CN (Archives #4)

I don't believe in throwing anything away. Here I will save and/or archive all previous articles.
Click here to go to my "chess news" page. (Current stuff.)

NOTE: Many of these links may NOT be valid!! (No point in trying to update old links.)
(This page will be used to archive COMPLETE news items from the year, 2006.)

Are you looking for the latest news on Bobby Fischer? If you are, then please click here.

2006

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"The Paul Keres Memorial" (January 6th - 9th, 2006.): The tournament - to honor one of Estonia's greatest players - was held in January of 2006, with a number of great (and well-known) GM's participating in this event. GM V. Ivanchuk, KM A. Karpov, and GM R. Kasimdzhanov finished in a three-way tie for first, with a stellar seven of none possible points. The rest of the field were mostly GM's. The average rating of this strong field was 2590.

The really odd thing about this event was that two well-known players, (one was GM E. Agrest, rated 2571); could not score well, Agrest only had 1.5 points. But perhaps the strangest result of all was GM Alexei Shirov who only scored a half point from the tournament!!! (I am at a complete loss of how to even begin to attempt to explain such a result!)

CORUS / Wijk aan Zee

January 14th, 2004: Yahoo!!! The Corus Chess Tournament has finally begun ... I almost could not stand the waiting! Unfortunately, GM Vladimir Kramnik is not playing ...

Update: (Monday; January 23rd, 2006.) After losing the lead (temporarily) to Topalov, Anand has once again move back into a tie for first place at "plus-three." As many pundits predicted before the event, this tournament has turned in a battle for chess supremacy between the two highest rated players in the world. [more]

Round Ten: (Friday; January 27th, 2006.) GM V. Topalov won one of the prettiest games of the year ... to move back into sole possession of first place, after ten grueling rounds of play. (Anand is still in 2nd place.) [more]

January 30th, 2004: GM V. Topalov and GM V. Anand finished in a tie for first at the CORUS Masters ("A") in Wijk ann Zee, (the Netherlands). Magnus Carlsen finished in a tie for the "B" section, after leading most of the entire event. (Congrats to all.) [The final ChessBase report.] [The final TWIC report.] [The official website.]

Ajedrez 21 (a Spanish chess server) collapses –
The Playchess server offers six months {free} to former A21 members.

Go figure. Maybe the last honest server on the net. One where I was treated like royalty. One where my blitz rating was OVER 2500. (I didn't see this one coming, otherwise I would have saved my player information ... like I did with Kasparov's {now defunct} chess server ... AND ICC, and many others.) One where I gave quite a few lessons ... and where the admins there routinely waived my membership fee. It had to happen. Of course ... it goes without saying!

But the former clients of A21 need not weep, PC has offered you six months free membership. Just watch out for cheaters, because compared to your old server, this place is absolutely infested with 'dirty' players. (It was a reference to this server that caused GM Nigel Short to say that the internet is only a place where cheaters can flourish.) And apparently ICC and A21 have {also} come to an agreement. [more]

The Aeroflot Open

A relatively unknown, young GM, Baadur Jobava has won his first major title in one of the year's biggest open tournaments. (The Aeroflot Open / Moscow, Russia.) {Three other GM's also finished tied for first place.}

There appeared to be seven players tied with six point (6.0) each, among this group were GM's Vladimir Akopian, Kiril Georgiev and Arkadij Naiditsch. GM Vladimir Malakhov and GM Alexander Motylev were among the group (12 players) that was tied with 5.5 points. (Final standings.) (The games of this event.)

(Here is just one game exciting game from this event, see the CB website for more details.)

[The official web-site.] [The final {illustrated} ChessBase report.] [The final TWIC report.]

LINARES, ESP; 2006

February 19th, 2006: The "Wimbledon of Chess," (Linares) has finally begun. this year, the first half of the tournament will be played in Mexico, the second half in Spain. [more]

February 28th, 2006: The first half of the Linares tournament has concluded, play now moves to Linares (Spain), to complete one of the biggest, best and grandest tournaments of the year. (Play will resume March 3rd.)

