The oldest living Grandmaster Yuri Averbakh turns 100
Yuri Lvovich Averbakh was already a legendary figure. Now he is also centenary. The oldest living Grandmaster turns 100 today, after beating the odds last year and overcoming a serious COVID infection that took him to hospital. Tall and athletic, Averbakh was physically gifted from his youth, and he cultivated his body as much as his mind. Volleyball was the first sports activity he took up seriously, taking advantage of his height. He also loved hockey and skiing – two national passions in Russia. Not so well known is the fact that, for a short period, he was also a regular at the boxing ring. “In our yard, there was a club which was turned into a dormitory for workers. It was a real rabble, where a cult of strength reigned. Therefore, if you wanted to be equal in the yard, you had to be able to give as good as you got. That’s why I took up boxing for a year,” Averbakh said in an interview with Vladimir Barsky and Eteri Kublashvili on the occasion of his 90th birthday. He was already a middle-aged man when he took swimming as a way to stay in shape. “I swam until very recently, having gone to the swimming pool from 1964 to 1996”. He would swim almost daily when he was already in his seventies and continued to do so until the doctors, worried about his pacemaker, told him to stop when he was already in his late eighties. “A healthy lifestyle with plenty of physical exercises is very important.” While all this explains his longevity, it is very likely that keeping mentally active also played a huge role. He is one of those people who basically never retired and kept working as much as his health allowed. As late as 2016, he would still visit the Central Chess Club at Gogolevsky boulevard every Wednesday to meet with young talents and offer them advice. Photo: Boris Dolmatovsky Averbakh was very fond of working with young people, but he also kept in mind the seniors and, with that intention, he found a chess centre in a library. “We were looking to attract older people to the game,” he explained in an interview with Dagobert Kohlmeyer. “They should not play in tough tournaments but rather spend their time-solving chess problems. Working with studies helps prevent Alzheimer. If you are over seventy, the stress of a tournament can be dangerous to your health. (…) But a calm and reflective attitude to chess is very useful, especially when you are very old.” Averbakh started to play chess at the age of seven, but it was just one more hobby for him during his first years, and he didn’t really take it seriously, with volleyball being his main interest. Then, in February 1935, he had the chance to meet the famous chess composer Nikolai Grigoriev, at a time when Moscow was hosting its second international chess tournament, with Capablanca, Lasker, Botvinnik, and many others. “Grigoriev gave a lecture in the club, showing some of his famous pawn studies. They made an enormous impression on me, and that was the first time I sensed that chess wasn’t simply a game but was something more, that it was an art. And I also had the urge to master that field. That’s how I got involved in chess.” Finally hooked on chess at the age of 13, his first great success came three years later when he won the Soviet Union’s championship for schoolchildren. However, his incipient career would come to a halt, along with most chess organized activity, due to the World War II. He was evacuated with all his school from Moscow to Izhevsk, barely avoided being recruited himself when he reached the required age, and he would only return to Moscow in 1943. Yuri Averbakh at the tournament in Ivanovo (1944) It was then that his career took off, gaining in strength until he won the Moscow Championship of 1949, ahead of a strong field that included Andor Lilienthal and Vladimir Simagin, among many others. This was his first major success and the beginning of a decade in which he became one of the top players in the world, probably one of the top-10 at his peak. He won the Moscow Championship again the next year, and in 1952 he earned the Grandmaster title – a title he has borne for almost 70 years! Averbakh finished 5th at the Stockholm Interzonal Tournament in 1952, qualifying for the legendary Zurich 1953 Candidates Tournament, where he finished in 10th place. The next year, in 1954, he became champion of the USSR, and in 1956 he was very close to repeating this feat, sharing 1st-3rd places with Taimanov and Spassky, and ending up in second place after a tie-break stage. In his collection of selected games, published by Cadogan, Averbakh says that he learned chess “the wrong way round”, becoming a strategist before he learned properly about tactics and combinations. A very solid player, pure attack players would often feel uncomfortable when playing against him: Rashid Nezhmetdinov, for instance, was only able to get one draw in the nine games they played. Photo: ERIC KOCH @ANEFO Averbakh reduced his competitive activities when he reached his forties, leaving behind numerous victories in international events all over the world, like Jakarta, Rio de Janeiro, Adelaide, and Vienna. His latest international success was the Rubinstein Memorial held in Polanica-Zdroj in 1975. He shifted then his interest from playing the game to studying the game. And in that, he was as successful, or even more, as he was as a player. “My investigative character forced me to make a serious study of the endgame, that phase of the game where individual pieces battle against each other. Initially, I published several articles and then thought about a book devoted to various types of endings.” His endeavour turned into a monumental work, the first systematic study of the endgame in history, published in five volumes. “So
FIDE World Championship Match 2023 – Call for bids
1.1 The International Chess Federation (FIDE) will hold the World Championship Match in spring 2023. The Regulations shall be approved by March 15, 2022. FIDE is opening a bidding procedure to host the event. 1.2 The basic provisions are the following: a) Number of standard games to be played – 14b) Total duration – up to 21 daysc) Recommended prize fund – 2,000,000 (two million) eurosd) The Organiser shall cover all organisation expenses according to the Regulations and FIDE standardse) The Organiser shall respect the rights of the FIDE sponsors and partners, including for the video broadcast. 1.3 The Applicant shall fill in the Bid Form. A signed copy shall be submitted as an e-mail message to the FIDE Secretariat to office@fide.com from February 7, 2022, to June 7, 2022, by 23:59 Lausanne time. FIDE has the right to extend this deadline if considered necessary. All the documents shall be submitted in English. The bid should be accompanied by a non-refundable fee of three thousand (3,000) euros. Additional documents may be requested by the FIDE General Strategy Commission (GSC) for further evaluation.
