Elina Danielian wins European Women’s Championship
GM Elina Danielian (Armenia) came out on top at the European Women’s Championship. It is the greatest success in Elina’s distinguished career. The 11-round over-the-board Swiss tournament took place in Iasi (Romania), known as the country’s cultural capital. Danielian was coming into the final round, sharing first place with IM Iulija Osmak (Ukraine). Both leading contenders for the title had white pieces and pushed hard for the victory, but only the Armenian GM succeeded after defeating WIM Narva Mai and finished clear first with 9 points. Osmak made a valiant effort against Bela Khotenashvili (Georgia) but failed to find a crushing 33.g4!! (suggested by Stockfish) and eventually had settle for a draw and a silver medal. Olivia Kiolbasa (Poland) and Nataliya Buksa (Ukraine) tied for third place, scoring 8 points each, with the former taking bronze thanks to better tiebreaks. Final standings: 1 GM Danielian, Elina ARM 2407 9 2 IM Osmak, Iulija UKR 2418 8½ 3 WIM Kiolbasa, Oliwia POL 2288 8 4 IM Buksa, Nataliya UKR 2413 8 5 WGM Sargsyan, Anna M. ARM 2388 7½ 6 IM Mammadova, Gulnar AZE 2385 7½ 7 GM Khotenashvili, Bela GEO 2471 7½ 8 WIM Narva, Mai EST 2276 7½ 9 IM Arabidze, Meri GEO 2438 7½ 10 WGM Garifullina, Leya RUS 2385 7½ According to ECU Board decision and FIDE regulations, the top 10 finishers qualified for the FIDE Women’s World Cup 20222. Following the decision of the ECU Board, the best player U20, Anna Sargsyan (Armenia), earned a spot in the FIDE Women’s Grand Swiss 2021.
Huge participation at the FIDE Online Chess Olympiad
Friday, August 20th 2021 – Day one of the 2021 FIDE Online Olympiad took place today on the Chess.com’s online servers. A total of 153 teams from all over the world have signed up for the event, meaning that more than 1,000 players will participate over the next three weeks. The tournament is structured in two stages: the “Divisions stage”, in which teams are seeded into each Round-Robin Pool, based on their previous results at the OTB Batumi Chess Olympiad in 2018 and in the last year’s Online Olympiad. The winners of each division advance progressively to the next stage, where they are joined by the stronger teams, until they eventually reach the Top Division, where the best teams in the world are seeded. The top qualifiers will then battle it out in a knock-out Play-Off to decide who will succeed last year’s co-winners India and Russia. The following graphic summarizes the structure of the Division Stage. All games are played on the chess.com game server with a 15 minutes + 5 seconds increment per move time control. The team structure is all-inclusive: each squad must have six players, with a minimum of three female players and two junior players. More specifically, each team must include at least one U-20 player, at least two women and at least one U-20 female: a huge challenge to meet for many of the smaller federations. Six reserves and a team captain make up the full roster of each squad. Day 1 of the event featured the first three rounds of Division Four’s five pools (12-team Round-Robins). Most of these teams come from smaller federations and therefore, some defaults were to be expected: not only fulfilling the team criteria is a big challenge, but connection issues also have to be taken into account. Even so, the turn-out was enormous and more than 400 official Olympiad games were played. The following cool graphic gives a great idea of the event’s international representation. The schedule for this Division is as follows: rounds 1-2-3 are already in the books having been played today, while rounds 4-7 will be disputed tomorrow Saturday 21st. The final four rounds (8-11) will be played on Sunday 22nd. Games start at 08.00 UTC in Pool A and finish at 18.00 UTC in Pool E. The first three teams of each pool plus the best fourth qualifier will advance to Division Three. After three rounds in Pool A, the teams of Hong Kong and Nepal are in the lead with three clear victories. Maldives Islands is close behind with two wins and a draw. Pre-event favourite Lebanon suffered a very close loss against Nepal by 3.5-2.5 and stands in fourth place with everything to be played for in the following rounds. Three teams are tied for first place on 100% in Pool B, Malawi, Kenya and Palestine. Standings are very tight in this group, with quite a few 3.5-2.5 and 4-2 results. Many of the stronger teams are rated very similarly, around 