FIDE – ISF World School Teams Online Chess Cup postponed
Following requests from participants and enabling more teams to register and take part in the Cup, the Organizing Committee of the FIDE – ISF World School Teams Online Chess Cup decided to make some changes to the event regulations. Given the above, the competition is postponed. The new dates for Qualification events will be the 29th and 30th of April, and the Finals to take place on the 6th and 7th of May. The changes below have been made to the regulations: Ages 8 (2015), 9 (2014) and 10 (2013) were included in the U15 category. Players could play in the upper group teams. So U15 category players can play both in U15 and U18 teams, but schools must choose one of that categories, as a player could not play in both categories. The updated version of the regulations will be published soon. About FIDE – ISF World School Teams Online Chess Cup FIDE – ISF World School Teams Online Chess Cup is organized by FIDE, ISF (the International School Sport Federation) and World Chess and provides a platform for schools from FIDE and ISF member countries, as well as students from around the world, to connect with chess enthusiasts from across the globe and showcase their skills in an official international chess tournament. The tournament features two age categories, U15 and U18. Each school team must consist of 1 to 7 full-time students from the same school. The winners and medalists of the event will be rewarded with exclusive team training sessions with world-famous grandmasters, chessboards signed by the GMs, subscriptions for the World Chess Masterclasses program, and FIDE Online Arena premium membership packages. The tournament will be held online on the FIDE Online Arena, with the final stage broadcast live on World Chess and FIDE’s YouTube channels. The new registration deadline is April 22, 2023. Please visit isf.fide.com to learn more about the event and to register your team.
EICC 2023: Korobov and Kourkoulos-Arditis lead after six rounds
Six rounds have already been played at the European Individual Chess Championship 2023 in Vrnjacka Banja Serbia, with GM Anton Korobov (UKR, 2659) and IM Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis (GRE, 2520) sharing the top position after scoring 5.5 points each. A group of eight players follow the leaders sitting on 5/6: GMs Thai Dai Van Nguyen (CZE, 2651), Vitaliy Bernadsnkiy (UKR, 2611), Ruslan Ponomariov (UKR, 2655), Giga Quparadze (GEO, 2483), Frederik Svane (GER, 2577), Alexey Sarana (FIDE, 2688), Nijat Abasov (AZE, 2625) and Benjamin Gledura (HUN, 2637). With five rounds to go it is still wide open. The ECU President Zurab Azmaiparashvili opened Round 6, wishing a happy International Women’s Day to all female participants, arbiters, and volunteers of the Championship. He also wished a happy birthday and many returns to our Chief Arbiter Tomasz Delega. GM Anton Korobov made a draw with the black pieces against Czech GM Thai Dai Van Nguyen. The opponents split a point after just 20 moves of play, though GM Thai Dai Van Nguyen had a slightly better position according to engines. Korobov joined the live studio after the game, explaining that his opponent offered him a draw in a position where he felt extremely uncomfortable. IM Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis (pictured below) defeated the two-time Azerbaijani Champion GM Eltaj Safarli (AZE, 2608) to catch up with Korobov. It was an exciting game in which Safarli had everything under control up to some point. However, the Azerbaijani GM first missed the strongest continuation 22.Nxf6 and two moves later, made a mistake with 24.Rf6?! allowing Kourkoulos-Arditis to grab the initiative. There was no comeback for Eltaj Safarli, who was forced to resign in the 33rd move. The 7th round starts today at 15:00 CEST and will see the leaders’ clash. The top 10 pairings: 1. Korobov, Anton (5½) – Kourkoulos-Arditis, Stamatis (5½)2. Abasov, Nijat (5) – Sarana, Alexey (5)3. Bernadskiy, Vitaliy (5) – Ponomariov, Ruslan (5)4. Svane, Frederik (5) – Nguyen Thai Dai Van (5)5. Gledura, Benjamin (5) – Quparadze, Giga (5)6. Kadric, Denis (4½) – Sargissian, Gabriel (4½)7. Navara, David (4½) – Mastrovasilis, Dimitrios (4½)8. Pechac, Jergus (4½) – Moussard, Jules (4½)9. Predke, Alexandr (4½) – Iskandarov, Misratdin (4½)10. Esipenko, Andrey (4½) – Brkic, Ante (4½) Text and photos: official website Official website: eicc2023.com/
