Chess Room Newsletter #474

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1) Mechanics Institute Chess Club News
2) London Chess Classic
3) FIDE Drug Testing
4) Here and There
5) 2010 US Masters by Michael Bacon

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The Mechanics Institute will be open regular hours during the holiday season with the following exceptions:

Thursday, December 24, the Mechanics' will close at 3pm. The Institute will be closed all day December 25, 26 and 27. Thursday, December 31, the Mechanics' will close at 3pm. The Institute will be closed all day on January 1 but will reopen January 2.

NM Valdemars (Val) Zemitis, who has been a key supporter of chess for over 60 years, has just finished a massive two-volume encyclopedia on Latvian chess players which includes not only ethnic Latvians but also those who lived there (Nimzovitch and Tal to name two). This project took the better part of a decade.

Arthur Ismakov continued his string of successes in the Mechanics' Wednesday Night Blitz series, winning the event held December 16 with an undefeated 10 from 11. Second place finisher Yefim Bukh, one of two players to draw Ismakov, was a point back with Carlos d'Avila third at 8.

The residents of the Chess House on the Richmond/El Cerrito border have been writing up a storm for Chess Life Online the past month. Go http://main.uschess.org/content/view/9955/565 to read the words of wisdom from House elder GM Jesse Kraai. IM Sam Shankland recounts his European adventures at http://main.uschess.org/content/view/9919/565 while GM Josh Friedel gives an insiders view of the World Cup at http://main.uschess.org/content/view/9892/562/. GM Vinay Bhat recounts a successful road trip to Spain at his blog at http://vbhat.wordpress.com/

Mechanics' Chess Director John Donaldson's book on former Canadian Chess Champion Frank Anderson was recently published by Moravian Press.

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The recent London Chess Classic, won by Magnus Carlsen and impressively organized by Malcolm Pein, was a rare top level tournament held in a Western European capital in recent years. An article written by Jonathan Clegg which ran in the Wall Street Journal on December 9 about the same time as the start of the event gives some interesting information on the financial structure at the top of the chess world. Here is an excerpt.

Although a group of private investors has agreed to sponsor the London Chess Classic, the purse of €100,000 ($148,520)—a record for a British tournament—is indicative of the sport's struggle to translate its popularity into cash.

Corporate sponsorship has proved elusive, while lucrative endorsement deals are rare, even for the sport's leading stars. Last year, Mr. Carlsen spent 200 days on the road playing and earned roughly $250,000 after expenses, his father says.

Those earnings will increase following his rise to the top of the rankings, but even for the world's leading player, it is clear chess can't compete with the riches on offer in mainstream sports. Even more galling for chess organizers, it now fails to generate the revenues of other "mind sports."

While the winner of this month's World Chess Cup will receive $120,000 in prize money, this year's World Series of Poker champion pocketed about $8.5 million."Chess has simply failed to tap into its enormous potential: We have too many people shooting ourselves in the foot, or in the head if you like, and we're not enough progressive enough as a sport," says Nigel Short, a former world championship challenger and current British No. 1.

He blames the International Chess Federation, known by its French acronym FIDE, for failing to leverage the sport's enormous global reach. With 158 member nations, FIDE is the second largest world-wide sporting organization after FIFA, the governing body of world football.

"At the grassroots level, chess is huge but on the top level it doesn't translate into anything," Mr. Short says. "There are hundreds of millions of chess players around the world, so the money's there, but FIDE has failed to put chess in the mainstream."

Go to http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703558004574582201557694042.html to read the rest of this article.

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FIDE has recently issued a meaty tome the size of a small phone book detailing the dos and don't of its drug testing policies which have been adapted from the IOC regulations. Below are the key points in a nutshell. The good news for mortals is that men under 2649 and women under 2449 are not part of FIDE's registered test pool.

