Chinese Championship 2022: Dai Changren and Tan Zhongyi win titles
Dai Changren and Tan Zhongyi are the new champions of China. The 2022 Chinese Championship took place in Xinghua, Jiangsu province, from November 2-11 and was held in open and women’s sections. Both tournaments were 12-player round robins with classical time control. In the absence of top Chinese players, the open event caused a minor sensation as the #10 in the starting list Dai Changren (pictured below), scored 7/11 and finished clear first, a half point ahead of Zhao Jun (6½/11), who took silver. Two players tied for third place, with Xu Xiangyu claiming bronze thanks to better Sonneborn-Berger over Li Di. The event was a very close competition, with neither player completing the tournament unbeaten. Final standings: 1 IM Dai Changren 2515 7 2 GM Zhao Jun 2600 6½ 3 GM Xu Xiangyu 2577 6 4 GM Li Di 2539 6 5 IM Lou Yiping 2490 5½ 6 GM Liu Yan 2532 5½ 7 GM Xu Yi 2502 5½ 8 GM Lu Shanglei 2605 5½ 9 GM Bai Jinshi 2569 5½ 10 GM Xu Yinglun 2553 5 11 GM Zeng, Chongsheng 2604 4 12 IM Xu Zhixing 2504 4 The women’s event was quite a different scenario as the rating-favourite Tan Zhongyi (pictured below) dominated the field. Despite losing to Xiao Yiyi, she netted an impressive 9/11 and came out on top 1½ ahead of her main competitor who claimed silver. It is the second national title in her career. There was a tie for third place in the women’s competition as well, with Guo Qi edging out Zhai Mo by dint of slightly better tiebreaks. Final standings: 1 GM Tan Zhongyi 2514 9 2 WGM Xiao Yiyi 2326 7½ 3 IM Guo Qi 2391 7 4 WGM Zhai Mo 2371 7 5 WIM Song Yuxin 2311 6½ 6 WGM Ni Shiqun 2370 5 7 Zhang Lanlin 2200 5 4 WGM Li Xueyi 2297 4½ 9 IM Wang Yu 2276 4½ 10 WIM Chu Ruotong 2224 4 11 WIM Ren Xiaoyi 2207 3½ 12 Yuan Ye 2086 2½ Photo: official website Official website: cca.imsa.cn/
Resolution on transfer regulations approved by FIDE Council
The FIDE Council at its meeting on October 17th, 2022, has resolved to approve the following Resolution regarding transfer regulations’ review: To study transfer regulations and potential for their improvement. To appoint the following working group: Chair of the Working Group, FIDE Vice-President Mr. Michael Khodarkovsky with Representative of the FIDE General Strategy Commission (to be appointed by GSC) and a Representative of the Qualification Commission (to be appointed by QC). To instruct the working group to publish information on the start of their work and invitation for FIDE Federations, officials and all other interested individuals to provide suggestions on transfer regulations amendment. To specify that suggestions as per point 3 above should be provided within one month from the date of this Resolution. To instruct the working group to: – analyze received suggestions; – analyze various circumstances related to players migration; – provide drafts of recommended changes to the transfer regulations based on the aforementioned analysis. In this connection, we are hereby inviting all Federations-members of FIDE, officials and all other interested individuals to provide suggestions on transfer regulations amendment, to be sent to the FIDE Office (office@fide.com) for the attention of the Working Group, by December 5th 2022.