FIDE Grand Prix: Aronian and So make their claim
The players will enjoy a free day tomorrow IM Michael Rahal – Berlin, February 7th 2022 – The participants in the Berlin Grand Prix have a maximum of exactly fifteen minutes to play their first move on the board after the arbiter starts the round. However, elite players are generally already seated or at least in the building five or ten minutes earlier. So, at the start of today’s round four, when GM Pentala Harikrishna played 1.e4 and his opponent GM Alexei Shirov was clearly absent, you could sense the nervousness around the room. The organizers quickly contacted him at the official hotel and, luckily for Shirov, he was in his room. Visibly nervous at the prospect of “losing on time”, he ran to the playing venue, arriving a few seconds before being forfeited. In his postgame interview, Shirov apologized profoundly: he hadn’t checked the schedule and had mistakenly thought that there was no game today. Going into the free day, and with only two rounds to go in the qualifying group stage, only two players – GM’s Levon Aronian and Wesley So – dominate their groups with three points out of four. But as we witnessed today, anything can happen: also, tiebreaks are looming on the horizon for players with equal scores at the end. Pool A In yesterday’s press conference, GM Hikaru Nakamura said that “everyone will be going for a specific player in the group from now on”, clearly referring to his opponent today, Etienne Bacrot, currently last in the group standings. However, although Bacrot is no longer a professional player – “…my focus nowadays is on coaching Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (MVL), and therefore it’s difficult to play with the top players” – he still prepares the games thoroughly and, for the second time, brought out the French defence. “After all, I am a French player!” he said after the game”. Today he caught Nakamura by surprise with 10…g5!?, a nice opening idea introduced last year by World Championship challengerrr GM Ian Nepomniatchchi. The play took on a forced nature and Nakamura decided that in view of his tournament situation, it was not the day to play on in a win-lose manner. “I was afraid the position could collapse if I continued the final position” was Bacrot’s final conclusion after the game. “However, it’s still very nice to sense the following of the French chess fans that support me”. In the other game of the group, the two Russians faced each other for the second time, both of them in need of a win to catch Nakamura in the standings. With Black, Andrey Esipenko went for the reliable Nimzo-Indian reaching a slighly inferiour middlegame position which was complex enough to make Alexander Grischuk go wrong. “I got completely confused. After 22.Qd3 Andrey played Qc6, and I started calculating some lines, but I will not say which ones. Because if I say, tomorrow I will have not only a PCR test but also a psychiatric test,” joked Grischuk after the game, stirring up a laugh from the spectators in the press room. Esipenko defended with precision, and the draw became inevitable. “Both my strength and my weakness is that I am a perfectionist,” concluded Grischuk after the game. Pool B GM Vladimir – “I am very strong in closed positions” – Fedoseev made his claim for first place in group B today by crushing GM Grigoriy Oparin with Black. “I had a blackout and missed …Qg4″. Maybe there is some incredible tactic that saves the game, but I couldn’t see it” was Oparin’s postgame explanation. Already famous in the postgame press conferences for his incredible calculation skills, Fedoseev recited several interesting lines that he had calculated, but which all led to good positions for him. It was clear he had everything under control: with this important win, he ties for first place in the group. When he was asked by WGM Dina Belankaya if would like to have a chess opening named after him, Fedoseev surprised us all by responding: “I already invented two openings. For example, the line 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 a6 was developed by me and I am very proud of this idea”. GM Richard Rapport was out for the win today against GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek in the other game of the group. With White, he played an excellent technical game against Black’s isolated queen-pawn but couldn’t convert, in good measure thanks to his opponent’s tenacious defence. After the game, Rapport was asked what he considered the best skills to have as a chess player. His answer stood out: “The engines are pretty strong, so I suspect that accurate calculation is the best skill to have as a chess player”. Pool C In the game that might have decided the winner of this group, GM Levon Aronian displayed some fine opening preparation to hold a comfortable draw against GM Vidit Gujarathi, maintaining top position going into the rest day. “I have analyzed this to play with White actually, and also from the Black side. It’s kind of a solid line for Black, and my conclusion is that maybe it’s a tiny bit better for White but nothing really special. I think it’s important in this type of position to play precisely: I have to act fast with …a5—a4 as there is a strategical risk,” said Aronian after the game in conversation with Press Officer IM Michael Rahal. In the other game of the pool, GM’s Daniil Dubov and Vincent Keymer fought out a very technical battle in a Caro-Kan: neither of the two wanted to share the last place anymore. Today the Russian prevailed, notching up a win that allows him to tie for second place and keep his winning aspirations intact. “This is chess nowadays. The Caro-Kan used to be a really fighting opening, but now, with the line I played, sometimes you will run into something like this. You have to be very well prepared to play 15 only moves in a
