Tournaments
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2009 World Cup: Quarterfinals
Dmitri Jakovenko vs. Boris Gelfand… will the veteran hold off the young lion? The 2009 FIDE World Cup gets serious. Eight 2700-rated players will vie for a chance at qualifying for the World Championship cycle. The balance of power lies in the former Soviet-bloc players with Boris Gelfand, originally of…
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2009 World Cup: Round #4
Round #4 will feature a healthy dose of 2700 battles. We can expect shorter draws and perhaps longer matches. A few marquee matches are on tap including Svidler-Shirov, but Ruslan Ponomariov may be lurking in the wings hoping the field has forgotten that he has won this tournament back in…
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2009 World Cup: Round #3
Photo by Galina Popova courtesy of FIDE. Gallery link, ugra-chess.ru. Pivotal Round today in Siberia. Boris Gelfand will try to hold onto the board #1 position against Judit Polgar in what may be the marquee matchup of round #3. A deep field means that Polgar is the #32 ranked player…
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2009 World Cup: Round #2
Key matchups are on tap for the FIDE World Cup. While most of the top seeds moved on, they will face stiffer tests in round two. Judit Polgar will start her first match today against Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu of Romania. This tournament may see the rise by a number of young…
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2009 World Cup: Round #1
Eshan Ghaem Maghami (Iran) chats with fellow-GM Darwin Laylo (Philippines) before action starts. Photo by Galina Popova courtesy of FIDE. Gallery link, ugra-chess.ru. The opening round of the 2009 World Cup had few surprises, but it is clear that the balance of power is shifting. Certainly the Russians still have…
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Nigeria to host Olympiad trials
Nigeria Chess Federation (NCF) last week, departed from its traditional selection trial process following the directive that all state chess associations must organize a tournament to select three male and female chess players that will converge on Lagos for the national trial to select the team that will represent the…
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2009 FIDE World Cup
On November 20th, the 2009 World Cup will begin with the Opening Ceremonies. A field of 128 players will assemble is Khanty-Mansiysk to vie for a spot in the 2010 World Championship cycle. The top delegation is home favorite Russia with a total of 34 players. The top seed is…
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SPICE Cup finishes on exciting note!
The 2009 SPICE Cup features two groups and the competition was fierce. Group “B: featured a group of hungry lions vying for norms and/or titles. IM Ray Robson (right) was a GM norm hopeful and made a good run before being held by FM Daniel Rensch in the last round.…
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SPICE Cup sizzling in 1st half!
GM Vinay Bhat with GM Wesley So in background. Photo by SPICE (Polgar). After four rounds, one thing is clear in Lubbock, Texas. Players came to play fighting chess. Papp-Rensch was played to bare kings in round one. While a number of other games were quickly drawn in the first…
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SPICE Cup begins on 19th!
The highly-anticipated SPICE Cup tournament will begin on September 19th and touts one of the strongest lineups in U.S. history for a closed tournament. GM Susan Polgar has raised the stakes and improved on last year’s tournament that had an average rating of 2605.5. This year’s field has an array…
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