Am I not geeky enough?

(** Note: I loathe reality TV so this post should not be construed as either an endorsement, or encouragement to watch, the television program referred to **)

One surprise entrant in the current ANU Chess Club event was Jeremy Reading, but only because he had been locked away for the past month as part of a gaggle of geeks on the reality TV program "Beauty and the Geek". As the show has yet to go to air (it begins on Channel 7 tomorrow night) I expected him to be held prisoner by the producers until the final episode made it to air.
However it seems that the various non-disclosure agreements he presumably had to sign are protection enough, as he declined to tell anyone (including his own brother) how it all turned out. But I will hazard a guess and say that he didn't spend much of the time away working on his chess, as he was held to a draw by an opponent rated 400 odd points below him.

The long chain

Via Chesstoday comes the following position from the current European Club Championships. The game is Stamenkov v Kamsky and it is Black to play and win. Nothing special about the winning move, but I am impressed by the length of Black's pawn chain.

Anand v Topalov

FIDE are moving towards settling a venue and date for the Anand v Topalov World Championship Match. At what speed they are moving seems to depend on the bidding consortium's themselves. Although three bids have been recieved, none contain the financial guarantees that were required by FIDE. The three bidding countries, Bulgaria, Turkey and Singapore, have been given an extra 2 weeks to provide such guarantees.
I'm surprised that the Bulgarian and Turkish bids didn't provide such a guarantee, given the close relationship between those countries chess federations and the government. I suspect Singapore on the other hand was always going to be a much more private business venture, and therefore much more likely to be affected by the GFC.
Early days yet, and while I have a personal preference for Singapore (easier to travel too), I suspect that Turkey will win out, by virtue of being a neutral country.

The four horsemen

Magnus Carlsen is currently tearing it up at the Pearl Spring tournament in Nanjing, China. The rest of the field seems to have been left completely behind, as shown by the fact that up until todays round, the only decisive games played have involved Carlsen. (Topalov beating Jakovenko in round 6 has broken this sequence)
Carlsen finished the first half of the tournament with this win over Radjabov. I particularly like the arrangement of knights after White's 24th move. The tournament website is here (although it can be a little difficult to navigate)

Carlsen,M (2772) - Radjabov,T (2757) [B30]
2nd Pearl Spring Nanjing CHN (5), 02.10.2009

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 e6 4.0-0 Nge7 5.c3 a6 6.Ba4 b5 7.Bc2 Bb7 8.Qe2 d5 9.e5 d4 10.Be4 Qb6 11.d3 Rd8 12.a4 Nd5 13.axb5 axb5 14.cxd4 cxd4 15.Nbd2 Nf4 16.Qd1 Nb4 17.Nb3 Bxe4 18.dxe4 Nfd3 19.Bg5 Rc8 20.Nfxd4 Nxb2 21.Qe2 Nc4 22.Rfc1 Bc5 23.Nxb5 0-0 24.Nxc5 (D)
24. ... Nxe5 25.Be7 1-0

Didn't see it coming

The European Club Championship has just started, and it is often a chance for regular club players to mix with the super GM's in the same event. Of course this 'mixing' may involve a severe beating at the hands of a 2700+ GM, but I'm sure that the following game proves that it could happen to anyone.
Gashimov demolishes Gelfand's Petroff in 16 moves, after the latter chose the wrong moment to castle. I'm guessing that it probably wasn't opening prep, as the game had deviated from book some moves earlier, but these days you never know.

Gashimov,Vugar (2740) - Gelfand,Boris (2756) [C43]
LIII TCh-ESP CECLUB Gp1 Lugo ESP (3), 22.09.2009

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.d4 Nxe4 4.dxe5 d5 5.Nbd2 Nc5 6.Nb3 Ne6 [RR 6...Nxb3 7.axb3 Be7 8.Bd3 Nd7 9.c3 Nc5 10.Bc2 Bg4 11.b4 Ne6 12.Qd3 Qd7 13.0-0 g6 14.Bh6 Bf5 15.Qe2 Bxc2 16.Qxc2 Bf8 17.Qd2 Bxh6 18.Qxh6 a6 19.Rfd1 Rd8 20.h4 Qe7 21.Nh2 Ivanchuk,V (2730)-Kasimdzhanov,R (2570)/Elista 1998/CBM 66 ext/[Hecht]/½-½ (55)] 7.Nbd4 Nxd4 8.Nxd4N [RR 8.Qxd4 Be7 9.Bf4 c5 10.Qd2 Be6 11.Bb5+ Nc6 12.0-0 0-0 13.Rfe1 Qa5 14.Qxa5 Nxa5 15.Bg5 Bxg5 16.Nxg5 a6 17.Bf1 h6 18.Nxe6 fxe6 19.g3 Kf7 20.a3 Nc6 21.Bg2 b5 22.c3 c4 Villing,D (2179)-Buerger,T (2121)/Velden AUT 2009/The Week in Chess 753/0-1 (40)] 8...Be7 9.Bd3 c5 10.Nf5 0-0? (D)
11.Nxg7! Kxg7 12.Qh5 Rh8 13.Bh6+ Kg8 14.e6! fxe6 15.Qg4+ Kf7 16.Qg7+ 1-0

2009 ACT Junior Championship

Earlier this week Allen Setiabudi became the 2009 ACT Junior Chess Champion, after defeating Alana Chibnall in a playoff. They had both scored 7.5/9, along with Justin Chow, although the ACT Junior Chess League rules only include the top 2 players on tie-break in the playoff match.
What is interesting about Allen's title win, is that it comes after he tied for first in 2008 ACT Championship, meaning he was the 'all-ages' champion before he was a junior champion. Indeed, if Justin Chow had won this years junior, he would have achieved the same distinction as also finished first in last years ACT Championship.
52 players took part on this 3 day, 9 round event, and the full results can be seen here.

Armenia!

I've been doing a lot of media recently (both on the KvK match and the Solomon Islands Tournament) and as a result I've had to answer a lot of chess questions from 'non-chess' reporters. One question most commonly asked is "Who is the best chess playing country in the world?" And the answer I give, "Armenia", seems to provoke the most surprise from the questioner. Even after I qualify the answer by explaining that they have won the last 2 Olympiads, there is still a level of disbelief.
But at least one media organisation has decided to do its own homework, with the BBC sending a reporter to Armenia to investigate why that country is so strong. You can read the report here.