2010
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Apologies for not updating this website sooner. I was married on 2 October 2009 to Michele! See the following link for a few photos - more to come. by photographer Kevin Bishop. An exciting new website well worth a look. by GM Simon Williams. Please make any purchases you make through Amazon by clicking on the amazon link on my shop page each time you purchase. It costs nothing extra for you, but earns the website a couple of % to help maintain it. Thanks a lot! ............................................................................................Coverage of the Wellington International 7-9 and 22-23 November will be available here. Final results. Keith Arkell survives a close scare against Sam Franklin in the last round, but turned the game around to finish outright 1st. Felix Ynojosa shines again, and further establishes himself as a future star in the making. Final results: 1 GM K.Arkell 7.5/9, 2 GM N.Pert 7/9 3= GM A.Chernaiev, IM elect J Radovanovic, F.Ynojosa 6.5/9. IM Madan withdrew after round 3 following his defeat to myself. Some notable results for the Wellington College Pupils. Lateefah and Akash both drawing with GM Chernaiev. For more details please see the official website. Wellington College International Home Page.. ............................................................................................Bet on chess with paddy power. A great way to help boost the popularity, and finance behind chess + a chance to win some cash!! ............................................................................................Topalov defeated Kamsky 4.5-2.5 in an exciting match, and will now go on to challenge Anand for the World Championship. ............................................................................................ Latest news. Divisions 1 & 2 of the 4NCL was on 4-5 October. See www.4ncl.co.uk.Photos From the weekend: Click here to view the photos. ............................................................................................Latest news. The European Youth Individual championship takes place 15-24 September in Montenegro. See English results + live games or English team report www.chessuk.com/european.html ............................................................................................The 4th EU Individual Championships took place in Liverpool from 9-18 September. Many top English players competed including Michael Adams and Nigel Short. See www.liverpoolchessinternational.co.uk for details. Below I give profiles of some of the favourites in this incredibly strong tournament + round by round review. ............................................................................................ |
Round 1 went very much to the form book with practically all of the top seeds safely navigating their way to 1/1.
............................................................................................Round 2 saw Nigel Short as the centre of controversy yet again, as he lost by default to Ketevan Arakhamia when his mobile phone rang on move 26!! Short, who was playing white had a marginal advantage at the time.
Mark Hebden made a crazy rook sacrifice against Jan Priborsky. He could still have forced a draw after it, but further mistakes lead to his downfall. Click here to see the annotated game. The game can take a few moments to open.
............................................................................................Round 3 saw some fascinating encounters, well worth a play through. They can all be seen from the live games section of the official website. Vachier-Lagrave and Arkell tested out a tense ending where the youngster got the upper hand against expert Arkell. Click here to see the annotated game.
............................................................................................Round 4. All draws at the top, and none of the players maintained their 100% record. 12 Players now tie for first including top seed Michael Adams, French super talent Maxim Vachier-Lagrave, British Champion Stuart Conquest, who continues his great form, and the next big English talent, David Howell. Danny Gormally managed a fantstic draw with Black against Bacrot. Simon Williams played very aggressively against Viktor Laznicka, but it never quite looked convincing enough and he went down. An interesting pairing tomorrow is Ulf Andersson against Keith Arkell. Keith seems to have modelled his postional style game on Andersson's, who is his chess hero. Don't expect too many fireworks in this one!!
............................................................................................Round 5. Alberto David and Viktor Laznicka lead. David seemed to get an edge from an early stage, and ground down British Champion Stuart Conquest. Laznicka's game looked balanced in the ending before a serious error from Spoelman handed him a clear edge. A large group has gathered half a point off the lead. Lot's of English interest is there: Michael Adams had the upper hand but couldn't quite make it count. Danny Gormally pulled off a fantastic victory against Beliavsky. He now plays Howell, whom I recall he has quite a bad record against. Peter Wells has also joined the group on 4/5 with a smooth win over Pileckis. He now faces defending champion, Daniel Fridman.
............................................................................................Round 6. Alberto David (5/6) and Viktor Laznicka (5/6) halved out quickly. They are joined in the lead by Fridman (5/6), who won convincingly against Peter Wells (4/6). Danny Gormally (4/6) played an interesting and thematic exchange sacrifice agsinst David Howell's (5/6) Grunfeld, but couldn't quite get enough going, and once the pressure was off the material soon told. At the time of writing Werle looks to be heading towards the winning group, and Adams also has good chances to win. Assuming these go to plan there will be 6 players joint 1st in what is turning out to be a very open tournament. Michael Adams still remains the man to beat however. Lower down the field, the British players experienced mixed fortunes. Keith Arkell (3.5/6) and Mark Hebden (3.5/6) went down with white, without too much fight to Dutch players L'Ami and Smeets. Stuart Conquest (4.5/6) bounced back with a great win against Spoelman (3.5/6), and Nigel Short (4/6) started to make his way through the field, also winning.
