Women’s Candidates Tournament (Pool A) starts in Monte-Carlo
The Women’s Candidates Tournament (Pool A) kicked off at the glamorous Hotel Hermitage Monte-Carlo with a glittering opening ceremony on October 24. The first part of the ceremony included a media reception where the journalists had the privilege to spend time with the players, asking them questions and taking photos in playing conditions. A lot of special guests attended the ceremony, and various of them had the opportunity to give inspirational speeches. It was especially the case with Dana Reizniece-Ozola, FIDE Management Board Deputy Chair, who stated that Monaco was the perfect place to celebrate the “intelligence and the beauty of women in chess”. Emmanuel Van Peteghem, secretary of the main sponsor of the event, the SBM company, added that they were very proud to support the chess discipline. Jean-Michel Rapaire, president of the Monaco chess federation, affirmed that it was a pleasure to organize once more an international tournament of this calibre in Monaco. Inna Bazhenova, another cornerstone of the event, based her intervention on the comparison between chess and art and finally, Arkady Dvorkovich, FIDE President, announced the start of the tournament, insisting on the fact that the event “will be interesting for the entire world” since the field involves players from Europe and Asia. The drawing of colours was as chic as the place where it happened. The players opened Fabergé like exquisite pearl eggs to reveal the queen chess piece, which indicated the colour. Humpy Koneru and Lei Tingjie will start with White against Anna and Mariya Muzychuk, respectively. Below you can also find a schedule for the event, as well as a short profile of each of the participants in this pool. Mariya Muzychuk Born September 21, 1992 Federation: Ukraine Rating: 2530 Mariya Muzychuk was the Women’s World Champion in 2015-16 and reached the semi-finals in the Women’s World Championship in 2018. She earned her spot for the Women’s Grand Prix 2022-23 thanks to her 4th place in the FIDE Grand Swiss 2021 held in Riga. Mariya was born on September 21, 1992, in Stryi, Lviv Region, Ukraine. She started her chess career in the village of Ugersko, where her parents used to work at a local sports school for children and youngsters. However, Mariya managed to train at home, too: her elder sister Anna used to help her along with her parents. Since she was 7, Mariya has participated in the Ukrainian youth championships; in 2002, she won the Ukrainian and European championships for children under 10. At the age of 11, Mariya was shortlisted for the Ukrainian women’s championship, then she won the world youth championship for children under 14 and later repeatedly won medals at the European and world youth championships. Her success at the European women’s championships brought Maria the title of women’s grandmaster, and in 2008 she was awarded the title of International Master. After taking her first serious steps into professional chess, Muzychuk was admitted to the Ukrainian national team (while her elder sister was playing for Slovenia); as a member of the Ukrainian national team, she was the silver medalist (2018) and a three-time bronze medalist (2012, 2014, and 2016) of the Olympiads, as well as the women’s World and European (2013) champion as a member of the Ukrainian team. Moreover, she won the gold medal at the 2018 Olympiad holding the best result on the second board. She is a two-time Ukrainian women’s champion (2012 and 2013). Muzychuk got her moment of glory in the 2015 knockout World Women’s Championship in Sochi: after outplaying Yuanling Yuan, Monika Socko, Antoaneta Stefanova, Humpy Koneru, Harika Dronavalli, and Natalija Pogonina one by one, the Ukrainian grandmaster became the fifteenth Women’s World Champion. In March 2016, Mariya Muzychuk failed to defend her title in a match against Hou Yifan, China. In 2014, Mariya Muzychuk won the first women’s prize at a prestigious Gibraltar Open tournament. Her beginning of this year has been fruitful: she won the second women’s prize in the same tournament, demonstrating an impressive performance with the score of 2718 points. Mariya Muzychuk holds the honorable FIDE Caissa award as the best women’s chess player in 2015. At the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament 2019 (Kazan, Russia) Mariya Muzychuk was the only woman chess player to defeat the tournament’s winner, Aleksandra Goryachkina, with their match game having been awarded the special prize for being the most beautiful game of the tournament. Like many other Ukrainian players, Mariya had to reallocate abroad since the start of the war, and for the last months, she has