2013 World Youth Championship: heroes and heartbreak

12/28/2013 – The 2013 World Youth Chess Championship is nearing the end, and interestingly only two gold medals have been decided: Indian Praggnanandhaa in the Open under-8 and FM Awonder Liang in the Open under-10. Several sections have four or more tied for first, with more a half point behind, and the last round promises to be extremely bloodthirsty. Heroes will be praised and hearts will be broken.

Jakovenko double gold in Khanty-Mansiysk

12/27/2013 – The Russian Cup finished with its rapid play in Khanty-Mansiysk. The knock-out was certainly hard fought, but at the end of the day it was Jakovenko that was able to take the win yet again. His win was far from easy as he barely survived his first game in the finals against Kovalenko and had to win in Armageddon in the quarter finals. Pictorial report of the event.

 

The Russian Cup Final has finally concluded with two winners after twelve months

Rafael Leitao is new champion of Brazil

Grandmaster Rafael Leitao convincingly won the 80th Campeonato Brasileiro Absoluto that was held from 13th to 21st December at the Hotel Cabo Branco Atlantic in João Pessoa, capital of Paraíba state.
Leitao collected 9,5 points from eleven games, leaving the nearest followers point and a half behind, to claim his 6th title of the Brazilian chess champion.
Last year champion GM Krikor Sevag Mekhitarian and FM Cesar Hidemitsu Umetsubo shared the second place with 8,0 points each. Umetsubo earned his final IM norm and is waiting for the title approval by FIDE.

The Championship was a 12-player round robin with the average elo 2417.
João Pessoa is the third oldest settlement in Brazil and is known as “the city where the sun rises first”, as it is the easternmost city in the Americas.
Final standings:
1. GM Leitao Rafael 2636 – 9,5
2-3. GM Mekhitarian Krikor Sevag 2566 and FM Umetsubo Cesar Hidemitsu 2279 – 8,0
4. IM Barbosa Evandro Amorim 2461 – 7,0
5-6. IM Santiago Yago De Moura 2450 and IM Molina Roberto Junio Brito 2424 – 6,5
7. IM Di Berardino Diego Rafael 2494 – 5,5
8-10. IM Macedo Maximo Iack 2369, FM Reis Paulo F. Jatoba De Olivei 2394 and IM Toth Christian Endre 2365 – 4,0
11. FM Brito Luismar 2276 – 2,0
12. FM Cavalcanti Francisco De Assis 2294 – 1,0

Category 23 tournament in Zurich!

12/24/2013 – It's not official yet, but it looks like that for the first time in chess history we are going to see a category 23 (average 2801) tournament. Six players – Carlsen, Aronian, Nakamura, Caruana, Gelfand and Anand – will play in the classical round robin Zurich Chess Challenge, from January 29 to February 4th 2014 – with a rapid tagged on. In related news we are pleased to inform you that the ailing chess legend Viktor Korchnoi, 82, is returning to chess.

"Meeting of Generations" handicap tournament

A new handicap tournament "Meeting of Generations" was held, in honor of Vladimir Dvorkovich. The system used allows elder players past their prime to still have an enjoyable game against strong grandmasters, and is the brainchild of GM Evgeny Vasiukov, chairman of the Commission of Veterans of the Russian Chess Federation. Here are explanations, a pictorial, and a pawn study.