: www.turneulregilor.com Official website: www.ecuonline.net

AUSTRIAN CHAMPIONS (BLITZ, RAPID) ARE RAGGER AND MOSER The Austrian Championships in Blitz and Rapid Chess were held on 27th and 28th October in Bad Vöslau.

Fifty five men and eleven women participated in the Blitz tournament. After 11 rounds Markus Ragger and Eva Moser won the titles.

Harald Casagrande and Andreas Diermair took the silver and bronze medal. The women played in the same tournament but with separate ranking. Top player Eva Moser, ranked 4th in the open tournament, won the gold medal for women followed by Veronika Exler and youngster Anna-Lena Schnegg.

The next day Ragger and Moser were once again successful, this time in the Rapid tournament. Mario Schachinger and Robert Kreisl became 2nd and 3rd. In the women's ranking list Barbara Schink, who had a baby a few months ago, and Veronika Exler won silver and bronze. Attention should be paid to 11-year-old Bardhyl Ukisni who won the 17th place with a performance of 2308.

Final Ranking after 9 rounds – first 10 positions – Rapid Rk. Title Name Rtg. Pts. TB1 TB2 TB3 1 GM Ragger Markus 2629 8 52 40 46 2 FM Schachinger Mario 2397 7.5 49 38 39.5 3 IM Kreisl Robert 2372 7 52 40 37.5 4 IM Diermair Andreas 2389 7 45.5 36 34.5 5 IM Alvir Aco 2330 6.5 53 41 35.8 6 FM Dietmayer-Kraeutler Marco 2203 6.5 51 41.5 35.5 7 IM Weiss Christian 2402 6.5 49 38 33.8 8 GM Shengelia David 2509 6.5 47 36 32.3 9 IM Moser Eva 2402 6.5 44.5 34 30.8 10 CM Neff Gregor Ing. 2198 6.5 44 35 30.3 ******* Final Ranking after 11 rounds – first 10 positions – Blitz Rk. Title Name Rtg. Pts. TB1 TB2 TB3 1 GM Ragger Markus 2629 10 80 66 71 2 IM Casagrande Harald 2280 9.5 78 63 64.3 3 IM Diermair Andreas 2397 9 78.5 63.5 61.5 4 IM Moser Eva 2402 7.5 82 66 51 5 FM Dietmayer-Kraeutler Marco 2223 7.5 75.5 61.5 44.3 6 IM Fröwis Georg 2395 7.5 75 60 45.3 7 Hofmann Thomas 2134 7.5 69 56 46 8 FM Schachinger Mario 2397 7 78 63 44.8 9 IM Knoll Hermann 2290 7 73.5 59 42 10 FM Aschenbrenner Robert 2246 7 71.5 57.5 40

Organizer Robert Baumfrisch offered perfect conditions in Bad Vöslau. Kristof Kaweh was the Arbiter of both tournaments that will be rated in FIDE rapid and blitz lists. Austrian President Kurt Jungwirth opened the event, while Vice-President Robert Zsifkovits participated in the closing ceremony.

Official website: www.chess.at

BOLUNGARVIK CHESS CLUB LEADS IN THE ICELANDIC TEAM CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP 2012-2013 Bolungarvik Chess Club leads in the Icelandic Team Chess Championship 2012-2013 with 22.5 game points after 4 rounds. On the second position is the Viking Club with 22 points, third is Reykjavik Chess Club with 21.5 points.

The Icelandic Team Chess Championship started on 5th of October, 2012 and will end on 2nd of March, 2013 in Reykjavik, Iceland. Chief-Arbiter of the Championship, organized by the Icelandic Chess Federation, is Gunnar Bjornsson.

The Icelandic Team Chess Championship is played over a period of two weekends. In the first half, which took part October 5-7, the first four of seven rounds were played. There are eight players in every team of which four can be foreign players. Unlike other chess leagues, the winner is determined by points, but not match points.

