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.
FIDE World Junior Chess Championship passes midpoint
The 2022 edition of the FIDE World Junior Chess Championship in Palmasera Resort in Cala Gonone, Sardinia, crossed the halfway mark. After six rounds of play, the participants enjoy a much-needed day off. The organizers prepared various entertainment events for the players, such as Gulf Tour – a wonderful excursion along the coast of Cala Gonone, and the Jeep Excursion – a more extreme option of going to the mountains. In the open section, as many as thirteen participants were heading in Round 6 with 4/5, but after some clashes on the top boards, the leading group dwindled to just four players tied for first place. Frederik Svane, Nikolozi Kacharava (pictured above), Adam Kozak and Batsuren Dambasuren scored important victories and now share first place. A large group that includes the rating-favourite Andrey Esipenko is trailing by a half-point. Since most of the players at the top have not faced each other yet, we can expect some exciting battles at the final stretch. Top 10 after Round 6: 1 Svane, Frederik GER 2566 5 2 Kacharava, Nikolozi GEO 2512 5 3 Kozak, Adam HUN 2516 5 4 Batsuren, Dambasuren MGL 2522 5 5 Gadimbayli, Abdulla AZE 2499 4½ 6 Isik, Alparslan TUR 2377 4½ 7 Esipenko, Andrey FID 2668 4½ 8 Sonis, Francesco ITA 2531 4½ 9 Ivic, Velimir SRB 2553 4½ 10 Horvath, Dominik AUT 2505 4½ The girls section has also been a close affair, with Govhar Beydullayeva leading the field sitting on 5.5/6, just a half-point ahead of Meruert Kamalidenova, Nurgyul Salimova, and Assel Serikbay tied for second place. With five rounds to go, this tournament seems wide open as well. An unfortunate incident occurred towards the end of Round 6. During a routine check, one of the players, Priyanka Nutakki, was found to have a pair of earbuds in her jacket pocket. While there is no indication of foul play on her part, earbuds are strictly forbidden at the playing hall. Carrying these devices during a game is a violation of fair play policies, and it is penalized with the loss of the game and expulsion from the tournament. The point scored by Nutakki in Round 6 has been awarded to her rival, Govhar Beydullayeva. The Indian delegation filed an appeal, but the Appeals Committee reconfirmed the decision. Top 10 after Round 6: 1 Beydullayeva Govhar AZE 2356 5½ 2 Kamalidenova Meruert KAZ 2376 5 3 Salimova Nurgyul BUL 2415 5 4 Serikbay Assel KAZ 2181 5 5 Urh Zala SLO 2221 4½ 6 Schneider Jana GER 2331 4½ 7 Kurmangaliyeva Liya KAZ 2199 4½ 8 Hrebenshchykova Yelyzaveta UKR 2268 4 9 Ouellet Maili-Jade CAN 2177 4 10 Schulze Lara GER 2266 4 Photo: Przemek Nikiel Official website: fideworldjunior2022.com
Intercontinental Championship for Prisoners: Serbia wins youth event
Teams that will play the final matches of the second Intercontinental Online Chess Championship for Prisoners – the biggest-ever chess event among correctional facilities – were determined today. The event organized by FIDE and the Cook County (Chicago, IL, USA) Sheriff’s Office started on October 13, the International Day of Education in Prison. The teams of the Philippines and Colombia will battle it out for the gold in the men’s section of the championship. Both teams topped their groups in the championship stage today. India 1 and El Salvador came second in their groups and will fight for the bronze medal. In the women’s event, Mongolia and Serbia advanced to the final. Unfortunately, the semifinal between Mongolia and England was not held due to technical difficulties on the latter’s side. Mongolia reached the final, where they will face Serbia, who beat Trinidad & Tobago in the semifinal. In the youth section, team Serbia became the winner of the Second Intercontinental Online Chess Championship for Prisoners after defeating England in the final. The bronze medal goes to the Ecuador team. The winners were greeted by the FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich: “My applauses to team Serbia who won gold in the youth competition. We held it for the first time, as we didn’t have a separate junior event last year. I think this is a great achievement for the team. You represented your country and yourselves; you showed great talent and effort to win this