Nevednichy Romanian Chess Champion for 2008, wins the title with 7,0/9.

The young Chinese chess star Yifan won the IsBank-Ataturk International Women Masters Chess Tournament with the fantastic score of 7,0/9. She did not lose a single game and with 5 wins and 4 draws did not leave any chance to the other participants.

Retired ex-world champion Garry Kasparov will take part in the “Days of chess”, which will be held at the end of March in Pasching, Austria. Kasparov will play a demonstrating game with Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer on March 28th, and on March 29th he will host a simultaneous session on 32 boards against young Austrian players.

Only a few weeks before the start of Gausdal Classics 2008, the list of participants is growing. Currently there are 10 players in GM A, 62 players in GM B and 50 players in ELO group for a total of 112 players. You are still on time to sign up for one of the most promising tournaments of the year.

Alexander Chernenko, Gata Kamsky’s manager, claims in an interview with Russian “Sport Express” that match Kamsky-Topalov will take place in Lviv, Ukraine, for a prize fund “several times bigger” than 250.000 USD offered from Bulgarian sponsors.

Reykjavik Open 2008 has a new sole leader. This is the top Chinese GM Wang Hao. He managed to take down GM Fabiano Caruana, and the draws on boards 1 and 3, GM Stefansson – GM Wang Yue and GM Kveinys – GM Mikhalevski, gave Wang Hao the lead with 6,0/7. Second place is shared by Stefansson and Wang Yue, both with 5,5/7

World Champion Vishy Anand confidently brought this affair to its end by drawing the 6th consecutive game which was suitable for the clear first place. His play was light and easy and he rarely looked to be in trouble. The deadly Naidorf Sicilian and Semi-Slav mix provided him three fantastic wins with black pieces, and his only defeat came in the 2nd round after a weak moment against Aronian. Later during the tournament, he introduced safer openings, like Queen’s Indian defence and Caro-Kann.

Morelia Linares last round live commentary starting at 10:00 EST/16:00 CET

Morelia Linares last round live commentary starting at 10:00 EST/16:00 CET

Magnus Carlsen introduced another early novelty, the brave-looking 9…Bxd5. Anything goes in the modern chess, and giving away the QID bishop was perfectly sound in this position. Black sacrificed an exchange, but managed to establish a stronghold in the center and white pieces lacked in coordination. Aronian run out of constructive moves pretty soon and offered a draw. The novelty passed the initial test and we hope to see further discussion in this line.