Monday, February 7, 2011

Barbosa stops Russian GM for joint 2nd

MANILA, Philippines - IM Oliver Barbosa capped his remarkable performance in the Moscow Open Chess Championship, beating No. 11 GM Sergey Volkov of Russia to finish tied for second at the Russia State Social University in Moscow Sunday.
Barbosa, bidding to become the Filipino GM this year, went the full distance before humbling his highly rated rival in 66 moves of the Queens’ Gambit Declined. He wound up with 7.5 points on seven wins, one draw and one loss.
The Filipino, however, finished only ninth after the tiebreak.
Barbosa, 24, gained the initiative at endgame following an exchange of queens and rooks as Volkov blundered on his knight move on the 48th, netting the Filipino bet a rook for a knight two moves later.
The Pasig City native, who tied for first with GM Zurab Azmaiparashvili in the Asean Championship in Singapore last December, rode on his shock penultimate round victory over GM Pavel Kotsur of Kazakhstan to dish out a solid finish.
He finished just half a point behind surprise champion GM Vladimir Belous of Russia.
Belous, seeded only 38th in the 582-player tournament, upset GM Nikolai Kabanov to capture the crown with eight points.
Barbosa shared runner-up honors with GMs Zhou Weiqi and Yu Yangyi of China, GM Farrukh Amonatov of Tajikistan, IM Igor Kovalenko of Ukraine, GM Maxim Matlakov of Russia, GM Stanislav Voitsekhovsky of Russia and GM Sergey Tiviakov of the Netherlands.
GM John Paul Gomez drew with Lu Shanglei of China to end up joint 24th with 6.5 points.

Singapore Chess Tournament: HONG BAO OPEN RAPID TOURNAMENT

1. The Tournament will be played under the Laws of Chess and the following rules

2. Event: (a) Open Category (b) Challengers Category (SCF Ratings below 1600)

3. Venue: The Singapore Scout Association, Multi Purpose Hall No 1 Bishan Street 12 Singapore 579808
4. Date/Time: Sunday 20th February 2011 9 am to 6.30 pm

5. Time control: 25 minutes per player to complete the game. There will be 7 rounds using the Swiss Manager

6. Prizes:

(a) Open Category – Prizes for Top 10
Cash Prizes (1st – $250, 2nd – $150, 3rd – $100), shared if tied

(b) Challengers Category – Prizes for Top 10
Top 5 for rating category, 1200-1299, 1300-1399, 1400-1499

5 category prizes for Boys & Girls U6, U8

Participants may win more than 1 prize

7. Entry Fees: $40 to: SCF 51 Bishan Street 13 #02-01A SIGC S(579799) Before Sunday 7.00 pm 13th February 2011

Late entries and entries without payment will not be accepted. Entry Fees are non refundable.

Confirmed entries shall be posted on SCF website www.singaporechess.org.sg (Updated daily)

8. In the event of any disputes (Outside the Laws of Chess), the Organiser’s decision shall be final and no further correspondences shall be entertained. FIDE ZERO START rule shall apply. SCF reserved the right to accept or reject entries.



Pairings of Candidates Matches 2011

FIDE announces the pairings for the 1st round of the Candidates Matches (Kazan, 3-27 May 2011):


Topalov (BUL) - Kamsky (USA)

Kramnik (RUS) - Radjabov (AZE)

Aronian (ARM) - Grischuk (RUS)

Gelfand (ISR) - Mamedyarov (AZE)

The drawing of colours for all the rounds will be conducted during the opening ceremony of the event. The winner of the Candidates Matches 2011 will qualify to challenge the World Champion GM Vishy Anand in a 12-game match during the first half of 2012. The full technical regulations of the Candidates Matches are published on the FIDe website: http://www.fide.com/FIDE/handbook/regscandidates.pdf