FIDE Ratings List July 2016

The FIDE Ratings List updated for July 2016 is here. Check out the top 20 in the table below.

FIDE Ratings Top 20--July 2016

RankNameCountryRatingGames
1Carlsen, MagnusNOR28550
2Kramnik, VladimirRUS28120
3Caruana, FabianoUSA28109
4Vachier-Lagrave, MaximeFRA279810
5Aronian, LevonARM27920
6Nakamura, HikaruUSA27870
7Giri, AnishNED27859
8Ding, LirenCHN27783
9Karjakin, SergeyRUS27739
10Anand, ViswanathanIND27700
11So, WesleyUSA27700
12Mamedyarov, ShakhriyarAZE276412
13Topalov, VeselinBUL27610
14Svidler, PeterRUS27590
15Li, Chao bCHN27580
16Harikrishna, P.IND27559
17Rapport, RichardHUN275213
18Grischuk, AlexanderRUS27470
19Navara, DavidCZE274519
20Eljanov, PavelUKR27379

When a good move is enough

Grandmaster Radosław Wojtaszek in an interview about Carlsen’s playing style:

I noticed that Magnus Carlsen’s playing philosophy is to make moves that are good enough rather than the best. Making the best move again and again absorbs a lot of time and energy. The genius is economical: he plays 30 good moves and two excellent ones. It works. I think that principle applies not only to chess.

The next time I hit the chess board, I’ll keep this in mind. O wait, but which one is the good move?

Battle of the Grandmasters 2016

The Battle of the Grandmasters — the 2016 (Philippines) National Chess Championship Grand Finals is underway and off to its last round (Round 13) today.

6 Filipino grandmasters joined the Open Division.

Standings of the Open Division at the end of Round 12 follow:

The Greatest World Championship Rivalry

Perhaps in time for the 2016 World Championship, Dr. Timothy Harding narrates the series of events that went down to become the greatest world championship rivarly in the history of chess:

In their epic World Championship rivalry over the course of five matches and six years, Kasparov achieved a superiority of just two wins over Karpov (21 to 19) with 104 games ending in draws.

The series of games included a few “grandmaster draws” and some blunders, but overall the contests were of very high quality. They represented the highest achievements of the human mind in chess at a time when it was unaided by computers.

A long but exciting read. A trip down memory lane. It makes one wonder, how would the current landscape be so different if computers were not involved in molding the grandamsters of today? Do you think we’ll see the same set of people at the top level chess, or only the ones backed by heavy machineries like the Russians?

The Bilbao Masters Final 2016

For this year’s Bilbao Masters, Wesley So is the defending champion, when he defeated Anish Giri in blitz playoff last year.

The Bilbao Chess press release:

The Final completes its competitive line-up, the strongest in recent years, with So, the winner of last year’s tournament, Nakamura and Giri, who are among the top ten of the international ranking and the 16-year-old Chinese player Yi Wei, the sport’s emerging world star.

The tournament, which has been recognised as one of the most prestigious in the world, will take place between 13 and 23 July at the Campos Elíseos Theatre, alongside the Villa de Bilbao, one of the most compelling Chess Opens of the year in which 140 players will compete.

This year’s edition of Bilbao Masters has truly gone more exciting, because on top of the familiar rivalry between Wesley So and Anish Giri, the organizers are bringing us a treat with the preview of this year’s World Championship match between Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin.

Chess Beauty: Alexandra Botez

Katherine Eisenbrand writes in Standford’s Pulse Magazine — You Just Got Pawned:

ALEXANDRA BOTEZ IS among Canada’s best female chess players, speaks five languages, attends Stanford, and on top of all that she’s trending on Reddit, 9GAG, Imgur, and Tumblr. It also seems like no other “Alexandra Botez” exists in the world, because sixteen search pages later the headlines still read “Botez, Canada’s Best, Most Accomplished, Most Beautiful, Most Amazingly Talented Chess Players.” I’m paraphrasing, but you get the gist.

At the current ELO rating of 2092, I think she’s still far from what she is being described as The Most Amazingly Talented Chess Player.

Who will win the 2016 World Chess Championship?

The World Championship is fast approaching. It’s time to put it to a vote. Who’s your favorite to win the 2016 World Chess Championship?

Cast your vote below now:

[polldaddy poll=9452250]

Chess Hustler meets a grandmaster

A New-Yorker’s hustling, trash-talking, and cheating way of playing chess apparently didn’t work against a grandmaster.

Watch the video below to see how it went:

GM Maurice Ashley on his note in the Youtube page:

APECC Executive Chess Tournament — June 2016

Ayala-Paseo Executive Chess Club (APECC) held a tournament last week, June 11, 2016, dubbed as the APECC Non-Master Executive Chess Tournament at the Philippine Navy Officers Clubhouse in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City. It was a rated tournament with 35 participants and 6-Round Rapid Swiss system.

The tournament director was Mr. Roland Roselada, APECC President, and chief arbiter was FIDE National Arbiter Alfredo Chay.

Final ranking follows:

Vassily Ivanchuk is 7-time Capablanca Memorial champion

Chessbase reports:

The Capablanca Memorial is a tournament with a long tradition. The first of these events to honor the Cuban Champion was played in 1962, this year saw the 51st edition. Six of the previous 50 tournaments were won by Vassily Ivanchuk. This year he won for the seventh time. With four wins and six draws Ivanchuk scored 7.0/10 and was one point ahead of his closest rival.

Two things:

  1. Jose Raul Capablanca was that great chess player and champion that he deserved an annual chess tournament named after him — and long-running at that.
  2. Vassily Ivanchuk, having won the tournament 7 times, speaks volumes about his age. 😀

Photo credit: gettyimages