WCL Newsletter Vol. II - issue XXI  Friday, May 23, 2008

 

In this Issue:

it M-Tel Master 2008
it USCF - Monthly Final of GP !
it Titled players challenge you !
it Play Tourneys on WCL
it Live on WorldChessLive
it WCL : Join the community





icon  M-Tel Master 2008 

The Mtel Masters ended last weekend with Vassily Ivanchuk proving to be a popular winner in Sofia!  The Ukrainian ace took the title with an impressive unbeaten score of of 8/10, a full point and a half ahead of his nearest rival, local hero and three-time winner Veselin Topalov.

WCL relayed the games throughout and we also had live audio commentary each day from Chess.FM, with Mig Greengard and his all-GM team of experts: Joel Benjamin, Larry Christiansen, Ronen Har-Zvi and Nick de Firmian.

If you missed the action you can still checkout Chess.FM's GOTD videos and Macauley Peterson videos direct from the playing venue in Sofia. "finger Mtel08" for more details.

Final Standings

  NAME ELO FED 1 2 3 4 5 6 PTS
1 Ivanchuk, Vassily 2740 UKR   1 ½ 1 ½ 1 1 1 ½ 1 ½ 8
2 Topalov, Veselin 2767 BUL 0 ½   ½ ½ 1 1 1 0 1 1 6.5
3  Radjabov, Teimour 2751 AZE 0 ½ ½ ½   ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 5.5
4 Cheparinov, Ivan 2695 BUL 0 0 0 0 ½ ½   1 1 ½ ½ 4.0
5  Bu, Xiangzhi 2708 CHN 0 ½ 0 1 ½ 0 0 0   ½ ½ 3
6  Aronian, Levon  2763 ARM 0 ½ 0 0 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½   3

All the participants received a caricature of themselves done by a local artist. cartoons

Apart from the main tournament, there was also an Mtel Master Junior event with Sasho Andreev battling his way to the title ahead of a field of 76 under-14 Bulgarian players. His reward was a special prize of a laptop computer presented to him by chess legend Boris Spassky.  The former world champion - who himself studied to become a journalist before becoming a chess professional - also gave a Simul to 18 top Bulgarian journalists, winning 15 games.


The 2008 FKB US Chess Championship in Tulsa


WCL was also following closely the US Championship that ran 13-21 May in Tulsa, Oklahoma. A number of WCL site-pros were in action, such as GM Boris GulkoGM John FedorowiczIM Irina Krush (defending women's champion) and IM Anna Zatonskih. Another player we kept a close eye on was IM David Vigorito, winner of the US State CofC Qualifier held here on WCL in April. 

GM Yury Shulman won the U.S. Championship as he top scored on 7/9, a half point ahead of former champion Alexander Onischuk.  Congratulations also to Josh Friedel, who earned his third and final GM norm by finishing in 4th place. Former WCN members might remember Josh as an FM who took part in a masterchallenge that lasted more than 12 hours!  GM Boris Gulko (the only player to have won both the USSR and US title) finished in 7th place with 5/9. And, of course, congratulations to 'our' champion, IM David Vigorito who, on 3.5/9, showed he deserved his qualifier spot for Tulsa.

And let's not forget the ladies with two popular site-pros, IM Anna Zatonskih and IM Irina Krush, both having a superb tournament to tie for first on 7.5/9. They shared the cash prize but had to play a dramatic playoff for the title that went to the wire of the Armageddon final match - and even then it was still close, as Irina lost on time with new champion Anna having only one second left on her clock!

Results and full details can be found on the official site but you can also see the most important games in "finger US08" on WCL. Only the regular members can have the benefit of such a event, so become a member!


icon Special USCF - 2nd Final of Grand Prix May 29th!  

WCL is pleased to sponsor USCF's 2008 Grand Prix and 2008 Junior Grand Prix. We're providing prize funds of $20,000 and $7,500, respectively, and will also running Online Grand Prix events all year. In addition, WCL is granting a six-month free membership to each USCF member! 