tournament. But the most important thing is that you started loving chess, having fun from the game. For me personally, it is important that while you are entering your adult lives, you have a chance to improve. Probably, you’ve made some mistakes in your past, but you have all the opportunities to be better in the future. And chess will certainly help you with this.” Like a day ago, the broadcast of the event was visited by many guests – chess promoters, organizers of tournaments and chess classes in prisons, and chess enthusiasts promoting the game among at-risk communities. Spanish lecturer, presenter, commentator, journalist and chess promoter Leonxto Garcia talked about three main reasons why chess is working so well in prisons: “The first one is that every hour inside a prison gets much faster. Time goes faster when we are playing chess. The second idea is that chess makes us think about the consequences of what we are going to do before doing it. And third, chess is a very good way to take out our tendency to violence. Every human being has some tendency to violence – bigger or smaller. Chess is a war with no blood. It is a way to take out that violence. Those three reasons are perfectly appliable and valid to any person and normal citizen who lives outside prison.” Mikhail Korenman, Manager of the Chess Programme at Cook County Sheriff’s Organization, Member of FIDE Social Commission, is one of the driving forces of the Chess for Freedom programme. He started teaching chess in a Chicago jail more than ten years ago. He talked about the Chess in Jail program in Chicago prison and the importance of hosting inter-jail tournaments for prisoners. “Why do I feel this event is important? Chess gives everyone an equal opportunity to win. I can do it. I can do it myself, and I can be the winner. This is important. Chess teaches a different way of thinking. You need to think for yourself and for your opponent. I always tell my students: “Guys, think for your opponent before you make your decision!” That is very important. And they need to apply it to their everyday life. It’s not only you making decisions. It’s also about seeing what your opponent is doing,” he said. Deputy Chair of the FIDE Management Board Dana Reizniece-Ozola not just supervise FIDE’s social initiatives, including the Chess for Freedom programme. During the Intercontinental Chess Championship among Prisoners, she was a coach of team Latvia. “This experience is very special not only for the inmates themselves but for those who spend their lives, energy and time trying to find ways how to re-socialize inmates, to give them a second chance, to encourage them to do more. FIDE does not only organize this tournament; we are trying to analyze and get feedback so that to see if there’s any positive impact of chess in prisons on inmates. We’ve already made the initial analysis with the help of the Armenian Chess Institute. This year we also made a survey to be able to measure the results. This is important for decision-makers – politicians, officials, and sponsors,” she said. Medalists of the championship will get chess sets from one of the partners of the event – a nonprofit organization, “The Gift of Chess”, which distributes chess sets and training technology across the four key initiatives (educational, prison, global, and elderly outreach). Its founder Russell Makofsky visited the players from the Cook Country jail and shared his impressions about his visit. “Chess is a low-cost catalyst for a change. Introducing chess to a community changes the dynamics of that community in many ways. The more I understand the power of chess, the better I can see the application of it in the prison system. A single chessboard can change the whole environment. It helps with strategy, planning and critical thinking, it develops soft skills, but it also connects people to a shared idea. Here in the Cook County Jail, I see people of all ages, races and backgrounds celebrate with each other this idea that they are a chess team, they can do something together, and be good at it.” The final matches in men’s and women’s sections of the second Intercontinental Online Chess Championship for Prisoners will be held on Monday, October 17, and will be broadcast live on the FIDE Youtube channel.
