2010 SPICE SPRING INVITATIONAL

GM Julio Becerra won convincingly the 2010 edition of SPICE Spring Invitational. He finished with 6.5/9  a full point ahead of competition with 5 victories, 3 draws and only 1 loss. The rest of the medals  went to Gergely Antal and Benjamin Finegold who shared the second position with 5.5 points.

FINAL STANDING

1.   Julio Becerra              USA          2538       6.5 PTS.
2.   Gergely Antal             HUN          2511       5.5
3.   Benjamin Finegold      USA          2534        5.5
4.   Ippolito Deam             USA          2466        5.0
 5.   Kuljasevic                  CRO          2552        4.5
 6.   Papp Gabor               HUN         2542         4.5 
  7.  Yang Darwin              USA          2378         4.0
 8.   Krush, Irina                USA          2461        3.5
9.   Kraai,Jesse                 USA           2508        3.0
10.  Hansenn,Eric             CAN          2415         3.0

The European Champion: Ian Nepomniatchtchi and Pian Cramling

Ian Nepomniatchtchi of Russia and Pia Cramling of Sweden rules the 11th European Individual Men and Women's Chess Championship held at Rijeka,Croatia. In the last round,the 20-year old Russian  grandmaster defeated Vladimir Akopian from Armenia to score 7 wins and 4 draws, earning  9 points. Second place is shared by Baadur Jobava and Timoteev Artyom. After the rapid tie-breaks, the silver goes to Georgian Baadur Jobava while Artyom Timotteev won third place.Pia Cramling defeated unbeaten Victoria Cmilyte of Lithuania to win the title. Cramling recorded 8 wins with 2 draws and 1 defeat for 9 points.Cmilyte won the silver medal with 8.5 points.Five players with 8 points Monicka Socko,Maire Sabag,Tatiana Kosintseva ,Natalia Shukova and Yelena Dembo.The bronze was won by the Polish Monika Socko after the play-off.
The 23  Mens qualifier for the 2010 World Cup:
1. Ian Nepomniatchtchi  2. Baadur Jobava  3. Artyom Timofeev  4. Zahar Efimenko  5.Igor Lysyj 6. Zoltan Almasi 7. Evgeny Tomashevski 8. Maxim Rodshtein 9. Ivan Salgado Lopez 10. Arman Pashikian 11.  Rauf Mamedov 12. Sergei Movsesian 13. Yuri Drozdovskij 14.  Vlastimil Babula 15. Evgeny Vorobiov  16. Vladimir Akopian  17. Ferenc Berkes  18. Vladimir Potkin  19. Stelios Halkias 20. Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu  21. Evgeny Alekseev 22. Boris Grachec  23.  Bartosc Socko

The 14  Women's Qualifier

1. Pia Cramling  2. Victoria Cmilyte  3. Monicka Socko  4. Tatiana Kosintseva  5. Maire Sebag  6. Natalia Shukova  7. Yelena Dembo  8. Antoaneta Stefanova  9.  Anna Muzychuk  10.  Nadezhda Kosinsteva  11.Maria Muzychuk  12.Ekaterina Kovalevskaya  13. Nastassia Ziazulkina  14.  Iweta Rajlich

DR. J.P. LEVISTE INTER-SCHOOL CHESS FESTIVAL :SIX SHARES TITLE

Ateneo de Manila school grader,Jett Marcos score 4 wins and 2 draws earning 5.0/ 6 points to share the title with Palarong Pambansa bound NCR champion Melwyn Kenneth Baltazar (5.0pts.) and Giovanni Mejia (5.0pts) together with 3 other players in the 2010 Dr. J.P. Leviste Inter-school Chess Festival held in Ateneo de Manila Grade School Canteen,Katipunan Avenue,Quezon City. In the last round Baltazar and Mejia defeated Haince de Leon  and unbeaten Jerad Docena (5pts.) respectively.The same score of Paulo Bersamina (5 pts.) who beat Stephen Pangilinan of San Jose del Monte City and Samantila . Virgenie Ruaya and Jasper Marce were half point behind with 4.5 points. There are 10 players with 4.0 points Carlo Caranyagan;StephenPangilinan;Haince de Leon;Nathan Gajo;Dennis Gutierrez Jr.;Ian Forcado;Andrew Sopungco;Christian Navarro;Miguel Guerrero and Irvin Embalsado. Six players score 3.5 points Ynna Canape;Alison Claveria;Kianjoo Macapagal;Kurt Dullon;Angela Viray and Rothse Bautista. A total of 60 players participated in the one day event organized by the Ateneo de Manila Chess Teams under coach IM Idelfonso Datu and coach Ciara Lim.

20 10 11 TH ASEAN + AGE GROUP CHAMPIONSHIP

The 2010 ASEAN + Age Group Championship will be held in Subic Freeport,Olongapo City,Philippine, from 4th to 13th June 2010. Participants may compete in the U- 8; U-10; U-12; U-14; U-16; U-20  Age-Groups gor Girls and Open. In addition Seniors (aged 50 and above) will be held.There will be three  events the Standard Chess, the Rapid Chess and Blitz chess.

11 TH EUROPEAN INDIVIDUAL MEN AND WOMEN'S CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP

The 11 th European Individual Men's and Women's Chess Championship is taking place from March 5-19 2010 at Rijeka,Croatia. The tournament are qualifier for the next WORLD CUP , part of the World Championship cycle. 22 players will qualify. GM Ian Nepomniatchi  from Russia is on top with 8 points after 10 rounds.Eight players are half point behind.GM Jobava Baadur of Georgia share second place with GM's Zahar Efimenko of Ukraine, Rauf Mamedov of Azerbaijan, Ivan Sokolov of Bosnia, Russian GM' s Artyom Timofeev; Denis Khismatulli; Igo Lysyg and Vladimir Akopian of Armenia.

19 TH AMBER BLINDFOLD AND RAPID TOURNAMENT

The 19 th AmberBlindfold and Rapid Tournament is taking place from March 13- 25  2010 at the Palais de la Mediterranee,Nice.  The rate of play is 25 minutes per game with 10 seconds added with every move in rapid and 20 seconds added with every move in blindfold. List of Participants
1.  MAGNUS CARLSEN   Norway
2.  VLADIMIR KRAMNIK  Russia
3.  LEVON ARONIAN   Armenia
4.  ALEXANDER GRISCHUK  Russia
5.  PETER SVIDLER  Russia
6.  BORIS GELFAND    Israel
7.  VASILY IVANCHUK  Ukraine
8.  VUGAR GASHIMOV  Azerbaijan
9.  RUSLAN PONOMARIOV  UKRAINR
10. SERGEY KARJAKIN  Russia
11. LEINIER DOMINGUEZ  Cuba
12. JAN SMEETS   The Netherland