Right now, the current leader at the break is GM Peter Leko, he is +3, and playing some solid and interesting chess. (At one point, his PR was well over 3000!) Since playing his big match in 2004 with Kramnik, Leko has not (yet) had a performance of the kind that we know that he is capable of, so this tournament performance, {thus far}; is both a welcome relief and long overdue.

Probably the other big story is that one of the tail-enders is the current World Champion, GM Veselin Topalov! After being nearly on fire for several straight tournaments, he is definitely having an off event here, and - right now - stands to lose a lot of rating points.

The young "pretender," and winner of the FIDE World Cup in 2005, GM Levon Aronian, is proving that he is no fluke ... and is currently all alone in second place, 4.5 points out of a possible seven. (2752, or "+78!!")

GM Peter Svidler is in third place, with "PLUS ONE" ... and has 4 points. Peter was one of the early leaders with Leko, but a couple of losses set him back to his current position, a place I am sure that he is not happy with.

The field is rounded out by GM V. Ivanchuk and GM T. Radjabov, {tied, with 3.5 points}; GM F. Vallejo Pons, {3.0}; GM V. Topalov, {2.5}; and bringing up the rear is GM Etienne Bacrot. {2.0} (I think that Bacrot is capable of a better result, but maybe he does not have much experience with Super-GM events.) For more details, see the CB - post round seven - report. (Three nicely annotated games! Many photo's! A cross-table, and much more!!)

March 12th, 2006: He won the FIDE World Cup event, now he has added the title one of the most prestigious of all chess tournaments to his resume. In a surprise turn of events, GM Levon Aronian snuck up on the rest of the field, and won clear first place. [This player's games.]

Peter Leko and Peter Svidler were the early leaders, at one point Leko had "four out of five" and a PR of close to (or over) 3000! Svidler faded before the end of the first half of the tournament. Leko continued to be the leader for the entire time the tournament was in Mexico, although he failed to expand his lead. (& win more games)

Once the tournament moved back to Spain, Topalov immediately served notice that he refused to go quietly, and torched off three victories in a row! (Topalov's turnaround in this one has to go down as one of the greatest comebacks in a Super-GM event ... ever!!!) In the end, Topalov would have to win more game in a top-flight event ... with the Black pieces ... to tie for first. Unable to pull this off, he settled for a draw and a tie for second and third places.

Meanwhile the former leader, (Leko); continued his normal way of playing chess, and drew game after game. (Although a few of his games were long, and showed real signs that Leko was trying to win.) Leko finished with two straight losses, and finished at a mere "plus one" (which is nothing special) and concluded the tournament in fourth place.

I thought Aronian was 'done' in round ten, when he lost to the resurgent Topalov. However, he quickly got the point back (from Pons), and while everyone had their eyes and attentions elsewhere, Aronian drew a couple, and then he won in the last round with the Black pieces ... when it really mattered.

GM T. Radjabov has to be VERY happy with his result, he played good chess and his tie for second place can be seen as something of an upset. Ivanchuk has to be disappointed with his result, after almost two years of fairly solid results, he ended up in a tie for 5th and 6th places, (with Svidler). I cannot imagine (many time Russian Champion) Peter Svidler being satisfied with his result, especially seeing as he was one of the early leaders of this event. Bacrot was a "tail-ender" throughout this event, maybe he was out-classed here. Pons, the lowest rated participant ... often over-matched by more than 100 points ... finished in last place ... exactly where ELO would have predicted he would finish. (-8) {However, his win and draw over Topalov probably had a huge impact on first place.}

I watched a few of the games on-line, and have already played over just about all of the decisive games. Thanks to the players ... for some excellent chess. And a deep and sincere thanks is due to the organizer! Because of their generous sponsorship, we get to enjoy some of the best chess of the whole year!! Muchas Gracias!

[The official web-site, (Morelia) such as it is. The official website. (Linares) alt. site ]

2006 U.S. Championships

March 13th, 2006: The annual tournament has just concluded, it was held March 1st through March 12th; in Dan Diego, California. GM Alexander Onischuk and WGM Anna Zatonskih are the new (2006) U.S. Champions.

The Women's World Chess Championships

March 25th, 2006: Chinese WGM Xu Yuhua has won the women's chess World Championships.

