The Amber Blindfold and Rapid tournament is probably the closest thing chess has to an all-star game: a collection of top-flight players fighting it out in a fun format that may not feature the highest quality of play, but certainly brings a lot of fun to the table. For the last few years, the tournament has been played right on the Mediterranean in Nice, France. These players play rapid games all year long, but blindfold play is a unique spectacle. Not everyone enjoys the blindfold games; if you're following them online or going over them afterwords, they simply look like games from average grandmasters who occasionally make outrageous blunders. On the other hand, I imagine it's quite a sight to see live, and the possibility of a major mistake happening at any moment does add a different kind of tension to the games.

As usual, each player will play two games against every opponent, one rapid, and one blindfold. Alexander Morozevich dropped out for personal reasons at the last minute, but he's been replaced admirably by Alexander Grischuk. Here's the field that will be battling it out over the next two weeks:

Levon Aronian, Magnus Carlsen, Leinier Dominguez, Vugar Gashimov, Boris Gelfand, Alexander Grischuk (replacing Morozevich), Vassily Ivanchuk, Sergey Karjakin, Vladimir Kramnik, Ruslan Ponomariov, Jan Smeets, Peter Svidler

Amber Heats Up Nice-ly in France originally appeared on About.com Chess on Saturday, March 13th, 2010 at 13:02:17.

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The third round of the European Individual Championships is currently underway in Rijeka, Croatia, with dozens of players in both the Men's and Women's tournaments posting perfect scores through the first two rounds. In fact, both Yannick Pelletier and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu have already won third round games to move to 3/3 on the men's side. While I'm writing this, Pia Cramling has temporarily taken the lead in the Women's competition at 2.5/3, but 13 other players currently on 2/2 are still playing their third round games.

The official site has tons of background information, live streams and games, and more. The tournament runs through March 19th, when we'll have complete coverage of the winners and any key games in the final rounds.

Many Players Perfect at European Championships originally appeared on About.com Chess on Monday, March 8th, 2010 at 12:53:44.

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Apparently, this news broke last week, but I missed it until tonight: according to a report from Deadline.com, Tobey Maguire (probably best known as the title character in Spider-Man) is heavily involved in a film going by the title of Pawn Sacrifice, about the famous 1972 match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky. According to the article, Maguire may even play the leading role of Fischer himself!

It seems way too early to comment on a movie when there's so little public information available about it. On the other hand, here's a fun topic: who would you cast to play Fischer, Spassky, or other great chess players? I wouldn't hold your breath -- biographical chess movies with all-star casts are rare, Searching for Bobby Fischer notwithstanding -- but it's fun to imagine.

Spider-Pawn originally appeared on About.com Chess on Thursday, March 4th, 2010 at 23:39:36.

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At this point, most chess fans have heard (at least in passing) about Chess Boxing, the brainchild of Iepe Rubingh that fuses rounds of boxing with rapid chess and turns them into one unified spectacle of a sport. Participants are required to be both strong chess players and trained in the ring, which prevents the contests from turning into complete sideshows.

If you're interested in checking out some chess boxing action and can get to London, a night of bouts is scheduled for March 13th at The Dome at The Boston Arms. The main event features Hubert Van Melick (2-0) against Italian newcomer Sergio "The Phoenix" Leveque. Yet, somehow, I imagine the names aren't what will drive interest in the event.

How do you feel about events like this? Do they take too much attention away from "real" chess, or can the extra attention only be good for our favorite game? Of course, there's a third option: that chess boxing is completely removed from the world of chess, and has no real effect on the game, positive or negative. I tend to think the latter is closest to the truth -- but it's still a fun distraction, and I might be tempted to take in a night of chess boxing out of curiousity if there was a local event.

Full Contact Chess originally appeared on About.com Chess on Monday, March 1st, 2010 at 00:18:49.

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Veselin Topalov looked as though he would cruise to the 2010 Linares championship. With two rounds remaining, he held a full point lead, and only needed to get by Alexander Grischuk without a loss to clinch at least a share of first.

But Grischuk still intended to fight for first place. With the white pieces, the Russian grandmaster outplayed Topalov in a Queen's Indian and survived time pressure to take the full point, erasing Topalov's lead and sending the two players into the final round in a tie for first.