1600 medium ELO, so we can expect a close finish. Pool C has been quickly polarized between the top and bottom teams: none less than five federations are on 100% after having played with the bottom portion of the group. In tomorrow’s rounds, all of these teams will face each other. For now, Angola, Ethiopia, Jersey, Malta and Cyprus lead the pack. Precisely from this group come two of today’s interesting chess moments. The following diagram is from the game between Albert Njau (Tanzania) against IM David Silva, Angola’s first board. White has just played 33.fxg6? and Black quickly took advantage of his opponent’s weak king by lashing out 33…e5! hitting both the rook on d4 and the pawn on h4. After 34.dxe6 Qxh4+ 35.Kg1 Rxg6! he was already winning, the main point being 36.Rg2 Qe1+ 37.Kh2 Rh6 mate. The second diagram features Jem Gurner, representing the island of Jersey, against Mohamed Khidir Abadamek, from Sudan. Black’s kingside has been seriously weakened and White launches a decisive attack. After 17.e5! fxe5 18.dxe5 the threat of Nf6-Qh7 is not easy to parry at all. Black tried 18…Qh4 but White brought in the reserves with 19.Rd4! Kg7 20.Nf6, hitting the queen. 20…Qh6 was met with 21.g3! preparing the decisive Rh4. The game finished after 21…Kh8 22.Rh4 Qg6 23.Rxh7 and mate. Only two teams have won the first three rounds outright in Pool D, namely Aruba and Suriname. Cape Verde is just slightly behind with two wins and a draw, and there are no less than three teams with four points, ready to strike back in future rounds. The strongest player of the whole division is in this group: IM Mariano Ortega Amarelle, playing for Cape Verde, boasts a huge 2482 rating, in a Division where most of the players are rated under 2000. Finally, the three top spots in Pool E will be closely contested. Puerto Rico, Haiti, Trinidad Tobago and Guyana are all on 100% after the first three rounds, scoring heavily with many 6-0 and 5-1 results. Surely, all of the world’s chess fans will be cheering on the team from Haiti: after last week’s devastating 7.2 earthquake a withdrawal would have been fully understood, but the team, headed by captain Jacques Muller Luxama, deserves praise for its fighting spirit. Pairings of the rounds, live games, PGN files and other useful information can be found on the FIDE Online Olympiad. Standings and results remain provisional until the fair play panel has submitted their daily reports. The games can be followed online on www.chess.com (Events) and @chesscom will be hosting daily commentary, anchored by Wouter Bik, with expert analysis by @AlessiaSantera1, @monkey_chess, @JenShahade and @keti_chess. Commentary can also be followed on FIDE’s own Youtube channel. Text: Michael Rahal, FIDE Press Officer Email: press@fide.com About the tournament: Scheduled to take place from August 20th to September 15th, the 2021 FIDE Online Olympiad is a national teams event in which all federations affiliated with FIDE have the right to participate. Team’s consist of six players with a minimum of three female players and two junior players. Played online on Chess.com, the event features two main stages: the “Divisions stage”, and the Play-offs stage. All games are played with a 15 minutes + 5 seconds increment per move time control. The full schedule can be consulted here. Organisers: International Chess Federation (FIDE) Chess.com as the hosting platform Partners supporting the 2021 FIDE Online Olympiad: Shenzhen Longgang District Culture,
Day 3: Caruana, So and Vachier-Lagrave forge ahead
It was a bloody day in Saint Louis as four players won their games today, with Caruana, So, and Vachier-Lagrave remaining in the lead with 2.5/3 so far. Bringing his score to 2.0/3 was Mamedyarov, who defeated Rapport in an incredibly action-packed game. Xiong – Dominguez | ½-½, 34 moves The only draw of the day was the first one to finish as Xiong essayed the Four Knights Scotch but was unable to generate much imbalance against the solid play of Dominguez. A balanced middlegame saw the players trade everything off before ending up in a dead drawn rook endgame. So – Svidler | 1-0, 28 moves It was a difficult game for the eight-time Russian champion, who fell worse in a Symmetrical English after So executed the thematic queenside break of b2-b4. Things rapidly turned sour for Svidler, as White’s pressure on the queenside and center soon reached a breaking point, causing Black’s position to collapse under the stress. 