Thursday's Grand Prix

 The kickoff event for the 2008 Worldchesslive Online Grand Prix began Thursday, April 24th at 8pm Server Time. This inaugural event was FREE for all USCF members and a total of 20 points in USCF's 2008 WCL Grand Prix was awarded. Of course, Younger members can also earn points and, in addition, all games in the Online Grand Prix are USCF quick-rated.
Full details can be found at  
When you register for the first time, make sure your USCF number and PIN have been updated, specially if you just renewed your USCF membership. Otherwise just come and play!

Monthly Final of Grand Prix will take place on May 29th!


WCL is set to run the second Monthly Grand Prix Final. The event takes place on May 29th at 20:00 server time. Time control is, as usual, 3+2. Finals cost 20 crowns (except for those who win entry tickets by playing the satellites) to enter.

Monthly Prize: 
1st Place - 12 Grand Prix points. In addition, each monthly winner will receive an exclusive invitation to compete in the World Chess Live OGP Championship over-the-board tournament to be held at the 2009 U.S. Open in Indianapolis. This elite one-afternoon event will feature a top prize of $1,000!
2nd Place - 8 Grand Prix points.
Additional prizes will be awarded based upon entry fees collected.


Last Thursday, May 22nd, was your last chance to get your  ticket for the monthly Grand Prix held on the last Thursday of the month! The Grand Prix is hosted in channel 121 and run by USCFBOT in 3 2 u blitz, 7 rounds no latejoin after rd 3, so don't be late! The Grand Prix is a paying event with a small fee of just 3 Crowns (3USD) being asked to jump in the tournament - but you have the chance to earn Points AND Crowns. Go to Web > My account to purchase them. 

The winner of the ticket for next week's Final is PlayWayCool. Congratulations to the winners! Thanks to all who played or watched for making this tournament a true success !  

"tell USCFBOT grid 7" for full results and info.
We hope to meet you next Thursday and every Thursday for what promises to become one of the great regular weekly events here on WCL! 

Sunday at 19:00 server time: USCF QR

Sunday May 1138 players joined the tourney!!! There is no entry fee for this tournament till the end of June,  so don't miss the opportunity to test - and improve- your skills!

Blitz 5 0 Swiss Style unrated (on WCL). Held in channel 121 by USCFBOT
1st Juliano (FM) 6/7; 2nd Brechstange 5.5/7; 3rd Airman 5/7
Full results "tell USCFBOT grid 6"

 

So get ready for May 25, 20:00 EST !


Of course, all the precautions are taken to avoid any form of abuse. But keep focus on your play, even if Speedtrap pays you a visit. That doesn't mean you are suspect, but it behaves the same way with everybody. At the end of the tourneys, after the games are checked, the results are transfered over to USCF to update new ratings.  Prizes and points will be given as soon as possible. Just be patient. Thanks ;-)

ALL THE RESULTS UPDATED ARE ON THE PAGE

icon   Titled players challenge you !

MasterChallenge(*)(C)(TD): >Congratulations WCL-Member for defeating GM Garry TooStrongarov in the MasterChallenge event. Congratulations WCL-Member for this incredible accomplishment :)

Played this week

Some results of the week

  Keep an on the scheduled Events, connect in time, then, jump in!
 On Dasher, click in menu bar - Window - Activities then select the Events tab. That is where you find most of the info about Tournaments and EVENTS! Under (To)day Events, you find scheduled events, MasterChallenge, Simul, etc. But also the live games that are broadcasted. following, there is "tomorrow events" as far there is no last minute change.

 vs is probably the toughest Time  Control for the Masters. So, in most on cases, we go for a  1 1 vs 2 1. Still one more minute for the player!
  
 Let's see the results of the week:

Thursday May 8 | 18:00 EDT
USA IM Alex Lenderman. For his first event on WCL, the winner of the first Grand Prix performed well. He won 18 out the 20 games played, drew one to muaddib and lost to Brechstange. A lot of new members who joined WCL thanks to the deal with USCF were in the audience or jumped in the arena.

Friday, May 16 | 15:00 EDT
US GM Viktor Gavrikov  played also a perfect Master Challenge, winning 16 out of 18 games, losing only to novelus and MrYas.