Prisoners from 46 countries take part in the Intercontinental Championship
The second Intercontinental Online Chess Championship for Prisoners – the biggest-ever chess event among correctional facilities – kicked off on October 13. 85+ teams from 46 countries representing all continents joined the tournament, which aims to popularize chess as an efficient tool for reintegrating incarcerated people. The online opening ceremony featured FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich, Cook County Sheriff Tomas J. Dart. and Deputy Chair of the FIDE Management Board Dana Reizniece-Ozola. FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich greeted the participants of the event. “Our project “Chess for Freedom”, is for people who made mistakes in their lives before but have a chance to improve. FIDE is going to bring chess to all corners of the world, especially to those corners where chess can transform lives of people, give them a chance to live a better life and change things around. People who are not free now can develop their lives to the best. I hope this event will give a boost to the development of chess around the world and will have a great social impact,” he said. Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart, who introduced the chess program to Cook County Jail more than 10 years ago, emphasized that chess teaches its players valuable life lessons: “Chess is an amazing sport; it gives you critical skills, but it also teaches you patience, things that we can all learn from and something we can all use in our daily life. I hope you can enjoy the game today, and good luck, everyone.” Along with Cook County Sheriff Thomas J. Dart, representatives of the consulates of Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Colombia, Czech Republic, Ecuador and Mongolia visited Cook County Jail to greet the participants of the championship and take part in the round table dedicated to Chess in Prisons initiatives. Today, in the group stage, the teams, comprised of 4 players with an unlimited number of substitutes, were divided into groups and competed in round-robin tournaments. The top two teams from each group advanced to the Championship round, which will be held tomorrow, October 14. Those teams are Mongolia 1 and India 1 (Group 1), Serbia 1 and Bosnia and Herzegovina (Group 2), Georgia and Bulgaria 2 (Group 3), Zimbabwe and England 2 (Group 4), UAE and the Philippines 2 (Group 5), USA – Chicago and Colombia (Group 6), El Salvador and Argentina 3 (Group 7), and USA – Kansas and Argentina 4 (Group 8). For the first time, separate tournaments are organized for women’s and youth teams. In the youth tournament, Serbia and England (Group 1), and Ecuador and Argentina 1 (Group 2) has qualified for the Championship Round tomorrow. In the women’s event, semi-finalists are Mongolia and Serbia (Group 1) and Trinidad & Tobago and England (Group 2). The championship, organized by FIDE and the Cook County Sheriff’s Office (Chicago, IL, USA) and hosted by Chess.com, is live-streamed on FIDE’s Youtube channel. Apart from the tournament itself, the broadcast includes professional commentary and interviews with special guests – FIDE officials, government officers, members of the penitentiary administration and policymakers sharing the best practices of introducing chess to inmates, as well as former convicts proving from their own experience the positive impact of the game on prisoners. Deputy Chair of the FIDE Management Board Dana Reizniece-Ozola joined the broadcast to talk about FIDE’s social initiatives, the Chess for Freedom programme, and more. That is how she explains the rapid growth of the event: “The prison officials see that in the places where the chess programme is implemented the behaviour of the inmates change, the depression and stress levels decrease, they are better in resocializing when they leave prisons. It’s not only about the skills and another way of spending your free time, it is also the sense of belonging to a community, to the chess family. We’ve been working a lot to advocate for a programme itself, but I think that the example of the other countries works even better than our invitations.” Indeed, chess programs in prisons are now implemented in many countries around the world and bring benefits to inmates introduced to the game. Simosakhe Ngwane is an ex-convict from Molweni, South Africa. He didn’t even know about the game of chess before it was introduced to him in prison. And now, he organizes chess classes for at-risk kids in his hometown. “After I’ve met chess I realized that life is made up of clear steps that you need to know, to understand, and to respect. I’ve learned a lot of life principles I couldn’t have learned without meeting chess. It gave me patience. If all the kids outside learned how to play chess in school, maybe most of them would know how to live without crime, without offending other people. Because chess is something very simple – you just need to know other people and yourself. The simple rule “touch is a move” gives discipline. And disciplined thinking gives disciplined behaviour,” he said in his interview. The event will continue tomorrow, October 14, with the Championship round, where 16 top teams of the men’s event, divided into two groups, will play round-robin tournaments with the winners facing off in the championship match. The four best women’s and youth teams will play knock-out matches. The broadcast will start at 10:00 a.m. CET. More information about the championship and Chess for Freedom programme is here: https://chessforfreedom.fide.com/
Arkady Dvorkovich meets with President of Argentina
On October 12, 2022, the FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich was received by the President of Argentina, Alberto Fernández. During the meeting, they discussed how to promote chess in schools and youth chess. The meeting with the President was part of the program dedicated to the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Argentinian Chess Federation, one of the founder members of FIDE. Alberto Fernandez vehemently expressed his full support for chess. One of the possibilities that were discussed was the opportunity to hold Chess Olympiad in South America in 2028, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Buenos Aires Chess Olympiad in 1978. The FIDE president also met with Gabriel Lerner, Secretary of State for Youth, Family, and Social Development. They discussed the multiple applications of chess as a social tool, giving some best-practice examples for chess in prisons, for seniors, et cetera. Another important meeting took place with Conrado Carrasco Quintana, a representative of the Ministry of Sports and the person responsible for the sports federations in Argentina. The organisation of chess competitions of different levels was the main topic of discussion. Arkady Dvorkovich also met with Daniel Osvaldo Scioli, one of the most influential political figures in Argentina. Current Minister of Productive Development, Scioli is a former Governor of the Buenos Aires province, Argentina’s vice-president, and President of the Senate. Apart from his career as a politician and as a businessman, Scioli has been a prominent sportsperson who competed in swimming, tennis, basketball, and then offshore powerboat racing, a discipline in which he won many titles. Of course, such a competitive person also loves chess! Naturally, the FIDE president also visited the “Pro-Am International Chess Tournament” held to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Argentinian Chess Federation. With a total of 173 players and 20 Grandmasters, this is the strongest tournament held in Argentina since the World Championship in San Luis in 2005.
