VolcanChess: sábado, 2 de enero de 2010

2 ene 2010

Ya es oficial: ¡Magnus Carlsen es el número uno del mundo!

sábado, enero 02, 2010 | Publicado por Volcanchess | | Editar entrada

La FIDE acaba de publicar su nueva clasificación mundial de los mejores jugadores de ajedrez del mundo correspondiente a 1 de enero de 2010. ¡Ahora sí está confirmado! Magnus Carlsen, el joven gran maestro noruego de 19 años es el número uno del mundo, con 2810 puntos Elo y cinco puntos más que su predecesor, Veselin Topalov (que ahora es segundo) y veinte puntos más que el Campeón del Mundo Viswanathan Anand. Magnus es el jugador más joven de la historia en superar la barrera de los 2800 puntos y también el más joven número uno de todos los tiempos.

La lista FIDE de enero de 2010

Magnus Carlsen ha ganado nueve puntos Elo en sus 16 partidas y ahora tiene una valoración de su fuerza de juego de 2810 puntos Elo. Magnus es el nuevo número uno de la lista de los mejores jugadores de ajedrez del mundo. A continuación encontrarán un estudio del progreso del prodigio de ajedrez de los últimos nueve años:

En la segunda posición figura el gran maestro búlgaro Veselin Topalov, que ha perdido cinco puntos en cuatro partidas (en el Campeonato de Europa por equipos en Novi Sad), seguido por el Campeón del Mundo Viswanathan Anand, que ha perdido dos puntos en nueve partidas. Vladimir Kramnik es el número cuatro tras haber ganado 16 puntos Elo en 16 partidas. Kramnik desalojó de su lugar a Levon Aronian, que perdió cinco puntos y ahora figura en el quinto lugar de la clasificación mundial.
Otros cambios notables en la cima: Vassily Ivanchuk ha ganado 10 puntos y nuevamente figura entre los 10 mejores jugadores del mundo. Lo mismo vale para el GM chino Wang Yue, que ganó 15 puntos. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov ganó 22 puntos, mientras que Peter Leko perdió 13, Teimour Radjabov 15 y Alexander Morozevich 18 puntos.

Lista FIDE de los 100 mejores al 1 de enero de 2010

Lugar	Jugador	Título	País	Elo	Partidas	Nacido
1	Carlsen, Magnus	g	NOR	2810	16	1990
2	Topalov, Veselin	g	BUL	2805	4	1975
3	Anand, Viswanathan	g	IND	2790	9	1969
4	Kramnik, Vladimir	g	RUS	2788	16	1975
5	Aronian, Levon	g	ARM	2781	17	1982
6	Gelfand, Boris	g	ISR	2761	25	1968
7	Gashimov, Vugar	g	AZE	2759	21	1986
8	Ivanchuk, Vassily	g	UKR	2749	13	1969
9	Wang, Yue	g	CHN	2749	8	1987
10	Svidler, Peter	g	RUS	2744	27	1976
11	Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar	g	AZE	2741	19	1985
12	Leko, Peter	g	HUN	2739	9	1979
13	Ponomariov, Ruslan	g	UKR	2737	25	1983
14	Eljanov, Pavel	g	UKR	2736	14	1983
15	Grischuk, Alexander	g	RUS	2736	8	1983
16	Radjabov, Teimour	g	AZE	2733	13	1987
17	Morozevich, Alexander	g	RUS	2732	19	1977
18	Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime	g	FRA	2730	21	1990
19	Jakovenko, Dmitry	g	RUS	2730	17	1983
20	Shirov, Alexei	g	ESP	2723	19	1972
21	Karjakin, Sergey	g	RUS	2720	12	1990
22	Malakhov, Vladimir	g	RUS	2716	15	1980
23	Wang, Hao	g	CHN	2715	10	1989
24	Bacrot, Etienne	g	FRA	2713	18	1983
25	Dominguez Perez, Leinier	g	CUB	2712	4	1983
26	Almasi, Zoltan	g	HUN	2710	7	1976
27	Navara, David	g	CZE	2708	15	1985
28	Nakamura, Hikaru	g	USA	2708	7	1987
29	Movsesian, Sergei	g	SVK	2708	2	1978
30	Tomashevsky, Evgeny	g	RUS	2705	14	1987
31	Vallejo Pons, Francisco	g	ESP	2705	10	1982
32	Jobava, Baadur	g	GEO	2704	15	1983
33	Alekseev, Evgeny	g	RUS	2703	13	1985
34	Kasimdzhanov, Rustam	g	UZB	2702	2	1979
35	Motylev, Alexander	g	RUS	2697	6	1979
36	Rublevsky, Sergei	g	RUS	2697	4	1974
37	Nielsen, Peter Heine	g	DEN	2697	0	1973
38	Short, Nigel D	g	ENG	2696	7	1965
39	Adams, Michael	g	ENG	2694	17	1971
40	Kamsky, Gata	g	USA	2693	6	1974
41	Vitiugov, Nikita	g	RUS	2692	8	1987
42	Volokitin, Andrei	g	UKR	2692	8	1986
43	Bologan, Viktor	g	MDA	2692	6	1971
44	Naiditsch, Arkadij	g	GER	2687	13	1985
45	Miroshnichenko, Evgenij	g	UKR	2686	0	1978
46	Polgar, Judit	g	HUN	2682	4	1976
47	Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter	g	ROU	2681	12	1976
48	Sargissian, Gabriel	g	ARM	2680	12	1983
49	Akopian, Vladimir	g	ARM	2678	10	1971
50	Moiseenko, Alexander	g	UKR	2677	0	1980
51	Caruana, Fabiano	g	ITA	2675	18	1992
52	Bu, Xiangzhi	g	CHN	2673	6	1985
53	Georgiev, Kiril	g	BUL	2672	0	1965
54	Harikrishna, P.	g	IND	2672	0	1986
55	Fressinet, Laurent	g	FRA	2670	12	1981
56	Areshchenko, Alexander	g	UKR	2670	6	1986
57	Onischuk, Alexander	g	USA	2670	4	1975
58	Zhigalko, Sergei	g	BLR	2668	13	1989
59	Smirin, Ilia	g	ISR	2668	11	1968
60	Kurnosov, Igor	g	RUS	2668	10	1985
61	Najer, Evgeniy	g	RUS	2665	4	1977
62	Tiviakov, Sergei	g	NED	2662	2	1973
63	Riazantsev, Alexander	g	RUS	2661	0	1985
64	Vescovi, Giovanni	g	BRA	2660	20	1978
65	Cheparinov, Ivan	g	BUL	2660	15	1986
66	Berkes, Ferenc	g	HUN	2659	9	1985
67	Lastin, Alexander	g	RUS	2659	4	1976
68	Meier, Georg	g	GER	2658	12	1987
69	Nepomniachtchi, Ian	g	RUS	2658	10	1990
70	Beliavsky, Alexander G	g	SLO	2657	18	1953
71	Efimenko, Zahar	g	UKR	2657	10	1985
72	Ni, Hua	g	CHN	2657	10	1983
73	Smeets, Jan	g	NED	2657	10	1985
74	Sutovsky, Emil	g	ISR	2657	9	1977
75	Roiz, Michael	g	ISR	2657	8	1983
76	Avrukh, Boris	g	ISR	2656	8	1978
77	So, Wesley	g	PHI	2656	8	1993
78	Krasenkow, Michal	g	POL	2656	0	1963
79	Fridman, Daniel	g	GER	2654	8	1976
80	Ganguly, Surya Shekhar	g	IND	2654	4	1983
81	Baklan, Vladimir	g	UKR	2654	2	1978
82	Grachev, Boris	g	RUS	2653	18	1986
83	Sasikiran, Krishnan	g	IND	2653	4	1981
84	Laznicka, Viktor	g	CZE	2652	16	1988
85	Timofeev, Artyom	g	RUS	2652	4	1985
86	Khismatullin, Denis	g	RUS	2651	16	1984
87	Dreev, Alexey	g	RUS	2650	9	1969
88	Sokolov, Ivan	g	BIH	2649	12	1968
89	Inarkiev, Ernesto	g	RUS	2649	6	1985
90	Seirawan, Yasser	g	USA	2649	2	1960
91	Korobov, Anton	g	UKR	2648	17	1985
92	Postny, Evgeny	g	ISR	2648	7	1981
93	Le, Quang Liem	g	VIE	2647	20	1991
94	Pashikian, Arman	g	ARM	2647	6	1987
95	Landa, Konstantin	g	RUS	2645	10	1972
96	Milov, Vadim	g	SUI	2644	6	1972
97	Nyback, Tomi	g	FIN	2643	13	1985
98	Bareev, Evgeny	g	RUS	2643	10	1966
99	Kazhgaleyev, Murtas	g	KAZ	2643	9	1973
100	Socko, Bartosz	g	POL	2643	8	1978