Yuhua defeated IM Alisa Galliamova of Russia in the finals, thus becoming the next Ladies Champion. Congratulations are in order, I watched a few of the games on-line, these ladies played fierce and uncompromising chess throughout the entire event.

The 2006 Melody Amber SUPER-GM Tournament

March 30th, 2006: GM Vishy Anand and GM Alexander Morozevich battled right down to the wire. In the end, they would up tying for first! The 2006 edition of the Melody Amber Tournament was great.

Fighting - if occasionally sloppy - chess was played. As usual, the participants always give their all. For the most part, draws are a rarity, and NOT the norm ... a welcome change from GM practice!

April 03rd, 2006: The new rating list is out. Who's Number One? Can't stand the suspense?
(Then click here.)

Topalov vs. Nisipeanu

April 11th, 2006: Two top GM's square off in a match over the supremacy of eastern Europe. Topalov won decisively, Nisipeanu looked badly outclassed (or out-prepared) in this one. [more]

The Seventh (7th) {Individual} European Championships

April 23rd, 2006: Croatian GM Zdenko Kozul had an exceptional (lifetime?) result. He scored 8.5 points from 11, played at a near 2800 clip, and won clear first, half a point ahead of chess genius, GM Vassily Ivanchuk. (Turkish) WGM E. Atalik delighted the local crowd and won the ladies' event.

Kozul played interesting and exciting chess, and won game after game. In the end, two relatively short draws bagged the tournament, when his competitors were unable to catch up to him. Congrats to Kozul, who I am sure is pleased with this result!

GM Wolfgang Unzicker

May 02nd, 2006: A great player passed away. A true living chess legend, and a link to a time gone by - GM Wolfgang Unzicker died of a heart attack on April 20th, 2006. I offer my condolences to the family, and I salute (and remember) a truly fine player. (Maybe look for his best game, coming soon? Any suggestions?)

[ The ChessBase Story ] [ The TWIC Report ] [ Some of this player's games. ]

The "MTel Masters," 2006

May 10th, 2006: The MTel 2006 chess tournament has begun. The players in this super-strong GM event are: Veselin Topalov, Vishy Anand, Peter Svidler, Ruslan Ponomariov, Etienne Bacrot and Gata Kamsky.
[The CG page on this event, you can replay all the games.] [The official website for this grand event.]

Round One: (May 11th) Svidler-Topalov and Ponomariov-Kamsky were drawn, while Anand defeated Bacrot with the Black pieces. [The CB report on this round.]

Round Two: (May 12th) ALL the games today ... were decisive!!! The bloodshed was total, as Kamsky defeated Bacrot, Svidler downed Ponomariov, and Anand totally destroyed Topalov from the BLACK side of a Ruy Lopez!
(It was an incredible game.) [The CB report on this round.]

May 13th, 2006: The MTEL Masters tournament has already started. Yesterday, in round two, Anand destroyed Topalov, (0-1, 36 moves); in one of the most brilliant games of the year.

May 21st, 2006: The World Champion, GM Veselin Topalov, came storming back ... winning ALL of his games in the closing rounds of M-Tel to take clear first!! American GM Gata Kamsky was in second place, GM Vishy Anand was in third place - with a respectable 5.5 points. Svidler, Ponomariov and Bacrot rounded out the field of players in this category XX event. (A few really great games were played in this Super-GM event.)

[The official site for this tournament.] [The CB report on Round Ten.] [The (final) TWIC report on this event.]

The 2006 (FIDE) Olympiad in Turin, Italy

NEWS FLASH!!! Armenia wins the Gold Medal in the Olympiad! The powerful (women's) team from the Ukraine took first place in the ladies competition. Just as big as the story of the winners, was the news that perennial powerhouse teams - like Russia - failed to win a prize ... or even come close! (Monday; June 5th, 2006.)

In case you never have heard of this event, this is like the WORLD TEAM Championships.

It has been held every two years, almost without interruption, since its inception.

Often times, {especially during the years of the cold war}; this was the only time you could see the best stars of chess, (east or west); all playing together.

