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Pearl Spring Masters chess competition underway
22 October 2010
The latest contest for the top spot in the chess world is underway right now. While we fret over municipal elections, the chess world's top players are battling it out in China in a series of ten double-round-robin games that runs from October 18 to 30th.
This is the third in the 'Pearl Spring Masters' Competition, held in Nanjing, China. Playing at this year's challenge are Vishwanathan ('Vishy') Anand, the reigning world champion, Magnus Carlsen, official world #1 ranked player and currently the leader in points at the match, Veselin Topalov, official world #2 ranked player, Wang Yue, the Chinese #1 ranked player, Vugar Gashimov, Azerbaijan #3 ranked player and Etienne Bacrot, French #2 ranked player.
The young prodigy, Carlsen, was also the winner of the 2009 Pearl Spring Masters contest, but has not fared as well recently in matches. Still, Carlsen retains his spot as the world's highest-ranked chess player with a rating of 2804, slightly better than Anand's 2803. This rating board will be closely watched during this match.
There is a real rivalry going on here between Anand and Topalov. The two faced off at the FIDE World Championship this spring where Anand took the crown 6.5 points to 5.5 in a gruelling 12-game series spread over three weeks. Scores and games at the official site here.
There is also strong rivalry between Carlsen and both top-ranked players. Both Anand and Carlsen competed in the recent Bilbao Masters series, earlier this month, but it was Kamnik who emerged the winner of that match, with Anand second and Carlsen third.
At the end of the third round of play for the 2010 series, Carlsen has 2.5 points, followed closely by Anand with two and Bacrot with 1.5. Out of nine games played so far, five have been draws. Draws are, of course, very common in championship chess.
Nanjing's official Web site dubs itself "City of Culture, Capital of Chess." This is an interesting change for China, where, according to Wikipedia, only the last few decades has chess has gained popularity in China. It still trails xiangqi (the traditional Chinese chess game) and Go (weiqi) in popularity by a considerable margin. There are about three million people in China who play chess, with about 300,000 federation players, compared with an estimated 300 million Go players in China. But chess popularity is soaring rapidly, thanks to the government-backed sponsorship of tournaments like this.
The official Nanjing tournament Web site is an odd mix of materials, with many links pointing to games and commentaries from the 2009 match, while 2010 game comments seem unpublished. A better site for information and updated news is The Week in Chess or Chess.com's news page. What I find intriguing is that chess has support from and sanction by both the municipal and national governments - which really gives it a solid base to grow from. Wikipedia notes, "It was decided to promote chess first in China where it was felt to have the biggest potential for success. The plan came to be known in Asian chess circles as the "Big Dragon Project" and the man behind it was Dato Tan Chin Nam. In 1975 he was instrumental in gaining China entrance into FIDE and since then was the financial backer of Chinese chess in particular and Asian chess in general. The Big Dragon plan called for the Chinese to reach world-class status by the end of the century and that has been achieved. The women, led by Women's World Champion GM Xie Jun have won the gold medal in two previous Olympiads and the men won silver in 2006 (their highest ever position)."
Read Chess in China: The Awakening of the Dragon, as well as this article on the Pearl Spring site. back in 2003, thechessdrum.com wrote a piece called, "Why China Will Soon Dominate Chess" in which the author noted, "China will soon (perhaps in 7-10 years) become a pre-eminent chess power in the world. With the support of the government, combination of talent, strong work ethic, unselfishness and intense training methods, the world's most populous nation has continued to make immense progress in the past two decades."
The rise of chess in China - along with the growth of Western culture itself among Chinese - is material for an interesting afternoon's research I will undertake in the future.
There is a Chinese Chess Association which runs the National Chess Centre, in Beijing.
This is the third in the 'Pearl Spring Masters' Competition, held in Nanjing, China. Playing at this year's challenge are Vishwanathan ('Vishy') Anand, the reigning world champion, Magnus Carlsen, official world #1 ranked player and currently the leader in points at the match, Veselin Topalov, official world #2 ranked player, Wang Yue, the Chinese #1 ranked player, Vugar Gashimov, Azerbaijan #3 ranked player and Etienne Bacrot, French #2 ranked player.
The young prodigy, Carlsen, was also the winner of the 2009 Pearl Spring Masters contest, but has not fared as well recently in matches. Still, Carlsen retains his spot as the world's highest-ranked chess player with a rating of 2804, slightly better than Anand's 2803. This rating board will be closely watched during this match.
There is a real rivalry going on here between Anand and Topalov. The two faced off at the FIDE World Championship this spring where Anand took the crown 6.5 points to 5.5 in a gruelling 12-game series spread over three weeks. Scores and games at the official site here.
There is also strong rivalry between Carlsen and both top-ranked players. Both Anand and Carlsen competed in the recent Bilbao Masters series, earlier this month, but it was Kamnik who emerged the winner of that match, with Anand second and Carlsen third.
At the end of the third round of play for the 2010 series, Carlsen has 2.5 points, followed closely by Anand with two and Bacrot with 1.5. Out of nine games played so far, five have been draws. Draws are, of course, very common in championship chess.
Nanjing's official Web site dubs itself "City of Culture, Capital of Chess." This is an interesting change for China, where, according to Wikipedia, only the last few decades has chess has gained popularity in China. It still trails xiangqi (the traditional Chinese chess game) and Go (weiqi) in popularity by a considerable margin. There are about three million people in China who play chess, with about 300,000 federation players, compared with an estimated 300 million Go players in China. But chess popularity is soaring rapidly, thanks to the government-backed sponsorship of tournaments like this.
The official Nanjing tournament Web site is an odd mix of materials, with many links pointing to games and commentaries from the 2009 match, while 2010 game comments seem unpublished. A better site for information and updated news is The Week in Chess or Chess.com's news page. What I find intriguing is that chess has support from and sanction by both the municipal and national governments - which really gives it a solid base to grow from. Wikipedia notes, "It was decided to promote chess first in China where it was felt to have the biggest potential for success. The plan came to be known in Asian chess circles as the "Big Dragon Project" and the man behind it was Dato Tan Chin Nam. In 1975 he was instrumental in gaining China entrance into FIDE and since then was the financial backer of Chinese chess in particular and Asian chess in general. The Big Dragon plan called for the Chinese to reach world-class status by the end of the century and that has been achieved. The women, led by Women's World Champion GM Xie Jun have won the gold medal in two previous Olympiads and the men won silver in 2006 (their highest ever position)."
Read Chess in China: The Awakening of the Dragon, as well as this article on the Pearl Spring site. back in 2003, thechessdrum.com wrote a piece called, "Why China Will Soon Dominate Chess" in which the author noted, "China will soon (perhaps in 7-10 years) become a pre-eminent chess power in the world. With the support of the government, combination of talent, strong work ethic, unselfishness and intense training methods, the world's most populous nation has continued to make immense progress in the past two decades."
The rise of chess in China - along with the growth of Western culture itself among Chinese - is material for an interesting afternoon's research I will undertake in the future.
There is a Chinese Chess Association which runs the National Chess Centre, in Beijing.
