From 3 to 27 May 2011 the FIDE Candidates matches are being held in Kazan, the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, with eight strong GMs competing to qualify as Challenger for the 2012 World Champion match. Time controls in the four regular games are 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game, plus an additional 30 seconds per move starting from move 61. In case of a tie there will be four rapid chess games, and if the tie is still not broken then up to five two-game blitz matches 5'+3". Finally there may be a sudden-death final decider. The prize fund of the candidates is 500,000 Euros.

Pairings of the 1st round:

Topalov (BUL) - Kamsky (USA)
Kramnik (RUS) - Radjabov (AZE)
Aronian (ARM) - Grischuk (RUS)
Gelfand (ISR) - Mamedyarov (AZE)

Winners of the first round are Alexander Grischuk, Vladimir Kramnik, Gata Kamsky and Boris Gelfand! Round two starts on 12 May! On the offical tournament page you can find a full schedule, results, games and much more: Candidates Matches in Kazan 2011. ...

The 2011 U.S. Championship will be held from 15th to 28th April 2011. The format is new and exciting, featuring a preliminary stage with two round robins of eight players each. Once the dust settles, the top two players in each round robin will advance to a four-player knockout. These semifinal and final matches will consist of two games each.

Prize Fund
The total prize fund for the 2011 U.S. Championship is $166,000 and is broken down as follows:

Overall
1st $40,000
2nd $30,000
3rd $20,000
4th $15,000

Round Robin (two groups)
3rd $8,000
4th $6,000
5th $5,000
6th $4,000
7th $3,000
8th $2,500

There will be $4,000 in bonus prizes: $2,000 to the winner of each round robin. Additionally, $5,000 will be set aside to award Best Game Prizes throughout both the U.S. Championship and the U.S. Women's Championship.

The 16 players are:
GM Gata Kamsky
GM Alex Onischuk
GM Varuzhan Akobian
GM Yasser Seirawan
GM Yury Shulman
GM Jaan Ehlvest
GM Alex Stripunsky
GM Larry Christiansen
GM Robert Hess
GM Alex Shabalov
GM Alexander Ivanov
GM-elect Sam Shankland
GM Ben Finegold
IM Daniel Naroditsky
GM Gregory Kaidanov
GM Ray Robson

Official tournament page: US Chess Championship 2011. ...

The 13th Dubai Open Chess Championship for Sheikh Rashid Bin Hamdan Cup will be held from 9th to 19th April 2011. The Championship will be held at Dubai Chess and Culture Club.

A record number of 170 players from 33 countries are participating in this prestigious tournament. The largest group, 42, is hailing from India, followed with 10 from Armenia and Iran. Grandmaster Sasikiran Krishnan rated 2682 is the top seed of this championship, while 50 Grandmasters are expected to give tough competition. Total prize fund is $45,000 with a special prices for the best local player and women.

The top 10 participants sorted by elo are:
1 GM Sasikiran Krishnan IND 2682
2 GM Akopian Vladimir ARM 2675
3 GM Miroshnichenko Evgenij UKR 2670
4 GM Andriasian Zaven ARM 2645
5 GM Ganguly Surya Shekhar IND 2643
6 GM Aleksandrov Aleksej BLR 2638
7 GM Mchedlishvili Mikheil GEO 2629
8 GM Kuzubov Yuriy UKR 2627
9 GM Volkov Sergey RUS 2621
10 GM Kazhgaleyev Murtas KAZ 2618

Official tournament page: Dubai Open Chess Championship 2011. ...

The 20th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Tournament will take place at the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort in Monaco, from March 11 to 24, 2011. The tournament is organized by the Association Max Euwe of chess maecenas Joop van Oosterom, which is based in Monaco. This 20th Amber tournament will be the final edition of an event unparalleled in the history of chess. The total prize-fund is € 227,000.

In this final jubilee edition the following grandmasters will take part: World Champion Viswanathan Anand (India), Magnus Carlsen (Norway), Levon Aronian (Armenia), Vladimir Kramnik (Russia), Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria), Alexander Grischuk (Russia), Vasily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Sergey Karjakin (Russia), Boris Gelfand (Israel), Hikaru Nakamura (United States), Vugar Gashimov (Azerbaijan) and Anish Giri (The Netherlands).

Official tournament page: Amber Tournament 2011. ...

The two german players Michael Stock (Elo 2275) and WGM Lara Stock (Elo 2346) registered to a tournament at the Hamilton Chess Club in New Zealand using wrong names. The 19 year old WGM won the "Rookies Shield" pretending she had a rating under 1700 and that she is younger than 18. The prize money was $55. Some Australian players also reported that they have tried to register to a tournament in Melbourne by using wrong names as well. To german people both players are well known, because Lara had trouble with the German chess federation some years ago. Both players play exceptionally strong in foreign tournaments, for example in the early 90s Michael Stock went from Elo 2200 to 2400 after a tournament in Hungary. After that tournament he didn't play any rated tournaments for some years. Lara Stock made her final WGM Norm in a tournament in Croatia with a performance of 2550 in 2007.

