Biel R4: Evgeny Alekseev and Leinier Dominguez win
25 Jul 2008 12:00am GMT Before this round Magnus Carlsen was just two points behind Vishy Anand in the inofficial "live ratings". A win would have put him over the top. But that was not to be: Carlsen drew against Alexander Onischuk with black. Meanwhile Bacrot and Pelletier continued their losing streak, falling to Dominguez and Alekseev respectively. The latter joins Carlsen in the lead. Round four report.
'Topalov has not signed' – Challenger Match in doubt?
25 Jul 2008 12:00am GMT Just when we thought everything was settled for a World Championship Challengers' Match between Gata Kamsky and Veselin Topalov in Lvov, Ukraine – November 26 to December 14 – Topalov's manager Silvio Danialov says his his client has not yet signed anything. Turns out neither has Kamsky, since according to FIDE "the contract has not been finalized with the organisers". Details.
Biel R5: Bacrot beats Pelletier, Carlsen and Aleksev lead
25 Jul 2008 12:00am GMT It was like in the 19th stage of the Tour de France: nothing changed at in the top part of the table, as the games Carlsen-Dominguez and Alekseev-Onischuk were drawn. But at the bottom end Etienne Bacrot scored his first victory in this tournament, against Swiss GM Yannick Pelletier, who suffered his fourth defeat. Round five halftime report.
Asian Youth Championship in Teheran
24 Jul 2008 12:00am GMT Chess is a primordial sport, but children can also play it fairly well. Last week, ancient Persian hosted the 2008 Asian Youth Chess Championship. A large number of extremely talented girls and boys, from the largest and most populated continent, competed in twelve different sections, widely varied, from lively playful eight-year-olds to romantic fall-in-love eighteen-year-olds. Illustrated report.
Boris Savchenko leads Politiken Cup with 6/6
24 Jul 2008 12:00am GMT It doesn't really make sense to calculate the performance of a perfect score, but we will mention that after winning all of his first six games in the Danish Politiken Cup one comes up with 3151 for St Petersburg GM Boris Savchenko. This 22-year-old talent is not just viciously strong, he also has a keen sense of humour, as you can see in this pictorial report by Sergey Tiviakov.