been living with her sister in Valencia, Spain. Despite the added difficulties, Mariya successfully defended the first for Ukraine at the Chennai Chess Olympiad, leading her team decisively contributing to a historical gold medal. Tingjie Lei Born March 13, 1997 Federation: China Rating: 2535 Throwback to the FIDE Grand Swiss 2021 in Riga, round 10: after making a draw against Mariya Muzychuk, the leader of the women’s event Lei Tingjie became the winner of the competition with one round to spare (!!) and qualified for the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament. This huge achievement is certainly the peak of her career, at least for now… Lei was born on the 13th of March 1997 in Fuling District, an area in Chongqing. The municipality of Chongqing, roughly the size of Austria, includes the city of Chongqing as well as various discontiguous cities. It is located in the Southwest of China. In 2014, at the early age of 17, Lei won the 4th China Women Masters Tournament in Wuxi on a tie-break from Ju Wenjun and was awarded the title of Woman Grandmaster (WGM) by FIDE. This was the rocket launch of her very impressive international career. In 2015, she won the women’s open event of the Moscow Open, ahead of World Junior Girls Champion Aleksandra Goryachkina (playing in the B Group of the Women’s Candidates). Lei has very convincingly represented team China on various occasions and just to mention the two most outstanding performances, she was part of
Uzbekistan to host Pool B of Women’s Candidates Tournament
The FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich announced today, during the opening ceremony of the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament in Monaco, that Pool B for this event will be hosted in the ancient city of Khiva, in Uzbekistan. The event will take place from November 28 to December 11. This bracket will see the clash between the 2020 runner-up Aleksandra Goryachkina, Alexandra Kosteniuk and Tan Zhongyi as the top finishers at the FIDE World Cup 2021, and Kateryna Lagno as one of the top-three finishers at the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix 2019–2021. Under the new knock-out format, players in each of the two brackets or “pools” will play a four-game match (plus tie-breaks, if needed) in order to advance to the next stage, with the final match being played over the distance of six games. The prize fund for this pool is €70,000, while another €110,000 will be at stake in the Women’s Candidates Final, raising the total to a record-breaking amount of €250,000. With a current population of about 90,000 inhabitants, Khiva was founded approximately 2,500 years ago and was once one of the most important cities on the silk road. In modern times it has been overshadowed as a tourist attraction by its neighbouring cities of Tashkent and Samarkand, but as of recent, it is receiving the interest it deserves, thanks to its preserved architecture. Regarded as the capital of the Turkic world, it offers visitors a clustered array of mosques, madrassahs, and tiled minarets. Khiva is now receiving worldwide attention as a destination, and it was declared the tourist capital of the Islamic world in 2024. Photo: Fulvio Spada
Year of the Woman in Chess: New podcast episode released
The FIDE Podcast is one of the major initiatives born under the umbrella of the Year of the Woman in Chess, as cooperation between FIDE’s Commission for Women’s Chess, Michael Busse of Schachgeflüster podcast and Lilli Hahn of the Chess Sports Association. Its monthly episodes present a series of interviews with remarkable women in the chess world. During 2022 the FIDE Podcast featured a four-time Women’s World Chess Champion Hou Yifan, an American chess player, commentator and writer Jennifer Shahade, the first female President of a chess federation in Africa Susan Namangale, a Woman Grandmaster, doctor of psychology and a university professor Jana Krivec and other outstanding female role-models. The guest of the October episode is Harika Dronavalli, an Indian Grandmaster, #12 in the women’s ranking list. Harika won three bronze medals at the Women’s World Chess Championship in 2012, 2015 and 2017. Her recent achievement was winning the bronze medal with the Indian women’s team at the Olympiad in their home country. As if not impressive enough on its own, Harika played in the Olympiad during her ninth month of pregnancy and gave birth to a baby girl just two weeks after. In the podcast, Harika Dronavalli talked about combining her chess career with pregnancy and motherhood. “When it was announced that India is going to host the Chess Olympiad, I realized that maybe this is a possibility for me to play, because