FIDE Grand Prix Belgrade: Round 5 Recap
Twists and turns in round five set a scene for a tense final day in the group stage of the FIDE Grand Prix Belgrade, organized by World Chess. Following a day of rest, 16 top-world players gathered in the “Atlantic-Pacific” playing hall of the Belgrade Crowne Plaza Hotel, for the final rounds of the group stage of the Grand Prix. With two more games to play before the knockout, the tension was high. Round five started at 3 PM CET time, and the first move was made by GM Aleksandar Colovic, ACP president and FIDE Fair Play Councillor, in the game between Sam Shankland and Dmitry Andreikin. Just half an hour later, at the same hotel, another chess event started – the “Belgrade 2022” GM tournament where ten strong players, from Serbia and abroad (including the likes of Parham Maghsoodloo, David Navara, Nihal Sarin and world rapid champion Nodirbek Abdusattorov), are taking part. Here are the results from each pool of the second leg of the Grand Swiss, taking place in Belgrade, Serbia. Pool A: The derby of Pool A, between leaders Sam Shankland and Dmitry Andreikin ended in a draw. With just over an hour of play, this was the first game to finish. In the Janowski variation of the Queen’s Gambit, Shankland got caught out in the opening by Andreikin. White played 9.Bh4 instead of the more common line 9.Bf4 and by move 12 Black equalised. Following the exchange of queens, Andreikin had an isolated pawn but got his rooks lined up on the c-file and actively positioned his pieces. Overall it looked very solid for both sides. Following threefold repetition, a draw was agreed on move 24. Soon afterwards, the second game of Pool A finished, where Etienne Bacrot and Alexander Grischuk decided to split point. In the Ruy Lopez with 6.d3 White achieved a position where he could have exerted some pressure with 14.d4. Instead, Etienne played 14.c4, allowing Black to get a slight edge. After exchanging minor inaccuracies the opponents started repeating moves and agreed to call it a day. Shankland and Andreikin both have 3/5 and are the joint leaders of Pool A. Bacrot has to win against Andreikin and hope that Shankland loses to Grischuk in order to be the qualifier. Grischuk, however, has no chance to move to the next stage. Pool B: It was a day of draws in Pool B. Amin M. Tabatabaei and Nikita Vitiugov played the Giuoco Piano. After a lot of slow manoeuvring in a roughly equal position, Tabatabaei ventured upon d3-d4, allowing Black to activate his knight and start posing problems for White. At first glance, Vitiugov had some advantage in the endgame but Amin had sufficient defensive resources to hold his ground. In the post-game analysis, both players agreed that “the draw was a fair result”. Anish Giri got out of the Ragozin with a better position against Pentala Harikrishna but then hastily played 17.Ne5, allowing Black to equalise. While this move is in line with the ideas of the opening, the concrete variations did not favour White. Harikrishna seized the opportunity and played 17…c5, opening the position and creating a protected c4-passer. Giri timely carried out a standard e3-e4 breakthrough in the centre to weaken Black’s c4 pawn. Pentala still had some edge but after he grabbed the a3-pawn further exchanges became inevitable and the two agreed to split a point on move 31. The clear leader in this group is Anish Giri with 3.5/5 and he is followed by Nikita Vitiugov on 2.5 points, while the other two players are out. In the final round of the group stage, Vitiugov is White against Giri and he will have to win in order to stand chances to move on to the next phase of the tournament. Pool C: Alexei Shirov defeated Vladimir Fedoseev in the Sveshnikov System of the Sicilian. This is his first victory in five rounds. Black got a very promising position after planting his bishop on d3 but then launched a somewhat hasty attack on the kingside which proved to be without venom. Shirov – in his style – played bravely. As Black was mounting pressure on White’s king which looked dangerous but was in fact not really threatening thanks to an excellent defensive manoeuvre Nd5-e3, Shirov advanced his pawns down the d-file opening the a1-h8 diagonal and penetrated with his rook to the seventh rank. White’s arguments were much stronger, and although Shirov made an inaccuracy