By Yochanan Afek

The Russian chess team Ural Sverdlovskaya won the 24^th edition of the European Club Cup, held in Kallithea (Greece), with the participation of 63 men and 18 women teams, which included the best chess players of the continent (actually the best chess players in other continents as well).

The winners (Radjabov, Kamsky, Shirov, Grischuk, Malakov, Motylev and Dreev) scored 12 out of 14 match points (6 wins and a single loss) and 32 individual points, finishing ahead of the Bundesliga champion Baden-Baden which had the same match point record but only 27.5 individual points.

Places 3-6 were shared by Kiev (UKR), Bosna Sarajevo (BIH), Economist Saratov (RUS) and TPS Saransk (RUS) with 11 match points. Israeli GM Michael Roiz played for Saratov, the town where he was born.

Israeli chess champs Ashdod Illit shared 7-13 place with 10 match points, and Beer-Sheva finished with 9 (14-17 place). Two players won every one of their games, the Russian Vladimir Malakhov (7/7) and the Armenian Artashes Minasian (6/6).

The Women European Club Cup was awarded to Monte-Carlo from Monaco (Koneru, Cramling, Dzagnidze, M. Socko and Skripchenko) who emerged without loss with 12 match points (5 wins and 2 ties).

Two Israeli chess clubs participated in this event: Madatech Haifa finished 13^th with 6 match points, and Herzliya finished 16^th with 4. Despite their rather modest team performance, the Israeli chess players did score some notable personal achievements. Among the men, 17-year-old Tamir Nabaty from Beer-Sheva made a GM-norm, and among the wome,n Maya Porat (Haifa) took the silver medal for Board 4 with 5/7 and Irina Botvinnik (Herzliya) made a WIM-norm.

Interesting interviews with two world chess champions and a finalist at the unofficial world poker championship (who happened to be chess master) have been published recently on the web.

Viswanathan Anand was interviewed by Susan Polgar right after his successful defending of the 2008 World Chess Championship. Post world championship Anand is impressed by today’s strong chess computers, but warns from drowning in the information. His life is a continuous effort to keep the balance between intensive practicing and taking time offs.

Anand was the first Indian to be awarded with a FIDE Grandmaster title and the first Indian World Chess Champion. Currently, there are about 17 Indian Grandmaster and dozens of Women Grandmasters, International Grandmasters and Fide Masters. In addition, India grabbed 17 chess championship titles of different levels since Anand, known as Vishy, won the World junior championship. Perhaps it has something to do with the inclusion of chess in the Indian school’s system:

“VA: We currently have a program called Mind Champion’s Academy… so something like 4,000-plus schools, with a total student population of more than 1.4 million. And of that, more than 70,000 have played in a competition this year. The nice thing is that we also reach out to non-traditional areas; not only the cities, but small towns and villages as well. So hopefully in five to ten years, we will start to see the effect of this as more and more people enter the chess world.”

The new chess queen, 2008 Women’s World Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk gave her first interview after the winning to The Guardian and, once again, emphasized the role of chess in her life as opposed to her other occupations (now described by her as distractions). Unless she will be offered a main part in a good film (Kosteniuk played in the Russian movie “Blagoslovite zhenshinu” or “Bless the Woman” in English), she plans to concentrate on chess and motherhood.

Ylon Schwartz used to be a chess master with 2366 rating points. He also used to be a day care center worker, a special education assistant in a public school, a horserace bettor, but now he is aiming for the $900,000 prize offered to the winner of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event.

Talking with the New York Times, Schwartz spoke about the similarities between chess and poker. In both games, he says, players have to have good memory, outstanding strategy skill, and a sense for geometry:

“In chess, it is the shape and size of the board and positions of the pieces. In poker, it is the positions of the players betting on a hand and the number of chips they have.”

Nevertheless, he has to admit that chess and poker have at least one significant difference:

“Poker is a game of incomplete information…Chess is a game of complete information.”

An important rapid chess tournament is currently taking place at the French resort of Cap D’Agde. The 16 participants were divided into 2 groups, the top four from each groups going forward to the knockout stages.

Among the numerous young stars who participated in the French rapid chess event, the name of former World Chess Champion Anatoly Karpov stood out. The former chess champion has cut down his activity in recent years, and he managed only 50% in group B. However he qualified for the quarter finals by beating the 14-year-old Chinese prodigy Yifan Hou in a special playoff, and then he surprised the group A winner, Fabiano Caruana and beat him in a blitz decider.