FIDE Grand Prix: Levon elevates his game in Berlin
“With three PCR tests left, anything can happen yet” says Grischuk IM Michael Rahal – Berlin, February 6th 2022 – The day began with some online drama concerning the correct spelling of one of the players’ names. Luckily enough, one of his countrymen saved the day: Once the round began, online commentator Jesse February quickly noticed some interesting facts. “We almost had the Grand Prix Attack played in the FIDE Grand Prix: we had the Berlin Defense played in Berlin, and today we have the French Defense being played by the French player!” Most of the games started with 1.e4 (5 out of 8): two Sicilians, two Caro-Kan’s and one French. As in previous rounds, fighting chess is the norm. Four of the games ended with a win, and three more of them could easily have gone to one of the two players. Only Dominguez-Harikrishna was peaceful to the end, and even that game concealed some interesting nuances. Pool A With Hikaru Nakamura leading the group on 1½/2, everyone expected that Alexander Grischuk would go all-out to win this crucial game with White. However, his choice of line against the American’s Queen’s Gambit Accepted was to go for a rather dull queenless middlegame, more to the liking of Kramnik than a great option in a must-win situation. “I’m not sure how serious Grischuk is for playing this for the win, to be honest”, was online commentator Evgeni Miroshnichenko’s take on the Russian’s approach to the game. However, things spiced up when Grischuk went for 18.Nxb7. “I felt something was wrong, but I couldn’t see anything concrete. I calculated some lines deeply but I missed the …a5 idea, and I was actually quite lucky to have Rc1 in that position,” was Grischuk’s relieved answer to Press Officer IM Michael Rahal after the game. After some well-calculated tactics, the game ended in a peaceful outcome, leaving Nakamura ahead in the group. Asked about his chances to represent his country in the upcoming Moscow Olympiad, Nakamura gave a surprising answer: “A lot depends on what happens with the ratings in the next months. If I am not in the top four, there is a 0% chance of me playing. So, I would say right now, the odds of me playing are probably like 5%. I am not going to play as a reserve.” Meanwhile, Andrei Esipenko defeated Etienne Bacrot for the first time in a classical game: their only previous encounter in the Grand Suisse 2019 ended in a draw. Bacrot went for the French Defence (!), deviating from his usual opening preferences. The game was quite double-edged for the most part, although objectively balanced according to the computer, but Esipenko managed to outsmart his opponent towards the end. A much-needed win for the young Russian prodigy after yesterday’s heartbreaking defeat, leaving this group wide open. Pool B Radoslaw Wojtaszek missed a clear chance to increase his advantage over the rest of the field today. If he had played 21…e4! instead of 21…exf4, his opponent would have been in big trouble. As Vladimir Fedoseev pointed out after the game, “I would have been close to losing if Radek had played this move” and recited all the pertinent calculations in the pressroom. Meanwhile, the longest game of the round was played on the other board of the group. Having won an exchange after a dubious opening by his opponent Grigoriy Oparin, Richard Rapport was on the verge of notching up his second win in a row. However, even he didn’t clearly understand after the game where he had gone wrong. “I think it should be winning for Black of course, but there is a race where I am trying to promote four pawns, and he is trying to promote two, and in the end, I couldn’t promote a single one of them, which is very hard to accomplish” explained Rapport after the game. Both players thought that the interesting ending with rook and two pawns against two knights and one pawn should end, as it did, in a draw. With these results, this group is totally open, and anyone of the four can end up on the top. Pool C The first game to finish was Levon Aronian’s fine win over Vincent Keymer. Aronian had actually analyzed the Caro-Kan positions after the interesting but not so obvious opening idea 12…cxd3, isolating a doubled pawn. Online commentator Miroshnichenko praised Levon’s play in the tournament: “He outsmarted Vidit in a seemingly equal position, then he had no trouble making a draw with Dubov, and now once again he is much better.” Keymer wasn’t able to find the precise way to get his pieces into play, and Aronian gradually ground him down and finished him off with textbook endgame play. Leading his group clearly with 2½/3, he was quick to downplay his expectations: “I take it day per day, you know, there are three rounds to go, we will see how tomorrow will go. But so far, I think my play is fine.” In the other game of the group, Vidit scored an important victory over Daniil Dubov: “This was a much-needed win because in the last six games I scored something like 1.5 points” was his first reaction in the postgame interview. “The key moment was when I played 23.Nb4, and he went for something active that didn’t turn out well for him due to lack of piece coordination”. “In general, I overestimated this 23…Na5 idea and then a couple of moves later I didn’t really see what to play” was Dubov’s postgame explanation on the rapid collapse of his position. “People now use the word blunder in a wrong way. When you play bad moves, they are just bad moves.” With these results, Aronian maintains a comfortable one-point lead over Vidit, who gets back to 50%, and now Dubov and Keymer share the last place. Pool D The main result in this group was Wesley So’s first win in the tournament over Alexei Shirov. Although funnily enough, these two players had only disputed four classical games before, it was clear from the beginning that they were going for a fight.