on move 29, he quickly converted his advantage into a full point. In an insightful post-game commentary, Shirov gave an in-depth analysis of the game from the first move. Despite not standing chances to move to the next stage, Shirov said that he was happy he managed to beat “one of the youngsters”. Vidit Santosh Gujrathi lost as White to Richard Rapport. In the French Defence, Rapport got control of the White squares but fell behind in development. Gujrathi didn’t manage to use this temporary advantage, allowing Black’s strategical long-lasting pluses to come to the fore. Rapport got a firm grip over the game, both threatening the white king and having control on the queenside. By move 43 Black had a three-pawn advantage and Gujrathi’s capitulation became just a question of time. The Indian GM resigned on move 61. With 3.5/5 Rapport is the clear favourite to qualify for the next stage. The only one who could catch up with him is Gujrathi (2.5/5) providing that he defeats Fedoseev as Black and that the Hungarian loses to Shirov as White. Seems it’s too much to hope for, but Caissa can be both generous and cruel. Pool D: A strange game transpired on the board where Alexandr Predke was playing as White against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. This was one of the last games to finish in the fifth round. In the Giuoco Piano White came out of the opening slightly better. However, Predke handed the advantage to Black with 20.Re4 but Mamedyarov did not find the best response – he played 20…d5 and the position was even again. In the subsequent play Mamedyarov emerged a pawn up but White had compensation as his opponent’s
Second season of FIDE Chessable Academy starts on Chessable Classroom
The FIDE Chessable Academy, the initiative of Chessable, the world’s leading chess E-learning platform, in partnership with FIDE, resumed on Saturday, 5 March 2022. The FIDE Trainers’ Commission (TRG) initially implemented a three-year junior educational program in summer 2021, when 265 most talented and promising young players between the ages of 8 to 16, representing 100 national federations, attended the program from July till December 2021. The new semester will be held from March to May 2022. And it attracted even more talented young players. 415 participants from 88 countries will learn and improve their chess working with the strongest trainers, including grandmasters Mikhail Kobalia, R. B.Ramesh, Evgeniy Najer, Farrukh Amonatov, Yu Shaoteng, Mikhail Gurevich, Alexey Kuzmin, Nigel Short, Alonso Zapata, Ilya Smirin and many others.. The introductory classes were held today in 10 Groups in English, Russian and Spanish languages and featured FIDE Managing Director Dana Reizniece-Ozola, Chief Executive Officer of Chessable Geert van der Velde, FIDE Executive Director Victor Bologan and other officials. FIDE Managing Director Dana Reizniece-Ozola: “Let me welcome you on behalf of FIDE! The fact that you are here means that you are not only among the most talented children in your country, but also you have worked a lot. I am a chess player myself, and I know that there’s no easy way to the top of the mountain. You have to work very hard, that is why I respect you so much! I hope you will have a great experience here. Just remember that every regular boring day, you are preparing yourself for the one extraordinary one. And my special greetings to girls! Now we have the Year of the Woman in Chess in FIDE and we want to emphasize how smart female chess players are what a strong part of the chess community they are. I have a dream that one day it will be a lady sitting at the board at the World Chess Championship match! Try hard to make my dream come true!” Chief Executive Officer of Chessable Geert van der Velde: “I am really proud that we have over 400 kids this season joining from almost 90 different countries and federations. That is a really broad spectrum of kids joining this year. You guys are obviously some of the strongest players already. Some of you actually are grandmasters, but it is still fantastic. One of the things that we envisioned when we built the Chessable Classroom was to create a live video learning environment where people can gather around the chessboard. One of the nice things that this board is interactive; I hope you will have a lot of fun with it. This