International Round Up 22/12/09

[LozCooper]

International Round Up 22/12/09

Kilkenny Masters 2009:

http://www.icu.ie/tournaments/display.php?id=572

Sam Collins from Ireland was winner with 5/6 ahead of GM Mark Hebden who defeated GM Tony Kosten with black in the last round to share second place with GM Alexander Baburin. IM Gavin Wall and Tony were among those in a seven player tie for fourth place.

World Chess Federation's Qualifying Tournament
http://www.americanchessassociation.org/

Congratulations to Andy Hammond who scored 11/12 to win one of the World Chess Federation qualifying events at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas. Players from 20 countries competed.

2nd annual Greg Hager Memorial 21/11/09
http://www.masschess.org/about/chess_news.aspx

Anya Corke who is originally from Hong Kong (but now registered for England despite studying in America!) won with 3.5/4.

Boston University Open Chess Tournament 2009 8/11/09
http://www.bu.edu/cgs/2009/11/11/bu-ope ... hess-club/

Anya Corke scored 3.5/4 to finish in second place behind IM David Vigorito.

The 85th Hastings International Chess Congress 28 Dec - 5 Jan:
http://www.hastingschess.org.uk/

The annual event takes place from Monday 28th December until the 5th January. I am slightly concerned to see no English players amongst the top four seeds but I expect the under-rated GM David Howell (soon to be back over 2600) to challenge strongly for first place and that Hastings regulars GMs Simon Williams, Mark Hebden and Keith Arkell will also be in contention for the main prizes. The London Chess Classic does seem to have had an adverse effect on the English entry though but the strong foreign presence should at least ensure that any player in sufficiently good form will have no issues with lack of foreign opponents for norms as occured in London.

Australian Championship 2-13 January 2010:
http://www.australianchesschampionship. ... in.Players

GM Gawain Jones and Laurence Webb along with ex-English IM Gary Lane will be competing in this event which starts on 2th January.

Corus Chess January 2010:
http://www.coruschess.com/participants. ... 10&group=1

Nigel Short will play in an extremely strong A group that includes Carlsen, Anand, Kramnik and Ivanchuk whilst David Howell is in the B group that is headed by Naiditsch, Nisipeanu Hari Krishna and Sutovsky.

In addition to the individual websites the latest international chess news can be found at the following link:
http://www.chesscenter.com/twic/twic789.html

Lawrence Cooper
Director of International Chess
English Chess Federation 22/12/09

[John Moore]

"Congratulations to Andy Hammond who scored 11/12 to win one of the World Chess Federation qualifying events at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas. Players from 20 countries competed"

Wow, Lawrence, does this mean that Andy gets a crack at Stan Vaughan's world title

[LozCooper]

"Congratulations to Andy Hammond who scored 11/12 to win one of the World Chess Federation qualifying events at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas. Players from 20 countries competed"

Wow, Lawrence, does this mean that Andy gets a crack at Stan Vaughan's world title

Andy modestly described it as a mickey mouse tournament so I think the chances of him challenging Anand and Topolov any time soon are fairly remote.