World Chess Blitz/Rapid Player's List Released; Ruslan Ponomariov on His Exclusion

Full list for Astana World Rapid and Blitz Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan, 1-11 July 2012.

Qualifiers by rating for finals (6-10 July)
01. Magnus Carlsen 2835
02. Teimour Radjabov 2784
03. Sergey Karjakin 2779
04. Alexander Morozevich 2769
05. Vassily Ivanchuk 2764
06. Alexander Grischuk 2761
07. Veselin Topalov 2752
08. Peter Svidler 2741
09. Boris Gelfand 2727
10. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2726

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Asian Dragons Chess in Taipei from August 14

Asian Dragons Open Chess Tournament 2012 - the sixth edition - would be held in Taipei, Taiwan, from August 14-21. The Asian Dragons tournament used to be an invitational when it first began in Kaohsiung in 2007. It was also, at that time, the first international chess tournament organised by the Chinese Taipei Chess Association. The tournament was inspired by the idea of providing an opportunity for players with ratings below 2200 to improve and compete against players from around the world in a friendly and competitive environment.

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Kazan Chess Round 8 Game: Koneru Humpy-Antoaneta Stefanova 1-0

India's Koneru Humpy

India's most talented woman chess player and current world #3 Koneru Humpy beat reigning women's rapid chess champion and former women's world chess champion Antoaneta Stefanova in a nice game in Round 8. At the press conference, Humpy said, "I played this Panov variation for the first time in my life. I was not sure what I shall do after b5. If I take Nb5 black will play Rb8 and will have some counter play and compensation for the pawn. I think my opponent should have played 19…Nf6 instead of 19…Rd8 because after d6 and Nd5 I got a better position. It was clear there are some exact moves which lead to a win after 28. Qd3 h5 but I didn’t find anything better than 29.Rc3 and 30.Rc1. after 32.Rf8 it was lost for black."

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Kazan Chess Grand Prix Round 8: Armenia's Elina Danielian in Lead; India's Humpy a Point Away

Armenia's Elina Danielian is apparently set to win the FIDE Women's Chess Grand Prix currently on in Kazan. Four games were decisive in the eighth round on Monday. In the two chess games that were drawn, Betul Yildiz and Viktorija Cmilyte missed wins against sisters Nadezhda and Tatiana Kosintseva. 

Armenia's Elina Danielian - Set to win Kazan?

Elina Danielian scored a cool win over second in the standings - Kateryna Lahno. Anna Muzychuk managed to get a good position against Alisa Galliamova and managed to win in the endgame even though Galliamova had equalized in the middlegame. Alexandra Kosteniuk lost to Hou Yifan. Humpy Koneru played very well to defeat Antoaneta Stefanova.

India's Koneru Humpy (right) on her way to beating former women's world chess champion and current women's world rapid chess champion.

After eight rounds at the Kazan Chess Grand Prix, Elina Danielian leads with 6 points. Anna Muzychuk is in second place with 5.5 points. Viktorija Cmilyte and Humpy Koneru share the third spot with 5 points. Hou Yifan and Kateryna Lahno are in shared fifth place with 4.5 points.

Kateryna Lahno watching the
Hou Yifan-Alexandra Kosteniuk match

Photos by Rashit Shiriyazdanov and Anastasiya Karlovich with kind permission of FIDE from the official website. You can watch the Kazan Women's Chess Grand Prix live at the official website from India time 4.30 pm. Tuesday is a rest day with three more rounds to be played at the Kazan Chess Grand Prix.

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Kasparov Chess Foundation-St Louis Chess Club in Five-Year Grant Program to Develop US Chess Talent

The Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis (CCSCSL) is partnering with the Kasparov Chess Foundation (KCF) on a five-year grant program to help develop several American chess prodigies from across the United States. The program, called Young Stars - Team USA, will begin with a kick-off training program in Saint Louis at the CCSCSL from June 18-20. Program participants range in age from nine to 15 years old.

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7th Tal Chess Memorial: Magnus Carlsen Comments, Tweet and Last-Round Game Against McShane

The one and only Magnus Carlsen

Magnus Carlsen, right after winning the 7th Mikhail Tal Chess Memorial, in Moscow, on Sunday had these comments to make:

"I think it has been a very interesting tournament. There have been twists and turns that noone could foresee. As for myself, I thing I played, well I stared slowly. My first three games were not impressive to say the least.
I think after that my play was good. I mean, the game with Grischuk, although I didn't win, it was an energizer to play such an interesting game. I thought after that I was in the driving seat in most of my games.
Obviously if it turns out that Aronian wins [looks to one of the screens], which in fact he did, I'm actually the winner of the tournament. That is nice but, I mean, like last year there were a lot of fortunate circumstances for me in the last round to be able to win it but that's the way it goes sometimes. Today I had to win myself and I did. That's all I can do."

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