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 Carlsen Tops Polls...then Crashes
Magnus Carlsen is topping the polls these days. The young Norwegian chess star recently won the the Chess Oscar for 2010, a title voted on by chess journalist for the Player of the Year award, as he edged out World Champion Vishy Anand by just 20-points in one of the closest races ever in the contest since its inception in 1967. "I am happy to have won the Chess Oscar, especially in a year where there was a World Championship," commented Carlsen.
And the new September FIDE Rating list published last week also saw Carlsen retain his No.1 spot with a 2-points increase over Anand. After winning Biel, Carlsen is now 2823 with Anand (who didn't play any games during the rating period) at 2817; Levon Aronian stay's close to the top two by gaining 2-points at the World Team Championships to be 2807; and Vladimir Kramnik retains the Russian No.1 spot by moving back to 4th place at 2791 above Sergey Karjakin after Dortmund and the Russian Championships. The new Fide top 100 can be viewed at http://ratings.fide.com/top.phtml?list=men
But despite topping those polls, it was Anand who had the last laugh by dominating the Botvinnik Memorial rapid play in Moscow, as Carlsen, uncharacteristically, suffered a final day meltdown by losing all of his games to finish in the cellar in last place! Anand top-scored on 4.5/6 with Kramnik and Aronian tied for second on 3/6 with Carlsen on 1.5/6.
And later this month in Sao Paulo, Brazil gets set to co-host the first half of this year's Grand Slam Masters Final, with Carlsen, Anand, Aronian, Vassily Ivanchuk, Hikaru Nakamura and Francisco Vallejo Pons. The Sao Paulo leg will run 25 September to 1 October with the circus then moving to Bilbao for the final leg, running 5-11 October. This will be one of the September/October highlights on Chess.FM on ICC with full live coverage, daily Game of the Days and trivia contests where ICC members can win a 1-year subscription to New in Chess magazine each round of the tournament.
Fide World Cup
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The circus is back in town again in Khanty-Mansiysk, Siberia, Russia, with the FIDE World Cup knockout tournament underway at the purpose-built Ugorian Chess Academy, a unique three-level building of some 2845sqm. And apart from the $1.6m prize fund on offer, there's the added lure of three places for the next world championship cycle on offer.
There was a a huge field of 128-players doing battle for those spots, and already we are heading for the final 16. Some of the high-profile casualties already eliminated being Peter Leko and Alexei Shirov - and the latest victim being the No.1 seed, Sergey Karjakin, who was knocked out by Judit Polgar, the world's strongest-ever woman player.
Monday is the rapid playoff for the final 16, with Vassily Ivanchuk back in the fray after his comeback win over Emil Sutovsky. ICC has daily live game coverage of the Fide World Cup at 5am on match days. Checkout http://www.chessclub.com/finger/WorldCup11
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Online Global Indian Summer
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Late last month India stormed the online world with a new tournament hosted in conjunction with ICC. The India Global Internet Speed Chess Tournament had a guaranteed prize-fund of over $9,000 - but the novelty was that this tournament was like a normal tournament you would play in over-the-board with an entry fee to get into the tournament.
And with the entry fee being as little as $12.99, many agreed that this was the way to go. 31 titled players battled it out in the top open section, with the title going down to the wire of the final round with five Grandmasters in the hunt. In the end, front-runner GMZaven Andriasyan (ZavenGrozny) of Armenia, the former World U-20 Champion, held on to win outright with a winning score of 9.5/11, a half point ahead of the chasing pack. The other three tournaments were in different rating bands to allow players to play for big cash prizes within their own rating strength.
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All the cross tables for the winners and a download link for all the games from the 1st India Global Internet Speed Chess Tournament can be found below.
GISCT-open | Manager: Kiebitz | Sunday, August 28 | 10:30 AM EDT | 147 players
GISCT-u2200 | Manager: Kiebitz | Sunday, August 27 | 10:30 AM EDT | 93 players
GISCT-u2000 | Manager: Kiebitz | Sunday, August 21 | 10:30 AM EDT | 128 players
GISCT-u1600 | Manager: Kiebitz | Sunday, August 20 | 10:30 AM EDT | 72 players
Featuring Chess.FM
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One of the great benefits of ICC (apart from all the top-notch online play and tournaments) in recent years has been the upgrade in our Chess.FM service - many members agree that the live Chess.FM commentary and GOTDs from our elite tournament coverage alone is worthy of their membership fee. As a member, you also have access each day throughout the year to our regular weekly shows: GM Ronen Har-Zvi Ronens Opening Survey (Mondays), IM John Watson Beyond the Opening (Tuesdays), GM Larry Christinasen Attack with LarryC (Wednesdays), GM Boris Alterman Gambit Guide (Thursdays), GM Joel Benjamin Game of the Week (Fridays), NM Dan Heisman Improve Your Chess (Saturdays) and GM Alex Yermolinsky Every Russian Schoolboy Knows (Sundays).
Join ICC today by clicking here to view all the regular Chess.FM show - and not forgetting the hundreds of archived shows!
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Every Russian Schoolboy Knows
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There's no questioning that GM Alex Yermolinsky's new show for ICC's Chess.FM, "Every Russian Schoolboy Knows", has become a big-hit with our members - and so big a hit in fact that, by popular demand, it is now moving from being monthly to weekly, and with a new slot of every Sunday.
The first in his weekly series starts just as we are commemorating the 100th anniversary of the birth of the legendary Soviet three-time world champion, Mikhail Botvinnik, who is credited in the first place with coining the chess aphorism "Every Russian schoolboy knows..." And to start his new season, GM Yermolinsky will pay his own tribute to the Patriarch with a two-parter entitled "The Great Botvinnik". |
And for the start of GM Alex Yermolinsky's now weekly show, we're giving away for free the first two episodes of his series accompanied with a 5-minute free preview of all his other shows. To view them all in full, join ICC today by clicking here!
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The ICC Network
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ICC has now revamped its Facebook page - and we've had a great response from members and non-members looking to take part in the activities there, where we'll shortly be offering prizes and special membership offers.
On offer will be free Chess.FM video content and ICC membership extensions - and for non-members who have enjoyed in the past free ICC trials that have expired, look to our Facebook page for exclusive extra free trial times! We'll also have all the latest ICC news and tournament results as well as some fun caption competitions. And all coming soon as we continually update our Facebook page!
Go to Facebook now and click on our "like" button now - and what's not to be liked about ICC!
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