Pestaño: Candidates and women’s team tournaments

THERE are two important tournaments that are scheduled for this month but the big news for us Pinoys is Wesley So officially becoming a member of the 2700 Club.

In the March Fide list, he is rated no. 50 in the world with a rating of 2701, increasing by 17 points from his February rating. He is the second highest junior player, behind Anish Giri of the Netherlands. This means that he will be invited to more big tournaments and will be probably paid appearance fees as well.

There are three players with a rating of 2800; Magnus Carlsen, who is touching the moon with 2872 and Vladimir Kramnik at 2810 and Levon Aronian at 2809.

There are only two women rated at 2600; Judit Polgar at 2696 and former Women Champion Hou Yifan at 2617. Several years ago Judit belonged to the top 10 players and was rated over 2700, but being a mother has affected her activities.

From March 2 to 12 some of the strongest female players in the world are assembled in Astana, Kazakhstan for the Women’s Team Championship. Ten teams from China, Russia, Ukraine, USA, India, France, Turkey, Georgia, Rumania and Kazakhstan have qualified.

The Kosintseva sister are not in the Russian team, which is the third seed and the Chinese top players Hou Yifan and Zhao Xue are also absent. But both countries are rich in talents.

Each team consists of five players, with four playing in each of the nine rounds of this round-robin tournament. Time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves and 30 minutes until the end of the game. There is also a 30-second increment per move.

After the third round, China and Russia are leading with three straight wins, scoring six points each and will play each other in round four. Ukraine and Georgia share third place. China demolished Turkey, 4-0 and had an expected 3.5-0.5 win over the USA.

Starting March 14 to April 1, there will be the Candidates Tournament in London, an eight-player double round-robin tournament which determines the challenger to Vishay Anand for the World Championship title.

The players are Peter Svidler (2747), Boris Gelfand (2740), Alexander Grischuk (2764), Vassily Ivanchuk (2757), Teimour Radjabov (2793), Vladimir Kramnik (2810), Levon Aronian (2809) and Magnus Carlsen (2872).

Svidler is a six-time Russian champion (1994, 1995, 1997, 2003, 2008, 2011)and shared second (together with Viswanathan Anand) in the Fide World Chess Championship 2005. He qualified by winning the Chess World Cup 2011 in Khanty–Mansiysk, defeating Alexander Grischuk in the finals 2½–1½.

Gelfand won the 2011 Candidates Tournament and faced Anand for the World Chess Championship 2012. Although the match was level at 6–6, Gelfand lost in the rapid tie break games.

Grischuk has won two team gold medals and one individual bronze medal in the Chess Olympiad. He qualified for the Candidates Touenament by placing second in the World Cup 2011.

Ivanchuk has been a leading player in the world since 1988, ranking as high as No. 2 on the official Fide rating list (July 1991, July 1992, October 2007) and No. 1 briefly on the unofficial live rating updates from September 10–12, 2008. He qualified by placing third in the last World Cup 2011.

Radjabov is competing as a wild card entry of the tournament organizing committee.

Kramnik was the Classical World Chess Champion from 2000 to 2006, and the undisputed world chess champion from 2006 to 2007. He qualified for being World no.2

Aronian played top board for Armenia in the Chess Olympiads of 2006, 2008, and 2012 when they won the gold medal . He qualified for being World no.3.
Finally, Carlsen qualified for being no.1.

(boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com)