York Vikings

The York Viking Chess Festival, which was organised by England's top promoter Adam Raoof, ended on Wednesday, with Sweden's Tiger Hillarp Persson taking the top prize in the Grandmaster A event. Alexei Barsov stumbled in the last round, but he still managed to secure his third and final grandmaster norm. Final standings:

Grandmaster A: 1.Tiger Hillarp Persson, Sweden 6.0/10 2.Alexei Barsov, Uzbekistan 6.0/10 3.Julian Hodgson, England 6.0/10 4.Emil Sutovsky, Israel 5.0/10 5.Jonathan Rowson, Scotland 4.0/10 6.Jonny Hector, Sweden 3.0/10.

Grandmaster B: 1.Danny Gormally, England 6.5/9 2.Alan Summerscale, England 5.5/9 3.Georg Seul, Germany 5.5/9 4.William Paschall, USA 5.5/9 5.Keith Arkell, England 5.0/9 6.Mark Quinn, Ireland 4.0/9 7.Irina Krush, USA 4.0/9 8.Peter Meister, Germany 3.5/9 9.Colin McNab, Scotland 3.5/9 10.Harry Lamb, England 2.0/9.

The festival also included a Masters tournament, an open section and a blitz tournament.

Further details and annotated games here: York

All results and games in pgn-format at: http://www.circuit.demon.co.uk/

*****

Belfort Supertournament

Moldavian grandmaster Victor Bologan won a convincing victory in the 4th Comtois chess tournament, which ran from December 13-22 in Belfort, France. Despite scoring only a half point out of two against top seed Alexei Fedorov, Bologan won this prestigious event with a point to spare.

Final standings: 1.Victor Bologan, Moldavia 6.5/10 2-3.Alexei Fedorov, Belarus and Jiangchuan Ye, China 5.5/10 4.Mikhail Gurevich, Belgium 4.5/10 5-6.Vadim Zviaginsev, Russia and Arnaud Hauchard, France 4.0/10

Pictures, results and games at: http://www.belfort-echecs.asso.fr

*****

Torre Memorial

The Carlos Torre Memorial ended on December 21 in Yucatan, Mexico. English grandmaster Tony Miles clinched first place on tiebreak ahead of Gilberto Hernandez, Mexico, Francisco Vallejo Pons, Spain and Reynaldo Vera, Cuba.

Further details at: http://www.torrememorial.cjb.net

*****

Arason International

Dutch favourite Manuel Bosboom had to settle for second place behind Saevar Bjarnason in the 5th Gudmundur Arason International, but he didn't fail to provide some very entertaining games. Last week we saw him nail Jacob Aagaard's head to the board - this week you can check out how "Boom-Boom" Bosboom cleaned Bjarnason's clock in only 16 moves here: Bosboom

Further details at: http://www.vks.is/skak/gudara99.html

*****

Salona International

This category 13 event, which ran from December 10 to 18 in Solin, Croatia, saw home favourite Zdenko Kozul taking top honours ahead of France's new ace Vladislav Tkachiev. Games and results at: http://www.solin.hr/salona99

*****

Russian Championship

The 52nd Russian Chess Championships have reached the quarter-final stage in Moscow. The eight remaining players are Konstantin Sakaev, Alexander Grischuk, Evgeny Sveshnikov, Alexei Bezgodov, Mihail Kobalija, Ildar Imbragimov, Alexander Lastin and Semen Dvoirys.

Daily coverage at Club Kasparov: http://www.clubkasparov.ru

*****

Linares Tournament Saved

According to a recent article in the Spanish newspaper El Pais, sponsorship for next year's Linares tournament has now been secured. This premier event, often referred to as the Wimbledon of chess, is planned to run from February 22 to March 10. It's not clear which players will be competing - the organisers usually try to obtain the top eight players in world - but Garry Kasparov is reported to have confirmed his participation.

*****

Groningen Chess Festival

Features no less than six international tournaments. Results, games and photos at: http://www.homepages.hetnet.nl/~johan-z/

*****

Ponomariov's Place

The world's youngest grandmaster, Ruslan Ponomariov, now has his own homepage at:

http://chess-sector.odessa.ua/ruslan.html

- Einar Gausel