Chess Club Black & White (CCBW)

Monday, February 4, 2013

Tata Steel Chess: Anand Finishes Joint Third, Carlsen Claims Crown

Levon Aronian congratulates Magnus Carlsen (right) as World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand looks on. (Photo: Tata Steel Chess Press)

World champion Viswanathan Anand suffered a shocking last-round defeat against Wang Hao of China and had to be content with a joint third finish at the 75th Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk Aan Zee, The Netherlands.

Having done decently so far, Anand ran out of steam in the last round and was outplayed by Wang Hao. Anand remained at sixth spot in the world rankings and stands to gain seven rating points from his efforts.

Magnus Carlsen of Norway completed the formalities of winning the crown after surviving a scare against Anish Giri of Holland. Carlsen was pushed to the wall but salvaged a half point to match Garry Kasparov's best ever 10 points out of a possible 13 in this tournament.

Levon Aronian of Armenia ended second on 8.5 points after a draw with out-of-sort Fabiano Caruana of Italy. Anand with eight points in all tied for the third spot with the other winner of the day -- Sergey Karjakin of Russia.

After a spate of draws in the last round, Peter Leko of Hungary finished fifth on 7.5 points, half a point more than Hikaru Nakamura of United States who played out a draw with P Harikrishna in his final round game.

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How a Game of Chess Won Irrfan Khan a Film Role

Bollywood celebrities are known for their quirks. And before signing him for his next movie, Tigmanshu Dhulia gave Irrfan Khan a challenge that he needed to complete.

Tigmanshu challenged the actor to a game of chess and only after he beat him hands down, did he let him sign on the dotted line.

A source says, "For the sequel of Saheb, Biwi aur Gangster, everyone thought that since Irrfan is Tigmanshu's good friend, getting in would be a cakewalk for Irrfan. But the director came up with this unique test." Irrfan finally beat Tigmanshu in the game and came on board for the film.

The source adds, "It was only later that Tigmanshu explained to Irrfan that since his character plays mind games in the film, he wanted to see him in action in real-life too." (NDTV Movies)

GM Aleksej Aleksandrov wins 11th Parsvnath Delhi International Chess Festival Premier Section

NEW DELHI: Grandmaster Aleksej Aleksandrovof Belarus won the premier section of Parsvnath International Chess Festival after drawing with Grandmaster Henrik Teske of Germany in the 10th and final round on Sunday. Aleksandrov finished with eight points out of a possible 10, ahead of Marat Dzhumaev of Uzbekistan who finished second with best tiebreak score on 7.5 points.

It turned out to be a three-way tie for the second spot and Teske finished third while Indian Grandmaster Vaibhav Suri ended fourth.

Aleksandrov won the winner's purse of Rs 300000 while Dzhumaev took home Rs 200000. Among the Indians, Vaibhav Suri got the biggest prize purse of Rs 75000. Marat Dzhumaev defeated P Magesh Chandran while Vaibhav Suri ended the party of K Rathnakaran who had made a Grandmaster norm after winning the penultimate round.

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Tuesday, December 11, 2012

London Chess Classic 2012: Viswanathan Anand signs off with draw with Carlsen

World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand finished his campaign with a draw against Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the ninth and final round of London Chess Classic here on Tuesday. Anand ended the tournament on nine points and had to content with a fifth place finish among nine contenders as Carlsen emerged as the clear winner on 18 points under the soccer-like scoring system in place here.

Vladimir Kramnik of Russia finished second after an easy draw as black against Michael Adams, who ended joint third. Kramnik scored 16 points in all, while Adams ended on 13 points along side Hikaru Nakamura of the United States. Nakamura was involved in the lone decisive game of the day. The American accounted for Brit Luke McShane.

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Must-Watch Carlsen Chess Video: I have a Lot to Learn!

On Saturday, December 8th Magnus Carlsen broke Garry Kasparov's chess rating record of 2851.By drawing with Hikaru Nakamura at the London Chess Classic, the Norwegian player will be certain of an Elo of at least 2856 on the January 1 FIDE rating list. Here is a must-watch video produced by ChessVibes in which Carlsen talks about the game and about breaking the record.