Anand-Gelfand 2012

Gelfand won game 6 against Grischuk, to win the match 3.5-2.5 and earn the right to face Anand next year.

Alekhine-Capablanca 1927
Tal-Botvinnik 1960
Fischer-Spassky 1972
Kasparov-Karpov 1985
Anand-Gelfand 2012

One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn't belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?

Ivanchuk shares first at Capablanca Memorial

with Le, who now joins the 2700 club.

Candidates Semi-Finals Results

Gelfand over Kamsky (on tiebreak)
Grischuk over Kramnik (on tiebreak)

Does it really matter now?  Neither Gelfand nor Grischuk can beat Anand in a WC match.

Candidates Quarter-Final Results

Kamsky over Topalov
Gelfand over Memadyarov
Grischuk over Aronian (on tiebreak)
Kramnik over Radjabov (on tiebreak)

Kamsky US Champion

Kamsky beat Schulman in the tiebreak.
Anna Zatonskih is the women's champion.

Nakamura wins Wijk aan Zee

US GM Hikaru Nakamura upset 1-4 seeds to win his first Super-GM tournament.

2011 Rating List

Rank Name Title Nation Rating Gms Born

 1 Carlsen, Magnus  g  NOR  2814  17  1990
 2 Anand, Viswanathan  g  IND  2810  17  1969
 3 Aronian, Levon  g  ARM  2805  9  1982
 4 Kramnik, Vladimir  g  RUS  2784  16  1975
 5 Karjakin, Sergey  g  RUS  2776  20  1990
 6 Topalov, Veselin  g  BUL  2775  10  1975
 7 Grischuk, Alexander  g  RUS  2773  20  1983
 8 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar  g  AZE  2772  9  1985
 9 Ivanchuk, Vassily  g  UKR  2764  0  1969
 10 Nakamura, Hikaru  g  USA  2751  16  1987
 11 Ponomariov, Ruslan  g  UKR  2744  0  1983
 11 Radjabov, Teimour  g  AZE  2744  0  1987

Rating inflation continues apace as the 2700 Club swells to 39 members.

Chess WC candidates

Winner and runner-up of the 2008–2010 FIDE Grand Prix:  Levon Aronian, Teimour Radjabov

Winner of the 2009 World Cup:  Boris Gelfand
Finalists from the last World Chess Championship cycle:  Veselin Topalov, Gata Kamsky
Based on rating:  Vladimir Kramnik
Other:  Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (organizers' nominee), Alexander Grischuk (replacement for Carlsen)

Candidates matches scheduled for April May 3rd to 27th, 2011 (Kazan, Russia).  First round pairings are...

First bracket

Topalov (BUL) - Kamsky (USA)
Gelfand (ISR) - Mamedyarov (AZE)

Second bracket

Kramnik (RUS) - Radjabov (AZE)
Aronian (ARM) - Grischuk (RUS)

The world championship match itself is scheduled to take place in 2012.  Let's see how long this goes without modification by FIDE.

Kramnik wins Bilbao

Vladimir Kramnik	10	(+2 -0 =4)
Viswanathan Anand	8	(+1 -0 =5)
Magnus Carlsen	6	(+1 -2 =3)
Alexey Shirov	4	(+0 -2 =4)

History of the World Computer CC and World Microcomputer CC

World Computer Chess Championship
Stockholm 1974 - Kaissa
Toronto 1977 - Chess 4.6
Linz 1980 - Belle
New York 1983 - Cray Blitz
Cologne 1986 - Cray Blitz
Edmonton 1989 - Deep Thought
Madrid 1992 - Chessmachine
Shatin 1995 - Fritz
Jakarta 1996 - Shredder
Paris 1997 - Junior
Paderborn 1999 - Shredder
London 2000 - Shredder
Maastricht 2001 - Deep Junior
Maastricht 2002 - Deep Junior
Graz 2003 - Shredder
Ramat-Gan 2004 - Deep Junior
Reykjavík 2005 - Zappa
Turin 2006 - Junior
Amsterdam 2007 - Rybka
Beijing 2008 - Rybka
Pamplona 2009 - Rybka

World Micro Computer Chess Championship
(Microcomputer winners who also won Computer titles have been placed in the above list instead.)
1980 London - Fidelity Chess Challenger
1981 Travemünde - Fidelity X
1983 Budapest - Fidelity Elite A/S
1984 Glasgow - Fidelity Elite X, Mephisto, Princhess X, Psion
1985 Amsterdam - Mephisto / Nona
1986 Dallas - Mephisto
1987 Rome - Mephisto / Psion
1988 Almería - Mephisto
1989 Portoroz - Mephisto
1990 Lyon - Mephisto
1991 Vancouver - ChessMachine (Gideon)
1993 Munich - HIARCS
1995 Paderborn - MChess Pro 5.0

