Something innovative is happening in chess at the FIDE World Chess Can-didates’ Tour-nament in London. We can witness the primetime display of the games in progress on mobile tablets made available to the paying audience; or alternatively, we can follow each move on computer screens from the absolute comfort of our living rooms at home.
What a remarkable feature to be added to the oldest board game known to man!
The goal is to make the software platform a standard for chess entertainment broadcasting and convert chess into an exciting spectator sport. The technology was conceived by AGON, FIDE’s commercial partner responsible for marketing and commercialising the World Chess Championship Cycle. It represents an effort to make chess more accessible and engaging and to create an attractive platform for marketing partners to broadcast their association with chess.
The tablets offer a close-up video of the players, the current state of play on the boards, supplemented by analytical, statistical and behavioural analysis of the positions and lively audio exegesis by moderators commenting nearby, according to a press release issued by FIDE and AGON and captioned: ‘Making the invisible visible’.
Norway’s Magnus Carlsen and Armenia’s Levon Aronian are tied on five points each after eight rounds in the London Candidates’ elimination championship cycle. Vladimir Kramnik of Russia is a full point behind the leaders.
The eight contestants would be playing 14 games, and are among the best in the world. In the double round-robin contest, each player would face his opponent once with the white pieces, and alternatively with the black pieces. Carlsen and Aronian have completed their games with both ending in draws.
News just streaming on the internet has informed chess players that Carlsen is now the sole leader of the Candidates tournament after the ninth round. He drew his game with Kramnik, but co-leader Aronian lost to an emerging Boris Gelfand from Israel.
Committing a rare blunder, Aronian allowed Gelfand to win material and take the game. Carlsen is the highest ranked contestant in the tournament at ELO 2872, and predictably was favoured to surge ahead. Five games remain to be played.
In local news, the Guyana Chess Federation will host a one-day chess tournament at the University of Guyana, Tain Campus in Berbice in April. A strong Georgetown contingent is expected to participate.
This game was played on Sunday, March 24 during the eighth round of the Candidates chess tournament held in London to determine a challenger for world champion Viswanathan Anand. Gelfand outplays his opponent Teimour Radjabov and scored his first win of the tournament. Eight of the finest players on the planet are competing for the coveted first place.
London
FIDE Candidates (8)
2013.03.24
Radjabov, Teimour Gelfand, Boris
1. Nf3 c5 2. c4 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 e6 6. g3 Qb6 7. Nb3 Ne5 8. e4 Bb4 9. Qe2 d6 10. f4 Nc6 11. Be3 Bxc3 12. bxc3 Qc7 13. Bg2 e5 14. c5 b6 15. cxd6 Qxd6 16. O-O O-O 17. f5 Rd8 18. Rfd1 Qa3 19. Rxd8 Nxd8 20. Bg5 Ba6 21. Qd2 Qe7 22. Rd1 Nb7 23. Bf3 Rd8 24. Qc1 Rxd1 25. Bxd1 Nd6 26. Bxf6 gxf6 27. Qe3 Qc7 28. a4 Qd7 29. a5 Nxe4 30. Bc2 Qb5 31. Qf3 Ng5 32. Qg2 bxa5
White resigns. 0-1
0-1
