Air India leads with maximum 12 points and Airports Authority are on ten points. Tied for the third position on eight points are PSPB AP Race and Tamil Nadu. These teams will only fight for the third place. Airports Authority of India will have to pray that Tamil Nadu should pull off an upset over Air India.

Air India won 3 1 against AP Race by winning on the two white boards while Airports Authority blanked Goa 4 0. Petroleum Sports blanked Bihar 4 0 and Tamil Nadu blanked Gujarat 4 0 in a day of sweeps.

Two key players on full 100% score are R Bharathi (AAI) on 6/6 and S Vijayalakshmi (AI) on 5/5. Bharathi is gaining 24 Elo and Vijayalakshmi about 12 Elo.

PSPB Men Retain Title

Vishnu Prasanna shocked Adhiban but his Airports Authority of India team still lost to Petroleum Sports Promotion Board by 1 3. Sethuraman Lalith Babu and Deep Sengupta scored for the winners as PSPB won the 33rd National Team Championship once again.

This time PSPB did with a round to spare winning all eight rounds. They have scored a massive 16 points and have taken a big four point lead with a round to be played. Four teams are in the second place race with 12 points and it includes Air India Indian Railways A and B teams LIC.

Railways B drew LIC on all four boards with Thejkumar v Anup Deshmukh Akshat Khamparia v Sriram Jha Rathnakaran v Atanu Lahiri Saptarshi Roy v Dinesh Sharma ending in draws.

Amardeep Bartakke (Mah 6.5/7) is playing at 2507 and gaining about 32 Elo.

The star performer for the winners PSPB is S.P. Sethuraman (7/8) and is gaining about 7.3 Elo. He had a poor run in the Chennai Open last month and even withdrew.

Vishnu Prasanna s strong 2507 performance for Airports Authority came with 6.5/8. He is gaining 6.4 Elo so far.

D.S. Shashaank the 1995 born (TN B 6/8) is having a great time gaining over 31 Elo. He scored 2/4 against three IMs and a GM.

Pic: Rucha Pujari of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board

International Master Andrew Muir of Scotland was the surprise name in a group of 15 players who shared the lead on maximum points after three rounds of the Reykjavik Open.

19.Rf1 Qe6 0 ndash 1

Position after 21.Rh3

The British champion Gawain Jones is on 2.5/3. He won handily in round one. Black plays the solid line known as the Fort Knox Defence but Jones breaks in on h7:

G. Jones P. Isaksson
French Defence

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bd7 5.Nf3 Bc6 6.Bd3 Nd7 7.0 ndash 0 Ngf6 8.Ng3 Be7 9.Qe2 Bxf3 10.Qxf3 c6 11.c4 0 ndash 0 12.b3 Re8 13.Bb2 Qa5 14.a3 Rad8 15.Rfe1 Qc7 16.Re2 Nf8 17.Rae1 Ng6 18.Re3 a5 19.Nh5 Nxh5 20.Qxh5 Bf6 21.Rh3 (see board left) 21...Nf8 22.Bxh7+ Nxh7 23.Qxh7+ Kf8 24.Bc3 Qb6 25.Qh5 g6 26.Bxa5 Qxd4 27.Bb4+ Be7

Position after 27...Be7
White to play and win

The Bulgarian GM Julian Radulski has passed away aged just 41 after a long illness. He was a wonderfully talented player who played many fine games that were published here including a brilliant victory over Vasily Ivanchuk with black. I will give that next week.

J. Radulski S. Ilic
13th EICC Plovdiv 2012
Sicilian Defence

1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.Nf3 e6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 d6 6.f4 Nf6 7.Nf3 Be7 8.Bd3 a6 9.0 ndash 0 Qc7 10.a3 0 ndash 0 11.Qe1 Nd7 12.b4 b5 13.Bb2 Bf6 14.e5 dxe5 15.Ne4 Qb6+ 16.Kh1 Be7 17.fxe5 Ra7

Position after 17...Ra7

18.Nf6+! Nxf6 (18...gxf6 19.Qg3+ Kh8 20.exf6 Nxf6 21.Qh4) 19.exf6 Bxf6 20.Qe4 1 0 20.Qe4 Rd8 21.Bxf6 gxf6 22.Qxh7+ Kf8 23.Rae1 Ke7 24.Nh4 wins.