28.Ne4! forced resignation from Svidler, as 28…Be5 runs into 29.Rxd6! and Black can’t take back in view of Nef6+, winning the queen. Caruana – Swiercz | 1-0, 47 moves After starting the tournament with two losses, Darius Swiercz had the unpleasant task of facing Caruana today as Black. Unfortunately for Swiercz, Caruana showed up in excellent form, outplaying the former World Junior Champion in a dynamic Open Sicilian. Thanks to some powerful play in the middlegame, Caruana obtained two powerful passed pawns in the center, which allowed him to quickly steamroll his opponent soon thereafter. 30.b4! gave Caruana two unstoppable pawns in the center, leading to a crushing victory. Vachier-Lagrave – Shankland | 1-0, 47 moves Good preparation by Shankland allowed him to seize the initiative on the Black side of an Italian Game, but after castling queenside he did not find the most accurate way to proceed and allowed Vachier-Lagrave good counterplay. After the ensuing complications, the players ended up in a knight endgame that was objectively drawn, but a blunder by Shankland gave MVL the chance to go into a winning king and pawn endgame, which he promptly seized and eventually converted. Mamedyarov – Rapport | 1-0, 54 moves In the most exciting game of the day, Mamedyarov and Rapport squared off in the ultra-sharp Meran Variation of the Semi-Slav. In a dynamic middlegame with chances for both sides, Mamedyarov got the better of his opponent in a hectic time scramble, as Rapport ended up blundering on the 40th move. Upon reaching the time control, Mamedyarov accurately calculated his way to victory, finding several only moves to finish off the game. 44.Qe5! was the only winning move in the position, with the point that 44…Rg2 45.Ne4!+- is winning for White, as pointed out by Mamedyarov after the game. Round 3 of the 2021 Sinquefield Cup takes place on Friday, August 20, starting at 2:50 PM CDT, with all the action covered live by commentators GM Yasser Seirawan, GM Alejandro Ramirez, and GM Maurice Ashley. Watch live on grandchesstour.org as well as twitch.tv/kasparovchess. Text: IM Kostya Kavutskiy Photo: Lennart Ootes and Austin Fuller Further Information:Web: GrandChessTour.org | Twitter: @GrandChessTourInstagram: @GrandChessTour | Facebook: @GrandChessTour#GrandChessTour#STLRapidBlitz Venue: Saint Louis Chess Club, USAAugust 10- August 16, 2021 Press Contact:press@grandchesstour.org Photos: Courtesy of Grand Chess Tour and Spectrum Studios Credits available on Flickr. Livestream:Grandchesstour.orgKasparovchess.com
FIDE Online Olympiad kicks off on August 20
The 2021 FIDE Online Chess Olympiad kicks off tomorrow, August 20, with Division 4 and will last until September 15. 155 registered teams are ranked according to their Federation Performance Ranking (FPR) based on their results in the open and women’s section of the 2018 FIDE Olympiad in Batumi and the 2020 FIDE Online Olympiad. Based on their rankings, teams are divided into four divisions, from Division 4 to Top Division. Like the regular, biannual event, the Online Olympiad is a competition for teams representing their national chess federations. All federations affiliated to FIDE have the right to participate. However, in the online version, each team consists of 6 players and must include at least two women, one player U20 and one female U20. 60 teams, broken up into 5 pools of 12, will battle in Division 4. Each pool will play a round-robin of eleven rounds, with the top three teams from each pool (15 total) qualifying for Division 3. This will be followed by Division 3 (50 teams), Division 2 (50 teams), and finally Division 1 (40 teams), the winners of which will join the seeded teams in the play-off stage. The second edition of the Online Olympiad is supported and sponsored by the Shenzhen authorities, including the Shenzhen Longgang District Culture and Sports Bureau, the Shenzhen MSU-BIT University, Shenzhen Chess Academy, Shenzhen Pengcheng Chess Club. Simaland, the Russian wholesale online store and proud sponsor of the Candidates tournament 2020-21, is also a partner for the Online Olympiad 2021. Find more about the teams and their players here.Check out the crosstable of Division 4, team line-ups, pairings and results here. About the tournament: Scheduled to take place from August 20th to September 15th, the 2021 FIDE Online Olympiad is a national teams event in which all federations affiliated with FIDE have the right to participate. Team’s