Tag Archives: Mark Bluvshtein

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Tata Steel Chess 2011

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Nakamura beats Grischuk and Shirov; Bluvshtein beats Swiercz and van Kampen

GM Mark Bluvshtein

GM Hikaru Nakamura

The big annual Wijk aan Zee tournament–formerly sponsored by Corus, now sponsored by Tata Steel–started up last weekend with some nice early results for the North American contingent. Canadian GM Mark Bluvshtein (2590) and American GM Hikaru Nakamura (2751) are both +2 after four rounds.

Round Four (Jan 18): In round four, Bluvshtein beat Dutch IM van Kampen, while Nakamura drew the young Dutch GM Giri – who had just beaten GM Magnus Carlsen quickly with black in round three.

Round Three (Jan 17): In round three, Bluvshtein drew the 14-year-old Ukranian prodigy, Nyzhnyk, while Nakamura beat Shirov.

White: GM Hikaru Nakamura (2751)
Black: GM Alexei Shirov (2722)

2011.01.17 Tata Steel A (3)

C78 Ruy Lopez: Möller

Round Two (Jan 16): In group A, Nakamura got a quick draw against Armenian GM Levon Aronian (2805), while in group C, Bluvshtein defeated Polish GM Dariusz Swiercz (2540).

White: GM Mark Bluvshtein (2590)
Black: GM Dariusz Swiercz (2540)

2011.01.16 Tata Steel C (2)

E46 Nimzo Indian: Rubinstein

Round One (Jan 15): In group A, Nakamura “clobbered” Russian GM Alexander Grischuk (2773), while in group C, Bluvshtein drew Ukranian GM Katherina Lahno (2518).

White: GM Hikaru Nakamura (2751)
Black: GM Alexander Grischuk (2773)

2011.01.15 Tata Steel A (1)

D38 Queen’s Gambit Declined: Ragozin

For complete details, check out Tata Steel Chess.

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GM Bluvshtein at the Groningen Shaakfestival

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Mark Bluvshtein finishes tied for first with 6.5/9.

GM Mark Bluvshtein in Groningen

After a loss in round one to the apparently underrated Armenian, Vahe Baghdasaryan (2303), GM Mark Bluvshtein (2587) won four games in a row to get “back into contention.”

Two rounds (and two draws) later, he beat Ukranian GM Vladimir Baklan (2613) to put him on the top board in the final round, where he agreed to a “GM draw” with Bulgarian GM Dajan Bojkov (2542) to finish in a six-way tie for first place.

Also tied for first was the Ukranian prodigy, 14-year-old Illya Nyzhnyk, who used the result to become the youngest current GM in the world. Mark and Illya played to a draw in round six.

Mark Bluvshtein was made an honorary Annex Chess Club member this past October when he gave a lecture at our grand opening.

The Groningen tournament took place December 21 to 30, 2010. Groningen is a university city with a population of 188 000 in the north of the Netherlands. For games from the Groningen Shaakfestival and complete results, see Mark Bluvshtein’s blog and the ChessBase article.

Mark Bluvshtein’s next tournament will be Wijk Ann Zee, GM group C, January 14 to 30.

White: GM Mark Bluvshtein (2587)
Black: GM Vladimir Baklan (2613)

2010.12.29 Groningen (8)

E46 Nimzo Indian: Rubinstein

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Annex Chess Club Opens With a Blast

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Grandmaster lecture opens Toronto’s newest chess club

Mark Bluvshtein's Lecture
GM Mark Bluvshtein at the ACC
©2010 by the photographer, David Cohen

Canadian GM Mark Bluvshtein gave a chess lecture on Monday October 18 to open the Annex Chess Club.  Having recently returned from the Olympiad in Russia, where he played board one for Canada, Mark shared his two biggest games from the tournament.

His thought-provoking lecture included insights into everything from at-home preparation to over-the-board thinking, and from the emotional aspects to the political aspects of chess in the upper echelons.  Mark has earned himself many new supporters in Toronto, and we at the Annex Chess Club wish him well in his “year off” devoted to playing chess professionally!

After the lecture, we were honoured to have two of Mark’s fellow Canadian olympic players, IM Nikolay Noritsyn and Liza Orlova join him in cutting the cermonial cake to open the Annex Chess Club. We ended the night with some casual and speed games.

A big thank-you to one and all in attendance at the event — especially our new club members!

Our next event, the ACC Fall Swiss, starts next Monday, October 25.