Reply #14: Updates (New Year's Day)

[Jack Rabbit]

Today was a scheduled day off in all three New Year's tournaments. One game was played, however, made necessary when Russian GM Alexander Morozevich was snowed in at Russian airports and unable to reach Reggio Emilia, Italy, for the first round of the Torneo di Capodanno, a round robin among ten players. Morozevich's first round opponent, Czech GM David Navarra, agreed to postpone the game rather than back into a win by forfeit (chess players are very good sports as a group and want to win games over the board, not as a result of some misfortune that has nothing to do with chess).

That game was played today with Moro playing white and winning in 38 moves. That moved him into a second place tie with six other players with two points after four rounds. Grandmaster Paco Vallejo of Spain leads the pack with 3½ points.

Other standings:

Rilton Cup, Stockholm: After five rounds, tied for first at 4½ points each: Arkadij Naiditch, Nils Grandelius, Alexander Shimanov and Sergey Volkov; 4 point: David Berczes, Johan Furhof and Bartlomiej Maceija.

International Chess Congress, Hastings: After four rounds, David Howell is alone in first with 4 points, followed by English IM Thomas Rendle at 3½ and 18 competitors tied for third at 3 points each.

Other News:

Official January Ratings List released by FIDE: Nagnus Carlson is again officially the world's number one at 2814, followed by reigning world champion Vishy Anand (2810), Armenian GM Levon Aronian (2805), former world champion Vladimir Kramnik (2784) and newly minted Russian Sergey Karjakin (2776). Newly crowned world women's champion Hou Yifan remains third on the women's list, but becomes the third woman (if it is correct to call a 16-year-old schoolgirl a woman) to break the 2600 barrier in Elo points.

Ilya Nyzhnyk gains GM title: Fourteen-year-old Ilya Nyzhnyk of Ukraine scored 6½ points in nine rounds in the recent Gronigen Chess to finish an equal first and gain his third grandmaster norm and thus claims the title. Ilya becomes the youngest grandmaster currently and the 11th youngest of all time.