consist of six players with a minimum of three female players and two junior players. Played online on Chess.com, the event features two main stages: the “Divisions stage”, and the Play-offs stage. All games are played with a 15 minutes + 5 seconds increment per move time control. The full schedule can be consulted here. Organisers: International Chess Federation (FIDE) Chess.com as the hosting platform Partners supporting the 2021 FIDE Online Olympiad: Shenzhen Longgang District Culture, Radio, Television, Tourism and Sports Bureau Shenzhen MSU-BIT University Shenzhen Chess Academy Shenzhen Pengcheng Chess Club Shenzhen Longgang District People’s Government Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, Tourism and Sports Simaland
Day 2: Wesley So joins leaders
Wesley So was the sole winner of Day 2, after managing to trick Dariusz Swiercz in a difficult rook endgame to earn the full point as Black. Meanwhile, the co-leaders Lenier Dominguez and Fabiano Caruana drew a complicated game, while Maxime Vachier-Lagrave held against Richard Rapport to maintain the lead with 1.5/2. Swiercz – So | 0-1, 45 moves Despite being well prepared against So’s Berlin Defense, Swiercz burned lots of time in the well-known ‘Berlin endgame’ and could not fight for any tangible advantage. Instead, he fell under pressure in an equal rook endgame and soon had to defend a worse position while also in heavy time trouble. Facing a difficult decision to go into a king and pawn endgame with just two minutes left on the clock, Swiercz chose wrong, missing the precise path to hold the endgame. Instead, he opted to keep the rooks on the board but was simply lost, as So promptly converted his extra pawn into a victory. 36…Rc6! gave White a difficult choice in time-trouble, as 37.Rxc6 had to be followed with computer-like precision to draw in the king + pawn endgame, while 37.Ra5 led to a lost rook ending after 37…Rc3+ and a quick …Kg5 Svidler – Mamedyarov | ½-½, 46 moves Svidler fell into trouble early on as he walked into an unfamiliar line of the Italian Game and soon lost a pawn out of the opening. Mamedyarov managed to trade down into a rook ending, but accurate defence from Svidler allowed him to save the endgame without too much difficulty. Rapport – Vachier-Lagrave | ½-½, 36 moves A symmetrical English saw the players reach a balanced position in the middlegame, with Rapport having a bit of a space advantage while MVL secured a nice outpost on d4 for his knight. With neither player able to do much in the position, a repetition was found and the Game was drawn shortly before the first time control. Dominguez – Caruana | ½-½, 51 moves In what was an interesting struggle Caruana sacrificed a pawn in a topical line of the Italian, looking for long-term compensation in the form of active pieces aimed at White’s kingside. Dominguez played well to neutralize Black’s initiative, but ultimately couldn’t find the most incisive route to keep his advantage. Instead, Caruana earned enough activity to force White to give back the pawn, and the players soon simplified into a drawn queen and pawn endgame. Shankland – Xiong | ½-½, 63 moves The longest encounter of the day saw an incredibly sharp opening as Shankland castled queenside in a Maroczy Bind and seemed to achieve a considerable advantage. However, Xiong created serious counterplay on the queenside, soon forcing Shankland to trade down into an equal endgame. Despite pushing for several hours, Shankland was unable to generate any real winning chances, and the players eventually traded everything down to bare kings to force a draw. Round 3 of the 2021 Sinquefield Cup takes place on Thursday, August 19, starting at 2:50 PM CDT with all of the action covered live by commentators GM Yasser Seirawan, GM Alejandro Ramirez, and GM Maurice Ashley. Watch live on grandchesstour.org as well as twitch.tv/kasparovchess. Text: IM Kostya Kavutskiy Photo: Lennart Ootes and Austin Fuller Further Information:Web: GrandChessTour.org | Twitter: @GrandChessTourInstagram: @GrandChessTour | Facebook: @GrandChessTour#GrandChessTour#STLRapidBlitz Venue: Saint Louis Chess Club, USAAugust 10- August 16, 2021 Press Contact:press@grandchesstour.org Photos: Courtesy of Grand Chess Tour and Spectrum Studios Credits available on Flickr. Livestream:Grandchesstour.orgKasparovchess.com
Evgeny Sveshnikov (1950-2021)