39th Chess Olympiad Results

Gold: Ukraine (Ivanchuk, Ponomariov, Eljanov, Efimenko, Moiseenko)
Silver:  Russia (Kramnik, Grischuk, Svidler, Karjakin, Malakhov)
Bronze:  Israel (Gelfand, Sutovsky, Smirin, Rodshtein, Mikhalevski)

Chess ratings - move over Elo‏ (Email from Anthony Goldbloom)

Hi Alberto,

I hope this is of interest.

Jeff Sonas, the creator of the Chessmetrics rating system, launched a competition to find a chess rating algorithm that performs better than the official Elo system. Within 24 hours, two teams had already created algorithms that made more accurate predictions than Elo. It's no surprise that Elo has been outdone — after all, the system was invented half a century ago, before we could easily crunch large amounts of historical data.

The competition requires entrants to build their rating systems based on the results of more than 65,000 historical chess games. Entrants then test their algorithms by predicting the results of another 7,809 games.

Regards,
Anthony

Ponomariov wins Dortmund

Winter on Capablanca

Capablanca: How I Learned to Play Chess

Reminiscences by Capablanca

Capablanca in the English Review

Capablanca on his Predecessors

The Capablanca-Pokorny Fiasco

Capablanca on San Sebastián, 1912

Steinitz Stuck and Capa Caught

Capablanca v Fonaroff

How Capablanca Became World Champion

Capablanca’s Reply to Lasker

Morrison v Capablanca, London, 1922

The London Rules

A Chess-Billiards Concoction

Capablanca in New York World (1925)

Analytical Disaccord

Capablanca on Moscow, 1925

Capablanca v Alekhine, 1927

A Fake Chess Photograph

A Lecture by Capablanca (1932)

Capablanca Interviewed in 1939

Capablanca on Maróczy

The Genius and the Princess

Capablanca’s Death

Books about Capablanca and Alekhine

Capablanca Goes Algebraic

Capablanca Book Destroyed

Immortal but Unknown

The Mysterious Frederick D. Rosebault

ChessBaron

For chess sets and over 400 other chess items, ChessBaron is a straighforward, honest and innovative chess retailer serving the chess market. It's located in the UK and delivers worldwide.

Ivanchuk wins Capablanca

Vassily Ivanchuk has won the Capablanca Memorial, for the fourth time – something no other player has yet achieved. Second was Ian Nepomniachtchi, followed by Cuba's Leinier Dominguez and Nigel Short.

On chess ratings

Alberto,

I thought that you and the chess community might find this interesting. My project, Kaggle, hosted a World Cup forecasting competition for statisticians. The variable that appeared most often in participants' statistical models was the Elo rating (and not betting prices of the official FIFA ranking).

Anthony

Grand Prix - Final Results

Leko-Gashimov
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.Nf3 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.g3 d6 6.Bg2 Bd7 7.Nc3 g6 8.O-O Bg7 9.Nc2 Ng4N 10.Bd2 h5 11.h3 Nge5 12.b3 Qc8 13.Kh2 f5 14.h4 (14.f4) g5 15.hxg5 h4 16.f3 Kf7 17.Rh1 Rh5 18.Nd5 Qh8 19.Rc1 Rg8 20.Qf1 Ke8 21.gxh4 Ng6 22.f4 e6 23.Nc7+ Ke7 24.Kg3 a6 25.Rh3 Rxh4 26.Qh1 Rxh3+ 27.Qxh3 Qxh3+ 28.Bxh3 Kd8 29.Na8 Rh8 30.Nb6 Be8 31.e3 Kc7 32.Na4 Bd7 33.Bg2 Nh4 34.Bh1 Ng6 35.Nc3 Nce7 36.Nb4 a5 37.Nd3 Bc6 38.Nf2 Kd7 39.Na4 e5 40.Bxc6+ Nxc6 41.Rh1 Rg8 42.Nb6+ Ke6 43.Nd5 Nce7 44.Nc7+ Kd7 45.Nb5 Nc6 46.Rd1 Ke6 47.Bc1 Rd8 48.Ba3 Bf8 49.Nd3 Be7 50.Nb2 Rh8 51.Bxd6 Rh4 52.Nd3 Bxd6 53.Nxd6 Rg4+ 54.Kf2 b6 55.fxe5 Ncxe5 56.Nb5 Rxg5 57.Nxe5 Kxe5 58.Rd5+ Kf6 59.Nd4 f4 60.Rd6+ Kf7 61.Rxb6 fxe3+ 62.Kxe3 Rg3+ 63.Kf2 Rd3 64.Nf3 Rc3 65.a4 Kg7 66.Rb5 Nf4 67.Nd2 Ne6 68.Rxa5 Nd4 69.Ra7+ Kg6 70.Rb7 Kf5 71.a5 Rd3 72.Ke1 Re3+ 73.Kd1 Rh3 74.Kc1 Rc3+ 75.Kb1 Rd3 76.a6 Rxd2 77.a7 Rd1+ 78.Kb2 Rd2+ 79.Kc3 1-0