FIDE and Chess.com Bring Chess to the Olympic Esports Series
Blitz chess will be included in the upcoming inaugural Olympic Esports Series 2023, with Chess.com playing host to a unique qualifying event. The world’s leading online chess platform has been selected by FIDE, recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the game’s governing body, to run a mass participation pre-event tournament—and you are invited to enter. The qualifiers have three phases which start with a 3+2 blitz tournament open to any non-titled player on Chess.com starting on April 1. The winners will then progress to the Trials stage when the titled players enter the competition. The top 16 from that phase then go through to a Preliminaries event between May 1 and 5. Eight will be eliminated, and the final eight will progress into a live in-person tournament, the first of its kind, held during the Olympic Esports Week in Singapore from June 22 to 25. Chess.com CEO Erik Allebest said: “As the top platform for chess, we are excited to host these online qualifiers. We believe chess belongs on the biggest stages and are proud to see it recognised as an esport alongside so many other great disciplines.” FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich said: “After almost one year of work behind the scenes, we are very excited to see this event coming to fruition. We believe that the Olympic Esports Series marks a new stage in the cooperation between FIDE and the International Olympic Committee since our institution was recognised as an international sports federation by the IOC in 1999. “I would like to highlight the perfect alignment between FIDE values and the strategic roadmap outlined in the Olympic Agenda 2020+5. This project, and the ones that we expect to follow, has the potential to bring enormous benefits to players and national federations.” The Olympic Esports Series is a global virtual and simulated sports competition created by the IOC in collaboration with International Federations (IFs) and game publishers. Chess will feature for the first time alongside archery, baseball, taekwondo, cycling, motor sport, dance, sailing and tennis. It will be the highlight of the Olympic Esports Week, a four-day festival at Singapore’s Suntec Centre designed to showcase the best in virtual sports. The Olympic Esports Series will culminate in live, in-person finals for the first time, with players having the opportunity to progress to the Olympic Esports Finals 2023. Players will compete in front of fans for the prestigious title of the first Olympic Esports Series Chess Winner. The finals action will be streamed globally across Olympics.com and Olympic social channels. The Olympic Esports Series builds on the successes of the 2021 precursor event. More than 250,000 participants from across 100 countries took part two years ago. FIDE was recognised by the IOC as an International Sports Federation in 1999. It is now one of the largest international federations, encompassing 199 countries as affiliate members. Chess.com is the world’s biggest chess platform. It has more than 120 million registered users and hosts around 12 million games daily. About the Olympic Esports Series ©2023 International Olympic Committee/IOC – All rights reserved. The “Olympic Esports Series” is a property of the IOC and may not be copied, republished, stored in a retrieval system or otherwise reproduced or transmitted, in whole or in part, in any form or by any means whatsoever, without the prior written consent of the IOC. Unauthorized copying, adaptation, rental, lending, distribution, extraction, re-sale, arcade use, charging for use, broadcast, public performance and internet, cable or any telecommunications transmission, access or use of this product or any trademark or copyright work that forms part of this product are prohibited.
