Chess news—24 November 2007

World Chess Cup 2007

The World Chess Cup will take place from Nov 24 to Dec 17 in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. The 128 players qualified for the World Cup will play a Knockout System: 2 games and tie-breaks if needed. The final round will be played over 4 games and tie-breaks if needed. Time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, plus 30 minutes to finish, with an increment of 30 seconds since move 1. Total prize fund is 1,600,000 US Dollars. The winner will get 120,000 USD.

The winner of the 2007 World Cup will go on to play GM Veselin Topalov in 2008. The winner of that match will play, in 2009, the winner of the 2008 match between Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik.

From ICC Weekly Newsletter Vol. II Issue XLIV

Kasparov Arrested in Moscow—24 November 2007

Russian police have detained opposition leader and former world chess champion Garry Kasparov and other critics of President Putin at a rally in Moscow organized by Mr Kasparov's Other Russia coalition. About 3,000 protesters attended, including for the first time the leader of one of the mainstream liberal parties—a sign that the movement is growing.

From ChessBase News

In U.S. Chess League Final, It's Boston vs. Dallas—23 November 2007

The finals of the United States Chess League were set earlier this week when Dallas beat Miami 3.5-0.5 to move into the finals. Dallas will face Boston, who knocked off New York, 2.5-1.5, last week. The final match is Wednesday. Boston vs. New York game replay PGN

From Gambit: The New York Times Chess Blog

Ivanchuk wins World Blitz Championship, Anand second—22 November 2007

The first half of the Blitz Final had seen Vassily Ivanchuk in the lead, with Vishy Anand trailing two points behind in sixth place. The reigning World Champion, who said he had had a "bad day," came to the second half with new spirits, winning his first four games (against Carlsen, Morozevich, Shirov and Leko—the last as a revenge for a first-round loss). By round 29 Anand had caught Ivanchuk, and one round before the end both were still leading the field, each with 24.5 points, a point and a half ahead of the others. Everything was to be decided on the final game, in which the world's highest ranked player had white, against the world's second highest player (how much more exciting can it get?). PGN

From ChessBase News