Saturday, May 17 | 15:00 EDT
US GM Alex Finkel  was there for some bullets in the MasterChallenge 17 wins and 1 loss to Conquistador

Monday, May 19 | 15:00 EDT
CA IM Gergely Szabo played 18 games in Time-Odds and won all. The Time-Control goes from 1 1 vs 1 1 for the stronger opponents to 1 1 vs 1 4.

Monday, May 12 | 19:00 EDT
US FM Dragan Drasko played 18 games, and just lost one game to JeroenDeKoninck!

Wednesday, May 14 | 15:00 EDT
YU IM Branimir Maksimovic for a time-odds Master Challenge played 19 games. He lost to Blacactus and drew to 3 times to dantonocci, Lena and KennethJackson.

Wednesday, May 14| 19:00 EDT
YU GM Dejan Antic played 18 games, won 17 and 1 draw to  Frank001.

Piece-Odds

Friday, May 16 | 19:00 EDT
IL FM DraganDrasko played his first Piece-Odds on WCL. I bet th Force was with this Master Jedi  because he just won 19/19 games.

Sunday, May 18 | 14:00 EDT
IL GM Vitali Golod played his Piece-Odds. 12 wins, 3 losses Raisingthebar x 2 and croder; 1 draw to Marydawson.

Tuesday, May 20 | 15:00 EDT
IL GM Vitali Golod played another Piece- Odds but, this time, he the expert in Pieces-Odds was back and just won his 20 games.

 Of course, only members can play, so get  your membership!

 TGIF

This Friday evening, (May 16), was the return match. Last week GM Yuri Solodovnichenko won easily but, this Friday the score was inverted. 
GM Dejan Antic 9 - 4 GM Yuri Solodovnichenko .

Thank you to both players who gave their best in that series of 3 0 Biltz.

Do you want to see this games ? type /search DejanAntic Solodovnichenko and you will get the list of all the games played between this titled players on WCL.  
 Don't miss this weekly battle! Be there next friday at 20:00 EDT!

 Simul Results

 Don't miss the registration! To make sure you'll be warned of the beginning of the registration for the simul, just do "tell simulbot alarm". Beware, that is a toggle command, so, if you send the command twice, that will switch the alarm off.
 EC IM Martha Fierro 'Simul, was played against 10 players. Martha won 9 and lost 1 to Brechstange. As usual, the review of the game vs matein50 was very instructional.
marthafierro(IM) kibitz: i decided to choose this game, cause i play center counter sometimes and in this game, an interesting sac happens
marthafierro(IM) kibitz: i think scandinavian is a simple openning and helps you understand strategy... cause in this openning there are many ideas of how to play with a solid pawn structure

To review this game type /examine #1315113111

 IL GM Ronen Har-Zvi, played his Tuesday's Simul vs 12 players. That means the simul was FULL and sorry for those who wait the beginning for joining. It is possible for the manager to increase the max number of players before the beginning but, once it is running, Simulbot closes its doors. GM Ronen Har-Zvi didn't lost or even drew a game: clearsheet.

Here is a screenshot of the game vs Warrenwhite that Ronen reviewed. It shows the position at move 12 and the possible plans for (warren)white.

WCL is the only site where Simul are followed by an analysis and comments between the simul giver and  the  audience.


Banter played this week:

 During the 25 5 game, the two Masters whisper their thoughts and their plans. Of course, they can't read what their opponent is planning. Always interesting to try to understand how a Master thinks!
 When the game finishes, the players review the game together, exploring other lines and analyzing their mistakes.

GM Larry Christiansen vs GM Michael Roiz. Probably our two stronger 'bulletters' facing in a 25/5 games. That gave time to those fast players to explain in details their theory and the review was also a great lesson of chess. Unfornutaly (but does luck exist in Chess) GM Larry Christiansen blundered and never could repair his mistake. GM Michael Roiz won that duel! 

IM Miodrag Perunovic vs IM Branimir Maksimovic was the program on sunday May 18. The two International Masters drew their game. Note that, from now the sunday Banter will take place at 17:00 Server Time. Due to the success of UCSF-QR Tourney  The game ended in a draw and the review of the game was much appreciated by the 25 people in audience! 

