The JR Chess Report (October 25): Bundesliga 0910 Begins

[Jack Rabbit]

Music for reading the Chess Report (selected by my impressive and loyal staff).

Bundesliga 0910 Season Begins



The 2009/2010 Bundesliga season kicked off in four German cities on the weekend of October 16-18.

In Solingen, the defending champions from Baden-Baden started the season right by defeating the Solingen team 4½-3½ Saturday and then disposing of Remagen Sunday 5-3 Sunday. Also in Solingen, Remagen defeated Heidelburg Saturday by 5½-2½ and Solingen bested Heidelburg Sunday 6-2.

Other first and second round games were played in three other German cities. In Eppigen, on Saturday the host team split with Múlheim, 4-4, and Katernburg defeated Trier, 4½-3½; on Sunday Eppingen thrashed Katernburg 6½-1½ and Múlheim beat Trierm 5-3. In Wattenscheid on Saturday, Wattenscheid bested Munich, 4½-3½, and Emsdetten smashed Erfurt, 6½-1½; on Sunday, Wattenscheid gave Erfurt another 6½-1½ beating while Emdetten took down Munich, 5-3. Finally in Hamburg, Saturday's action saw Hamburg over Berlin, 4½-3½, while Bremen defeated Tegel, 5½-2½; and on Sunday, Hamburg beat Tegel, 5-3, and Bremen scored a 4½-3½ victory over Berlin.

On Friday evening, two matches from the floating seventh round, which is played out of order over the first half of the season, saw Eppingen defeat Trier, 5½-2½, and Emsdetten take down Wattenscheid, 4½-3½.

There are sixteen team in the Bundesliga. Each team will every other team once during the season. Typically, each team will play two matches over one weekend each month. The final weekend will be April 10 and 11.

In Bundesliga competition, each team plays on eight boards with the team accumulating the most individual points in each match awarded two match points. If the match is tied 4-4, each team is awarded one match point.

In addition to Baden-Baden, which has won the Bundesliga championship four years in a row, the strongest teams in the league are Bremen, Múlheim and, when it can get its best players in the lineup, Remagen.

Rounds 3 and 4 will take place on November 14 and 15, with Bremen hosting Hamburg for a seventh round match on Friday, November 13.


British GM Halsinger Takes Hoogeveen



English grandmaster Stewart Halsinger scored 7½ points in nine rounds to finish a clear first yesterday in the Univé Open, formerly the Essent Open, held in the Dutch city of Hoogeveen.

For most of the tournament, Halsinger was tied for first with Dutch GM Friso Nijboer, whom Halsinger defeated in the penultimate round to virtually nail down first prize for himself. Nijboer finished tied for second with 6½ points with Ukrainian GM Michail Brodsky, who was also in the running for the top spot for much of the tournament, and Israeli GM Israel Caspi.

The main event in Hoogeveen most years is the Crown Group Tournament, an annual double round robin quadrangular tourney. However, this year's champion, Dutch grandmaster Sergei Tiviakov, won by virtue of winning the only decisive game out of a total of twelve played. He defeated Hungarian GM Judit Polgar in the fourth round. To his credit, Mh. Tiviakov tried to avoid draws; his shortest game was his win over Ms. Polgar, which went 50 moves. In the third round, he played Vassily Ivanchuk to a draw in a marathon 146-move game.

It seems only just to give the top billing in this year's tournament to the open. Mr. Halsinger, a minor GM whose official Elo score is a modest-for-a-grandmaster 2529, won six games and drew three to win the open.


Volkov Takes First in St. Petersburg on Tie Breaks



Russian GM Sergey Volkov tied for first with four other competitors, but was awarded the championship yesterday on a superior tie break score in the Chigorin Memorial Open in St. Petersburg.

Volkov, his compatriots Andrei Rychagov and Andrei Deviatkin, Chinese GM Zhou Weiqi and GM Hrant Melkumyan of Armenia all finished with 7 points out of a possible 9.

The tournament's top seed, Indian GM Pentala Harikhrishna, was among the cluster of player who finished a half point behind the leaders.

This year's Chigoin Memorial featured 264 participants. The tournament is named for Mikhail Ivanovich Chigorin (1850-1908), the greatest chess master produced by czarist Russia, who twice challenged Wilhelm Steinitz for the world title, narrowly losing the second time (1892).


Underway Now

European National Team Championships, Novi Sad (Serbia). After three rounds, Azerbaijan, Serbia 1 and Georgia have perfect scores in the general group while Georgia and Armenia have perfect scores in the women's group.

World Junior Championship, Puerto Madryn (Argentina). Yu Yangyi of China is 4 out of four in the general group followed by rating favorite Maxime Vachier Lagrave (France), Max Rodshtein (Israel), Michal Olszewski (Poland) adn Sergei Zhigalko (Belarus) at 3½ points each. In the girls' competition, Zhang Xiaowen (China), Betul Cemre Yildiz (Turkey) and Olga Kalinina (Ukraine) are tied for first with 3½ out of four. The story out of Puerto Madryn is that after four rounds the organizers are still unable to transmit live coverage of the game over the Internet.


Calendar


Tal Memorial Tournament, Moscow 5-14 November. Anand, Aronian, Carlsen, Gelfand, Ivanchuk, Kramnik, Leko, Morozevich, Ponomariov and Svidler.

World Youth Chess Championship, Antalya (Turkey) 11-23 November.

World Cup, Khanty Mansiysk 28 November-15 December.

London Chess Classic 7-16 December. Adams, Carlsen, Howell, Kramnik, McShane, Nakamura, Ni Hua and Short.

European Union Championship, Alicante (Spain) 9-20 December.

Hastings Chess Congress 26 December 2009-5 January 2010.

Rilton Cup, Stockholm 27 December 2009-5 January 2010.

Corus Chess Tournament, Wijk aan Zee 15-31 January 2010. Group A: Anand, Carlsen, Caruana, Dominguez, Ivanchuk, Karjakin, Kramnik, Leko, Nakamura, Shirov, Short, Smmets, Tiviakov and van Wely.

Gibraltar Chess Festival 26 January-4 February.

European Individual Championships, Rijeka (Croatia) 5-19 March.

Anand-Topalov Match for the World Title, Sofia Tentatively 5-24 April (will be finalized after consulting players).


Games will be posted in the morning. My impressive and loyal staff and I are going to bed.