FIDE Trainers’ Online Seminar announced
Organized by the Asian Chess Federation in cooperation with the FIDE Commission for Women’s Chess under the supervision of the FIDE Trainer’s Commission, the FIDE Trainers’ Online Seminar will stretch from the 17th to 19th of March and cover various topics. SEMINAR PROGRAM & SCHEDULE: Day & Time (CET) Topic Lecturer March 17 09:00 – 11:00 1. Analyzing Own Games. Hou Yifan 12:00 – 14:00 2. Tactics and Strategy Training. Artur Jussupow 15:00 – 17:00 3. Study of Classical Games Artur Jussupow March 18 09:00 – 11:00 4. Training of Calculations. Vladimir Malakhov 12:00 – 14:00 5. Introductions, FIDE, TRG and the Trainers System. 6. Age & Gender Differences Ilaha Kadimova 15:00 – 17:00 7. Move Search Algorithm Iossif Dorfman March 19 09:00 – 11:00 8. Opening Repertoire / Preparation Alexey Dreev 12:00 – 14:00 9. Endgame Training Bishop Endings Iossif Dorfman 15:00 – 17:00 Written Exam TRG REGISTRATION & INFORMATION Organizer and contacts FIDE Trainers’ Commission trainers@fide.com Registration deadline: March 13, 2023 Venue: Zoom Seminar participation fee: €200 Lecturers: GM Artur Jussupow GM Hou Yifan GM Iossif DorfmanGM Vladimir Malakhov GM Alexey Dreev WGM Ilaha Kadimova Seminar language: English Rules & regulations: trainers.fide.com/trg-online-seminars/
FIDE delegation visits Sudan
On the occasion of the Arab Chess Championship held in Khartoum, a FIDE delegation headed by its President Arkady Dvorkovich paid a visit to Sudan. These trips share a common goal: opening doors to state officials and securing their support for our National Chess Federations. This task has always been a priority in the presidency of Arkady Dvorkovich. The FIDE delegation was received by H.E. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (pictured above), Vice-president of the Republic of Sudan. This was followed by a meeting with the Secretary General of the Sudan Olympic Committee, Prof. Mahmoud Elsir Mohamed Taha (pictured below). The focus of these meetings was to discuss practical agreements that could ensure institutional support towards various chess activities. “I had promised to visit the country, and now I am pleased to see that our meetings will bring tangible results. Governmental officials have already asked the Sudan federation to provide their development plans for further support,” said the FIDE President, Arkady Dvorkovich. The next meetings on the agenda were the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the Ministry of Education. Both expressed their interest in hosting Continental and Arab Youth events in the country, as well as introducing chess in education, recognising its value in developing the cognitive and social skills of chess in children. Hazar Abdel-Rasoul, Minister of Youth and Sports (pictured above), attended both the opening and closing ceremonies of the Arab Championships. In her speech, after welcoming the FIDE delegation to her country, she emphasised the role of the chess championship in strengthening the ties between the ministry, national chess federation and international organisations. “Sports is not only about competition, it is about building relationships. This championship has made us a close family,” said the minister. The FIDE delegation was also invited by the Ministry of Sports to visit the construction of the “Sports City”. It was decided that this major sports infrastructure project, currently under development, will include a brand new Chess Academy, which aims at getting recognition as FIDE certified academy once it starts operating. The Sudan Olympic Committee expressed its appreciation towards FIDE as a great partner promoting the Olympic values and highlighted the recent news of chess being included as one of the nine online sports included in the IOC Olympic Esports Series 2023. Omar Abdalla Omer Deab, President of the Sudanese Chess Federation, made a very positive balance of the visit: “The Arab Chess Championship brought almost 70 players from 19 countries to Sudan. And with President’s Dvorkovich visit, the event and the whole chess community of Sudan got full attention, allowing us to present our achievements and further plans to officials and society.” FIDE Vice President Sheikh Saud Bin Abdulaziz Al Mualla acknowledged the organisational level of the Arab Chess Championship: “The Sudanese Chess Federation has demonstrated a professional attitude and certainly deserves an opportunity to organise further chess competitions of the Arab Chess Federation.” Dana Reizniece-Ozola, FIDE Deputy Chair of Management Board, Tshepiso Lopang, President of the African Chess Confederation (ACC), and Sami Khader, FIDE Chair of Trainers Commission, explored the country’s chess initiatives giving lectures to women players and school children, as well as informing organisers, arbiters and trainers on capacity building opportunities provided by FIDE and the ACC. “We shall work together to open up opportunities for the future life champions with the help of chess, but it is already worth mentioning two immediate results: ‘New Horizon Chess Academy’ will apply for FIDE endorsement, and an agreement has been achieved that Sudan will be represented at the 3rd Online Chess Championship for Prisoners,” noted Dana Reizniece-Ozola. The Arab Chess Championship in Khartoum came to an end yesterday with a convincing victory of Al Khatib Ahmad from Jordan in the Open section, and Lina Nassr from Algeria in the Women’s section. You can read a dedicated report at this link.