La lista de las 100 mejores jugadoras al 1 de enero de 2010

No ha habido cambios: Judit Polgar todavía tiene 70 puntos más que su más cercana rival, la gran maestra india, Koneru Humpy. La supertalento china, Hou Yifan, continúa acercándose paso por paso a la barrera de los 2600 puntos y es de esperar que pronto será la tercera jugadora de la historia en marcar este hito.

Lugar	Jugadora	Título	País	Elo	Partidas	Nacida
1	Polgar, Judit	g	HUN	2682	4	1976
2	Koneru, Humpy	g	IND	2614	8	1987
3	Hou, Yifan	g	CHN	2590	14	1994
4	Stefanova, Antoaneta	g	BUL	2545	7	1979
5	Kosintseva, Nadezhda	m	RUS	2533	9	1985
6	Cramling, Pia	g	SWE	2528	4	1963
7	Muzychuk, Anna	m	SLO	2523	25	1990
8	Kosteniuk, Alexandra	g	RUS	2523	10	1984
9	Lahno, Kateryna	g	UKR	2518	16	1989
10	Kosintseva, Tatiana	g	RUS	2515	8	1986
11	Chiburdanidze, Maia	g	GEO	2514	0	1961
12	Ju, Wenjun	wg	CHN	2512	4	1991
13	Sebag, Marie	g	FRA	2510	8	1986
14	Dzagnidze, Nana	g	GEO	2506	19	1987
15	Zhao, Xue	g	CHN	2504	4	1985
16	Mkrtchian, Lilit	m	ARM	2503	9	1982
17	Pogonina, Natalija	wg	RUS	2501	0	1985
18	Danielian, Elina	m	ARM	2495	11	1978
19	Javakhishvili, Lela	m	GEO	2493	7	1984
20	Cmilyte, Viktorija	m	LTU	2489	9	1983
21	Hoang Thanh Trang	g	HUN	2487	0	1980
22	Paehtz, Elisabeth	m	GER	2484	9	1985
23	Ruan, Lufei	wg	CHN	2479	2	1987
24	Xu, Yuhua	g	CHN	2478	3	1976
25	Harika, Dronavalli	m	IND	2471	11	1991
26	Gaponenko, Inna	m	UKR	2470	16	1976
27	Arakhamia-Grant, Ketevan	g	SCO	2470	9	1968
28	Zhu, Chen	g	QAT	2470	4	1976
29	Qin, Kanying	wg	CHN	2466	0	1974
30	Zatonskih, Anna	m	USA	2466	0	1978
31	Tan, Zhongyi	wg	CHN	2464	3	1991
32	Zhukova, Natalia	wg	UKR	2462	8	1979
33	Khotenashvili, Bela	m	GEO	2461	8	1988
34	Dembo, Yelena	m	GRE	2457	8	1983
35	Skripchenko, Almira	m	FRA	2456	0	1976
36	Rajlich, Iweta	m	POL	2455	13	1981
37	Krush, Irina	m	USA	2455	5	1983
38	Tairova, Elena	m	RUS	2455	0	1991
39	Ushenina, Anna	m	UKR	2452	6	1985
40	Hunt, Harriet V	m	ENG	2452	0	1978
41	Socko, Monika	g	POL	2450	14	1978
42	Gunina, Valentina	wf	RUS	2448	7	1989
43	Korbut, Ekaterina	m	RUS	2448	0	1985
44	Muzychuk, Mariya	m	UKR	2447	0	1992
45	Atalik, Ekaterina	m	TUR	2445	0	1982
46	Shen, Yang	wg	CHN	2444	2	1989
47	Foisor, Cristina-Adela	m	ROU	2440	10	1967
48	Huang, Qian	wg	CHN	2439	3	1986
49	Khukhashvili, Sopiko	m	GEO	2438	7	1985
50	Zhang, Xiaowen	wg	CHN	2437	24	1989
51	Repkova, Eva	m	SVK	2434	0	1975
52	Romanko, Marina	m	RUS	2433	6	1986
53	Melia, Salome	m	GEO	2431	9	1987
54	Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina	m	RUS	2428	4	1974
55	Munguntuul, Batkhuyag	wg	MGL	2427	15	1987
56	Moser, Eva	m	AUT	2424	8	1982
57	Li, Ruofan	m	SIN	2423	0	1978
58	Ovod, Evgenija	m	RUS	2415	0	1982
59	Khurtsidze, Nino	m	GEO	2414	13	1975
60	Vasilevich, Tatjana	m	UKR	2414	0	1977
61	Cori T., Deysi	wm	PER	2412	33	1993
62	Peptan, Corina-Isabela	m	ROU	2411	7	1978
63	Savina, Anastasia		RUS	2407	20	1992
64	Matnadze, Ana	m	GEO	2407	9	1983
65	Karavade, Eesha	wg	IND	2405	11	1987
66	Milliet, Sophie	m	FRA	2404	13	1983
67	Jackova, Jana	m	CZE	2403	16	1982
68	Tsereteli, Tamar	wg	GEO	2403	9	1985
69	Zdebskaja, Natalia	wg	UKR	2402	16	1986
70	Peng, Zhaoqin	g	NED	2402	9	1968
71	Houska, Jovanka	m	ENG	2401	18	1980
72	Stockova, Zuzana	m	SVK	2401	0	1977
73	Tania, Sachdev	m	IND	2398	11	1986
74	Zawadzka, Jolanta	wg	POL	2391	19	1987
75	Zaiatz, Elena	m	RUS	2391	4	1969
76	Alexandrova, Olga	m	ESP	2391	0	1978
77	Matveeva, Svetlana	m	RUS	2391	0	1969
78	Stepovaia, Tatiana	wg	RUS	2389	8	1965
79	Molchanova, Tatjana	wm	RUS	2388	8	1980
80	Maric, Alisa	m	SRB	2387	9	1970
81	Turova, Irina	m	RUS	2386	8	1979
82	Madl, Ildiko	m	HUN	2385	7	1969
83	Bojkovic, Natasa	m	SRB	2384	9	1971
84	Kovanova, Baira	wg	RUS	2384	2	1987
85	Shadrina, Tatiana	wg	RUS	2382	9	1974
86	Pokorna, Regina	wg	SVK	2382	0	1982
87	Galojan, Lilit	wg	ARM	2374	8	1983
88	Dworakowska, Joanna	m	POL	2374	7	1978
89	Majdan, Joanna	wg	POL	2374	7	1988
90	Bodnaruk, Anastasia	wg	RUS	2372	2	1992
91	Lomineishvili, Maia	m	GEO	2371	0	1977
92	Gara, Anita	m	HUN	2370	17	1983
93	Michna, Marta	wg	GER	2370	8	1978
94	Vajda, Szidonia	m	HUN	2369	17	1979
95	Iljushina, Olga	wg	RUS	2367	0	1981
96	Goletiani, Rusudan	m	USA	2366	0	1980
97	Girya, Olga	wg	RUS	2365	23	1991
98	Gaprindashvili, Nona	g	GEO	2360	9	1941
99	Calzetta Ruiz, Monica	wg	ESP	2359	8	1972
100	Djingarova, Emilia	wg	BUL	2359	0	1978

Los 20 mejores jugadores juveniles de enero de 2010

Magnus Carlsen, por supuesto, encabeza también la lista de los mejores jugadores juveniles del mundo. El número dos es ahora el GM francés, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave que ha robado este lugar a Sergey Karjakin, que ahora figura en la tercera posición.