............................................................................................Round 7. Adams, Werle and Laznicka lead following victories over David, Fridman and Howell respectively. Adams still remains the favourite. Lower down L'Ami got a good win in to stand outright 4th, and Nigel Short continued his charge up the field with a win as black against Simon Williams. Lawrence Trent will be very pleased with victory over the veteran, Kotronias and Gawain Jones won nicely too.
............................................................................................Round 8. There were many draws at the top of the tournament. Nigel Short kept up his winning run, defeating British Champion Stuart Conquest to move within half a point of the leaders. Alberto David also bounced back from yesterdays desfeat with victory against Lawrence Trent. Mark Hebden got in a black victory against Colin McNab, who is very solid. Lorin D'Costa will be delighted to have slayed Tiger Hillarp Persson! Leading Scores: Adams, Werle and Laznicka 6.5, Short L'Ami and David 6. The pick of the round 9 games is Adams-Short. A pairing neither of them will relish!! The winner of Laznicka-Werle is in with a great chance of stealing top honours.
............................................................................................Round 9. This was a massive round for Jan Werle as he defeated Viktor Laznicka on the black side of a catalan. They played down one of Kasparovs favourite variations of old, but the Dutchman appeared to have the better understanding of the position. Adams-Short disappointed with a quick draw. The top French players, Bacrot and Vachier Lagrave scored important wins to put themselves in position to win prize money. Leading scores: Werle 7.5, Adams 7 10 players on 6.5. Werle will have been pleased to have already met Adams, so the last round pairings are: Werle - Vachier-Laagrave and Berg - Adams.
............................................................................................Round 10. Werle wins!! In very uninteresting style the top 2 games were quickly drawn handing Werle tournament victory. Shame on Adams and Vachier-Lagrave for not making more of a fight of it. Nigel Short continued his charge with a final round victory to finish joint 2nd. His chances took a heavy knock at the hands of his mobile phone back in round 2, otherwise he may well have been able to win here. Viktor Laznicka shrugged off yesterdays defeat with a slightly fortunate win over Meier. Unfortunately none of the other leading English GMs had spectacular finishes. Final Scores: 1st Werle 8, 2nd-4th Adams, Laznicka, Short 7.5 11 players finished joint 5th on 7 including England's David Howell.
............................................................................................Nick's predictions.
7/4 Michael Adams 2735. Has spent many years amoungst the world elite. Very strong, rarely disappoints and is definitely the one to beat! Recently won the Staunton Memorial ahead on Van Wely, Short and Sokolov amoungst others. See www.www.howardstaunton.com/hsmt2008/index.shtml for details
3/1 Etienne Bacrot 2691. The French are making a real bid for this tournament. Bacrot is a regular on the elite scene, often works with GM Naiditsch from Germany. Bacrot is the current French Champion, having defeated Vachier-Lagrave on tie-break. See www.chess.com/news/bacrot-and-milliet-french-champions for details
4/1 Maxim Vachier-Lagrave 2681. Age 17! With all the talk of Carlsen and Karjakin, this guy seems to have been forgotten about slightly, but he is a massive talent. I first came across him in 2004, when aged just 13 he slayed several titled players in the Paris Open with a perf over 2700!
5/1 Nigel Short 2655. Former World Title Challenger, he is a fantastic talent, and mega strong. Controversy is never far behind Nigel. See this link for the recent incident with Ivan Cheparinov where the Bulgarian refused to shake his hand!www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1Gb4lJeXqI&feature=related The game was eventually played the following day with Short emerging victorious.!www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbIheG-mztI
8/1 Sergey Tiviakov 2645. A true professional, plays everywhere, and a very capable player.
10/1 Daniel Fridman 2637. Tasted Success in this City already, winning Liverpool Championship last year.
14/1 Erwin L'Ami 2610. One of a rising group of dutch stars who are getting ever stronger.
25/1 Alexander Beliavsky 2606. Once qualified for the World Champion candidates matches in 1983, losing in the quarterfinals to Gary Kasparov. He'll be one of the oldest competitors playing.
16/1 Viktor Laznika 2601. An upcoming player from Czech Republic with great potential.
16/1 David Baramidze 2593. Young German talented. Clocked up an amazing victory in a World Championship playoff match v Nigel Short. With the scores tied Baramidze fell asleep for the 25 minute decider, eventually arriving with less than 1 minute on the clock, and with black, but managed to win the game anyway! www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4290
16/1 Jan Smeets 2593. Another Dutch talent, here is an interview he gave after becoming national champion. www.chessvibes.com/videos/dutch-chess-championship-video-interview-jan-smeets/#more-1854
16/1 Emmanuel Berg 2592. A strong Swedish player, should produce some exciting games.
