World Chess Rapid Championship for Women Live from Batumi India Time 4.30 pm Today; Koneru Humpy Second Seed

GM Koneru Humpy

India's Koneru Humpy begins Women's World Chess Rapid Championship 2012 quest today

It's time to watch live the Batumi Rapid World Chess Championship for women within an hour with India's top woman chess player Grandmaster Koneru Humpy (2589) playing as second seed at the event. Top seed at the Batumi Rapid Chess is Anna Muzychuk (2598) of Slovakia. Of course, India wants to have their second world chess champion within a few days. Hopefully, GM Koneru Humpy is up to the challenge. The other Indian chess player in the field is the talented Harika Dronavalli at seed nine. You can watch the tournament live every day at the official website. 

The top 20 players at the event include:

No.		Name	FED	Rtg
1	GM	Muzychuk Anna	SLO	2598
2	GM	Koneru Humpy	IND	2589
3	GM	Zhao Xue	CHN	2549
4	GM	Dzagnidze Nana	GEO	2547
5	GM	Lahno Kateryna	UKR	2546
6	GM	Kosintseva Tatiana	RUS	2532
7	IM	Gunina Valentina	RUS	2530
8	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	BUL	2518
9	GM	Harika Dronavalli	IND	2508
10	GM	Chiburdanidze Maia	GEO	2500
11	IM	Khotenashvili Bela	GEO	2500
12	GM	Zhu Chen	QAT	2491
13	IM	Paehtz Elisabeth	GER	2491
14	GM	Danielian Elina	ARM	2484
15	GM	Socko Monika	POL	2484
16	GM	Cramling Pia	SWE	2478
17	GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	RUS	2457
18	IM	Krush Irina	USA	2457
19	IM	Khurtsidze Nino	GEO	2456
20	IM	Muzychuk Mariya	UKR	2456

For more details about the chess tournament and the subsequent Women's World Blitz Chess Championship read our detailed post:

World Chess Championships - Sexy, Exciting, and Fast?

Read more »

World Chess Champion 2012 Vishy Anand Comments on Tiebreak Win Against Gelfand

India's Viswanathan Anand - the reigning world chess champion - retains his crown by beating Israel's challenger Boris Gelfand in the tiebreak of the 2012 World Chess Championship in Moscow. Here are Viswanathan Anand's first comments on the match and tiebreak in the press conference right after successfully retaining his title:

- This morning when I woke up I had no idea how the tiebreak would go as the match had been so even.

Right now, I am too tense to even be happy. I am just relieved.

Read more »

Anand wins World Chess Championship Title Fourth Time in a Row!

Indian Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand on Wednesday retained his World Chess Championships title - his fifth one and fourth in a row - against Israel's Boris Gelfand in closely-fought rapid tiebreak. Anand was a picture of complete calm as he went on to beat Gelfand 2.5-1.5. Earlier, the two grandmasters had tied in the classical time-control games with a score of 6-6.

The first game of the tiebreaker ended in a draw in 33 moves before Anand beat Gelfand in the second game in 77 moves. The two of the remaining four-game rapid chess tiebreaker ended in a draw as Anand successfully defended his title.

This was 42-year-old Anand’s fifth World Championships title and fourth crown in a row. The Indian chess wizard bagged his first world title in 2000 before winning three in a row in 2007, 2008 and 2010. He has been the world champion since 2007.

Anand wins approximately USD 1.4 million —— 55 per cent of the total prize fund of USD 2.55 million —— while Gelfand will get the remaining amount. The Indian ace won the 2007 crown in a tournament format among eight players. In 2008 and 2010, he beat Vladimir Kramnik of Russia and Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria respectively after the format changed to championship match between the defending champion and a challenger.

Read more »

Anand a Draw and Few Minutes Away from Becoming World Chess Champion 2012

World chess champion Viswanathan Anand of India is just a draw away and a few minutes from keeping his crown! He is leading Israeli challenger Boris Gelfand in a rapid tiebreaker for deciding the title in Moscow.

Tied at 6-6 after 12 games, the champion and the challenger are playing four rapid games with a time limit of 25 minutes per player. Anand and Gelfand drew the first game. The second game was an exciting win for Vishy Anand. They drew the third game and Gelfand is now playing the fourth game to save the match against Anand. The score favours Anand 2-1 points.

Hundreds of chess fans are watching Wednesday's tiebreak in a hall at the State Tretyakov Gallery, one of Russia's finest museums. The winner takes home $1.5 million, while the loser is awarded $1 million. Anand last successfully defended his title in 2010 against Bulgarian challenger Veselin Topalov.

Read more »

Andrey Filatov: I’m Pleased that Museums Want to Hold Chess Tournaments

Main sponsor Andrey Filatov of the 2012 Anand, Gelfand World Chess Championship has said that he is very pleased about his idea of holding a chess event in a museum has found favor with organisers around the world. Filatov was speaking to Eteri Kublashvili for a special interview ahead of the tiebreaks that would decide the 2012 World Chess Champion in Moscow on Wednesday. Here are excerpts from the interview via the official website.

Read more »

Is Anand Afraid of Gelfand @ 2012 World Chess Championship, Asks Israeli Newspaper

Eli Shvidler, writing in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz has an interesting analysis to write. The report titled 'Armaggedon beckons for Gelfand and Anand' discusses the tiebreak format first. Then, it takes up the statistics.

Shvidler writes: The dry statistics are very heavily in Anand's favor. In lightning games, he holds an 8-1 advantage over Gelfand. However, Anand's last victory over his Israeli rival was in 2007; since then, they each have one victory.

Read more »