Chess to Follow

This week 3 major events start. In St Louis, USA Carlsen, Aronian, Nakamura and Kamsky play a double round robin tournament. This will be Carlsen's last event before the World Championship match so it is being closely followed by the chess world. The first games start today with a mini match between USA and RoW, Carlsen-Kamsky and Nakamura-Aronian. I will be catching up with the news the day after it happens, as the time zones are not good for live coverage in Australia. The games of the Sinquefield Cup start about 5am Melbourne time, so I might get to see the finish of the games.

 Meanwhile in Turkey, the World Junior Championship starts later this week. This will be weaker than it possibly should be due to the original venue being too close to war torn Syria's border. The late change of venue by Turkish organisers (last week) didn't allow for players who had decided not to play to change their minds, so there are some notable absentees. Saying that, it is still a pretty good field with Wesley So of the Philippines the top seed. Unfortunately for me, there are no Australian or English competitors to follow. However, the tournament games start on Friday and run through till Thursday 26th in a 13 round swiss format.

The third event starting this week should be the most prestigious. The Women's World Championship starts on Tuesday. The match between Anna Ushenina and Yifan Hou is being held in China and has attracted little media attention in its build up. The fact that China's Yifan Hou is an overwhelming favourite to take the match. and because the men's elite tournament is happening simultaneously in the USA, I guess this event will rate lowly in order of importance. To be honest, I'm a bit mystified as to what is actually happening with the women's World Championship. There was a knock out World Championship held last year, and a Grand Prix series. Reigning World Champion, Yifan Hou, won the Grand Prix qualifying her for the World Championship match. Yet Anna Ushenina won the World Championship tournament making her the World Champion. It therefore seems a bit odd that we need a World Championship tournament one year, and a World Championship match in the next year. Or am I missing something? I can't seem to find a website for this event, so I'll be following it on TWIC for now.

I quite enjoyed playing tipster for the recently finished World Cup so I'm warming to the task and will set out my choices for these events. By the way, I am currently on 20% correct, so please don't listen to anything I say!

St Louis: Aronian to win
World Junior: So for the boys, and Goryachkina for the Girls
Women's World Championship: Yifan Hou to regain her title