Lugar	Jugador	Título	País	Elo	Partidas	Nacido
1	Carlsen, Magnus	g	NOR	2810	16	1990
2	Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime	g	FRA	2730	21	1990
3	Karjakin, Sergey	g	RUS	2720	12	1990
4	Wang, Hao	g	CHN	2715	10	1989
5	Caruana, Fabiano	g	ITA	2675	18	1992
6	Zhigalko, Sergei	g	BLR	2668	13	1989
7	Nepomniachtchi, Ian	g	RUS	2658	10	1990
8	So, Wesley	g	PHI	2656	8	1993
9	Le, Quang Liem	g	VIE	2647	20	1991
10	Andreikin, Dmitry	g	RUS	2635	14	1990
11	Kuzubov, Yuriy	g	UKR	2634	0	1990
12	Hammer, Jon Ludvig	g	NOR	2627	18	1990
13	Rodshtein, Maxim	g	ISR	2622	13	1989
14	Negi, Parimarjan	g	IND	2621	2	1993
15	Popov, Ivan	g	RUS	2617	17	1990
16	Iturrizaga, Eduardo	g	VEN	2616	26	1989
17	Nguyen, Ngoc Truong Son	g	VIE	2616	0	1990
18	Kovalyov, Anton	g	ARG	2613	18	1992
19	Andriasian, Zaven	g	ARM	2613	0	1989
20	Sjugirov, Sanan	g	RUS	2610	10	1993

Las 20 mejores jugadoras juveniles de enero de 2010

Hou Yifan y Anna Muzychuk siguen en cabeza de la lista de las mejores jugadoras juveniles. La gran maestro ucrania, Kateryna Lahno, ha adelantado a la china WGM Ju Wenjun y figura en la tercera posición. Hay seis jugadoras rusas, cinco chinas y tres indias en la lista. Deysi Cori Tello, de Perú, es la mejor jugadora juvenil latina y se encuentra en el duodécimo lugar de la lista.

Lugar	Jugadora	Título	País	Elo	Partidas	Nacida
1	Hou, Yifan	g	CHN	2590	14	1994
2	Muzychuk, Anna	m	SLO	2523	25	1990
3	Lahno, Kateryna	g	UKR	2518	16	1989
4	Ju, Wenjun	wg	CHN	2512	4	1991
5	Harika, Dronavalli	m	IND	2471	11	1991
6	Tan, Zhongyi	wg	CHN	2464	3	1991
7	Tairova, Elena	m	RUS	2455	0	1991
8	Gunina, Valentina	wf	RUS	2448	7	1989
9	Muzychuk, Mariya	m	UKR	2447	0	1992
10	Shen, Yang	wg	CHN	2444	2	1989
11	Zhang, Xiaowen	wg	CHN	2437	24	1989
12	Cori T., Deysi	wm	PER	2412	33	1993
13	Savina, Anastasia		RUS	2407	20	1992
14	Bodnaruk, Anastasia	wg	RUS	2372	2	1992
15	Girya, Olga	wg	RUS	2365	23	1991
16	Muminova, Nafisa	wm	UZB	2347	0	1990
17	Severiukhina, Zoja	wm	RUS	2341	13	1990
18	Mikadze, Miranda	wm	GEO	2326	13	1989
19	Gomes, Mary Ann	wg	IND	2325	24	1989
20	Soumya, Swaminathan	wg	IND	2323	24	1989

Listas e información, cortesía de la FIDE

Fuente: www.chessbase.com

www.volcanchess.com

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[ForodeAjedrez] SR YTURI ESTA INFORMACION APARECE EN EL REINO UNIDO GIBRALTAR

sábado, enero 02, 2010 | Publicado por VolcanChess | | Editar entrada

Cori Tello, Jorge Moisés

POR 2462m Nacido en 1995 (!), Jorge es un talento excepcional 14 años chico de Perú. Él y su hermana Deysi Estela (también jugando en Gibraltar) son campeones del mundo, después de haber ganado los títulos junior en el Campeonato Mundial de la Juventud 2009 en Turquía. Jorge ganó el Sub-14 de título mundial. Sus dos victorias causó sensación en el Perú, su índice no aparece en la lista de enero del 2010 hasta ahora, presumiblemente debido a su federación nacional no ha dejado perplejos a sus cuotas de afiliación de la FIDE todavía - particularmente frustrante para Jorge ya que tiene todas las tres normas de GM y sólo necesita un número de 2500 para obtener su título.

To: forodeajedrez@yahoogroups.com; grupodeajedrezperuano@yahoogroups.com
From: jorgecori33@hotmail.com
Date: Sat, 2 Jan 2010 17:22:48 +0000
Subject: [ForodeAjedrez] AJEDREZ EN GIBRALTAR LOS HERMANOS CORI

