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

[Jack Rabbit]

12. Updates (The Ides of March)

[font size="4"]Candidates' Tournament Begins[/font]


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The Candidates' Tournament to determine the official challenger to Vishy Anand's title of world champion began today in London among eight of the world's strongest player, including the four highest rated players as of now, Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik, Levon Aronian and Teimour Radjabov.

Today's first round action concluded just minutes ago with all games ending in draws.

The event may be followed on the official website featuring live commentary from London-based international masters Lawrence Trent and Malcolm Pein. The games begin at 2 pm London time (7 am PDT).

[font size="4"]Ukraine Wins World Women's Team Championship[/font]


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Ukraine won the gold medal at the World Women's Team Championship held from March 4 thru 12 in Astana, the capital of the central Asian republic of Kazakhstan.

The Ukrainian team consisted of Katya Lahno, reigning world women's champion Anna Ushenina, Mariya Muzychuk, Natalia Zhukova and Inna Gaponenko. A team would in each round play on four boards against another team. Each team carried five players, resting one every round.

China won the silver medal and Russia took the bronze. Other teams represented Georgia, India, the United States, Romania, France, Turkey and the host country, Kazakhstan.

Individual gold medals went to Ju Wenjun (China) on board 1, Irina Krush (USA) on board 2, Tan Zhongyi (China) on board 3, Natalia Zhukova (Ukraine) on board 4 and Olga Girya (Russia) for the reservists.

[font size="4"]Eight Players Tie for First in Cappelle-la-Grande[/font]


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Russian grandmaster Sanan Sjugirov finished first among equals out of the eight players who tied for first place with 7 points in nine rounds in the 29th International Open in Cappelle-la-Grande, near Dunkirque in France, held from February 23 thru March 2.

The other first place finishers, all grandmasters, were Parimarjan Negi (India), Max Rodshtein (Israel), Sergey Fedorchuk (Ukraine), Eric Hansen (Canada), Vlad-Cristian Jianu (Romania), Alexey Feforov (Belarus) and Yuri Vovk (Ukraine), who won the 25th Cappelle-la-Grande outright in 2009.