Wesley So wins FIDE Grand Prix Berlin
The last battle of the entire 2022 FIDE Grand Prix series organised by World Chess has finished on the 4th of April. In the final match tiebreaker, Wesley So outplayed Hikaru Nakamura by a score of 1½:½ and won the third leg of the Grand Prix in Berlin. The tournament winner and the runner-up looked happy at the closing ceremony as both of them could celebrate the success in the tournament. Despite the result of the final match, Hikaru Nakamura qualified for the FIDE Candidates Tournament 2022 and became the overall winner of FIDE Grand Prix Series 2022. Richard Rapport, who is the second in the overall standings and also punched his ticket to the Candidates, while Wesley So took third place in the Series. After the match ended, Wesley So said: “I am only 28, and I’m hoping that next year or in a couple of years, I will get a chance to play in the Candidates. The last time I played, I was very inexperienced and finished second to last, so I think if you qualify, you have to be ready to fight for first place.” Hikaru Nakamura: “The odds [of winning the whole series] were probably 10-15% before everything began. I was quite fortunate in the first leg as I got players who hadn’t played as much; they weren’t sharp.” In the first tiebreaker game, Hikaru chose the Bishop opening, which Wesley So didn’t expect to see on the board today. However, Wesley played confidently with Black and got a serious positional advantage by move 15. Hikaru showed his excellent defensive skills, and after a couple of mistakes by the opponent, he managed to create a very dangerous attack on the kingside. It was Wesley’s turn to find the only moves to stay in the game. After several evaluation swings in this complicated topsy-turvy game, the opponents split a point in a drawish rook ending. In the second game, the Berlin Defense in Ruy Lopez was played. White managed to get a pleasant edge, but the position seemed quite balanced until a certain point. Wesley exchanged the queens at the cost of doubling his pawns on the d-file but engineered some initiative in the center. On the 32nd move, Hikaru made a terrible blunder 32…c6 and after a simple refutation 33.Bxe5 found himself in a hopeless position. Wesley emerged a piece up and then slowly but surely converted his advantage to win the game and the match. FIDE Grand Prix Series 2022 final standings: Player Berlin Belgrade Berlin Total Hikaru Nakamura 13 10 23 Richard Rapport 7 13 20 Wesley So 4 13 17 Levon Aronian 10 2 12 Dmitry Andreikin 10 10 Amin Tabatabaei 3 7 10 Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 3 7 10 Leinier Dominguez 7 2 9 Sam Shankland 4 4 8 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 7 1 8 Anish Giri 7 0 7 Vidit Gujrathi 3 4 7 Nikita Vitiugov 3 3 6 Alexandr Predke 3 1 4 Grigoriy Oparin 0 4 4 Andrey Esipenko 4 0 4 Vincent Keymer 0 4 4 Radosław Wojtaszek 4 4 Vladimir Fedoseev 2 1 3 Yu Yangyi 0 3 3 Daniil Dubov 3 0 3 Alexander Grischuk 2 0 2 Pentala Harikrishna 2 0 2 Etienne Bacrot 0 2 2 Alexei Shirov 0 1 1 The FIDE Grand Prix Series is brought to you by World Chess. Leading partners supporting the FIDE Grand Prix Series 2022 include: Kaspersky as the Official Cybersecurity Partner; Algorand as the Official Blockchain Partner; Prytek as the Technology Transfer Partner; FIDE Online Arena as the official Partner. Photo: FIDE Grand Prix Berlin Press kit
FIDE announces World Senior Team Championship 50+, 65+
The International Chess Federation is excited to announce the FIDE World Senior Team Chess Championship 50+ and 65+, to be held from June 19-30, 2022 in Acqui Terme, Italy. The tournament will be played in four categories: age 50+ and 65+ (open and women). The event is a Swiss System team competition with teams of five players (4 board players + 1 optional reserve player). The time control is 90 minutes for 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game + 30 seconds per move starting from move 1. The prize fund of the Championship is €10,000, with the winners of the open section getting €1,200 EUR and winners of the women’s section receiving €400. Trophies and medals will also be awarded to the top-3 teams in each category. There will be additional prizes (cups & medals) in each board, for the top-3 individual board winners. The first round of the tournament kicks off on June 20, 2022; the winners will be determined on June 29. Schedule: June 19th – Registration, Welcome evening June 20th – Technical Meeting, Opening Ceremony, Round 1 June 21st – Round 2, special program June 22nd – Round 3, Blitz Fide Rated June 23rd – Round 4 June 24th – Round 5, Blitz Fide Rated June 25th – rest day June 26th – Round 6 June 27th – Round 7, Italian themed dinner June 28th – Round 8, special program June 29th – Round 9, Closing Ceremony, Prize awards June 30th – Departures The event’s programme also includes visits to museums, a blitz tournament and FIDE Arbiters Seminar. Registration of the participants should be done by May 25, 2022, using the registration form on the tournament’s website. Registration fee Each player pays a €100 registration fee, which includes registration, accreditation, badge, and transfer from and to Tjrino airport. There is no FIDE entry fee. For further information, please visit the official website of the Championship: Tournament regulations (pdf)
Lajos Portisch celebrates his 85th birthday
