Karjakin,Grischuk are Rapid and Blitz champions

The Official World Blitz and Rapid Chess Championships were held from July 1-11 in Astana, the capital city of Kazakhstan. It is worth noting that the Rapid championship is a first in the history of FIDE,The total prize fund was US $400,000. Format was 16-player single round robin in Rapid and 16-player double round robin in Blitz. Rate of play were Rapid-15 minutes + 10 seconds increment per move, starting from move 1 and Blitz-3 minutes + 2 seconds increment per move, starting from move 1. There was a Special rule. The players were not allowed to offer draws directly to their opponents. Any draw claim will be permitted only through the Chief Arbiter and accepted in case of a triple-repetition of the position or the 50-move rule Sergey Karjakin is the new World Rapid Champion. He won the competition with 11,5/15, a full point ahead of the Magnus Carlsen, after completing an incredible third day performance with 4,5/5. After two days of play and ten games Magnus Carlsen looked a certain winner. But then the Norwegian world number 1 lost two in a row, allowing Sergey to catch and then overtake him. Vassily Ivanchuk played a large part in the final result, losing on time to Sergey Karjakin in his first game of the day, then beating Magnus Carlsen in the second. Carlsen lost another game against Alexander Grischuk in round 13, and should have lost another when Veselin Topalov missed a checkmate in their final round clash. Karjakin holds the record for both the youngest International Master (eleven years and eleven months old) and youngest grandmaster in history (at the age of twelve years and seven months). The World Blitz Championship was won by Alexander Grischuk . He led almost throughout. Magnus Carlsen started slowly but finished strongly defeating Sergey Karjakin to overtake him for second place. Alexander Grischuk is a Russian grandmaster and was Russian Champion in 2009. He has won two team gold medals and one individual bronze medal at Chess Olympiads. The players were Magnus Carlsen, Teimour Radjabov, Sergey Karjakin, Alexander Morozevich, Vassily Ivanchuk, Alexander Grischuk, Veselin Topalov, Peter Svidler, Boris Gelfand, Viktor Bologan, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Alexey Dreev, Igor Kurnosov, Vladislav Tkachiev, Murtas Kazhgaleyev, Anuar Ismagambetov, Dmitry Andreikin, Le Quang Liem, Nikolai Chadaev, Pavel Kotsur and Rinat Jumabayev Russia-China Russia defeated China 77.5-72.5 in their annual Scheveningen match, held in St. Petersburg this year from July 1-9. The Russian men's team won the classical chess 13.5-11.5 but their women went down 14.5-10.5. In rapid chess, the Russian men also won: 29-21. The Chinese women scored another victory as well, albeit with a smaller margin: 25.5-24.5. The players were Russia ( Men) -Dmitry Jakovenko, Evgeny Tomashevsky, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Nikita Vitiugov and China (Men) -Wang Hao, Wang Yue, Li Chao, Ding Liren, Yu Yangyi (China) The women players were -Valentina Gunina, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Natalija Pogonina, Olga Girya, Baira Kovanova (Russia) and Zhao Xue, Ju Wenjun, Huang Qian, Shen Yang, Ding Yixin (China) Poker Antonio Esfandiari has won the largest buy-in tournament in poker history, the $1 million dollar Big One for One Drop at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. He is a professional poker player and former professional magician, known for his elaborate chip tricks. By winning the event, along with the largest cash prize in the history of poker at $18,346,673, Esfandiari is now ranked number one for all-time tournament poker winnings. boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com