Name	Fed	Rating
Bacrot, Etienne	FRA	2713g	Born on 22 January 1983 in Picardie, France, Etienne is one of the most remarkable chess prodigies in history. He won a match 5-1 against legendary ex-world champion Vasily Smyslov aged only 13 and qualified as a GM in March 1997 at the age of 14 years 2 months - which was then a record for the youngest player ever to do so. He has been French champion six times and has scored some notable match results against Gelfand, Huebner and Ivan Sokolov. His best tournament results include firsts at the 2005 Karpov Poikovsky tournament (ahead of Svidler and Grischuk) and in the 2009 Aeroflot Open, which is generally considered the strongest annual open in the world. This will be his first visit to Gibraltar.
Movsesian, Sergei	SVK	2708g	Born in 1978 in Tbilisi, Georgia, Sergei lived in Armenia (his father's homeland) in his teens before moving to the Czech Republic and then Slovakia (he holds Slovak citizenship but lives in Pardubice in the Czech Republic). He is married to Czech WGM Petra Krupkova (now Movsesjanova). He represented the Czech Republic in the Olympiads of 1998 and 2000 before switching to Slovakia, whom he has played for since then. At the 2008 Dresden Olympiad he made the 4th best TPR (2794) of all the players in the competition, playing on board one for his country. Sergei first hit the headlines when he reached the quarter-finals of the 1999 FIDE Knock-Out World Championship in Las Vegas before being eliminated by Vladimir Akopian. Garry Kasparov famously (and cruelly) branded Akopian, Movsesian and Nisipeanu "chess tourists" at the time but that hardly does any of them justice. Sergei crossed the threshold of 2700 in July 2008 and reached 2751 on the January 2009 list when he was the 10th highest rated player in the world. This is his first visit to Gibraltar.
Vallejo Pons, Francisco	ESP	2705g	Born in 1982 in Minorca, Paco (as he is often known) may have a claim to being the best native-born Spanish player of all time. He became a GM aged 16 years 9 months and scored two impressive victories in the Capablanca Memorial tournament in Havana in 1999 and 2001. In between these two successes, he became the World Under 18 Champion in 2000. Being a Spaniard, he has enjoyed enviable opportunities to play in super-torneos but he was exploited these chances excellently. His super-tournament debut was at Linares 2002, aged only 19, starting with a game against Garry Kasparov (which he drew). he went through the first cycle unbeaten and beat Shirov in the final round - good enough to improve his rating. He made exactly the same score at Linares 2003 and 2004, beating Leko in one game. He went above 2700 on the January 2009 rating list and will surely reach this level again soon. Paco relishes meeting top opposition and has even scores in all forms of the game against both Topalov and Kramnik. This will be his first visit to Gibraltar.
Adams, Michael	ENG	2694g	Born in 1971 in Truro, Cornwall, Michael Adams, known to his friends as Mickey, has a strong claim to being Britain's best chessplayer of all time. It was already obvious that he was going to become one of the country's greatest players when he started winning tournament after tournament in his teens and he broke all significant national age records to become a grandmaster and win the British Championship at the age of 17. In the mid-1990s he advanced quickly up the rating list to join the absolute elite group of players at the top, remaining at 4th spot behind Kasparov, Kramnik and Anand for a number of years around the turn of the century. He also proved highly successful in FIDE's (and PCA's) world knock-out championship events, reaching three semi-finals and winning short matches against the likes of Topalov, Kramnik, Short, Svidler, Tiviakov and others. His best knock-out world championship performance was in 2004 when he came within a hair's breadth of becoming the first Briton to win an adult world championship title, losing out narrowly to Rustam Kasimjanov in a tie-break in the final. His list of tournament successes is simply too long to attempt to list them all here. Perhaps his best was clear first at Dos Hermanas in 1999, ahead of Kramnik, Anand, Topalov, Karpov, Korchnoi, Svidler, Judit Polgar and others. In recent years Mickey has twice won the Staunton Memorial tournament at London's Simpsons in the Strand venue. He has long been an automatic choice for the England Olympiad team, playing ten times altogether and on board one in the last six. His performance for his country has been consistently high and he has won ten team/individual medals in major team events including team gold at the 1997 European Team Championship and an individual gold in the same competition in 2001. Mickey is a mild-mannered, unassuming man who prefers to let his pieces demonstrate his undoubted star quality, though he also has a way with words when he wants to - his Saturday column He is hugely respected by fellow professionals and chess fans for his impeccable courtesy as well as his supreme skills on the board. He will be making his second appearance in Gibraltar in 2010, having scored 6½/9 in 2007.
Kamsky, Gata	USA	2693g	Gata Kamsky seems to have been one of the biggest names in chess for ever - but he is still only 35 (born in 1974). He was the last of the legendary Soviet stars whose surnames began with "K" - or he would have been had he and his father not left the USSR in 1989 to move to the USA. Originally from a coal-mining town to the south-west of Siberia, Gata won the Soviet Junior Championship in 1989. He was a genuine child prodigy - arguably one of the greatest ever in terms of ranking achieved. He became a GM in 1990 and rocketed to number 8 on the July 1990 rating list, aged just 16 years and 1 month - by a similar age Magnus Carlsen "only" made it to number 24, by the way. Following Gata's move to the USA, he became US Champion in 1991 and by 1993 his sights were firmly set on the world title. At that time there were two different versions, the PCA title held by Kasparov and the FIDE title held by Karpov. Gata performed brilliantly in both. He reached the final of the 1994/5 PCA Candidates series, beating future world champion Vladimir Kramnik and Nigel Short (in a controversial semi-final) before losing in the final eliminator to Vishy Anand. In the FIDE World Championship he beat Anand (this match pre-dated their PCA encounter) and Salov to qualify for a world title match with Karpov in 1996. He lost that match by 7½-10½. After losing to Karpov, he retired from chess for three years to attend medical school before returning briefly to take part in the 1999 FIDE World Knock-Out Championship in Las Vegas. He lost in the first round but to the eventual winner, Alexander Khalifman and again quit chess to study law. Most people expected this to be the end of his chess career but he played some domestic US tournaments in 2004. Evidently the chess bug bit again and he started taking part in more prestigious events, scoring a notable second to Veselin Topalov in the 2006 MTel Masters. In 2007 he achieved his best result of his resumed career, winning the FIDE World Cup, beating Alexei Shirov in the final and qualifying for a World Championship final eliminator match with the world's top-rated player, Veselin Topalov, in 2009 which he lost by 2½-4½. Gata has only ever played in one tournament organised under the auspices of the English (then British) federation - the 1989 Lloyds Bank Masters, where he scored 6½/10 - so it will be good to welcome him to Gibraltar.
Fressinet, Laurent	FRA	2670g	Laurent was born in Dax, France, on 30 November 1981 and won the silver medal in the World Under 14 Championship in 1995. He became a GM at the age of 18 and was world silver medallist in the under 18 in 1999. He has been runner-up in the French Championship twice, in 2004 and 2006, and silver medallist in the European Blitz Championship in 2006 and 2007. He is the current French blitz champion (2009) and also French rapidplay champion. He has won the French Team Championship six times (with NAO in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and with Clichy in 2007 and 2008. He won the European Club Cup with NAO in 2003 and 2004 and was a member of Kramnik's support team for his match against Anand in 2008. Laurent has not played in Gibraltar before but his wife Almira Skripchenko will be making her second appearance. Laurent is also a very keen poker.
Cheparinov, Ivan	BUL	2660g	Born in 1986, Ivan is one of the young stars of Bulgarian chess. He won the national championship in 2006 but was perhaps more famous for being Veselin Topalov's second in his FIDE world championship tournament success in 2005 and his match defeat by Kramnik the following year. Ivan's rating moved into the 2700s in January 2008 but he was at the centre of controversy in the same year when he refused Nigel Short's handshake at Wijk aan Zee and was defaulted. The appeal committee overturned the original decision but Ivan lost the replay to the English grandmaster. Since then his rating has dipped slightly but he remains a formidable player and an expert theoretician.