He was joined at the semifinals by world blitz chess champion Ivanchuk (who beat Radjabov in blitz), Carlsen (who beat Bu-Xiangzhi) and Nakamura (who defeated Vachier-Lagrave). Karpov’s run was interrupted in the semi final by the American Hikaru Nakamura. The two favorites, Ivanchuk and Carlsen, were paired in the other semifinal. Ivanchuk won, and in the final he will try to add another trophy to his splendid list of wins in 2008. However, his opponent is a very original and talented player, specializing in blitz chess.

In another rapid chess playoff tournament, held in Moscow on October 28, Peter Svidler was crowned for the 5^th time as the champion of Russia, scoring 3/4 ahead of Jakovenko 2.5 and Alekseev 0.5. Those three shared the first place in the Russian chess championship which ended about two weeks ago.

Viswanathan Anand of India has retained his FIDE World Chess Championship title after drawing the 11th game in the 2008 World Chess Championship in Bonn, Germany. Anand and his challenger, 2006 World Chess Champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia will be sharing the €1.5M prize fund.

The 2008 World Chess Championship had ended earlier than expected with 2 points gap between Indian Viswanathan Anand and his Russian challenger Vladimir Kramnik. Anand had won in three of the eleven games played, lost once and drew in seven games, including the final determinant game where he was playing White.

Anand did not earn his second undisputed World Chess Championship title without sweating. On the final game, Anand went for the conventional 1. e4, while most of the chess match he preferred to open with a 1. d4. Kramnik responded with an atypical Najdorf Variation of the Sicilian Defense, a response that surprised Anand and put Kramnik in an awkward situation, playing an unfamiliar line at this crucial chess game. Yet, it took 19 moves for Anand to feel assured with his predictable victory and 24 moves for Kramnik to give all hopes regarding an upcoming win and to offer a draw.

Viswanathan Anand, 38, also known as the “Tiger from Madras” was defeating Vladimir Kramnik and claiming the World Chess Championship title for the second year in a row; in the 2007 World Chess Championship in Mexico City, he was challenging Kramnik, then the defending 2006 Classical World Chess Champion, thus becoming the first Indian World Chess Champion. In 2009, Anand will be defending his title against either FIDE 2005 World Chess Champion Veselin Topolov or Gata Kamas, who won the Chess World Cup in 2007.

Chess match between Earth and Space is going on for about a month, courtesy of the US Chess Federation (USCF) and NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration). The Earth is represented by the present USCF K-3 champions, the members of Stevenson Elementary School chess club in Bellevue, Washington, and the online readers of the Earth vs. Space Chess Match 2008 website who can vote for every move proposed by the young students. Astronaut Greg Chamitoff of the ISS Expedition 17 team, who is currently travelling above and around his earthy chess opponents at five miles a second, plays the delegate of Space.

The Earth vs. Space chess match started out on September 29. Spaceman Chamitoff made the first move, 1. d4 on his Velcro fastened chessboard. Assisted by about 700 voters, Stevenson’s chess team has chosen to respond with a 1… Ng8-Nf6, which was followed a spacey 2. Ng1-f3. Most of the earthy public voted for 2… d7-d5 as the ultimate respond for Chamitoff’s second move, and after strolling more than 210 miles above Earth, Chamitoff had found the time to float around the chessboard to play the London System, which was answered by his eager opponents with a 3… c7-c5.

White’s 4. e3, was responded with Black’s 4…Nb8-c6; playing his 5th move, White-Chamitoff had deviated from the common lines of the London System and went for a risky 5. Bb5, which was responded due to the majority of votes with a 5…Qd8-a5+. Next up, White had managed to block the expected check and protect his queenside bishop by playing 6. Nc3. This time, there were almost no arguments that Black should go for the aggressive respond and play 6…Nf6-e4.

White followed the Earth’s attack with a 7. Bxc6+, checking Black’s king while in the meantime neglecting his pinned knight. Having no alternatively, Stevenson chess club responded immediately 7… bxc6. Greg Chamitoff from up above responded with a castling, and the young chess champions, assisted by the public’s votes, replied with the capture of the c3 knight. Once again, Chamitoff surprised his opponents by pinning the knight, so the opponents answered with a 9…Nc3-e2+.

And so, after a month of this chess playing, consulting and voting routine, the Earth vs. Space chess game, Space is threatened with a check. Stevenson Elementary School chess team seem optimistic about the continuation of the chess game, believing that their last desperado maneuver will have a prolonging impact on the next moves to come.