Chess news for week ending May 7

[Jack Rabbit]

Jan Timman wins in Malmø

Dutch grandmaster Jan Timman, at 54 the oldest competitor in the 10-player field, won the international tournament in Malmø, Sweden yesterday with 7 points out of a possible nine.



Jan Timman

Timman began the tournament with three wins in a row and never relinquished his lead. Overall, he won five of his nine games and drew the other four.

Swedish grandmaster Tiger Hillarp-Persson and Saut Atalik of Turkey tied for second with 6 points each. Hillarp-Persson and Atalik each won 4, lost 1 and drew 4.

Timman, who was once a contender for the world title, does not play a particularly flashy style of chess. None of his wins in Malmø featured any fiery sacrifices or sharp tactics. However, this slow and steady style has served him well over the years. He has won the national championship of the Netherlands nine times.

Timman's most important win in Malmø came against Hillarp-Persson in the second round.

Three tie for first in Dubai Open

Three grandmasters tied for first place with 7 points out of nine games in the 8th annual Dubai open, completed last Tuesday.

The three are Sergey Fedorchuk of Ukraine, Gabriel Sargissian and Tigran Petrosian, both of Armenia. All three had identical records of 5 wins and 4 draws.

Petrosian, born in 1984, is no relation to the great former world champion Tigran Petrosian (1929-1984).

Petrosian came from behind in the early rounds to win consecutive games in the fifth, sixth and seventh rounds. Petrosian's best game came was the seventh round against grandmaster Giorgi Kacheishvili of Georgia.



Atousa Pourkashiyan

One of the most fascinating stories of the tournament was that of Atousa Pourkashiyan, a 17-year-old master from Iran, who defeated two grandmasters in consecutive rounds. Playing Black in round four, Ms. Pourkashiyan defeated Valery Neverov of Ukraine and in round five, this time with White, she was victorious over Georgia's Zurab Sturua. Ms. Pourkashiyan finished the tournament with 5 wins and 4 losses.



Wesley So

Also playing fine chess in Dubai was 12-year-old Filipino master Wesley So, who scored 5 points (4 wins, 3 losses and 2 draws). Wesley turned in this gem in the eighth round against Maria Sergeeva, a women's grandmaster from Kazakhstan.

There were 142 players participating in the open tournament.

Sarajevo Tournament begins today

The annual international tournament in Sarajevo, Bosnia, begins today with six strong grandmasters competing.

The tournament is a double round robin. The average rating of the six participants is about 2660.

The competitors are Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu of Romania, India's Krishnan Sasikiran, Russian Vladimir Malakhov, Latvian-born Arkady Naiditsch, who now represents Germany, 15-year-old Norwegian Magnus Carlsen and 19-year-old Bosnian Borki Predojevic.

The first round of the tournament has just completed (as of 9:26 am PDT Sunday). Nisipeanu, playing White, defeated Sasikiran in a 51-move Spanish game, while the games Carlsen-Malakhov and Naiditsch-Predojevic ended in draws. The tournament web site is here.

A B Tournament with ten participants, four grandmasters and six masters, will take place simultaneously to the main event. The grandmasters participating in the B tournament are Bojan Kurajica and Emir Dizdarevic, both of Bosnia, Slovenia's Adrijan Mihaljcisin and Milan Drasko of Yugoslavia.

Sofia Tournament begins Wednesday

The second annual international tournament in Sofia, Bulgaria, begins Wednesday after opening ceremonies Tuesday night.

Sofia is a double round robin tournament with six participants, all from among the top players in the world, including three of the world's top four and four of the top six. The average rating of the participants is 2745. For reference, that is a couple of points higher than the current rating of Peter Svidler of Russia, the world's fourth-ranked player, who is among the participants in the tournament.

In addition to Svidler, the other competitors in Sofia are FIDE world champion Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria, India's Viswanathan Anand, Ukrainian Ruslan Ponomariov, Etienne Bacrot of France and Russian-born Gata Kamsky of the United States. Kamsky, who was once in the world's top twenty, took five years off from competitive chess to study law. He began a comeback about two years ago. He is currently ranked 33rd in the world.



Gata Kamsky will represent the US in Sofia

Special rules of the tournament make it almost impossible for the players to agree to short draws. Draws are permitted only in cases of a repetition of the same position with same player to move three times, perpetual check or a theoretical draw. All draw offers must be made through an arbiter, who is advised by a international grandmaster Zurab Azmaiparashvili of Georgia, who is also the Vice President of FIDE.

The tournament web site is here.

This week's photo credits:
Jan Timman from the web site of The Right Move
Atousa Pourkashiyan from Abu Dhabi Chess
Wesley So from the official website of the Dubai Open
Gata Kamsky from the American Continental Championship (Paraguay)