Lajos Portisch, a renowned Hungarian grandmaster, has turned 85 today. Portisch is not just an outstanding grandmaster who has participated in the Candidates eight times (both matches and tournaments). Lajos is more than a player who has been in the world’s top ten for a quarter of a century; he is more than a unique fighter capable of defeating three world champions in the same tournament. Portisch is a symbol, a brand, a role model. One may not have Tal’s creativity, not be a brilliant intuitive player like Karpov, not burn himself out in every game like Korchnoi, but one can still be consistently at the top through hard work, determination and a strong personality. Photo: Koch, Eric / Anefo He has been called the Hungarian Botvinnik. Although this comparison is not a hundred per cent correct (Mikhail Moiseevich cited his game played with Portisch in 1968 as an argument against it), they have much in common. An analyst of the highest level, who created entire opening concepts, solid, strategically thinking, ruthless to himself, Portisch has always epitomized a fundamental approach to chess. It is hard to call him a player or an athlete – Lajos has always been more like a scholar. And when I read about how “Portisch had prepared this improvement in the quiet of his home laboratory,” it was a real laboratory I imagined. Portisch’s aristocratism, exceptional strength, and scientific approach to chess made him one of the most respected players in all corners of the globe – despite his somewhat dry style. Photo: gahetna.nl Portisch feared no one, and although fallen short compared to the greatest, he has always been an undaunted fighter – Lajos led his team to Olympic gold in 1978 and shared first place in 1980. He deserved full credit for Hungary’s being a true chess country all these years. Lajos played at the highest level in his 40s and 50s. In 1987 he qualified for the Candidates for the last time in his career. Six years later in 1993, Portisch was very close again, even though he was 56 years old and battled with Gelfand, Ivanchuk, Anand, Kamsky and Kramnik (to whom he lost a decisive game for a qualifying spot). The Hungarian Grandmaster kept up his remarkable strength until the end of the nineties, but after turning sixty, he drastically reduced his participation in tournaments, devoting most of his time to music. Interestingly, during our meetings, we talked more often about singing rather than chess. We have different repertoires, but he spoke about his beloved Schubert and how to sing it properly so passionately that it became clear how much that subject meant to him. Photo: olimpia.hu/ So twenty years flew by – the years dominated by music – just like Smyslov’s and Gligoric’s lives at this age. However, even on the threshold of his eightieth birthday, Portisch played in tournaments very confidently, not the least bit embarrassed that most of his opponents were half a century younger. And when Lajos was already in his ninth decade, he put forward his candidacy for the captain of the Hungarian national team and took it very personally when this position was not given to him. I haven’t spoken to him for a long time, but back in 2019, Lajos was still actively following events in the chess world, commenting knowledgeably and not without a pinch of salt. We always talked with him in Russian, which Portisch speaks as brilliantly as English and German. Photo: ChessBase Lajos is a fascinating character, and those who paint him as a “cold fish” are wrong. Even though, Portisch played into that image sometimes. I wish the Hungarian Grandmaster many more years and a creative tone. And thank you, Maestro, for your contribution to chess! Emil Sutovsky, FIDE Director General
Indian Championships: Erigaisi and Deshmukh clinch titles
Arjun Erigaisi and Divya Deshmukh are new champions of India. The Open and Women’s Championships 2022 were held concurrently but in different Indian states. Both events were dominated by young players. The MPL 58th Senior National Chess Championship, an 11-round Swiss tournament with classical time control, took place from 25 February to 3 March 2022 in Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh, India). The event attracted 184 players from all over the country. The recent winner of Tata Steel Challengers Arjun Erigaisi and Gukesh D were heading to the final round as the joint leaders on 8/10, a half-point ahead of a big group of six people. Both leaders drew their games and made a half-step forward while among their pursuers, only Iniyan P scored a victory over Mithabha Guta to catch up with the duo. As a result, three players tied for the first, with Erigaisi taking gold thanks to better Buchholz. The same variable favoured Gukesh D (silver) over Iniyan P (bronze). Final standings: 1 GM Erigaisi Arjun 2633 8½ 2 GM Gukesh D 2614 8½ 3 GM Iniyan P 2516 8½ 4 GM Aravindh Chithambaram 2611 8 5 GM Aryan Chopra 2585 8 6 IM Koustav Chatterjee 2466 8 7 GM Karthikeyan Murali 2622 8 8 GM Visakh N R 2522 8 9 GM Sethuraman S.P. 2619 8 10 IM Pranav V 2486 8 In a glittering closing ceremony, BCCI Vice President Shri Rajiv Shukla awarded trophies and prize money cheques to the winners – Rs.6,00,000/-, 5,00,000/-, and 4,00,000/- for the top-3 places, respectively (Rs. 10,000/- is approximately $1,316) The MPL 47th Indian Women’s Championship is a 9-round Swiss tournament was held from 25 February to 2 March 2022 in Bhubaneswar, India. 16-year-old Divya Deshmukh becomes the National Champion of India. Divya won the title scoring impressive 8/9, and finishing a full point ahead of three players who shared second place. On her way to the victory, Divya beat such strong players as Vaishali, Bhakti Kulkarni and many others. She became the second teenager after Humpy Koneru to win Women’s National Championship. The champion picked 25 rating points and took home a solid prize of Rs.55000 (US$7250). Three players tied for second place with Chitlange Sakshi and Priyanka Nutakki, claiming silver and bronze respectively by dint of better Buchholz over Srija Seshadri. Final standings: 1 WGM Divya Deshmukh 2301 8 2 WIM Chitlange Sakshi 2205 7 3 WIM Priyanka Nutakki 2301 7 4 WGM Srija Seshadri 2219 7 5 IM Soumya Swaminathan 2360 6½ 6 IM Vaishali R 2403 6½ 7 IM Padmini Rout 2350 6½ 8 WGM Gomes Mary Ann 2361 6½ 9 WIM Priyanka K 2227 6½ 10 WIM Parnali S Dharia 2224 6½ Photo: All India Chess Federation Facebook page