Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand banked on his vast reservoir of experience in rapid chess to win the Mikhail Tal Memorial Blitz tournament in Moscow with a comprehensive two-point margin over his nearest rival Levon Aronian of Armenia. Anand scored a whopping 23 points out of a possible 34 and won 11 out of 17 mini-matches to win the strongest Blitz tournament in the history of the game.
The Indian ace, known to have mastered the art of rapid chess, had recently suffered a setback in the finals of the Corsica Masters chess tournament where he lost the final against Rustam Kasimdzhanov of Uzbekistan. However, this was an excellent turnaround by Anand.

by Nandkumar Kamat
THE victory of Ivana Furtado in World under eight chess championship should interest child psychologists, neuroscientists and mathematical philosophers. She might also be having outstanding mathematical, programming and computing capabilities. Thanks to her involved and caring parents and the timely and expert coaching by the trainers she got moulded into the world’s first under eight junior chess champion. But she has not so far got the press coverage, which a lawn tennis star Sania Mirza once got. There is always discrimination between games involving muscles and mind.

Who is the best chess player of all time? Entire books have been devoted to the subject, but all have one major flaw: they are mainly subjective. Necessarily so, since there is no direct way of comparing Morphy to Fischer, Lasker to Kasparov. Or is there? Two scientists from Slovenia try it with computers and statistics. The results might surprise you.
Who was The Strongest Chess Player of All Time?

Russian GM Vladimir Kramnik defeated GM Veselin Topalov 2.5-1.5 in the four-game tiebreak after a tough twelve-game match, which ended 6-6. Kramnik demonstrated his excellent nervous system by grinding down his opponent in two very well-played endings in game two and four. With this victory in the tie-break there will be no discussion at all regarding the famous fifth game, which everyone remembers was won by Topalov after Kramnik forfeited in protest to the decision of the Appeals Committee to close his bathroom, following Topalov’s protest.

A World Chess Championship game between Russia's Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria was called off on Saturday pending talks to overcome the crisis over cheating allegations against the Russian.
Kramnik, who was leading 3-1, was deemed to have forfeited the fifth game after not showing up for the match on Friday. Protesting against the decision, the Russian argued that the match should resume from game five, while Topalov insisted he was now one point behind and it was game six that should to be played.
Tags: Elista, Chess

World Chess championships have quite often been marred by controversies, tantrums and wild accusations. This time the reunification match, which finally got underway last week after 13 years, went through a serious crisis after FIDE champion Veselin Topalov indirectly accused Classical champion Vladimir Kramnik of cheating and objected to his numerous visits to the bathroom. After negotiations the championship continued with Kramnik forfeiting one game.
The game which follows is the second one in the 12-game series and ironically changes fortunes after blunders by both players.

Have you ever wanted to be invited to play in the World Blitz Championship? Now is your chance! The Internet Chess Club is proud to be a sponsor of the upcoming FIDE World Blitz Championship alongside the Israel Chess Federation and FIDE. ICC will be hosting two qualifying tournaments, then playoffs, in which the best players will win two of only sixteen seats at this year's World Blitz Championship in Rishon Lezion, Israel. The winners will get to play against Anand, Leko, Svidler, Gelfand, Morozevich, Judit Polgar and several other of the top players in the world! ICC will also be crowning its own ICC World Blitz Champions, including class champions, where winners will be awarded valuable prizes and trophies! Besides an open section where seats in Israel's FIDE event are won, we will have class sections for U2200, U2000, U1800, and U1600. It's the largest prize tournament ever held on ICC. It's time to get your game on! Details, prizes, and rules will be announced soon.

Armenia took first place at this year's 37th Olympiad which took place in Turin, Italy. Finishing with 36.0 points after the final round, they finished two points ahead of the second place finishers China. Armenia had an outstanding team to work with giving them many resources at their fingertips.
GM Levon Aronian
Aronian played 11 games, winning four, drawing six, and losing one game for an individual score of 7.0 points. His only loss came at the hands of GM Vladimir Kramnik in round five. He defeated GM Peter Heine Nielsen (DEN), GM Erlend Johannessen Leif (NOR), GM Ivan Sokolov (NED), and GM David Navara (CZE).

World number two Viswanathan Anand crashed to a shocking defeat as Indian men suffered another humiliation going down to a low ranked Canada by a 1.5-2.5 margin in the 12th and penultimate round at the Chess Olympiad.
Anand lost early against Pascal Charbonneau on the top board and that set the tone for another disaster as Surya Shekhar Ganguly was also stunned by unheralded International Master Thomas Roussel-Roozmon later in the day.
Former World Junior champion P Harikrishna saved some blushes for the Indians with a victory on the third board against Krnan Tomas while Krishnan Sasikiran could only manage a draw against GM Mark Bluvshtein on the second.

