Following the Tal Memorial which wrapped up last week, most of the participants remained in Moscow, where they were joined by more of the world's top players. In all, 22 players competed in a 42 round, double round-robin spectacular: the World Blitz Championship. Played over three days, the tournament had a superstar field and plenty of upsets.

If there were two favorites in the tournament, they were likely Viswanathan Anand, who is not only the World Champion but is also known as a tremendous rapid and blitz player, and Magnus Carlsen, who has been playing extremely well as of late. The two players were in the lead from start to finish, with Anand holding a two point lead after the first day. However, it was Carlsen who ended up on top, finishing clear first with a 31/42 score -- three points ahead of Anand, who finished in second.

Carlsen won the event on the back of an impressive 28 wins, drawing just six games and losing eight. Conversely, Anand actually lost fewer games -- only six -- but also drew 16. Carlsen also pulled away by dominating the other leaders; he won both games against Anand, as well as against third place finisher Sergey Karjakin (25/42) and Vladimir Kramnik, who finished fourth (24.5). The tournament was competitive throughout the field, with even Alexandra Kosteniuk (last place, 12.5) scoring wins against both Carlsen and Anand.

Of course, blitz tournaments don't mean much in the grand scheme of things. Still, this is another notch in the hat for Carlsen, for whom 2009 has been a very good year. We'll soon see if he can top things off at the London Chess Classic in December, where he'll have a chance to finish the year with a tournament victory, and secure his #1 spot on the FIDE rating list.

Vladimir Kramnik may be best known for his solid play, but he's certainly capable of winning a game or two when the need arises. In the case of the Tal Memorial, he won three, which was just enough to take clear first in what was likely the strongest tournament of 2009. Kramnik finished with a 6.0/9 score, a half-point ahead of Magnus Carlsen and Vassily Ivanchuk.

There was a fair amount of drama heading into the final round, as Ivanchuk and Viswananthan Anand each trailed Kramnik by just a half point, and Ivanchuk had White against Kramnik. Anand took himself out of contention by losing to Levon Aronian with the white pieces in just 25 moves. Ivanchuk managed to get an advantage against Kramnik, but couldn't find a way to convert it, leading to an agreed draw after 29 moves, and a tournament win for Kramnik.

The other big winner was Magnus Carlsen, who recovered from being sick earlier in the tournament to finish strong with two victories in the final two rounds (over Ruslan Ponomariov and Peter Leko). Before the tournament, it was believed that a +2 score by Carlsen would be enough to overtake Veselin Topalov (who did not play in Moscow) as the number one player in the world. Sure enough, the live rating list now has him .6 points ahead of Topalov; if these ratings hold until January, Carlsen would appear on the next FIDE list at 2806, and Topalov at 2805. However, Carlsen will be playing in London next month, so it remains to be seen who will top the first official ratings list of 2010.

The 2009 Tal Memorial, being held in Moscow, boasts one of the strongest tournament fields in recent memory; you won't find many 10-player round robin events where the lowest rated participant is rated 2739 (that honor being jointly shared by Vassily Ivanchuk and Ruslan Ponomariov).  World Champion Viswanathan Anand is there, as is former champion Vladimir Kramnik, and the world's #2 player, Magnus Carlsen. Levon Aronian, Boris Gelfand, Peter Leko, Alexander Morozevich and Peter Svidler round out the field. All in all, the Memorial appeared to have the kind of field that would inspire a lot of excitement and plenty of fascinating games.

Instead, we started with two rounds that failed to produce a single decisive game! To be fair, there wasn't a problem with short draws; many of the early games were exciting games that ended with both sides picking up a half-point, not boring skirmishes where neither side had any interest in winning. Things have picked up a little since, but after four rounds, there have still only been four total wins in the tournament. Vladimir Kramnik currently has the lead with a score of 3/4, having scored wins over Morozevich and Svidler in the last two rounds. Anand and Aronian are each just a half-point back, with Anand also having scored a full point against Svidler in round three.

Another developing subplot: Carlsen entered the tournament with a reasonable chance of passing Topalov as the top-rated player in the world with a good result here (I believe he'd have to finish +2 to do so). However, Carlsen has fallen ill (he has a fever and a throat infection, which you can read about in Norwegian, or in English on ChessBase) and is taking antibiotics. He has started the tournament with four draws, so it remains to be seen if he'll be able to break through in the second half.

Vugar Gashimov scored the critical win for Azerbaijan in the final round of the European Team Chess Championships, allowing them to defeat the Netherlands 2.5-1.5 and slip ahead of Russia in the final standings to take first place. Azerbaijan and Russia entered the final round tied for first, and one of the two were guaranteed to take first unless both teams lost in the final round.

Russia, though, stumbled slightly in their final round encounter with Spain. While Alexander Morozevich scored a board two victory over Francisco Vallejo Pons, Evgeny Alexseev gave the point back to the Spaniards by losing to Ivan Salgado Lopez on the fourth board. The 2-2 draw opened the door for Azerbaijan to win outright by defeating the Netherlands.

