Chess in the News

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Chessbase: Jan 30 – Boris Spassky turns seventy :
He was born on January 30, 1937 in Leningrad, learnt the moves at five and was one of the great child prodigies in chess. Boris Spassky went on to win multiple USSR championships and qualify for Candidates and World Championship matches. In 1969 he beat Petrosian to become the tenth chess world champion. Today Boris Vasilievich turns 70. To read the rest of this interesting biographical article, visit Chessbase HERE.

News.bg: Jan 29 – New Cheating Allegation against Topalov — Author: Dimitar Tabakov, The Guardian
A new cheating allegation against Veselin Topalov was made at the weekend just as the world No1-ranked grandmaster started his grudge game against the world champion, Vladimir Kramnik, in the elite Corus tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands.
An article in a German newspaper claimed that the Bulgarian's manager, Silvio Danailov, made suspicious hand and facial movements while in eye contact with his player during Topalov's second-round game a week earlier against the Dutch champion, Loek van Wely.
Suspicious Movements
Each time Van Wely moved, Danailov would leave the hall, make a mobile phone call and then return. While Topalov considered his next move his manager would scratch himself several times behind his ear or tap his glasses with his finger.
It later emerged that the writer of the article, the international master Martin Breutigam, is an associate of Kramnik's manager, Carsten Hensel, the Guardian writes today.
Last week a Topalov aide published a book titled Toilet War, repeating and extending the allegations that Kramnik had himself used a computer aid during their 2006 world title series in Elista in Russia, which the Muscovite won by a narrow margin.
Both Van Wely, who attributed his 35-move defeat to being outplayed, and the chief arbiter voiced no suspicions.
However, in the next day's third round when Topalov had a dubious position against the Ukrainian prodigy Sergey Karjakin and Danailov again tried to establish eye contact, the referee blocked his view.
There was no handshake when Topalov and Kramnik sat down for Saturday's penultimate round. After four hours' play they reached a dead level ending with king and knight for the Bulgarian against king and pawn.

The above article was published in news.bg, an on-line Bulgarian news service. It appears to have been first published in The Guardian. To read the rest of the article at news.bg CLICK HERE.

Focus News Agency, Jan 28 – FIDE President Rules out Topalov - Kramnik Return Match:
Antalya. A World Championship return match between Veselin Topalov and Vladimir Kramnik will not take place. The decision was taken by FIDE’s Presidential Council, which met in Turkey’s resort Antalya, Mayak Radio reported. “The possibility of a World Championship return match between Veselin Topalov and Vladimir Kramnik is ruled out”, FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov said. “We can’t even in theory take the responsibility for such a match because under the established rules the match should end six months before the start of the new World Championship in September 11 in Mexico. So, Topalov – Kramnik return match has to start not later than February 11, so that it can end in a month. But it is impossible to happen”, Ilyumzhinov added.
FOCUS News Agency Reminds:
Former FIDE world champion Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria lost the world chess title after a dramatic defeat in additional games versus Vladimir Kramnik in Elista in October 2006. Topalov and his manager Silvio Danailov sent an invitation to Kramnik for a return match in Sofia. They provided USD 2 million as a prize fund. Under the regulations of FIDE, any player with a rating of 2700 or higher can issue a challenge for a match of 12 games for the World Championship title against the incumbent World Champion.

Sofia News Agency: Jan 26 – Bulgaria's Topalov Accused of Cheating during Games:
Bulgaria's top chess player Vesselin Topalov was involved in another scandal after Germanys' Suddeutsche Zeitung newspaper accused him he used help during games from his manager.
The newspaper claimed Topalov used his manager Silvio Danailov to get hints for his moves on the chessboard and that could be clearly seen on the Veik-an-Zee tournament.
Suddetusche also claims there are rumours Topalov won the San Luis 2005 world tournament using illegal means, because his manager showed him which were the best moves according to a computer program.
According to the author Danailov and Topalov communicated in a secret, non-verbal manner.

Manila Standard Today: Jan 16 – PSA elevates GM Torre to Hall of Fame:
THE man considered the pillar of Philippine chess spanning four decades, deservingly receives his own place into the Hall of Fame of the Philippine Sportswriters Association.
The country’s oldest media organization will elevate the highly esteemed Eugene Torre, acclaimed as Asia’s first grandmaster, to its Hall of Fame during the SMC-PSA Annual Awards on Jan. 18 at the Entertainment Hall of the SM Mall of Asia.
The 53-year-old Torre joins an elite list of sports greats honored by the group in the past and among them were golfers Ben Arda and Celestino Tugot, tracksters Lydia de Vega-Mercado and Mona Sulaiman and basketball stars Lauro Mumar and Caloy Loyzaga.
This was quite a lengthy article, but well worth reading. You can see the rest of it HERE.

Showbuzz: Jan 13 – Mild London Makes For Slippery "Ice Chess":
Chess is a challenging game at the best of times. But try playing it in Trafalgar Square, with huge pieces carved from ice — on a relatively balmy British day that threatened to turn pawns to puddles.
Organizers of London's Russian Winter Festival knew players in their ice chess match Thursday would be battling not only each other but the weather. But the match was completed and the sculptures survived, despite a drizzly day and temperatures that reached 55 degrees.
Wegg-Prosser said the pieces, which were carved to look like local landmarks — the king was the Gothic tower that houses Big Ben — were still intact at the end of the hour-long match, which began at 8 a.m.
"It takes at least three hours for them to melt," said Yulia Wegg-Prosser, the chess spokeswoman.
A second board was set up in Moscow — also experiencing warmer-than-usual temperatures — and the Russian team, led by former world champion Anatoly Karpov, offered a draw to the British squad, captained by grandmaster Nigel Short.
Read the rest of this article with a picture of Short's Big Ben "ice king" HERE.

Sun Star, Davao: Jan 10 – Dimakiling ranked 6th in RP chess:
DAVAO City's International Master (IM) Oliver Dimakiling, who holds a FIDE rating of 2481, is currently No. 6 in men's national ranking. Based on the FIDE Online.Rating.Com, Dimakiling is 302 points behind world No. 1 Grand Master (GM) Vaselin Topalov of Bulgaria who has a rating of 2783.
But the De La Salle University (DLSU) sports management graduate is just 92 points behind country's No. 1 Grand Master (GM) Mark Paragua who has 2,573 points. Paragua is world No. 234 while RP's No. 2 GM Rogelio "Joey" Antonio Jr., who records 2551 points, is ranked 319th in the world.
RP No. 3 and first Asian GM Eugenio "Eugene" Torre has 2547 points to land at 345 in the world ranking.
Dimakiling is eyeing his second GM norm in the Asian Zonals set to open on Thursday in Vietnam.
Paragua, Antonio and Torre will also compete along with the rest of the 10-member Philippines contingent. (MLSA)

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