English Chess Forum

International Round Up 08/02/10

Gibtelecom Masters 2010
http://www.gibraltarchesscongress.com/g ... index.html

Congratulations to England's Mickey Adams who won the tournament after a rapidplay play-off between the top 4 highest placed players on tie-break. There was a massive tie on 7.5/10 involving Mickey, Etienne Bacrot, Sergei Movsesian, Francisco Vallejo Pons, Gata Kamsky, Jan Gustafsson, Chanda Sandipan, Geetha Narayanan Gopal & Alex Lenderman. The top four on tie-break then played a semi-final and final with Mickey overcoming Gustafsson in an armageddon game after winning the 2nd game to tie the match at 1-1. He then defeated Vallejo 1.5-0.5 in the final, winning a controlled first game with white before achieving a winning position in game 2 which although it got messy towards the end was still in Mickey's favour and he could have easily played on but was naturally happy to repeat moves and therefore win the match in an ending with an extra piece for a couple of pawns.
Aside from Mickey, the leading English scores were as follows: Jon Speelman finished on 7/10, Jovanka Houska 6 and Terry Chapman, Chris Fegan and Anthony Stebbings 5.5. Congratulations also to Philip Tozer who defeated GM Ketevan Arakhamia with black in round 5.

German Bundesliga
http://www.schachbundesliga.de/ligen/ru ... u=inactive

Michael Adams played for Baden-Baden on board 3 and Luke McShane played for Werder Bremen on board 1 in the latest weekend. Michael scored 1.5/2 and Luke scored 0.5/2. After 9 rounds Baden Baden lead with 18/18 match points whilst Werder Bremen and SG Solingen have 16. Mickey has 3/4 this season and Luke 1.5/4. Stephen Gordon & Stewart Haslinger (who both play for Trier but didn't play the last weekend) have 2/5 and 1/2 respectively.

First Saturday IMA 6-18th Feb 2010 BUDAPEST
http://firstsaturday.freeweb.hu/1002/im.htm

Mark Lyell is playing in the IM Tournament A and is currently on 1/2. He requires 7/9 for an IM norm.Tristan Cox is playing in FM Tournament A and is on 1.5/2. Diana Mihajlova is playing in FM Tournament C and is on 1/2.

e2e4 Uxbridge International 13th-17th February
http://www.e2e4.org.uk/international/20 ... /index.htm

Events include 2 IM norm sections and six other rated all-play-alls. Players include 2008 joint English & British Champion Grandmaster Keith Arkell and England international Grandmaster Danny Gormally. I am also pleased to see that two of our most promising juniors; Yang Fan Zhou and Radha Jain are playing, Yang Fan is playing in the "Morphy" IM norm event alongside GMs Arkell & McNab and England's representative from the Under 18 World Youth James Adair and Radha is competing in the "Petrosian" rated event.
Keith will be conducting a 20 board simultaneous on the Friday night for which there are places still available. There is also a blitz tournament on the Saturday night starting at 9.00. Entry is £5 and open to everyone, not just players in the all-play-alls. Tournament organiser is Sean Hewitt at info@e2e4.org.uk.

In addition to the individual websites the latest international chess news can be found at the following link: http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/twic796.html

Lawrence Cooper
Director of International Chess
English Chess Federation 08/02/10