Tkachiev, Kosintseva grab European crowns

By Frank "Boy" Pestaño
Chessmoso

MORE than 600 players from 43 nations played in the recently concluded 8th European Championship in the chess city of Dresden ,Germany from April 2-15,2007.

There was actually an 8 player tie after 11 rounds in the men`s section Vladislav Tkachiev won the tie-breaks beating Ivan Cheparinov (1.5-0.5) Dmitry Jakovenko (1.5-0.5) and Emil Sutovsky 2-0 in the final. Sutovsky reached the final by beating Konstantin Sakaev (1.5-0.5) and Dusko Pavasovic (1.5-0.5).

Pinoy Votes: Sun.Star Election 2007

Tatiana Kosintseva snatched the Women`s event by an amazing 2 full points over sister Nadezhda , Antoanetta Stefanova and Hungary based Vietnamese Hoang Thanh Trang with 10 points out of 11 for a performance rating of 2774.

Here are the top 9th –16th placers: 9. Gustafsson Jan 2588 GER 7½ 10. Tomashevsky Evgeny 2641 RUS 7½.11 Almasi Zoltan 2675 HUN 7½ 12. Malakhov Vladimir 2679 RUS 7½ 13. Galkin Alexander 2590 RUS 7½ 14. Laznicka Viktor 2608 CZE 7½ 15. Nisipeanu Liviu-Dieter 2693 ROM 7½ 16. Nevednichy Vladislav 2528 ROM 7½ .

The top 10 in the Women`s section: 1. Tatiana Kosintseva RUS 10 2. Antoanetta Stefanova BUL 8 3. Nadezhda Kosintseva RUS 8 4. Hoang Thanh Trang HUN 8 5. Ekaterina Atalik TUR 7.5 6. Iweta Rajlich POL 7.5 7. Ekaterina Korbut RUS 7.5 8. Monica Socko POL 7.5 9. Nino Khurtsidge GEO 7.5 10. Irina Zakurdjaeva RUS 7.5.

Kasparov arrested. Garry Kasparov, considered to be the greatest chess player of all time was arrested in Moscow just recently for attending a political rally but released after a detention of 10 hours in jail.

Garry, who is very critical of the Putin leadership and an advocate of human rights heads the United Civil Front Organization based in Moscow.

More than 9,000 troops had been mobilized by the government to stop the rally from going ahead.

The planned march came as Russia warned “it wanted the extradition of London-based exile Boris Berezovsky, who told the UK's Guardian newspaper he was plotting "revolution" to overthrow Vladimir Putin,” according to BBC News reports.

The strong willed former champion has consistently warned his supporters that Putin has rolled back democracy.

Philippine Open 2007. More than 50 players, including 13 grandmasters from 8 countries are competing in this 9 round Swiss tournament at Subic organized by the National Chess Federation of the Philippines under the leadership of its president, Prospero Pichay.

Chess players never had it so good until now in this country as this is the 4th major tournament organized by the honorable congressman from Surigao. Total prize money in this open is $40,000 with $6,000 to the champion followed by $5,000, $4,000, $3,000, $2,000, etc.

As expected, the Chinese completely dominated the tournament. They won the 1st 5 places and had 7 players in the top 10. Here are the final results after 9 rounds: 1-3 .Wang Yue CHN 2656, Zhang Zhong CHN 2621, Ni Hua CHN 2654, 7.0 pts 4-5. Wang Hao CHN 2838, Zhao Jun CHN 2554, 6.5 pts. 6-8. Ghaemmaghani Ehsan 2599 IRI, Megaranto Susanto INA 2530, Li Shilong CHN 2552 6.0 9-10. Li Chao CHN 2525, Eugene Torre PHI 2532, 5.5 pts.

Previous “majors” were the Cantilan Open in Surigao, Sinulog Open in Cebu and the President Gloria Macapagal- Arroyo Cup, also international.

Cepca news. We had a successful monthly ( April) tournament last Sunday at Stella Maris. The winners were 1st- Tony Cabibil, 2nd–Joe Atillo and 3rd–Mike Banebane. Juniors champion was Cy Balbanera followed by Nikki Sabiquil and Yuri Cauba. Kiddies went to Kyle Sevillano with John Francis Balbona at 2nd and Patrick Osorno at 3rd.