Round 1 Pairings:
Carlsen – Ivanchuk
Alekseev – Karjakin
Eljanov – Svidler
van Wely – Shirov
Nisipeanu – Volokitin
Onischuk – Jakovenko
Official website: http://www.ukrchess.org.ua/aerosvit2008/index_e.htm
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
The superstars battle in the 1st round
Sandbaggers allowed and supperted at the Marshall Chess Club in NYC.
With the following I am hoping I can raise awareness of an unfair situation that is happening at my local chess club. For the past couple of months I have attended the monthly tournament rated 1600 and under. Unfortunately, the organizers of these tournaments have created a cloud over the event since for every one of these tournaments they are allowing the same group of folks rater above 1600 to enter the tournament at the last minute….sometimes even delaying the registration until they arrive to the event. Now, two additional common practices from the organizers add salt to this wound:
1. Every time these folks have joined one of these tournaments, there have been an open tournament running along this one. So these above rated players really had another tournament that they should have been directed to join in the same premises….but none of the organizers ask them to.
2. This might be pure coincidence….but after 6 tournaments in a row we really doubt it: These players always get to face a low rated player in their first round, for example: 1700 vs 1100 (or under) etc.
Yes, I know that this might not be the right topic to post this, but we are trying to raise awareness of this situation and will be posting this note at various sites (USCF for example). If anyone can direct us to the right place to submit this complaint, it will be highly appreciated.
Magnus does well to draw his first round.
Carlsen won.