I could travel, as Chennai is very close to my place. I was still not sure because it would be my last trimester. When I asked my doctor, she said it’s not so difficult to play if you’re healthy. It’s even easier to play during pregnancy than immediately after the delivery. That’s when I contacted my federation and told them that I could play.” “I knew some cases when people played in early trimesters or during the sixth month of pregnancy. But I’ve never heard of someone playing during the ninth month. I was not sure how this would do, but I believed in my decision that somehow things would work, and everything would go smoothly until the end of the tournament.” Now Harika is enjoying her new phase in life and not playing in chess tournaments, however, very soon, she plans to be back to chess. “It is not as easy as I thought, even though there are so many people around. I am enjoying the new phase of life, I am figuring out how to handle things. And I am glad that Asia Games got postponed, as I realized how hard it would have been to participate after the delivery. Right now, I am just taking a pause and enjoying my new phase, trying to be a good mom to my baby.” “Chess has always been my life since childhood. Even now, my whole idea would be to come back to chess as early as I can, and at the same time to be a good mother to take care of my baby. Luckily, I have a family very close nearby who can take care of the baby even better than me, so I don’t need to worry about travelling. But for now, I’ve taken a pause for two to three months, and then I am hoping to come back soon. Maybe I would play Tata Steel Rapid and Blitz Women’s tournament and the World Rapid and Blitz. Next year will be very crucial because of many important tournaments – Women’s Grand Prix, Grand Swiss, and Asian Games. So I need to find some time to work on chess and get back as soon as I can.” Talking about the Year of the Woman in Chess, Harika said that she noticed many positive changes for women in chess. “From the time I’ve started women’s chess, it developed on a much larger scale. The prize funds are getting bigger and bigger, the more tournament opportunities are made for female players. I’d say that it is a very positive sign that things are going well in women’s chess. I believe that they will get even better for the next generations.” – she said. 9th episode of the FIDE Podcast promises to be no less interesting. It will feature Shohreh Bayat, an Iranian chess arbiter awarded an International Women of Courage Award in 2021. The episode dedicated not only to chess, but to fight for women’s rights in Iran will be published in early November. You can listen to the October episode of the FIDE podcast on the following platforms: Podbean Amazon Music Google Podcasts Youtube
Are ready to Random?
By GM Jonathan Tisdall The 2022 FIDE World Fischer Random Chess Championship is about to begin. The event will get its second official edition, this time in Reykjavik from 25-30 October 2022 — 50 years after Iceland’s capital first captured the attention of the classical chess world when it hosted the legendary Fischer-Spassky title match in 1972. The survivors and the seeds The road to Reykjavik has been either gruelling or easy, depending on the route taken. The qualification format is still in its infancy and has tried to strike a balance between being unusually open to the wider chess world than a traditional title cycle while also accommodating seeds and wildcards. The final eight here is the same amount as the traditional chess world’s Candidates Tournament, but there is one less ‘open’ spot since the champion does not sit and wait outside as a ‘final boss’, but joins the quarter-finalists in Fischer Random (FR). The FR titleholder, US Grandmaster (GM) Wesley So, is joined by dethroned runner-up — and classical world champion — Magnus Carlsen. Two players have been granted wildcard berths in the event: local representative and top-rated Icelandic GM Hjörvar Steinn Grétarsson and FIDE presidential pick Ian Nepomniachtchi, two-time classical title challenger and semifinalist in the inaugural FIDE Fischer Random championship in Norway in 2019. Photo: David Llada They will be joined by a quartet that have fought their way here over a horde of online competitors. Two of these — Vladimir Fedoseev and Matthias Blübaum – emerged from the chess.com online site qualifiers, open only to FIDE-titled players. Fedoseev will be a familiar face for Fischer Random fans — an aggressive, creative player, he was eliminated by remorseless champion So in the quarterfinals in 2019. German GM Blübaum is an exciting newcomer to the late stages of this event. The qualifiers held by the online