Past Events - 2004

FIDE World Championship 2004

FIDE World Championship Tournament was held in Tripoli, Libya from June 18 to July 13. In the final of this tournament Uzbek GM Rustam Kasimdzanov beat GM Michael Adams of England and became the new FIDE World Champion. The six game final match was drawn (3-3) and the winner came out from the tie-break (1.5-0.5). Kasimdzanov will now meet GM Garry Kasparov of Russia in the semi-final of World Chess Championship scheduled to be held at the first quarter of 2005.. [PGN Games]

World Championship Semi-Final, 2004

1st semi-final of the World Chess Championship (reunification between FIDE and PCA) was held in Brissago, Switzerland from September 25 to October 18. In this 14 games semi-final match last year's FIDE losing finalist GM Peter Leko of Hungary competed against (as more like a challenger) PCA champion Russian GM Vladimir Kramnik. The semi-final match was drawn (7-7). According to the rule of the match GM Vladimir Kramnik was declared as winner. [PGN Games]

Chess Olympiad, Calvia 2004.

36th Chess Olympiad was held in Calvia, Spain from 14 to 31 October. 129 men's teams and 87 women's teams of different countries took part in this competition. In the men's section Ukraine team and and in the women's section China team took the 1st place. [Games - Men, Women]

World Junior Chess Championship, 2004

43rd Boy's and 21st Girl's World Junior Chess Championship was held in Cochin, India, from 18 November to 1 December 2004. GM Pentyala Harikrishna became the second Indian after Viswanathan Anand to win the World Junior Chess Championship (8 points). In the girls' section, Ekaterina Korbut of Russia became the winner. [Games - Men, Women]

Mainz, 2004

Once again Vishwanathan Anand won the Chess Classic title: his fifth in a row and his seventh alltogether. His victim this year was the Spaniard Alexei Shirov. In the seventh game Anand secured his title by playing a draw with the white pieces. "I was lucky that Vishy did not push too hard in this game", Shirov smiled after the game. The second game was very exciting. "I saw Morozevich in the hall and thought that I should try a "Morozevich-style" opening. It was very strange and things became very complicated. In the end I probably missed an opportunity to win the last game. " Anand agreed: "Yes, the second game of the day was hard for me,I had to defend all the time. Overall I have to say that the match was very tight and only two "fingerfehler" decided the match. I would say that the quality of the games was very good. That was definately one of the most exciting matches I ever played."

Commonwealth Chess Championships 2004, Mumbai

Commonwealth Chess Championship 2004 was held in Mumbai from 9-19 January, 2004. Top seed British Grandmaster Nigel Short (7.5 points) is the latest Commonwealth Chess Champion. The former World Championship challenger easily accounted for teenaged Grandmaster P Harikrishna (6) in the ninth and final round of the Commonwealth Chess Championship organized by Venus Chess Academy and sponsored by ONGC, Union Bank of India, GTL, Bharat Petroleum and MTNL, at Hotel Mirador here yesterday.

Indian hopes for the gold were dashed when Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay (6.5) was beaten by the Russian Grandmaster Smirnov Pavel (7.5) who claimed the International Open Trophy on better tie-break over Nigel Short. Grandmaster Koneru Humpy (6) of India won the Commonwealth Women Championship ahead of the Subbaraman sisters Vijayalakshmi (6) and Meenakshi (5.5).

Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, seeded 16th had held his own against all the top players till yesterday. However, succumbed to the guiles of third seeded Grandmaster Smirnov Pavel in Spanish Opening. Thipsay sacrificed a piece for two pawns but could not find enough compensation and had to resign the game in the end. Thipsay had to be satisfied with a Bronze.

Grandmaster Niaz Murshed (7) of Bangladesh shocked Russian Grandmaster Sergey Iskusnyh (6) to clinch the silver medal. " My start was disappointing and so it is a pleasant surprise," said Niaz who came to Mumbai for the championship with his family.

Grandmaster Short had said on the eve of the last round that the Sunday crowd will witness a terrible game from him as he hates to play in the morning. However, he proved himself wrong by producing a brilliant endgame against P Harikrishna. It was a Rubeinstein variation of French Defense in which Nigel's pieces entered Hari's castle to drag the White King out of the castle. [PGN Games]