Chess (March): Candidates' Tournament begins in London on March 15

[Jack Rabbit]

Last edited Fri Mar 1, 2013, 04:19 PM - Edit history (1)

[font size="4"]Candidates' Tournament begins in London on March 15[/font]

[center][/center][font size="1"]Photo by Diliff (http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User iliff) in [link:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Ben|Wikipedia]
(Creative Commons License, Attribution/Share Alike)
[/font]
The first round of the 2013 Candidates' Tournament begins in London on Friday, March 15.

The winner of the event earns the right to challenge reigning world champion Vishy Anand for the title in a match tentatively scheduled for October or November.

The tournament is a double round robin among eight players: Levon Aronian (Armenia); the world's highest rated player, Magnus Carlsen (Norway); Boris Gelfand (Israel), Alexander Grischuk (Russia); Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine); former world champion Vladimir Kramnik (Russia); Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan); and Peter Svidler (Russia).

The schedule calls for rounds to be played on three consectutive days with a rest day on the fourth until 14 rounds are completed. The 14th round will be played Monday, April 1 with any necessary tie-breaks to be played the following day.

Magnus will be a heavy favorite in Las Vegas and Monte Carlo as he currently outrates world number two, Kramnik, by 62 points.


[font size="4"]Fabulous Fabiano wins Zürich Chess Challenge[/font]

Italian national champion Fabiano Caruana won the Zurich Chess Challenge today in Zürich when he won his final game against Israeli GM Boris Gelfand in 58 moves.

In the only other game today in the six-round double round robin quadrangular event, reigning world champion Vishy Anand defeated former world champion Vladimir Kramnik in 27 moves. That assured il signore Caruana first place if he merely avoided loss against Boris Abramovich, but also meant that Boris Abramovich would take first place himself if he had won the game.

The entire first half of the tournament saw no decisvie game. In Round 4, il signore Caruana defeated Sri Anand to take over first place in what proved to be the event's only decisive game until today.


[font size="4"]Cappelle-la-Grande Open enters final round with five-way tie[/font]

The 30th International Open in Cappelle-la-Grande, France is knotted in a five-way tie for first place after eight rounds with only one left to play at the end of today's action.

Grandmasters Sanan Sjugirov of Russia, Sergey Fedochuk of Ukraine and Alexei Fedorov of Belarus began the day tied for first place with 6 points each. Sjugirov and Fedorchuk played each other to a 25-move draw while Fedorov drew with Armenian GM Tigran Gharamian, one of seven players tied with 5½ points each, in 26 moves.

In the group with 5½ points, Indian GM Parimarjan Negi defeated GM Nikola Djukic of Montenegro in 30 moves and Israeli GM Maxim Rodshtein took down Armenian IM Karen Grigoryan in 26 moves.

Thus, Sjugirov, Fedorchuk, Fedorov, Negi and Rodshtein will go to tomorrow's final round tied for first place at 6½ points each. Tomorrow's pairings have not yet been announced.

Tomorrow's action will be broadcast live on the official tournament website.

[font color="red" size="1"]UPDATE:[/font]

Tomorrow's pairing on the first three boards:

1. Fedorov-Sjugirov
2. Fedorchuk-Negi
3. Rodshtein-Gharamian