is the second season of the Chessable FIDE Academy. We are still working on improving the product every single time, so you might see some new features released over the next couple of months. If you have any ideas for us on how to improve our product, we are very happy to hear your suggestions.” FIDE Executive Director Victor Bologan: “We had very good successful in-person meetings with pupils from the first season in Dubai during the World Championship match. It was a great experience. I remember myself when I was a kid; for me, those meetings, lessons and seminars with grandmasters and world champions were very inspirational. So I hope that these lectures with famous trainers will also help you. That’s why FIDE is very happy to support these courses and thanks Chessable for this great opportunity. I think it is a very good synergy of knowledge, tools, experience and platform. From the FIDE’s side, we do have a very good interaction with almost 200 national chess federations in the world. It’s a huge scale, and I understand we have the best of the best. We are aiming for good attendance, so don’t miss classes, even if sometimes you feel it is boring. It will surely positively impact your performance and chess skills. Good luck to all of you!” During three months of training, a panel expert representing FIDE and Chessable will oversee the participants’ progress, provide assignments, and work together to evaluate the young talents. Students will also get access to numerous free chess learning materials from Chessable. The players, showing the best performance during the training, will have a chance to attend the offline training with top grandmasters. About Chessable Chessable is the world’s leading chess E-learning platform and the largest digital chess library in the world. Chessable’s mission is to make learning chess as fun and efficient as possible. It has published interactive video courses by a wide range of presenters and authors, including many of the world’s top players, such as current World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen. The company was co-founded in 2015 by David Kramaley and International Master John Bartholomew. Chessable’s team consists of expert content creators, scientists, developers and chess grandmasters all working together to create the best chess learning platform in the world.
FIDE Grand Prix Belgrade: Round 4 Recap
A day of draws in the FIDE Grand Prix Belgrade organized by World Chess as Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is the only one to score a victory, producing a first decisive game in Pool D The fourth round of the second leg of the FIDE Grand Prix was mostly calm as seven out of eight games ended in a draw. The only one to win was the World Blitz champion and seasoned top-class player, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (MVL), who scored an important victory in Pool D, breaking a three-round long cycle of draws in that group. In the overall results, Anish Giri is doing best with 3/5, leading Pool B, followed by five GMs on 2.5 points: Andreikin and Shankland (leaders in Pool A), Rapport and Gujrathi (leaders in Pool C) and MVL, who leads in Pool D. Pool A: The game between Dmitry Andreikin and Alexander Grischuk was the first to finish after an hour and 15 minutes of play. The two played a well-researched line in the Grunfeld Defence, and the game followed a familiar theoretical path leading to a draw. As Grischuk said – “Dmitry only checked if I knew the theory and it turns out I do”. Dmitry Andreikin noted that he was happy with a draw given the overall standings as he prepares for the key duel in the group – the Round 5 encounter with the other leader of Pool A, Sam Shankland. Alexander Grischuk was more direct: “I can now buy a [plane] ticket, as it’s guaranteed I won’t reach the playoffs”. In the other game in this group, Sam Shankland drew with Etienne Bacrot. White got a better position out of the opening but did not manage to coordinate his pieces and allowed Black to regroup. By move 14th White’s advantage melted. Then it was Etienne’s turn to misstep – his rook made a long voyage to b4, but it was just a waste of time. Sam achieved a virtually won position but failed to find 34.e5! He went for Black’s a-pawn, hoping to advance his a-runner, but Bacrot also had a pawn on