The Russian were the heavy hitters, ranked number one, with (Classical World Champ?) GM Vladimir Kramnik at the helm. But four defeats, especially a last-round wipeout at the hands of the men from the Ukraine. The Indians, with superstar GM V. Anand as top board, were the second seed, but they got creamed and finished far out of contention. (30th place!)

I watched a few of the games on the Internet, the competition was fierce. Great chess!!

[ The TWIC report. ] [ The CB report. ] [ The official website. ] [ Replay the games. ]

Aerosvit/Foros GM (2006)

An International GM tournament took place in from June 16th to June 29th, 2006. Located in Foros/Yalta, which is in the southern-most part of the Crimean peninsula of the Ukraine, it was a category 18 event with 12 GMs rated 2600 or higher. (Time controls were 120 minutes for the entire game, with an increment of 30 sec. per move.)

GM Sergei Rublevsky lost in the first round, (to Mamedyarov); then he scored a draw with Karjakin -- and then came back to win five games in a row. After drawing the rest of his matches, despite some pressure from his opponents, he finished in clear first ... half a point ahead of GM Vassily Ivanchuk.

06.30.2006 GM Sergey Tiviakov has just the Dutch Championship from a powerful field. [The CB report.]

The (FIDE) Rating list for July, 2006

July 03rd, 2006: The new FIDE rating list is out. World Champion Veselin Topalov heads the list with an impressive 2813 number. Anand has lost over 20 points, GM L. Aronian is solidly in at # 3, and Kramnik is back again at the number four position. If you are curious to see the list, a full story, plus several pertinent links, then please click here.

The 2006 World Open

Literally dozens of titled players showed up for the World Open. Nine GM's, (Gata Kamsky, Ildar Ibragimov, Jaan Ehlvest, Vadim Milov, Leonid G. Yudasin, Alexander Ivanov, G. Kacheishvili, Aleks Wojtkiewicz, {now deceased} and Joel Benjamin); all tied for first with seven points, so the top six prizes were all added together and then divided evenly. (All according to USCF rules.)

A tiebreak playoff was held between Kamsky and Milov, with Kamsky winning out ... so Gata Kamsky is the official winner (on tiebreaks) of the 2006 World Open. {Congrats, Gata.}

Parimarjan Negi

He made his final GM norm at the age of 13 years 3 months and 22 days, and became the youngest GM (ever) in his country. (India.) This is an impressive achievement ... any way that you look at it.

Congratulations to this talented young player ... we shall definitely keep our eyes wide open for more reports about this young man!

The passing of GM Aleksander Wojtkiewicz.

He had a turbulent life, and at one time, he was imprisoned for his refusal to join the Soviet Army. After he eventually moved to the U.S., he became one of our top players and a seemingly permanent fixture at the top of the Grand Prix. He won literally dozens of events.

The 10th Petr Izmailov Memorial (Tomsk, Siberia)

He was the youngest GM ever ... at the tender age of 12. Some doubted his talent, others predicted that he would go on to win the world championship. Now at 16, he has just finished a category 18 double round robin (rapid) tournament - with Morozevich, Ponomariov, Kasimdzhanov, Rublevsky and Bologan - a point and a half ahead of the field. This is surely a fantastic result for Sergey Karjakin ... and perhaps an harbinger of things to come.

The Third Amsterdam Chess Tournament (ACT)

Three GM's, (Tiviakov, Erenburg and Nijboer); all scored 7/9 to tie for first. GM Sergey Tiviakov took first on tiebreaks. (The CB report, the TWIC report.) Late July, 2006.

The 39th International Chess Tournament and Chess Festival (Biel, Switzerland)

(Aug. 2006) Despite losing both games to prodigy Magnus Carlsen, GM Alexander Morozevich won clear first in this event! This was a double-round robin, with six very strong GM's. The other participants were Carlsen, Radjabov, Volokitin, Pelletier, and Bruzon.

The 2006 Sparkassen Chess Meeting (July 29th to Aug. 06th)

This was a SUPER-GM event, eight top GM's, a single-round-robin event. Peter Svidler and Vladimir Kramnik tied fir first. M. Adams, P. Leko and Gelfand tied for third, fourth and fifth. A. Naiditsch was in sixth place. Aronian had four draws and three losses ... a horrible tournament, after so many great results. (He finished next to last.) B. Jobava, the winner of this year's Aeroflot Open, finished dead last ... chalk it up to limited experience at this level.

