October 1st FIDE Rating List

Here's the official FIDE ratings list for 1st of October. Please go to the FIDE website rating list server to download the full list of players including the non rated. The official FIDE list is published 4 times each year. Below is the list of the top 25 players of the Philippines and 32 of the best player in the planet.

1. 2615 So
2. 2560 Torre
3. 2526 Paragua
4. 2519 Gomez
5. 2515 Antonio
6. 2507 Laylo
7. 2489 Nolte
8. 2471 Sanchez
9. 2469 Gonzales
10. 2468 Villamayor
11. 2464 Salvador
12. 2448 Dimakiling
13. 2439 Bitoon
14. 2438 Dableo
15. 2435 Barbosa
16. 2431 Sadorra
17. 2424 Martinez
18. 2413 Elorta
19. 2410 Ballecer
20. 2409 De Guzman
21. 2401 Causo
22. 2400 Nava
23. 2398 Fernandez
24. 2390 Vuelban
25. 2386 Nadera
26. 2386 Yap

And here's the top 32 players in the world with above 2700 in the FIDE rating system.


1 Topalov, Veselin BUL 2791
2 Morozevich, Alexander RUS 2787
3 Ivanchuk, Vassily UKR 2786
4 Carlsen, Magnus NOR 2786
5 Anand, Viswanathan IND 2783
6 Kramnik, Vladimir RUS 2772
7 Aronian, Levon ARM 2757
8 Radjabov, Teimour AZE 2751
9 Leko, Peter HUN 2747
10 Jakovenko, Dmitry RUS 2737
11 Wang, Yue CHN 2736
12 Adams, Michael ENG 2734
13 Movsesian, Sergei SVK 2732
14 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar AZE 2731
15 Karjakin, Sergey UKR 2730
16 Kamsky, Gata USA 2729
17 Svidler, Peter RUS 2727
18 Shirov, Alexei ESP 2726
19 Eljanov, Pavel UKR 2720
20 Gelfand, Boris ISR 2719
21 Dominguez Perez, Leinier CUB 2719
22 Ponomariov, Ruslan UKR 2719
23 Grischuk, Alexander RUS 2719
24 Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime FRA 2716
25 Alekseev, Evgeny RUS 2715
26 Bu, Xiangzhi CHN 2714
27 Polgar, Judit HUN 2711
28 Ni, Hua CHN 2710
29 Bacrot, Etienne FRA 2705
30 Nakamura, Hikaru USA 2704
31 Gashimov, Vugar AZE 2703
32 Rublevsky, Sergei RUS 2702

SPICE Cup 2008: four co-champions

SPICE Cup 2008 is over. This tough tournament saw four co-champions out of ten participants. Sharing the top spots are GM Pentala, GM Kritz, GM Akobian, and GM Onischuk. SPICE Cup 2008 is a pretty strong tournament boasting an average rating of 2605 good for a category 15 event making it one of the strongest ever held in US soil. Next year GM Wesley So is set to compete in this event and the SPICE is aiming for a category 16-17. Below is one of my game pick from the tournament. It is not the best match of the tourney but I choose it because it is one of the most dramatic. Black has a completely winning position until he blew it all away with a blunder on his 31st moves, forcing him to resignjust seven moves later. Enjoy!






1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Be7 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bf4 c6 6.e3 Bf5 7.g4 Be6 8.Bd3 Nd7 9.h3 (the game is a Queens Gambit Declined. Other good alternative for white is 9.Qf3 which have been tried and produced good results lately)

9...Nb6 (many thought that this is a drawish move. 9...h5 could be played but quite a risky one for black. say 9...h5 10.gxh5 Ndf6 11.h6 Nxh6 12.Qc2 Qd7.)

10.Qc2 Bd6 11.Nge2 Ne7 12.0-0-0 g6 13.Kb1 Bxf4 14.exf4 Qd6 15.f5 gxf5 16.gxf5 Bd7 17.Ng3 Qf6 18.Nh5 Qh6 19.f6 Qxh5 (an exchange would favored black slightly. Black has nothing to do with his Knight on d7 actually. the passed pawn at d7 hardly posed a threat at all but a liability for white.)

