Reply #1: News for the week ending September 3

[Jack Rabbit]

The Next Genration: Youth triumphs over old age in Amsterdam



A team of five "rising stars", mostly in their teens, defeated a team of veteran players, mostly in their fifties, in a match in Amsterdam concluded last week.

The final score was 28-22.

The young team was made up of Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine, China's Wang Hao, and Dutch GMs Daniel Stellwagen and Jan Smeets. Smeets is 21; all over players are in their teens.

The veteran team consisted of Ljubomir Ljubojevic of Serbia, Sweden's Ulf Andersson, Slovenian GM Alexander Beliavsky, Englishman John Nunn and Artur Jussupow (also spelled Yusupov) of Germany. Only Jussupow is under 50.

The result was not totally unexpected as of the "experienced" players only Beliavsky is still active in international competition. Perhaps not coincidently, he was the only member of the senior squad with a positive score.

Beliavsky and Carlsen, at 15 the youngest participant in Amsterdam, led all players with 6½ points in ten rounds. Each won 4, lost 1 and drew 5. Carlsen's loss came in the ninth round at the hands of Beliavsky. Karjakin, who is 16, was the only undefeated player with 2 wins and 8 draws.

For leading the youth team in scoring, Carlsen will be invited to the Melody Amber Rapid/Blindfold tournament in Monte Carlo next year.


Leko-Karpov rapid match underway in Miskolc



An eight round rapid chess match is between former world title contender Peter Leko and former world champion Anatoly Karpov is underway in Miskolc, Hungary.

The tournament, which began Wednesday, will conclude today (Sunday). Two rounds are played each day while Friday was a rest day.

After six rounds, Leko leads 3½-2½ by virtue of winning the only decisive game thus far.

Karpov, who is 55, was world champion from 1975 to 1985. Nowadays most of his activity is in rapid chess events. He recently tied for first place in a one-day blitz event in Zurich with his old nemesis, former world champion Garry Kasparov, who was playing in his first organized event since retiring in 2005.

European Union Championships in Liverpool



The individual championship of the European Union will be held in Liverpool starting Wednesday.

The tournament is a 10 round open Swiss system event that will conclude on September 15.

The top seeds of the event as of now are Nigel Short and Luke McShane of England, Zoltan Gymesi of Hungary and reining German champion Thomas Luther.


Kramnik-Topalov title match still on for September



Although many cynics (and not without reason) thought this spring's announcement of of a world championship reunification match between Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov was nothing more than a re-election ploy by FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, it appears that the scheduled 12-game event will take place in Elista, Kalmykia, Russia beginning in less than three weeks.

The opening ceremonies are scheduled for Thursday September 21 and the first move is to be played at 3 pm, local time, on Saturday September 23.

Both players have competing claims on the world title. Kramnik's claim stems from his defeat of former world champion Garry Kasparov in a 14-game match in London in the fall of 2000. However, FIDE, the governing body of international chess, had stripped Kasparov of his title in 1993 and had recognized first former champion Anatoly Karpov and later the winner of a bi-annual knock-out tournament as the world champion. After the knock-out tournament produced a series of improbable "champions", a tournament for the title was held among eight of the world's strongest players last year in San Luis, Argentina; the event was won by Topalov to establish his claim on the title.



We are the Champions . . .
Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov
Photos: the website of Vladimir Kramnik; Scarborough Chess Club, Toronto.

Under an agreement with FIDE brokered by US grandmaster Yasser Seirawan signed in 2002 known as the Prague agreement, Kramnik is recognized by FIDE as the "classical" world champion, a line that claims its descent, so to speak, from Wilhelm Steinitz.

Kalmykia is an autonomous republic in Russia. Elista is the capital and largest city. The president of Kalmykia is none other than Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.