International Round Up 25/10/11

[LozCooper]

International Round-up 25/10/11

Guernsey International Chess Festival 16-22 October 2011
http://www.guernseychessclub.org.gg/fes ... stival.htm
http://www.guernseychessclub.org.gg/fes ... urnament=O

Mark Hebden, Nick Pert and David Collier finished equal second on 5.5/7, half a point behind the winner Sarunas Sulskis. David also qualified for the 2012 British.

15th Unive Tournament, Netherlands 15-22 October 2011
http://www.univechess.nl/deelnemers/open
http://www.univechess.nl/deelnemers/amateur-1
http://www.univechess.nl/live/live-partijen

Stewart Haslinger finished on 6/9 in the open whilst his father Mike scored 4.5 in the Amateur 1 event.

Corsica Masters 22-29 October 2011
http://www.opencorsica.com/php/
http://echecs.asso.fr/Toma.aspx?Tournoi ... %20Circuit
http://www.echecs.asso.fr/Resultat.aspx ... &Action=03

Gawain Jones and Glenn Flear are on 2.5/3.

World Youth Under-16 Chess Olympiad, Turkey 24-31 October 2011
http://wyco2011.tsf.org.tr/en/component ... iew&kid=78
http://wyco2011.tsf.org.tr/en/live-games

The England team comprises James Holland, Craig Whitfield, Henrik Stepanyan and Peter Batchelor. They lost their first round match 3-1 to a very strong Azerbaijan team with Craig beating an IM rated 2434 on board 2.

British Championship Qualifiers:

Neville Belinfante has sent me the following update regarding British Championship qualifiers: “A list of all British Championship qualifiers up to mid-October is at
http://www.englishchess.org.uk/wp-conte ... s2012.html.
David Collier has just qualified from Guernsey, and David Ledger (Bedford)
has just qualified from Scarborough.”

Future events:

e2e4 London Gatwick Premier 26th - 30th October 2011
http://www.e2e4.org.uk/international/20 ... /index.htm

Entries in the FIDE rated premier include grandmasters Hans Tikkanen, Simon Williams, Mark Hebden, Bogdan Lalic and Keith Arkell.There is also a FIDE rated major and the English Senior Championship being held alongside.

European Team Chess Championship 2011 Heraklion, Greece 2-12 Nov-2011
http://www.euroteams2011.com/
http://www.chess-results.com/tnr57856.a ... ES&flag=30
http://www.chess-results.com/tnr57855.a ... ES&flag=30

England will be represented by: Michael Adams, Nigel Short, David Howell, Gawain Jones and Nick Pert in the open and Jovanka Houska, Dagne Ciuksyte, Maria Yurenok, Kanwal Bhatia and Sarah Hegarty in the womens event.

First Saturday Budapest Hungary, November 3-11 2011
http://firstsaturday.hu/firstsat_progra ... 1_2012.htm

Adam Hunt plays in the GM section.

In addition to the individual websites the latest international chess news can be found at
the following link: http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/twic885.html

I encourage players to send me details of events they or others are playing in abroad and I will do my best to include them in my round-up. There is a list of international tournaments at home and abroad listed here: http://www.ecforum.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=2372

Lawrence Cooper,
Director of International Chess 25/10/11

[Roger de Coverly]

Corsica Masters 22-29 October 2011

ChessBase are reporting a pairing controversy

http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=7631

Stewart Reuben is, I think, on record as saying that he would have changed such a pairing before publication in events that he ran.

[Paul Cooksey]

Giddins in sensible opinion shocker

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Giddins in sensible opinion shocker

His previous blog wasn't bad either:

http://stevegiddinschessblog.wordpress. ... -needs-it/

[Richard Bates]

Giddins in sensible opinion shocker

Not sure i really agree. "Fixing" the pairings to avoid 'politically sensitive pairings" is a very dubious idea IMO. The fact that the Iranian GM might face trouble at home is not a justified reason to avoid the pairing. If he chooses not to play the game that is his decision.

Whenever you get into the debate about manipulating pairings, whether it be for political reasons or the more mundane relative/close friend/countryman etc, you end up with the question of where you draw the line? Does anyone have the right to request that they should be able to avoid playing another player and what should determine that that request be accepted. Also do you have a different set of standards for when the pairing could have a bearing on the tournament outcome as compared to an "early round pairing" where one of the players is unlikely to be competing for a prize?

I tend to agree, however, that throwing him out of the tournament is probably going too far.

[Andy McCulloch]

A very easy position to take when it is not your neck on the line.

[LozCooper]

Corsica Masters 22-29 October 2011

Gawain is 1st= on 5/6 whilst Glenn is on 4. Both Gawain and myself are trying to figure out why the organisers are pairing Mamedov & Arnold as 4.5/6 when they have 5/6 unless their round five game has been deemed a double default

Crosstable: http://www.echecs.asso.fr/Resultat.aspx ... &Action=Ga
Pairings: http://www.echecs.asso.fr/Resultat.aspx ... &Action=07
Live: http://echecs.asso.fr/Toma.aspx?Tournoi ... %20Circuit

[Roger de Coverly]

Corsica Masters 22-29 October 2011
Crosstable: http://www.echecs.asso.fr/Resultat.aspx ... &Action=Ga

The cross table uses the symbol < which appears to mean default in the French pairing software. You see the same symbol in round 4 for the Iranian. A double default is quite possible if they are using zero time defaults, but is there another story - perhaps they drew quickly and someone took exception?

[LozCooper]

Corsica Masters 22-29 October 2011
Crosstable: http://www.echecs.asso.fr/Resultat.aspx ... &Action=Ga

The cross table uses the symbol < which appears to mean default in the French pairing software. You see the same symbol in round 4 for the Iranian. A double default is quite possible if they are using zero time defaults, but is there another story - perhaps they drew quickly and someone took exception?

Gawain spoke to Marc Arnold who confirmed that they had been double forfeited for agreeing a draw in a drawish position but without repeating the position three times. It appears rather inconsistent with other games being drawn without penalty. It has certainly put a big dent in Marc's norm chances as well as both players being half a point worse off, albeit pairings may be slightly easier as a result.

[LozCooper]

Gawain playing Cheparinov on board 2 in the last round: http://echecs.asso.fr/Toma.aspx?Tournoi ... %20Circuit

[Paul Cooksey]

Nice positional win by Gawain. He is a regular blogger

[benedgell]

Has Gawain qualified for the knockout stages now?

[LozCooper]

Has Gawain qualified for the knockout stages now?

Yes, he has. I believe it's the top fourteen plus Anand & Mamedjarov.

http://echecs.asso.fr/Toma.aspx?Tournoi ... %20Circuit for live coverage of the knockout, Gawain currently playing Tregubov

[LozCooper]

Gawain beat Tregubov 3-2 and plays Mamedjarov in the quarter-final which I assume will be tomorrow.

http://www.echecs.asso.fr/Actus/5619/CO ... rsion2.pdf
http://www.echecs.asso.fr/
http://www.echecs.asso.fr/Toma.aspx?Tou ... %20Circuit
http://www.echecs.asso.fr/Visualiser.as ... %20Circuit

[LozCooper]

Gawain playing against Mamedjarov with black at the moment: http://www.echecs.asso.fr/Toma.aspx?Tou ... %20Circuit

EDIT: Gawain lost with black and drew with white and so was eliminated 1.5-0.5.