site lichess.org represented the ‘democratic’ format of this particular world championship, with the first stages open to all players, so even those without titles or big credentials could test their skills at this form of the game and dream of adventuring far in the competition. The two winners were, nevertheless, decorated GMs. US GM Hikaru Nakamura is not only one of the best-known players in the world thanks to his popular streaming endeavours, but he is also a Fischer Random shark. When the effort to revive and raise the variant as a serious alternative to the classical game got off the ground in 2018 with an unofficial title match in Norway, Nakamura took on ‘conventional’ world champion Carlsen. Hikaru was chosen based on his 2009 match win over elite GM Levon Aronian, which was the final hurrah of the first series of elite FR events in Mainz, Germany. The other lichess qualifier in Reykjavik is Uzbekistani prodigy Nodirbek Abdusattorov. The just-turned-18-year-old has already managed to acquire an Olympic gold team medal and a World Rapid Chess Championship title for his trophy cabinet. Photo: Lennart Ootes From group to KO The players will be divided into two groups of four, with two advancing from each section, in World Cup football style. The semifinals and finals will be elimination matches, and the final day will also see duels involving all the players to determine each of the prize spots, depending on where they placed earlier. Besides the FIDE world title at stake, the players will be competing for a purse of USD 400,000 and a hefty first prize of $150,000. A return to human combat Historically, interest in playing chess variants with the piece positions shuffled has been fueled by a desire to make a break with charted knowledge in the opening phase of the game. As classical chess has been transformed by the influence of engine power, this long-held fear that the game was being overly worked out has finally become more realistic, with vast amounts of memorized ‘perfection’ beginning to burden top-level chess. The vista of 959 uncharted territories means that Fischer Random more or less erases book learning and that players are on their own from virtually the first move. The starting position will be revealed a scant 15 minutes before the start of play, and the players can consult with one designated human assistant — but no one and nothing else — in the brief intervals before the games begin. This opening clean slate makes Fischer Random hugely appealing to many — maybe most? — elite players who are freed from their usual intense and meticulous levels of preparation and can play with discovery and delight again. Paradoxically, it is often this aspect of the variant that can be an obstacle to acceptance with amateur players, who can feel lost without their favourite openings. In practice, this part of the game can be a great leveller, with stronger players more likely to stray or err early than would ever happen under ‘traditional’ circumstances. It is rare that a Fischer Random game never reverts to looking like ‘chess’, with how, and how long, this process takes being one of the most fascinating aspects of its play. Essential info The games rules are extremely simple: the pieces on the players’ first row are shuffled at random, with two factors kept in mind — the bishops must not be on the same colour square, and there must be a rook on either side of the king, to allow for castling. The rules of castling are the same as classical chess — but it is often the most shocking and eye-catching element of the variant since it usually happens from a very different starting point. For this event, the starting position will be redrawn at random if, by some chance, the classical set-up emerges from among the 960 alternatives. The chief arbiter will be Omar Salama, who has vast experience at major FIDE events, and is also both a FIDE Trainer and International Organizer. The rest of the officiating team are arbiters Shohreh Bayat and Ingibjörg Edda Birgisdottir — the latter will have
Abdulla Gadimbayli and Govhar Beydullayeva win FIDE World Junior Championship