Answer:
28.Qh6+! Qg7 29.Bxe7+ Rxe7 30.Qh8+! Qg8 31.Qf6 (and Rh8 wins so) 1 ndash 0

Air India leads with ten points from five matches. In the joint second third places are Andhra Pradesh Race and Airports Authority of India with eight points. Goa Tamil Nadu and PSPB are further behind on six points. Two rounds remain to be played.

Despite resting star Harika Airports Authority blanked Tamil Nadu 4 0 while AP Race defeated LIC of India by 2.5 1.5.

In the 33rd National Team Championship PSPB maintained its all win record with a 2.5 1.5 win over Indian Railways A . Sethuraman won against Laxman while the other games were drawn. PSPB leads with 12 points.

Railways B crushed Tamil Nadu B 3.5 0.5 and LIC drew Air India 2 2. PSPB leads with 12 points and behind them are Indian Railways B with ten points. Indian Railways A and LIC of India are on nine points. Three rounds remain to be played in this 43 team competition.

Plenty of drawn games resulted in both sections at Hyderabad. After the first decisive result the players drew to seal match victories for their respective teams.

Pic: Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman played the key role to help Air India in round five.

The organizers of the coming event are the Chess Federation of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the FIDE World Chess Federation with the support of Astana rsquo s Agency for Sports and Physical Education and the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The best teams of the world will participate in the Championship. Among them the three teams that were ranked as the best at the World Chess Olympiad five continental champions the country organizer and one team elected by the FIDE President.

Astana will gather around 50 best chess players from ten countries: China Russia Ukraine USA India France Turkey Georgia nbsp Romania nbsp and Kazakhstan.

Every team consists of five players and the team winner will be determined in a round robin event after 9 games. Time control is 90 minutes per 40 moves and thirty minutes until the end of the game plus 30 seconds increment per move.

Nadezhda Kosintseva will not participate

The Chinese team won all the championships in the past. Hou Yifan and Zhao Xue are not coming to Astana and it is going to be difficult for the team to prove their dominance without its strongest players.

The Russian team which won the Chess Olympiad last September and took three silver medals in previous Women rsquo s World team championships will also play without two top players Nadezhda and Tatiana Kosintseva. The sisters refused to play for the team under the leadership of the trainer Sergei Rublevsky citing lsquo psychological incompatibility rsquo .

Women rsquo s World Champion Anna Ushenina will play for Ukraine and it will be her first official event since she won the title.

Women s World Champion Anna Ushenina

The top seed of the tournament will be the Georgian team. They will play in Astana with the same line up as in Mardin. In the last WWCTC Georgia managed to win bronze medal.

Teams:

This tournament is the 24th in its series and is being held in Suite C855 of the California Market Center on 110 East 9th Street Los Angeles 90079. The tournament is organized by Ankit Gupta FA IO.

The participants include: GM Vladimir Georgiev (MKD) GM Enrico Sevillano (USA) GM Melikset Khachiyan (USA) IM Zhanibek Amanov (KAZ) IM Andranik Matikozyan (ARM) IM Mackenzie Molner (USA) FM Samuel Sevian (USA) FM Alexandre Kretchetov (RUS) John Bryant (USA) and Arun Sharma (USA).

The tournament will be a 10 player round robin (all play all) with rounds scheduled as follows ndash 20th: 7:00 PM 21st: 11:00 AM amp 5:00 PM 22nd: 11:00 AM amp 5:00 PM 23rd: 11:00 AM amp 5:00 PM 24th: 10:00 AM amp 4:00 PM.

The tournament is sponsored by California Market Center Fashion Business Inc Law Offices of Steinfl amp Bruno Chess.com MonRoi LawyerFy EventForte and Betty Bottom Showroom.

Spectators are welcome and encouraged to come to watch the games in person at the tournament site.

The tournament will be validated by FIDE. nbsp It will be a 6 round Swiss Open with a time control of nbsp 90 minutes for the whole game plus an increment of 30 seconds from the first move.

The total prize fund will amount to 4.200 Brazilian Rs (approx. 2.200 USD) with 1.000 Rs reserved for the winner.