In the 10th and final round, Topalov had white against Boris Gelfand, while Grischuk played black in a meeting with Francisco Vallejo Pons.  Topalov gained an early edge against Gelfand, but after a few inaccuracies ended up in what analysis seems to show was a drawn rook and pawn endgame. The position was tricky in practice, though, and Gelfand made a misstep which allowed Topalov to gain a winning advantage, which he converted into a full point. Meanwhile, Grischuk and Vallejo Pons battled it out in a Najdorf Sicilian, where White's creative play proved to be enough to earn a draw -- meaning Topalov would finish the tournament a half-point ahead of Grischuk and take the title. Levon Aronian finished a clear third by winning his final game, his only decisive battle of the entire event.

Topalov's final score of 6.5/10 was impressive, and enough to give his rating a small boost. However, it looks as though it won't be enough to surpass Magnus Carlsen on the ratings list; as of the end of Linares, Carlsen appears to lead the list by .7 rating points (yes, that's less than a single point!); if these ratings hold for the next rating list, Carlsen will appear at #1 with a rating of 2813, while Topalov would be second at 2812.

More importantly for Topalov, this result should give him confidence heading into his April World Championship match against Viswanathan Anand. I'll talk more about that match as it gets closer, but a few months ago, I would have said that Anand was a clear favorite; now, with Topalov's excellent results combined with a lack of impressive finishes by Anand over the last year or so, the match feels more like a toss-up.

Topalov Holds Off Grischuk to Win Linares originally appeared on About.com Chess on Friday, February 26th, 2010 at 00:20:59.

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With Viswanathan Anand as World Champion, and Magnus Carlsen the hottest thing in chess, it can be hard to remember that there's another player who has to enter into any discussion of who might be the world's best player: Bulgarian Veselin Topalov, who will be challenging Anand for his title in April.

Topalov is currently playing in the Linares supertournament, where he leads with an impressive 4.5/6 score. He extended his lead today with a win over Francisco Vallejo Pons, a win that also vaulted him past Magnus Carlsen to the top of the live ratings list.

Topalov currently has a 1.5 point lead over his nearest competition (Levon Aronian, Alexander Grischuk and Vugar Gashimov) with just four rounds left to play, leaving him in excellent position to win his second Linares championship. He'll face all three in the chase pack over the next three rounds, with two games with the black pieces sandwiching an encounter with Aronian where he'll play white.

Hot Topalov Leads Linares, Rating List originally appeared on About.com Chess on Friday, February 19th, 2010 at 20:58:14.

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Linares, traditionally one of the most prestigious (if not the single most prestigious) chess tournaments in the world, begins this Sunday. At one point, a shared-hosting deal with Dubai was on the table -- Linares had similar arrangements with Morelia, Mexico from 2006-2008 -- but that fell through, so the entire tournament will be taking place in Spain this year.

This year's version of the Linares tournament features a smaller field than usual -- a lean six players playing a double-round robin, for ten rounds of chess in total. This year's competitors include World Championship challenger Veselin Topalov, Levon Aronian, Alexander Grischuk, Boris Gelfand, Vugar Gashimov and local hero Francisco Vallejo Pons. Gashimov is making his first appearance in a major invitational event, so he'll be looking to put together a good result and earn invitations to more super-tournaments.

While the field is a little smaller than usual, Linares is still hosting one of the strongest tournaments of the year. While Topalov and Aronian are probably the favorites, the event should be wide open for any of the players (with the possible exception of Vallejo Pons) to win if they get hot at the right time. We'll have continuing coverage over the next two weeks, and live coverage of all the games should be available on your chess server of choice.

A Lean Linares originally appeared on About.com Chess on Friday, February 12th, 2010 at 13:20:56.

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Not every important tournament is a small, invitation-only round robin. There are the occasional opens that attract enough talent to make them interesting to the general chess public; even if you're not likely to see Carlsen, Anand or Kramnik playing at the World Open this summer, the best open tournaments still attract dozens of grandmasters, including some in the 2700+ range. One of these tournaments just took place in Gibraltar, while another has just begun in Moscow.

