Chess News by Jude Acers
July 28, Los Angeles. Jack Peters, Los Angeles Times Sunday chess columnist for two decades wrote: "Less than a year ago, many observers predicted that Anand and Kramnik would soon surpass Kasparov. In 1999, though , Kasparov has won four straight elite tournaments with apparent ease.... His rating, a record 2841 before his Frankfurt success seems unapproachable by Anand (#2 at 2771) and Kramnik (#3 at 2760) We should enjoy the sight of an outstanding champion in his prime."
July 24, Las Vegas, Nevada. There has been a stunning development that may propel U.S. World top 50 - rated grandmaster Yasser Seirawan (Seattle) into the the three million dollar world chess championship July 30 -- three players are now almost certainly out of the list and SEIRAWAN IS STANDING BY. The usually reliable Club Kasparov news index confirms (July 21,1999) that WORLD TOP RATED # 1 seeded player MOROZEVICH, S.POLGAR , KARPOV ARE OUT ALMOST CERTAINLY. None have signed their player contracts. An interview of Karpov is cited at Club Kasparov, where Karpov is stating flatly that he is "90% certain" he will NOT play.
July 18, 1999. Prague, Czechoslovakia - With five wins, one draw A.SHIROV (Spain)-world number two ranked chess grandmaster- rolled to victory and a $65,000 prize following the Eurotel Cup challenge match versus JUDIT POLGAR (Hungary). Mr. Shirov was deprived of one million dollars (and a world title match he richly earned by defeating V. Kramnik with a two wins, 8 draw wipeout).... only to see the unquestioned world number one player Kasparov disappear into the sunset with no cash, no"as agreed guaranteed match".... A coming world champion (if there ever was one) Mr. Shirov arrives to play in Las Vegas for the $3,000,000 world title in the second round at Caesars Palace August 2,1999.
July 8, 1999 Frankfurt, Germany SIEMENS GIANTS WORLD 4 PLAYER GRANDMASTER TOURNEY (25 minutes per game for each player, 4 games contested with each opponent) FINAL: Powered by a three draw and one victory performance versus A. Karpov (FIDE world chess champion), the world number one rated Garry Kasparov raced to a full point and a half first place margin. 1.KASPAROV 2812 7.5/12 (2.)ANAND 2781 6/12 (2)KRAMNIK 2751 6/12 4.KARPOV 2710 4.5/12 The event is considered remarkable as Kasparov has been beaten repeatedly by Kramnik, Anand,Timman and others in quick play chess and was not considered even their equal in this rapidly coming of age media event chess.Mr. Anand is generally referred to worldwide as the best speed, rapid transit, 5 minute player in the world... (In a five minute world speed championship game -$50,000 first prize was won by Tal over both Kasparov, Karpov.) Kasparov once stalemated his opponent while a queen and bishop up, striking his forehead, shouting "What am I doing?". Also ...in a wild press conference Mr. Karpov stated that he wanted the coming July 3Oth- 100 player 3 million dollar world chess championship( Caesars Palace, Las Vegas) be renamed "The World Cup", cleverly retaining his title by nomenclature.
July 6, 1999. Lucerne, Switzerland World Chess Federation monthly July 1999 ratings show the world top ten grandmasters: 1.KASPAROV 2841 2.ANAND (India) 2771 3.KRAMNIK 2760 4.MOROZEVICH 2751 5.SHIROV (Spain) 2722 6.GELFAND (Israel) 2713 7. KARPOV 2709 8.ADAMS (England) 2705 9. IVANCHUK 2702 10.LEKO (Hungary) 2699...The only United States player in world top 50 is #30 SEIRAWAN of Seattle, Washington. Amazingly, VICTOR KORCHNOI (Switzerland), now approaching 70 years of age, is easily in world top 20, in seventeenth place with ELO 2676! World leading woman JUDIT POLGAR of Hungary(far and away the strongest female player in history) remains the only woman ranked in the entire 100 top players, at 19-20 place with 2671 ELO points.
July 1, 1999 Prague, Czechoslovakia- A $100,000 guaranteed Euro-Tel challenge match ($65,000 paid to the winner) will take place July 11 between J. Polgar and A Shirov. J. Polgar is the world number one female player and the strongest female player of all time -- she has defeated both Karpov and Spassky in their previous matches. A. Shirov is the world number two ranked super grandmaster who was denied a "guaranteed" one million dollars and a match with Kasparov last year after his two wins 8 draws crush of Kramnik. World number one rated player Kasparov will present the trophy! (Courtesy Mr. Russell Miller, Inside Chess)
June 30, 1999. San Francisco, California. The oldest competitive chess grandmaster in history, 89-year old Arthur Dake will appear here at the Dake Honorary Chess Tournament July 11-20, 1999 (commentary)
June 28, 1999. Pairings have been announced for the (July 30 - August 27) FIDE World Chess Championship in Las Vegas Nevada (commentary and pairings). Karpov has confirmed his participation starting with round 2.