20.Rhe1 Nbc8 21.fxe7 Nd6 22.Qd2 Bf5 (black is doing fine here as he will gain a tempo in the exchange.) 23.Bxf5 Qxf5+ 24.Ka1 Kd7 25.Re5 Qxh3 26.Qf4 Rhg8 27.Rde1 Rae8 28.a3 Rg4 29.Qd2 Qh4 30.Nxd5 cxd5 31.Rxd5 Rg6?? (a blunder. 31...Re4 was the key move. Now white pounces)

32.Qb4! Rxe7 33.Qxb7+ Kd8 34.Qb8+ Kd7 35.Qxa7+ Ke8 36.Qb8+ Kd7 37.Rc1 Re8 38.Qc7+ White wins 1-0

-Tournament official website

Corrections

IM John Paul Gomez is never from FEU. He's from De La Salle. Some correction. I took a look at my yesterday post early this morning and saw the mistake. I should have added the following words "...IM John Paul Gomez as always, carried the team for De La Salle, winning an unprecedented five straight MVP crowns." Got so excited by FEU's victory that I forgot to include De La Salle. My apologies.

World Ten Ball Championship starts today

PICC-same site as the 1992 Manila Chess Olympiad

The inaugural World Ten Ball Championship, the most prestigious pool tournament, will finally fires off today at the same site where the 1992 Manila chess Olympiad was held, the historic Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) . Pool, another favorite Filipino pass time and sport, is often considered by many as what chess is to the Russians - complete domination of the sport. Two of the best practitioners of the game, Filipino cue artist Efren "Bata" Reyes and Francisco "Django" Bustamante are the Garry Kasparov and Bobby Fischer of pool.

- Tournament official website

We did it again! FEU 3-peat in UAAP chess tournament

It's Grand Slam for my Alma Mater! Far Eastern University defeated Adamson 3-1 to finished the tournament with a total of 36 points to capture the title for the third straight year. IM John Paul Gomez as always, carried the team for De La Salle, winning an unprecedented five straight MVP crowns. Another FEU wood pusher Sheider Nebato was named Rookie of the Year. University of Santo Tomas was second with 33.5 points and Adamson (33) was third.

1st World Mind Games: Philippine chess team

Here's the complete list of the players that will represent the country in the inaugural World Mind Games scheduled Oct. 3-13 in Beijing, China. There will be five mind sports competitions: Bridge, Chess, Go, Draughts, and Xiangqi (Chinese Chess). Philippines will be participating in chess discipline. And don't let your eyes deceived you. Despite the absence of our other top players who were Dresden bound, the list below is still pretty competitive. We're still a dark horse here in Asia. Best wishes everyone!

Note: some of the ratings we provided for each of our players is their projected October 1 FIDE ratings.

Philippine Team Members

Mens team:

GM MARK PARAGUA (2526)
IM ROLANDO NOLTE (2489)
IM JULIO CATALINO SADORRA (2431)
IM CHITO GARMA (still clarifying)
NM LEONARDO CARLOS (still clarifying)

Womens Team

SHERILY CUA
CRISTINE ROSE MARIANO
KIMBERLY JANE CUNANAN
JAN JODILYN FRONDA
RIDA JANE YOUNG

- World Mind Games Official Website

Nothing goes easy for Topalov-Kamsky match

It looks like the Bulgarian Chess Federation will not leave any stone unturned for the forthcoming semi final match between their grandmaster and current world no.1 player, Vaselin Topalov and the new Bulgarian public enemy no.1 US grandmaster Gata Kamsky. Strings of protest from BCF may jeopardized the success of the semi final match up -or it may not:

"We still do not know any details about where and in what conditions will be the match, and the announced by you date November 26th is approaching...Mr Ilymzhinov, please inform me where and when the match will take place.We insist the decision for the match to be reflected in the players contracts, and they to be signed before the other semi final match between GM Kramnik and GM Anand. Further delay could be fatal and to ruin all the efforts so far. I think nobody has interest in the failure of the match Topalov - Kamsky. The Bulgarian chess player who is N1 in the current rank list cannot be eliminated from the competition for the world championship. " Stefan Sergiev wrote, President of BCF to GIDE president Ilyumzhinov Read the rest of the story from chessdom.com

Yup. It is pretty obvious that there's still a lot more work to be done. As for Gata Kamsky. I think he's just more than happy for the opportunity to get a shot for a world title. Anywhere but not in Bulgaria.