c5, which played an important role in his defensive setup. In the end, the Frenchman gave up his knight for White’s a-runner to collect Shankland’s pawns on the kingside to secure a draw. Pool B: Nikita Vitiugov split a point with Pentala Harikrishna. In the Anti-Marshal, the two quickly achieved a balanced position. Although it was not without venom, neither side had any serious chances. Both opponents made very logical moves, and a draw came as a natural outcome. Amin M. Tabatabaei and Anish Giri drew their round four game as well. The Rossolimo attack of the Sicilian was played, and both sides wanted to force the other out of their preparation, but neither succeeded. After Black played 11…b5, Tabatabaei spent 15 minutes thinking about his response, but he didn’t manage to find anything sharp. Giri easily equalized, and the game moved towards calmer waters. After massive exchanges, the position transpired to a rook endgame, and the two agreed to split a point on the move 31. Pool C: Vladimir Fedoseev was eager to catch up with Richard Rapport, but the latter opted for a very solid Petroff Defense. The two followed a critical line in which the Hungarian introduced a novelty recommended by chess engines. After exchanges on the queenside, Vladimir managed to win a pawn, but Richard had two strong bishops as compensation. The position was even, and the two agreed to split a point on the move 42. Alexei Shirov and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi played the longest game of the round (five and a half hours) before deciding to call it even. In the Open Variation Ruy Lopez, the opponents tested a very old line first played by the fifth World Champion Max Euwe in a couple of games back in 1920. The encounter played more than a century later did not change the evaluation of the position as safe for Black. The opponents ended up in a roughly equal endgame in which Shirov tested the precision of his opponent but to no avail. The game was drawn on move 57. Pool D: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Yu Yangyi drew their game. In the Ragozin Defence, Black solved all the opening problems and reached equality. Things shifted after White’s move 21.Rb2, allowing Black to get an edge after seemingly illogical knight exchange on d4. However, Yu either missed or underestimated a very strong move 22…b5 creating a protected b5-passer. As played, White avoided the worst, and after mutual annihilation of the weak pawns, the opponents split a point on the move 30. The duel between Alexandr Predke and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was the first one to produce a decisive outcome in Pool D after four rounds. Vachier-Lagrave played a less common line in his trademarked Najdorf. In a sharp game where both players forced each other out of preparation, Predke was the first one to err, venturing upon a breakthrough in the center that did not work out for him. The following middlegame was a typical complicated Scicilan battle: Maxime allowed White to exert pressure on the e-file, aiming for the uncastled king, but at the same time, he had enough resources to launch a counter-attack on the queenside. It was all going Black’s way in this critical portion of the game as the Frenchman completely outplayed his opponent. On move 30 White had to give up an exchange, and the rest was a smooth sail for MVL. The Frenchman is now the leader of Group D. Round 5 Saturday is a rest day at the FIDE Grand Prix. Round five will be played on Sunday, 6th March, from 3 PM local (CET) time. The pairings for the fifth round are as follows: Pool A: Sam Shankland (2704) vs Dmitry Andreikin (2724)Etienne Bacrot (2635) vs Alexander Grischuk (2758) Pool B: Amin M. Tabatabaei (2623) vs Nikita Vitiugov (2726)Anish Giri (2771) vs Pentala Harikrishna (2716) Pool C: Alexei Shirov (2691) vs Vladimir Fedoseev (2704)Vidit Santosh Gujrathi
Salinas Herrera and Gomez Barrera win Chilean Championships
