World Chess Championship 2008 in Germany

The match will be a best of 12 games. Players score 1 point for a win and half a point for a draw. Time control will be 120 minutes, with 60 minutes added after move 40, 15 minutes added after move 60, and additional 30 seconds per move starting from move 61. The match will end as soon as any player scores 6.5 points.

If, after 12 games, the score is equal, a tie-break of four rapid games will be played. Time control for these games will be 25 minutes plus 10 seconds per move. In case of equal scores two additional blitz games will be played (5 minutes plus 10 seconds per move). If these games do not decide the winner, a decisive Armageddon game will be played (6 minutes for white, 5 minutes for black, black declared champion in case of a draw). There will be a new drawing of colours before rapid games, as well as before blitz games and an Armageddon game.

World Chess Championship 2008
Official Website

I find a head-to-head match-up like this more exciting than a round-robin (e.g., the World Chess Championship 2007) for a world chess championship. In the former, you’ll have the opportunity to witness the rush of blood as players hammer each other on a round per round mental combat. Get yourself marveled at how each player switch strategy in the middle of the match to accommodate the outpouring pressure. In the latter, oftentimes you’ll just wait and see till the last round who has the nearest reach to the crown.

A round-robin world championship will be just like a boxing match, with eight players inside a ring at the same time. The last man standing will be the world champion. In chess, most likely you’ll just wait and see by the end of the show who will come out victorious. But in boxing, hey, this is pretty exciting!

Philippines is 3rd in the Youth Under-16 Chess Olympiad

Chessdom – India wins the Chess U16 Olympiad 2008 ahead of Russia.

With GM Wesley So steering the board 1 for the Philippines, he won 8 games and drew 2 to grab the gold medal at board 1. Not a bad performance for the Philippines, considering So’s teammates are way below his high ELO rating of 2577.

Actually, Wesley So was the highest rated player in the tournament.

Grandmasters Eugene Torre and Wesley So Battle Over One Million

Inquirer.net dubs this the richest chess event in the country so far. Philippines’ chess legend GM Eugenio Torre against the current world’s youngest grandmaster GM Wesley So for a pot prize of Php 1 million. The match will be a 10-round one-on-one duel, two games each will be played in Quezon City, Cebu, Iloilo and Davao, the remaining if unresolved will be continued back in Quezon City. The winner gets P600,000, the loser P400,000.

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A Short Photo Op with GM Wesley So

Me with GM Wesley So

I just grabbed this opportunity to have a photo taken with the future chess superstar who will hopefully someday join the ranks of super GM’s like Viswanathan Anand, Veselin Topalov, and Vladimir Kramnik. I know that it may yet be far from reality, but who knows, being the youngest grandmaster in the world of chess, Filipino Wesley So has still a long way to go.

Continue reading A Short Photo Op with GM Wesley So

Bobby Fischer, 1943–2008

One of the world’s greatest chess geniuses, Bobby Fischer, has died at the age of 64. A spokesman for Fischer said the former world chess champion passed away in a Reykjavik hospital yesterday. The US-born former world chess champion, who became famous around the world for beating the Soviet Union’s Boris Spassky in 1972, had been seriously ill for some time. Rest in Peace, Bobby.

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Bobby Fischer has always been one of my favorite players. Why he has been so different, let’s leave it up to him. After all, he’s just being Bobby. Continue reading Bobby Fischer, 1943–2008

Chess News

I remember posting it here regarding Chessbase as a Source of Chess News, but that it offers no rss/atom feed for its regular visitors.

I visited Chessbase today, and I noticed that feed icon at the far right side of the browser url bar of firefox. Yes, great news for chess fans. Now we can keep abreast of the latest chess news without visiting the site everyday.

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