Chess News for week ending April 16

[Jack Rabbit]

Topalov-Kramnik match set for September



Classical World Champion Vladimir Kramnik and FIDE world Champion Veselin Topalov
in Sofia, 2005

See details on this thread.

Kozul and Ms. Atalik win at Kusadasi

Grandmaster Zdenko Kozul of Croatia won the European Championship in Kasadasi, a town on the Aegean coast of Turkey, with 8½ points out of 11, a half point ahead of top seed Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine.



Zdenko Kozul

Kozul went ahead to stay in the tournament with this impressive victory over Latvian-born German grandmaster Arkady Naiditsch in the ninth round.

The women’s division was won by Ekatarina Polovnikova Atalik, a native of Russia who is married to Turkey’s leading grandmaster, Saut Atalik. Ms. Atilik scored 8½ points, a half point ahead of Tea Bosboom-Lanchava, a native of Georgia who plays for the Netherlands. Ms. Atalik now represents Turkey in competitive chess.



Mr. and Mrs. Atilik celebrating their wedding in Istanbul last November with a game of chess

Here is Ms. Atilik's fifth-round win over Poland's Joanna Majdan.

Deepan leads Indian Championship; Koneru falls to fifth

Charkavarthy Deepan has taken the lead in the Indian National Championship tournament after twenty rounds in Visakhapatnam with 13½ points out of 19, a half point ahead of the top-ranked Surya Ganguly. The tournament concludes Monday.

The tournament will determine who plays for India in the Chess Olympiad to be held later this year in Turino. The top four finishers will get places on the Olympic team. India’s leading player, Viswanathan Anand, is seeded to the team and is not competing in this tournament.

Koneru Humpy, who began the tournament with six wins and a draw in the first seven rounds, had a rough week which she lost two consecutive games. Ms. Koneru has fallen to fifth place with 12½ points. Should Ms. Koneru fail to win a spot on the main team, she will still represent India in Turino on the women’s team, where she has a seeded spot.

In the women’s division, Swati Ghate leads with 12½ points out of 17. Should Ms. Koneru win a place on the main team, she will give up her spot on the women’s team and the fifth-place finisher in the women’s tournament will go to Turino.

Competitors announced for Dortmund

Classical world champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia will compete in the annual Sparkassen tournament in Dortmund, Germany, beginning July 29.

Kramnik, who suffers from spinal arthritis, has curtailed his activities in the last year and a half, which have seen less-than-impressive results from him. The tournament will be seen as a clue of Kranmik’s form prior to the championship renunification match against Topalov in September.

The other seven grandmasters participating will be Latvian-born Arkady Naiditsch, who now represents Germany, Levon Aronian of Armenia, who the Linares tournament in March, Peter Svidler of Russia, Peter Leko of Hungary, Britain’s Michael Adams, Byelorun-born Israeli Boris Gelfand and Baadur Jobava of Georgia.

Photo credits:
Kramnik and Topalov from ChessCenter;
Zdenko Kozul from ChessBase;
Atilik wedding from ChessBase.

[Jack Rabbit]

1. Update: Indian National Championships end in 3-way tie

The Indian National Championships conclueded yesterday with Surya Shekhar Ganguly, D. P. Singh and Chandra Sandipan each scoring 14 points out of a possible 20.

Ganguly was declared the national champion of India by virture of a tie-breaking formula.

There was also a three-way tie for fourth place with Abhijit Kunte, Charkavarthy Deepan, who led the tournment going into the last round, and Koneru Humpy, the only woman in the 21-player field, each scoring 13½ points. Kunte was awarded fourth place in the tie-breaking formula and will be a member of India's olympic team in Turino later this year. Ms. Koneru will also be in Turino as a member of the women's team.