After one-year hiatus caused by the pandemic situation, the Chilean Chess Federation held National Championships 2022 from February 18-27 (open and women). Both tournaments were OTB 12-player round-robins with classical time control. The only GM in the open section Pablo Salinas Herrera crushed the competition – conceding his opponents only three draws and took gold with an excellent result 9½/11. It is his fourth national title. Hugo Lopez Silva turned in a good performance and finished just a half-point behind the champion. Cristian Vasquez Toledo came out third. Final standings: 1 GM Salinas Herrera Pablo Patricio 2517 9½ 2 Lopez Silva Hugo Andres 2407 9 3 Vasquez Toledo Cristian 2154 7½ 4 FM Olivares Olivares Claudio 2380 6½ 5 FM Donoso Diaz Sebastian 2212 6 6 Diaz Vasquez Martin 2253 6 7 FM Diaz Villagran Robert 2318 5½ 8 Barriga Silva Felipe 2162 5 9 FM Aguirre Contreras Cristian Rodrigo 2261 5 10 Bahamondes Ortiz Benjamin 2164 2½ The rating-favorite of the women’s section WIM Javiera Gomez Barrera emerged as the winner, netting 8/11. Monserrat Morales Flores completed tournament unbeaten but finished a full point behind the champion. Francisca Sanchez Tobar claimed bronze and became the only player to defeat Gomez Barrera. 1 WIM Gomez Barrera Javiera Belen 2199 8 2 WCM Morales Flores Monserrat 1943 7 3 WCM Sanchez Tobar Francisca Valentina 1837 6 4 WFM Toro Pradenas Maria Jose 1979 5½ 5 WCM Lemus Peña Macarena 1703 5 6 WFM Reyes Jara Paula 1880 5 7 Rozas Lazcano Valeska 1456 4½ 8 Luna Benalcazar Gianella 1736 4½ 9 Vildosola Canales Melany Selena 1645 4 10 WFM Fuentes Inzunza Lesly 1816 3½
FIDE Grand Prix Belgrade: Round 3 Recap
Pool C is the only group where both games had a decisive outcome, while the rest ended in a draw Richard Rapport stopped Vidit Gujrathi, and Vladimir Fedoseev delivered a blow to Alexei Shirov in Group C. All other games in the remaining three pools ended with a draw. The first move in today’s round was made by two chess legends – Alisa Maric (the former contender for the title of women’s world champion) and Nigel Short (who played Garry Kasparov in 1993 for the world chess crown). They made the first move in the game between Vladimir Fedoseev and Alexei Shirov. Pool A: Dmitry Andreikin made a draw against Sam Shankland. In the Grunfeld, the opponents followed a well-worn theoretical line in which White sacrifices a pawn and gets compensation for it, but hardly anything more. The only concern for Black was to ensure that White did not coordinate his bishop and queen along the diagonal a1-h8. As soon as Andreikin restored the material balance, the position became even. While Andreikin described it as “a boring game”, Sam Shankland said that “it was a little bit uncomfortable for Black”, but he didn’t see himself losing with enough time on the clock. In the post-game analysis, the two players discussed whether the small advantages computers evaluate in a very close position have a realistic potential to be materialized. Both players agreed that this is hardly ever the case and suggested that players at a lower level should be much more careful when looking at such evaluations in “tight” positions. “The computer is a useful tool to have, but if you’re not reasonably strong yourself and think for yourself, it’s entirely useless. You need to use your own brain, otherwise – you just become a monkey pressing buttons”, concluded Shankland. In terms of their overall play so far, Shankland noted that he has “more points than he deserves”, referencing two mistakes in the openings of the previous games. Andreikin said that “the first two rounds were OK” for him but that in the third round – he was tired. The game between Alexander Grischuk and Etienne Bacrot was the first to finish. The two made a quick draw in the Petrof. “This was a more solid game than we played in Berlin”, said Bacrot. Grischuk opted for a very tricky line, but Bacrot knew the right moves. White was slightly better after the opening and even won a pawn. However, the position didn’t offer anything substantial, and the two moved to an endgame with opposite-coloured bishops with mutual weaknesses. While Bacrot made three draws in three rounds, Grischuk only scored half a point. Asked how he feels about his performance so far, he said: “I made seven blunders so far… Better to make a draw than to lose”. When asked if he feels that he is getting into his “element”, Grischuk just said “no”. Pool B: Nikita Vitiugov and Amin M. Tabatabaei drew their game after 40 moves. The queens were quickly exchanged in the Carlsbad Variation of Queen’s Gambit, and the two sides moved to an endgame with a lot of positional manoeuvring. Black has a ruined pawn structure on the kingside in this line, but as