It's it's the World Chess Blitz!
Are you ready, Magnus? Aha. Hikaru? Yeah! Vladimir? OK. Allright, fellas, let's go!
The end of the Tal Memorial in Moscow is, yet again, followed by another side tribute to the legendary former world champion with the staging of the VI World Blitz Championship, running 16th-18th November (14 rounds the first two days, 10 the last) and starting at 7am ICC.
Defending champion Magnus Carlsen heads the field that also includes all the players (with the exception of Shirov) from the Memorial to make it a very strong twenty-player field vying for the title that in the past was won by Tal. The full line-up can be found by clicking here.
And not only will ICC be relaying the games live, but we will also be providing Chess.FM commentary by GM Yasser Seirawan for all three days of the contest! As a special preview for non-members on what they are missing, we've provided a free link (see GOTD table below) to tune in to Yasser's 26-minute Game of the Day from the Tal Memorial, as he expertly annotated Hikaru Nakamura's round 2 win over Pavel Eljanov. Click here to play.
Just sign-up today for ICC and you can sit back and tune in to all the action from the World Blitz with the best in Grandmaster commentary with GM Yasser Seirawan.
Aronian and Karjakin stand Tal
The Mikhail Tal Memorial in Moscow ended perhaps as the legendary former world champion would have wanted it: a dramatic final round and half the field in the running for first place, and all kinds of surprises and shocks right to the very last moves of the tournament.
Going into the final round, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov proved to be the surprise package by being in clear first, half a point ahead of frontrunner Levon Aronian and Sergey Karjakin, with Wang Hao, Alexander Grischuk and Hikaru Nakamura another half point behind. But nerves got the better of the Azeri, as he blew his big chance for a super-tournament victory with an horrific loss to out-of-form Boris Gelfand - a result that lifted the Israeli out of the cellar.
Wang Hao then proceeded to also blow a promising position against Karjakin, as the newly-minted Russian showed great determination and resources to hang on for the half point, as he salvaged his position to join Mamedyarov and Aronian in the clubhouse on 5.5/9. The scene was then set for the Nakamura - who up to this point had been the revelation of the tournament - to join them in equal first, as he slowly outplayed Grischuk. But - to the disappointment of the extremely large ICC audience willing him on to a phenomenal performance on Russian soil - all his hard work ended in vain at the end of an 85 move epic, as he erred to give his Russian rival the draw.
In the end, by virtue of a second set of tiebreaks (the first eliminating Mamedyarov), Aronian and Karjakin couldn’t be separated and thus shared the title.
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Game of the Day
If you want to listen to all of Chess.FM's Game of the Days from the Tal Memorial (including 5 from GM Yasser Seirawan), then now is the time to join ICC by clicking here.
Final standings
N |
Name |
Title |
FED |
FIDE |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
0 |
PTS |
TPR |
| 1. |
Aronian, Levon |
g |
ARM |
2801 |
* |
½ |
½ |
½ |
½ |
½ |
1 |
1 |
½ |
½ |
5½ |
2832 |
| 2. |
Karjakin, Sergey |
g |
RUS |
2760 |
½ |
* |
½ |
½ |
½ |
½ |
1 |
1 |
½ |
½ |
5½ |
2836 |
| 3. |
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar |
g |
AZE |
2763 |
½ |
½ |
* |
½ |
½ |
1 |
½ |
0 |
1 |
1 |
5½ |
2836 |
| 4. |
Grischuk, Alexander |
g |
RUS |
2771 |
½ |
½ |
½ |
* |
½ |
½ |
½ |
½ |
½ |
1 |
5 |
2798 |
| 5. |
Nakamura, Hikaru |
g |
USA |
2741 |
½ |
½ |
½ |
½ |
* |
½ |
½ |
½ |
½ |
1 |
5 |
2802 |
| 6. |
Wang Hao |
g |
CHN |
2727 |
½ |
½ |
0 |
½ |
½ |
* |
½ |
1 |
1 |
½ |
5 |
2803 |
| 7. |
Kramnik, Vladimir |
g |
RUS |
2791 |
0 |
0 |
½ |
½ |
½ |
½ |
* |
½ |
1 |
1 |
4½ |
2753 |
| 8. |
Gelfand, Boris |
g |
ISR |
2741 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
½ |
½ |
0 |
½ |
* |
1 |
0 |
3½ |
2679 |
| 9. |
Shirov, Alexei |
g |
ESP |
2735 |
½ |
½ |
0 |
½ |
½ |
0 |
0 |
0 |
* |
1 |
3 |
2634 |
| 10. |
Eljanov, Pavel |
g |
UKR |
2742 |
½ |
½ |
0 |
0 |
0 |
½ |
0 |
1 |
0 |
* |
2½ |
2592 |
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ICC Dasher 1.5 Released!

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Another improvement to Dasher is available, with greater control over examined and broadcast games.
We've added buttons and menus to make it easier to review and examine games.
You now have a Lecture Marks menu, a button to Revert to Main Line, and several Examine Commands at your disposal.
We also fixed some bugs affecting the saving of PGN games. So head to the download page and get your update to Dasher now! A full list of updates can be found on the release notes page.
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