Halfway through the tournament Aronian and Nepomniachtchi are 1,5 points ahead of Anand. But despite this bad start one should not write the World Champion off. In the past he again and again proved how good he can cope with critical situations. And after all, Nakamura showed how to do it: after losing the first two games in the Chess960 World Championship he won seven games in a row.
The man with the cap was the sole leader after 10 nerve-breaking rounds in the 8th FiNet Chess960 Open, but in the final round, Gata Kamsky lost his only game against former world champion Rustam Kazimdzhanov. This loss paved the way for Alexander Grischuk to clinch home his third Mainz Open title. He kept his cool in the last round against German ace Rainer Buhmann and won the 8th Edition of the FiNet Chess960 Open with 9,5 points.
Hikaru Nakamura (pictured) has clearly got the hang of Chess960! After a disappointing first day in the qualification round-robin, he won all three of games on the second day to book his place in the final against Aronian.
Nakamura’s form conti…
The main event was six-player double round robin Grandmaster Tournament with average elo of 2716, which counts as a 19th category competition. 18-years old French star Maxime Vachier-Lagrave eventually clinched a clear first place with six points from ten rounds, having scored two victories and eight draws.
The World Chess Championship final between Bulgaria’s Veselin Topalov and India’s Viswanathan Anand looks set to be held in Sofia.
The World Junior Championship will be held in Mar del Plata, Argentina from October 21st to November 4th. For invitation details in English and Spanish please see 
invitation_wjcc_eng.doc invitation_wjcc_span.doc
On the fourth day of the Chess Classic, the FiNet Chess960 Open started at 12.30 with 263 players. The chance for amateurs to meet a GM on the other side of the board was very good, because no less than 56 Grandmasters came to Mainz to play the Chess960 extravaganza! Incredible: the top 10 has an ELO average of 2717 and the top seeds are Gashimov, Grishuk, Bacrot, Kamsky and Mamedyarov.
When Levon Aronian and Nakamura sat down to play the final of the Chess960 World Rapid Chess Championship it was difficult to name a clear favorite. In the preliminaries Aronian had dominated the first day, Nakamura the second. Both are known as extremely strong blitz and rapid players, and both had shown their Chess960 skills on more than one occasion.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (pictured) won the Biel GM Tournament with a score of 6/10, half a point ahead of Vassily Ivanchuk and Alexander Morozevich.
Maxime drew his last 2 games, but it proved enough to win since Chucky lost to Moro in the penulti…
Zone 3.3 Chess Championship was played on 23-29th July in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. This was a chance for players who didn’t qualify for the World Cup from the recently played Asian Chess Championship. Eight federations were represented: Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mongolia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