Azerbaijani players rule supreme in the 2022 FIDE World Junior Championship that came to an end in Sardinia. Abdulla Gadimbayli (pictured below) and Govhar Beydullayeva of Azerbaijan took titles in very close competitions in both open and girl sections. The open event was a nail-biter until the very end. Adam Kozak (Hungary) was coming into the final round on 8/10, a half point ahead of Gadimbayli, with as many as nine players trailing the leader by a full point. Abdulla played a very exciting game with his compatriot Mahammad Nuradli that ended in a draw. Francesco Sonis (Italy) and Nikolozi Kacharava (Georgia) scored very important victories and caught up with Gadimbayli. Now all eyes were on the encounter between Leon Luke Mendoza and Adam Kozak (pictured below), in which the Hungarian needed just a draw to clinch the title. However, Adam did not manage to hold an inferior endgame down an exchange playing on a 30-second increment and threw in the towel on the move 83. As a result, five players tied for first place, with Abdulla Gadimbayli claiming gold thanks to slightly better Buchholz (just 0.5 points) over Adam Kozak, who had to settle for silver. The bronze medal goes to Nikolozi Kacharava. Final standings: 1 IM Gadimbayli, Abdulla AZE 2499 8 2 GM Kozak, Adam HUN 2516 8 3 IM Kacharava, Nikolozi GEO 2512 8 4 GM Sonis, Francesco ITA 2531 8 5 GM Mendonca, Leon Luke IND 2558 8 6 GM Esipenko, Andrey FID 2668 7½ 7 GM Nesterov, Arseniy FID 2567 7½ 8 IM Samunenkov, Ihor UKR 2473 7½ 9 GM Petkov, Momchil BUL 2511 7½ 10 IM Davtyan, Artur ARM 2517 7½ Ironically, the leader in the girls section Govhar Beydullayeva (pictured below), also lost her final round game, but it went without consequences as she had a full-point cushion and better tiebreaks (direct encounter win) over her main rival Assel Serikbay from Kazakhstan. Assel did her best, beat Yelyzaveta Hrebenshchykova (Ukraine) and scored equal points with Beydullayeva, but it was only enough for silver. Four players tied for third place, but Meruet Kamalidenova (Kazakhstan) pulled out bronze thanks largely to her last-round victory over the champion. Final standings: 1 WGM Beydullayeva, Govhar AZE 2356 8½ 2 WIM Serikbay, Assel KAZ 2181 8½ 3 WIM Kamalidenova, Meruert KAZ 2376 8 4 WIM Urh, Zala SLO 2221 8 5 FM Jarocka, Liwia POL 2089 8 6 FM Kurmangaliyeva, Liya KAZ 2199 8 7 FM Schulze, Lara GER 2266 7½ 8 IM Salimova, Nurgyul BUL 2415 7 9 Hrebenshchykova, Yelyzaveta UKR 2268 7 10 WFM Hajiyeva, Laman AZE 2138 7 Photo: Przemek Nikiel Official website: fideworldjunior2022.com
2022 FIDE World Amateur Championships kicks off in Malta
The 2022 FIDE World Amateur Championships took off at the 4-star Conference Hotel “Paradise Bay Resort” in Malta. Running from October 20-30, the event brought together 197 players from 51 federations, including 27 title-holders. FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich kicked off the championship with the ceremonial first move 1.e4. The event is held over four sections: U 2300, U 2000, U 1700 and Women U1700. Women playing in the open sections U 2300 and U 2000 will be eligible to win prizes from both categories. All the competitions are 9-round Swiss tournaments with classical time control. The final ranking order of the players is determined by the number of points scored. If at the end of the tournament, two or more players are tied for first place or any prize, the tie will be broken in accordance with the following criteria: 1. Results of direct encounters between the tied players (applies only if all tied players have played each other). 2. Buccholz Cut 1 3. Buccholz 4. The greater number of games played with black 5. The greater number of wins Photo: Andreas Kontokanis
Jan-Krzysztof Duda reigns supreme in Aimchess Rapid
Jan-Krzysztof Duda fended off a fierce comeback from Shakhriyar Mamedyarov to win the £150,000 Aimchess Rapid, his second Meltwater Champions Chess Tour title this season. Poland’s reigning World Cup winner came into today’s second day of the final needing just a draw to secure the tournament after a 3-1 first-match win. But Mamedyarov roared back to take the first two games of the second rubber. When Duda made the shock decision to take a quick draw in the third, perhaps to regroup, Mamedyarov was level and the match headed to tiebreaks. It seemed a questionable decision from Duda, but it worked as the 24-year-old Pole took the first blitz tiebreaker and then Mamedyarov blundered in the second to make it game, set and match. Duda was typically hard on himself afterwards, despite the win. “I’m extremely happy and joyful that I’ve managed to win the tournament,” he said. “But today’s performance was very, very bad I think and I would like actually to forget about the games I played in rapid…” The result was fully deserved for Duda. He topped the leaderboard in the all-play-all prelim stage and then knocked out Tour Champion Magnus Carlsen in the semis. Duda then outplayed the in-form Mamedyarov, who had a brilliant tournament himself. Grandmaster David Howell said Duda was simply the best player in the event: “He showed it in the prelims, he started fast, he kept it up every day and despite the dips which are inevitable in any player’s tournaments, he finished on a bang as well. Those blitz games, despite what