Zug Chess GP: Watch Live 5.30 pm

The opening ceremony of the 3rd stage of FIDE Grand Prix Series 2012-2013 the Renova Group Grand Prix took place at the SwissEver Hotel Zug 6 p.m. on 17th of April. The ceremony was attended by FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, FIDE CEO Geoffrey Borg, Chief Risk and Compliance Officer from Renova Group Rolf Schatzmann, Director of the Sport Office of the Canton of Zug Cordula Ventura, Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan Arkam Zeynalli, First Secretary of the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ramin Mirzayev, First Secretary of the Embassy of the Russian Federation Konstantin Ushakov.

 

Watch India Time Live: 5.30 pm at official website.

 

At the start of the ceremony Director of the Sport Office of the Canton of Zug Cordula Ventura welcomed all the players and guests on behalf of the government of the Canton of Zug. On behalf of Renova Group and its chairman of the Board Directors Mr. Viktor Vekselberg, Rolf Schatzmann welcomed all officials, participants and wished the players to use the opportunity to learn more about the history of Switzerland, visit Zug and its suburbs.

Rolf Schatzmann also explained why Zug was chosen to host the 3rd stage of Grand Prix: “Mr. “Viktor Vekselberg lives here and he thought it would be nice idea to organize such an interesting chess event in the canton of Zug”.

 

Before officially opening the event, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov greeted all the participants, guests and expressed his gratitude to Renova Group and its chairman of the Board Directors Mr. Viktor Vekselberg, sponsors, mass media representatives for their support and dedication to chess. “I’m confident that we will all savor the hospitality of the people of Switzerland and will fully appreciate the high organizational level of this sport celebration!” said FIDE President.

The Chief-arbiter of the tournament IA Panagiotis Nikolopoulos conducted the ceremony of drawing of lots. Each participant was proposed to choose one of 12 boxes with famous Swiss chocolates and the numbers inside.

The first round will be played on Thursday, April 18th at 14:00 local time with the games Morozevich-Kasimdzhanov, Mamedyarov-Ponomariov, Caruana-Radjabov, Karjakin-Nakamura, Giri-Topalov, Leko-Kamsky.

Over eleven rounds, twelve of the strongest players in the world will take part in uncompromising chess battles. Among 12 participants there are three former world champions Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine) and Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), Rustam Kasimdzhanov, World Rapid Chess Champion Sergey Karjakin, the top players of the USA, Italy, Azerbajan, Russia. Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan), the rating favorite of the 3rd stage, will take part in GP tournaments for the first time. 2007 World Cup Winner Gata Kamsky (USA) replaced Vugar Gashimov (Azerbaijan) for the rest of the cycle.

Time control: 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then each player will be allotted 15 minutes after the second time control and an increment of 30 seconds per move will be allowed from move 61 onwards.

The Grand Prix Series consists of six tournaments to be held over two years (2012-2013). 18 top players participate in 4 of these 6 tournaments. The winner and second placed player overall of the Grand Prix Series will qualify for the Candidates Tournament to be held in March 2014. (Report and pictures by Anastasiya Karlovich)

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Happy 50th Birthday Garry Kasparov!

Chess Magazine Black & White staff, readers and fans wish 13th World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov a fantastic 50th birthday on April 13. Birthday wishes are pouring in on his FB page and flooding the Internet. We hope to bring you a summary soon. Meanwhile, you can take part in this Garry Kasparov trivia quiz featured on his official Facebook page!

Kasparov Facebook Page contest reads as follows: Quick Kasparov birthday question #1: What game position do you think will be on his chess birthday cake? Try to guess the game and move number! The answer will be revealed with a photo of his cake at his New York City birthday party on April 19. We'll give a shout-out to anyone who gets it right! (And don't worry, his cake has the white square on the right.) -editor

This very nice chess graphic on Garry Kasparov is up at www.chessbase.com with a beautiful article. Also read 'Kasparov as an open project' by Russian journalist Igor Yakovenko.

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Asian-Jr Chess: Srinath Retains Title

International Master Narayanan Srinath has won the Asian Junior Chess title for the second time. The event was held in Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates. Srinath had won last year in Tashkent in June 2012 along with a GM norm. He is also a former World Under-12 champion having won it at Belfort in France in 2005. Sahaj Grover was second and top seed GM Salem Saleh of UAE was third. Vo Thi Kim Phung of Vietnam won the girls' section. India's WFM J Saranya was second. Defending champion Ivana Furtado of Goa ended the tournament in sixth place.