56 players have signed up to participate. nbsp IM Evandro Barbosa will be the first seed followed by IM Roberto Molina and Serbian IM Dragan Stamenkovic.

Participants:

Just days before the huge Cappelle la Grande Open the Rochefort Open was an excellent occasion for the players to test their preparation.

The Open A which was reserved for players rated 1900 or higher had 55 participants. Georgian GM Davit Jojua emerged clear tournament winner after collecting 7 points from nine games.

IM Karen H. Grigoryan from Armenia and IM Kore Akshayraj and India finished in the group of players on the shared second place and also earned Grandmaster norms.

This is the third GM norm for Akshayraj and now he only needs to pass the 2500 elo mark to become a new Indian Grandmaster.

The French junior Quentin Loiseau obtained his second IM norm.

Open A final standings:
1. GM JOJUA Davit GEO 2543 ndash 7
2 5. IM GRIGORYAN Karen H. ARM 2531 GM JIANU Vlad Cristian ROU 2500 GM TER SAHAKYAN Samvel ARM 2563 and IM AKSHAYRAJ Kore IND 2455 ndash 6 frac12
6 7. GM ISTRATESCU Andrei FRA 2657 and GM BARSOV Alexei UZB 2521 ndash 6
8 13. GM SANIKIDZE Tornike GEO 2553 FM LOISEAU Quentin FRA 2374 IM PETRE Nad Titus ROU 2374 IM DUMITRACHE Dragos Nicolae ROU 2440 GM NINOV Nikolai BUL 2520 and GM BARLOV Dragan SRB 2461 ndash 5 frac12

The Open B reserved for the players rated under 2000 had 84 participants. Cyrille Gauthier FRA 1797 took a clear first place and the top prize with 7 5/9 points.

The Blitz tournament with 34 players was staged on 20th February. IM Karen H. Grigoryan won the event with 9 5/11 points.

Last year Rochefort winner was GM David Arutinian (GEO).

The ex World Champion declared:

ldquo I rsquo m very excited to receive the certificate of Honorable Master of Sports of Russia today. On one hand I have a lot of awards and medals form the other hand it is very pleasant to get this kind of recognition for the work I rsquo ve done. Whatever people say such awards are very important. If there were no such nice signs of attention the motivation would be different. rdquo

Kosteniuk will be heading Russia rsquo s team in the upcoming nbsp nbsp Women rsquo s World Chess Team Championship.

The nbsp 14th Annual Pittsburgh Open nbsp will be held from March 1 3 2013 at the Doubletree Hotel Pittsburgh Green Tree 500 Mansfield Ave Pittsburgh Pennsylvania.

The nbsp 7th Annual Long Island Open nbsp will be held from March 1 3 2013 at the Holiday Inn Long Island ndash Islip Airport 3845 Veterans Memorial Highway Ronkonkoma New York.

The nbsp March Madness Championship nbsp is set to take place on 1 3rd March at the Bay Area Chess Center 1639A South Main Street Milpitas California.

The nbsp Thousand Dollar Prize Fund Open nbsp is set to take place on 2nd March at the Douglas Youth Center 902 S. 2nd Kingsville Texas 78363.

The nbsp 3rd Dallas Chess Club FIDE Open nbsp in 2013 is scheduled to take place on 2 3rd March at the Club rsquo s headquarters 200 S. Cottonwood Dr. #C Richardson Texas 75080.

The nbsp 20th Annual Western Class Championships nbsp will be held from March 8 10 2013 at the Sheraton Agoura Hills Hotel 30100 Agoura Road Agoura Hills California.

The nbsp 22nd Annual Eastern Class Championships nbsp will be held from March 15 17 2013 at the Host Hotel at Cedar Lake 366 Main St Sturbridge Massachusetts.

The nbsp 45th Virginia Open nbsp is scheduled to take place on 15 17th March at the Washington Dulles Airport Marriott Hotel 45020 Aviation Dr. Dulles Virginia.

Participants / Follow the games live

It all started from the top seeded GM Krishnan Sasikiran who had to fight for the draw against the Italian youngster Guido Caprio on the top board. That set the pace and surprises started rolling one after the other.