tournament practice has demonstrated so far, it is really hard to exploit that. At some point, Nikita lost the thread and found himself in a slightly inferior position, but with no real weaknesses in his camp, he reached a draw by repetition with relative ease. One of the more exciting games of the day was played by Pentala Harikrishna and Anish Giri, who had a perfect winning score until this round. Despite ending in a draw, the game was full of sharp turns. In the Open Variation of Ruy Lopez, Harikrishna got a seemingly more promising position, threatening an attack on the Black king’s fortress. However, after White advanced his pawn from c3 to c4, Giri responded with a queen sacrifice: Pentala Harikrishna – Anish Giri 23…Qxf3, which was a straight way to force a draw. Harikrishna said that he was surprised by the move. Black got a rook and a bishop for a queen, but, more importantly, he had the perpetual check along the f-file, which Anish executed. Pool C: In Pool C, both games ended with a decisive outcome. Vladimir Fedoseev dominated Alexei Shirov in a rare line of the Slav. Before the game began, on first moves, Nigel Short suggested White should play the English opening, alluding to his country of origin. Fedoseev politely declined. Short later joked that if Fedoseev loses, it will be because he chose “the wrong opening”. However, that wasn’t the case as Fedoseev managed to create a very strong position against Shirov, surprising him in the opening. The opponent quickly found themselves in uncharted waters, and after Black’s 10…b5, White got a substantial edge making serious threats on the queenside and forcing Shirov to sacrifice an exchange. After grabbing an exchange, White opted to collect Black’s pawns on the queenside, allowing Shirov to move his king to safety and somewhat weaken the pressure. Feeling that in an ordinary course of events, Black will gradually go down, Shirov sacrificed a piece hoping to create some chances, but that only precipitated defeat. Following the move 23…Rb8 White was completely winning, even with his king uncastled and a passive rook on h1. On move 31 Shirov had to resign, facing an imminent checkmate. Richard Rapport scored an important victory over Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (who had won his previous two games). In the Carlsbad pawn structure that emerged from Nimzo-Indian, Rapport smoothly carried out a typical plan of building a strong pawn centre with f2-f3 followed by e3-e4. This plan – introduced by Steinitz and developed by Botvinnik – worked very well for White this time. With dominance in the center the Hungarian carefully regrouped his pieces for a decisive attack against which Gujrathi had no response. By move 28, it was all over for Black. Gujrathi almost made it to the time control but resigned on the move 40. Pool D: The last game of the
FIDE Chess Olympiad 2026 – Call for bids
1.1 FIDE is opening a bidding procedure to invite any federation member of FIDE or any organiser approved by the national federation to host the FIDE Chess Olympiad and FIDE Congress 2026 (see the Main Event Regulations, Competition for Players with Disabilities, and FIDE Congress). 1.2 The bid may contain special proposals on financial and commercial conditions. The FIDE Council shall decide whether these conditions are admissible. 1.3 The Bidding Form shall be filled in by an Applicant. A signed copy shall be submitted as e-mail messages to the FIDE Secretariat to office@fide.com from 3 March to 31 May 2022 by 23:59 Lausanne time (FIDE has a right to extend this deadline). All the documents shall be submitted in English. Additional documents may be requested by the FIDE General Strategy Commission (GSC) for further evaluation. 1.4 Bid Evaluation Report shall be presented by GSC for approval of FIDE Council. 1.5 Once the Organiser is granted the right to organise the event, a relevant announcement shall be made on the FIDE website.
FIDE-ISF World School Online Chess Cup 2022 postponed
By mutual decision, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) and the International School Sport Federation (ISF) announce that the FIDE-ISF World School Online Chess Cup 2022 has been postponed until further notice. New dates for this online event will be announced by FIDE and ISF at a later date, with registration remaining open.
