FIDE Candidates 2024: Pairings announced
The countdown of the FIDE Candidates 2024, the first-ever such competition in America, began on February 28 in Toronto, Canada with the drawing of lots for the Candidates and the Women’s Candidates. It was held in the famous Torontian chess pub Madison Avenue by the Chief Arbiter Aris Marghetis (Canada), assisted by the key members of the local Organizing Committee for the FIDE Candidates, WGM Anna Burtasova, Salim Belcadi, and GM Evgeny Bareev in the presence of over a hundred of chess fans. For the first time in history, both open and women’s events will take place simultaneously in the same venue. The participants of both competitions, 8-player double round-robins, received the following starting numbers: FIDE Candidates 2024: FIDE Women’s Candidates 2024: Order of drawing In accordance with the General Rules and Technical Recommendations for Tournaments / 06. Restricted Drawing of Lots, the players of the federation with the most number of representatives were drawn first. Where two or more federations had the same number of representatives, precedence was determined by the alphabetical order of the FIDE country code. Among players of the same federation, precedence was determined by the alphabetical order of their names. Candidates 2024: first draw 3 Indian players, then draw 2 USA players, then draw 3 remaining players. Women’s Candidates 2024: first, draw 2 China players, then draw 2 FIDE players, then draw 2 Indian players, then draw 2 remaining players. Note that standard Berger Tables for both double round robins have been modified so that none of the players ever has the same colour three times in a row. It is achieved by switching rounds 6 and 7, which has been a longstanding practice. FIDE Candidates and Women’s Candidates 2024 full pairings You can watch the entire drawing of lots on FIDE YouTube channel. Photos: John Upper
PICF 2024 Masters: Abdusattorov leads halfway through
The Prague International Chess Festival 2024, featuring Masters, Challengers, and Futures tournaments, crossed its halfway point after five days of play. Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan) and Parham Maghsoodloo (Iran) got off to a great start in the Masters event, scoring 3/4, but in Round 5, their paths diverged. The Uzbek GM convincingly outplayed Mateusz Bartel and is going to the rest day as the sole leader as the Iranian miraculously saved a lost rook endgame facing Richard Rapport. If Nodirbek continues in the same vein in the second half of the event, he will debut in the top-10 Open in the April rating list. Abdusattorov scored his most spectacular win so far in Round 3 against David Navara. In this see-saw game, Nodirbek had an advantage first, then misplayed it completely and found himself in a desperate situation. Luckily for him, David made a natural move 28…Rxf7, grabbing the bishop (instead of 28…Bh7!) but missed a stunner. Nodirbek Abdusattorov – David Navara 29. Rd6!! All the rest is simply bad for White, but with this brilliant move, Abdusattorov sealed the deal after 29…Rc8 30. Nxf7+ Qxf7 31. Rxd4 b3 32. b6 Rc2 33. Qf3 b2 34. b7 Qf8 35. Rdd1 Rc5 36. Qb3 1-0 Richard Rapport is the third remaining player scoring over 50% (3/5), while Praggnanandhaa R, David Navara and Gukesh D are sitting on 2.5/5. Standings after Round 5 Masters Anton Korobov of Ukraine and young prodigy Ediz Gurel from Turkey (pictured below) are sharing the lead in the Challengers event with an excellent score of 4/5. Jaime Santos Latasa of Spain is in third place, trailing the leaders by a half-point. Standings after Round 5 Challengers Aansh Nandan Nerurka of India leads the Futures tournament, a full point ahead of Pawel Brzezina from Poland. Tomas Andre and Evangelia Siskou are tied for third place. Standings after Round 5 Futures Photos: Petr Vrabec Official website: praguechessfestival.com/