The battle for third was also fierce, and was ultimately won by Ukraine, which scored a win over Israel in the final round to take the bronze medal on tiebreaks over Armenia.

In the Women's division, the battle for first between rivals Russia and Georgia came down to tiebreakers. In the end, the Russian women had two more board points than Georgia, which was enough to give them the gold. Georgia settled for second, while Ukraine nipped Azerbaijan for third on tiebreaks, far behind the leaders.

The tournament, held in Novi Sad, Serbia, attracted 38 Open and 28 Women's teams from across Europe. In the end, there were few surprises, but the event produced a great deal of exciting chess. Much like the European Championships in soccer (or football, for the Europeans reading this), which are second only to the World Cup in international competition, this event is likely the second biggest team competition on the chess schedule after the Olympiad. You can expect the top finishers here to figure prominently in the standings at the 2010 Chess Olympiad, scheduled for Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia.

A recent Wall Street Journal editorial in favor of abolishing women's titles in chess has generated a lot of discussion online. For a while now, this -- and similar issues, such as the necessity of female-only events in chess -- have simmered, becoming hot topics now and again whenever an article like this WSJ editorial pops up.

Reaction, not surprisingly, has been mixed. Some, like Russian GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, are strongly against taking away these titles, while Mig Greengard and others fall on the opposite side. Still others have made the point that the editorial's author, Barbara Jepson, is not a chess player herself, which may make her understanding of the issues involved less than ideal.

What is your take on women's chess titles? I honestly feel very ambivalent about them; while they do help promote strong female players who have yet to gain the equivalent "open" title (i.e., WGM vs. GM), they also lead to confusion, and can even promote the idea that lower standards are fine for woman, despite the fact that many women have proudly earned the GM and IM titles. As several other commentators have pointed out, though, women's tournaments are another issue entirely. While there shouldn't be too many of these events (I'm not sure anyone would like to see female players playing a schedule of tournaments that effectively keeps them separated from male players), these tournaments do help promote promising players, and from an early age give girls and young woman a more comfortable environment in which to develop their chess talent -- not to mention giving many girls more reasons to stay with chess, something I think most chess players would like to see.

The World Chess Championship finally has a host. The match has been awarded to Sofia, Bulgaria, thanks to a bid worth 3 million Euros backed by the Bulgarian government. According to a report by ChessBase, Turkey and Singapore were also in the running to host the event, but dropped out when Bulgaria's bid -- which includes a 2 million Euro prize fund for the players -- was submitted.

This effectively gives challenger Veselin Topalov home field advantage for the match, though the Bulgarian government has guaranteed neutrality. I think it's unlikely that there would be any material advantage for Topalov anyway, beyond the comfort of playing at home, which shouldn't be dismissed. While hometown venues have been a subject of complaint by players before, it's hard to imaging Viswanathan Anand making much of a fuss about this.

As for the 2011 World Championship, FIDE has made a decision on the Candidates Tournament designed to work around the tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The tournament scheduled for late 2010 and/or early 2011, will take place with two groups of four players competing in two different countries: one group in Azerbaijan, and the other in another country -- though not Armenia. This solution allowed Azerbaijan to host a portion of the tournament, while ensuring that Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian would not have to play in Azerbaijan. If one of the finalists is Armenian (specifically, Aronian), the tournament will be played in a neutral country; if it is between a player from Azerbaijan and a player other than Aronian (or between two players from other nations), it will be held in Azerbaijan.

It seems like a lot of work to please all sides, but at least the end result still appears to be a fairly reasonable event. Having two groups (the structure of how a winner will be determined is unclear, but a double-round robin or short matches seem likely) and a final match between the two group winners is as good a way to pick a challenger as any. If this is the most inconvenient thing FIDE has to do during the 2011 World Championship cycle, I think everyone will call this cycle a success.

Anna Zatonskih came into the US Women's Chess Championship as the top seed (just barely -- her USCF and FIDE ratings were just two and four points higher, respectively, than those of Irina Krush), but few could have predicted that she'd dominate a fairly strong field as thoroughly as she did last week, winning the event by two points without a single loss. Her score of 8.5/9 was nearly reminiscent of Bobby Fischer's 11-0 score at the 1963/64 US Championship; Zatonskih's only blemish came in a draw against Camilla Baginskaite, who finished second at 6.5 points.

The complete tournament standings show just how competitive the championship was. Even the lowest rated player, Yun Fan, scored a respectable 2.5 points, and every player recorded at least two wins. Third place was shared by Krush and each scoring 5.5 points.

This year's championship was held at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, the same beautiful venue which hosted the 2009 US Championship. The prize fund of over $64,000 was the largest ever for a US Women's Championship, with Zatonskih winning $15,000 for first place. Her performance was so impressive that even in a field that would be considered weak compared to many of the international tournaments we talk about here (the average FIDE rating of the group was just 2292), her performance rating was 2765 -- meaning she did about as well as you'd expect any super GM to do in an event of this level! Congratulations to Anna Zatonskih on a fantastic performance, and a well-earned championship.