FIDE approves new composition of Management Board
We are pleased to announce the composition of our new Management Board, following the FIDE Council voting approval of the proposal presented by its President, Arkady Dvorkovich. The full list of members and positions will be as follows: Chairman of the Management BoardFIDE President, Mr Arkady Dvorkovich Deputy Chair of the Management BoardMrs Dana Reizniece-Ozola Board Members: FIDE Deputy PresidentMr Viswanathan Anand FIDE TreasurerMrs Zhu Chen FIDE Chief Executive OfficerMr Emil Sutovsky FIDE Executive DirectorMr Victor Bologan FIDE Special Tasks DirectorMr Akaki Iashvili FIDE Director for Chess DevelopmentMr Nigel Short Secretary GeneralLukasz Turlej FIDE Chief Operating OfficerMs. Sava Stoisavljevic FIDE Legal DirectorMr. Aleksandr Martynov
World Sight Day: Chess perspective
World Sight Day, observed annually on the second Thursday of October, is an international day of awareness to draw attention to global eye health issues, blindness and visual impairment. Chess is a game for everyone and is widely played by visually impaired people. WIM Natasha Morales Santos (pictured below) is the second highest-rated female chess player in Puerto Rico. At the 44th Chess Olympiad in Chennai, she defended the first board of the national women’s team. And she did that playing on her special braille board. From birth, Natasha can’t see with the left eye and has only partial vision in the right. “Earlier, I did not know about the Braille board, so I played on the regular board, but I lost many games because I used to get tired and get constant headaches trying to keep up with opponents on a regular board. I loved chess, but I couldn’t carry on that way. That’s when the Puerto Rican federation helped us find a braille board,” she said in an interview for Sportstar magazine during the Olympiad. Photo: Anna Volkova, Chennai 2022 Braille chess board has special modifications that help visually impaired players. All the black squares are elevated a few millimetres to be easily identified by touch, and each of the squares has a hole in the centre in which pieces are sturdily fixed with the help of nails in their bases. “I don’t have a problem talking about my disability because it’s something I am born with,” says Natasha Morales Santos. “I don’t like it when the only important thing is my disability. Yes, it is a quality I have and an impairment, but it does not describe me as a person or a player.” Natasha Morales Santos and many like her set an example for other players with a similar disability. Another inspiring figure is the reigning women’s world champion among the blind and visually impaired, WIM Lubov Zsiltzova-Lisenko from Ukraine, who scored a whopping 8.5 out of 9 at the latest edition of the championship, held in France. There is a special organization that governs chess for the blind and visually impaired people, International Braille Chess Association (IBCA). It is affiliated with FIDE and regularly holds IBCA world championships. The 2023 IBCA Individual World Chess Championship for Blind and Visually Impaired will take place in Greece.
Shortlist for FIDE Book Awards 2022 announced
Once again the FIDE Trainers Commission has received an excellent selection of nominations by leading chess publishers for the Yuri Averbakh & Isaac Boleslavsky Book Awards 2022. After long deliberation, the judges have now narrowed their choices to ten books that you will find below: Leading in number this time are Elk & Ruby and Quality Chess, with three nominations each. Elk & Ruby: Masterpieces and Dramas of the Soviet Championships: Volume II (1938-1947) by Sergey Voronkov, Selected Games by Peter Romanovsky and Eight Good Men: The 2020-2021 Candidates Tournament by Dorian Rogozenco. Quality Chess: Magnus Carlsen’s Middlegame Evolution by Ivan Sokolov, Winning by Nigel Short and The Secret Ingredient by Jan Markos and David Navara. Thinkers Publishing is following closely with two books: Miguel Najdorf – ‘El Viejo’ – Life, Games & Stories by Franco Zenon and The Sinquefield Chess Generation – Young Guns at Work! by Alex Colovic. The shortlist also includes Independent’s Forgotten Genius: The Life and Games of Grandmaster Albin Planinc by Georg Mohr and Adrian Mikhalchishin and New In Chess’ How to Study Chess on Your Own by Davorin Kuljasevic. A Knight without a Castle by Robert Katende (Most Inspiring Story – Of Hope and Triumph), Chess & Brain. Art and Science by Adolivio Capece, Razvan Sandru, Stefano Salis, Zachary Mainen (Chess as Art & Science) and Los Colores del Ajedrez (Chess in Education book) deserved a special mention. By the end of the month the panel of judges will deliberate and agree together on the three final awardees, with the winner being announced no later than two weeks after the publication of the shortlist.