Al Khatib Ahmad and Lina Nassr win Arab Chess Championship
IM Al Khatib Ahmad (Jordan) and WIM Lina Nassr (Algeria) emerged as the winners of the Arab Chess Championship 2023. Both champions scored an impressive 7.5/9. The Arab Championship took place from February 26 to March 05 in Khartoum, Sudan and was held in the open and women’s sections. Both competitions were 9-round Swiss tournaments with classical time control. In the open section, Ahmad Al Khatib grabbed the lead in Round 4 after defeating Gong Thon Gong (South Sudan) with the black pieces and never looked back. Despite losing to IM Husain Aziz (Quatar) in Round 6, the champion netted 7.5/9 and finished a full point ahead of three players who tied for second place. The Buchholz (second tiebreaker) favoured Hesham Abdelrahman of Egypt (the only GM in the tournament) and Husain Aziz, who took silver and bronze, respectively. Final standings: 1 IM Ahmad, Al Khatib JOR 2303 7½ 2 GM Hesham, Abdelrahman EGY 2412 6½ 3 IM Aziz, Husain QAT 2329 6½ 4 CM Ahmed, Abuzied SUD 2204 6½ 5 IM Elgabry, Mohsen EGY 2255 6 6 IM Eiti, Bashir SYR 2370 5½ 7 IM Issa, Rafat JOR 2336 5½ 8 IM Eltigani, Omar SUD 2235 5½ 9 Abdulrahman, Al Taher UAE 2080 5½ 10 FM Ammar, Sedrani UAE 2183 5½ The women’s event turned into close race of the second and fourth seeds Lina Nassr (pictured below) and WFM Manar Khalil (Syria). Coming into the final round on 7/9 a hall-point ahead of her rival Lina drew her game vs. young Ruba Al-Qudah (Jordan) and clinched the title as Mahar blundered in the opening and managed only a draw against Alserkal Rouda-Essa (UAE). The thirteenth seed untitled Ruba Al-Qudah caused a minor sensation by scoring a solid 6.5/9 and finishing clear third. Final standings: 1 WIM Nassr, Lina ALG 2031 7½ 2 WFM Khalil, Manar SYR 1877 7 3 Ruba, Al-Qudah JOR 1572 6½ 4 WIM Latreche, Sabrina ALG 2068 6 5 WFM Al Maamari, Wafia Darwish UAE 1837 6 6 Romany, Joy EGY 1734 6 7 WFM Mahmoud, Roula SYR 1744 5½ 8 WCM Rouda Essa, Alserkal UAE 1762 5½ 9 Ahlam, Rashed UAE 1561 5½ 10 WFM A-Ali, Sali Abbas Abdulzahra IRQ 1876 5 You can find the complete results and standings of both tournaments here.
Romanian Chess Federation launches Education through Chess national project
The Romanian Chess Federation has launched a national project, Education through Chess, which promotes the benefits of chess for children. The Ministry of Education is an institutional partner of the project. The project aiming to teach chess to 3rd and 4th-grade students in public schools in Romania has three stages, including training teachers, offering chess as an optional study and organising chess events. Three hundred teachers signed up for the programme over the first 30 days into its official launch. The goal for the first year is to train 3,000 public school teachers and educate 50,000 students starting in the new school year 2023-2024. “Chess has many benefits for children, such as learning discipline, order and creativity. In addition, chess enhances children’s ability to concentrate and improves logical and memory skills. Chess is a ‘mind sport’, which means it is good for both adults and children. It teaches children not to give up easily, to overcome obstacles and to accept losses and learn from them. In today’s fast-paced world, children struggle to focus. Chess is a powerful antidote because it improves children’s attention span and teaches them to stay focused longer. The sport also teaches children to take risks, trust themselves, take the initiative, and become active and optimistic personalities. Chess is a valuable sport for children because it promotes equality of opportunity. Girls who are good at chess are also considered talented in mathematics and computer science. Teaching chess in schools can enhance children’s cognitive skills, problem-solving skills and decision-making abilities,” Vlad Ardeleanu, President of the Romanian Chess Federation, said. Education through Chess offers a valuable opportunity for public school students to learn and benefit from the game of chess, and for public school teachers to receive professional training.
