US team: minus Nakamura, plus SeirawanThe USA’s team for the World Team Championship in Ningbo, China will be led by Gata Kamsky (2741). The other places are taken by Alexander Onischuk (2675), Yury Shulman (2617), Yasser Seirawan (2635) and Robert Hess (2609). The super tournament in Dortmund has “robbed” the World Team Championship not only of Kramnik and Ponomariov, but also of Hikaru Nakamura. It’s worth noting the return to the American team of Yasser Seirawan, who hasn’t played an active role in chess in recent years. World Championship favourites fly to ChinaThe first round of the World Team Championship in Ningbo takes place on 17 July. However, all the favourites “on paper” are flying out to China in advance in order to have time to acclimatise. The first to set off was the Russian team, whose players and coaches are already relaxing in the five-star hotel where the players will live and play. Azerbaijan keeping World Championship board order a secret“Both the players and I already know which boards they’ll play on in Ningbo”, 1news.az quotes the head coach of the Azerbaijan team, Vladimir Tukmakov. “But we’ll announce it directly before the opening of the World Championship which starts on the 17th. My decision didn’t provoke any disagreement. All the players agreed with it.” No takers for 2013 European ChampionshipsThe European Chess Union (ECU) reports that the bid deadline for running events in 2013 elapsed on 1st July. The list of tournaments for which even a single bid has yet to be received is rather long: Evgeny Bareev feels Sergey Karjakin is ready to leadOn the eve of the Russian team’s flight to China the head coach, Evgeny Bareev, gave a short interview to the “Sport-Express” newspaper. In particular, he answered a question on who he thinks can represent the Russian team on the first board in the upcoming World Team Championship: Women’s Russian Championship Superfinal line-up announcedThe Russian Chess Federation website reports that the final line-up for the 2011 Women’s Russian Championship Superfinal has been determined. In (Russian) alphabetical order: Korchnoi, Kosteniuk and Sokolov lead Swiss ChampionshipThe Swiss Chess Championship, an open event, is under way in Leukerbad, Switzerland.The five highest rated players are:
Christian Bauer (France, 2650) In total there are 11 grandmasters among the 131 participants. Evgeny Bareev considers Kramnik’s absence a storm in a teacupShortly before the Russian team flew to China the team captain Evgeny Bareev gave an interview to Vladimir Barsky for the Russian Chess Federation website. The coach admitted that he’d had to be ruthless in selecting the line-up. Armenian team ready for World ChampionshipThe Armenian team has completed its preparation for the World Team Championship in the mountain resort of Dilijan (a town Russian speakers associate with having the second best drinking water in the world… after San Francisco – all the fault of a Soviet comedy!). Levon Aronian, Sergei Movsesian, Vladimir Akopian, Gabriel Sargissian, Robert Hovhannisyan, and also the team captain Arshak Petrosyan are all flying to China on 12 July. Russian team flying to China todayThe Russian national team’s week-long training camp is over. Today the team flew out to China to take part in the World Team Championship. The line-up is: Sergey Karjakin, Alexander Grischuk, Peter Svidler, Nikita Vitiugov and Ian Nepomniachtchi. The first round takes place on 17 July, so the players will therefore have a week to acclimatise. |