Inarkiev-Svidler
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.g3 c6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Bg2 d5 6.Qb3 O-O 7.O-O Qb6 8.Nc3 Rd8 9.Rd1 Bf5 10.Ne1 dxc4N 11.Qxc4 Na6 12.e4 Bg4 13.Bf3 Be6 14.d5 Bg4 15.Bxg4 Nxg4 16.Qe2 Ne5 17.Bg5 Qc5 18.Rac1 Re8 19.dxc6 Nxc6 20.Rd5 Qb6 21.Be3 Qc7 22.Nb5 Qb8 23.Nd3 Rd8 24.a3 e6 25.Rxd8+ Qxd8 26.b4 Qe7 27.Kg2 Nab8 28.e5 Nd7 29.f4 f6 30.exf6 Nxf6 31.Nd4 Nxd4 32.Bxd4 Qd7 33.Bb2 b6 34.Kg1 Rd8 35.Re1 Ne8 36.Nf2 Bxb2 37.Qxb2 Kf7 38.Ne4 h6 39.Nf2 Nf6 40.Qe2 Qd6 41.Rd1 Nd5 42.Qb2 Qf8 43.Ng4 Qg7 44.Qc2 Kg8 45.Qe4 Rd6 46.Ne5 Kh7 47.Rc1 Qf6 48.Rc8 Qf5 49.Qe1 b5 50.Qa1 g5? (50...Ra6) 51.Nc4! bxc4 52.Qh8+ Kg6 53.Rg8+ Kh5 54.Rxg5+ Qxg5 55.fxg5 c3 56.Qxh6+ Kg4 57.g6 e5 58.g7 1-0

Final Results:
1 Eljanov (8) - 180 GP points
2-6 Ponomariov, Jakovenko, Mamedyarov, Alekseev, Radjabov (7) - 116 GP points
7-9 Leko, Gashimov, Wang (6.5) - 70 GP points
10-11 Gelfand, Svidler (6) - 45 GP points
12-14 Ivanchuk, Inarkiev, Akopian (5.5) - 20 GP points

Overall Grand Prix Results:
1 Levon Aronian (ARM) 500
2 Teimour Radjabov (AZE) 419⅓
3 Alexander Grischuk (RUS) 363⅓
4 Dmitry Jakovenko (RUS) 359⅓
5 Wang Yue (CHN) 353⅓
6 Vugar Gashimov (AZE) 333⅓
7 Peter Leko (HUN) 320
8-9 Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (AZE) and Evgeny Alekseev (RUS) 301
10 Pavel Eljanov (UKR) 285
11 Vassily Ivanchuk (UKR) 265
12 Boris Gelfand (ISR) 255
13 Etienne Bacrot (FRA) 240
14 Gata Kamsky (USA) 235
15-16 Sergey Karjakin (UKR) and Peter Svidler (RUS) 230
17 Rustam Kasimdjanov (UZB) 200
18 Vladimir Akopian (ARM) 195
19 Ivan Cheparinov (BUL) 130
20 Ernesto Inarkiev (RUS) 55

US Championship Round 10 - Both Games Drawn

Kamsky and Shulman tied at 7/10.

ETA:  Kamsky won the tiebreak and was crowned 2010 US Champion.

US Chess Championship Round 9

Top Quad:
Shulman beat Nakamura
Kamsky beat Onischuk

Other Results:
3 GM Shabalov, Alexander 2585 GM Stripunsky, Alexander 2570 1-0
6 GM Robson, Ray 2569 GM Akobian, Varuzhan 2599 0-1
8 GM Kaidanov, Gregory 2577 GM Ehlvest, Jaan 2591 1-0
9 GM Benjamin, Joel 2565 GM Kudrin, Sergey 2571 1-0
12 IM Altounian, Levon 2454 GM Gurevich, Dmitry 2488 1-0