Day 2: Giri holds lead
Anish Giri drew all 5 games on Day 2 of the Skilling Open, but that was enough to retain the sole lead after Sergey Karjakin took down Magnus Carlsen in the final round of the day. Of the 8 highest classically rated players only Levon Aronian would currently miss out on the knockout stage, with his replacement a certain Hikaru Nakamura. Hikaru fell to a tactical blow from Liem Quang Le in the first game of the day but beat Ian Nepomniachtchi in Round 10. Another frenetic day of five rounds of 15+10 rapid chess left the standings as follows before the final five rounds of the preliminary stage on Tuesday. The Top 8 players after the preliminary stage go forward to a knockout stage, where each match is held over two days. Text and photo: chess24.com Official site: https://championschesstour.com/
Ukraine wins Online Friendship Team Tournament
The Belarusian Chess Federation and FIDE Chess Academy in Belarus supported by FIDE joined efforts to organize the International Online Friendship Chess Team Tournament. The 7-round Swiss Team event with the time control of 10 minutes + 5 seconds was held on Tornelo online platform from 21st to 22nd of November 2020. 28 teams representing 26 federations took part in the tournament. Each squad consisted of 6 players (two players aged under 12, two players aged under 10, and two players aged under 8) plus a captain/representative. Ukraine, Latvia-Riga Chess School, and China entered the competition as the rating-favorites and two of them delivered on promises taking two top spots. The Ukrainian youngsters made just one draw winning six matches. By a twist of tournament fortune, the champion did not clash with the runner-up, team China that also won six matches but suffered one defeat. Team Greece took bronze. The finals standings are based on the match outcomes and an anti-cheating report by Tornelo. The winners were awarded free online lectures by Boris Gelfand, Ruslan Ponomariov and Antoaneta Stefanova. Final standings: 1. Ukraine – 13 out of 142. China – 123. Greece – 104. Armenia – 105. Belgium – 106. Belarus-Gomel – 97. Belarus-Minsk – 98. Lithuania – 99. Belarus-FIDE Chess Academy – 810. Slovakia – 8