he says, were very impressive.” Shakh’s explosive comeback started with a bang in Game 1 but sadly ended in a blunder in the blitz tiebreak. Under huge pressure in the first game, Shakh gave up his queen for a rook with 22…Bxc4. Duda was streets ahead according to the computer, but the Azerbaijani had set him problems down the line. Shakh, playing from Baku in Azerbaijan, found one last card to play and launched an imaginative rook attack that crashed though to set up a win. Duda resigned after 34…Be1+. The second game was even more thrilling. Shakh sacrificed a knight to blow Duda’s defence wide open with 13. Nxe6. Shakh castled to get his king to safety and then, with Duda’s king still stuck in the centre, swung his queen over to open a new angle of attack with the killer 18. Qh3. Duda’s defenses collapsed. Shakh had won two games in a row and now needed just a draw to level the score in matches and take the final to tiebreaks. Everything rested on the final game but Duda shocked everyone. Rather than try to win two games on demand, Duda decided to force a draw with a well-known quick 14-move drawing line in the Italian Opening. Both players headed straight to the blitz playoff. If Duda did it to get off his tilt, it worked. The first blitz tiebreak was over in 20 moves as Shakh went for a trick with the double-attack 19. Be8, but it backfired as Duda played the calm 19… Bg6 attacking three pieces at once. Shakh threw in the towel and resigned. The Azerbaijani number 1 needed to win the second on demand but blundered badly before Duda found the knockout blow with 32. Rxc4. Duda is now second on the 2022 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour leaderboard going into the final event next month in San Francisco with Magnus Carlsen already having sealed the overall Tour title. Mamedyarov qualifies for that event starting on November 14 along with Carlsen, Arjun Erigaisi, Duda, Praggnanandhaa, Liem Le and two more players.
2022 U.S. Championship: Fabiano Caruana and Jennifer Yu clinch titles
Text: NM Vanessa West GM Fabiano Caruana is the 2022 U.S. Champion, clinching his second title with a draw in the 13th and final round of the tournament against GM Levon Aronian, a first-time competitor in the U.S. Championship. The U.S. Women’s Championship was decided in a playoff between GM Irina Krush and WGM Jennifer Yu. Krush drew a hard-fought game vs. IM Anna Zatonskih. Meanwhile, Yu scored a must-win victory vs. WGM Thalia Cerventes, tying with Krush and getting a rematch for the title. U.S. Championship – Final Standings U.S. Women’s Championship – Standings after Round 13 2022 U.S. Championship GM Fabiano Caruana vs. GM Levon Aronian ½-½ Twelve minutes into the game, the opponents had already played 34 moves into a repetition draw. However, this was not your typical quick GM draw. As Caruana later explained: “Normally I would’ve liked to play, at least a little bit. Of course a draw is a good result in the last round, considering the tournament situation… It’s a big day for Levon, and I thought it would be wrong for me to play this game.” Catch his full post-game interview on our YouTube Channel. Caruana and Aronian drew before the delayed broadcast even began but for an atypical reason. | Photo courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Lennart Ootes GM Ray Robson vs. GM Jeffery Xiong ½-½ Ray Robson fought for the win and his chance at a playoff for the title but lost his advantage when Jeffery Xiong counterattacked on the kingside. Robson pressed with a small edge for over 30 moves, but with 38…f5 Xiong took over the advantage after 39.Bxf5 Qxh4 40.Bxd7 Nxd7. The players fought for 72 moves before drawing. | ½-½, 72 moves Though they drew, Robson and Xiong came ready for a fight and dueled for over five hours. | Photo courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Lennart Ootes GM Dariusz Swiercz vs. GM Christopher Yoo 0-1 The youngest player in the U.S. Championship, Christopher Yoo, finished on a victory, winning a tactical game vs. GM Dariusz Swiercz. Yoo sealed the victory with 33…b4! breaking the pin on his queen with a double attack against the Swiercz’s queen and rook. | 0-1, 33 moves GM Leinier Dominguez vs. GM Sam Shankland ½-½ Though both players were hoping to have a chance to play for the win, Leinier Dominguez vs. Sam Shankland ended in a 10 move draw. Shankland explains his disappointment with this result in his interview after the game: “I’m sorry for how this ended. I’ve been one of the most vocal critics of people making this Qe4-Qd4 draw in the Berlin. I wrote in my Chessable course that anyone who does this more than once with white just shouldn’t be invited to tournaments. I just felt like I owe the world an apology…” GM Elshan Moradiabadi vs. GM Aleksandr Lenderman 0-1 Aleksandr Lenderman finished his tournament on a victory, battling for the upper hand vs. GM Elshan Moradiabadi for 72 moves. The rest of the games ended in draws. 