Norway is a country that has long been known for their prowess in winter sports, but the European nation has experienced little success in the world of competitive chess; until recently that is. With the famous win in the World Chess Championship by Magnus Carlsen last month, the game has blossomed in popularity throughout the Scandinavian country, as their 23-year-old chess prodigy has finally claimed the ultimate title in the game, and is poised to dominate the sport for the foreseeable future.
Category: World Chess
CategoriesWorld Chess
Magnus Carlsen Dominates Sinquefield Cup
22-year old chess sensation from Norway, Magnus Carlsen, made it look easy at the first ever Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis, Missouri last weekend. Looking to achieve a confidence boost ahead of his World Championship matchup versus India’s undisputed world champion, Viswanathan Anand in November, Carlsen achieved his goal. Additionally, he collected a stunning $70,000 cash prize!
Magnus Carlsen is the top ranked chess player in the world, and has seen his current rating bump up to 2870, which is just 2 points shy of his personal best and world record mark of 2872. Bringing as much excitement to competitive chess as the great Bobby Fischer did nearly 50 years ago, Carlsen has been a great new face to the sport and now looks to be on the brink of claiming his first chess World Championship.
CategoriesWorld Chess
US Open Chess Takes Center Stage Beginning this Weekend
Each year a new chess champion is crowned at the US Open, and 2013 will be no different. In the 113th edition of the US Open chess tournament, the matches will be held in Madison, Wisconsin, where chess has been growing in popularity and standing amongst the locals. One player in particular has drawn immense interest to the tournament this upcoming week, and that chess player is Awonder Liang, a local 10-year old who has become the youngest ever American to be officially crowned as a chess master. Making his first appearance at the US Open (which uses no age restriction) means that Liang will have an opportunity to make chess history!
CategoriesWorld Chess
World Chess London 2013 Candidates Tournament Closing Ceremony
The finale of the 2013 world chess candidates tournament was a prestigious event held at number eleven Downing street, the home of current Chancellor George Osbourne MP. The purpose of the event was to crown the winner of the tournament and seal off the end of what has proved to be an amazing event in UK chess.
Opening Ceremony for the World Chess London 2013 Candidates Tournament
The Regency Chess Company was delighted to receive an invitation to the opening ceremony for the 2013 world chess London candidates tournament. The event took place last week on Thursday March 14th. Regency Chess Company founder Julian Deverell attended as did Darren Whiteman, the freelance web designer responsible for our Industry leading website.
CategoriesWorld Chess
sooooo many ties!
Just like there were sooooo many players in the World Open, there were soooo many ties for various prizes in every section. Not one person swept their section (although one player in one section came very close), and there were often 2, 3 and even 8 way ties for each place in each section.
This particular blog is much less of a blog, and much more of a results recap. Personally, I only won 4.5 out of 9 games (I ended up with 3 wins, 3 losses and 3 draws). So I only came in 39th place in my section. Here’s how some other people did:
Under 900: James K Snee (rated 844) from Louisiana, USA took 1st place in the under 900 section winning 8 out of 9 games. The only player in that section that bested Snee was Pennsylvania player Ithan Sandoval-Lorenzo who only managed to come in 12th place (just short of being able to take home prize money). David Wu from New York came in 2nd place with 7.5 out of 9. Tied for 3rd with 7 out of 9 each were Charity Brickman from New York and Leighton E Barrett from Jamaica. And the top 10 was completed with a 7-way tie for 3rd (making 1 person win money but not technically being in the top 10).
Under 1200: In the under 1200 section, there was a 2-way tie for 1st place between Jason Lawson from Jamaica and Efthymios Papageorgiou from New York. Both players, however, had provisional ratings based on less than 26 tournament games. This fact made both players only eligable for up to $1500… so while the top prize was $5,000 for the section, each were only allowed $1500 for their scores of 7.5 out of 9. What happens to the left over money? It went to lower places, allowing for many more people to walk away with prize money! There was a 3-way tie for 2nd place with scores of 7 out of 9, then a 6-way tie for third place and finally a 9-way tie for 3rd place where each person in the 9-way tie took home a mere $28.12.
Under 1400: Top prize in the Under 1400 section went to Manuel J Then of New York with 8 out of 9 wins. This is even more impressive when you consider that he was the 11th lowest rated person in the section at 1200 (his new rating after the tournament is 1583)! Second place went to Evan B Mossman of Pennsylvania with 7.5 out of 9, followed by a 4-way tie for third, a 4-way tie for 4th and a 5-way tie for 5th place.
Under 1600: The 1st place prize for the Under 1600 section went to Ryan Arab, a buddy of mine from my local chess club. He did better than anyone in any section in the entire tournament with a whopping 8.5 out of 9 wins! The closest anyone came to beating Ryan was Carlos D Hoyos who managed to get a draw with Ryan, but only managed to be part of a 9-way tie for 4th. In between were ties for both 2nd and 3rd.
Under 1800: Eimer A Romero took 1st place in the U1800 section with 8 out of 9. Below him was a 2 way tie for 2nd, a 5-way tie for 3rd and a 9-way tie for 4th.
Under 2000:Jesus Orozco from California took 1st place in the U2000 section with 8 of 9 wins. Two players managed to get draws from Jesus, one of which tied for 3rd place (along with five other players) and a player who did not even come close to placing in the top 10! Jesus took home nearly $11,000! Due to ties, the top 10 prizes got stretched out among 18 players for this section.
Under 2200: Lorand Bela Kis won this section with 8 out of 9, getting draws with two of the 12 players that tied for 3rd place after a 3-way tie for 2nd.
Under 2400: In the under 2400 section, there was a 2-way tie for first place between Carl Brandon Boor and Miles F Ardaman each with 7.5 out of 9, followed by Alexander R Katz who took 2nd place by himself and then an 8-way tie for third which included several IM’s from the USA, India, Nigeria, and Russia and Croacia.
Open: The open section is where all the Grandmasters live! This section consisted of 118 players including 33 GMs (I apparently miscounted when I claimed 27 last week), 2 WGMs, 20 IMs, 1 WIM, 11 FMs and a smattering of non-master players with ratings between 1828 and 2600. The GMs faught back and forth where the top prize was split between GM Ivan Sokolov of the Netherlands and GM Alexander Shabalov from the United States. Each had 7 out of 9 and took home close to $13,000 each! There was then a 7-way tie for 2nd place and a 10-way tie for 3rd.