Levan Pantsulaia wins 81st Georgian Championship
GM Levan Pantsulaia claimed his back-to-back national titles after winning the 81st Georgian Championship. The 12-player round-robin with classical time control took place in Tbilisi from January 25 to February 05, 2022. The event brought together the best Georgian players except for Baadur Jobava. Playing in his home town just like a year ago, Levan Pantsulaia grabbed the lead early and convincingly won the title with a round to spare, scoring 8 points out of 11. Now he has four victories in Georgian Championship under his belt (2008, 2015, 2021 and 2022). Despite losing to the champion, GM Merab Gagunashvili and IM Noe Tutisani had a good tournament and finished just a half-point behind Pantsulaia. Kudos to the lowest-rated Noe Tutisani (pictured below), who earned bronze, completed his second GM norm and picked 30 rating points along the way. The rating Mikheil Mchedlishvili became the only participant to defeat the champion in the last-round encounter, but it was his only consolation as he did not get into the top-3. Final standings: 1 GM Pantsulaia, Levan 2579 8 2 GM Gagunashvili, Merab 2573 7½ 3 IM Tutisani, Noe 2412 7½ 4 GM Mchedlishvili, Mikheil 2587 7 5 GM Paichadze, Luka 2566 7 6 IM Kacharava, Nikolozi 2480 6½ 7 GM Quparadze, Giga 2477 6 8 IM Lortkipanidze, Nodar 2414 5 9 FM Akhvlediani, Irakli 2433 4 10 FM Chkhaidze, Nikoloz 2288 4 11 GM Sanikidze, Tornike 2464 3 12 IM Petriashvili, Nikoloz 2418 ½ Photo: Georgian Chess Federation Facebook page
Aronian leads the pack in the Berlin Grand Prix
Fedoseev and Wojtaszek also score their first victories. Berlin, February 4th, 2022 – The first round of the group stage began at exactly 3 pm at the City Centre on Unter den Linden with the opening call from Ivan Syrovy, Chief Arbiter of the event. By that time, and according to the rules of the tournament, all the players had been PCR-tested and were firmly seated at their boards. For one of them, American GM Hikaru Nakamura, who enjoys a wild card invitation for the series, today was the first classical chess game for him in more than two years. In fact, he had even been dropped from the FIDE classical rating list due to inactivity! Although some of the games ended in uneventful draws, the 30-move rule proved to be a good sports decision, as the players had to battle it out for most of the afternoon, offering a great show for all the attending spectators and thousands of online viewers. The Spanish audience was in for double enjoyment: the variation of the round was without any doubt the Catalan opening, three of the eight games paying homage to Barcelona. At the end of the day, Polish GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek, along with Russian GM Vladimir Fedoseev and USA GM Levon Aronian, scored the first decisive points of the tournament, leaving Aronian as the only leader in Pool C. Pool A The first game to finish was a solid draw between French GM Etienne Bacrot and American GM Hikaru Nakamura. Although Bacrot tried to prove an edge in a symmetrical Berlin position (a nice twist for the first game), Hikaru showcased his defensive skills and kept the advantage to a minimum. In their postgame interview with tournament Press Officer IM Michael Rahal, Nakamura said, “I think at the end of the game I was playing too quickly, maybe because I haven’t played classical chess for so long and it felt too boring!” The second game of this pool was a classic. Russian GM Alexander Grischuk, a three-time qualifier to the Candidates via the Gran Prix series, brightened up the afternoon with one of his forty-five-minute, out-of-the-opening deep thoughts, in a position that most mortals would have dedicated less than three. But apparently, the time spent was worth the while: his 19-years-old opponent, Russian GM Andrey Esipenko, couldn’t capitalize on the huge time gap on the clock, and both of them ended up in time trouble. When all seemed to be doomed for Esipenko, he found a great three-move repetition drawing resource after Grischuk missed the winning 28…Nc3! Online commentator GM Evgeny Miroshnichenko was impressed, declaring, “I am amazed at Esipenko finding all that. Well calculated.” Pool B Both games in this group ended with a decisive result. In the first one between the two Russians (players from the same federation must resolve their games in the first and fourth rounds) GM Vladimir Fedoseev outplayed his young opponent GM Grigory Oparin in a double-edged isolated pawn middlegame. Oparin understood after the game that his position was slightly worse but defendable until he played 25…h3? (instead 25…hxg3 was better), leaving him to face very difficult endgame situations. Fedoseev started to coordinate his minor pieces, and soon the game was over. Meanwhile, in the other encounter, Polish GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek was able to get a slight edge from the opening, but his opponent Hungarian GM Richard Rapport, defended with great precision. At the critical moment, Rapport sacrificed a pawn, no doubt intending to hold a minor piece knight ending but then missed a nice king manoeuvre to penetrate in his position. An important win for Poland’s number two, seeking to emulate the success of his compatriot GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda, winner of the 2021 World Cup. Pool C Both of the games