Anand 3rd in Wijk Aan Zee 2008 being half a point behind winners Carslen and Aronian

Anand is half a point behind the winners Carslen(8.0) and Aronian(8.0) to secure the 3rd place along with Radjabov in Wijk Aan Zee 2008. The good news is that Anand(7.5) is 1 point ahead of Kramnik(6.5) and 1.5 ahead of Topalov(6.0) who I count as more dangerous opponents for him.



Source: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4417

Bobby Fischer Passed Away

Legendary Chess Champion R J Fischer aka Bobby Fischer has passed aways 18th Jan 2008 in Iceland due to kidney failure. This on-the-board great player is regarded by many as one the greatest chess players of all time. As of my poll in this site in the right navigation panel, he got 30% vote out of 115 to date being closely followed by Kasparov(28%) while Capablanca and Paul Morphy are at distant third with 9% each.

Here is the news of his death.

Kamsky wins World Cup 2007 to challenge Topalov

I believe except Anand and Kramnik, the only 2 other players who can really have a chance against Topalov are Ivanchuk and Kamsky. Chuky is out already, so Kamsky is the one who should win the cup and challenge Topalov. And this is exactly what happened. This way, we will get a great competition between Topalov and America's hope Kamsky while we already have the greatest match after Kasparov-Karpov era waiting for us - World Chess Championship 2008 between Anand and Kramnik. I believe people will like to see a Anand-Topalov, Anand-Ivanchuk and Anand-Kamsky match in future as opposed to anyone else you name it - Shirov? Nah, he already lost to Anand 3.5.0.5 big time earlier. Aronian, not enough to be the top of the world yet. Carlsen, count for him in future, not now. Kamsky was particularly tough for Anand in past while Topalov can beat anyone any day. Ivanchuk is in his career peak now and can pose trouble to any of Anand, Kramnik, Topalov, Kamsky. Lets see how it goes.

Anand Runner Up in World Blitz Championship

Anand became runner up after a costly blunder in the last round against Ivanchuk in the 2 days 38 round world blitz championship. Despite a very bad 1st day, Anand showed a great come back in second day by winning games in row and catch up Ivanchuk by round 29. In the last round decider game, both Anand and Ivanchuk had 24.5 points with 1.5 points ahead of the nearest trailer. Anand was completely winning the game but overlooked a night fork by Ivanchuk , proving anything can happen in a 4 minutes plus 2 seconds increment blitz game. Anand is the classical and rapid world chess champion and world bliz runner up.


Final Standings (38 rounds)

Place SNo. Name Fed. FIDE Total S.B. Wins
1 16 Ivanchuk, Vassily UKR 2787 25.5 480 19
2 4 Anand, Viswanathan IND 2801 24.5 437 18
3 3 Grischuk, Alexander RUS 2715 23.5 430.5 14
4 7 Kamsky, Gata USA 2714 23.5 429 16
5 8 Kramnik, Vladimir RUS 2785 21.5 393.75 13
6 1 Leko, Peter HUN 2755 21.5 392.5 13
7 9 Rublevsky, Sergei RUS 2676 21.5 385.75 16
8 18 Morozevich, Alexander RUS 2755 21 378.5 16
9 17 Carlsen, Magnus NOR 2714 20.5 352 15
10 13 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar AZE 2752 18.5 344.75 13
11 20 Adams, Michael ENG 2729 18.5 337.25 13
12 11 Ponomariov, Ruslan UKR 2705 18 339.5 15
13 5 Kasimdzhanov, Rustam UZB 2690 17.5 319.75 11
14 2 Dreev, Alexey RUS 2607 17 313.5 12
15 14 Gelfand, Boris ISR 2736 17 310.75 10
16 6 Savchenko, Boris RUS 2583 17 291.5 13
17 19 Shirov, Alexei ESP 2739 16 298.75 11
18 12 Karpov, Anatoly RUS 2670 14 252 8
19 10 Bacrot, Etienne FRA 2695 12 235 9
20 15 Korotylev, Alexey RUS 2600 11.5 205.25 7

Vishy Anand is the new World Chess Champion

At last my wait for this day finished. Anand played a super double round robin tournament in Mexico to come out clear winnerof the tournament and new World Chess Champion scoring 9 our fo 13 with 4 wins and 10 draws. He is the only undefeated player in the tournament. He played great chess here showing his deep preparation and spirit and defending nicely at bad times throughout this championship.



Gelfand played a very nice tournament trailing Anand by a point at the finish but a last round victory by Kramnik ensured the equal 8 points for both of him and Kramnik and hence Kramnik became runner up in baclose score calculation.

Its fun time now to enjoy for Indians. They have recently won the Tewnty20 World Cricket Championship and now the world chess championship.

Congratulations to Anand! Enjoy the success.

World Chess Championship 2007 Starts Tomorrow

After a long wait, I will be able to follow a great encounter amongst the 8 strongest chess players in the world now. Yes, Mexico World Chess Champinship 2007 starts tomorrow. It will be category 21 double round-robin tournament. Here is a table that details the participants.

Player	Nat.	Rtn	Birth
Vishwanathan Anand	IND	2792	1969
Vladimir Kramnik	RUS	2769	1975
Alexander Morozevich	RUS	2758	1977
Peter Leko	HUN	2751	1979
Levon Aronian	ARM	2750	1982
Peter Svidler	RUS	2735	1976
Boris Gelfand	ISR	2733	1968
Alexander Grischuk	RUS	2726	1983

Well, I have been waiting to see Anand to be the champion of the chess world. However in recent years the championship has been captured by Kramnik and Topalov instead. This show is the best and probably one of the last few chances of Anand, considering his age, to prove his supremecy once again. The various online polls show Anand as top favorite closely followed by Kramnik. In fact, in a recent interview kasparov nominated Anand as the clear favorite. However, Kramnik is in great shape and Aronian is the other contender for the crown with a good result against both Anand and Kramnik. The other five participants are also capable of making good results in any event. It will be a memorable battle amongst all of them.

Courtesy to Susan Polgar's Blog, here is the official link to watch the games live in action.

http://partidas.chessmexico.com

Here are a few more articles on this.

http://story.mexicostar.com/index.php/ct/9/cid/4b980140662cfc90/id/281684/cs/1/
http://affairsofchess-wydarzenia.blogspot.com/2007/09/anand-top-seed-in-chess-world.html
http://midaschess.blogspot.com/2007/09/mexico-are-you-ready-for-show.html

Anand won Mainz Rapid World Chess Championship for 10th Time

Yes, Anand is still the best rapid chess player. He has won the final against Aronian with a black piece win in the 4th game to take revenge of the loss in Chess960 final against him just a few days back. Now all the eyes on Mexico Classical World Chess Championship. Go Anand, go!

Here is what Anand remembers about his Rapid World Championship Titles during last one and half decade.

http://www.hindu.com/2007/08/26/stories/2007082656011800.htm