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With a final round draw vs. Peter Leko, Vishy Anand has clinched the world championship title. Undefeated in this fourteen round tournament, Anand turned in a performance rating of 2848 to take his place amongst the lineage of world chess champions beginning with Wilhelm Steinitz in 1886. Congratulations Vishy! Kramnik fought back in the last round to beat Aronian and tie for second place with Boris Gelfand who drew with Morozevitch. |
Continue reading "Mexico City Round 14: Viswanathan Anand is world champion!" »
| Kramnik and Gelfand played to a draw and with that Kramnik has lost the title of world champion. Leko playing the white pieces beat Morozevich. Grischuk - Anand turned out to be the game of the day, it was a long and interesting struggle that, at points, Anand was in jeopardy of losing. He fought gallantly and maintained the draw. With only one round to go there is one configuration in which Anand would tie for the title and not win it outright. Anand would need to lose to Leko and Gelfand would have to beat Morozevich. This scenario highly unlikely as Anand - Leko will undoubtedly be a quick draw. |
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Continue reading "Mexico City Round 13: Kramnik has lost the title" »
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There were three decisive games this round: Morozevich, Kramnik and Gelfand all won while Svidler and Anand agreed to a twenty-two move draw. With two rounds to go this tournament is getting very interesting and it's by no means over. Gelfand - Kramnik will be a key match up in Friday's round thirteen. |
Continue reading "Mexico City Round 12: It's getting interesting" »
| Viswanathan Anand playing the white pieces against Alexander Morozevich saw his opportunity and seized it. With his fifty-six move victory, Anand pulls ahead of Gelfand (who is still clinging to second place) by one and a half points. With three rounds to go Anand will be very difficult to catch. All other games this round were drawn including Kramnik's peaceful thirteen move outing vs. Grischuk. Here's the big illustrated report. |
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Continue reading "Mexico City Round 11: Anand seizes the day" »
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With all the action at the World Championship in Mexico City, let's not forget about local chess in Maine. The Eastern Maine Open is coming up on Saturday, September 29th. This four round, G/60 event will be played at the University of Maine, Orono and will have prizes for sections from Open down to Class G. Here are all the specifics. |
Continue reading "Eastern Maine Open: Saturday, September 29, 2007" »
| The Kramnik - Anand game was a tense Semi-Slav with chances for both sides. In the end it was a forty-one move draw which kept the Indian Super GM in the lead by one point. Gelfand remains in second followed by Kramnik, Leko and Aronian who beat Grischuk to move within striking distance. |
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Continue reading "Mexico City Round 10: Kramnik - Anand draw; Aronian wins" »
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And what a round it was! Morozevich took down Kramnik in a very beautiful game and Grischuk ground down Gelfand. The real winner however was Anand who quickly drew his game with Aronian and then sat back to watch his two closest rivals both loose to give him a full point lead. Monday's critical matchup is Kramnik with white vs. Anand. If Kramnik wins, the tournament is thrown wide open. |
Continue reading "Mexico City Round 9: Morozevich and Grischuk topple Anand's closest rivals" »
| Peter Leko posted his first full point of this tournament with a win over Alexander Grischuk to move up to forth place in the standings. The current leaders, Anand and Gelfand, played to a draw which allowed Anand to maintain his half-point lead. Games and images from round eight and the second half schedule. |
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Continue reading "Mexico City Round 8: Leko wins; Anand still leads" »
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With a win over Morozevich, the world's number one rated player Viswanathan Anand has taken sole possession of first place as we approach the half way point in the world championship tournament. The darkhorse Boris Gelfand got a draw with current world champion Vladimir Kramnik to hold his position in second. Round eight will be played on Friday then players will have Saturday off to regroup and prepare for the second half and six more rounds of top-level chess. |
Continue reading "Mexico City Round 7: Anand takes sole lead" »
| Israeli Grandmaster Boris Gelfand made it two wins in a row with a sixth round victory over Alexander Morozevich. These wins have propelled Gelfand to the top of the crosstable with 4 points where he now shares first place with Anand. The leaders are followed by Grischuk and Kramnik tied for third with 3.5 points. The day's other games all ended in draws. |
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Continue reading "Mexico City Round 6: Gelfand joins Anand at the top" »
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Lots of fighting chess in this round. Three of the four games were decisive and all the winners had the white pieces: Anand over Svidler, Grischuk over Morozevich and Gelfand over Aronian, Leko and Kramnik drew. This puts the world's highest rated player and top seed Viswanathan Anand in the lead with 3.5 points. |
Continue reading "Mexico City Round 5: Anand leads with 3.5" »
| After four rounds there have been four decisive games. This time Levon Aronian adds his name to the 1-0 / 0-1 club, joining Anand, Kramnik and Morozevich. Atop the leader board are Kramnik and Anand with 2.5 followed by four players with 2.0. Peter Svidler and Peter Leko are bringing up the rear with 1.5. Monday is a rest day. |
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Continue reading "Mexico City Round 4: Aronian over Leko" »
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All games in round three began with1.e4, there were two Petroffs, a Scotch and a new fangled Marshall Gambit. Alexander Morozevich was the only player to win with a victory over Peter Swidler. Kramnik had a one pawn advantage in a rook and pawn endgame vs. Anand but just couldn't squeeze enough out of the position and settled for a stalemate. Included in this report is a video impression of the start of round three courtesy of ChessBase. |
Continue reading "Mexico City Round 3: It's Morozevich" »
| Playing the black pieces vs. Levon Aronian, Viswanathan Anand has become the first player in this World Championship tournament to score a full point. Anand, currently the highest rated player in the world, composed a beautiful forty-one move masterpiece. The current World Champion Vladimir Kramnik also scored the full point with his fiercely complicated win over Alexander Morozevich. Round two games and impressions. |
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Continue reading "Mexico City Round 2: Anand and Kramnik win" »
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The first round of the 2007 World Championship was a placid affair with all games ending in draws and none of the games lasting longer than twenty-eight moves. This result was more or less expected as players typically feel each other out in the early stages of such a long tournament. Here are games and images from round one. |
Continue reading "World Championship starts with four draws" »
| What better way to celebrate a wedding anniversary than by challenging your soulmate to a game of chess? That was precisely Heather Haskell's train of thought when she convinced her husband to play chess with her on their special day. There is one twist however, Haskell, a stay-at-home-mom in the Bangor area, will play her husband in public, on a board with three foot squares, using people as pieces. This event has been cancelled. |
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Continue reading "Human Chess Match in Bangor" »
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The 2007 World Chess Championship will be getting underway this week in Mexico City with the opening ceremony scheduled for 8:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Tuesday, September 11, 2007. The first round will commence at 3:00 p.m. EST on the following day. This tournament brings together eight of the world's strongest players and qualifies as a Category XXI event, the strongest ever in the history of chess. |
Continue reading "2007 World Chess Championship" »
| The Belfast Free Library will be expanding its offering of chess classes to children. Made possible by a grant from the Golden Rule Foundation, the library now offers chess instruction to students in first grade through high school. Scholastic chess coach Russell Kahn will be the instructor. |
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Continue reading "Chess at the Belfast Free Library" »
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Fall is quickly approaching and so are a number of interesting chess events. The Washington County Chess Federation celebrates its one year anniversary with the WCCF September Swiss in Pembroke. The Eastern Maine Open in Orono and the Maine Open in South Portland are coming right up. There will also be a human chess match--where the pieces are real people--taking place at Broadway Park in Bangor. Here are the details. |
Continue reading "Back to School Back to Chess" »
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