The BIG one?!?

Game One / September 23rd, 2006: Vladimir Kramnik wins game one after the FIDE Champion, GM Veselin Topalov tried to win a rather sterile position. It was a long game, (75 moves!); that lasted six and a half hours. After fighting and trying to win and even turning down a draw offer, Topalov blundered and lost. [The ChessBase report.]

Game Two / September 25th, 2006: (This report is filed the day after, but I have been very busy as of late.) Topalov had the White pieces in the second game ... and he came out smoking. He played a blistering attack, one that would have blown away 99.9% of today's titled players. Topalov attacked like a wild man, it was obvious that his intention was to immediately level the score. However, Kramnik defended with LOX in his veins. Yet Topalov played a super-brilliant attack ... and missed the win that should have been his. Then an ending was reached, and Topalov had some definite drawing chances as well. In the end, the brave Bulgarian lost. Veselin could be up, 1.5 (out of 2), but instead, he is now down 0-2. [The ChessBase report.]

Games Three and Game Four / September 28th, 2006: Games 3 & 4 were both drawn.

Has GM Vladimir Kramnik been cheating??? [The CB report.] [Silvio Danailov accuses Kramnik of using Fritz 9, more.]

(Posted: 29,09,2006.) The match has turned into psychological warfare, and Kramnik is refusing to curb his rather suspicious behavior, (50+ trips away from the board in just one game?!?!!) The appeals committee has sealed the restrooms and private bathrooms, BOTH parties will be forced to use a public facility ... in the company of a match arbiter. Apparently this arrangement is unsatisfactory to Vladimir Kramnik, who decided to forfeit Games Five, rather than play. (A crisis in the match?)

(Posted: 14,06,2007.) I believe in being fair ... even if it takes close to a year for you to "get it right." Apparently, the number of times that Kramnik visited the toilet was grossly exaggerated, and Kramnik was also told by his doctor to move about as much as possible, this is because of his condition with arthritis of the spine. [more] Many months later, Kramnik is finally having his say on the subject. He says that the reports are grossly exaggerated, and many lies have been perpetrated by S. Danailov and company. (Read the ChessBase report.)

(Posted: 03,10,2006.) After much wrangling, it was decided to continue the match. Game Six was drawn, meanwhile many top GM's have expressed their support for GM Vladimir Kramnik.

(Posted: 07,10,2006.) Most of you know that game five was a forfeit, the point was given to Topalov.

Kramnik won Game Ten, [more] ... ... ... and Game Eleven was a fighting draw.

(Posted: 12,10,2006.) After an extremely turbulent match, the last game (Game Twelve) was drawn, leaving the event knotted at 6-6. (This includes the forfeit of game five.) Now the match moves into tiebreakers.

Kramnik wins! After the 12 game match was left tied at 6-6, Kramnik won the tiebreak portion of the match ... in a fairly convincing manner. (see below) There is already talk of a rematch in 2007.

World Blitz Chess Championship

September 09, 2006: The WORLD BLITZ CHESS CHAMPIONSHIPS were held in Israel. Some of the best players in the world showed up to decide who the world's "Fastest Draw," was. Big names like Judit Polgar, Teimour Radjabov, Etienne Bacrot, Boris Gelfand, even young wunderkind, GM Magnus Carlsen. Who wins? If you guessed "Anand," and he was there ... well, I would have thought that was almost a foregone conclusion. However, GM Viswanathan Anand did NOT win!!! It was an amazing 16 player RR event, read the exciting CB report.
[The TWIC report, the official website.]

The European Union's Individual Chess Championships

The European Union, (EU); held its individual championship tournament in Liverpool, England.
(September 6th - 15th, 2006.)

GM Nigel Short won clear first, (CONGRATS NIGEL!); winning in the last round, when all the other players, (who were tied with him and had the same score); could only draw. (After some recent successes, Short's rating is creeping back up near 2700. For those of you who do not remember ... or may not know, Short played a world championship match with GM Garry Kasparov back in 1993.)