5.5.1 FIDE shall identify a Registered Testing Pool of those Players who are required to comply with the whereabouts requirements of the International Standard for Testing, and shall publish the criteria for Players to be included in this Registered Testing Pool as well as a list of the Players meeting those criteria for the period in question. FIDE shall review and update as necessary its criteria for including Players in its Registered Testing Pool, and shall revise the membership of its Registered Testing Pool annually in accordance with the set criteria. Each Player in the Registered Testing Pool (a) shall advise FIDE of his/her whereabouts on a quarterly basis, in the manner set out in Article 11.3 of the International Standard for Testing; (b) shall update that information as necessary, in accordance with Article 11.4.2 of the International Standard for Testing, so that it remains accurate and complete at all times; and (c) shall make him/herself available for Testing at such whereabouts, in accordance with Article 11.4 of the International Standard for Testing. The ultimate responsibility for providing whereabouts information rests with each Player, however, it shall be the responsibility of each Member Association to use its best efforts to assist FIDE in obtaining whereabouts information as requested by FIDE.

• The following are Members of the FIDE Registered Testing Pool:
  
• The top male Players with the ELO rating over 2650 to a maximum of 10 players
  
• The top female Players with the ELO rating over 2450 with a maximum of 5 players
  
• Including the current male and female World Champions and the current male and female winners of the World Cup
  
• The FIDE Medical Commission can include any other Player participating at an International Event, by written notice to the NCF and the Player according to the provisions of the International Standards for Testing.

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Next year's World Championship match was signed in Sofia by FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and the President of the Bulgarian Chess Federation, Stefan Sergiev. Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov was present at the signing. The prize fund for the match is 2 million euros and the dates are 23 April (1st round) to 12 May 2010 (possible tie-breaks).

After the London Classic tournament the FIDE top-10 list looks as follows:
1. Carlsen 2809,6
2. Topalov 2805,1
3. Anand 2789,7
4. Kramnik 2787,5
5. Aronian 2781,3
6. Gelfand 2761,3
7. Gashimov 2758,8
8. Wang Yue 2751,1
9. Ivanchuk 2748,7
10. Mamedyarov 2741,3

Interestingly the only country with two players in the top ten is Azerbaijan!

Russia and Azerbaijan will be the highest rated squads in the World Team Championship that will be held January 4-13 in Bursa, Turkey. US Chess Online has a story on the American entry at its front page at www.uschess.org. The team, the youngest ever fielded by the United States, is sponsored by the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis and will consist of GMs Nakamura, Onischuk, Shulman, Akobian, Hess, Robson and captain IM Donaldson.

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2010 US Masters

It is the time of year when a chess player begins to consider tournaments he would like to attend next year. I was surprised, and elated, to learn the 2010 US Masters will be returning to Hendersonville, NC! I would like EVERY chess player to give strong consideration to attending this tournament! I say every player because there will also be a tournament for 'sub-masters', those who do not qualify for the US Masters proper, and also a 'sub-sub-masters' for the triple digit set! This will make it a real 'Chess Festival'! You can read the particulars here:
http://www.uschess.org/tlas/1937.tla
http://www.uschess.org/tlas/1938.tla
http://www.uschess.org/tlas/1939.tla

If you cannot make it to play in the tournament, be held March 13-21 ( 9 rounds), I urge you to consider a trip to the mountains as a spectator. You will enjoy 'rubbing shoulders' with the Masters, and I'm sure you will enjoy the visit!

I happened to live in Hendersonville when two previous US Masters, 2006 & 2007, were held in this beautiful mountain city. Both tournaments were exceptional events. I attended as a spectator and heard absolutely no derogatory comments concerning either tournament. As a spectator, I was able to talk with many players, particularly recalling a conversation with Victors Pupols, who came all the way from the Great Northwest. He said he did not care for large cities, and loved the mountains, so Hendersonville was the place to be!

The tournament will be directed by Kevin Hyde, now a lieutenant colonel, who has done tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is a fine man and one cannot find a better TD! His wife and children will be there to make it a family affair, ensuring everyone enjoys some down home 'Southern hospitality'. The tournament will be held in early spring, before the 'snowbirds' arrive, so the room rates are very reasonable, with chess players having run of the place. There is nothing like the cool, crisp mountain air!