2022 U.S. Women’s Championship WGM Thalia Cervantes vs. WGM Jennifer Yu 0-1 Jennifer Yu won a critical game with the black pieces vs. her closest competitor, Thalia Cervantes. Yu recaptured with 42…cxd4 when she has great pressure on her opponent between her active rooks on kingside outposts and passed d-pawn. After 43.Rc4 d3 44.Ra4 Ne5 45.Rxa5 Ng6, Black’s knight joined the attack, and Yu soon crashed through on the kingside. | 0-1, 57 moves Yu came through in the last round, giving her the opportunity at a rematch vs. Krush for the championship. | Photo courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Crystal Fuller GM Irina Krush vs. IM Anna Zatonskih ½-½ Irina Krush and longtime rival Anna Zatonskih fought a close game to a king vs. king draw. Though Krush pressed her edge with white for a while, Zatonskih consolidated and after 56…Qc5, the players traded into a balanced ending, drawing on move 87. | ½-½, 87 moves Krush will fight for her ninth U.S. Women’s Championship title in the playoff vs. Yu. | Photo courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Lennart Ootes FM Alice Lee vs. WIM Megan Lee 0-1 Megan Lee capped off her tournament with a king attack victory. Megan Lee ripped open Alice Lee’s kingside with 17…Nxg3! and won material to boot after 18.cxd5 (if 18.hxg3 Qh1+ 19.Kf2 Ne4+ 20.Bxe4 fxe4 21.Ne5 Bxe5 22.dxe5 Qf3+ 23.Kg1 Rh1#) 18…Nxf1 19.Bxf1 exd5 | 0-1, 60 moves Megan Lee finishes her tournament with an attacking victory. | Photo courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Crystal Fuller FM Rochelle Wu vs. WGM Sabina Foisor 1-0 Rochelle Wu defeated Sabina Foisor with a clever interference tactic to win material. Wu played 30.Bd6! cutting off the defense of the d2-rook to win the exchange after 30…R2xd6 31.cxd6 Qxd6 Qxf5 | 1-0, 60 moves WGM Tatev Abrahamyan and Sophie Morris-Suzuki also finished their tournaments with victories while Begim Tokhirjonova and Ruiyang Yan drew. With the U.S. Women’s Championship hanging in the balance, the playoff between WGM Jennifer Yu and GM Irina Krush was a thrilling fight between these fierce competitors from start to finish. In the end, Yu won the playoff in an armageddon tiebreak, gaining her second title, and becoming the 2022 U.S. Women’s Champion. Jennifer Yu, our 2022 U.S. Women’s Champion | Photo courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Lennart Ootes U.S. Women’s Championship – Final Standings Playoff Game 1: Jennifer Yu vs. Irina Krush 1-0 In an incredibly close game with both clocks down to mere seconds, the players repeated the position twice. Jennifer Yu paused. Her 13 seconds began to tick away when she declined the repetition draw offer and found the key checkmating idea. Yu played 45.Qf7!, and there’s no way for Black to escape the checkmate threats on g8 and h7. The game finished with 45…Qxf8 46.Qxh7# | 1-0, 46 moves Yu wins the first game to gain the match lead. | Photo courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Lennart Ootes Playoff
Magnus Carlsen wins 2022 Meltwater Champions Tour with event to spare
Magnus Carlsen sealed the overall Meltwater Champions Chess Tour title for the second year running – this time with an event to spare – after storming into the semi-finals of the Aimchess Rapid. Norway’s world number 1, going for a hat-trick of tournament wins in the Tour’s penultimate event, scooped a $50,000 prize on top of his overall winnings so far of $192,500 and the title of 2022 Tour Champion. Going into today’s quarter-finals, Polish ace Jan-Krzysztof Duda was the only player who could catch him yet needed Indian teen Arjun Erigaisi to knock out Carlsen and then to win November’s final Major of the season. The 31-year-old had to work in the opening game of his quarter-final match as Erigaisi played some of his best chess against the champ to go thee pawns up and set up a seemingly easy win. Carlsen, however, never gives up and opened his full box of endgame tricks to claw his way back into the game. Erigaisi wilted under the pressure and after 137 moves Carlsen escaped with a draw. Carlsen, as he so often does, then took advantage of the Indian teen’s ebbing confidence to follow-up with two crushing wins. It ensured Carlsen’s relatively smooth passage into the Aimchess semi-final – where the Tour Champ and Duda will meet – and decided the 2022 Tour Champion. Duda, playing from Krakow, dominated the prelim stage and carried his form into the knockout as he also beat his