These games are recorded with their commentaries for a further rebroadcast.
You can also do
/finger Banterchess to review the games without the comments for now but you will be soon be able to have the full benefit of the event. 

Thanks to all the players, Members and Masters, and Congratulations to the Winners.

Rules and descriptions of all Titled Events can be found here

Events Scheduled This Week (Saturday May 24, June 1)
 Saturday  15:00 EST MasterChallenge
 19:00 EST Simul+Analysis
YuIM Irina Krush
ECIM Martha Fierro
 Sunday  14:00 EST Piece-Odds
 17:00 EST Battle of the Week
YUIM Goran Vojinovic
YUGM Victor Mikhalevski vs IL GM Yuri Solodovnichenko
 Monday  15:00 EST Time-Odds
 19:00 EST MasterChallenge
YUIM Sasha Belezky
YuIM Irina Krush
 Tuesday  15:00 EST MC Pieces-Odds
 19:00 EST Simul+ Anlaysis
YUGM Vitali Golod
ECGM Ronen Har-Zvi
 Wednesday  15:00 EST Time-Odds
 19:00 EST MasterChallenge
ILGM Yuri Solodovnichenko
USGM Larry Christiansen
 Thursday  15:00 EST BanterChess
 18:00 EST MasterChallenge
ILGM Arthur Kogan vsUSGM Viktor Gavrikov
ILIM Alex Lenderman
 Friday  15:00 EST MasterChallenge
 19:00 EST MC Pieces-Odds
 20:00 EST TGIF
ILIM Branimir Maksimovic
USGM Larry Christiansen
ILGM Dejan Antic  vs IL IM Miodrag Perunovic
 Saturday  15:00 EST MasterChallenge
 19:00 EST Simul + Analysis
YUIM Goran Vojinovic
ECIM Martha Fierro
 Sunday  14:00 EST Piece-Odds
 17:00 EST Battle of the Week
YU GM Michael Roiz
YUGM Victor Mikhalevski vs YuIM Irina Krush

icon  Live on World Chess Live

STC Bunch May Mania



Interested in playing slow games? The STC Bunch organizes slow tournaments and helps people who prefer slower time controls to find games. Check out our website at www.stcbunch.net and join channel 90. We have over 1000 members, and membership is free!
May Mania is here! The STC Bunch's annual four round sprint kicked off on April 28 and will occur every week.
You just have to sign-up for STC and the games are free.
Keep an eye in channel 90, STCRobot(TD) announces the games in progress. 
The time control is 45 5, and you'll be paired against players with a rating close to your own in every round. There are prizes available to WCL members! The minimum requirement is to play at least one game per month.
Details of the rules can be found at http://stcbunch.net/eventswcl.php

Available on WCL : Chess Talk with IM John Watson featuring Fabiano Caruana

Tune-in for Chess Talk with IM John Watson on ICC Chess.FM. John's weekly 60+ minute show will feature an interview with leading chess personalities. All shows run on demand for members after airing.

This week (Tue., 20 May), joining IM John Watson on Chess Talk is 15-year-old grandmaster Fabiano Caruana, who shot to fame as a youngster in the US by beating a number of age records of Hikaru Nakamura.  

Although having dual citizenship of Italy and USA, Fabiano - who lives in Budapest with his family - now represents Italy. Last year he won the Italian championship with a score of 9.5/11 leading the field by three full points and a performance rating of 2740 to become the youngest Italian champion ever.  He then went on to win the Corus 2008 C group with an automatic invitation to the Corus 2009 B group.  Many believe by early next year he could be a member of the "2700 club". 

   Play Tourneys on WCL

Have Fun: Join Tournaments !