FIDE Grand Prix Belgrade: Round 2 Recap
Three victories, five draws and Grischuk’s second defeat in a row have marked the second day of the FIDE Grand Prix Belgrade, organized by World Chess Anish Giri and Vidit Gujrathi have scored again, and they are the only two players with two victories. The second round started at 3 PM local time, with Aleksandar Vulin – Serbia’s minister of interior affairs – making the first move in the game between Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Pool A The game between Etienne Bacrot and Dmitry Andreikin ended in a draw. In the Ruy Lopez, White managed to gain a slight edge in the opening, putting pressure on Black’s position. After a few imprecise moves, however – particularly 19.Rc1 – Black got some breathing space and engineered a counter-attack on the kingside. Bacrot found a nice move 24.Bg5, securing that any further simplifications help relieve him of the pressure on the board. The game transpired into an endgame where Black was better; however, Bacrot managed to pose some problems, which Andreikin did not manage to find the correct answer for. Probably Black had to venture upon g6-g5 at some point because after the Frenchman pushed h2-h4 and f2-f4, he got out of danger. After losing in the first round, Alexander Grischuk suffered another defeat, this time at the hands of Sam Shankland. Although Grischuk was standing better on the black side of Nimzo-Indian by move 17, he allowed White to come back into the game after a suspicious 19…Nc5, sacrificing a pawn. Alexander had sufficient compensation but erred with 22…Rc6 – the game liquidated into a hopeless ending for Black despite equal material. With no better options, Grischuk resigned on the move 39. Grischuk is now the only player in the tournament without any points. Pool B Anish Giri won a second game in a row. He was better against Nikita Vitiugov, who had an easy pass in the first round following Pentala Harikrishna’s early blunder on Tuesday. The game started calmly, as Giuoco Pianissimo suggests, with both sides developing and trying to gain control of the centre. However, Anish met 14…f6? with a powerful breakthrough in the center and grabbed the initiative. Giri did not find the best way to build up pressure, and by move 20, the game was even. It did not prevent Giri from setting off some fireworks as he sacrificed his dark-squared bishop to launch an attack on the kingside. Vitiugov accepted the gift and defended with precision until move 30, when he committed a fatal error 30…c7-c5. Giri leapt at the chance, and two moves down the road, Nikita threw in the towel. With this victory, Giri is on two out of two and shows that he is in excellent form. The second pair of Pool B, Amin M. Tabatabaei and Pentala Harikrishna, made a draw in the Caro Kann. It was a lucky escape for the Iranian, who spent a lot of time in the opening and then made a blunder with 21.c4, handing over an almost decisive advantage to Black. By move 26, Black was completely dominating the board. However, instead of bringing his knight into play and going for the white king, Pentala opted to collect two pawns on the kingside, giving White time to organise a defence and “trap” Black’s queen perpetually attacking the most powerful piece. Following the game, Tabatabaei said that he is spending too much time thinking about the moves and that time management is a problem for him in this tournament. Conversely, Harikrishna said he was too hasty in his play, allowing White the repetition and even more chances to play for an advantage. Pool C Vidit Santosh Gujrathi scored a well-deserved victory over Vladimir Fedoseev in the Nimzo Indian. It was the longest game of the second round, lasting around four and a half hours. Vidit played the same line that Rapport tested against Feseev yesterday and also got some edge. White gradually restricted Black’s pieces and timely opened the centre on the move 23 to give some work for his bishop pair. Despite some time trouble the Indian was building up pressure, taking control over the proceedings. Fedoseev gave up an exchange hoping for his c-passer and active knights, but Vidit penetrated with his rooks into Black’s camp along the h-file, and that made all the difference. Fedoseev resisted, but his efforts were not enough to repel White’s advances, and he had to call it a day. “I feel very good that I managed to win these games. In the last couple of tournaments, I managed to bodge similar positions. So I’m relieved I won,” said Gujrathi after the game. The game between Alexei Shirov and Richard Rapport was the first one to finish, after just over an hour of play. Rapport surprised Shirov with the Petrov and then with 4…Nc6. “I used to have some games in this line more than 20 years ago”, Shirov recalled after the game. He spent quite some time thinking