2004 End-of-the-year Tournament
Pamplona
The Pamplona Navarra category 16 Swiss tournament is being held from December
20th - 29th 2004. After three rounds Boris Gelfand (ISR, 2693) is in the
lead with 2.5 points.
Other interesting players: Sergey Karjakin (UKR, 2576, 1.5 points), Emil
Sutovsky (ISR, 2697, 1.5), Arkadij Naiditsch (GER, 2611, 1.0), Shakhriyar
Mamedyarov (AZE, 2660, 1.0), Rafael Vaganian (ARM, 2640, 0.5).
- Official
site (in Spanish) with results and games, run by the chess magazine
Jaque.
Harmonie 2004
The Harmonie Chess tournament 2004 is being staged in Groningen, from December
21st - 30th, 2004. After four rounds John van der Wiel (NL, 2493) and Merab
Gagunashvili (GEO, 2567) are in the lead with 3½ each. Other stars:
Friso Nijboer (NL, 2567), Yuriy Kuzubov (UKR, 2530, 14 years old).

In the lead: GM John van der Wiel
- Official
site (English) with live coverage, games, results and report.
Drammen
Chess Festival
The Drammen Chess Festival starts on December 27th, 2004 and lasts until
January 5th, 2005. Participants of the Smartfish Chess Masters section are:
Alexei Shirov |
ESP |
2726 |
Alexander Khalifman |
RUS |
2669 |
Peter Heine Nielsen |
DEN |
2663 |
Luke McShane |
ENG |
2629 |
Bartlomiej Macieja |
POL |
2613 |
Viktor Korchnoi |
SUI |
2601 |
Simen Agdestein |
NOR |
2589 |
Magnus Carlsen |
NOR |
2581 |
Antoaneta Stefanova |
BUL |
2523 |
Leif E. Johannessen |
NOR |
2519 |
The Smartfish Chess Masters sets a meeting between generations and sexes:
The world's youngest grandmaster Magnus Carlsen (just 14) will play against
Victor Korchnoi (73) who is old enough to be his grandfather. Alexander
Khalifman, FIDE world champion 1999-2000 will encounter the present women's
world champion Antoaneta Stefanova. And everyone will have to play Alexei
"Fire on the Board" Shirov.

Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi, during a visit in Hamburg
During his recent visit in Hamburg (for ChessBase DVD recordings) Viktor
Korchoi mentioned a game he had played in the fifties against Grigori Yakelovich
Levenfish (or Loewenfisch in English). "It was an exciting game,"
Viktor Lvovich said, "which my opponent in fact won, and was very proud
of. The game is interesting for me because next week I will be playing a
serious game against Magnus Carlsen, probably the most talented young chessplayer
of his generation. Why is it interesting? Because Magnus was born exactly
101 years later than Levenfish. So I realize that I have been playing against
opponents from six different generations!"

Magnus Carlsen, the 14-year-old grandmaster Korchnoi will have to face
Reggio
Emilia
The 47th Reggio Emilia Tournament in the Mercure-Astoria Hotel starts on December
29th, 2004 and ends January 6th, 2005.
The participants are: GM Boris Miladinovic (GRE, 2611), GM Aleksander Delchev
(BUL, 2601), GM Dimitri Komarov (UKR, 2555), GM Boris Chatalbashev (BUL, 2554),
GM Miso Cebalo (CRO, 2520), GM Igor Naumkin (RUS, 2479) FM Maurizio Tirabassi
(ITA, 2330) FM Calogero Di Caro (ITA, 2317), M Massimo Sciortino (ITA, 2222),
CM Denis Rombaldoni (ITA, 2251)
- Official
site (Italian) with the sections Storia, Tornei, News, Corsi,
Attivita and Contatti

The Hastings Chess Congress starts on December 28th, 2004 and ends January
9th, 2005. The tournament has a new format: the Hastings Premier and Challengers
are combined into one knockout tournament. The games will be played with
White having 70 minutes and Black 90 in which to make the first 40 moves.
Then each player will receive an extra 20 minutes for all the moves. There
will be an addition of one minute per move cumulatively from the first. Where
games are drawn, ties will be resolved first by blitz games.
So far the following GM (2500 and higher) have entered: KOTRONIAS Vassilios
(GRE) gm 2599, EFIMENKO Zahar (UKR) gm 2594, SOCKO Bartosz (POL) gm 2570,
KIRIAKOV Petr (RUS) gm 2555, BELOV Vladimir (RUS) gm 2552, HEBDEN Mark (ENG)
gm 2550, NEVEROV Valeriy (UKR) gm 2536, LALIC Bogdan (ENG) gm 2515, CHERNIAEV
Alexander (RUS) gm 2509, BLUVSHTEIN Mark (CAN) gm 2502, PERT Nicholas (ENG)
gm 2501
- Official
site (English) with registration, news, live games, results