The second half of the Icelandic Team Chess Championship will be held on the weekend of 1st and 2nd of March, right after the Reykjavik Open. Like the Reykjavik Open, the team event will be played in fabulous Harpa concert hall, by the harbour in downtown Reykjavik.

Ranking after 4 rounds

Rk. Team TB1 TB2 TB3 1 Taflfélag Bolungarvíkur A 22.5 7 0 2 Víkingaklúbburinn A 22 5 0 3 Taflfélag Reykjavíkur A 21.5 8 0 4 Taflfélag Vestmannaeyja A 20.5 4 0 5 Goðinn-Mátar A 17 6 0 6 Hellir A 13 2 0 7 Skákfélag Akureyrar A 7 0 0 8 Taflfélag Bolungarvíkur B 4.5 0 0

Here is the report of the President of the Icelandic Chess Federation and Chief- Arbiter of the Championship, Mr. Gunnar Bjornsson:

“ Icelandic Team Chess Championship – A Close Battle Between Iceland´s “Big Four”

The race to capture the Icelandic Team Chess Championship title has never been closer. Four clubs are fighting hard for victories and after four of the seven rounds, only two points separate these four teams. In the top division you can find 24 GMs, 10 of which are above 2600 ELO ratings. Almost all the strongest Icelandic chess players did participate in the league and among them also “inactive” grandmasters like Johann Hjartarson, Jon L. Arnason, Margeir Petursson, who played his first long games since 2004 and Fridrik Olafsson, former President of FIDE, who is becoming rather active again at 77!

The Icelandic champions in each of the last four years, Bolungarvik Chess Club (BCC), is leading the pack with 22½points out of 32.

BCC featured four foreign GMs on the top boards, with GM Hjartarson and GM Arnason on board 5 and 6.

The Viking Club currently lies second with 22 points. The Vikings also featured four GMs with Pavel Eljanov, the highest rated player of the tournament this year, leading the team. GM Hannes Stefansson, eleven times Icelandic Chess Champion and five times winner of the Reykjavik Open on board five and the latest Icelandic GM Stefan Kristjansson on board six. Kristjansson was the only player, who won all his four games this weekend, and has an incredible 21½ points out of the 23 last games he has played in the Icelandic league. A truly high scoring machine!

The Reykjavik Chess Club (RCC) is in third place with 21½ points. The RCC team surprised many people. The team featured four foreign players and “old heroes” Margeir Petursson and Fridrik Olafsson on boards 7 and 8. © Europechess.net Page 5

Petursson, who resides in that great chess city of Lviv in Ukraine, has been playing blitz there for some time and is not as rusty as he would like his opponents to believe. He, however, lost one game against low rated player, Magnus Teitsson, when his cell phone rang before they have played 20 moves. Fridrik Olafsson played a great game against Magnus Ulfarsson, of the Viking Club, in the first round.

The fourth club, which has the chance to win, is Vestman Islands Chess Club (VICC). They also used four foreign GM´s and then two Icelandic GMs, the national chess “czar” Helgi Olafsson and also Henrik Danelsen. VICC has 20½ points.”

Official website: www.skaksamband.is

WGM LENKA PTACNIKOVA IS THE NEW ICELANDIC WOMEN CHESS CHAMPION

WGM Lenka Ptacnikova won the Icelandic Women Chess Championship 2012 with final result of 6 points from possible 7. Second finished Tinna Kristin Finnboga- dottir with 5.5 points, third is Hallgerdur Thorsteinsdottir with 5 points.

The Icelandic Women Chess Championship was held on October 19-31, 2012 in

Reykjavik, Iceland.

Chief-Arbiter of the tournament, organized by the Icelandic Chess Federation, was David Olafsson.

Twelve chess players competed for the title.