China to host Women’s Candidates Final and Women’s World Championship Match
Shanghai and Chongqing will host the year’s two major Women’s events. More than three years after her last defence of the title in Shanghai and Vladivostok, the Women’s World Champion Ju Wenjun will face the winner of the Candidates Final match between Lei Tingjie and Tan Zhongyi. The final stage of the Women’s Candidates, played to the best of six games, will take place in Chongqing from March 27th to April 6th. The decision was an obvious choice for the Chinese Chess Association, organisers of the match, as both players were born there. With almost 32 million inhabitants in its metropolitan area, Chongqing is an important centre of chess activity in the country, featuring multiple chess clubs and academies. Besides Lei Tingjie and Tan Zhongyi, teammates at the “Chongqing Sports Lottery Chess Club”, the city is also home to other important chess figures in the country such as Huang Qian, Liu Yan, and Wang Chen, who in turn have inspired thousands of children in the city to take up western chess. As in 2018, the Women’s World Championship Match will be split between Chongqing and Shanghai, ensuring that both the defending Champion, Ju Wenjun, and her challenger will play half of the games on home turf. The 12-game match will take place from July 5th to 25th, switching cities halfway. It remains to be decided which city will host the first half and which one the second.
European Chess Championship 2023 starts in Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia
The 23rd edition of the European Individual Chess Championship 2023 kicked off in Hotel Zepter Vrnjacka Banja, Serbia. The 11-round Swiss tournament with classical time control stretches over nearly two weeks from March 02-14. The event broke the participation record with more than 490 players from 40 European federations. The list of participants includes 48 players rated 2600+, 128 Grandmasters, 105 International masters, and a total of 379 titled players. The top-seeds are GM Gabriel Sargissian (ARM, 2699), GM Haik Martirosyan (ARM, 2686), GM David Anton Guijarro (ESP, 2685), GM David Navara (CZE, 2685), GM Alexandr Predke (FIDE, 2684), GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek (POl, 2682), GM Andrey Esipenko (FIDE, 2680), GM Jules Moussard (FRA, 2690), GM Boris Gelfand (ISR, 2674), GM Ivan Saric (CRO, 2674), GM Alexey Sarana (FIDE, 2668), GM Kirill Shevchenko (ROU, 2668), GM Evgeniy Najer (FIDE, 2666), GM Vasyl Ivanchuk (UKR, 2664), and GM Ivan Cheparinov (BUL, 2661). The complete starting list of players can be found here. The European Individual Chess Championship 2023 is a qualifying event for the FIDE World Cup 2023. According to the FIDE regulations for World Cup and the ECU Board decision, 23 players will qualify. The total prize fund of the event is €100,000, with €20,000 reserved for the Winner of the event. Besides the prizes for the best-ranked 23 players, the organizers provided special prizes for best-ranked Juniors (U18), Seniors (S50+) and doubled the prize fund for the best-ranked female players. During the opening ceremony on March 2, the city of Vrnjacka Banja was officially declared the Serbian capital of chess. The Mayor of the Vrnjacka Banja Municipality Boban Djurovic, the President of European Chess Union Zurab Azmaiparashvili and the President of the Serbian Chess Federation Dragan Lazic, unveiled the Chess Queen statue dedicated to all chess events that were and will be held in Vrnjacka Banja. Text: europechess.org/ Photo: European Individual Chess Championship 2023 Facebook Official website: eicc2023.com/
Solvers’ dilemma: Netherlands or Poland?
