Gelfand wins Candidates matches

There are a lot of information in this article so I will be as brief as possible.

The biggest news is that Gelfand wins the right to challenge Anand in 2012!

To review, Levon Aronian(2808) of Armenia and Veselin Topalov (2775) of Bulgaria (2775),the big favorites, were eliminated in the quarter-finals by Alexander Grischuk (2747 Russia) and Gata Kamsky(2732 USA).

In the other matches, Vladimir Kramnik (Russia 2785) and Boris Gelfand (Israel 2733) prevailed over Teimour Radjabov (2744) and Shakriyar Mamedyarov (2772) both of Azerbaijan.

In the semis, Gelfand downed Kamsky while Grischuk clobbered Kramnik.

In the finals Gelfand won the last of six games with a novelty in a Gruenfeld and became the oldest man at the age of 42 to compete in the World Chess Championship.

In the Asean Zonals in Tagaytay , GM Susanto Megaranto of Indonesia edged GM Rogelio "Joey" Antonio Jr. of the Philippines in the ninth and final round to finish seven points and emerged over-all champion.

Mark Paragua, on the other hand nipped IM Goh Weiming of Singapore to score 6.5 points and finish in a tie for 2nd to 4th place with top seed GM Zhang Zhong of Singapore, and IM Richard Bitoon of Cebu, but won via tiebreak points for the last final berth in the World Cup in Russia.
Earlier in Subic, India showed why they are a world power in chess by dominating the Asian Youth Chess Championship winning 10 gold medals out of a possible 12! The other two gold medals were taken by Philippines and Iran in the Men Under 16 and Under 12 respectively.
India completely ruled the Girls section by winning Gold in all 6 girls age groups.
WSOP The biggest spectacle in poker, the 42nd World series known as the “Woodstock for Poker”, started last Wednesday in Las Vegas up to the main event in July 7 that is expected to attract more than 70,000 players from 115 countries.
The event features 58 distinct tournaments in all variations of poker and totals more than $180 million in prizes. This is more than the total prize money for one year in chess worldwide.
Buyin ranges from $500 to $50,000. In addition cash games are held on a 24 hour basis throughout the period.
Every year, PokerListings releases its list of Best Bets for the World Series of Poker. . "Frankly, our predictions have been less than accurate," writes a spokesperson. "That’s why this year we’re taking the shotgun approach, aiming at groups in hopes of scoring a few hits." So PokerListings decided to go with – chess players! "If there is a group of people more prepared for success at the 2011 World Series of Poker than chess players, PokerListings hasn’t found it."
"Historically, chess players have proven the transition to poker to be a profitable one".1995 WSOP Main Event champ and two-time finalist Dan Harrington is among those who played chess before he turned to poker, as is 2008 November Niner Ylon Schwartz, IM Almira Skripchenko and Dinara Khaziyeva and child chess prodigy Jeff Sarwer.

Oriental Poker Club Poker is a phenomenon also in Cebu.
Making waves in the local scene is the newest club in town,the Oriental Poker Sports Club,located in Parkmall in Mandaue.
They have a unique Ladies nights on June 4 and 11 with a 15k guaranteed .Ladies buyin is only P200 that is converted into cash game chips. Gentlemen pay P500.

The Club also has 10k Freerolls ( no buyin) on June 6, 8 and 9. 50% of the prizes are cash game chips.

All tournaments start at 5pm.

Sometime in June, they will have a P1 million guaranteed tourney limited to 40 players with a buyin of 25k. Champion wins P500k and 2nd and 3rd takes home P300k and P200k respectively.Wow!
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