ICC Newsletter - Friday, March 31, 2006

Vol I Issue XIV - March 31, 2006

Xu Yuhua Wins The Women's World Champion

Chinese player, Xu Yuhua, defeated Alisa Galliamova of Russia in the best-of-four finals at the Women's World Chess Championship in Ekaterinburg, Russia. Yuhua defeated Galliamova two times with the black pieces making this an amazing victory for her. The final score of the final match up was 2.5:0.5. At the concluding press conference Yuhua announced that she is four months pregnant with expected due date in September! Yuhua said "I think my baby was the one to help me".

Xu Yuhua was also the Women's World Cup Champion in 2000 and 2002. An impressive career so far! Visit the official site of the Women's World Champion or you can also visit the ICC tournament page.

Download all the games from the finals.

15th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament

GM Viswanathan Anand and GM Alexander Morozevich shared first place at the 15th Amber Blindfold and Rapid Chess Tournament in Monaco with very impressive play!

The players in this year's event included GM Alexander Morozevich, GM Peter Leko, GM Francisco Vallejo, GM Viswanathan Anand, GM Alexander Grischuk, GM Boris Gelfand, GM Peter Svidler, GM Veselin Topalov, GM Loek Van Wely, GM Peter Heine Nielsen, GM Vassily Ivanchuk, and GM Levon Aronian. GM Levon Aronian just came off of a fantastic win defeating GM Peter Leko for the Linares title this year, however, this year's Amber proved be a tougher field.

In the blindfold section GM Alexander Morozevich proved to be the strongest player stomping the rest of the field with an impressive 9.5 points! The closest competitors (GM Anand and GM Vallejo Pons) were a full three points behind at 6.5. With 9.5 points in the blindfold section and 5.0 points in the rapid section GM Morozevich finished this year's tournament with a total score of 14.5 points.

In the rapids section GM Anand proved to be the toughest player once again this year. Scoring 8.0 points, GM Anand finished 1.5 points ahead of the rest. GM Anand won the rapids section at Amber in 2004 and 2005 as well! With 8.0 points in the rapids and 6.5 points in the blindfold section GM Anand finished this year's tournament with a total score of 14.5 points.

The final standings:

            Blind  Rapid  Total
Anand       6.5    8.0    14.5
Morozevich  9.5    5.0    14.5
Vallejo     6.5    5.5    12.0
Grischuk    6.0    5.5    11.5
Topalov     4.5    6.5    11.0
Leko        6.0    5.0    11.0
Aronian     4.0    6.5    10.5
Gelfand     5.5    5.0    10.5
van Wely    4.5    5.5    10.0
Svidler     5.5    4.0     9.5
Ivanchuk    3.5    5.5     9.0
Nielsen     4.0    4.0     8.0

The tournament started on March 18th and finished on March 30th.

Download all games from this year's event.

White to mate in three

Problem #814 **
submitted by watermelon

To play this puzzle on the ICC type:
tell trainingbot number 814

Then type:
play trainingbot

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GM Fabian Doettling Wins Dos Hermanas!

Last year it was German GM Daniel Fridman who won the tournament, whereas this year the winner of the seventh edition of the Internet Chess Tournament "Ciudad de Dos Hermanas", which was held from March 17th to 25th on the Internet Chess Club (ICC), was another German GM, Fabian Doettling, who has an International Rating of 2542 points.

More than 2000 players from all over the world registered for the event. 23 GM's, 11 of them with more than 2600 rating points, made it to the finals. In this group were legends such as Gata Kamsky and young elite players like Nakamura and Carlsen.

VII Ciudad de Dos Hermanas

Doettling won the 1800 euros first prize, and Baadur Jobava, another young Georgian GM, who recently won the Aeroflot Open, finished second.

Complete classifications, games in PGN format, and other interesting information can be found at the official Dos Hermanas website www.doshermanas.net. You can also view the final results, PGN files, and other details on the ICC Dos Hermanas tournament page.

Final standings:

1.	Fabian Doettling (GM) Germany
2.	Baadur Jobava (GM) Georgia
3-4.	Bu Xiangzhi (GM) China, Tigran L. Petrosian (GM) Armenia
5-8.	Boris Savchenko (IM) Russia, Surya Sekhar Ganguly (GM) India, Magnus Carlsen (GM) Norway, Sergei Movsesian (GM) Czech Republic
9-16.	Gata Kamsky (GM) USA, Goran Todorovic (GM) Serbia, Tamaz Gelashvili (GM) Georgia, Hikaru Nakamura (GM) USA, Eljanov Pavel (GM) Ukraine, Pawel Jaracz (GM) Poland , Zviad Izoria (GM) Georgia, Zhang Pengxiang (GM ) China


