First of all, my apologies, as the http://calgaryinternationalchessclassic.com website was down for a bit today due to bandwidth issues. The website has been quite popular with over 3000 daily visitors! It is now back on.


Today we have a Blitz Chess tournament. It is open to everyone who would like to join, regardless of level. GM Wesley So is likely to participate and so are some other Grandmasters, although it may depend on how their games in the main event go today.

The registration closes at 8 pm so please be a little bit early. Entry fee is $10 and all of it goes back to prizes plus $80.

Full details on this event are available on the 'side events' portion of the website.


In the International, today we have quite an interesting round 8 match-up as Wesley So will be facing off against a 12 year old phenom from Victoria-FM Jason Cao. Jason won the world under 10 championship a couple of years ago and now he is in a surprising share of second place at the International. Still trying to overcome the nearly 700 point rating gap would be quite a challenge for him. Wesley on the other hand will need a win to guarantee first place in the tournament. On board 2, IM Edward Porper from Edmonton will face off against GM Robin Van Kampen. Edward recovered nicely from a bad start, as yesterday he managed to draw against Wesley with black, and followed it up with an upset victory over GM Eric Hansen.

There are a couple of Calgarians who are doing quite well and deserve a special mention. Behrooz Ebrahim-Shirazi and Georgi Kostadinov don't play much locally, but they are proving to be some of the best players in the city as they have 4 and 3.5 points respectively. Today they have a tough challenge as both face off against GMs.


The games start at 3 pm today and they can be followed live at: http://calgaryinternationalchessclassic.com/Games.html


The Reserves section started yesterday. The rating favourite is Brad Booker (2214), but there are some other potential contenders, as well. You can follow the details of that tournament by clicking on the Reserves portion of the website.


Tomorrow the last round will start at 1 pm.

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Vlad Rekhson
Executive Director
Alberta Chess Association
website: www.albertachess.org
email: vrekhson@yahoo.ca
phone: 403.970.8032