Catching up with International Chess Events !

Lately i'm being busy promoting a new chess centre - NMCC and "forgot" to write about international chess tournament/match . For example the Kamsky-Topalov match, Linares - Super GM Tournament and Aeroflot Open which feature my favourite ASEAN player Wesley So.

In term of priority, local chess news will always be on top of my list because there's already a lot of brilliant chess site which cover international chess news compare to local news. However, being a chess maniac , i couldn't resist to write about international chess news .


Topalov-Kamsky 2009 Match

As i mentioned before, i route for Kamsky to win this match. I choose Kamsky because he is a great fighter and at his best form - can beat anyone. Even the current World Champion - Vishy Anand suffered heavy defeat several times against Kamsky - before and after Kamsky short retirement in 90's.

In my opinion, Topalov who is also a great fighter however have small chance to beat Anand because Topalov didn't have a good score against the current World Champion.

If Kamsky win this match, Anand will have a worthy challenger who is capable to beat him in the Final World Championship match. I didn't like a one sided match as what happen in the Anand-Kramnik match last year when Anand win at ease.


Linares

This year Linares is the first tournament for the World Champion - Vishy Anand after his last year match against Kramnik. However the downside is this annual super GM tournament clash with Kamsky-Topalov match, so the focus from chess fan is significantly affected.


Aeroflot Open 2009

My favourite ASEAN player Wesley So who is fresh from his recent success in Corus Group C tournament is having a tough time in Aeroflot Open. So far he "only" collect 4 points from 7 round. Aeroflot Open maybe a less prestige event compare to Corus but because it is held in Russia , so there's many unknown but super strong Russian chess players compete in this event. I still remember a story about former British World Championship Candidate - GM John Speelman who once play a chess game against a Russian taxi driver in one of the Moscow park... and.... lost the game !