Each days WCL invites you to join Scheduled Tournaments. The list and schedule is in Event Windows. The tournament team tries to set tup different types of tournaments : Standard with the famous bi-daily Random-Draw, a 15 0 swiss rated tourney in 4 rounds (monthly awarded) at 8:00 EDT and 14:00 EDT held in Slomato (channel 222), the hyper speed Mouse Race at 11:00 EDT a series of three tourneys 10sec+1sec of 5 rounds bullet rated in Flash (channel 49) but also some wildchess tourneys as Clear-the-Board where you just have to lose if you want to win. And other tourneys as Chessaholic Trophy (sunday 15:00 EDT) or FridayNightBlitz (awarded).
Also,
the 3 Hour wild Marathon confirms its popularity! "finger WildMarathon" This series of wild tourneys is held in Wild channel (223) every Wednesday from 17:00 server time to 20:00.

Those tournaments open 15-20 minutes before the scheduled time and the managers always wait the exact time before starting. That gives you enough time to finish your current game but join as soon as you are ready!  don't stay as an observer, thinking "I join if other join" faster you join and more you are and... less you wait.   


Waiting for a tournament? REQUEST CHANNEL (221) is the place!

Too often,  the players wait for a tourney to be open and never see the one they expect. The Tournament Managers (TM) are here to run what people ask for but... how can they guess that 10 people would join a blitz, or some specific wild or  triple elimination... or... there are so much possibilities!  So, the TM opens randomly a tourney and it doesn't fill "abort by lack or interest".
The solution is simple! Channel 221 is dedicated to Tournament Request so, instead of waiting, join that channel and ask, for example
"Hi, can you organize a 5 0 blitz". When you see someone already post a seek, feel free to say, "yes I am interesting in it, too" or "I would prefer an Atomic double elimination". Well, channel 221 is also a chat channel, so... use it for chatting and say your wishes.
That way, the TM will more likely open a tourney that suits to a maximum of people!
An other tip to help the tourney to start faster... It looks obvious but...  JOIN !  When the players have the feeling the tourney is about to start, they jump in. It is a way to say to the other players that your are really interesting in this tournament and that it won't abort. 
Please don't say, as i saw lately, a member leaving the tourney and saying : I'll be back when 5 people have join. Of course, if everybody do the same errrr... guess what !
Just ask and... be patient!!
 


Need help
about the Tournaments ? do "tell tournamentbot help" and you'll get a lots of topics you can have help on : byes, dr-pts, duration, finger, games, grid, history, join, latejoin, leave, and many others, then for example do "tell tournament finger" to have your personal info. Of course, ask your questions in channel 1, the Helpers will be please to answer


WCL prize Tournaments
Prize Tournaments came to WCL too & with them WCL's Tournament Hall of Fame Started!

"finger Prize-Tourney" for information on the Prizes.

Winners for the Friday Night Blitz:

May 16 : 1st  endgames; 2nd cocolala ; Random Draw oswald137 (15th place)
with 26 players, this tournament is among the most popular on WCL  "tell tournamentbot grid 5640"

Winners for the Monthly Random Draw Tournament :

April, 2008 : Best Brechstange; most GeorgeAnderson3;
Random Draw winner: RD1  MikhailTal2 (#14) ; RD2 warrenwhite (#25)
One week for each winner !

Winners for the Monthly Chessaholic's Trophy:

April 2008: 1st leonardoalmeida; 2nd RdgMx; most croder
Two weeks for the winner of that Trophy and one week for the others awarded

WildMarathon

Results after 3 Marathons: MACTEP 58; Lena 42.5; Chrismiller4 24.5
For full results of May 21: tell tournamentbot grid 5614-5619
Wilds played: Crazy; Atomic; Losers; chess960; Random (W29); Losers
"finger Wildmarathon"

Predict-A-Move 

April Results : best timm 112825 pts; most  MassimoViti 92875 pts.162 differents players played PAM in April! Results for the top 3 in the PAM played from Thursday, May 15 to Wednesday, May 21:
 Thursday  1. KingsGambit  3575 pts  2. timm 3100 pts  3. ZoranMilenKovic 2925 pts
 Friday  1. Alstone52 4150 pts  2. ZoranMilenkovic 3650 pts  3. timm 3450 pts
 Saturday  1. Janos07 4325 pts  2. teve15 4000 pts  3. timm 3775 pts
 Sunday  1. AKain 2750 pts  2. ZoranMilenkovic 2375 pts  3. timm 2350 pts
 Monday  1. ZoranMilenkovic 3375 pts  2. timm 3250 pts  3. MassimoViti 2875 pts
 Tuesday  1. timm 3775 pts  2. AdvisorLee 3550 pts  3. Zoraidax 3200 pts
 Wednesday  1. ZoranMilenkovic 3225 pts  2. timm 2900 pts  3. MassimoViti 2550 pts