Final Ranking after 7 rounds – first 5 positions

Rk. Name Rtg Pts. TB1 TB2 TB3 1 WGM Ptacnikova Lenka 2225 6 29 21 23.8 2 Finnbogadottir Tinna Kristin 1858 5.5 27 21 19.5 3 Thorsteinsdottir Hallgerdur 1912 5 29 21 18.8 4 Johannsdottir Johanna Bjorg 1872 4 30 23 13.5 5 Kristinardottir Elsa Maria 1754 4 27 20 11.5 Official website: www.skaksamband.is

GUIDO NEUBERGER WON THE NATIONAL CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP OF LICHTENSTEIN Guido Neuberger from Germany won the National Chess Championship of Lichtenstein’2012 with final result of 4 points from possible 5. Second finished Fabian Ferster (Lichtenstein) with 3.5 points, third is Hans-Uwe Kock (Germany) with the same result. The National Chess Championship of Lichtenstein was held on October 26-28, 2012. Chief-Arbiter of the tournament was IA Albert Baumberger. Final Ranking after 5 rounds Rk. Name FED Rtg Pts. TB1 TB2 TB3 1 Neuberger Guido GER 2128 4 15 9 12 2 Ferster Fabian LIE 2099 3.5 15 8.5 9 3 Kock Hans-Uwe GER 1964 3.5 12 6.5 7.8 4 Mannhart Marcel LIE 2065 3 14 8.5 7 5 Huber Silvan SUI 1948 3 14 8.5 6.3 6 Döserich Reinhard SUI 1641 2.5 12 7.5 5.3 7 Kobler Mario LIE 2085 2.5 12 7 4.5 8 Frick Renato LIE 2075 2.5 10 5.5 4 9 Lusti Reto SUI 1899 2 13 7.5 5 10 Heinzelmann Herbert GER 1882 2 11 7 3 11 Studer Kurt LIE 1652 1.5 10 6 1.8 Official website: www.schach.li

HUNGARIAN YOUTH CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP The Hungarian Youth Chess Championship was held on October 28-31, 2012 in Budapest, Hungary.

Thirty six youth teams took part in the tournament. Chief- Arbiter was IA Lajos Gyorkos.

Final Ranking after 8 rounds – first 5 positions

Rk. Team Games TB1 TB2 TB3 + = - 1 Sárkány DSE 1 8 7 1 0 37 15 220 2 Haladás 1 8 5 1 2 31 11 223 3 Tóth László SE-Kecskemét 8 6 0 2 30 12 204 4 Aquaprofit NTSK-Nagykanizsa 8 5 1 2 29 11 220 5 Hungaropharma-Decs 8 6 1 1 29 13 227 In the children’s section took part 17 teams. Final Ranking after 8 rounds – first 5 positions

Rk. Team Games TB1 TB2 TB3 + = - 1 Hungaropharma-Decs 8 6 1 1 35 13 219 2 Kőbánya SC 1 8 4 3 1 35 11 221 3 Tapolca VSE 8 7 0 1 33 14 224 4 Barcza 1 8 6 1 1 33 13 226 5 MVSI-Miskolci Kisbocsok 8 3 2 3 29 8 226 Official website: http://chess.hu

LITHUANIAN YOUTH TEAM CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP FOR BOYS AND GIRLS Lithuanian Youth Team Chess Championship for Boys and Girls was held on November 03-04, 2012 in Šiauliai, Lithuania.

Chief-Arbiter of the tournament, organized by the Lithuanian

Chess Federation, was IA Plungė Gintautas Jurgis.

Ranking Crosstable – Boys Rk. Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 TB1 TB2 1 Plungė * 3 2½ 4 5 3½ 4½ 11 23 2 Šiauliai 1 2 * 3½ 3 3½ 5 4½ 10 22 3 Panevėžys 2½ 1½ * 4½ 4 4½ 4 9 21 4 Gargždai 1 2 ½ * 3 4 4½ 6 15 5 Radviliškis 0 1½ 1 2 * 3 2 2 9.5 6 Biržai 1½ 0 ½ 1 2 * 3 2 8 7 Šiauliai 2 ½ ½ 1 ½ 3 2 * 2 7.5

Ranking Crosstable – Girls Rk. Team 1 3 4 5 TB1 TB2 1 Panevėžys * 2 2½ 2½ 8 10 2 Biržai 0 * 3 3 3 6 9 3 Šiauliai 1 1 * 2½ 3 4 6.5 4 Plungė ½ ½ * 3 2 4 5 Šiauliai 2 ½ 0 0 * 0 0.5

Official website: www.chessfed.lt

ITALIAN TEAM CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP – U 16 The Italian Team Chess Championship – U16 was held on November 01-04, 2012 in Arvier, Aosta Valley.

