Σκακιστικά νέα

The 5th Torneo Internacional de Navidad Ciudad de Lorca took place from 26-30th December, 2016, at the Hotel Jardines de Amaltea in Lorca, Murcia, Spain.

The event was organized by the Club Ajedrez Lorca and completed over 9 rounds of Swiss system.

163 players from 22 federations participated, including 15 Grandmasters and 15 International Masters.

The 35th Annual Empire City Open was held from December 27-29, 2016, at the Hotel Pennsylvania, 401 Seventh Ave, New York.

The event had 7 sections: Open, Under 2100, Under 1900, Under 1700, Under 1500, Under 1300 and Under 1100. The total prize fund was 15,000 USD.

The 26th Annual North American Open was held from 26-30th December, 2016, at Bally’s Casino Resort, 3645 Las Vegas Blvd S, Las Vegas, Nevada.

The event had 7 sections: Open, Under 2300, Under 2100, Under 1900, Under 1700, Under 1500 and Under 1250.

In a dramatic race of two players who recently contended the World Championship Match in New York, Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin, the Russian came out on the top to win the gold medal by the virtue of better tiebreak score.

The two players finished on 16,5/21 points each. Just like in the World Rapid Championship Carlsen lost the trophy on additional criteria.

Bay Area Chess announced that GM Enrico Sevillano has officially joined BAC as full time coach.

He will be coaching exclusively for BAC at the enrichment programs and other classes, and joins a coaching staff at BAC that also includes GM Naroditsky, GM Chirila, GM Izoria, IM Aleskerov and IM Kavutskiy.

GM Sevillano has won many titles, including the US Open, National Open and American Open, and has competed in the Chess Olympiad representing the Philippines.

The second edition of the IIFL Wealth Mumbai International Open kicks off on Monday, 26 December. The main Open will have a Rs. 12 lakh prize fund and will be an international master/grandmaster norm event that will be played over nine days.

Along with the Open, the IIFL Wealth Mumbai Junior International Chess Tournament—world’s richest junior tournament with the prize fund of Rs. 8 lakhs—will be held for juniors aged below 13.

Armenian Grandmaster Ashot Anastasian suddenly passed away on 26th December at the age of 52.

Anastasian was one of the strongest players in the country, having won the Armenian Chess Championship eight times: 1983, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1992, 1994, and 2005.

As a member of the national team Anastasian had won two team bronze medals (1992, 2002) and one individual gold medal (2000) at Chess Olympiads.

Condolences to his family and friends.

The 2016 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships (Open and Women) will take place in Doha, Qatar, from 25th of December (arrival) to 31st of December (departure).

Live games with analysis will be daily on Chessdom.com and ChessArena.com with the TCEC engines Stockfish, Houdini, and Komodo.

World Rapid Chess 2016 live games (men) here

The 2016 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships (Open and Women) will take place in Doha, Qatar, from 25th of December (arrival) to 31st of December (departure).

The Rapid event will be held over three days (26-28th December) at a time control of 15min+10s and the Blitz Championships will continue during next two days (29-30th December) at a time control of 3min+2s.

Japan and Singapore could bid for the right to hold the next World Chess Championship Match in 2018, FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov stated for TASS agency.