June 25, 1999. KASPAROV VS. THE WORLD is the most exciting and, potentially, largest online gaming event ever! Moves made so far: (Garry Kasparov plays White) Four internationally renowned Chess Analysts are on hand to help the players with game analysis and suggested moves, but the final call is up to the player's votes. Online voting tool can be used to submit responses: http://www.zone.com/kasparov/Join.asp. Etienne Bacrot, 16, Florin Felecan, 19, Irina Krush, 15 and Elisabeth Pähtz, 14 comprise the World Team experts. Just as a baseball umpire, the referee of the match (GM Danny King) has the power to remove any player. The prizes will include the autograped chess set and a chance to meet world number one rated player. Sicilian defense was chosen -- this is already a real risk (1...e7-e5 and 1...c7-c6 are strongest versus Kasparov, period.) Sicilian is also what Kasparov knows beyond words as a priest knows his pater noster.... see match commentary
June 24, 1999. Shenyang, China A $100,000 women's world FIDE chess championship match Xie Jun (China) versus Alisa Galiamova (Russia) will be held here July 3-27,1999. Z. Polgar (New York), the current champion, was unable to reach an agreement with FIDE and refused to play in China, demanding a $200,000 minimum. FIDE has informed Z. Polgar that her title was forfeited.
June 22-New York, NY World Chess Federation and U.S. National chess federation both confirm that the World's top 10 player Gata Kamsky of USA has accepted his invitation to 3 million dollar (100 players) FIDE chess championship, Las Vegas, Nevada July-August at Caesars Palace Hotel and Casino. Kamsky emerges from his three year retirement (medical student). He still maintains his colossal 2700+ world rating.
Las Vegas, Nevada. June 20, 1999. The representative of the FIDE Mr. Shiloh Quinn of Montreal Canada confirmed that there was a serious movement and some compromise between FIDE and A. Karpov concerning A. Karpov's participation in the three million dollar world championship July 30- August 27, 1999 in Caesars Palace. V. Anand of India was declared out of Las Vegas championship..lured by a reported one million dollar guarantee,. Anand has agreed in writing to play an October match with world chess federation number one rated player -- G. Kasparov. The dilemma of Las Vegas officials was that the personable (voted number one player in the world 1998- with Kasparov only fourth) Anand was guaranteed one million dollars. If Anand had agreed to play in Las Vegas with 8 other players, he would have been forced to sign a mandatory exclusivity contract with FIDE-World chess federation. There would have been no guarantees remotely approaching one million dollars.
Leon, Spain. June 14, 1999. Advanced Chess Match between Karpov and Anand has completed with the overwhelming Anand's victory 5:1. Both players used computer databases to aid their play. All of the games are loaded in ChessLab database (Location: Leon ESP).
New Windsor, New York. June 14, 1999. The United States Chess Federation confirms the final list of three million dollar USA world title players in Las Vegas; Nick DeFirmian (US champion), Joel Benjamin, Dmitry Gurevich, Tal Shaked, Boris Gulko, Sergey Kudrin, Alexander Ivanov. The world chess championship hotline number is 1-888-243-7748
New Orleans, Louisiana - Confirmed rating lists of the Kasparov-led 3 million dollar World Chess Council" (WCC) show YASSER SEIRAWAN of Seattle, Washington (USA) now rated above the World Chess Federation Champion (FIDE) Karpov. This is the first time in chess history that an American not eligible for World title play (eliminated on tiebreak playoff) has ever been so ranked..... Seirawan will require a special nomination by megabuck financier Kirsan Iljumzhinov, the president of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) who slipped a cool 50 million dollars (ironclad guaranteed) to finance five world title events open to 100 plus players from all over the globe- set for July30- August 30 l999 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada... Seirawan has defeated both Karpov and Kasparov in world rated play, beat world top five player V. Ivanchuk in the (Holland) event where Iljumzhinov shelled out $6 million in December 1997. Seirawan held world top ten ADAMS of England to a drawn match in Bermuda during the winter..A former junior chess champion of the world and a (former!) Cosmopolitan Magazine "Bachelor of the month" Seirawan is also somewhat of an oddity: a nice person amidst a world of chess cannibals...He has published INSIDE CHESS MAGAZINE for 11 years and will publish it fully online in January 2000... A classic dresser with a master of ceremonies winner image, Seirawan has admitted that just the wardrobe threads alone for Las Vegas are going to cost a veritable fortune, with a new duds daily a must. Anything less would be uncivilized in a world of chess cannibals...
Phoenix , Arizona More than 1,900 children competed in the 1999 NATI0NAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHAMPIONSHIPS MAY 14-16, an all time record.
Phoenix , Arizona. The 15 year old world chess sensation
IRINA KRUSH (U.S. Women's Chess Champion) has stunned the chess world by drawing a 4 game
match with International Grandmaster TAL SHAKED (World title qualifier in Las Vegas.) She
is scheduled to play for the $500,000 prize fund in the FIDE Women's Chess
Championship later this year. Krush,Irina USA 2375 0 =1 =
(2) (2477) ; Shaked,Tal USA 2477 1 =0 = (2) (2375)