In the Asian Junior blitz chess, Anurag Mhamal and Sahaj Grover tied for first. Mhamal was declared champion on better tie-break score. Vo Thi Kim Phung (Vie) won the Asian Junior girls blitz championship also.

Final placings:
Boys: 1 N Srinath (Ind) 8/9; 2 Sahaj Grover (Ind) 7; 3-6. Salem A.R. Saleh (UAE), Anurag Mhamal (Ind), Mehdi Hosseinpour (Iri), Tran Tuan Minh (Vie) 6 each; 7 Debashis Das (Ind) 5.5…34 players.
Girls: 1 Vo Thi Kim Phung (Vie) 7/9; 2-4. J Saranya (Ind), Nguyen Thi Mai Hung (Vie), Diana Assaubayeva (Kaz) 6.5 each; 5-6. Sarvinoz Kurbonboeva (Uzb), Ivana Furtado (Ind) 6 each; 7-10. Rucha Pujari, Riya Savant (both Ind), Dorsa Derakhshani (Iri), Farida Khursanova (Uzb) 5.5 each….36 players.

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RIP: Chess Legend Robert Byrne

RIP: American chess legend Robert Byrne. We have this sad news. World Chess Championship Candidate-1974 and US Chess Champion-1972 Robert Byrne is no more. His wife Ursula (Maria) Byrne announced late Friday that Robert Byrne passed away after a long illness, eight days short of his 85th birthday. The memorial service will be on Saturday, April 20, at 1 PM at Dorsey Funeral Home, 15 M Wilton Place, Ossining, NY 10562. Attendees are welcome. RSVP to ursula1732@aol.com. ( Also welcome are verbal messages that can be read out.)

Byrne's dear friend Anthony Saidy says, "Robert Byrne was a pillar of American chess. I would add that uniquely, in mid-career, Robert Byrne switched from the Queen Pawn to the King Pawn, tantamount to a Ford driver taking on a race car, or an internist learning brain surgery. It took him close to the summit of world chess. R.I.P. a great American player and a friend whose example taught me much."

Byrne represented the United States nine times in Chess Olympiads from 1952 to 1976 and won seven medals. He was the chess columnist from 1972 to 2006 for the New York Times, which ran his final column (a recounting of his 1952 victory over David Bronstein) on November 12, 2006. Byrne worked as a university professor for many years, before becoming a chess professional in the early 1970s. Read the complete Wikipedia entry on this great American chess player here. (Report via US #1 www.chessblog.com)

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Bangkok Chess Open Begins April 14

The 13th Bangkok Chess Club Open Tournament will be played from April 14th to 21st in Pattaya, Thailand. The tournament is organized by the Bangkok Chess Club and the playing venue is 5-star Dusit Thani Pattaya Resort. (Left: Koneru Humpy leads India challenge). Top rated Grandmasters are Nigel Short ENG 2690 (last year winner), Levente Vajda ROM 2632, Jan Gustafsson GER 2621 (winner in 2011), Humpy Koneru IND 2597, Sune Berg Hansen DEN 2566, Jozsef Horvath HUN 2538, Zong-Yuan Zhao AUS 2537, Adam Horvath HUN 2509, M.R. Venkatesh IND 2501 and Attila Czebe HUN 2488. There are two groups of play: Open category for all players, and Challenger category for players rated below 2100 or unrated (ratings based on FIDE or Thai ELO ratings – other national ratings will be validated by the organizer). When registering, players must indicate in which group they wish to play. Both groups will be played using the Swiss System, with 9 rounds for Open, and 7 rounds for Challenger. For the pairings, a Swiss Manager program will be used.

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Renova Group Grand Prix from April 17

FIDE and Renova Group of Companies have announced the third leg of the Chess Grand Prix series to be held from April 17th-May 1st, 2013 in Zug, Switzerland. The organisation of the event, at such a late stage, has been realizable thanks to the generous sponsorship of the Renova Group of Companies, states a press release. Arrangements have been made in Swissever Hotel in Zug. The schedule has been maintained as originally announced: 

17th April 2013 Arrivals & Opening Ceremony

18th April 2013 Round 1
19th April 2013 Round 2
20th April 2013 Round 3
21st April 2013 Round 4
22nd April 2013 Free Day
23rd April 2013 Round 5
24th April 2013 Round 6
25th April 2013 Round 7
26th April 2013 Round 8
27th April 2013 Free Day
28th April 2013 Round 9
29th April 2013 Round 10
30th April 2013 Round 11 & Closing Ceremony
1st May 2013 Departure

FIDE is currently also working on a replacement organiser for the fourth leg and more information will be available shortly. The dates of the fourth leg will also remain the same as scheduled in the calendar.