With the most profound sadness, we learned about the passing of GM Evgeny Sveshikov at 71. Born in Chelyabinsk in 1950, Sveshinkov became a master at the age of 17. Six years later, he won the USSR Junior Master Candidate Championship and qualified for the USSR Championship 1974 (one of the strongest tournaments in chess history). Overall he participated in nine USSR championships. His impressive tournament record includes the victories at Decin 1974, Sochi 1976 (both jointly), Le Havre 1977 and Cienfuegos 1979. He also tied for third place in Wijk aan Zee in 1981. Sveshnikov won the Latvian Chess Championship in 2003 and 2010. In 2017, he emerged as the winner of the 65+ section of the World Senior Chess Championship. In team competitions, he played on the gold medal-winning Soviet team in the 1976 World Student Team Chess Championship. Sveshnikov was a reserve for the USSR team participating at the European Team Chess Championship (Moscow, 1977). Although only an international master at the time, he scored an impressive 80%, winning individual and team gold medals. He represented Latvia at the Olympiads of 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2010 and the European Team Championship in 2011. In 2016 he played on the top board of the gold medal-winning Russian team in the 65+ section of the World Senior Team Championship. As a coach and a second, he productively worked with Anatoly Karpov, Lev Polugaevsky, Alexei Shirov and Alexandra Kosteniuk and coached the national teams of several countries. His contribution to the theory of openings is immense. At a very young age, he developed the Sveshnikov Sicilian – one of the most popular systems nowadays. Sveshnikov also pioneered the extensive development of the Advance Variation of the French Defence and the Alapin Variation of the Sicilian Defence. FIDE extends its sincere condolences to Evgeny’s family, friends, and loved ones.
Day 1: Caruana, Dominguez and Vachier-Lagrave take early lead
The fifth and final leg of the 2021 Grand Chess Tour kicked off today with an exciting first round, as Fabiano Caruana, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Leinier Dominguez all won their games to take the early lead. In the meantime, Jeffery Xiong drew with Richard Rapport, while Wesley So squandered a decisive advantage against Shkhriyar Mamedyarov. With a hefty prize fund of $325,000, as well as the final GCT standings on the line, we are due to see some decisive action over the course of the next two weeks. Xiong – Rapport This was the first game of the round to finish as Xiong was surprised by Rapport’s unusual response to the 4.Qc2 Nimzo. Despite gaining the advantage of the two bishops, Xiong wasn’t able to keep the bishop pair, as Rapport was able to force a trade of several pieces, leaving White without any edge whatsoever. The players then repeated moves to draw in a completely equal bishop endgame. Vachier-Lagrave – Svidler In the battle of the two Grunfeld specialists, the French No. 1 utilized the trendy line 3.h4, launching an early assault on the kingside. Svidler was well-prepared in this variation, sacrificing a pawn in ‘Benko Gambit’ style with b7-b5, and achieved an equal position out of the opening. However, MVL kept up the pressure, as Svidler blundered shortly before the time control, landing him in a completely lost situation as White’s pawn on h6 paralyzed Black’s position. After the decisive mistake 25…Ne8. Here MVL played 26.bxc5, as 26…Qxc5 would run into 27.Bb4!+- (threatening Qh8 mate, winning). Instead 26…dxc5 was forced, but after 27.Bg7+ Kg8 28.Qa8! White had a decisive bind along the back rank. 1-0, 31 moves. Caruana – Shankland Looking to avoid deep preparation, Caruana opted for the solid but flexible London System, taking the game out of charted territory early on. After missing an early chance to equalize comfortably, Shankland found himself worse in the middlegame, as White’s pieces had better squares to work with on the kingside. Caruana built up his advantage methodically and then capped off a great strategic effort with a brilliant sacrifice, first offering his queen before sacrificing a knight for a decisive kingside attack. After the brilliant 28.Ng4!! (28…Nxh4 29.Nh6 mate), intending to sacrifice a piece after 28…h5 29.Qg5! hxg4 30.hxg4 Ng7 31.Qh6+-, with an irresistible attack. 