FIDE World Junior Chess Championship kicks off in Cala Gonone, Sardinia
The 2022 edition of the FIDE World Junior Chess Championship started at the Palmasera Resort in Cala Gonone, Sardinia. Both Open and Girls under 20 Championships are 11-round Swiss tournaments with classical time control. The open event brought together 120 participants, including 13 GMs, from 55 countries competing for the most prestigious junior title. Topping the initial rankings is GM Andrey Esipenko, who will surely be in the limelight. In the women’s section, 66 players representing 45 national federations, including four WGMs, are battling for glory, with Bulgaria’s IM Nurgyul Salimova leading the starting list. After the technical meeting in the morning, where the arbiters instructed the heads of delegations and players on the rules and behaviour expected in this major event, the chair of the organizing committee, GM Roberto Mogranzini, welcomed the participants. At the beginning of the opening ceremony, FIDE’s and Italian National anthems were played, followed by the speeches given by Lorenzo Antonelli, Vice President Italian Chess Federation; Danilo Mallò, President of Regional Committee of Sardinia; Bernardino Luigi Carotti, Alderman of the Municipality of Dorgali and Ozgur Solakoglu, FIDE delegate. Lorenzo Antonelli and Ozgur Solakoglu made the first ceremonial moves on board 1 in the open section (GM Andrey Esipenko vs IM Medina Galaviz) and the tournaments took off. The live broadcast with WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili and GM Eugeny Miroshnichenko commentating on the games is available on FIDE’s YouTube channel. Official website: fideworldjunior2022.com
Konstantin Landa (1972-2022)
FIDE is deeply saddened to hear of the passing of our colleague Konstantin Landa, at the early age of 50. Konstantin was a much-respected member of the chess community. A strong GM, he was a passionate coach, as well as a member of our Fair-Play Commission. Born in Omsk, he stood out as a very promising talent in his early years, which earned him the opportunity to be trained by Evgeny Sveshnikov and also attend several training camps at the Botvinnik chess school. In one of these camps, he defeated the World Champion Garry Kasparov at the age of 13. He was the junior vice-champion of the USSR in 1989, and he won the Russian junior championship in 1992 after the collapse of the USSR. He became a Grandmaster in 1995. However, having graduated from the University, he took a job in the IT department of a bank, and for several years he juggled his day job with occasional participation in chess tournaments, where he showed his class. After moving to Germany in 1999, he went back to chess as a full-time professional, and in 2007 he reached his peak rating of 2678. Landa became a FIDE Senior Trainer in 2011, and for years he was one of Germany’s leading trainers. He was a long-term coach of Arkadij Naiditsch, but he also played an important role in coaching other top players such as Alexandra Kosteniuk, Evgeny Alekseev, and Daniele Vocaturo. More recently, he worked with Alexandra Goryachkina, and he was his second during the Women Candidates tournament in Kazan, which she won in brilliant style, and the Women’s World Championship match against Ju Wenjun (along with Najer and Rublevsky). He was also a coach for the Iranian national team and the Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan Women’s teams. Konstantin Landa co-authored the book “The Complete Manual of Positional Chess” (2017), which presented a complete set of instructions and tips for trainers and self-improvers. In 2012, he made a comprehensive proposal for anti-cheating measures to the FIDE Trainers Commission, based mainly on his vast experience at team competitions. His proposal was widely supported by the chess community and adopted by FIDE. His strong stance towards fair play, combined with his IT background, made Landa a perfect candidate to be a member of the ACP and FIDE fair-play commissions, where he continued to provide invaluable input. Our thoughts go out to his family, friends, and the many teammates and players he coached over the years. Photo: Konstantin Landa’s personal archive