16/1 Jan Werle 2591. Another of the Dutch talents - once appeared on the Dutch version of big brother!
25/1 Vasilios Kotronios 2574. Opening expert, regularly represents Greece and should not be underestimated.
33/1 Thomas Luther 2570. Very experienced German grandmaster.
33/1 Ulf Andersson 2562. A positional maestro - loves to grind down his opponents.
40/1 Alberto David 2562. From Luxembourg - one of many countries represented here!
50/1 Alexandre Dgebuadze 2562. A Georgian-Belgian Grandmaster, I drew with him here 2 years ago.
40/1 Sarunas Sulskis 2562. Ultra aggressive Lithuanian, should have some fun games to watch!
16/1 David Howell 2561. An excellent performance in the World Juniors, where he was one game from becoming outright champion. David is a very exciting prospect for English chess, and it will surely not be long before he smashes through the 2600 barrier. www.chessuk.com/wj2008.html
40/1 George Meier 2556. Another player who was very close to becoming World Junior Champion.
40/1 Gawain Jones 2549. Creative, exciting, tactical player, could easily take a couple of big scalps.
50/1 Pia Cramling 2544. Top female player. Married to another grandmaster, Juan Bellon who claims to have not offered a draw since 1978! http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.com/2007/05/declining-draw.html
50/1 Normunds Miezis 2540. Plays a lot, but always the same openings. Is very vulnerable to some good preparation.
50/1 Stuart Conquest 2536. British Champion. Fantastic achievement, but to win he requires a totally new level again! www.britishchess08.com
50/1 Tiger Hillarp Persson 2526. Famous for writing Tiger's Modern
50/1 Peter Wells 2526. Knows the ropes well, and can be brilliant if finds his form. Time trouble is often a cause for concern when he plays though.
50/1 Mark Hebden 2520. Another very experienced player, sticks to his guns and knows his systems very well.
50/1 Michele Godena 2519. Top Italian grandmaster.
50/1 Pontus Carlsson 2514. Very talented Swede. Enjoys his nights out. Probably doesn't remember but the night before the rest day in the latest European Team Championships I offered him a drink, and he ordered up some cocktail which cost me 12 Euros!!
50/1 Stewart Haslinger 2511. Local player, will look to return to his best form after a tough British.
50/1 Viktorija Cmilyte 2508. Top female chessplayer. Was married to Alexei Shirov - not a bad trainer!
50/1 Stephen Gordon 2508. Another local player, surely the GM title is just round the corner.
50/1 Keith Arkell 2506. Joint first in the British Champs, joint 2nd in the Jessie Gilbert Memorial, Keith is coming back to his best after 4 years out of the game.
50/1 Daniel Gormally 2504. A big fan of the horses, let's hope this is a profitable tournament!
50/1 Simon Williams 2496. This tournament could suit Simon very well. His aggressive style is well designed to taking on strong players, and a good run of form here could lead to some very exciting games!
......................................................................................................................Kramnik challenges Anand for the World Championship match in Bonn, Germany 11-30 October 2008. Nick's predictions.
8/11 Anand. World number 1, and world champion, will be tough to stop.
Evs Kramnik. World number 6, former world champion, and recent form not totally convincing. It cannot be forgotten that he captured the title from Kasparov and defended successfully against Leko and Topalov, so is an excellent match player. His openings will be his main weapon if he is to regain the title.
See www.uep-worldchess.com for details ............................................................................................Several of the Worlds elite battle it out in Bilbao. Anand, Topalov, Carlsen, Ivanchuk, Radjabov and Aronian compete.
Click here for the official tournament website.
............................................................................................Latest news. The Jessie Gilbert memorial. GM Berelovich wins with 8/10 ahead of Arkell, Gerzhoy and Radovanovic on 7/10.
See www.ccfworld.com/Chess/Results/2008-08-25_JessieGilbertInternational.htm for details.
............................................................................................Kramnik will have wanted to put in a good performance in the Tal Memorial ahead of his match with Anand. He made +1 and has been struggling to find good form of late. He also scored -1 in Dortmund. Anand on the other hand has looked dangerous and must start the match as favourite. All this being said Kramnik is a matchplay expert, his enormous amount of opening preparation being the key, and cannot be written off. Ivanchuk won the event by a full point after defeating early leader, Morozevich.
See www.russiachess.org for details ......................................................................................................................Elsewhere the experience vs rising stars event, where some of the World's top young players, Wang Yue, Cheparinov, Caruana, Stellwagen and L'ami take on names of yesterday, Bareev, Korchnoi, Yusupov, Agdestein, Ljubojevic. It has been completely one-sided with the young players leading dominating the match. This is a great example of how the level of chess has improved over the years, and how age does affect mental capability. It seems the prime age for a chess player is 30-35, after that it is all downhill!