Roiz, Michael	ISR	2657g	Born in Russia in 1983, Michael emigrated to Israel with his family when he was 11, becoming an IM in 1999 and a GM in 2003. He made a lot of progress between 2006 and 2008. In late 2007 he finished in a six-way tie for first place at the last Monarch Assurance tournament in the Isle of Man. In the same year he scored 6½/9 at the Gibtelecom Festival. At the 2007 Valjevo tournament he finished first, taking the scalp of Anatoly Karpov along the way. He has represented his country on a number of occasions and was in the silver-medal-winning Israeli team at the 2003 European Team Championships in Plovdiv. In the same event in 2007 he made a 2855 TPR on board three to take an individual silver medal. At the 2008 Dresden Olympiad he played a big part in winning the silver medal for his country, scoring 5½/9 on board two for a TPR of 2701. At the 2009 Gibtelecom Masters, he started with 3½/4 but drew the rest of his games to finish on 6½/10.
Fridman, Daniel	GER	2654g	Daniel was born in Mikhail Tal's home town - Riga in Latvia - in 1976. Since 2007 he has been registered for Germany, where he lives with his wife IM/WGM Anna Zatonskih. He became a grandmaster in 2001 but becoming a father a year or two ago seems to have improved his form as he then jumped up to 2600+ status after a long time in the 2500s. He is a newcomer to the Gibtelecom Masters in 2010, having had to miss the 2009 event, but has been a frequent visitor to Britain, playing in three Monarch Assurance Isle of Man tournaments, and the 2007 Liverpool Open which he won. He made 7/10 in the 2008 EU Championship, also played in Liverpool. He won the German Championship in 2008, having previously won the Latvian title in 1996. He went on to score 7/10 on board four for Germany in the 2008 Dresden Olympiad, which earned him the bronze medal for that board. He had previously represented Latvia in the 1996, 2004 and 2006 Olympiads.
Sandipan, Chanda	IND	2622g	Born in 1983, Chanda Sandipan recorded his final GM norm in the Isle of Man in 2003 - and I recall being the first person to step up to congratulate him. He has played five times at Gibraltar scoring 6½ the first three times (out of 10 in 2004 and 2006 and out of 9 in 2007), 7/10 in 2008 and 6/10 in 2009. In 2004 he was joint leader for six rounds until beaten by Pentala Harikrishna. In 2003 he finished first equal with Surya Ganguly in the mammoth (24-player all-play-all!) Indian Championship and repeated the feat (also tied with Ganguly) in 2004 and 2006 - but in each case he lost out to Ganguly on tie-break. Probably his most notable achievement of 2007 was a remarkable win against Sergey Tiviakov in the Canadian Open... Sandipan - Tiviakov: 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 b6 4 g3 Bb7 5 Bg2 Be7 6 0-0 0-0 7 d5 exd5 8 Nh4 c6 9 cxd5 Nxd5 10 Nf5 Nc7 11 e4 d5 12 Nc3 Bf6 13 exd5 cxd5 14 Bf4 Nba6 15 Re1 Qd7 16 Bh3 Ne6 17 Ne4 Bxb2 18 Rb1 Bc8 19 Ng5 Bf6 20 Qh5 Bxg5 21 Bxg5 Re8 22 Bf6 gxf6 23 Qh6 Nac5 24 Rbd1 Qb7 25 Rd4 Ne4 26 Rexe4 dxe4 27 Qxf6 Qc7 28 Nh6+ Kf8 29 Qh8+ Ke7 30 Nf5 mate.
Koneru, Humpy	IND	2614g	Born in 1987 in Gudivada, Andhra Pradesh, India, Humpy Koneru became the second woman ever to have reached the rating threshold of 2600 in 2007, at the age of 20. This makes her by most reckonings the second strongest woman player in chess history, and with a good chance of ultimately overtaking the women's chess legend Judit Polgar. Humpy became a grandmaster when she was only 15, three months younger than Judit Polgar. She won the World Girls Championship in 2001 but has yet to win the women's world championship - it is surely only a matter of time. Humpy played regularly in British events in her teens, winning the British Women's Championship in 2000 and 2002 (when it was still open to Commonwealth citizens). One of her best results in 2009 was first prize in the FIDE Women's Grand Prix tournament in Istanbul in May, when she headed a formidable field which included two former women's world champions, Maia Chiburdanidze and Antoaneta Stefanova, plus Pia Cramling and Chinese stars Hou Yifan and Zhao Xue. 2010 will be her first visit to the Gibtelecom Masters and she will start as the hot favourite to win the women's prize, as well as being a leading contender for the overall first prize.
Edouard, Romain	FRA	2608g	Born in 1990, Romain is one of the new crop of excellent young French chessplayers. His first notable success was winning the 2006 European Under-16 Championship. He has started zooming up the rating list in the last couple of years, passing 2500 in January 2008 and 2600 on the September 2009 list. His big recent success was in July 2009 when he won the Andorran Open ahead of a good number of GMs. He scored 6/10 in the 2008 European Union Championship in Liverpool. 2010 will be his first Gibtelecom Masters. Before then, he will be representing France in the European Team Championship in Novi Sad in October 2009.
Istratescu, Andrei	ROU	2607g	Born in 1975, Andrei Istratescu first reached the 2600 level in 2002, lost it in the following couple of years but has since reasserted himself above that threshold. He has played in six Olympiads and three European Team Championships for Romania; he was Romanian Champion in 1992. Andrei has his own website - http://www.andreiistratescu.ro/. In 2005 he played a match against Anatoly Karpov, losing the four-game standardplay component by 1½-2½ and the rapidplay component by ½-3½ - but it included one win at standardplay. He has coached the French national team and written for many chess magazines and websites. He is head teacher at the online International Chess School (ICS - http://www.chessmasterschool.com/
Lopez Martinez, Josep Manuel	ESP	2593g	Josep Manuel was born in Barcelona in 1980. In 2006/7 he increased his rating by 100 points and qualified for the GM title in 2007. He represented Spain on board three in the 2005 European Team Championship. He has a positional style and favours the Queen's Gambit, the Sicilian and the Ruy Lopez. He won the Spanish Junior Championship in 1999 and 2000 and finished second in the Spanish Championship proper in 2005 and 2007, losing to Miguel Illescas on both occasions. He made his Gibraltar debut in 2009, scoring 6½/10. He drew with eventual winner Peter Svidler and Alexander Beliavsky, and beat 2651-rated Ferenc Berkes of Hungary. On the January 2010 rating list, Josep Manuel is the Spanish no.4, behind Alexei Shirov, Paco Vallejo Pons and Miguel Illescas.
Golod, Vitali	ISR	2591g	Born in 1971 in Ukraine, Vitali won the Ukrainian Championship in 1991 just before he emigrated to Israel. He reached his peak FIDE rating of 2606 on the January and April 2008 lists. In 2007 he was one of six players who finished first at the final Monarch Assurance Isle of Man tournament, defeating the two highest rated players in the field (Krasenkow and Areshchenko). He scored 6½/10 at the 2009 Gibtelecom Masters, starting with 3½/4 but losing to Hikaru Nakamura in round eight.
Hou Yifan	CHN	2590g	Born on 27 February 1994 in Xinghua, China, Hou Yifan is quite simply one of the most remarkable chess prodigies in the history of our game. She was already scoring 2200+ rating performances at the age of nine and progressed so rapidly that she became Chinese Women's Champion aged only 13. In 2008 she qualified as a full grandmaster at the age of 14 years 6 months - nearly a year younger than Judit Polgar (who, it must be remembered, beat Bobby Fischer's age record when she qualified as a GM aged 15 years 4 months in 1991). In the last two years Hou Yifan has competed alongside seasoned adult grandmasters in major events and has already achieved many successes, too numerous to list here. In 2007 she represented China in a match against the UK in Liverpool, making a TPR of 2540 and winning a game against GM Nick Pert. At the 2008 Corus B event in Wijk aan Zee she won a game against former world championship runner-up Nigel Short. Also in 2008 she reached the final match of the Women's World Championship, losing to Alexandra Kosteniuk of Russia. This will be Hou's first appearance in the Gibraltar Masters, where she will renew her rivalry with reigning Women's World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk and also Humpy Koneru of India, currently one of only two women (the other is Judit Polgar) to have a higher rating.
Ghaem Maghami, Ehsan	IRI	2589g	Born in 1982, Ehsan Ghaem Maghami is Iran's leading grandmaster. He was awarded the title in 2000, aged only 18. In the same year he won the Iranian Championship for the first time. In 2004 he made a great start in the world knock-out championship, beating Rafael Vaganian 2-0 before going out to eventual winner Rustam Kasimdzhanov. The same year he played in the Monarch Assurance Isle of Man International and won a very tournament on tie-break with 7/9. With his big smile and amiable personality, he was a popular winner and it will be good to see him again in Gibraltar in 2010 - his first visit to the rock.