That's what the organizers write: "At great expense to the Hamilton Chess Club management, two strong chess players were secretly imported from Europe to test the resolve and current skill level of the Waikato juniors and beginners on 20th Feb. Lara Stock (wgm) and her father Michael Stock (2200+) cleverly kept their relationship, ages – she was over 18 – and identities secret (by using false names) and both convincingly blitzed the field of up and coming but unsuspecting budding chess enthusiasts. We all enjoyed the lessons learned – both on and off the chess board, of honesty and integrity or what happens when there is a lack of it." ...

The German magazine Spiegel recently published an article (Google translation) about the ongoing Rybka controversy. In the computer chess world people are discussing if Rybka 1.0 by Vasik Raijlich is a clone of the engine Fruit 2.1 by Fabien Letouzey. Fruit is an open source programm and the code was published under the GNU license in 2005. The license allows everybody to use the code for their own programs, but only if the resulting program is being published under the GNU license as well. Rybka is not open source. The Internatioal Computer Games Association (ICGA) is investigating in this case.

Some famous people in the computer chess world have written an open letter to the ICGA. They claim that Rybka 1.0 is indeed a cone of Fruit 2.1. The fact that a lot of famous chess engine programmers have signed the letter gives it some relevance. Read the letter in the full article. ...

The March FIDE rating list is headed by the World Champion Viswanathan Anand. He is on top with 2817 points after gaining 7 points during the recent Tata Steel Chess Tournament. Magnus Carlsen (2815) and Levon Aronian (2808) are above 2800, gaining 1 and 3 points respectively.

Kramnik, Ivanchuk, Karjakin, Topalov, Nakamura, Mamedyarov, and Grischuk are the rest of the players in top 10. Interesting to note, places 5 to 9 are squeezed in just 7 rating points. Ivanchuk is 5th with 2779 and Mamedyarov is 9th with 2772. Judith Polagar is keeping her place as top woman, while Humpy Koneru and World Champion Yifan Hou are the other players above 2600. Fabiano Caruana is top junior, followed by Anish Giri, Le Quang Liem, and Wesley So. Top girls are Yifan Hou, Harika Dronavalli, and Ju Wenjun.

For a full overview take a look at the FIDE 03/2011 top 100 player list. ...

In the Chessbase show Ask The Experts on 17th February 2011 with GM Jan Gustafsson (host) and GM Peter Svidler as the guest in the first show, the question if whether Svidler is Raffel or not is finally solved. If you don't know about the Raffael mystery yet: Raffael is the best blitz player on the playchess server but his or her identity is yet unclear. Some people claim it is Svidler, Morozevich or Kasparov (Article: Who is Raffael?). Finally we can remove the name Svidler from the list. The person who Svidler describes as "someone significantly stronger" is Kasparov.


Svidler: "I've answered that question more than once on various forums, but let me do it maybe the final time properly on chessbase. No, I am not Raffael on chessbase."

Gustafson: "Allright"

Svidler: "And I am not lying on this one."

Gustafson: "So, who is Raffael? I have no idea."

Svidler: "Someone, as far as I know, someone significantly stronger than me."

Gustafson: "[laughs] Wow, that narrows it down."

Svidler: "That does narrows it down. But I have no confirmation and I can't offer any proof but as far as I know that is a compliment to me."
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Despite a spectacular loss against Ivan Cheparinov of Bulgaria in the penultimate round on Wednesday, Vietnamese Grandmaster Le Quang Liem won the Russian International Chess Festival Aeroflot Open in Moscow for the second time in a row.

HCM City-born Liem, 20, came back strongly with a solid draw against Rauf Mamedov of Azerbaijan in the final round. The Vietnamese GM was among 130 candidates with highest FIDE ratings competing in the tournament for a prize of 20,000 euros (USD 29,300). Liem finished with 6.5 points following four wins, three draws and one loss. Liem also won the 4th Kolkata Open Grandmaster Tournament in 2009, the Zhejiang Lishui Xingqiu Open, and finished equal third in the 8th Asian Continental Individual Open Championship. In February last year, Liem tied for first in the Aeroflot Open with Konstantin Chernyshov, Evegny Bareev and Ernesto Inarkiev. GMs Nikita Vitiugov and Evgeny Tomashevsky of Russia finished runners-up after winning their final matches against Ivan Cheparinov of Bulgaria and Sanan Sjugirov of Russia, respectively. The victory means world No 79 Liem qualifies for the Sparkassen Chess Meeting in Dortmund, Germany, this summer, where he finished second last year behind Ruslan Ponomariov.

Group B was won by GM Tigran Kotanjian from Armenia, who edged out GM Darwin Laylo of the Philippines and GM Nikolai Kabanov of Russia on a tiebreak. Armenia experienced more success in the Group C with David Shahinyan and Tigran Simonian making it a one-two for the Balkans nation.
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