Thanks to a better tie-break, the team of the club “Accademia Scacchi” from Milano (Francesco Rambaldi, Beniamino Brociner, Jacopo Motola e Gianfranco D'Avino), won the title.

Report and photo by Adolivio Capece, Italian Chess Federation Second, with the same team and individual points, finished the team of the club “Arrocco” from Roma (Alexander Teutsch, Luca Stella, Virginia Colantuono e Luca Cafaro). The third place is for the team “Lilybetana” of the club coming from the very far town of Marsala – Sicily (Pietro and Gianluca Savalla, Dario and Francesco Piazza, Giampaolo Calamia).

Twenty three teams consisted of 4 players competed for the title.

Final Ranking after 6 rounds – first 5 positions

Rk. Team Name Rtg Pts. SumR

1 Accademia Azzurra 2033 11.0 18.00

2 Arrocco Chess Club 2008 11.0 18.00

3 Scacchi Lilybetana 1797 9.0 15.00

4 SS Torinese Junior 1751 8.0 15.50

5 Accademia Verde 1703 8.0 14.00

Official website: www.scacchivda.com

TOP 50 PLAYERS – FIDE RATINGS’ NOVEMBER 2012

Rank Name Title Country Rating Games B-Year

1 Carlsen, Magnus g NOR 2848 10 1990

2 Aronian, Levon g ARM 2815 10 1982

3 Kramnik, Vladimir g RUS 2795 0 1975

4 Radjabov, Teimour g AZE 2793 6 1987

5 Caruana, Fabiano g ITA 2786 15 1992

6 Anand, Viswanathan g IND 2775 10 1969

7 Karjakin, Sergey g RUS 2775 10 1990

8 Topalov, Veselin g BUL 2769 17 1975

9 Grischuk, Alexander g RUS 2764 17 1983

10 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar g AZE 2764 16 1985

11 Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2763 18 1969

12 Kamsky, Gata g USA 2762 7 1974

13 Nakamura, Hikaru g USA 2755 18 1987

14 Gelfand, Boris g ISR 2751 16 1968

15 Morozevich, Alexander g RUS 2748 6 1977

16 Svidler, Peter g RUS 2747 6 1976

17 Jakovenko, Dmitry g RUS 2741 15 1983

18 Ponomariov, Ruslan g UKR 2741 15 1983

19 Wang, Hao g CHN 2737 14 1989

20 Gashimov, Vugar g AZE 2737 0 1986

21 Wojtaszek, Radoslaw g POL 2734 15 1987

22 Leko, Peter g HUN 2732 17 1979

23 Dominguez Perez, Leinier g CUB 2726 17 1983

24 Tomashevsky, Evgeny g RUS 2725 6 1987

25 Andreikin, Dmitry g RUS 2723 6 1990

26 Volokitin, Andrei g UKR 2722 14 1986

27 Shirov, Alexei g LAT 2716 6 1972

28 Giri, Anish g NED 2715 18 1994

29 McShane, Luke J g ENG 2713 0 1984

30 Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime g FRA 2711 10 1990

31 Areshchenko, Alexander g UKR 2711 6 1986

32 Adams, Michael g ENG 2710 17 1971

33 Navara, David g CZE 2710 16 1985

34 Cheparinov, Ivan g BUL 2710 0 1986

35 Jobava, Baadur g GEO 2710 0 1983

36 Malakhov, Vladimir g RUS 2709 10 1980

37 Naiditsch, Arkadij g GER 2708 16 1985

38 Nepomniachtchi, Ian g RUS 2707 7 1990

39 Almasi, Zoltan g HUN 2707 0 1976

40 Bruzon Batista, Lazaro g CUB 2706 20 1982

41 Le, Quang Liem g VIE 2705 10 1991

42 Riazantsev, Alexander g RUS 2705 6 1985

43 Polgar, Judit g HUN 2705 0 1976

44 Fressinet, Laurent g FRA 2703 5 1981

45 Akopian, Vladimir g ARM 2703 0 1971

46 Korobov, Anton g UKR 2702 16 1985

47 Ding, Liren g CHN 2702 14 1992

48 Moiseenko, Alexander g UKR 2702 7 1980

49 Bacrot, Etienne g FRA 2702 6 1983

50 Vitiugov, Nikita g RUS 2700 6 1987

Official website: www.fide.com