Players in Zug

Radjabov, Teimour AZE 2793
Karjakin, Sergey RUS 2786
Caruana, Fabiano ITA 2772
Topalov, Veselin BUL 2771
Nakamura, Hikaru USA 2767
Mamedyarov, Shakriyar AZE 2766
Morozevich, Alexander RUS 2758
Leko, Peter HUN 2744
Kamsky, Gata USA 2741
Ponomariov, Ruslan UKR 2733
Giri, Anish NLD 2727
Kasimdzhanov, Rustam UZB 2709

GM Gata Kamsky has replaced GM Gashimov for the rest of the series.

Venue

The SwissEver Hotel Zug is a brand new business & leisure hotel offering 84 double rooms and 46 long-stay apartments of various sizes, along with a typical Swiss restaurant Swiss Chalet with authentic Swiss specialties. A bar & lounge where you can enjoy different cold and hot drinks is a further feature of the SwissEver Hotel. The hotel provides a traditional yet modern Swiss atmosphere, where guests enjoy a tranquil and pleasant stay. Modern conference rooms for successful meetings and its very central location in Switzerland make it ideal for leisure and business travelers alike. The rooms and suites come with a flat-screen satellite TV featuring pay TV channels, coffee and tea making facilities, a minibar, and a bathroom with a shower and/or bathtub and a hairdryer. Some units have a sofa and the studios and apartments feature a kitchen or a kitchenette. Laundry and ironing services are available as well, and there is also a gym on site. Private underground parking is available. The Lindencham Bus Stop is 50 metres away, and Cham Train Station is 2 km away.

Sponsor

Renova Group of companies is Russia's leading private business group that consists of asset management companies and direct and portfolio investment funds owning and managing assets in metals mining, machine building, mining, construction development, energy, telecommunications, nanotechnologies, utilities and financial sector in Russia and abroad.

Renova Group is a stakeholder and strategic investor in the leading Russian and international companies, including such world class companies as UC Rusal, Integrated Energy Systems, Oerlikon and Sulzer. Renova Group integrated direct investment funds and management companies operating in the energy sector (IES, Avelar Energy), real estate development (KORTROS), portfolio investments (Columbus Nova), telecommunications (Akado Group), chemical industry (Renova Orgsintez) and precious metals (Zoloto Kamchatki).

Renova Group invests in Russia, Switzerland, Italy, South Africa, Ukraine, Latvia, Kirghizia, USA and other countries. The strategy of Renova Group is targeted at the acquisition of assets in industries with a significant growth and consolidation potential.
The Group invests in large projects that extend an opportunity to control and engage in active management to create value and uses partnerships and alliances as an efficient tool to maximize the effect of joint investments. Renova Group is a participant in the UN Global Compact Initiative, a World Economic Forum (WEF) Industry Partner. In 2007 Renova Group became a signatory of the Partnering Against Corruption Initiative of the WEF (PACI).

Social investments charity
The corporate charity fund Renova was founded in 2007 for the purpose of implementing the policy of corporate charity and social investments of the Renova Group in the priority areas of the national development agenda in science, education, culture and arts, development of civil society and local self-governance institutions, environmental protection and sustainable development.
CEO – Olga V. Bashkirova

High Performance Sports
Elite sports as well as physical culture form an important part of the general culture of the mankind. Aspiring to sport achievements and overcoming one’s weaknesses people refine their ethical and moral values. Entertainment sport events are the most powerful factor for people’s solidarity and nurturing the aspiration to healthy and sporty lifestyle in the young generation.

The charity projects in the sphere of elite sports and popularization of healthy lifestyle supported by the Renova Charity Foundation include:
• Support of the Olympic national team of Russia in the Winter Olympics in Beijing in 2008;
• Assistance in the organization of the 5th Military and Sports Forum, NPO Military and Sports Fund;
• Support of the project dedicated to the preparation of sportsmen of the Russian ski jumping and biathlon national team;
• Support of the project dedicated to the preparation of sportsmen of the Russian ice-skating national team;
• Support of the Krylya Sovetov team of the Russian Amateur Hockey League.

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