Berkeley International Final Results

The Berkeley International Tournament, held in Berkeley, California ran from Dec 14-28, 2008, with the final results coming late by me...Christmas, not up to posting until today, trying to get all the games for a pgn file for download. I think I managed to do the latter. The file of course will be on the Website mentioned below.

Here are the Final Standings:


1 7.5 GM Giorgi Kacheishivili

2 7.0 GM Zviad Izoria

3-5 6.0 GM Josh Friedel, IM Irina Krush, FM Daniel Rensch

6-7 5.5 GM Vinay Bhat, IM David Pruess

8-12 5.0 GM Jesse Kraai, IM Justin Sarkar, GM Dashzegve Sharavdorj,
FM Marc Esserman, WIM Iryna Zenyuk

13-15 4.0 IM Lev Milman, FM Daniel Naroditsky, FM Dale Haessel

16 3.5 FM Bela Evans

17 3.0 IM Sandor Kustar

Elista Grand Prix 2008 Final results

The 3rd event in the FIDE Grand Prix held in Elista, Russia came to an end with a three-way tie for first. The thirteen round event finished yesterday after starting on Dec 14, 2008.

Here are the final standings, the pgn file will be available on TransWarp's website in the games page.

Grand Prix event #3, Elista, Russia Final Standings.

1-3 8.0 GM Teimour Radjabov AZE 2751
GM Dmitry Jakovenko RUS 2737
GM Alexander Grischuk RUS 2719

4 7.5 GM Vugar Gashimov AZE 2703

5-9 6.5 GM Peter Leko HUN 2747
GM Etienne Bacrot FRA 2705
GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov AZE 2731
GM Wang Yue CHN 2736
GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov UZB 2672

10 6.0 GM Ivan Cheparinov BUL 2696

11-12 5.5 GM Evgeny Alekseev RUS 2715
GM Pavel Eljanov UKR 2720

13-14 5.0 GM Vladimir Akopian ARM 2679
GM Ernesto Inarkiev RUS 2669

GM Gadir Guseinov wins one!

GM Gadir Guseinov, one of the higher rated blitz players beat TransWarp on time yesterday. I DO have a good excuse, I am beta-testing Chesspartner 6, which is going to be an awesome gui for the online computer players when the bugs are out.

GM Guseinov lost the first game, but then in the second game, the Chesspartner gui started acting funky, and me, not thinking straight, kept restarting CP 6 beta instead of falling back on CP 5.4.. Thereby losing 15 seconds penalties for each time it failed, which was 3...give a great blitz player an extra 45 seconds and he will make the best of it!

Since the time win is really just pieces getting moved back and forth in a locked position, and Rybka not trying to break out for some reason, I guess it just couldn't see anything and given the position, would probably have been a 50 move draw. I guess I will post both games so that the readers of this blog see what I mean. A small note, I will try to upload the Berkeley International tournament and Elista Grand Prix PGN files to the website, link in the Links list of course. They will be in the games page.

Here are the two games (At least TW got to PLAY two games!) I thank GM Guseinov.

photo from fide.com

GM Guseinov (2650, expected to be 2660-1) vs TransWarp



TransWarp vs GM Guseinov (Azerbaijan)



I would also like to thank GM Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia for playing as well, in case I haven't yet in a previous post, he played vs Deep Rybka 3 Human in the Chesspartner 6 gui, I just don't have the knowledge to know what caused it to fail in GM Guseinov's last game, things that make you go, hmmn.

Been slow to report...

Well, with the wacky weather we've had here in Kansas, I've been stoved up in bed, plus Christmas dinner put this guy to sleep! We actually were in a Tornado Watch early this morning and had a Severe Thunderstorm pass through dropping hail and some high winds, lots of loud thunderclaps as well (4:30am in the morning!). Tonight, snow...go figure. If you don't like Kansas Weather, wait a few minutes and it will change. ;)

TranswWarp has been kind of quiet as well, getting a few games from GM Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia, FIDE rating of 2616 and might hit 2628 in January, 2009. It's amazing that this young and upcoming Grandmaster is currently rated #31 in Russia, when he would be tied with GM Yuri Shulman at #5 in the US! Chess really needs to bring in corporate sponsors who realize that promoting this sport would help develop stronger players in the United States, but also help children learn more effectively, this has been proven, chess helps with problem solving skills, visualization and general brain power, help these young minds prepare for the future, when we may need their help solving all our global problems.

But at any rate, TranaWsrp only got a few games this week, mostly the games from GM Nepomniachtchi as well as a couple bullet games from GM Eduardo Iturrizaga of Venezuela. It'a getting harder and harder to find opponents, when you send a seek ad out and have only 1 eligible for blitz, 4 for bullet and 11 for standard, it's the top players who are left to play, but many of the higher rated players are only interested in playing each other, which I can understand. It's a bummer, but I understand.

GM Nepomniachtchi (faust) vs TransWarp





TransWarp vs faust

Nanjing Pearl Spring Super GM Final Results

Here are the final results of the Pearl Spring Super-GM Tournamant held in Nanjing, China. FIDE #1 Rated player, GM Veselin Topalov won the tournament and his rating is expected to break 2800 again, with estimates at 2809. This is an impressive win going into the FIDE Challenger's Match vs GM Gata Kamsky in February 2009.

Round 8
GM Topalov Veselin 1-0 GM Ivanchuk Vassily
GM Aronian Levon 1/2-1/2 GM Movsesian Sergei
GM Svidler Peter 1-0 GM Bu Xiangzhi

Round 9
GM Svidler Peter 0-1 GM Topalov Veselin
GM Bu Xiangzhi 1/2-1/2 GM Aronian Levon
GM Movsesian Sergei 1/2-1/2 GM Ivanchuk Vassily

Round 10
GM Topalov Veselin 1/2-1/2 GM Movsesian Sergei
GM Ivanchuk Vassily 1-0 GM Bu Xiangzhi
GM Aronian Levon 1/2-1/2 GM Svidler Peter

Final Standings:

1 7.0 GM Veselin Topalov BUL 2791
2 5.5 GM Levon Aronian ARM 2757
3 5.0 GM Bu Xiangzhi CHN 2714
4 4.5 GM Peter Svidler RUS 2727
5-6 4.0 GM Sergei Movsesian SVK 2732
GM Vassily Ivanchuk UKR 2786