Gopal, Geetha Narayanan	IND	2584g	Born in 1989, GN Gopal (as he is usually known) made his mark as a teenager. He was not even an IM in 2006 when he became the champion of Kerala, but in the summer of 2007 he chalked up his second GM norm and then completed his third at the Asian Zonal at Dhaka in August. His grandmaster title was ratified in November 2007. In the FIDE World Cup in Siberia in November, he had a tremendous tussle with former FIDE champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov and only lost a blitz playoff after four games had been drawn. So 2007 was an eventful year for Gopal. He has played just once at Gibraltar but did extremely well, just a whisker away from tying for first with Bu Xiangzhi and Hikaru Nakamura in 2008 when he just failed to beat Viorel Bologan in the final round and finished on 7½/10.
Al Modiahki, Mohamad	QAT	2571g	Mohamad, born 1974, is probably better known as the husband of former women's world champion Zhu Chen, but that is rather unfair because he is a grandmaster in his own right with a higher rating than Zhu. Success at the 2001 Tehran zonal took him to the FIDE world championship where he lost to Judit Polgar in the first round. His results greatly improved in 2003 and he soon completed his qualification for the grandmaster title. Following his 6½/9 at Gibraltar 2007, in the summer of 2007 he scored a creditable 7½/11 in the Biel Open. He also played in Gibraltar in 2008, scoring 6/10.
Agdestein, Simen	NOR	2570g	The next time someone tries to tell you that chessplayers are 'geeks' or 'nerds', tell them about Simen Agdestein, chess grandmaster - and international footballer. Simen, aged 40, has won the Norwegian chess championship no fewer than seven times, becoming an IM at 16 and a grandmaster at 18. He finished second at the 1986 World Junior Championship (ahead of the current world champion Vishy Anand) and has been rated above 2600. He won an Olympiad individual gold in 1982, aged 15. He played soccer for Lyn Oslo and made several appearances for Norway at a time when they getting good. These days he coaches chess and soccer at an academy in Norway and takes large groups of young chessplayers to various events - as at the 2008 Gibraltar Masters. His rivals should be warned that his coaching/organising responsibilities do not seem to affect his play. When he took a large party of young Norwegians to the very strong 2003 Monarch Assurance event, he went on to win the competition. You may have heard of one of Simen's most promising pupils - Magnus Carlsen. Simen also showed his remarkable versatility by appearing in Norwegian TV's version of the popular BBC TV show Strictly Come Dancing. Simen has played twice in the Gibtelecom Masters, scoring 5½/10 in 2003 and 5½/9 in 2008. Whethere he is playing or not, he still comes along to act as coach and supervisor to the large group of Norwegian youngsters who always attend the festival.
Moradi Abadi, Elshan	IRI	2562g	Born in 1985, he won the 2001 Iranian Championship with 10/11 ahead of the better-known Ehsan Ghaem Maghami (who is also playing in Gibraltar). As well as being a prodigious chess talent, Elshan has a degree in chemical engineering. In 2006 he was one of the Iranian team, coached by Nigel Short, which took bronze in the Asian Team Championship.
Ikonnikov, Vyacheslav	RUS	2560g	Born in 1966, Vyacheslav is a strong but low-profile Russian GM who has played in a handful of British tournaments (two Monarch Assurance events, scoring 6/9 in 2005 and 4½/9 in 2006) plus one Hastings (6½/9, half a point behind the joint winners in 2006/7). He plies his trade mainly in the Netherlands and other West European countries.
Lenderman, Alex	USA	2560(g)	Born in 1989, Alex achieved all three required GM norms in little more than a month in the summer of 2009 though his title has not yet been ratified. He was the 2006 World Under-16 Champion. He is clearly one of the brightest talents in US chess.
Lemos Sarro, Damian	ARG	2556g	Born in 1990 in Buenos Aires, Damian qualified for the IM title in 2006 aged 15 - the youngest Argentinian to do so - and in October 2008 completed his qualification for the GM title - again, he was the youngest native-born Argentinian to reach that level. He is currently ranked number five in Argentina. In a recent interview he said that his favourite language was English and his favourite book Alexei Shirov's Fire on Board. He is a friend of Magnus Carlsen and was born in the same year (which was a particularly fruitful one for brilliant young players - Karyakin, Vachier-Lagrave and Howell were all products of the vintage 1990 harvest). His Internet Chess Club handle is 'Blitz-King', which is no exaggeration: his blitz rating is somewhere in excess of 3200. He is a fan of San Lorenzo de Almagro Football Club in Buenos Aires - and sent me a photo of him wearing their colours. He recently moved to Spain to further his chess career. He finished a very good second equal at the 2009 Porto Mannu Open, half a point behind the Gibtelecom Festival's very own favourite chessplayer and ace commentator GM Stuart Conquest!
Malakhatko, Vadim	BEL	2549g	Originally from Ukraine, Vadim now plays under the Belgian flag. He was born in 1977 and is married to Anna Zozulia who, like him, was from Ukraine but is now Belgian-registered. They play at a great many international opens and, between rounds, are often to be seen playing cards with Mikhail Golubev, Masha Klinova and others. Vadim played at the last three Monarch Assurance events, scoring 5½, 6 and 5½ out of 9.
Stefanova, Antoaneta	BUL	2545g	Antoaneta Stefanova (known to her friends as 'Eti') is one of the world's best known and strongest women players, with a peak rating of 2560 which has been bettered only by a handful of women players. Born in 1979, she won 1989 World Girls' Under-10 Championship in 1989. In 2002 she won the European Women's Championship, became a full grandmaster in 2003 and won the women's world championship in Kalmykia in 2004. Like Judit Polgar and Pia Cramling, she has played most of her chess against top male players, representing Bulgarian in the open section of the Olympiad. In 2008 she won the North Urals Cup ahead of women's world champion Xu Yuhua, 2622-rated Humpy Koneru and other leading women players. Later in 2008 she reached the quarter-final of the women's world championship where she lost to Pia Cramling. Eti has played four times at the Gibtelecom Masters. In 2004 she scored 5½/10. In 2006 she scored 6½/10, sharing the main women's prize with Zhu Chen and Natalia Zhukova. In 2007 she scored 6/9, sharing the main women's prize with Jovanka Houska. In 2008 she started the tournament with 4/4, including wins against Mikhail Gurevich, Tigran Petrosian and Varuzhan Akobian. She finished with 6½/10, once again sharing the main women's prize (this time with Dronavalli Harika, Viktorija Cmilyte and Ketevan Arakhamia).
Bhat, Vinay S	USA	2540g	Born in 1984 in Santa Clara, California, Vinay Subramanya Bhat became a US National Master aged only ten and went on to qualify as an IM at 16 and a GM at 24. Vinay can tell you more about himself at his blog, called 'An Unemployed Fellow'.
Yu Shaoteng	CHN	2529g	Born in 1979, Yu became China's 17th grandmaster in 2004. He represented his country in the 1998 Elista Olympiad and also in the Asian Team Championship. He is the personal trainer of top Chinese woman player Hou Yifan and this will be his principal role in Gibraltar.
Cramling, Pia	SWE	2528g	As at April 2009, Pia Cramling is ranked at number eight woman player in the world and she has rarely been out of the top ten women players in the past 20 years. She was a frequent competitor at the Lloyds Bank Masters tournament in London and qualified for the full IM title in 1983 aged 20. Shortly after, at Biel 1984, she beat Viktor Korchnoi, then almost at the height of his powers. She went on to qualify for the full GM title in 1992. Born in Stockholm, she married Juan Manuel Bellón some years ago and now lives in Fuengirola on the Costa del Sol with him and their daughter Ana. She was European Women's Champion in 2003 and won the 2007 MonRoi Women's Grand Prix in Montreal. in late 2008 she reached the semi-finals of the women's world championship only to be eliminated by the eventual winner Alexandra Kosteniuk. 2009 Gibtelecom result: 7/10, 7th=. This was the top women's score (though Nana Dzagnidze took the main prize on tie-break)
Speelman, Jon	ENG	2525g	It is almost impossible to summarise Jon's distinguished career in 200 words or so, but I'll have a go... London-born in 1956, Oxford-educated, IM title in 1978, GM in 1980, British Champion three times, twice winner of the Hastings Premier, winner of the Lloyds Bank Masters 1993, world championship candidate 1988 (beat Seirawan, Short, lost to Timman in the semi-finals), again in 1991 (only lost to eventual title challenger Short on a rapidplay tie-break), 14 successive Olympiads between 1980 and 2006 (winning three team silvers, one team bronze and one individual silver on board five in 1986), nine European Team Championships (including one team gold in 1997 and two team bronzes), 'plus'-scores against most of his English rivals, one of only three British players ever to have reached the top five in the world rating list... and I've probably not mentioned a stack of other achievements. As well as a player, Jon is a prolific chess writer and broadcaster, with a daily column in The Independent and a weekly one in The Observer (and - I cannot resist the opportunity for a plug - a column on the endgame in British Chess Magazine). One of the friendliest and most approachable of men, Jon wears his distinction very lightly. Described himself as a 'grizzled old hacker' in his chess autobiography but of course that doesn't do him anything like justice. He has played in all seven Gibtelecom Masters tournaments to date. His 'victims on the Rock' include Viktor Bologan, Emil Sutovsky, Mikhail Gurevich, Viktor Mikhalevski, Jim Plaskett and Juan Bellón (twice).
