Veselin Topalov regained the first position of the FIDE rating list October 2008. His rating is 2791 points.

Topalov is one of the candidates (together with Kamsky) for the World Chess Championship Match in 2009, against the winner of the World Chess Championship Match 2008 in Bonn - Anand-Kramnik. Topalov will play against Kamsky in the Candidates Match 2008 in Lviv (Ukraine), starting on the 26th of November 2008.

In the FIDE rating list follow:

The World Women Chess Championship 2008 took place in Nalchik (Kabardino-Balkaria, Russian Federation) from 28th August to 18th September 2008.

After several rounds of eliminations, Aleksandra Kosteniuk (RUS) and Yifan Hou (CHN) met on the final in the match of 4 games.

In the first game Yifan Hou had white, but in Ruy Lopez she gave very strong initiative to Kosteniuk, which lead to 0-1 on move 48. The 2nd game was more interesting...

Bulgarian GM Veselin Topalov won The Chess Grand Slam 2008 Final (whitch took place in Bilbao 1st-13th September 2008). There were 6 participants - The first qualifiers were the winners of Corus 2008, Morelia - Linares 2008, and Mtel Masters 2008 - GM Levon Aronian, GM Viswanathan Anand, and GM Vassily Ivanchuk. Then the 2nd place players also qualified GM Magnus Carlsen and GM Veselin Topalov and finally the best all-round player left Teimour Radjabov.

Three points for a win and one for a draw rules are in effect. According "The Sofian rule", Players were not allowed to agree draw without arbiter's permission. In case both players request it to him, the arbiter will make his decision after consulting with a technical assistant.
Grand Slam Final Bilbao. Final Round 10 saw Veselin Topalov confirmed clear first place when he beat Vassily Ivanchuk in the final round. Topalov won the most games and lost the least, for a dominant performance. Carlsen and Aronian tied for second place after Aronian blew a great position and lost against Radjabov. Carlsen took second by virtue of beating Aronian twice in the competetion (better head to head). This win for Radjabov also had the effect of relegating world champion Viswanathan Anand to dead last. Final standings...

Veselin Topalov leads the Grand Slam 2008 in Bilbao before the final round.

The Bulgarian is in sole lead with 14 points. In spite of all, the new point system (3 points for a victory) gives a chance for all three pursuers to win the first Chess Grand Slam Tournament 2008! In the last round Topalov is going to play against Ivanchuk, which has 12 points. In the other games:
Levon Aronian (13 p.) - Teimour Radjabov (7 p.)
Magnus Karlsen (12т.) - Viswanathan Anand (7т.)
All favourites have white in the final round!

The World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand, which will defend his World Chess Champion Title against the Russian Vladimir Kramnik in Bonn (Germany), share last place together with Teimour Radjabov with 7 points. Watch games live:
http://www.bilbaofinalmasters.com/en_retransmision.asp

The World Women Chess Championship 2008 takes place in Nalchik (Kabardino-Balkaria, Russian Federation) from 28th of August to 18th of September 2008.

After several rounds of eliminations, Aleksandra Kosteniuk (RUS) and Yifan Hou (CHN) are going to play in the final from 14th to 18th of September 2008.

Live games of the Women's World Chess Championship 2008 in Nalchik will be available at our live chess games section.

The Chess Grand Slam Final Tournament takes place in Bilbao from 1st to 13th of September 2008.
There are 6 participants:

1. Topalov, Veselin  	GM  	BUL  	2777
2. Aronian, Levon 	GM 	ARM 	2737
3. Ivanchuk, Vassily 	GM 	UKR 	2781
4. Carlsen, Magnus 	GM 	NOR 	2775
5. Radjabov, Teimour 	GM 	AZE 	2744
6. Anand, Viswanathan 	GM 	IND 	2798

According the Sofia Rules players are not allowed to agree draw without arbiter's permission. In case both players request it to him, the arbiter will make his decision after consulting with a technical assistant.
Three points for a win and one for a draw rules are in effect.

After the first 8th rounds leader is Bulgarian supergrandmaster Veselin Topalov (13 pts.) who defeated Norwegian Magnus Carlsen twice at this event.

The 3th NH Chess Tournament took place in Amsterdam August 20th-30th, 2008. The battlefield of the event between 'Rising Stars' and 'Experience' was the NH Grand Hotel Krasnapolsky in the centre of the Dutch capital - five minutes walk from Central Railway Station.

Chinese Wang Yue scored 8.5/10 and qualified for next years Amber tournament. Youth fully out did experience winning 33.5-16.5.

3rd NH Amsterdam (NED), 20-30 of August 2008 Final Round 10 Standings:

The Tal Memorial took place between 17th-31st of August 2008 in Russian capital Moscow (GUM, Exhibition Hall- very close to The Red Square), playing days 18th-22nd and 24th-27th August 2008. After the main tournament there was a blitz one (29th-30th of August) with qualfications on the 27th and 28th. Norvegian Magnus Carlsen and foreign World Champion Antoly Karpov were amongst the invitees along with the players in the main event.

Vassily Ivanchuk took clear first place in the main category XX event - a point clear of the field. He also repeated the trick in the blitz tournament.

Tal Memorial Moscow (RUS), 18-27 of August 2008 (Cat. 20 (2745) Final Standings:

Live chess games from the World Women Chess Championship 2008 in Nalchik are available in our live chess games section. There are 3 applets to choose from:

• Live chess games - applet 1


• Live chess games - applet 2


• Live chess games - applet 3

Today will be played tiebreaks from round 1. Tomorrow starts round 2. If you have any problems with the live games, please contact us to help you as fast as possible.

The World Women Chess Championship 2008 is going to take place in Nalchik (Kabardino-Balkaria, Russian Federation) from 28th of August to 18th of September 2008.

Last month some participants of the World Women Chess Championship 2008 sent a letter to the FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. In this letter the six Georgian chess players appeal to change the location of the event, because of the dangerous political situation in South Ossetia (Georgia). A few days ago FIDE published last statement on the subject, in which Ilyumzhinov confimed the place of the WWCC 2008 - Nalchik, the capital of Kabardino-Balkaria.