Amon Simutowe, 25, of Zambia, is on the verge of becoming the first black grandmaster from the sub-Saharan region, and he could soon contend for the world championship.
Two American players have qualified for the grandmaster title over the last two years while making the bulk of their qualifying performances at home.
The Arctic Chess Challenge was not kind of Magnus Carlsen, the world’s 17th ranked player.
That chess has cropped up again and again in movies, as well as in paintings and literature, is hardly surprising.
Humpy Koneru, a 20-year-old from India, is the No. 2 woman in the world, one of just 10 to earn the title of grandmaster.
World champions often have an indefinable mystique that seems to unsettle their foes and cause them to blunder for no apparent reason.
In sports that require athletic skill, an aging star’s decline is easy to understand. In chess, it seems strange.
There were no real surprises at the candidates matches to select qualifiers for the World Championship Tournament. The match between Levon Aronian and Magnus Carlsen was the only one that required six tiebreak games.
The tournament took place on October 18-26. American GM Hikaru Nakamura wins, last year winner Lenier Dominguez Perez finished second.
The standings:
1. Hikaru Nakamura (USA 2648) 7.0
2. Lenier Dominguez Perez (CUB 2683) 6.0
3-4. Vugar Gashimov (AZE 2664) and Alexander Beliavsky (SLO 2646) 5.5
5-6. Michal Krasenkow (POL 2668) and Rafael Vaganian (ARM 2600) 4.5
7. Josep Oms Pallise (ESP 2506) 4.0
8. Miguel Illescas Cordoba (ESP 2598) 3.5
9. Marc Narciso Dublan (ESP 2546) 3.0
10. Jordi Fluvia (ESP 2508) 1.5
After five months of wait, fusion of WorldChessNetwork and ChessLive is ready to accept new members. As WCL is child server of the famous ICC, members will be having access to chess.fm broadcasts, John Watson shows, Game of the Week and training videos.
