New grades are out!

The latest ECF grades have been published. You can find them here.

Hughes, Jonathan 83   
Hanson, T Jim 88   
Rathbone-Jones, Ifan 91           
Williams, Gerry 102       
Taylor, Macey 103
Allix, Lorna 105           
Sommerville, Gordon 115               
Hough, Steve G 118           
Wilson, Andrew 119           
Lowens, Brian 128           
Dodd, Quentin 131           
Owens, Richard 134           
Salt, Frank 140           
Aldridge, David 141       
Dunning, Stephen 142           
Jefferies, Liam 143       
Barber, Andrew 160           
Pearcey, David 161   
Thomas, Mark 167

Winners

The following winners were announced at our AGM last week:

The John Coleby shield for best young player went to Ifan Rathbone-Jones.

lndivual Club Championship was won by Gordon Sommerville.

Well done, Ifan & Gordon.

Stockfish is a clear winner

Chess engine Stockfish beat Komodo in the 6th running of the TCEC final. The score was +13 -6 =45.

The games can be found here. Komodo won the final game in a King's Gambit Accepted.

The good news is that Stockfish can be downloaded for free here. Version 5 has just been released.

Computer Chess Final underway

The 6th final of the TCEC Computer Chess competition for chess engines is underway, with Stockfish taking an early lead over Komodo.

Follow the games here.

FIDE Candidates Tournament 2014

Anand wins with one round to spare. He leads by 1.5 points, ahead of five players in equal second place.

FIDE Candidates Tournament 2014

Anand seems on target to win the tournament and face Magnus Carlsen for a World Championship rematch later this year. There are two rounds to go, and Anand has a clear point lead. Aronian will need to outscore him to take the title. In round 12, Anand could afford to draw in a winning position (though admittedly, the computer says he is winning, but it might have been hairy, to say the least).

#	Name		Pts	S-B
1	Viswanathan Anand		7.5	43.75
2	Levon Aronian		6.5	37.75
3	Shakhriyar Mamedyarov		6	35.5
	Sergey Karjakin		6	34.5
5	Vladimir Kramnik		5.5	34.25
	Dmitry Andreikin		5.5	33.5
	Veselin Topalov		5.5	33.25
	Peter Svidler		5.5	32

FIDE Candidates Tournament 2014

After 9 rounds, Vishy Anand has extended his lead. Before today's games, He and Aronian were both on 5 points, but Aronian lost while Anand won. Tomorrow is a rest day, and the games continue on Tuesday. There are 5 rounds to go.

                                                       SB

1	Viswanathan Anand		6	25.75
2	Levon Aronian		5	22
3	Vladimir Kramnik		4.5	20.5
	Sergey Karjakin		4.5	19.5
	Shakhriyar Mamedyarov		4.5	18.75
6	Dmitry Andreikin		4	17.75
	Peter Svidler		4	17
8	Veselin Topalov		3.5	16.75