Almaty to host FIDE Rapid & Blitz Championships 2022
FIDE is happy to confirm the dates and the venue for the World Rapid and Blitz Championships 2022. The prestigious event will take place in Almaty, Kazakhstan‘s largest metropolis, set in the foothills of the Trans-Ili Alatau mountains. The championship will be played on its traditional dates, between December 25 (arrival and opening) and December 30 (last playing day and closing). The event is made possible thanks to the agreement with Freedom Finance, which becomes a General Sponsor of the event. Freedom Finance Investment Company is an investment company that is a part of Freedom Holdings (Nevada, USA), trading symbol FRHC. The company is engaged in investment banking, asset management, and capital markets services. Freedom Holdings owns the Kazakh bank Freedom Finance, the online store Freedom24 and the Kazakhstani broker Freedom Finance JSC, among other assets. More details, including information about hotels, visas etc. will be published by November 15. There is a large number of countries (over 100) that can benefit either from visa exemption to Kazakhstan, or a simplified procedure to obtain a single-entry electronic visa issued through the Visa and Migration Portal. Photo: advantour.com
Lei Tingjie wins her spot in the Women’s Candidates finals
The 4th and final classical game of the semi-finals between Anna Muzychuk and Lei Tingjie kicked off by Marie Noelle Gibelli, a member of the National Council of Monaco, making the ceremonial first move. Marco Biagioli, Mitropa President and External Manager of the Italian Chess Federation, also was in the playing hall watching the game. Lei’s first move hardly surprised anyone as she has always played 1.d4 for the whole event, and this last game was no exception. The exchange Grunfeld was tested again, but this time White played 7.Qa4+ to deviate from the previous game. At the post-mortem analysis, Lei said that she knew 11…Bg4 was an inaccuracy, and Black had to exchange Queens to hold in the endgame. Lei thought she was better after 19.Re4 since she had a space advantage and the bishop pair. Engines find the position still holdable for Black but very difficult to play. And indeed, Anna missed the idea of 19…Nc8 followed by 20…Qe5 and 21…Nd6 and after 19…Rfc8 20.Bg4 Rd8 21.c4 found herself in dire straits. Lei got a considerable advantage, won some material a few moves down the road and very convincingly converted it in the endgame afterwards. Final position. One of White’s passers inevitably promotes 1-0 Huge congratulations to Lei Tingjie, who showed a very high level of play, eliminating both Muzychuk sisters with two wins with the White pieces in the classical segments. There is still a lot of chess to be played as the Pool B of the FIDE Women’s Candidates is not far away. The event will take place in Uzbekistan from the 28th of November to the 11th of December. See you there to meet Lei’s opponent for the finals then! Official webstie: womenscandidates.fide.com Text: WGM Andreea Navrotescu Photo: Michał Walusza ORGANIZERS: PARTNERS:
Winners crowned at 2022 European Senior Team Championships
The 2022 European Senior Chess Championships (50+ & 65+ age categories) concluded yesterday in Dresden, Germany. A record number of 79 teams took part in the event, with more than 370 players representing their federations. Both The top rated England 50-1 won the 50+ section (a 9-round Swiss tournament) with a round to spare and scored very convincing 17 match points. Berlin 1 and Germany tied for the second place scoring 14 match points, each. According to tiebreaks criteria (Olympiad-Sonneborn-Berger), Berlin 1 claimed silver and Germany had to settle for bronze. The best ranked women’s team was Germany 1 that netted 8 match points and tied for the first place with Germany 2, but came out on top thanks to better tiebreaks. Schachköniginnen Heidenau finished third. Final standings 50+: 1 England 50-1 17 2 Berlin 1 14 3 Germany 14 4 Slovakia 13 5 Berlin 2 11 6 Bielefeld 11 7 Österreich 11 8 England 50-2 11 9 TU Magdeburg 11 10 Graal-Müritz/Teterow 10 German Lasker Schachstiftung GK team won the 65+ category with 15 match points, after defeating Sweden 1 in a direct final round match for medals. Finland 65 and Germany 3 tied for the second place scoring 13 match points, but the Sonneborn-Berger favored Finland 65 (silver) over Germany 3 (bronze). The best ranked Women’s team was Germany with 7 match points. Final standings 65+: 1 Lasker Schachstiftung GK 15 2 Finland 65 13 3 Germany 3 13 4 Sweden 1 13 5 Schweiz 13 6 SC Kreuzberg Berlin 12 7 Cercle d’Echecs de Strasbourg 12 8 England 65 – 1 11 9 Germany 2 11 10 Germany 1 11 The winners of the event received trophies and medals, and the title of European Senior Team Chess Champions 2022 for the respective category. The total prize fund of the event was 6,000 EUR. Text: europechess.org Photo: official website Official website: schachfestival.de/
FIDE Women’s Candidates: No risks taken