I have gone over a few of the games, here is one contest that I managed to annotate. (medium depth)

[The official website.] [The TWIC final report.] [See some of the games from Round 10.]
[The CB report with GM N. Short's key game over Mark Hebden briefly annotated, there is also a link to download all the games, if you are interested.]

Essent Chess Tournament, 2006 (Crown group)

<< 29,10,2006: GM Shakhryar Mamedyarov and GM Judit Polgar won the "Essent Crown" super-GM chess tournament. GM V. Topalov, having just lost his WC title in a recent ... and rather controversial match ... was clearly out of form, losing three, winning two, and drawing only one game. GM Ivan Sokolov had an off tournament and only drew one game. >> (From my main/index page.)

Perhaps still reeling from his recent loss of the title, GM Topalov played well below his usual high standard and lost several games.

It was a real fighting tournament with many more decisive games than is the "norm" at this level.

In the last round, if Topalov could win, and if Sokolov could manage to take down Mamedyarov, Topalov still had a chance to tie for first. This seemingly improbable scenario almost occurred. However, in the end, Sokolov blundered his position away, and then Topalov seemed to lose the thread of the position. When the dust finally settled, both Polgar and Mamedyarov had won. These two split first place, with Mamedyarov winning the title on tiebreaks.

[ The official web site. ] [ First CB report, final CB report. ] [ The TWIC report. ]

Cap D'Agde (rapid)

03,11,2006: It was undoubtedly a very exciting, fighting event. The 7th Cap d’Agde rapid chess tournament saw eight players go into the knockout phase, and two young prodigies come out in the final. There Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan, 19, defeated 16-year-old Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine to take the €16,000 first prize. (The CB report, the TWIC report.)

The 14th Chigorin Memorial

(Nov. 2006) Many strong players participated in this event ... which was, for some quirky reason ... almost completely ignored by most of the chess press. (This event was held at the Hotel Karelia, in St. Petersburg, Russia.) In the end, it was GM Dmitry Bocharov who won the tournament. (The CB report, the (very brief) TWIC report.)

The TAL Memorial Chess Festival

cn_arc4-tal-inset1.gif, 02 KB

The Tal Memorial chess festival was held in Moscow from November 5th to 19th, 2006. It is (was) a round-robin super-tournament of Category 20, with high-rated GM participants from seven different countries. The rating favorite would have been Peter Svidler, 2750, Russia, the dark horse would be 15-year-old Magnus Carlsen of Norway, currently rated at 2698, who was the only participant rated below 2700. (It promises to be a very exciting event, you can follow all the games on-line. Click here to download all of the games in PGN format.)

Levon Aronian, (the winner on tiebreak?); Peter Leko and Ruslan Ponomariov won the Tal Memorial round robin tournament with 5.5/9. Boris Gelfand was 4th with 5 points. The 20th category tournament was dedicated to Mikhail Tal, the 8th World Champion, who reigned in 1960-61. Mikhail Tal - if he were still alive - would have been 70 on November 9, 2006.

There was also a super-blitz tournament, the eventual winner was GM Viswanathan Anand. (story)

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As predicted, Kramnik lost ... although it was not as bad as some other "Man-versus-machine" outings. (GM M. Adams versus Hydra comes to mind.) In the end, Kramnik lost two and drew four ... proving that the day when humans can successfully play against the machines may have already passed us by. For more info, see my web-page devoted to this particular match ... there are many valuable and informative links as well.

A true legend has left us ...

December 05, 2006: The ChessBase website has reported that one of the greatest players of the 20th Century has passed away, he was 82 years young.

GM David Bronstein was one of the most creative players who ever lived, he played Botvinnik to a standstill in the first officially (FIDE) sanctioned "one-on-one" World Championship in 1951. He won over 25 International events, and also wrote with great distinction.

Salute and goodbye fellow chess-player and respected GM, I have not the words to do this event justice ...

General Chess News

Tuesday / December 19th, 2006: A lot has happened in the last few months in the world of chess.
(Seemingly, my computer has spent nearly all of this time in the shop, and I have endured a whole host of technical problems ... too painful and too numerous to list all of them here. The last two months have seen one problem right after the other.)