You can find WCL's full Tournament schedule in our Events Window menu and "finger Prize-Tourneys" to have the complete list of the awarded tourneys..

icon   : The Community

Join WCL

Welcome to World Chess Live (WCL), a new family-friendly online chess service. The goal of this site is to create an online chess community for novice, intermediate, and recreational chess players!

Try WCL for just $4.99

Pricing plans for family members and Juniors: All details here

World Chess Live!

Click the Join Now! icon to get started or just download the software and register from there.

By becoming a member of World Chess Live you gain access to WCL tools, video content, and training materials. Have fun playing against other online players and learning about the game of chess. 

 Special offer :

FREE SIX-MONTH MEMBERSHIP to World Chess Live are now available to all members of the U.S. Chess Federation, whether or not they are currently members of WCL. For new WCL members, simply enter your USCF membership number and PIN at the bottom of the WCL registration page in the Group ID and Group PIN boxes. 

If you're already registered with WCL, go to your account page and use the link in the Memberships/Affiliations section at the bottom.  (Sign-up for this offer ending on September 30, 2008).

USCF members are full part WCL members and can take benefit of all the events, tourneys, videos, that are provided by WCL to his members so enjoy and don't limit your pleasure to USCF events. On the other hand, all WCL members are invited to get their USCF membership and play in that great event!


We need you ! As already said above, WCL is growing ! We need Helpers, we need more Tournament managers, so if you like chess and if you enjoy to help people to play chess and give them fun in playing in the best conditions, apply for Helper and/or for Tournament Manager. Go in Event Tab of the Activities Window and, at the bottom, you'll find the forms to fill. Don't forget that thing : if you are friendly with people, people will be friendly with you (well... almost !)
You can also click on "I want to become a Helper" or on "I want to be a Tournament Manager"

 Feel free to share your opinion and your wishes. We want to know what kind of event you like, in tourneys, in event vs titled players. We also need to know what is the best hour for you (of course, regarding where you live in the world) and how much time you can spend on WCL for an event. You can find the list of scheduled events, tourneys and broadcast of the coming week in the event window .
  Well, we need to know who you are and where you are from in order to schedule the right events at the right time.

Questions and some answers:

  • Too much channels! You are in Lobby (channel 250) but you want to see what is happening in the channel where you just joined a tourney, and, of course, you don't want  to miss the announces in main and... well you don't want to miss a thing! so you can choose and switch from tab to tab OR, in settings, unmark channel tab. Then all the message will appear in a single window in a different color with the number of the channel they come from like username{223}: when does the wild tourney start? .But, each time you want to send a message in a channel, it must be like /tell 250 <your text> to send it in 250, then /t 1 <my question is> if you want to ask something in newbie/live channel. By the way there is a shortcut, if you type ', <my text>' your message will be sent in the channel you just used before. 

  • Games of the day / Videos : they are available for members only (so join us !) with your WCL handle and password. 

  • Mac / Linux :I adore the dasher program but I can't downloaded with my Mac OS X 10.5.1 and sadly I only play with it in my laptop. There is an alternative interface to Dasher for people who chosed Mac or Linux, its called Sonia.


  • What time is it ? : On WCL, the events refers to the Server Time EDT (New-York time), that is GMT-4 or PST+3. To check the Server Time (and see if your didn't forget to have lunch) you can type /Date in main tab and see the server time. 
 Two important addresses : If you have any suggestions, ideas or questions, feel free to contact us. We will give you a personal answer or publish it in this part if many of you are concerned by a topic. We collect also infos regarding members of WCL. If you have played a tourney OTB, if your club organizes an event or anything else, we can mention it.
Some of you may have questions relatives to login, lost password, membership then contact support. We answer as soon we receive your mail.




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