See www.nhchess.com for details ......................................................................................................................Latest news. Congratulations to Stuart Conquest, British Champion 2008!! Stuart really handled himself cooly in a couple of tricky positions, and managed to win some key games, before defeating Keith Arkell in the playoffs. After his disasterous 4.5/9 in the weaker Irish Championships, to bounce back and win in Liverpool is quite remarkable, but over the course of the tournament, noone can dispute that he deserved it.
......................................................................................................................Nick's guide to the favourites for this year's British Championship in Liverpool - how close were my predictions?
3/1 Gawain Jones. 7/11. Many people's favourite. At the half way stage he was still fancied, and up until the last round was in with a chance, but suffered a painful last round defeat. I know how it feels as the previous 2 years I lost from 7/10. If you win, you get a big payout (c.£4,500) + a chance to become British Champion, you lose and you go home with about £80! It's cutthroat!!
3/1 Nick Pert. 7/11. I collapsed in the middle of the tournament when losing to Lawrence Trent from a very strong position. After that I was desperate to get a win to regain my momentum, but it never happened until too late. A late rally avoided total disaster, but this isn't one to remember!
7/2 Mark Hebden. 7/11. A key loss to Andrew Ledger, halted his early charge. Had a strong position against Gormally in round 10, but when he failed to convert the full point, his chances were over.
4/1 Steve Gordon. 7.5/11. A topsy turvey game against Williams in round 10 seemed key. All results were possible but in the end a draw left him black against Bogdan in the last round. I'm a little surprised he didn't take his chances, but a quick draw gave him a decent payout.
6/1 Stewart Haslinger. 6/11. Normally very consistent. This year nothing seemed to go right for him, and the brief moments he was up there, seemed to be followed by a convincing defeat. I'm sure he'll be back next year.
7/1 Glenn Flear. 6/11. Just couldn't get going all tournament.
7/1 Danny Gormally. 7/11. Was up there the whole time, and had a very tough run of pairings. Generally played very well. Took a lot of draws, maybe he needed to gamble a little more at some key points.
10/1 Keith Arkell. 8/11. I was very impressed by Keith's performance. He played a fantastic tournament, and capped it off with victory over the number 1 seed in the last round. Only Conquest seemed to have his number this year!
12/1 Simon Williams. 7.5/11. Benefitted from a very lucky run of the pairings. Slow start, played very well in the 2nd week, and took advantage of opportunities playing Ynojosa on +2 at the half way stage and then Eggleston on +3, which gifted him +4 status. +5 is required to make the playoff, and his round 10 game against Gordon could easily have gone in his favour, which would likely have left him in a playoff for the title. He seemed slightly better against Conquest in the last round, but a mistake left him in an unfavourable position, so justifyably he bailed out with a draw to bank the cash!
12/1 Stuart Conquest. Great tournament, survived some difficult positions against Lalic and Davies. Appeared to get a big advantage from the opening against Arkell in his 2 white games, both of which he won.
12/1 Bogdan Lalic. 7.5/11.("Very strong, but likely to take too many draws. Expect to see him on +4 at the end of the tournament!") I have nothing more to add to this prediction!!
20/1 Richard Pert. 6.5/11. Lost first 2 games. Made good comeback, but it's a tall order when you lose 2 as there is little room for manouvre.
33/1 Nigel Davies. 7.5/11. Played a very good tournament, showed he had more bite than I had anticipated.
33/1 Lawrence Trent. 7/11. Was probably the key to my downfall. Lots of decisive results and interesting games. Could well be one for the future, but needs to work on his consistency.
50/1 Andrew Greet. 6/11. Didn't ever really feature. ......................................................................................................................
At age 17 Magnus Carlsen, already compared to Bobby Fischer, is due to be ranked number 2 in the World following his convincing victory in the super strong Foros tournament! Only World Champion Vishy Anand outranks him, but surely this will not last for long.
......................................................................................................................Felix Jose Ynojosa Wins Chess Kings 5, the overall Chess Kings Grand Prix and £50!
Matthew Wilson 2nd (£25), Louise Head 3rd (£15), Ross McGee 4th (£10).
Thanks to all who entered, I expect the next event will take place in 3-4 months, organised by Ken Coates. It will be advertised here.
Full results to follow
......................................................................................................................January - 2008
Happy New Year Everyone!
Hastings International Chess Congress 2007 / 2008:
Click here to read the report.
The January 4NCL Report & Photos:
Click here to read the report & here for photos.
......................................................................................................................Photos From The European Team Championships, Crete November 2007:
Click here and here to view the photos.
Photos From The Second 4NCL Weekend:
Click here to view the photos.
......................................................................................................................Cool Online Flash Chess Game for beginners:
Click here to play the game.
The World Championships:
Click here to read the report.