Indian opponent, Vidit Gujrathi, 2.5-0.5 with a game to spare. Duda said: “I wouldn’t call it easy, I think it was unexpected that I won the match in three games.” With Duda and Carlsen facing off in one semi, the other will be fought by Azerbaijani ace Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Romania’s number 1 Richard Rapport with both overcoming teenage prodigies. It meant all the teenagers were knocked out of the Aimchess Rapid. Rapport beat Gukesh D who, like Erigaisi, scored a win against Carlsen in the prelim stage. It took Rapport 167 moves to triumph in an epic final game to deny his teenage opponent tiebreaks. Meanwhile, the experienced Mamedyarov knocked out the World Rapid Champion Nordibek Abdusattorov 2.5-0.5. For Gukesh and Abdusattorov their runs to the last eight were hugely-impressive. The semi-finals begin tomorrow at 18:00 CEST. Every move will be streamed live and for free on chess24.com/tour and on chess24’s Twitch and YouTube channels.
Philippines and Mongolia win Intercontinental Championship for Prisoners
Teams of the Philippines and Mongolia became the champions of the second Intercontinental Online Chess Championship for Prisoners after winning the final of the biggest-ever chess event among correctional facilities. The tournament was organized by FIDE and the Cook County (Chicago, IL, USA) Sheriff’s Office and coincided with the International Day of Education in Prison. The men’s section saw two matches: Colombia and the Philippines fought for gold, while El Salvador and India competed for the bronze medals. The Philippines won both their matches against Colombia (2.5-1.5 and 3-1) in the final and came out on top. The victory came as a result of the hard work of both players and prison officials. A year ago, the team finished 5th in the inaugural event. When preparing for the second championship, prisoners were trained by some Philippines’ strong chess masters, including Winston Silva, Shrihaan Poddar and Jail officer 1 Cedrix B Cabangal. Players worked on chess every day, watching videos and chess tutorials and analyzing their games. In the match for bronze, India prevailed over El Salvador. FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich attended the online closing ceremony of the 2nd Intercontinental Online Chess Championship for Prisoners and congratulated the finalists: “I would like to congratulate all participants, all teams, and everyone who was involved. I hope you enjoyed playing, representing your countries and, most importantly, that you improved your skills by learning and playing chess and communicating with other people. We all hope that at some moment of your life, you will be free to make your own choices, and chess will help you to make those choices rationally.” Final matches in men’s and women’s competitions ran concurrently. The Women’s final between Mongolia and Serbia ended with a victory for Mongolian team; Serbia claimed silver medals. The women’s match for third place between England and Trinidad and Tobago was not played due to technical reasons. Both teams shared third place. It is the second gold medal of the Intercontinental Championship for Prisoners under team Mongolia’s belt. A year ago, the country won gold in the open competition of the inaugural event. It was hardly a big surprise, as Mongolia has a long-standing tradition of teaching chess in prisons. Since 1956 chess tournaments have been organized in all correctional units of the country. The winners were greeted by the Deputy Chair of the FIDE Management Board Dana Reizniece-Ozola: “I think that the fact that this is already the second year when we see the gold medals being awarded to Mongolian teams is proof of their dedication to Chess in Prisons programme that has been already running in Mongolia for decades. There’s no easy way to success; you have to work a lot and invest a lot of time and resources. My congratulations also to the other teams that participated. My understanding is that even though there are only three medals in each competition, you’re all the winners. You have increased your stress resistance and experience, strengthened your team spirit, and you have represented your country in this great event.” In the youth section, the winners were determined on Friday, October 14. Team Serbia lifted the trophy after defeating England in the final. The bronze medal went to team Ecuador. The three-day tournament aimed to popularize chess as an efficient tool for reintegrating incarcerated people stretched over five days from October 13-17, 2022. The event attracted 85+ teams from 46 countries representing all continents, providing an opportunity for inmates to play with their peers across the globe.