Chess (February): Hou scores big achievement in Gibraltar; Aronian wins in Wijk; Aeroflot begins [View all]

[Jack Rabbit]

The JR Chess Report theme music: Merrick, The Look Sharp, Be Sharp March (From a broadcast of The Gillette Cavalcade of Spots).

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[font size="4"]Short, Hou finish equal first in Gibraltar[/font]


[font size="1"]Photo of Mr. Short by http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Stefan64 Stefan64 in http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Nigel_Short Wikimedia Commons (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en Creative Commons License], Attribution/Share Alike)[/font]
[font size="1"]Photo of Ms. Hou by karpidis http://www.flickr.com/photos/karpidis/ modified from flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/8022405@N02/2750069891/ in Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Hou_Yifan (Creative Commons License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en , Attribution/Share Alike)[font size="1"]Photo by karpidis http://www.flickr.com/photos/karpidis/ modified from flickr http://www.flickr.com/photos/8022405@N02/2750069891/ in Wikimedia Commons http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Hou_Yifan (Creative Commons License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en , Attribution/Share Alike)[/font][font size="2"]

British grandmaster and former world championship challenger Nigel Short defeeated 17-year-old Hou Yifan of China, the reigning world women's champion, in a two-game blitz playoff on the Rock Thursday, February 2, to win the tenth annual Tradewise Gibraltar Open after the pair finished equal first in the event with 8 points out of ten rounds.

For Mr. Short, it was another tournament victory in a long and distinguished career, which includes playing a match for the world championship against Garry Kasparov in 1993. For Ms. Hou's point of view, it was a landmark for women's chess.

Ms. Hou finished equal first in what is probably the second-strongest open tournament on the cess calendar for 2012, behind the Aeroflot Open which begins today in Moscow. This is the most prestigious first-place finish ever acheived by a woman in the history of organized competitive chess.

The legendary Judit Polgar of Hungary, still the top-ranked woman player of all time, won a category 16 tournament in Bali in 2000 and, later the same year, a strong four-player tournament in Malmö, Sweden.

In the course winning seven games against one loss and two draws, Ms. Hou defeated Ms. Polgar, currently rated 2710, in the seventh round. In addition, Ms. Hou, rated 2605 going into Gibraltar, took down Ms. Polgar's compatriot, Zoltan Almasi(2717) in round 3, Vietnamese GM and two-time champion of the Aeroflot Open Le Quang Liem (2714) in round 8 and the great attacking GM, Latvian Alexey Shirov (2710) in round 9. She drew her games against Britain's Mickey Adams (2724) and Shakhriya Mamedyarov (2747); her only defeat came in round 5 against Indian GM Krishnan Sasikiran (2700).

Ms. Hou's Elo score shot up 34 points as a result of her performance in Gibraltar, giving her a rating of 2639, the second highest rating ever achieved by a woman.

Hou Yifan turns 18 on February 27.[/font]


[font size="4"]Aronian wins Wijk aan Zee[/font]


[font size="1"]Photo by Frank Hoppe in http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Levon_Aronian Wikimedia Commons (Public Doamin)[/font]
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Armenian GM Levon Aronian, the number two player in the world, won the elite group of the 74th Tata Steel Chess Tournament in the Dutch sea resort of Wijk aan Zee with 9 points out of a possible 13.

Paron Aronian finishes a full point ahead of the field. World's number one Magnus Carlsen (Norway), Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan) and Italian national champion Fabiano Caruana finished tied for second at 8 points each.

In Group B, Indian grandmaster Pantela Harikrishna took first place with 9 points and will play in group A next year. Alexander Motylev (Russia) and Lázaro Bruzón (Cuba) tied for second at 8½ points each.

In Group C, Russian grandmaster Maxim Turov took first place and a birth in next year's Group B competition with 10½ points, just a half point ahead of Swedish national champion Hans Tikkanen. Turov's wife, WGM Irina Turova, just gave birth to the couple's second child.
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[font size="4"]Aeroflot Open begins today[/font]


[font size="1"]Photo by http://www.flickr.com/photos/karpidis/ karpidis modified from http://www.flickr.com/photos/8022405@N02/2737655407/ flickr in http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Lê_Quang_Liêm Wikimedia Commons (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en Creative Commons License, Attribution/Share Alike)[/font]
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The eleventh annual Aeroflot Open Tournament begins today in Moscow.

Grandmaster Le Quang Liem of Vietnam, the fourth seed behind Evgeny Tomashevsky (Russia), Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia) and Fabiano Caruana (Italy), is looking for his third straight Aeroflot Open championship. Le is the only person ever to win the Aeroflot mare than once.

In today's first round action, Tomashevsky drew with Alekej Aleksandrov of Belarus, Nepomniachtchi drew with Russian GM Pavel Ponkratov, Caruana defeated Russian GM Dmitry Bocharov and Le won against Russian GM Boris Savchenko.

Other grandmasters rated at or over 2700 participating in this year's Aeroflot are Paco Vallejo (Spain), former Aeorflot champion Baduur Jobava (Georgia) and Krishnan Sasikiran (India). Eighty-six players are participating in the main event.