Chess Room Newsletter #465

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1) Mechanics Institute Chess Club News
2) Anna Zatonskih wins US Womens Championship
3) Anand vs Topalov World Championship Match
4) Bobby Fischer videos
5) Here and There

Due to the USCL match on Wednesday and Western States Open this weekend the Newsletter is coming out early this week. It will return to its regularly publication schedule next week.

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Tomorrow night ( October 20th) the Fall Tuesday Night Marathon begins. This 9-round event, which ends December 15, is open to all USCF members. Up to three half point byes are available.

MI member GM Josh Freidel has 3.5 from 4 in the Unive Open in Hoogoveen, Netherlands, and is tied for second. Here is a very pretty game he won in round 4. 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Nc3 b5 6.Bd3 Bb7 7.0–0 Nc6 8.Nxc6 Bxc6 9.Qe2 Bc5 10.Be3 d6 11.a4 Bxe3 12.axb5 axb5 13.Bxb5 Bxb5 14.Qxb5+ Kf8 15.fxe3 Rb8 16.Ra7 Nf6 17.Rxf6 gxf6 18.Qh5 Qe8 19.e5 h6 20.exf6 Rh7 21.Ne4 Qd8 22.Ng5 hxg5 23.Rxf7+ 1–0 GM Ian Rogers of Australia gave a half day training seminar to some of the best MI juniors on October 11.

Those of you who remember Batchimeg "Chimi", Tuvshintugs, who moved back to her native Mongolia last fall after playing at the Mechanics for several years, will be pleased to know that FIDE recently awarded her the Womens Grandmaster title.

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Defending champion WGM Anna Zatonskih dominated this round robin event, conceding just one draw in 9 games. She received a record-breaking first prize of $15,000. Former Mechanics' womens chess instructor Camille Baginskaite, now living in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, had a very fine result as well and was the only player to score against Zatonskih.

This event, held at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, was made possible by the very generous support of Rex Sinquefield who has already announced he will be sponsoring the 2010 US Championship and 2010 US Womens Championship.

1. Anna Zatonskih 8½/9,
2. Camille Baginskaite 6½,
3-4. Alisa Melekhina and Irina Krush 5 ½
5. Tatev Abrahamyan 4
6-7. Sabina-Francesca Foisor and Rusudan Goletiani 3.5
8. Irina Zenyuk 3
9-10. Tsagaan Battsetseg and Yun Fan 2.5

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The Sofia agency Novinite.com reported on 16 October 2009 the following news: "Bulgaria to Host World Chess Title Match between Anand, Topalov. The World Chess Federation FIDEapproved Bulgaria to host the World Championship Match in March 2010. Thus, the current world champion Viswanathan Anand will face Bulgaria's chess master Veselin Topalov, who is currently number one in the FIDE world ranking (Anand is second). The match for the world chess title will be held in Bulgaria's capital Sofia. Bulgaria submitted its bid to host the game in late September.

2009 during the FIDE Congress in Halkidiki, Greece. The other two bidders to host the world chess title match were Turkey and Singapore. The holding of the World Championship Match in Sofia has been financially guaranteed by the Bulgarian Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, who pledged 100% backing by the Bulgarian state for the initiative. The World Championship Match in 2010 will be the single greatest chess event to ever take place in Bulgaria.

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More and more Bobby Fischer videos seem to be appearing on YouTube.

1. World Wide Premiere of "Bobbie Fischer Live" Scheduled for November 10, 2009 http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.mmdnewswire.com/bobbie-fischer-live-5997.html&ct=ga&cd=xkw9ST2C9sE&usg=AFQjCNF1HDr42GppgKunG2N84hecyCKQGQ; Mass Media Distribution LLC (press release) Los Angeles, CA -- Controversial Producer Director Damian Chapa will host the world Premiere of 'Bobby Fischer Live' about the life story of Bobby Fischer. ...See all stories on this topic http://news.google.com/news/story?ncl=http://www.mmdnewswire.com/bobbie-fischer-live-5997.html&hl=en

2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdA7I9nPhSU&feature=related

3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPlXC3M8hbg&feature=related

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The field for the Corus 2010 tournament was recently announced at http://coruschess.com. GMs Viswanathan Anand, Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik, Peter Leko, Vassily Ivanchuk, Hikaru Nakamura, Alexei Shirov, Sergey Karjakin, Leinier Dominguez Perez, Nigel Short, Sergei Tiviakov, Fabiano Caruana, Loek Van Wely and Jan Smeets will play in the main group.

Many Americans received titles at the 80th FIDE Congress held 11-17 October 2009 in Kallithea Halkidike, Greece, among them were a GM title for Ben Finegold and IM titles for Florin Felecan and Marc Esserman. More on this later.

John Smail was the surprise winner of the Fremont Open held last weekend. Smail who scored 3.5 from 4 finished ahead of a group of players that finished with 3 including IM Ricardo DeGuzman who was upset in the first round by Class A player Farid Mark Watson. 61 players participated in the 4 section event organized and directed by Kenneth Zowall and Richard Koepcke.

U.S. Junior Champion Ray Robson earned his final Grandmaster norm at the Pan-American Junior Championship in Montevideo, Uruguay. He racked up a perfect 7/7 and drew his eighth round game on October 11 to clinch the title.

This third norm comes just in time for Robson's 15th birthday on October 25, making him the youngest-ever GM to play for America. Italian-American GM Fabiano Caruana, who plays for Italy, clinched his norm at 14-years old and 350 days. In days of old, Bobby Fischer became a Grandmaster at age 15 by qualifying for the Candidates at the 1958 Interzonal in Portoroz.