Unfortunately nbsp for them the two Venezuelan players were paired against each other on board 3 in round one. Eduardo Iturrizaga who is the first and only Grandmaster from the South American country lost against his compatriot IM Jose Sequera Paolini. Iturrizaga resigned with black after falling into a mating net on move 34.

Just two boards below GM Sergey Fedorchuk (2643) lost against Danish IM Klaus Berg (2390). The game that was opened with 1.g3 finished in only 27 moves.

Following the trend of ldquo IMs beating GMs rdquo IM Eylon Nakar (2385) defeated GM Andrey Sumets (2632) on the seventh board. They played one of the main lines of the Caro Kann and reached a typical equal position that arises from these structures. However Sumets tried to get active when it was necessary to keep playing patiently and Nakar used this opportunity with very accurate play. The Ukrainian GM resigned on move 41.

GM Sergey Fedorchuk

There were even more upsets on lower boards: GM Dmitry Svetushkin (2612) lost against the young French FM Quentin Loiseau (2374) and IM Kamran Shirazi (2373) defeated Ukrainian GM Alexander Zubarev (2591).

Among the players held to a draw are Dusan Popovic Renier Vazquez Matthieu Cornette and Tamir Nabaty.

Round 1 results:

nbsp

The tournament will be a 9 round Swiss Open with a time control of 90 minutes for the first 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with a 30 seconds increment per move.

The prizes will be distributed as follows: 1st ndash 3 000 Euros 2nd ndash 2 000 Euros 3rd ndash 1 500 Euros 4th ndash 1 000 Euros 5th ndash 900 Euros etc. There will also be prizes for age categories women and veterans.

13 players with a 2600+ Elo rating will be participating. Indian GM Krishnan Sasikiran is the first seed followed by Viktor Laznicka Tigran Gharamian Eduardo Iturrizaga Sanan Sjugirov Sergey Fedorchuk etc.

Participants:

Participants

Vladimir Kramnik (Russia) Elo 2810 #2 on the current World ranking list
Viswanathan Anand (India) 2780 #6
Fabiano Caruana (Italy) 2757 #13
Boris Gelfand (Israel) 2740 #17

Air India moved to sole lead with eight points from four matches and are well placed in this 14 player event with three rounds still to be played. This event is organised by the Andhra Pradesh Chess Association.

Airports Authority of India scored on board four when R Bharathi defeated S Meenakshi of Air India. On the top board Tania Sachdev of Air India drew Dronavalli Harika. Bhakti Kulkarni s upset win over national champion Mary Ann Gomes was the turning point for the winner of this match. Airports Authority suffered another loss when Padmini Rout lost to India s first WGM Vijayalakshmi on board three.

Air India leads with 8 points and are followed by Airports Authority Tamil Nadu AP Race and PSPB with six points. In a crucial match LICs Swati Ghate and Kiran Mohanty went down to Soumya Swaminathan and Mahalakshmi of PSPB. Rucha Pujari and Nisha Mohota had won for PSPB as they won a 4 0 sweep.

In the 33rd National Team Chess Championship Tamil Nadu B team continued to surprise and are jointly leading the event Petroleum Sports Promotion Board with eight points from four rounds. All the four Tamil Nadu B players were around 200 Elo below the Airports Authority of India opponents. But the Tamil Nadu second string team won 2.5 1.5 for a place in the lead.

Vinoth Kumar lost to IM Vishnu Prasanna Pradeep Kumar bt IM G.A. Stany Ram S Krishnan bt IM Swayams Mishra and D.S. Shashaank drew IM V.A.V. Rajesh. Certainly not a good day for the Airports Authority teams in the tourney.

PSPB routed Indian Railways B 3.5 0.5 with Himanshu Sharma holding Sethuraman on board two. Adhiban Lalith Babu and Deep Sengupta won for PSPB against Thejkumar Akshat Khamparia and Rathnakaran.

In the other notable result fifth seed Air India drew second seed Indian Railways A 2 2. Swapnil Dhopade s defeat to Satyapragyan on top board was neutralised by Somak Palit s win against Rahul Shetty.

PSPB and Tamil Nadu B are leading with 8 points. Air India and Indian Railways A are in the joint third place with seven points. With five rounds remaining this section is wide open of upsets and surprises.

Pic: Woman Grand Master Bhakti Kulkarni of Air India did the star turn on day three.