Sergei Karjakin qualified for the Amber 2008. The Ukrainian GM won the individual NH Chess Tournament 2007 in Amsterdam. Ivan Cheparinov from Bulgaria achieved second position, one point behind the leader. During the last game, Cheparinov demonstrated an iron will to win and sacrificed a piece for the initiative. It was a very beautiful battle, but after blunders from both sides the game was drawn.

Sergey Karjakin leads with 5,5 points after round 8 of NH Chess Tournament, followed by Jan Smeets with 5 pts, who won against Ljubomir Ljubojevic.
Ivan Cheparinov lost against Predrag Nikolic and at this moment is 3rd with 4,5 pts.

Ivan Cheparinov and Sergei Karjakin won their games in the 7th round of the chess tournament in Amsterdam, organized by NH Hotels chain.

They won the previous round as well, and this way they are the major pretenders about the invitation for Melody Amber Blindfold and rapid chess tournament in Monaco on march year 2008. The invitation will receive the best one of the rising stars.

In the fifth round of the NH Chess Tournament the Experience team has demonstrated that the fight for victory is far from decided. One day before the rest day they posted a dashing 3Ѕ-1Ѕ win. Halfway through the event the Rising Stars are leading with the smallest of margins, 13-12. In the individual standings Artur Jussupow has taken the sole lead. In the fight for the ticket to Monaco, three juniors are leading the pack, Sergey Karjakin, Jan Smeets and Daniel Stellwagen. Round 6, with all Rising Stars behind the white pieces, will be played on Tuesday, August 28.

Round IV /Sunday August 26-th/:

13.30	Beliavsky - Karjakin	1/2 - 1/2
	Nikolic - Negi		  1 - 0
	Khalifman - Smeets	1/2 - 1/2
	Jussupow - Stellwagen	  1 - 0
	Ljubojevic - Cheparinov	1/2 - 1/2

In the fourth round of the NH Chess Tournament the Rising Stars again increased their lead over the Experience team to a new total of 11Ѕ-8Ѕ. Dutch grandmaster Daniel Stellwagen took the lead in the individual standings with a win over Ljubomir Ljubojevic. Former leader Jan Smeets lost precious ground in the hunt for the coveted Monaco ticket when he completely ruined a winning position against Artur Jussupow. Tomorrow the Experience team will try to fight back when they have the white pieces in all games.

Round IV /Friday August 25-th/:

13.30	Cheparinov - Beliavsky	1/2 - 1/2
	Karjakin - Nikolic	  1 - 0
	Negi - Khalifman	1/2 - 1/2
	Smeets - Jussupow	  0 - 1
	Stellwagen - Ljubojevic	  1 - 0

The drawn game on the first board between GM Jose Gonzalez and the IM Renier Gonzalez made sure that Renier got his third and definitive GM norm. Thus, Renier Gonzalez, started the Tournament as IM and he finishes with the title of Grandmaster.
This drawn game has allowed but that his immediatly followers got them. Thus, the GM Mihail Marin who has defeated the IM Deep Sengupta, the GM Viktor Moskalenko has taken revenge of IM Yuri Lapshun. Last year, in the last round, Yuri Lapshun defeated Moskalenko. And on the fourth board, Levan Aroshidze has defeated the Hindu Ashwin Jayaram.
In this way, 5 players has been tied in the first place with 7 points. The tie-break system applied, the Bucholz Medium, which counts the points of the opponents, excluding the worst and the best opponents, has given the victory to the GM from Georgia, Levan Aroshidze.
The Final Standings, ahead for Levan Aroshidze, and followed with the same points for Viktor Moskalenko, Renier Gonzalez, Mihail Marin and Josй Gonzalez.

In the third round of the NH Chess Tournament the Rising Stars increased their lead over the Experience team to 8.5-6.5. The first result of the day was a short fightless draw, but the rest of the afternoon was brimming with excitement and tension and produced a rich harvest of hair-raising moments. In the individual standings Dutch grandmaster Jan Smeets improved his chances to win the coveted ticket to Monaco with a second win, this time at the expense of Ljubomir Ljubojevic.

Round III /Friday August 24-th/:

13.30	Beliavsky - Stellwagen	  0 - 1
	Nikolic - Cheparinov	1/2 - 1/2
	Khalifman - Karjakin	1/2 - 1/2
	Jussupow - Negi		  1 - 0
	Ljubojevic - Smeets	  0 - 1

The traditional HN Chess tournament, sponsored by the NH hotels, takes place in Amsterdam from 22th of August to the 1st of September.

In the first round only Jan Smeets managed to defeat his opponent Predrag Nikolic, the rest of the games resulted in draws. Favourites Karjakin and Cheparinov, drew against Ljubojevic and Jussupow. In the second round we expect the game between the leader Smeets and the top ELO of the "experience" team Beliavsky.

All games of the second round are drawn!

As is only appropriate in a tournament dedicated to the memory one of England's greatest players, the 2007 Staunton Memorial tournament ended in a victory for another British chess all time great, Michael Adams. In the final round, he drew with Black against Ivan Sokolov, to reach an untouchable 8.5/11. Sokolov finished a point behind, where he was joined by Loek van Wely, who drew with Jon Speelman in the final round. Gawain Jones completed an outstanding tournament by capitalising on an opening blunder by Jan Timman, to finish on 6.5, in the company of Jan Smeets and Jan Werle, the two young Dutch GMs.

Final standings:

The Chess960 (Fisher Random Chess) open chess festival is over. It took place from 13th to 17th of August in Mainz (Germany).

Chess960, also called Fischer Random Chess, is a chess variant produced by former World Champion Bobby Fischer by modifying the rules of Shuffle Chess so that castling possibilities exist for all starting positions. Fischer's goal was to create a chess variant in which chess creativity and talent would be more important than memorization and analysis of opening moves.