Ian Nepomniachtchi entered the final round of the 2010 European Chess Championships with a half-point lead on the field, giving him the rare opportunity to win the tournament outright with a win in the final round. The task handed to the young Russian GM wasn't easy, though; he did have White, but he'd have to win against Vladimir Akopian.

The two faced off in a Ruy Lopez, with Nepomniachtchi creating a very strong passed a-pawn in the middlegame that was too much for Akopian to handle. After 41 moves, Akopian resigned, leaving Nepomniachtchi as the clear champion of Europe. Just a half-point behind to share second were fellow Russian Artyom Timofeev and Baadur Jobava of Georgia. Pia Cramling had a more difficult road for her rival. She entered the final round a half-point behind the leader, Lithuanian IM Viktorija Cmilyte. However, she did have a shot to control her own destiny, as Cramling had the white pieces in a final round game against Cmilyte. Although Cmilyte appeared to have the better of the game early, Cramling fought her way back to victory after a 74-move struggle to take clear first and the Women's European Championship. Cmilyte held on to clear second, while five players shared 3rd, a full point behind Cramling. It's a rare sight to see two Swiss System tournaments featuring elite players to finish with clear winners, but there's no doubt that it's preferable to the alternative. Clear winners are easy to understand and give the champions more stature than when winners are determined by rapid or blitz games. Of course, that's not always avoidable, but it's great to see someone win a tournament in regulation for a change.

The Amber Blindfold and Rapid tournament is probably the closest thing chess has to an all-star game: a collection of top-flight players fighting it out in a fun format that may not feature the highest quality of play, but certainly brings a lot of fun to the table. For the last few years, the tournament has been played right on the Mediterranean in Nice, France. These players play rapid games all year long, but blindfold play is a unique spectacle. Not everyone enjoys the blindfold games; if you're following them online or going over them afterwords, they simply look like games from average grandmasters who occasionally make outrageous blunders. On the other hand, I imagine it's quite a sight to see live, and the possibility of a major mistake happening at any moment does add a different kind of tension to the games.

As usual, each player will play two games against every opponent, one rapid, and one blindfold. Alexander Morozevich dropped out for personal reasons at the last minute, but he's been replaced admirably by Alexander Grischuk. Here's the field that will be battling it out over the next two weeks:

Levon Aronian, Magnus Carlsen, Leinier Dominguez, Vugar Gashimov, Boris Gelfand, Alexander Grischuk (replacing Morozevich), Vassily Ivanchuk, Sergey Karjakin, Vladimir Kramnik, Ruslan Ponomariov, Jan Smeets, Peter Svidler

The third round of the European Individual Championships is currently underway in Rijeka, Croatia, with dozens of players in both the Men's and Women's tournaments posting perfect scores through the first two rounds. In fact, both Yannick Pelletier and Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu have already won third round games to move to 3/3 on the men's side. While I'm writing this, Pia Cramling has temporarily taken the lead in the Women's competition at 2.5/3, but 13 other players currently on 2/2 are still playing their third round games.

The official site has tons of background information, live streams and games, and more. The tournament runs through March 19th, when we'll have complete coverage of the winners and any key games in the final rounds.

Apparently, this news broke last week, but I missed it until tonight: according to a report from Deadline.com, Tobey Maguire (probably best known as the title character in Spider-Man) is heavily involved in a film going by the title of Pawn Sacrifice, about the famous 1972 match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky. According to the article, Maguire may even play the leading role of Fischer himself!

It seems way too early to comment on a movie when there's so little public information available about it. On the other hand, here's a fun topic: who would you cast to play Fischer, Spassky, or other great chess players? I wouldn't hold your breath -- biographical chess movies with all-star casts are rare, Searching for Bobby Fischer notwithstanding -- but it's fun to imagine.