TRANSATLANTIC CUP FINISHED IN BELGRADE – ONE-OF –A- KIND ONLINE CHESS MATCH One-of-a-kind university online chess match between the students of the University of Belgrade and University of Texas at Dallas has been played for the 7th time, this time named Transatlantic Cup Svetozar Gligoric. Namely, at the proposal of the University of Texas at Dallas, this unique competition will have the name of the famous Grandmaster Svetozar Gligoric starting from this year.

The victory was clinched by the University of Belgrade with the score 9.5 : 6.5, by which they tied the total score of the matches (3:3), including one match which finished in a draw. The big transitional cup will stay in Belgrade for another year.

The program in Belgrade started at 6 pm (midday, Dallas local time) with a short word in the memory of Grandmaster Svetozar Gligoric and IM and chess arbiter Sinisa Joksic who have recently passed away. Grandmaster Svetozar Gligoric was a regular guest at previous matches between the students of Belgrade and Dallas, while Sinisa Joksic was the arbiter of the first six matches. Thanks to the program archive of Belgrade television, a short documentary about Svetozar Gligoricwas played. The audience in Amphitheatre A were reminded of the most important events in the life and career of the best Serbian Grandmaster.

Minister of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia, Phd Zarko Obradovic, Dean of the University of Belgrade, Phd Vladimir Bumbasirevic, and Secretary General of the European Chess Union and match arbiter Sava Stoisavljevic greeted the participants from Dallas and spoke about the match. On the other side of the Atlantic the same was done by Vice-Dean Dr. Hobson Wildenthal, representative of the state of Texas Angie Chen and Governor of Richardson Bob Townsend. Official website: www.serbiachess.net

PHILATELIC EXHIBITION ON THE OCCASION OF 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF CROATIAN CHESS FEDERATION On the occasion of 100th anniversary of the existence and work of Croatian Chess Federation, a philatelic exhibition was inaugurated in the premises of Croatian Post in Zagreb.

Croatian Post issued a stamp marking this great jubilee. President of Croatian Chess Federation Mr. Stjepan Sturlan welcomed all those present at the exhibition opening. The same was done by Zvonimir Hernitz, a member of philatelic society and chess problemist, as well as Zeljka Corak, Chairperson of the Commission for Stamp Issuance.

The exhibition opening was also attended by ECU Executive Director, Mr. Vladimir Sakotic.

Official website: www.crochess.com

FORMER PRESIDENT OF GEORGIAN CHESS FEDERATION MR.CHIGOGIDZE PASSES AWAY We deeply regret to inform you that the former President of the Georgian Chess Federation Mr. Kakhi Chigogidze has passed away.

Mr. Chigogidze was an outstanding chess master and the former President of the Georgian Chess Federation.

He was the Vice-President from 1998-2003, a Board member of the Georgian Chess Federation for many years and, in addition, captain of boys chess team for 2000 World Chess Olympiad and sponsor of a great number of important chess events.

His name is associated with the release of the first Chess Newspaper “Lazier” /”Queen”/ in Georgian language. Mr. Kakhi Chigogidze also financed the publication of the book by his tutor Shota Intskirveli– a celebrated chess coach “The Greatness of Simplicity”.

He will be remembered as the man of distinguished character.

Official website: www.gcf.org.ge