Carlsen new Chess World Champiom

The 2013 World Championship Anand-Carlsen match ended with Magnus Carlsen as the new World Champion winning over Viswanathan Anand 6.5-3.5. The last 2 games saw some fighting chess (that were missing from earlier games!), especially from Anand who was in a must-win situation. 

In game 9, Anand played d4 and the Saemisch variation against Nimzo-Indian getting a strong attack, but then he blundered with 28. Nf1?? and resigned directly. In game 10, Anand played a Sicilian against Carlsen e4, and after a long game that saw mistakes from both sides, Carlsen secured the draw and the title.

Playing a WGM

Last week, I got a chance to play against WGM Ruan Lufei in a simultaneous at Stanford. Ruan is among the top female chess players. Her best known result is reaching the 2010 Women's World Chess Championship final and losing only to World Champion Hou Yifan.

The game started with a balanced position, but then I had a dubious sacrifice of a knight for three pawns (that turned out to be two only) and spent the rest of the game struggling for drawing chances. After the other games were over, I rushed in the endgame to lose my final chance and the game. It was a good experience though.

Caruana wins Bucharest Kings Tournament

Caruana was also close to enter the 2800 club, but missed it due to his loss to Wang Hao in round nine. We show this complex game, where Caruana achieved a large advantage but then lost it in time trouble. Luckily, he still had enough points to win the tournament even after Hao following final round win.

Svidler wins Russian Super Final

Svidler won the Russian Championship Super Final after defeating Nepomniachtchi in the rapid playoffs. Nepomniachtchi was able to catch Svidler after beating Kramnik in the last round, while Svidler was drawing against Karjakin. We will show the final round draw, which is an instructive game on how to use the extra pawns to compensate for an exchange. 

Double Sacrifice!

Kramnik started the Russian Championship with a double sacrifice and spectacular win!

Caruana ties for First, but misses Qualifications

In the last round of Paris FIDE Grand Prix tournament, Caruana had to win in order to qualify to the 2014 World Championship Candidates, but instead he had a short draw by repetition. This result favors Shakhriyar Mamedyarov who would qualify instead.

Some believe he should have avoided repetition in the final position and continued with other move, even it would have been so risky.

Nakamura loses the Lead

It has been an exciting day in Paris! Nakamura lost an exciting game and his lead to Gelfand, and Caruana also won to join in the lead. With only one round to go, Caruana will have a chance to qualify for the 2014 World Championship Candidates tournament. Following are the two critical games.

Topalov winnning Match in Novy Bor

Topalov finished the 6 game match against Laznicka with a nice positional game. The final score is 4-2. Topalov is known for his tactical attacking style, but in this game he showed also great positional skills.

Early Resign?

Yesterday, in the FIDE Grand Prix in Paris, Vassily Ivanchuk resigned in the following position. Black is certainly worse after 33. Ke3, but material is still even. Wasn't it too early to resign?

Carlsen winning Sinquefield Cup

Carlsen only needed a draw today against Aronian to win the first Sinquefield Cup, while Aronian had to win. While pushing hard for a win and getting a good chance towards that, Aronian lost the initiative and ended up losing. 

The interesting move was after Aronian played 30. ... Rd4 offering an exchange and Carlsen responded with the brilliant move 31. Ne1!!. Few moves later Aronian should have repeated moves and taken the draw but instead he was looking for a win, when his position was getting worse.

Sinquefield Cup

Another interesting tournament started yesterday in Saint Louis. This tournament is a round robin that brings together the top two players in the world, Carlsen and Aronian, with the top two US players, Nakamura and Kamsky. It's not very common to have players at the level of Carlsen and Aronian playing in the US.

All games so far have been exciting, although with a lot of mistakes.

Kramnik winning the 2013 FIDE World Cup

After more than 3 weeks in Norway, the 128-player knockout tournament ended with Kramnik as the winner. Although, Kramnik not always playing the most exciting chess compared to current younger players, his experience and consistency prevailed in a match format, where upsets for top players are common and any mis-steps may not provide a chance for a come back!

In his last game, Andreikin was in a must-win situation to tie the match and move to tie-break, but Kramnik defended well and actually reached a winning position before accepting the draw that was sufficient for winning the tournament.