What more could you ask for? Hundreds of the world's best players descending onto one town, battling it out for their country. That's exactly what is happening right now in northern Italy in the town of Turin. 150 countries from around the world have sent six of their top men's players and four of their top women's players to put on their best performances in representing their homeland. The Olympiad has been organized by FIDE since 1927 and takes place every two years.

37th Chess Olympiad Round 11 Report
With Super Grandmaster Vishwanathan Anand having a really bad tournament team India the number 2 seeds in the tournament continued to perform well below par as they lost to 6th seed Israel in the 11th round of the 37th chess olympiad being held in Turin.
Anand was held to a draw by GM Boris Gelfand in a Sicilian in just 23 moves. This was his 7th succesive draw in what has been a very poor tournament for him. Most probably he is suffering from over exertion coming as he is from the M-tel Masters where he finished 3rd.

Riding on hope and hype, the Indian contingent reached here looking for a medal from the open section. After Russia, India presented the strongest team and rightly earned the second seeding in the field of 148 countries playing in the Chess Olympiad. After all, since the 2004 edition in Calvia, the exploits of K. Sasikiran and P. Hari Krishna had helped them join Viswanathan Anand in the top-25 players of the world. Barring Anand and Sasikiran, the other players had worked with coach Elizbar Ubilava in a short camp and looked raring to go. For the first time, every player received appearance money, thanks to sponsor Canara Bank which made sure that the team was kitted well.

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the incumbent, President of FIDE was reelected. Delegates from more than 150 national chess federations cast their ballots on Friday in Turin, Italy, to elect the president of the International Chess Federation. The result was a clear victory for the incumbent president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, who collected 96 votes, compared to 57 for his challenger Bessel Kok.

Adult and Scholastic Sections Available ----- July 14 through July 16
The $8,200 Houston Open chess tournament will be held July 14-16 at the Sofitel Houston Hotel, 425 N. Sam Houston Parkway East, in Houston. Adults will play 5 rounds, G/120, over a 3-day or 2-day schedule and will be divided into 5 rating sections (OPEN, U2000, U1800, U1600/unr., U1300).
A side event will be a Scholastic chess tournament on Saturday afternoon, July 15, starting at 1:00 p.m. Scholastic players (individual) will play 4 rounds, G/30 and will be divided into 3 rating sections (Open, U1000, U700).Trophies and medals will be awarded to the winners of the scholastic sections, and each scholastic player will be given a free chess gift. An additional side event will be the 5-minute Cajun Knock-Out blitz tournament on Saturday night after Round 3.

World number two Viswanathan Anand settled for a draw for the sixth consecutive time as Indian men continued to move at a slow pace and were held 2-2 by Cuba in the 10th round of the 37th Chess Olympiad.
Anand, who was playing his seventh game out of ten here so far, did not get any chances against Bruzon Lazaro of Cuba and ended on equal footing in the keenly contested game.
The Indian ace had won his first encounter here against a lowly placed Mongolian and since then he has not been able to find his touch -- something his second seed team needs badly as they are theoretically still in contention for a medal even though the optimism is fading away fast.

Indian eves have made a strong comeback by scoring a huge 3-0 win against Mongolia in the 10th round of the Women's Chess Olympiad.It turned out to be good day for the ninth seed Indian women's team as it surged to joint fifth spot in the standings after their fine victory.
Grandmaster Koneru Humpy had the toughest challenge to meet amongst the Indian girls and she did not disappoint on the top board.Women Grandmasters D Harika and Swati Ghate also came up with inspired performances on the remaining two boards to keep alive India's medal hopes.

With Grandmaster Koneru Humpy back to her winnings ways, Indian eves outplayed Kazakhstan 2-1 to improve their ranking while their male counterparts, without Viswanathan Anand, played out a 2-2 draw against Uzbekistan in the ninth round of the 37th Chess Olympiad here.
Humpy came back strongly after a loss in the previous round to defeat Kazakh top player Daa Aketayeva while D Harika produced a much needed victory over Sofya Zigangirova. However, Swati Ghate failed to make it a clean sweep going down against untitled Gulmira Dauletova.

Indians had a mixed outing in the eighth round of the 37th Chess Olympiad.
The men scored a 2.5-1.5 victory over Bulgaria, while the women suffered defeat from Armenia.
Viswanathan Anand played out his fifth draw on the trot, settling for peace with former world junior champion Kiril Georgiev of Bulgaria. Playing white, Georgiev adopted the same defensive approach against Anand that had helped a few other lesser-rated players here hold the Indian star. The exchange of queens expedited the outcome of this 21-move miniature.

P Harikrishna’s tactical blunder cost his side dearly and the Indian men’s team went down 1.52.5 to Ukraine while the eves suffered a 0.5-2.5 defeat against America in the seventh round of the 37th Chess Olympiad on Sunday.
India’s best bet Viswanathan Anand, playing with white on board one against Ukraine’s toughest player Vassily Ivanchuk, tried everything in the game that followed the Ruy Lopez pattern. Chucky, as Ivanchuk is known in the chess world, played a tactical game and did not allow his Indian opponent any leeway. A pawn down in the end part, Anand eventually agreed for a draw.

National Champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly and P Harikrishna scored brilliant victories to help India post a resounding 3-1 victory over Germany in the sixth round of the Chess Olympiad here on Sunday.
After a rather subdued start, the Indian men are back into reckoning in the biggest chess event which saw top seed Russians suffering a shocking 1.5-2.5 defeat at the hands of Holland in the sixth round. Russian National Champion Sergey Rublevsky failed to hold his ground against Dutchman Friso Nijboer. Third seed Armenia gained lost ground as they scored a much needed 2.51.5 victory over Uzbekistan by notching a win on the second board while drawing the rest of the games.

Indian men’s team, led by Viswanathan Anand, split points with China but Koneru Humpy inspired the women to a resounding 2.5-0.5 win over Turkey in the fifth round of the Chess Olympiad in Turin on Friday.
The second seeded men’s team was held to dull draws by the Chinese team, which had just one player with higher ELO ratings than the Indians.
Anand, P Harikrishna and K Sasikiran played out draws against China’s Bu Xiangzhi, Zhang Zhong and Wang Yue respectively. The only bitterly fought game was played between Ni Hua and Surya Shekhar Ganguly, who held his own against his higher rated opponent and forced a draw despite Hua being in a better White position.

The 37th Chess Olympiad began this week in Turin, Italy. 150 countries and over 740 titled players from around the globe are competing in the event.
Russia and Armenia are in the lead with 15.5 points each in the men's section and Russia leads the women's section with 12.5 points. In the men's section, Russia has been in first place since the start of the event while Armenia climbed into the top 10 after the fourth round.

Women Grandmaster Swati Ghate scored a thumping victory against higher ranked International Master Nana Dzagnidze of Georgia and helped the Indian eves salvage a draw against third seed Georgia in the fourth round .
Grandmaster and the highest ranked girl in the World Koneru Humpys wining streak was halted by seasoned Georgian Women Grandmaster Nino Khurtsidze on the top board while Mary Ann Gomes went down against experienced WGM Lela Javakhishvili before Ghate carved out a fine attacking victory to draw parity with the former champions.

India just about managed to get past Hungary in Round 4 of the 37th Chess Olympiad.National Champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly guided the Indian men to a narrow 2.51.5 victory over Hungary in the fourth round of the 37th Chess Olympiad on Thursday.
It turned out to be a difficult day for the second seed Indians after Viswanathan Anand was held to a draw by Grandmaster Zoltan Almasi on the first board but Gangulys expertise came in handy against Robert Ruck. Both Krishnan Sasikiran and P Harikrishna drew their games.

Bolstered by the arrival of GM Vishwanathan Anand the Indian men's team continued their winning streak, defeating lowly ranked Mongolia in round 3 of the 37th Chess Olympiad being held in Turin, Italy. With this win India , the second seeds are now placed 17th. After the shock defeat to morocco in the first round,the Indian team has bounced back with consecutive 4-0 dfeats of their opponents inth next two rounds.
Anand,Viswanathan (IND) (2803) - Batchuluun,Cegmed (MGL) (2303)
WCO 2006 Italy (3), 23.05.2006

Is he man or is he machine? GM Veselin Topalov continues to impress the chess world. Just when you think that Topalov is having a "not so good" tournament he makes a come back in the second half to win it all. This past week in Sofia, Bulgaria at the Mtel Masters tournament Topalov won his last four games, after having a weak first half, to win the tournament in clear first.
Is it deja vu? Last year Topalov did the same thing finishing the last half of the Mtel Masters with 4.5 out of 5 to finish in clear first. Is he toying with us? Or, does he just have a knack for rocking the ramparts towards the end of these incredibly challenging and long events? Regardless, Topalov continues to impress us with his top-notch chess play.

Indian men bounced back after an opening day loss with a convincing 4-0 victory over Cyprus in the second round of the 37th chess Olympiad here. After a 1-3 drubbing at the hands of Morocco in the first round of the biennial chess event, it was an impressive recovery by the Indians as they took the team score to a respectable 5 points out of a possible 8 games.
The second-seeded team shed the opening days blues and won on all four boards with Grand Masters Krishnan Sasikiran, P Harikrishna, Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Sandipan Chanda coming out trumps.

The second seed Indian men's team was handed a humiliating 1-3 defeat by lower-ranked Morocco in the first round of the 37th Chess Olympiad in Turin on Monday.
Grandmasters Pendyala Harikrishna and National champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly could manage only a half point each on the top two boards while on the remaining boards GM Sandipan Chanda and International Master-to-be Diwakar Prasad Singh suffered unexpected defeats, thus delting an early blow to the India's medal aspirations.
Surprisingly, top-ranked GM Krishnan Sasikiran was rested in the first round despite the absence of Viswanathan Anand, who is expected to arrive in Turin today but will most probably start playing from the fourth round.