After a well-deserved break day, the third game of the semi-finals between Anna Muzychuk and Lei Tingjie was launched by two VIPs again. This time, Pascal Camia, Operational Director at Casino Hotel Hermitage, and Ivan Ljubicic, former tennis player, Olympic medallist and coach of Roger Federer, made the first ceremonial move. The latter guest also kindly agreed to make an appearance on the official broadcast and joined GM Alojzije Jankovic. Queens were exchanged relatively quickly after Anna essayed a trendy idea of 7.Nxc6, 8.Qd3 and 9.Qg3 in the Paulsen Sicilian. Then on move 12, Muzychuk played a4, which visually looked like she was giving up control over the b4 square. At the post-game interview, Anna said that she did not think 12…Bb4 was a big deal since she could react with 13.Bd2. The next critical moment happened on the move 23 when Anna decided to go for an opposite-colour bishops endgame by taking on d6 (23.Rxd6). The engines do not quite agree with this decision and prefer to maintain the pressure on the board by playing 23.g4!? The point is to prove that the black structure and, particularly, the e4 pawn are weak. After Lei found the precise sequence 23…Rxf1+ followed by 25…Rxf2+ equalizing on the spot, there was nothing special to play for. Fourteen moves down the road, a draw was signed in a dead-equal opposite-colour bishops endgame. The last classical game of the match with Lei having White pieces will be played on November 5. Will there be a tiebreaker? Let’s wait and see! Official webstie: womenscandidates.fide.com Text: WGM Andreea Navrotescu Photo: Michał Walusza ORGANIZERS: PARTNERS:
2022 Asian Continental Championship: Praggnanadhaa and Nandhidhaa clinch titles
India dominated the 2022 Asian Chess Championship, which came to an end in New Delhi on November 3. Indian players swept the podium in both open and women’s sections, with Rameshbabu Praggnanadhaa and Pallathur Venkatachalam Nandhidhaa winning the titles. Both events were 9-round Swiss tournaments with classical time control. The open tournament was a very close affair that came down to the wire. Suffice it to say that with just two rounds to go, there was a four-way tie for the first place, with six players sharing second trailing the leaders by a half-point. In the penultimate round, the top-rated player in the starting list Praggnanadhaa (pictured above) scored a crucial victory over Kostav Chatterjee and pulled ahead of his main competitions Shamsiddin Vokhidov and Harsha Bharathakoti, who faced each other and split a point. In the final round, Praggnanadhaa drew with his compatriot Adhiban and finished clear first on 7/9 as neither of his rivals managed to win. As many as six participants tied for the second place, with Bharathakoti and Adhiban B taking silver and bronze, respectively, by dint of better tiebreaks. Interestingly, the top five finishers completed the event unbeaten. Final standings Open: 1 GM Praggnanandhaa R IND 2687 7 2 GM Harsha Bharathakoti IND 2582 6½ 3 GM Adhiban B. IND 2603 6½ 4 GM Narayanan.S.L IND 2663 6½ 5 GM Vokhidov Shamsiddin UZB 2568 6½ 6 GM Sethuraman S.P. IND 2645 6½ 7 GM Karthik Venkataraman IND 2486 6½ 8 IM Pranesh M IND 2442 6 9 IM Viani Antonio Dcunha IND 2342 6 10 IM Pranav Anand IND 2502 6 The women’s event was a totally different scenario. The thirteen-rated Nandhidhaa P V (pictured below) grabbed the lead after Round 6 and never looked back. The 26-year-old from Tamil Nadu netted an impressive 7.5/9 and clinched the title with a round to spare. Priyanka Nutakki lost to the champion in the leaders’ clash, but by pulling off a very important win over Padmini Rout in the final round, she tied for second place with Divya Deshmukh and Vo Thi Kim Phung. The silver medal goes to Priyanka Nutakki, thanks to better Buchholz; Divya Deshmukh took the bronze. Final standings Women: 1 WGM Nandhidhaa P V IND 2309 7½ 2 WGM Priyanka Nutakki IND 2326 6½ 3 WGM Divya Deshmukh IND 2338 6½ 4 WGM Vo Thi Kim Phung VIE 2335 6½ 5 FM Kurmangaliyeva Liya KAZ 2199 6 6 WGM Nguyen Thi Mai Hung VIE 2217 6 7 IM Padmini Rout IND 2390 6 8 WIM Aakanksha Hagawane IND 2162 5½ 9 IM Mohota Nisha IND 2181 5½ 10 WGM Vantika Agrawal IND 2362 5½ The event also served as qualification for the next year’s World Cup with the top four players in the Open and two players in the Women category securing their berth in the World cup. GM Rinat Jumabayev of Kazakhstan and Divya Deshmukh of India became the Asian Blitz champions in the open and women categories respectively. The blitz tournaments were held right after the final round of the main events. In a befitting closing ceremony, Deputy President of Asian Chess Federation Mr. Bharat Singh Chauhan and General Secretary Mr. Hisham Al-Taher gave away the trophies and cash prizes to the winners. Photo: Shahid Ahmed, Aditya Sur Roy and ChessBase India Official website: delhichess.com
FIDE Women’s Candidates: Slow but solid start of the semi-finals
The second semi-final encounter between Anna Muzychuk and Lei Tingjie was launched by two special guests today: Cedric Biscay, author of the Manga “Blitz”, and Stephane Lamotte, Secretary General of the Organizing Committee for the Albert 1st Centenary Commemorations. Since there were two special guests, the move 1.d4 was played twice! Anna Muzychuk opted for Gruenfeld Defence, in which the opponents followed a well-known theoretical path. White had more space and decided to take the initiative with the move 15.h4, a typical move in the Grunfeld structures, to open the h-file. Anna reacted correctly by introducing a sensible novelty 16…h6 to have an option of advancing her g-pawn when the White h-pawn gets to h5. 19.e5 played by White was certainly the critical moment of the game. Lei Tingjie made a committal decision restricting Black’s dark-squared bishop but abandoning the pawn control over the d5-square. In her post-game interview, Anna commented that it was a typical idea, and if White managed to get all the space in the center and on the kingside, she would be better. Fortunately for Black, she never was in too much danger. After the timely exchange of rooks with 21…Rb5, Anna solved all the problems and the game logically ended in a threefold repetition on the move 28. Tomorrow, November 3, will be a rest day. The players will undoubtedly make the most out of it to recharge batteries and entertain us in the third game of the match, which will take place on November 4. Official webstie: womenscandidates.fide.com Text: WGM Andreea Navrotescu Photo: Michał Walusza ORGANIZERS: PARTNERS:
FIDE Women’s Candidates semifinals: Mutual annihilation
The first game of the Women’s Candidates semifinals between Anna Muzychuk and Lei Tingjie was launched by Mrs Marlene Harnois, Taekwondo Olympic medallist and representative of the Champions for Peace Club at Peace and Sport. We also saw GM Alojzije Jankovic at the broadcast for the first time, replacing GM Igor Nataf for the rest of the tournament. It was quite a peaceful game, as Black equalized comfortably in the opening. Indeed, Anna seemed surprised by her opponent’s opening choice as it was Lei’s first time playing 1…c5 (the Sicilian Defence) in this event. Understandably, to avoid possible surprises, Anna chose a sideline against 2…e6, which led to a balanced position. Both players handled the opening very well and afer massive exchanges it gradually transposed into a rook and knight ending, in which Black seemed to have some pressure over White’s king, but it was never sufficient to claim an advantage. Lei said in the post-mortem interview that she thought the position was holdable for White despite her king being cut off on the first rank. A draw was logically agreed on move 46. This first game of the semifinals looks like a probing action for both players. We shall expect a big fight with three classical games to go, starting with the second game on November 2, in which Lei will have the White pieces. Official webstie: womenscandidates.fide.com Text: WGM Andreea Navrotescu Photo: Michał Walusza ORGANIZERS: PARTNERS:
“The Secret Ingredient” wins the Averbakh-Boleslavsky Award 2021
The Yuri Averbakh/Isaac Boleslavsky Award for the best book published in 2021 goes to “The Secret Ingredient”, co-authored by Jan Markos and David Navara and published by Quality Chess. The runners-up were “Miguel Najdorf – ‘El Viejo’ – Life, Games & Stories”, by Zenón Franco and Zeev Zohar, and “Forgotten Genius – The Life and Games of Grandmaster Albin Planinc”, both published by Thinkers Publishing. The jury was composed of three renowned Grandmasters: Antoaneta Stefanova, Thomas Luther, and Boris Gelfand. Luther shared the following comments on each book: “The search for ‘The Secret Ingredient’ to success, both in life and chess, is what this great book tries to answer. Following the advice given in this book will make each player stronger and each coach more focused on the tasks and challenges we face in life. ‘Forgotten Genius’ is a very touching book about the life and chess of Albin Planinc. Facing many difficulties in life myself, I could feel the struggle Albin Planinc endured. It is wonderful to highlight this book about overcoming challenges and learn from it about the constant and never-ending fear of losing the most important fight in life. ‘El Viejo’, a biography about the life of Miguel Najdorf, is a must-read for everybody who loves chess. While Najdorfs successful chess career and his games are very impressive by themselves, the book is a great reminder of the horrible crimes humankind faced in World War II. Reading about how Miguel Najdorf lost all his family members left me speechless and full of sadness. The book is a necessary historical document about the horrors of evil and war.” There are also three special mentions: “A Knight Without a Castle: A Story of Resilience and Hope”, by Robert Katende, gets the one to the most inspiring story. “Chess & Brain. Art and Science”, by Adolivio Capece, Razvan Sandru, Stefano Salis, and Zachary Mainen, gets the special mention to the best book for chess as art & science. And the special mention to the best instructional/educational books goes to “Los Colores del Ajedrez” (“The colours of chess”) by Jose Antonio Coleto. About the winner, “The Secret Ingredient” The Secret Ingredient is a grandmaster guide to maximizing your chess results, focusing on key elements of practical play which have received little to no attention in previous chess literature. How exactly can we best make use of computers? What’s the ideal, step-by-step way to prepare against a specific opponent? How can we optimize our time management at the board? And what’s the one key skill that separates the best players from those who have yet to reach their full potential? GM Jan Markos sheds (pictured below) light on these topics and many more, helped by the world-class insights of his good friend GM David Navara (pictured above). About the authors: Jan Markos is a Slovakian trainer and Grandmaster. His previous book, “Under the Surface”, was the English Chess Federation’s 2018 Book of the Year. David Navara is a ten-time Czech Champion and world-class Grandmaster. He is noted for combining fighting spirit with outstanding sportsmanship. “The Secret Ingredient”, by Quality Chess 2021