in this group were very exciting. USA GM Levon Aronian took the early lead in the pool with an excellent technical win over Indian GM Vidit Gujrathi. The game was more or less balanced during most of the opening and middlegame, but at some point, Vidit started playing slightly too passively. In his postgame interview, Aronian suggested precisely this: “It’s a very sharp opening where lots of things can go wrong. It was unpleasant for me, but maybe his approach was a bit too passive.” Levon added that “After 21.Bg3 I felt that I was out of danger, and it should be a draw, but it’s pleasant to push a little bit with White.” Vidit understood that “With hindsight allowing his f5 pawn thrust was a mistake”, but his position was already difficult to defend. In the second encounter of this pool, local GM Vincent Keymer and GM Danil Dubov played what would be the longest game of the round, in which the Russian demonstrated textbook technique defending a rook vs rook and bishop ending in a draw. Keymer had enjoyed a much better position during most of the game, maybe even winning at some point, but as Dubov correctly pointed out after the game: “The problem is choosing the best between several good moves”. Pool D Both games in this group ended in very solid draws with excellent opening preparation by the players handling the black pieces. Indian GM Pentala Harikrishna followed his top-notch Caro-Kan opening preparation for most of the game, reaching a position he had analyzed previously, a pawn up but with no real winning chances. “I analyzed this endgame quite deeply a few years back, and I thought White was much better, but maybe I made a mistake” was Spanish GM Alexei Shirov’s conclusion in the postgame interview. In the face-off between the two American GM’s , Wesley So and Leinier Dominguez, a peaceful outcome could be expected. Both players agreed that the game had been very equal and Wesley praised his opponent’s opening preparation. “Today wasn’t ideal. I think I’m still jetlagged” was So’s explanation in his interview. Both of the players are part of the American Olympic Team. Facing a question regarding this topic, Wesley declared his optimism: “Last time in Batumi, Hikaru and I were in bad shape, yet we still won silver. I think,
FIDE Grand Prix Day 2: No risk, no reward
Berlin’s Grand Prix second round leaves no stone unturned Berlin, February 5th 2022 – “I don’t understand why Svidler predicted that everyone will play very safe. In this format, you have to risk”. This statement by Alexander Grischuk after his game with Bacrot sums up the general feeling of the players in this new tournament format. With only one player of each group qualifying for the semifinals, cautious play is not to be recommended. Tired of boring 30-move draws, fans all over the world are having the time of their lives enjoying the exciting games delivered each afternoon from the playing venue in Berlin’s center. Surrounded by magnificent buildings and monuments (the Brandenburg Gate is within walking distance), players seem to be inspired by the historical events that have come to pass in this area. Thanks to the fighting spirit being displayed on the boards, after two of the six rounds, each group already has a sole leader: Hikaru Nakamura, Radoslaw Wojtaszek, Levon Aronian and Lenier Dominguez. All four are on 1½/2, but anything can happen as all games are played with great intensity. Pool A This group is clearly one of the toughest of the four, and today’s round proved to be no exception. In the first game to finish, French GM Etienne Bacrot missed a huge opportunity to score his first point in the tournament and punish his opponent’s risky opening strategy. Bacrot had a huge advantage after only fifteen moves. “15.d5 is on the board and I don’t see the move for Black. I think it was a disastrous opening experience for Alexander Grischuk,” affirmed online commentator GM Evgeny Miroshnichenko. However, under huge pressure both on the board and on the clock, Grischuk once again demonstrated why he is one of the best players in the world as he defended tenaciously in a very difficult position until the draw was unavoidable. “Bacrot has all the reasons to be disappointed” was Mironischenko’s final conclusion after Grischuk’s narrow escape. But as Grischuk pointed out after the game, “Only one player qualifies from each group, so you need to take risks”. In the other game, USA’s representative Hikaru Nakamura, conducting the white pieces, scored a very important win against Russia’s GM Andrey Esipenko. The opening was classical English, and Hikaru seemed to achieve a small edge. Episenko was defending well until move 23 when he blundered big with …Qe6? allowing Hikaru to win a pawn and the game. In a postgame conversation with IM Michael Rahal, Press Officer for the event, Nakamura mentioned that Esipenko had missed 25.Re4! (he had probably only considered 25.Rxc7, which also looks slightly better for White). The American finished off the game with a display of excellent queen and pawn ending technique and now leads this group after two rounds. Pool B Poland’s GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek vs Russia’s GM Grigory Oparin was a tough technical battle. After losing yesterday, the 24-year-old winner of the 2016 Higher League was eager to score his first point in the tournament, but the in-form Polish