Magnus Carlsen didn't keep up his blistering pace after starting 4.5/5 in Nanjing, but he did more than enough to win, finishing at 8/10, a full 2.5 points ahead of second place Veselin Topalov. Carlsen went an incredible 5/5 with White and also took a win with Black against Dmitriy Jakovenko without losing a single game throughout the event.

Not only did Carlsen put on a historical performance, he also crossed the 2800 barrier for the first time on the live rating list. If he hangs on to his 2801 rating until the November rating list, he'll be just the 5th place to cross that barrier on a FIDE rating list in history. The other four - Kasparov, Kramnik, Topalov and Anand - have all become world champions. Can Carlsen be far behind? He'll have to wait at least one more cycle, but all signs are pointing towards Carlsen following their path.

Maybe bringing Kasparov on board was a good idea after all. Magnus Carlsen has been utterly dominant thusfar in the Nanjing Pearl Spring Chess Tournament scoring 4.5/5 to begin the event. Who is he beating? Some of the world's top players: Veselin Topalov, Peter Leko, Teimour Radjabov and Dmitry Jakovenko have all fallen to the Norwegian youngster, with only China's Wang Yue managing to hold him to a draw. The tournament is nearly decided at the halfway point, since other than Carlsen's four wins, there hasn't been a single decisive game, meaning he already has a two point lead over Wang Yue and a 2.5 point cushion on the rest of the field.

Performances like this are rare, but not unheard of, even at the elite level. The most recent instance of such an attention-grabbing start may have come in the 2005 FIDE World Championship Tournment, where Topalov started with a blistering 6.5/7 over a field that was arguably stronger than the one in Nanjing. It will be interesting to see if Carlsen will try to continue pouring on the points to make a statement (but risk bringing one or more players back into contention should he lose), or if he'll attempt to draw out and take first place by coasting to the finish. One potential bit of drama: Carlsen appears to be about 12 points shy of Topalov on the current unofficial live ratings list. If Carlsen stays hot, or Topalov drops a game or two, it's possible that Carlsen could come out of this event as the (unofficial) world #1.

If you'd like to play over one of Carlsen's gems, here's his most recent win in the event, over Radjabov:

White: Magnus Carlsen
Black: Teimour Radjabov
Nanjing Pearl Spring Tournament 2009
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 e6 4.O-O Nge7 5.c3 a6 6.Ba4 b5 7.Bc2 Bb7 8.Qe2 d5 9.e5 d4 10.Be4 Qb6 11.d3 Rd8 12.a4 Nd5 13.axb5 axb5 14.cxd4 cxd4 15.Nbd2 Nf4 16.Qd1 Nb4 17.Nb3 Bxe4 18.dxe4 Nfd3 19.Bg5 Rc8 20.Nfxd4 Nxb2 21.Qe2 Nc4 22.Rfc1 Bc5 23.Nxb5 O-O 24.Nxc5 Nxe5 25.Be7 1-0

A field of 128 will battle in a series of knockout matches later this year at FIDE's Chess World Cup 2009, with the winner becoming one of the eight candidates in the 2011 World Championship cycle. The World Cup, taking place in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia from November 20 to December 15, features players who qualified due to rating along with those two had success in various national, regional, and worldwide tournaments and championships.

Several spots were also reserved for nominees chosen by FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, including young stars like Fabiano Caruana and Ray Robson. At the moment, only 124 spots have been filled, with the four remaining players to be chosen by the tournament organizers.

The list of participants is headed by top seed Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan, and features most of the world's top players, with several notable exceptions: Viswanathan Anand, Levon Aronian and Veselin Topalov are already qualified for the World Championship cycle, while Michael Adams, Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik and Hikaru Nakamura committed to playing in the London Chess Classic, which will be being played at the same time as the World Cup. American chess fans will have plenty of players to root for; there are 10 players from the United States in total, with Alexander Onischuk and Gata Kamsky likely to be the top American contenders in the absence of Nakamura. Kamsky won the last World Cup event in 2007.

No, short knockout matches aren't ideal for chess competitions, which is what made them a horrible choice for determining a world champion in the years when the FIDE World Championship was split from the Classical Chess Championship. However, for an event which simply seeks to give a spot in the Championship cycle, I think it works perfectly. If nothing else, the knockout format (including the rapid, blitz and "armageddon" playoff games) does generate a lot of excitement in every round, and creates fighting chess due to the high number of must-win games.  Allowing a large number of players to fight for a single golden ticket to the World Championship cycle allows some new blood the chance to participate, without turning the whole process of becoming World Champion into a lottery: which is how many players and commentators categorized the FIDE knockout events. What do you think: should a large knockout event like this one play a part in determining the World Championship?