(648) FIDE TOP 100 PLAYERS OF JULY 2003

MORE than 10 years ago, I was able to print a copy from www.fide.com of top 100 players in the world in the FIDE players' list.

It's interesting to recall the top 12: 1. Gary Kasparov 2. Vladimir Kramnik 3. Viswanathan Anand 4. Peter Leko 5. Veselin Topalov 6. Alexander Grischuk 7. Alexei Shirov 8. Peter Svidler 9. Evgeny Bareev 10. Michael Adams 11. Judit Polgar, who is still listed as wg (or Woman Grandmaster) but after her name, a big GM is written. Which means that she is listed at number 11 as GM in the men division.
   At 12. is Ruslan Ponomariov.
   Born in 1951, former world champion Anatoly Karpov is listed at 21st but 20 years older is Viktor Korchnoi, whom the former had defeated in the World Chess Championship in Baguio City, Philippines.

(296) ARMENIA, RUSSIA WIN GOLD MEDALS IN 40TH CHESS

THE CRUCIAL VICTORY

Sergei Movsesian, left, scored the crucial final round victory over Zoltan Almasi of Hungary to clinch the title of 2012 World Chess Olympiad champion. Levon Aronian secured a draw against Peter Leko at Board 1 and another draw at Board 4 between Gabriel Sargissian and Ferenc Berkes. The longest game between Judit Polgar and Vladimir Akopian also ended in a draw. (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)

ARMENIA, RUSSIA WIN GOLD MEDALS
IN THE 40TH CHESS OLYMPIAD

IN THE last round of the 40th World Chess Olympiad, Armenia was matched against Hungary. Levon Aronian secured a perpetual against Peter Leko, and the other games continued.

After the time control, Gabriel Sargissian drew the rook endgame against Ferenc Berkes, and Sergei Movsesian scored a crucial victory against Zoltan Almasi. Eventually, Vladimir Akopian held Judit Polgar to a draw to mark the start of huge celebration for Armenian gold medal. Congratulations!

Russia employed their trademark strategy and signed 2 quick draws with Germany -- both with black pieces. This worked perfectly as Vladimir Kramnik and Sergey Karjakin won with white to secure the overall 3-1 victory for Russia. Russia finished equal first on match points but with weaker tiebreaks and thus is awarded with the silver medal.

China was in good position to fight for the gold medal but a defeat in the match with Ukraine pushed them down in the standings to the 4th place. Vassily Ivanchuk won a nice attacking game against Wang Hao, while Pavel Eljanov outplayed Bu Xiangzhi. The other two games were drawn. With this victory Ukraine clims up and grabs the bronze medal!

In the Women's Section, Russia unexpectedly easily crushed the young team of Kazakhstan with 4-0. At the same time China was struggling to keep pace as Bulgaria proved to be a respectable opponent.

Hou Yifan and Antoaneta Stefanova drew, while Margarita Voiska beat Ju Wenjun. However, Zhao Xue and Huang Qian defeated their opponents to turn the tables and win the match.

Both Russia and China finished with 19 match points, but the tiebreak awarded the gold medal to Russia, while China team had to console themselves with silver.

The Palau team, rated 145th, finished 154 out of 161 countries. The consolation to the team was the acquiring of Candidate Master title to Bernard Garcia who scored 3.5 points in his first 7 games.


Source: 2012 World Chess Olympiad
Bulletin XI
September 09, 2012
Istanbul, Turkey

(200) HOUDINI WIN BY MONTEL, JR.

BIG SMILE FOR THE 2-TIME CHAMP
Menandro Manuel recieves the championship trophy from Knights and Rooks Chess Club Chairman Roberto Hernandez after capturing his 2nd title in 2 years. Manuel skipped the ongoing 2005 Open Chess tournament but participated in the mid-year one-day blitz chess festival last July 10 where he finished 2nd to Hernandez, who finished 2nd to him in the 2005 Regular Chess tourney. (Photo by Roberto Hernandez)

HOUDINI WIN BY MONTEL, JR.

SECOND SEED Cyril Montel, Jr. did a Houdini escape win over Manuel Nedic in a time-pressured match that left him with only 8 minutes left on his clock and started his campaign for a first title in 9 tournaments where he won 4 runner-up trophies.

Nedic was ahead by 2 pawns and had a strong attack and even threatened mate but overlooked his back rank and facing a mate in one, he resigned after 38 moves of Sicilian Defence (Dragon Variation).

He was also ahead in time where he had 45 minutes more than Montel, Jr. who had a sigh of relief after the blunder of Nedic in the last game of the day.

Joel Azana continued his winning ways and trounced Gene Pastrana in 44 moves of Pirc Defence and tie idle Jose Omega and Nedic for the lead even though he lost his second game to Eric Espartero in 42 moves of Modern Defence.

It was the first victory for Espartero since February 6, 2005 to boost his morale for the upcoming tougher opponents.

Omega informed the chairman that he would be absent on the 9th round of the 2005 Open Chess tournament held on Sunday, July 17 at Privilege Store in Malakal and sponsored by Bendix N. Lakobong, Leo Lacambra, Jr. and Roswell Macapagal of T-shirt Printing Atbp.

He said he would set a match with Ivan II Chess Computer at the chairman's residence on Tuesday.

Ivan II Chess Computer collected its 2nd victory by clobbering Jimmy Valenzuela in 28 moves of Four Knights Defence where he deviated from Mario Ramos' variation and was on the defensive most of the time. With threat of losing his queen and a bishop, he resigned without hesitation.

While chess players are playing, avid chess fan Koichi Matsuda barbecued yellow fin tuna beside the tournament site. Players were treated to a sumptuous tuna barbecue courtesy of Matsuda, who showed gratitude for being featured on last week's issue of Chess Mate in Tia Belau.

With lots of excitement and fun in the last week's one-day blitz chess tourney, players have planned another blitz chess tilt, but with different schedule changes like Pastrana and Lin de Guzman, the plan didn't push through.

The July ratings of International Chess Federation (FIDE) shows that Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria and India's Viswanathan Anand share the number one spot with an identical rating of 2788 followed by Peter Leko of Hungary with 2763.

Ukraine's Vassily Ivanchuk is 4th with 2752 followed by reigning classical world champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia (2744). At 6th is Peter Svidler with 2738 and Judit Polgar of Hungary, the only woman to land on the top 10 of men's rating, dislodged No. 7 Michael Adams of Britain, who dropped to No. 12.

At 8th is Etienne Bacrot (2729), 9th is Levon Aronian of Armenia who gained 31 points to enter the top 10 for the first time ever. And lastly at 10th is Boris Gelfand of Israel with 2724.


Source: Chessmate by Roberto Hernandez
            Tia Belau Newspaper
            Volume 14 Issue 29
            July 22-29, 2005