number two had other plans. “Radek” was ahead for most of the game, nursing an extra pawn and the bishop pair, but Oparin was continuously on the lookout for “tricks” with his knight and was finally able to force a drawn rook ending. “I missed one move and then I couldn’t see how I could win. It felt really close, but I’m not sure where it went wrong” was Wojtaszek’s feeling after the game. Oparin said: “Obviously, a half-point out of two was not what I was looking for but OK, with two Black’s, things could have gone worse! The game of the afternoon was the incredible fight between GM Richard Rapport from Hungary and GM Vladimir Fedoseev (Russia). Rapport bounced back from his loss yesterday, defeating Fedoseev in an exciting and complicated game. With 22. Ng4! Rapport initiated a so-called “king-walk” plus a piece sacrifice, completely unclear but intuitively interesting. His plan was to create a mating net around his opponent’s king. Maybe Fedoseev was holding at some point, but it was always very complicated, and both players agreed in the postgame interview that it had been very interesting. Thanks to this win, Richard has caught his opponent in the Pool B standings, and both of them are now only half a point behind the leader, Radoslaw Wojtaszek. Pool C Both games in this group finished in a draw at about the same time, just under the 2.5 hours mark. The first two players to exit the playing venue were Russian GM Danil Dubov and USA GM Levon Aronian. Their game ended in a perpetual check just after the 30-move limit, leaving Aronian as the group’s sole leader with 1.5/2. Although his opponent is one of the world’s leading experts in the London System with White, Dubov tried his hand in this setup. Aronian defended with the precise 5…Nh5 continuation and secured the bishop pair. “Daniil is always a surprising player with an exciting style, so I was trying to predict during my preparation what he would play!” were the kind words to his opponent in his postgame interview. However, Dubov managed to keep the balance thanks to his excellent piece coordination coupled with the symmetrical pawn structure that didn’t offer any chances to play for a win. In the other game, Indian GM Vidit Gujrathi, playing with Black, demonstrated excellent opening preparation in a popular line that goes into a minor piece ending very fast. Facing the question by Press Officer IM Michael Rahal in the postgame interview, Vidit explained that “As Black, I have a limited choice. I thought I’d just play, and it’s up to my opponent if he wants to play more ambitiously. The endgame is well-known to be slightly worse, but more often than not, it ends in a draw”. His opponent, German GM Vincent Keymer, knew that this line was very solid for Black, but he “decided to try something different but my opponent defended very well, and I didn’t really get a chance”. Faced with the prospect of two consecutive games with Black in the next two
2022 FIDE Grand Prix kicks off in Berlin
Berlin, February 3rd 2022 – The first leg of the 2022 FIDE Grand Prix Series, organized by World Chess, will begin tomorrow in Berlin. During the next two weeks, sixteen of the world’s best chess players will battle it out for the two final Candidates spots, which is scheduled for June in Madrid. The venue is the World Chess Club Berlin, located at the City Centre on Unter den Linden, 26-30, and the games will be played from February 4th-17th every afternoon starting at 3 PM. Along with the qualification for the Candidates, the event has a €150,000 prize fund, a €20,000 increase over the 2019 series. The first-round clashes are expected to be fast and furious, with heavy-hitters Andrey Esipenko and Levon Aronian taking on Alexander Grischuk and Vidit Gujrathi, respectively. In addition to these great match-ups, the all-American stand-off between Wesley So and Lenier Dominguez will set the pace in pool D. Full pairings can be found here. The event opened this morning with an online zoom press conference featuring Arkady Dvorkovich, president of the World Chess Federation (FIDE); Ilya Merenzon, CEO of World Chess, organizers of the Grand Prix; Marcus Fenner, General Secretary of the German Chess Federation and Chief Arbiter Ivan Syrovy. Also present in the conference call was elite Grand Master and chess prodigy Vincent Keymer, representing Germany in the series. In his opening statement, FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich said: “We are officially opening the FIDE Grand Prix Series 2022, organized by World Chess. The series kicks off in Berlin, a city known for its strong chess culture. We hope that the tournament format changes will make the games even more exciting for all chess fans”. Ilya Merenzon, CEO of World Chess, added: “World Chess as the organizer of the Grand Prix has done its utmost to make this tournament safe offline and spectacular online.” The General Secretary of the German Chess Federation, Marcus Fenner, stated that “we will utilize this tournament to further increase the interest in chess in Germany and specifically the Berlin area, and together with the Berlin Chess Association we have prepared a series of side events which will be developed in the third leg of the series.” Christian Milde, General Manager of Kaspersky in Central Europe, pinpointed the common ground between chess and cybersecurity: “As official