Kosteniuk, Alexandra	RUS	2523g	Born in 1984 in Perm, Alexandra is the reigning Women's World Champion. Alexandra has had a very high profile career for a number of years, combining professional chess with modelling, appearing in movies and becoming the 'face' for a number of luxury products in advertising campaigns. She has often been compared to the tennis star Anna Kournikova, but the big difference is that Alexandra has been vastly more successful in her chosen sport, particularly in knock-out matchplay competitions at which she excels. The first such event was the 2001 Women's World Championship where she was narrowly defeated by China's Zhu Chen in a pulsating final match which reflected great credit on both players and women's chess in general. In 2004 Alexandra won the European Women's Championship, in 2005 she won the Russian Women's Championship, in 2006 and 2007 the Women's Chess960 ("Fischer random") World Championship and then in 2008 she won the Women's World Championship in Nalchik, beating Chinese prodigy Hou Yifan in the final. She has played several times in Britain - twice in the Isle of Man and once at Hastings, plus appearances in the 4NCL and charity/promotional events. She lives in South Florida, USA, with her husband (and manager) Diego Garcia and their two-year-old daughter Francesca. She has a very high-profile website, http://www.kosteniuk.com/, which is run by her husband. Read what Alexandra says about the Gibtelecom Festival.
Guliyev, Namig	AZE	2516g	Born in 1974. Has a peak rating of 2590. Played for Azerbaijan on board three in the 2006 Olympiad.
Hoffmann, Michael	GER	2508g	Born in 1970 in Bochum, so Michael comes from the same region of Germany (North Rhine/Westfalia) as Sebastian Siebrecht (who is also playing in Gibraltar). Michael became an IM in 1991 and a GM in 2006, though it was not until 2009 that he acquired the necessary 2500 rating to get the title. In his youth he won the German U15 and U17 championship titles. He plays for Solingen SG in the Bundesliga. Michael is a lawyer by profession.
Dzagnidze, Nana	GEO	2506g	Born in 1987, Nana won the World Girls Under-10 Championship in 1997, and the World Girls Under 20 Championship in 2003, no fewer than 2 points clear of the field. She has been board two for Georgia in the last three Olympiads. She won the team silver medal in the 2005 European Women's Team Championship and an individual board four gold medal in the 2007 event. 2008 was a wonderful year for Nana: she qualified as a full grandmaster and was board two for Georgia when they reclaimed the Women's Olympiad team gold medal in Dresden. She scored an excellent 7/10 on board two. 2009 started very well, too. She started it by scoring an excellent 7/10 to take the Gibtelecom Masters women's prize of £6,000 with a TPR of 2675. Along the way she took the scalp of 2696-rated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and 2651-rated Ferenc Berkes. On the April 2009 FIDE list she advanced to fifth highest rated woman player in the world.
Javakhishvili, Lela	GEO	2493m	Born in 1984 - in fact, on the very same day as women's world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk who also plays in Gibraltar. Lela (and Alexandra) also share a birthday with Pia Cramling, Tony Miles and William Shakespeare. If you're English, you'll probably have worked out by now that I'm talking about 23 April - St George's Day - which seems rather apt for a Georgian. St George is the patron saint of Georgia as well as England; however, the Georgians celebrate their national day on 26 May. Lela has played on board three for her country at the last three Olympiads. At the 2008 Olympiad in Dresden, they won the gold medals. At the 2006 Olympiad she won the bronze medal for the best performance on board three. At the 2009 European Team Championship, she won team silver, but team gold on board two with a GM-level performance (TPR 2599). She is clearly in excellent form.
Cmilyte, Viktorija	LTU	2489m	Viktorija, born in Lithuania in 1983, had some early successes in junior events, winning the European Under-10 Girls in 1993 and the World Under-12 Girls title in 1995. But that was just for starters: in 2000, aged only 16 and rated 2329, she tied first for the full Lithuanian Championship, winning the title on tie-break from three GMs and two IMs. She finished second (to Jovanka Houska) in the European Under-20 Girls Championship. In 2005 she once again finished first equal in the Lithuanian Championship, taking the title on tie-break from Sarunas Sulskis. In August 2007 she won the European Women's Rapidplay Championship. She has an enviable record against reigning Women's World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk, having eliminated her in the early stages of the 2004 and 2006 world championships - they may renew their rivalry at the 2010 Gibtelecom Masters! In 2009 she scored 6½/10 and in 2008 6½/10 for a TPR of 2578 and a GM norm.
Harika, Dronavalli	IND	2471m	Harika was born in January 1991, so will be 19 by the time of the 2010 Gibtelecom Chess Festival, but she has almost come to be regarded as a veteran, with a string of World, Asian and Indian titles to her name. She became a woman grandmaster when only 14. She comes from Gntur (Anhdra Pradesh). She won the 2004 world under-14 girls championship in Greece and the 2006 world girls youth championship. On the July 2009 world top 20 girls rating list she was placed sixth and has been as high as third. She has represented India at three Women's Olympiads and was on board one at the 2008 Dresden Olympiad.
Arakhamia, Ketevan	SCO	2470g	Born in 1968, Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant (to give her her full name - she is known familiarly as 'Keti') has enjoyed a glittering string of successes in her chess career, starting with the World Girls Championship which she won in 1986. In team chess she represented USSR and Georgia until 2008 and won medals with them on many occasions. In 1990 she scored a remarkable 12/12 for the USSR at the Novi Sad Olympiad (although it only brought her a team silver to go with her individual gold). She has gone on to win one team gold in the European Championship and two team golds in later Olympiads. Since marrying Scottish FM Jonathan Grant and moving to Edinburgh, she has won the full Scottish Championship and four British Women's Championship titles. In 2006 she came close to becoming the first woman player to win the full British title, finishing in clear second place ahead of a posse of English GMs and only half a point behind the winner, Jonathan Rowson. In the UK versus China match in September 2007, she made the British team's best score of 4/6. Shortly after that, she clinched her second GM norm at a tournament in Calvia, Mallorca. She scored 6/10 in the 2008 EU Championship in Liverpool, narrowly missing another GM norm. She then represented Scotland for the first time at the 2008 Dresden Olympiad where she scored her third and final GM norm. She was awarded the GM title when her rating went over 2500 on the January 2009 list and she is the first woman registered for a UK chess federation to have been awarded this title. Keti has played at all Gibtelecom Festivals bar the first one. In 2007 she beat GM Hikaru Nakamura (then reigning US Champion) in round one in a game which went to 100 moves. The 2008 Gibtelecom Masters tournament was Keti's first as a Scottish-registered player and she scored 6½/10 to share the main women's prize. In 2009 she scored 6/10. Keti is a role model for all chessplayers: her charming and dignified manner belies a tough, determined fighter at the board.
Zhu Chen	QAT	2470g	Women's world champion in 2001, Zhu Chen, born in 1976, struck a blow for women when she eliminated her opposite number, the FIDE (open) world champion, Ruslan Ponomariov, in the first round of the FIDE Grand Prix in Dubai in 2002. World Girls Under-20 Champion in 1994 and 1996. Now plays under the Qatari flag alongside her husband Mohamad Al Modiahki. Joint winner of the North Urals Cup in Krasnoturinsk ahead of a very strong women's field in the summer of 2007.
Siebrecht, Sebastian	GER	2468g	Born in 1973 in Herdecke, Sebastian became an IM in 1996 and a grandmaster in 2008. Amongst his best achievements are four North Rhine/Westphalia Championship titles and a 9/9 clean score in an open in Naujac sur Mer in 2001; amongst his worst, only drawing with your humble webmaster in a tournament in Cardiff in 1997 (sorry, Sebastian, I could not resist). At 6ft 7½in (2.02 metres) tall, he is one of the tallest grandmasters in the world and played basketball for the North Rhine/Westphalia region. This will be Sebastian's first tournament in Gibraltar. He played in the old Monarch Assurance tournament in the Isle of Man in 2006 and in Cardiff in 1997. Sebastian runs an event agency and is into all kinds of sport - the last time I contacted him, he told me he was about to take part in his first triathlon. He is a very nice guy and I look forward to seeing his big smile in Gibraltar in 2010.