The Gibtelecom Chess Festival regularly attracts plenty of titled players to Gibraltar, along with plenty of others looking to play high-level chess (or just have a great chess vacation). This year, the tournament ended with a nine-way tie for first, including Americans Gata Kamsky and Alex Lenderman. The top four players on tiebreakers -- Michael Adams, Jan Gustafsson, Francisco Vallejo Pons and Sandipan Chanda -- played tiebreak matches for the title, with Adams coming out on top.

But the most prestigious open of the year is likely the Aeroflot Open, currently underway in Moscow. Although the tournament is comprised of four separate events, the main attraction is the A1 tournament, which is open to any player rated over 2550. Essentially, this limits the tournaments to GMs and the occasional high-rated International Master.

This year's tournament is led by two players rated over 2700, both from France: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Etienne Bacrot.  There's also a strong American contingent, including Kamsky, Alexander Shabalov, Jaan Ehlvest and other notable players like Alexander Motylev and Arkadij Naiditsch. If you need some good chess to tide you over until Linares (which begins this weekend), the Aeroflot Open will have plenty of competitive, high-level chess to choose from.

Open Season originally appeared on About.com Chess on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at 21:33:03.

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In a recent interview over at ChessBase, former World Champion Garry Kasparov ruled out the possibility of a serious comeback to chess, saying that his life is now on a different path. However, he does feel connected to the world of chess through Magnus Carlsen, and mentioned feeling the same sense of nervousness and tension again when following the games of his young protege.

Kasparov also covered a wide range of other topics, including his past in chess, his role in Russian politics, and his feelings on Chess960. He had an interesting idea when it comes to Fischer Random Chess: pick a position every year that will be played for that year's "season," allow some theory to build up to give some structure to the games but less than we see in standard chess, and then switch to a new position the next year. It would certainly spice things up, though it would take a lot more discussion before becoming a viable idea.

Speaking of comebacks, I had recently discussed with a friend how well Kasparov would do in a comeback. Actually, it would be impossible for us to know how strong a player he is now; we wondered how his chances would be perceived by the viewing public. In the final part of the interview, Kasparov addresses this somewhat, saying that if he had a few months to prepare seriously, he'd be able to compete with anyone in rapid chess, though he's less certain of where he would stand in classical games.

Where do you think Kasparov would find himself if he were to make a hypothetical comeback to the world of competitive chess?

Kasparov Rules Out Comeback originally appeared on About.com Chess on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 12:49:00.

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It wasn't pretty, but Magnus Carlsen added another notch to his belt by hanging on to win the Corus chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee. Carlsen found himself in a difficult (perhaps even losing) position against Fabiano Caruana in the final round, but Caruana couldn't find a way to win, allowing Carlsen to draw. Combined with draws by Vladimir Kramnik and Alexei Shirov, Carlsen's 8.5/13 score left him a half-point ahead of his nearest competitors.

The only decisive game in the final round came from Hikaru Nakamura, who scored a victory over Sergey Tiviakov to claim a share of 4th place. Along with Viswanathan Anand, Nakamura finished a point behind Carlsen.

In the lower groups, there was less drama in the final round. Anish Giri drew to take first place in Group B with a 9/13 score, a half-point ahead of German grandmaster Arkadij Naiditsch. This victory earns Giri a spot in next year's A Group. In Group C, Li Chao finished 1.5 points ahead of the field with an impressive 10/13 score, coasting to first place. American Ray Robson, who led earlier in the event, finished in a tie for 5th. Robson did well against the bottom half of the field, but had no success at all against the leaders, losing all four of his games against the top four players in the group.

Overall, Corus was a successful tournament for the winner Carlsen, despite a few rocky points and a bit of luck in the final round. Some might have expected an even bigger score, but the world's #1-rated player still outperformed his rating, and it's hard to fault a 2800 player who does that. The other big winner in Wijk aan Zee may have been Hikaru Nakamura, who showed that he can compete at the elite level with a solid +2 score. That might be enough to start securing Nakamura more invitations to top-level events -- something American fans would be very thankful for.

Carlsen Hangs On For Corus Title originally appeared on About.com Chess on Sunday, January 31st, 2010 at 16:41:15.

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