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Live Coverage: 6th Karpov Tournament The ICC had full live relay coverage of the 6th Karpov Tournament from Poikovsky, Russia. Coverage started on March 18 and is continued until March 28. GM Alexei Shirov proved to be the toughest to beat at this exciting tournament finishing ahead of GM Evgeny Bareev, GM Alexey Dreev, GM Ruslan Ponomariov, and GM Vadim Zvjaginsev. Final standings: 6.0 GM Alexei Shirov (Spain 2709) 5.0 GM Evgeny Bareev (Russia 2698) 5.0 GM Alexey Dreev (Russia 2697) 5.0 GM Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine 2723) 5.0 GM Vadim Zvjaginsev (Russia 2664) 4.5 GM Evgeniy Najer (Russia 2652) 4.5 GM Ivan Sokolov (Netherlands 2689) 4.0 GM Sergei Rublevsky (Russia 2665) 3.5 GM Alexander Onischuk (USA 2650) 2.5 GM Viorel Bologan (Moldova 2661) For more information downloadable games and details on this event visit the ICC 6th Karpov tournament page.

Upcoming Coverages: 2006 European Individual Chess Championship The ICC will be having live relay coverage of the 2006 European Individual Chess Championship from Turkey. Live relay coverage will be taking place on April 4th through the 16th. Games start at 08:00 EST. US College Final Four The ICC will also be having live relay coverage of the US College Final Four from Dallas, Texas. Live relay coverage will be taking place on April 1st and 2nd. The teams that have made it to the final four are University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), Miami Dade College, Duke University.

Game commentary from IM Malcolm Pein IM Malcolm Pein writes for the Daily Telegraph.
Galliamova,A (2467) - Xu,Y (2502) [E13] WWCC 2006 Ekaterinburg RUS (6.3), 25.03.2006 1.d4 e6 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.c4 b6 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.Qc2 Bb7 6.Bg5 h6 7.Bh4 c5 [7...g5 8.Bg3 Ne4 Is another main line in which Black will capture the bishop and White can recapture either way] 8.a3 Bxc3+ 9.Qxc3 In comparison with the main line Nimzo Indian 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 White is helped by the early c7-c5 which opens dark squares for White's unchallenged bishop 9...cxd4 10.Nxd4 Ne4?! Heading for a bad endgame where the bishops and dark square weakness count 11.Bxd8 Nxc3 12.Bc7 [12.Bh4 might have been even better 12...Na4 13.Nb5!; 12.Bh4 g5 13.Bg3 Ne4 14.Nb5 Na6 15.Nd6+ Nxd6 16.Bxd6] 12...Na6 13.Bf4 Ne4 14.Nb5 g5 15.Be3 Ke7 16.Rd1 d5 17.f3 Nf6 [17...Nd6 18.Nxd6 Kxd6 19.Bf2 With the advantage ] 18.Bd4! 18...Rhd8 19.e3 Rd7 20.h4 Nc7 21.hxg5 hxg5 22.c5! Forcing open more dark squares and burying the Bb7 22...a6 Black cannot take on c5 and so has to give up a pawn [Black cannot take 22...bxc5 23.Bxc5+ Kd8 24.Rh8+ Nfe8 25.Nd6] 23.Nxc7 Rxc7 24.cxb6 Rc6 25.a4 Nd7 26.a5 This game will haunt Galliamova, losing from a position with an extra protected passed pawn, the open h file and two great bishops 26...Nc5 27.Bc3 Na4 28.Bb4+ Kf6 29.b3 Nc5 30.Rb1!? [30.Bc3+ Ke7 31.b4 was even better] 30...Nd7 31.Be2 Rc2 32.Rh6+ Kg7 33.Rh5 Kf6 34.g3? [34.Bd6 Rac8 35.Bc7 when the threat ofb3-b4-b5 forces Black to take on c7] 34...Rac8 35.f4 gxf4 36.gxf4 Ra2 Intending Rcc2 and maybe d5-d4 with counterplay 37.Rd1 [37.Rh7! Rcc2? 38.Bh5 wins] 37...Nc5 [37...Rcc2 38.Rd2] 38.Bc3+ Ke7 39.f5?! To play f6 but Black rules it out 39...Ne4 40.Bb4+ Kf6 41.Bd3 Rg8! The position is transformed and the white king is under attack. To keep the match alive Galliamova should have headed for a draw. 42.Rh6+ Ke5 43.Rh1 Rg3 44.Bxe4 Rxe3+ 45.Kf1 dxe4 46.fxe6 Kxe6 47.Rh6+ Kf5 48.Rd7 Rf3+ 49.Ke1 Rxb3 50.Bd2 [50.Rxf7+! Ke5 51.Rh5+ Ke6 52.Re7+ Kf6 53.Rh6+ Kg5 54.Rd6 Rb1+ 55.Rd1 Rxb4 56.Rxb7 Rxa5] 50...e3 this wins 51.Bc1 Rb1 52.Rc7 Bf3 53.Rhc6 Bxc6 54.Rxc6 Raa1 55.Ke2 [55.Kd1 e2+] 55...Rxa5 56.Bxe3 Rb2+ 57.Kf3 Rb3 58.Rc7 Re5 or Raa3 wins 0-1


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ICC Puzzle Solution

1.Re8+ Bxe8 2.Rxe8+ Rf8 3.Rxf8#