At the end of this week, participants of the World Solving Cup (WSC) will have to choose between two competitions happening at the same time, the open championships of the Netherlands and Poland. What should they know to make the right choice? The Dutch Solving Championship (March 4) is shorter and usually less challenging than the Polish one. It is a central part of a large festival, the annual meeting of Dutch chess problemists, traditionally held in the small town of Nunspeet (March 3-5). Solvers, composers and lovers of chess problems and studies come together in a friendly but competitive environment. The program includes lectures, solving tournaments and composing tourneys. A quiz keeps the participants busy in the quiet hours, and there are plenty of occasions for walking, swimming and making an excursion. It is not obligatory to stay the entire weekend, and the interested club player can come over for a few hours to try his hand at one of the tournaments. Photo: https://www.nunspeet.nl/ Saturday morning is reserved for the Dutch Solving Championship: 3 hours for solving 12 problems, with some of the best solvers in the world participating. National championships are open for all the guests nowadays, most of them being the legs of the World Solving Cup, but the domestic title holders are distinguished separately. The Dutch record holder is Dolf Wissmann with 14 domestic titles (nine of them in a row!) in 27 championships since 1995, ahead of Peter van den Heuvel with 8, but the last two championships were won by Twan Burg. Dolf is coming back home fresh from winning the Finnish Solving Championship in Helsinki last month and will be looking to earn more points in the overall standings of WSC 2022/23. There is also a section with easier problems for an occasional solver. More relaxed is the speed of solving (two-movers and studies) on Saturday evening. The weekend finishes on Sunday morning with the ARVES study-solving tournament: 6 studies in 2 hours. The winner must be accurate and fast because these endgames are not extremely difficult. Many GMs have tested themselves in this competition, and some past winners include GMs John Nunn, Twan Burg and David Klein. However, in 2019 ARVES competition WGM Anne Haast (pictured below) outdid all the men. Photo: ChessBase/Harry Gielen All details about the tournaments and the complete program can be found on the websites of Probleemblad (Nederlandse Bond van Schaakprobleemvrienden) and ARVES (Chess Endgamestudy Association). The atmosphere will be less relaxed in Sękocin Stary (near Warsaw), where Polish solvers challenge guests to compete with multiple World & European solving champions. The International Polish Championship will take place from March 4-5, with three rounds each day and a total time of 6 hours for 18 problems. The strong field of this two-day event includes members of the Polish national team and the current world chess-solving champions (pictured on the stage of the Fujairah WCSC 2022). Polish team, the reigning World Champions: Kacper Piorun, Piotr Murdzia and Piotr Gorski | Photo Fujairah Chess & Culture Club The problems in Poland are usually more difficult than average. Below you will find two selected positions from the previous championship: 1 White to play and win (end of study) HINT: Can White take advantage of the black king’s position? 2 White to play and mate in 3 moves HINT: The hardest nut to crack. The first thing to do in three-movers is to find possible checks Black can do on the 1st or 2nd move, which may delay or make White’s goal impossible. Here, Black has such options. It is not 1…Rf5+, because a mate in one follows: 2. gxf5#. However, there is a serious threat of Rb1-b5+. This is why the White key move should contain a threat with check; e.g we can try 1. Rdd5 with the check threat of 2.Rde5+ Bxe5 3.Rxe5#. This is refuted by 1… Bxd5. Can you find the correct answer? Poland is the most successful country in chess solving. In the years 2009-2022, the Polish team won 12 World and 5 European gold medals! Among the participants, you may meet the defending champion of Poland Piotr Murdzia, a holder of 22 national titles and eight individual World Champion titles. There will also be the five-time World Champion Kacper Piorun and Piotr Górski, who won this most prestigious title once. It will be highly challenging for any guest to win on Polish soil, but the high average rating and the high WSC category of the competition will offer a chance to earn more points for the World Solving Cup! The Polish championship is completely adjusted to the system of the World Chess Solving Championship (WCSC) and has the utmost importance in selecting the members of the national team in the upcoming European Chess Solving Championship 2023 and World Chess Solving Championship 2023. It also determines national winners in the following categories: open, women, juniors up to 23 years and seniors over 60. The detailed regulations Solutions: 1. Nielsen, Minski, original for Polish Championship 2022; end of the study: 1.f4+ Kg4 2.Rf5!! +- (1…Kh5 2.Kh3! g5 3.g4+ +-) 2 W. Tura, De Waarheid 1962: 1.Qe3 threat 2.Qh6+ Rf6 3.Nf8#; 1…Bf4 2.Rh6+ B:h6 3.Q:e4#; 1…Rf4 2.Q:e4+ R:e4 3.Rh6#; 1…Nf4 2.Re5+ d:e5 3.Qb6#; 1…Rf6 2.Nc5+ d:c5 3.c8Q(B)#; 1…d5 2.Qb6+ Bd6 3.Re5# Official website: wfcc.ch/