Zatonskih, Anna	USA	2466m	Anna was born in Mariupol, Ukraine, in 1978 and learnt chess from two keen chessplaying parents but she has been registered as a USA player since 2003. She holds both WGM and IM titles. She has played in the last five Women's Olympiads, twice for Ukraine and three times for the USA, winning the team silver medal at the 2004 Calvia Olympiad. She won the 2001 and 2002 Ukrainian Women's Championships and the 2006, 2008 and 2009 US Women's Championships. Anna has played three times in the Isle of Man, which she obviously enjoys as she has defeated four strong male GMs on her visits to the island. Anna played in the 2009 Gibtelecom Masters, scoring 6½/10 (losing only to 2600+ rated GMs and just missing out on the top female prize). She and her husband Daniel Fridman live in Germany. They are playing together in the Gibtelecom Masters for the first time in 2010. Daniel and Anna's daughter is now 2½ and they are planning for her to make her debut in the 2012 Gibtelecom Masters!
Zhukova, Natalia	UKR	2462wg	Born in 1979, Natalia has been the top Ukrainian women's player for a number of years, capping her achievement with both team and individual (board one) gold at the 2006 Turin Olympiad. It was her fifth appearance on board one in an Olympiad and her score of 7½/10 was good enough to earn her a full grandmaster norm. Natalia scored a highly creditable 6½/10 at her one appearance in Gibraltar in 2006, starting with a draw against Alexei Shirov. 2007 was a significant year for her as she gave birth to her daughter Masha in March (she is married to super-GM Alexander Grischuk).
Cori Tello, Jorge Moises	PER	2462m	Born in 1995(!), Jorge is an exceptionally gifted 14-year-boy from Peru. He and his sister Deysi Estela (also playing in Gibraltar) are both world champions, having won junior titles at the 2009 World Youth Championships in Turkey. Jorge won the Under-14 world title. Their twin victories caused a sensation in Peru, His rating doesn't appear on the January 2010 list as yet, presumably because his national federation hasn't stumped up their FIDE affiliation fee yet - particularly frustrating for Jorge as he has all three GM norms and just needs a 2500 rating to get his title.
Skripchenko, Almira	FRA	2456m	Almira is both a WGM and IM and was born in Moldova (then part of the Soviet Union) on 17 February 1976. Her parents were both chess teachers and she became World Under 16 Girls' Champion in 1992. She was world bronze medalist in the under 18 category in 1993 and won the European Women's Championship in 2001. Twice a quarter-finalist in the Women's World championship (2000 and 2001), she has won the French women's national title three times (2004, 2005 and 2006). She won the strong women's tournament in Krasnoturinsk in 2004 and another women's tournament in Biel in 2005. She has won the French Team Championship with NAO in 2002 and 2003, and with Clichy in 2007 and 2008. She won the Women's European Club Cup with "Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo" in 2007 and 2008, acting as captain as well as player. She has played at Gibraltar once before, in 2005, when she made 6/10 to tie with four others for the main women's prize. Since 2008 she has represented the "Winamax" team at major poker tournaments; her handle as a poker player is Chessbaby. She is married to Laurent Fressinet and they have a daughter who is two years four months old (as at June 2009); Almira says that her daughter 'already knows all the chess pieces'.
Krush, Irina	USA	2455m	Born in 1983 in Odessa, Irina emigrated to New York with her parents when she was five, the same age at which she learnt to play chess. Aged only 14, she won her first US Women's Championship, and she achieved world fame in 1999 when she played a big part in the 'Kasparov versus The World' match, suggesting a novelty that Kasparov later admitted caused him to lose control of the game. She has played in several British events from 1999 onwards, including the Hastings Premier (twice), Hampstead, York, Hastings, Oakham, Lichfield. Irina has also turned out for Guildford-ADC in the 4NCL. Irina is a very formidable player who has proved repeatedly that she is afraid of no-one. At the 2007 Gibtelecom Masters, she started with a win against 2700-rated reigning Gibtelecom champion Vladimir Akopian and later in the same event she defeated Viktor Korchnoi in 27 moves with Black. She has one GM norm to her name. In 2007 she repeated her early success in the US Women's Championship but was edged out by Anna Zatonskih in a controversial Armageddon game at the 2008 US event. In 2009 she scored 6½/10 in the Gibtelecom Masters, defeating the strong Indian GM Chanda Sandipan along the way. In the very strong 2009 US Championship she defeated two top notch GMs, Boris Gulko and Julio Becerra.
Boskovic, Drasko	SRB	2454m	Born in 1982.
Bellón Lopez, Juan Manuel	ESP	2440g	The Valencia-born grandmaster won the Spanish championship when he was only 19 in 1969 (and has won it again four more times). He was awarded the grandmaster title in 1979. He has long been known for his original and creative play. One of the more remarkable things about Juan Manuel is that he is said not to have offered a draw since 1978! Read more on the subject here. 57 years old, he is married to Pia Cramling and they come to the tournament with their little daughter Ana Cramling-Bellon - who has been to the Gibraltar tournament every year of her life so far!. 2009 result: 6½/10, 12th=.
Hirneise, Tobias	GER	2421m	Born in 1989 (or 1990 - FIDE lists both!). Was awarded his IM title in June 2009 based on performances in Pardubice 2008, the Austrian League 2008/9 and the 2009 Neckar Open.
Nezad, Husein Aziz	QAT	2408m	Born in 1985, Husein Aziz Nezad has played twice in Gibraltar before. In 2005 he scored 5½/10 and in 2009 6½/10 when, after a poor start against UK amateur players, he recovered to draw games with GMs Berg and Cramling and also beat the strong Indian GM Chanda Sandipan.
Karavade, Eesha	IND	2405wg	Eesha was born in 1987 and first came to attention in Europe when she won the British Girls' Under 14 Championship in 2000. From Pune, she became India's eighth WGM aged 17 in 2005. She finished third in the World Girls Championship in 2004. She hasn't played in Gibraltar before. At the Asian Women's Championship held in the Phillippines in May 2009 she finished 5th= ahead of such strong players as Tania Sachdev and former world champion Zhu Chen.
Tania, Sachdev	IND	2398m	Born in Delhi in 1986, Sachdev Tania is one of the leading women players in India at a time when chess goes from strength to strength in that country. She was the 2007 Asian Women's Champion and in November 2007 she won the Indian Women's National A Championship title for the second year running, qualifying her for a place in the Indian women's Olympiad team for 2008 (she played on board two). She became a woman grandmaster in 2003 at one of the Budapest First Saturday events. Tania played in Gibraltar in 2007 scoring 5/9; she started with a draw against Ukrainian prodigy Yuri Kuzubov and finished with another against the redoubtable Viktor Korchnoi. In Gibraltar in 2009 she finished on 6/10. In 1994 she collected five trophies at the British Championship, having won the British Under 9, British Under 9 Girls, British Under 10, British Under 10 Girls and British Under 11 Girls titles. As a seven-year-old, her hands could not grasp all five trophies simultaneously!
Kharous, Ernest	RUS	2382m	Born in 1960. Has played a few tournaments in Ekaterinburg in the last few years and had his IM title confirmed at the FIDE Congress in Dresden in 2008. Scored 5½/10 at the 2009 Gibtelecom Masters.
Cori Tello, Deysi Estela	PER	2374wg	Born in 1993, Deysi is the elder sister of Jorge (b. 1995), who is on the verge of his grandmaster title and the current world under-14 champion. But Deysi is also a world champion, having won the Girls Under-16 title in Turkey while her brother was winning the Under-14 championship. The two children have caused a sensation in Peru, where the government and local sponsors have bought a house for them and their family.
Solomon, Kenny	RSA	2368m	Kenny shared the 2003 South African Chess Championship title with Watu Kobese. He has represented South Africa at six Olympiads since 1998. He played in the 2007 Gibtelecom Masters, scoring 5/9 and made the same score (out of 10) in 2009.
Calzetta Ruiz, Mónica	ESP	2359wg	Mónica Calzetta Ruiz was born in 1972. She is a seven-times winner of the Spanish Women's Championship and is the current (2009) holder of the title. She has represented her country eight times at Olympiads in total (on board one at the last five Olympiads) and in five European Team Championships. She has played in the Gibtelecom Masters twice before, scoring 5½/10 in both 2005 and 2009, including draws versus Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant and Jon Speelman.
Saravanan, Venkat	IND	2356m	Born in 1971. The photo shows Venkat playing in the 2002 British Championship in Torquay where he started with a win against GM John Emms and finished on 5½/11. Was originally down to be playing at the 2008 Gibtelecom Festival but in the end didn't play.