1-0, 38 moves So – Mamedyarov After outplaying Mamedyarov in a quiet Italian Game, So obtained a long-term advantage by saddling Black with an isolated queen pawn. Although White’s edge was decisive, Mamedyarov was able to create counterplay and stir up massive complications leading into the first time control. Facing serious time pressure, So faltered, quickly losing all of his advantage and the game was soon drawn. Swiercz – Dominguez The final game of the round looked quite even from the start, as Dominguez played the Petroff Defense and achieved a very solid position out of the opening, despite White having the pair of bishops. However a slip by Swiercz allowed Dominguez to trade off one of White’s bishops, leaving Black with a slightly better pawn structure long-term. Dominguez carefully nursed his advantage, and eventually started to outplay his opponent, utilizing an outside passed pawn that ended up being the decisive factor in the endgame. Round 2 of the 2021 Sinquefield Cup takes place Wednesday, August 18, starting at 2:50 PM CDT with all of the action covered live by commentators GM Yasser Seirawan, GM Alejandro Ramirez, and GM Maurice Ashley. Watch live on grandchesstour.org as well as twitch.tv/kasparovchess. Text: IM Kostya Kavutskiy Photo: Lennart Ootes and Austin Fuller Further Information:Web: GrandChessTour.org | Twitter: @GrandChessTourInstagram: @GrandChessTour | Facebook: @GrandChessTour#GrandChessTour#STLRapidBlitz Venue: Saint Louis Chess Club, USAAugust 10- August 16, 2021 Press Contact:press@grandchesstour.org Photos: Courtesy of Grand Chess Tour and Spectrum Studios Credits available on Flickr. Livestream:Grandchesstour.orgKasparovchess.com
Alexander Donchenko wins RTU Open 2021
Almost 500 players from over 30 countries participated in the Festival and were fighting for €28,000 prize fund in the beautiful capital of Latvia, Riga. A little bit over ten years ago, FM Egons Lavendelis, decided to organise a tournament. “It started with an informal conversation with the vice-rector of Riga Technical University. At that point, our team, the team of Riga Technical University, had just won our first Latvian Team Championship title and we got rights to participate in the European Club Cup. And we were discussing – can we do that? We decided it’s quite an expensive thing, and let’s better use the money for Latvian chess in a more useful way…let’s organise a tournament. That’s how it started,” he shared in an interview. And here we are, a decade later, the Riga Technical University Open has attracted thousands of players from over 50 countries over the years, becoming one of the biggest chess festivals in northern Europe and probably in the whole continent as well! There were nine different tournaments organised this year – six with classical control, two blitz events, and one rapid tournament. Each tournament attracted tens of chess-lovers from many countries, but the main focus was, as usual, the Open A. The winner of tournament A was Alexander Donchenko from Germany, who was the top seed and he actually signed up for it only two days before the event! Donchenko had quite a shaky start, scoring only 1.5/3 points, but as we know, it is all about the good finish in chess and he has done something amazing in the remaining rounds winning 6 out of 6 games! Narayanan S. L from India played excellent chess and deservedly finished second not losing a single game. The third prize goes to Lithuanian Tomas Laurusas, who had a great summer, won a tournament in Warsaw and got his last GM norm in July, becoming number 1 in Lithuania. Final standings: 1 GM Donchenko, Alexander GER 2657 7,5 2 GM Narayanan.S.L IND 2624 7,0 3 IM Laurusas, Tomas LTU 2549 7,0 4 GM Kantor, Gergely HUN 2533 7,0 5 GM Karthikeyan, Murali IND 2606 7,0 6 GM Kovalenko, Igor LAT 2644 6,5 7 GM Hakobyan, Aram ARM 2612 6,5 8 IM Arjun, Kalyan IND 2503 6,5 9 GM Ivic, Velimir SRB 2571 6,5 10 GM Smirin, Ilia ISR 2610 6,5 Thanks to FIDE’s aid package, which was significant support, the prizes for ladies and seniors were bigger this year and the top 3 places in those categories were: Among women: 1st – Margareth Olde from Estonia (pictured below), 2nd – Aashna Makhija from India and 3rd – Uliana Yeshchenko from Ukraine Among seniors: 1st – Igor Krivonosov from Latvia, 2nd – Ralf Akesson from Sweden and 3rd – Pierre Theon from France The tournaments B and Y (youth) were merged and took a whole week, just like the Open A. Latvians felt comfortable in this one as did the winner Renars Osis from Latvia. The best lady was Linda Krumina from Latvia and the best senior was Nikolaj Katishonok, also from Latvia! Vilius Rudziks (pictured below) from Lithuania