The Russian Super-Final was won by another young talent that - once again - practically no one in the West ever heard of. Sadly, David Bronstein passed away, {see the report just above}; Topalov has challenged Kramnik to another match, after weeks of uncertainty, it was announced that Kramnik would definitely play in the up-coming World Championship match, Topalov defeated J. Polgar in a blindfold match, an on and on. (If you need to catch up, I suggest that you peruse the most recent news stories on the CB website.)

The following issues of TWIC cover the period during which I was unable to keep up with (and report on) chess news ... on a regular basis.

Please peruse them, to find any news stories that I may have missed: # 628, # 629, # 630, # 631, and # 632.

Local Chess News and Items

The Gulf Coast "Quick Chess" Championships (Aug. 12th, 2006.)

Keenan Olson - and the Mobile Chess Club - sponsored a one-day UN-rated tournament ... to see who was "the fastest draw on the Gulf Coast." (Most of Keenan's events are rated, they decided to experiment with this one ... for whatever reason.)

The date of the event was Saturday, August 12th, 2006. The time control was "Game in 20 minutes," ... or simply G/15, if you used a chess clock with the five-second delay.

They had a pretty good turnout, yours truly, (LM A.J. Goldsby I); won all of his games - save one - to take clear first place. (Cash, plus a very nice trophy ... click here to see a picture of me holding my hardware.) Joe Jurjevich, a former Alabama State Champion, held A.J. to a draw - and also drew another contest - to take clear second.

My thanks to: ALL the players who participated; Keenan Olson and his group for an enjoyable event; Jack Mallory ... for his many years of service to the Mobile chess scene; and Dr. J. Perciballi for giving me a lift to this event.

(This page holds news items archived from the year, 2006.)

2006

CORUS / Wijk aan Zee

Ajedrez 21 (a Spanish chess server) collapses –
The Playchess server offers six months {free} to former A21 members.

The Aeroflot Open

LINARES, ESP; 2006

2006 U.S. Championships

The Women's World Chess Championships

The 2006 Melody Amber SUPER-GM Tournament

Topalov vs. Nisipeanu

The Seventh (7th) {Individual} European Championships

GM Wolfgang Unzicker

The "MTel Masters," 2006

The 2006 (FIDE) Olympiad in Turin, Italy

Aerosvit/Foros GM (2006)

The (FIDE) Rating list for July, 2006

The 2006 World Open

Parimarjan Negi

The passing of GM Aleksander Wojtkiewicz.

The 10th Petr Izmailov Memorial (Tomsk, Siberia)

The Third Amsterdam Chess Tournament (ACT)

The 39th International Chess Tournament and Chess Festival (Biel, Switzerland)

The 2006 Sparkassen Chess Meeting (July 29th to Aug. 06th)

The BIG one?!?

World Blitz Chess Championship

The European Union's Individual Chess Championships

Essent Chess Tournament, 2006 (Crown group)

Cap D'Agde (rapid)

The 14th Chigorin Memorial

The TAL Memorial Chess Festival

A true legend has left us ...

General Chess News

Local Chess News and Items

The Gulf Coast "Quick Chess" Championships (Aug. 12th, 2006.)

(This page holds news items archived from the year, 2006.)

2006

CORUS / Wijk aan Zee

Ajedrez 21 (a Spanish chess server) collapses – The Playchess server offers six months {free} to former A21 members.

Topalov vs. Nisipeanu

The (FIDE) Rating list for July, 2006

Parimarjan Negi

The passing of GM Aleksander Wojtkiewicz.

The 10th Petr Izmailov Memorial (Tomsk, Siberia)

The Third Amsterdam Chess Tournament (ACT)

The 39th International Chess Tournament and Chess Festival (Biel, Switzerland)

The 2006 Sparkassen Chess Meeting (July 29th to Aug. 06th)

Cap D'Agde (rapid)

The 14th Chigorin Memorial

The TAL Memorial Chess Festival

A true legend has left us ...

General Chess News

Local Chess News and Items

The Gulf Coast "Quick Chess" Championships (Aug. 12th, 2006.)

Ajedrez 21 (a Spanish chess server) collapses –
The Playchess server offers six months {free} to former A21 members.