 The Final Countdown
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Gibraltar is fast becoming one of the world's chess capitals, according to leading chess journalist Leontxo Garcia in a recent story in The Independent Daily Chronicle. Gibraltar is also fast becoming a favorite here on ICC, as evident of our recent series of qualifiers for the 8th Gibtelecom Chess Festival last weekend.
We had a bumper turnout of ICC members looking to get one of the coveted spots in the final 16 - and the sixth and final qualifier last Sunday broke the ICC record (the previous, 553, set at Dos Hermanas V), with 603 players taking part!
The final 16 on Saturday, December 5, starts at 2pm EST and includes 7 GMs, 5IMs, 1FM and 3 untitled players (full list of names and their brackets below) vying to win the that round trip ticket, hotel room, breakfast & dinner and an automatic invite to the 8th Gibtelecom Chess Festival, running January 26th to February 4th 2010 at the Caleta Hotel, recently voted Gibraltar's best hotel.
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This, and many more qualifiers to top events will be run through 2010 on ICC exclusively for our members - join ICC now and be part of the winning community by clicking here.
Finals bracket
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1/8 FINAL |
1/4 FINAL |
1/2 FINAL |
FINAL |
1
16 |
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8
9 |
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5
12 |
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4
13 |
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3
14 |
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6
11 |
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7
10 |
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2
15 |
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Seed | Handle | Real Name | Title | Blitzrating | Country |
1 | DusanTheGreat | Igor Miladinovic | GM | 3130 | Serbia |
2 | manest | Alex Lenderman | IM | 3082 | USA |
3 | VerdeNotte | Gawain Jones | GM | 3048 | England |
4 | Janosik | Falko Bindrich | GM | 3032 | Germany |
5 | Federicov | Federico Perez Ponsa | IM | 3018 | Argentina |
6 | Universitario | Renato Terry Lujan | FM | 3006 | Peru |
7 | Vladimirovich | Dmitry Andreikin | GM | 2996 | Russia |
8 | Fier | Alexandr Fier | GM | 2888 | Brazil |
9 | dinamit | Artur Gabrielyan | GM | 2883 | Russia |
10 | Wagner | Levon Altounian | IM | 2872 | USA |
11 | eczaci | Baris Esen | IM | 2851 | Turkey |
12 | CapitalG | Kazim Gulamali | none | 2773 | USA |
13 | SuperPeon |
Marc Christian Nazario | none | 2639 | Philippines |
14 | HuevosDeLeon | Leonardo Tristan | IM | 2621 | Argentina |
15 | SuperJEM | Jan Emmanuel Garcia | none | 2612 | Philippines |
16 | Kseroks | Vitaliy Kiselev | GM | 2591 | Russia |
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London Calling
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And talking of countdowns, one of the strongest tournament to be held in the U.K. in over 25 years gets underway next week with the London Chess Classic (www.londonchessclassic.com) running December 8th-15th at the Olympia Conference Center in Kensington, featuring a truly star-studded field.
The young Norwegian superstar Magnus Carlsen and former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia head the eight-player field, and they'll be joined by U.S. Champion Hikaru Nakamura and Ni Hua of China to complete the four world-class players doing battle with the four highest-rated British Grandmasters: former World Championship challenger Nigel Short, Mickey Adams, Luke McShane and David Howell.
Chess.FM will be linking up with the London Chess Classic with special coverage throughout both here at ICC and at the official site. Look out for our special London Chess Classic newsletter on Monday with all the announcements including our Anglo-American team of expert commentators. Only ICC members can tune-in to Chess.FM for our move-by-move commentary, Trivia competitions and GOTD recaps.
And with London calling, join now by clicking here.
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Countdown to USCL Finals |
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There's going to be a new name on the United States Chess League trophy this year, as the New York Knights get set to take on the Miami Sharks in the finals, to be held on Monday, December 7th here on ICC.
Both have lost in previous finals and both now are equally determined to be winners this time around! Which will it be, the New York Knights or the Miami Sharks? The teams have already announced their line-ups for Monday's final, and you can see them by clicking here.
And Chess.FM also have a line-up change to announce for the finals, with GM Ben Finegold now being joined by WGM Jennifer Shahade for live commentary. Watch the finals exclusively here on ICC by becoming a member; and also check U.S. Chess League for blog links, games and much, much more.
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