Philippine and far eastern chess: the place they deserved to be in

A common sights in the streets of Manila

Two days ago, I wrote a short, bite-sized post regarding GM Torre's citation on an UK online newspaper, the telegraph.com.uk. This time, one of web's most popular chess site, ChessVibes.com also join in recognition of our hero's recent success. And that is very nice of them. Because it maybe the first time in a long, long time outside his native country that he receives such accolades. Paying tribute to a revered Filipino hero and legend that seems to be completely forgotten is a total breath of fresh air. Not much is being told about chess in the far east for decades now, much about Philippine chess where it is a national pass time. But it is already the age of the internet. There are only two recognizable chess figures in this country at the moment and that is GM's Wesley So and Eugene Torre though it is So who is obviously the more celebrated of the two when it comes to global chess awareness and perhaps responsible for bringing everyone, even Torre back to world chess map. What a heavy load this 14 year old boy is already carrying on his shoulders. Speaking of So heck, some of Wesley's fans (or not), even go beyond of prematurely comparing him to marvelous Magnus Carlsen of Norway and the so called comparison eventually triggered many petty squabbles. I'm not sure about this but after WGM Susan Polgar announced in her blog that Wesley So will be competing in SPICE Cup next year, it creates a wide "disturbance" from the readers of her blog that Susan eventually enable the comment moderation on her blog a day after the post appeared! The irony here is that a small number of unruly Filipinos usually react violently, almost hysterically everytime a foreigners criticized them even if these Pinoys are the ones who started the issues. But not in this case. Although I have to admit that it really did hurt me, more than angered me, every time I read or heard in various popular chess forum and comment box that the Philippines doesn't boast any great chess players in history (okay, we know that, but please don't go far from that) to deserved media attention in the west, Filipinos are pound for pound, one of the most passionate followers of the game. Hundreds of thousands of Filipinos are playing chess. You see them on the streets, prisons, barber shops, clubs, schools and lately, online. Check out any popular online chess sites that offers free membership (we love freebies folks!) and you will see that the Philippines always occupied the top five slots of countries who were playing chess on the web. That said, I hope that someday Philippine and far eastern chess would received more recognition it deserved to the point that I won't need anymore to keep a stress causing blog like our ChessHeroes.

World Chess Championship promotional video

Before we know it there are only less than three weeks away from the much anticipated chess championship match between two of the most successful players at the moment. As we all set into the mood for Kramnik vs Anand duel, here's a short promotional video of the championship produced by chessfilm.net. Although I found this video quite lacking of total creativity (focusing too much on chess pieces and innocent bystanders) this video nonetheless can surely help whet all our appetites.

Torre cited on UK online newspaper

GM Eugene Torre's recent triumph didn't go unnoticed from chess purist and aficionados even from across the globe. Here's another good find on the web about our Filipino chess hero. Telegraph.co.uk journalist Malcolm Pein recognize Torre's recent victory at the just concluded 3rd PGMA Cup here in Manila. Read the full article HERE.

65 million web visits for the 4th European Individual Open Championships

"We truly believe that Internet is for chess what television is for soccer."- Chessdom.

With record breaking of over seven million chess fans a day watched over the internet during the 4th European Open Championships in Liverpool, England internet indeed is just perfect for chess. Branded as the strongest tournament ever held in Britain, it saw 150 top players all over Europe that includes former world title challenger, Nigel Short and Michael Adams. The tournament is won by the 24-year-old grandmaster from the Nedtherlands, Jan Werle. More news from this record breaking chess event at LiverpoolDailyPost.com

- Tournament official website

Wesley So to compete in category 16-17 SPICE cup next year

Tougher, bigger tournaments for 2009

I just dropped by Susan Polgar's blog late last night and I'm very excited to inform you that our very own Wesley So will be competing next year on what could be the highest rated international round-robin chess tournament in U.S. History-a category 16 or 17 being put together in the process by tournament director, WGM Susan Polgar herself. The ongoing SPICE Cup which boast an average rating of 2605 according to World Chess Federation (FIDE) ratings is the highest so far ever held in US soil, a category 15. Wesley's current unofficial Live rating is around 2616. So is also set to compete in one of the biggest annual chess tournament, the Corus Chess Tournament that will be held on January 15 to February 1, 2009 in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands. He will compete in Gandmaster group C.

-Tournament official website

Torre will go to Dresden

It looks like the wound is slowly healing up after all. GMANews.TV reports that 3rd PGMA cup champion GM Eugene Torre was appointed (in compensation perhaps by his recent success) by National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) as non-playing team captain of Dresden-bound RP chess team .

I guess all's well that ends well for both Torre and Pichay.

We're rank no.1 in Google search!

click the image to enlarge

click the image to enlarge

Hi everyone! Here's a piece of good news. Our ChessHeroes is rank no.1 in Google for the keyword “3rd President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Cup International Chess Championship". And has regularly taken top 3 spots for both "4th Pichay Cup" and "2008 Tal Memorial". The latter was quite surprising and flattering since Moscow is nearly four thousand miles away from Manila! It is good to see that my relatively new blog is well indexed by Google although there is quite a number of both official and unofficial websites and media partner for those tournaments. Anyway thank you everyone!