cybersecurity partner of the FIDE World Chess Championship series since 2017, we are delighted to see the start of the new Grand Prix Series in Berlin. Chess and cybersecurity have a lot in common, including sharp minds and strategic thinking excellence. These are also essential skillsets for our work at Kaspersky and part of our commitment to building a safer future for everyone.” And Keli Callaghan, VP of Marketing at Algorand, declared: “Algorand is honoured to be a longtime supporter of World Chess as the organization transforms and modernizes the traditional game by infusing blockchain into various applications. We are thrilled to be supporting the FIDE Grand Prix Series in 2022 and proud to partner with organizations who are harnessing the power of decentralized technology.” Tournament system The three-tournament series, which will unfold from February to April, features twenty-four of the world’s best Grandmasters, who will compete in two of the three events. In order to make the series more exciting and reduce the percentage of draws, FIDE and World Chess have changed the format. This innovative approach is new for the chess world but very similar to the Super League: the first stage has four pools of four players, and the winner of each pool advances to the semifinals and then to the final. All the games will be broadcasted live with expert commentary in three languages at https://chessarena.com/broadcasts/13604. More information and the full schedule can also be found on the worldchess.com website. Due to COVID restrictions currently in place, only a limited number of tickets are available. Please note that the 2G+ rule applies to the event, which means that visiting the venue is only possible for those who either have a complete vaccination with EU-certified vaccine or proof of recovery and can additionally present a booster dose certificate or a negative test result. For further questions, please contact: media@worldchess.com Twitter: @theworldchess #TimeToSayBerlin Official Photo FIDE Grand Prix Berlin Press kit:https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ggyqowtp6odrqcg/AADc5Kkk34nd2q8CMQlqnRTsa?dl=0 Leading partners supporting the FIDE Grand Prix Series 2022 include: Kaspersky as the Official Cybersecurity PartnerAlgorand as the Official Blockchain PartnerPrytek as the Technology Transfer PartnerFIDE Online Arena as the official Partner About World Chess: World Chess is a London-based chess gaming and entertainment group and FIDE’ official broadcaster and commercial partner. World Chess organized the FIDE Championship Matches in Russia, the USA, and the UK, and revolutionized the sport by signing the biggest media partnerships in history. World Chess develops Armageddon, the chess league for prime-time television. World Chess also runs FIDE Online Arena, the exclusive official chess gaming platform. More at worldchess.com. About Kaspersky Kaspersky is a global cybersecurity and digital privacy company founded in 1997. Kaspersky’s deep threat intelligence and security expertise are constantly transforming into innovative security solutions and services to protect businesses, critical infrastructure, governments and consumers around the globe. The company’s comprehensive security portfolio includes leading endpoint protection and a number of specialized security solutions and services to fight sophisticated and evolving digital threats. Over 400 million users are protected by Kaspersky technologies, and we help 240,000 corporate clients protect what matters most to them. Learn more at www.kaspersky.com. About Algorand Algorand is building the technology to power the Future of Finance (FutureFi), the convergence of traditional and decentralized models into a unified system that is inclusive, frictionless, and secure. Founded by Turing Award-winning cryptographer Silvio Micali, Algorand developed a blockchain infrastructure that offers the interoperability and capacity to handle the volume of transactions needed for financial institutions and governments to smoothly transition into FutureFi. The technology of choice for more than 700 global organizations, Algorand is enabling the simple creation of next generation financial products, protocols and exchange of value. For more information, visit www.algorand.com. About Prytek The Prytek Group combines technology companies and services companies to create a new asset class. We build legacy service businesses and combine them with deep tech technologies to increase margins. We buy
FIDE Grand Prix 2022: Ding and Andreikin replaced by Esipenko and Wojtaszek
