Veselin, Vishy, Fabiano and more

Veselin Topalov couldn't recover from his bad start in Bilbao and was finally placed only fifth with 9 points out of 30 (players had 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw), with a poor 2585 performance. Well, you can say this was just a rapid blindfold tourney, but I think that if a top level GM can't prove his strengh in such a competition, it will be hard for him to prove it elsewhere. The event was astonishingly dominated by Chinese GM Bu Xiangzhi: he scored 21 points with 6 wins, 3 draws and only 1 loss, with a 2903 performance! Sergey Karjakin from Ukraine was second on 17, Magnus Carlsen from Norway took third place on 16. Official site: http://www.ajedrezbilbao.com/.
Meanwhile, a strong "classical" event (a double round robin tourney) has just finished in Hoogeveen (Holland). Azeri GM and Elo favourite Shakhriyar Mamedyarov won with 4.5 points out of 6, Dutch idol Loek Van Wely took second place by beating former world champion Ruslan Ponomariov from Ukraine in the last and decisive round and finished on 4 (Pono was third on 3.5). Armenian young star Zaven Andriasian, 2006 Junior World Champion, lost all his games: a very bad result that can only be explained with an awful preparation or a really bad form or some kind of illness. We hope the first or second option. Official site: http://www.essentchess.nl/.
We receive (from Ian "globetrotter" Rogers) and publish a photo by R. Ramu of Vishy Anand on his return to his home city of Chennai after winning in Mexico. Vishy waves the Indian tricolour flag as photographers jump to their feet at the start of the 5 km chariot ride. Just click on it to enlarge. Thank you very much Ian and Mr. Ramu!


Least but not last, we are pleased to inform you that Italian 15 y.o. GM Fabiano Caruana will take part to the 2007 Italian championship (to be played in Martina Franca in November 23 to December 4) and the Wijk aan Zee C group (in January 2008) with the sponsorship of "Torre & Cavallo Scacco!", a very well known Italian monthly chess magazine edited by IM Roberto Messa. "This economic contribution (3,000 euros) wants to be a sign of gratitude to a young man who is doing something wonderful with complete dedication and passion", Roberto writes in a press release (I hope my translation is not too bad). "Above all, it wants to be an example for other agencies or private firms that will assist in collecting the baton and help Fabiano Caruana in a more significant and lasting way, in order to achieve the highest goals, for which the best coaches are needed and all conditions that his family has managed to ensure him so far". Furthermore: "Next year Fabiano will be registered for the new "Torre & Cavallo Scacco!" Chess School, which will be located at the Municipal Library of Sarezzo (Brescia), where the National Library of Chess is established since 1996". Well, this looks to be a new era for Italian chess... You can read the full press release (in Italian) at http://www.messaggeroscacchi.it/dblog/articolo.asp?articolo=107. If you want to enter the "Torre & Cavallo Scacco!" Chess School just write an e-mail to info@messaggeroscacchi.it.
And now here is a position from a bullet game (1') I played yesterday :-) With only a few seconds on his clock, White could find a nice way not to lose on time... Can you find it too?

White to move
Post your solution (do not use chess programs: it is easy!) and you'll receive my congratulations :-).