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 Gulko, GM John
Fedorowicz, IM 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!
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 WCL-USCF
2008 Grand Prix
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 11, 38 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
|
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
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
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
GM
Alex Finkel was there for some
bullets in the MasterChallenge 17 wins and 1 loss to Conquistador
Monday, May 19
| 15:00 EDT
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
FM Dragan Drasko played 18
games, and just lost one game to JeroenDeKoninck!
Wednesday, May
14 | 15:00 EDT
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
GM Dejan Antic
played 18 games, won 17 and 1 draw to Frank001.
Piece-Odds
Friday, May 16
| 19:00 EDT
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
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
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.
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
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 |
IM
Irina Krush
IM
Martha Fierro |
| Sunday |
14:00
EST Piece-Odds
17:00 EST Battle of the Week |
IM
Goran Vojinovic
GM
Victor Mikhalevski vs
GM Yuri Solodovnichenko |
| Monday |
15:00
EST Time-Odds
19:00 EST MasterChallenge |
IM
Sasha Belezky
IM
Irina Krush |
| Tuesday |
15:00
EST MC Pieces-Odds
19:00 EST Simul+ Anlaysis |
GM
Vitali Golod
GM
Ronen Har-Zvi |
| Wednesday |
15:00
EST Time-Odds
19:00 EST MasterChallenge |
GM
Yuri Solodovnichenko
GM
Larry Christiansen |
| Thursday |
15:00
EST BanterChess
18:00 EST MasterChallenge |
GM
Arthur Kogan vs GM
Viktor Gavrikov
IM
Alex Lenderman
|
| Friday |
15:00
EST MasterChallenge
19:00 EST MC Pieces-Odds
20:00 EST TGIF |
IM
Branimir Maksimovic
GM
Larry Christiansen
GM
Dejan Antic vs
IM Miodrag Perunovic |
| Saturday |
15:00
EST MasterChallenge
19:00 EST Simul + Analysis |
IM
Goran Vojinovic
IM
Martha Fierro |
| Sunday |
14:00
EST Piece-Odds
17:00 EST Battle of the Week |
GM Michael Roiz
GM
Victor Mikhalevski vs IM
Irina Krush |
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..
|
|
: 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
|
|

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. |
|
© Copyright 2007-2008 Internet Chess Club, Inc. All Rights
Reserved.
World Chess Live, World Chess Network, and Chess Live are trademarks of
Internet Chess Club, Inc. |
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