February 1, 2022 – FIDE has named two replacements for the first leg of the Grand Prix after receiving last-minute information that two players will not be able to compete in the tournament that starts in Berlin on February 3 due to visa and health issues. GMs Ding Liren and and Dmitry Andreikin are replaced by GMs Andrey Esipenko and Radoslaw Wojtaszek. The FIDE President, upon consultation with the organizers and arbiters team, made a decision on the replacements as per the event’s regulations. Updated Pools: Pool A: 1. Alexander Grischuk (Russia), 27642. Hikaru Nakamura, (USA), 2736 3. Andrey Esipenko* (Russia), 2714 4. Etienne Bacrot (France), 2642 Pool B: 1. Radoslaw Wojtaszek* (Poland), 26862. Richard Rapport (Hungary), 2763 3. Vladimir Fedoseev (Russia), 2704 4. Grigoriy Oparin (Russia), 2681 Pool C: 1. Levon Aronian (USA), 2772 2. Vidit Gujrathi (India), 2727 3. Daniil Dubov (Russia), 2720 4. Vincent Keymer (Germany), 2664 Pool D: 1. Wesley So (USA), 2772 2. Leinier Dominguez (USA), 2752 3. Pentala Harikrishna (India), 27174. Alexei Shirov (Spain), 2704 *Andrey Esipenko and Radoslaw Wojtaszek replaced Ding Liren and Dmitry Andreikin FIDE and the organizers wish all the participants the best of luck with the event. FIDE Grand Prix, organized by World Chess, is a 3-event series that features 24 players, each of whom will compete in two out of three tournaments. Two winners of the Grand Prix Series will qualify for the Candidates Tournament. The series will take place in Berlin, Germany, and Belgrade, Serbia. Leg 1 – Berlin 03.02 – 17.02 Leg 2 – Belgrade 28.02 – 14.03 Leg 3 – Berlin 21.03 – 04.04 1 R. Wojtaszek* Ding Liren 2 Anish Giri Anish Giri 3 Wesley So Wesley So 4 Levon Aronian Levon Aronian 5 S. Mamedyarov S. Mamedyarov 6 A. Grischuk A. Grischuk 7 Richard Rapport Richard Rapport 8 M. Vachier-Lagrave M.Vachier-Lagrave 9 L. Dominguez L. Dominguez 10 Hikaru Nakamura Hikaru Nakamura 11 Nikita Vitiugov Nikita Vitiugov 12 P. Harikrishna P. Harikrishna 13 Vidit Gujarathi Vidit Gujarathi 14 A. Esipenko* D. Andreikin 15 Daniil Dubov Daniil Dubov 16 Yu Yangyi Yu Yangyi 17 Sam Shankland Sam Shankland 18 V. Fedoseev V. Fedoseev 19 Alexei Shirov Alexei Shirov 20 Alexandr Predke Alexandr Predke 21 Grigoriy Oparin Grigoriy Oparin 22 Vincent Keymer Vincent Keymer 23 Amin Tabatabaei Amin Tabatabaei 24 Etienne Bacrot Etienne Bacrot *Andrey Esipenko and Radoslaw Wojtaszek replaced Ding Liren and Dmitry Andreikin in the Leg 1 The prize fund for each event is EUR 150,000, which is a EUR 20,000 increase from 2019. Regulations for the FIDE Grand Prix Series 2022 (pdf) Each 16-player event will consist of a group stage followed by a knockout semi-final and final. At the group stage, the participants will compete in four double-round-robin tournaments, with only the winners of each pool advancing. Both semi-finals and the final will consist of 2 regular time limit games, plus tiebreaks if needed. Players receive Grand Prix points according to their finishing position in each tournament: Round Grand Prix points Winner 13 Runner-Up 10 Semi-final loser 7 2nd in pool 4 3rd in pool 2 4th in pool 0 The FIDE Grand Prix Series 2022 is supported by Algorand as the Official Blockchain Partner, Kaspersky as the Official Cybersecurity Partner, FIDE Online Arena as the official gaming platform and Prytek as the Technology Transfer Partner of the Series. The official broadcast of the event will be streamed for free at worldchess.com. For more information, visit https://worldchess.com/series/grandprix2022 and fide.com. About World Chess: World Chess is a London-based chess gaming and entertainment group and FIDE’ official broadcaster and commercial partner. World Chess organized the FIDE Championship Matches in Russia, the USA, and the UK, and revolutionized the sport by signing the biggest media partnerships in history. World Chess develops Armageddon, the chess league for prime-time television. World Chess also runs FIDE Online Arena, the exclusive official chess gaming platform. More at worldchess.com.
FIDE launches a new podcast
FIDE is pleased to announce the launch of its new podcast, a format that keeps growing in popularity in general, and particularly among chess players. Hosted on Podbean, the first podcast episode is already available there. In the coming days, you should also be able to subscribe from all the leading apps like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Pandora, and Google Podcasts. This initiative is born under the roof of the Year of the Woman in Chess, thanks to a cooperation between FIDE’s Commission for Women’s Chess, Michael Busse of Schachgeflüster podcast, and Lilli Hahn of Chess Sports Association. FIDE would like to express its gratitude to Lilli and Michael for their generous and enthusiastic contribution, without which this podcast wouldn’t be a reality now. With the idea of giving voice and visibility to women, the inaugural season of the broadcast will feature a series of monthly interviews with remarkable women in the chess world conducted by Lilli Hahn. Players, organisers, arbiters, authors, and journalists will take the floor to share their knowledge, experience, and vision with us. Our first guest has been the Woman Grandmaster and seven-time Slovenian Women’s Champion Jana Krivec, who is also a Doctor of Psychology and a university professor. Jana knows exactly how you can “Improve Your Life By Playing A Game“. This is the title of her 2021 book, in which she brings new insights into the connection between psychological concepts and chess. “Chess is a true polygon to learn things that are really important for life in general. It is more and more popular in the sense of educating children. But I still think that people see chess as something that is mainly useful for developing mathematical skills. This is not the main thing that chess develops,” says Jana in his chat with Lilli. “We can learn a lot from a chess game from a psychological point of view if only we pay attention and understand what we are doing; what feelings are behind a particular action or move.” Click on the following link to listen to the first episode of the FIDE podcast.