about the next move. Alexei could have opted for much sharper lines, but the seasoned GM probably concluded that he didn’t feel confident going down that path. Instead, Shirov took a safe line leading to simplifications. After exchanges in the centre, the game transpired into an opposite colour bishops endgame and the two Grandmasters agreed on a draw after the 30th move. In the post-game interview Alexei Shirov reflected on the time spent in Belgrade and the tournaments he played in the capital of former Yugoslavia during the 1990s. “It was quite a thing to play in Belgrade back then… What stood out was a big audience at the event and huge interest for chess which was rather unusual”, noted the seasoned GM. Pool D One of the most exciting games of the day took place on the board where Maxime Vacheir-Lagrave was leading the white pieces against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. The Open Variation of Ruy Lopez was played, and an interesting position emerged after White’s 11th move Qe1, one that was tested in the game Vachier-Lagrave – Giri back in 2019 in Zagreb. There were several lines for Black to choose. Instead of continuing as Giri with 11…Nc5, Mamedyarov opted to castle and
Erigaisi, Nakamura and Aronian move up in March rating list
The FIDE rating list for March 2022 is out. The traditional Tata Steel festival, the first leg of the FIDE Grand Prix, Battle of Sexes in Gibraltar, Iberoamericano Championship in Mexico-city became the main rating-changers in February (the Tata Steel ended in January, but its results were incorporated in the March rating-list). Levon Aronian gained 13 points in the first leg of the FIDE Grand Prix in Berlin; combined with an 11-point loss by Caruana in Tata Steel Masters, this enabled him to rise to #4, the position he occupied back in November 2021. Photo: Official Photo FIDE Grand Prix Berlin Press Kit Wesley So and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov also picked up some rating points in Berlin to overtake Ian Nepomniachtchi. Magnus Carlsen, who recently voiced an ambitious goal of clearing the 2900 mark, earned 3 points in Tata Steel Masters, but all this gain was wiped out in a single draw against much lower-rated Geir Sune Tallaksen Osmoe, played in the Norwegian Premier League. Still, the World Champion’s top position in the rating list is indisputable. Women’s #1 Hou Yifan returned to action but lost 8 points in her match vs Bu Xiangzhi. Humpy Koneru (previously #3) no longer appears in the list due to inactivity; thus, all players below her rose one place, with Harika Dronavalli entering the top 10. Biggest gains (in both Open and Women top-100): Erigaisi, Arjun 2660 (+27) Sargsyan, Anna M. 2395 (+15) Nakamura, Hikaru 2750 (+14) Aronian, Levon 2785 (+13) Van Foreest, Jorden 2714 (+12) Stefanova, Antoaneta 2457 (+12) Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar 2776 (+9) Esipenko, Andrey 2723 (+9) Saric, Ivan 2687 (+9) Efroimski, Marsel 2446 (+9) Wojtaszek, Radoslaw 2694 (+8) Arjun Erigaisi, who was considered one of the main favourites before the start of Tata Steel Challengers, did not disappoint. The Indian youngster won the event with an excellent score of 10½/13, earned 27 rating points and made a roaring debut in the top-100 Open. Photo by © Lennart Ootes – Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2022 Anna Sargsyan turned in a solid performance in the Lozovatsky Memorial (the open won by Nikita Afanasiev), netted 15 rating points and deservedly became second in this category. Hikaru Nakamura returned to OTB chess with a bang by winning the first leg of the FIDE Grand Prix in Berlin and picking up impressive 14 points along the way. Photo: Official Photo FIDE Grand Prix Berlin Press Kit Jorden Van Foreest and Andrey Esipenko got their well-deserved rating points earned in Tata Steel Masters and continue to climb the ladder. Again, junior players outside of open and women top-100 can boast of more significant rating progress. Alice Lee (+111), Elif Mehmed (+61), Miaoyi Lu (+37), Roxangel Obregon Garcia (+37), Lara Schulze (+36), Christopher Yoo (+20), Balaji Daggupati (+20), to name just a few, considerably increased their rating.
World Team Championship postponed to November 2022
The International Chess Federation (FIDE) has decided to postpone the World Teams Championship 2022 to November 2022. The rights to host the tournament are retained by the Israeli Chess Federation. At the moment, due to the ongoing tragic events related to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the participation of the Ukrainian team cannot be ensured and the Russian national team cannot be allowed to participate in the championship. In addition, a number of other teams have not confirmed their participation. FIDE calls for an immediate cessation of hostilities.