became the best junior player. Interestingly – all of them finished in the top 5 in the final standings! (full results) The C and D tournaments were also played together this year. Designed especially for those who can not commit to a full 7-day schedule of play, those were 4-day events and the time control was a bit shorter – 60min+30sec. The first two places were taken by Spaniards – Alberto Eyo Castro-Rial came out on top and Dan Cruz Alvarez de Ron was second. The two top seeds of the tournament, they only switched places in the final standings. The best women player was Eibhia Ni Mhuireagain from Ireland, the best senior was Uldis Melderis from Latvia and the junior’s category was won by Aleksejs Adamovics from Latvia (full results). The shortest classical tournament in RTU Festival, Open E, only took three days and had a 30min+30sec time control. Agnis Mednis from Latvia came as the winner. The second place and also the best lady in the Open E was Anastasija Parhomenko from Latvia. The best junior player was also a lady – Melanija Luize Jansone, who is only 14 years old and finished 4th in the whole event! Stanislavs Saruns from Latvia was the best senior player in this group (full results). In addition to the classical tournaments, also the blitz and rapid events were organised. Igor Kovalenko, the best Latvian player, won the opening blitz and the opening rapid was won by Abhimanyu Puranik from India. The traditional closing blitz held right after the closing ceremony, was won by a young Indian star – R Praggnanandhaa. During the whole Festival, there was a live broadcast lead by GM Arturs Neiksans and WIM Anna Kantane. They were analysing the games, which were really exciting – a lot of aggressive play, risks and even queen sacrifices were almost an everyday occurrence! A very interesting part of the broadcast was interviews with the players and special guests. Some of the personalities who joined the studio were: FM Egons Lavendelis – the tournament Director; WGM Dana Reizniece-Ozola – FIDE Managing Director; GM Ilja Smirin – one of the best grandmasters in Europe for 2 decades now; GM Ramesh R B – one of the best coaches in the world; GM Kaido Kulaots – winner of the 2019 Aeroflot tournament and of course GM Alexander Donchenko – winner of the event. The commentary by the Latvian-Polish duo reached over 124,000 unique viewers and was watched over 1 million minutes! The entire Festival was a true celebration of the game we all love and what it truly means – sportsmanship, unity, respect and fun! And as Egons Lavendelis mentioned during an interview, the next editions are also planned, so chess will be back in Riga next summer for the 11th Riga Technical University Open. “Our goal is clear – we want it to be a Festival for everyone” – added Egons. You can find out more about the Festival on the website – www.rtuopen.lv and all the news are on the official facebook page – www.facebook.com/rtuopen Photo: Anna Shtourman
Bulgaria to stage Junior U21 Chess Championship
The Junior U21 Chess Championship will be held from September 26 to October 03, 2021 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. The 9-round over-the-board event is organized by Chess club ChessBomb – Plovdiv under the auspices of FIDE and in cooperation with Bulgarian Chess Federation 1928, Plovdiv Municipality, and with the sponsorship of Club Round Table 3 Plovdiv and KIM 2003 Ltd. Schedule: September 26th, 2021 – Opening Ceremony, Round 1September 27th, 2021 – Round 2September 28th, 2021 – Rounds 3 and 4September 29th, 2021 – Round 5September 30th, 2021 – Round 6October 1st, 2021 – Round 7October 2nd, 2021 – Round 8October 3rd, 2021 – Round 9, Closing Ceremony Time control: 90 minutes per player for 40 moves plus 15 minutes until the end of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds for each move played, starting from the first. All participants of the event must be born after 31/12/1999. The registration is free for players with GM, IM, WGM, WIM titles and players with a rating above 2400. For other participants, the fee is 70 EUR. The tournament prize fund of over 20,000 EUR will be distributed among top-30 players and top-3 female players, with 10,000 EUR going to the winner of the event. Registration and payment must be submitted by September 10, 2021. Registration for the Junior U21 Round Table Chess Championship:https://chessbomb.bg/registration-u21/ For more information visit the tournament’s page: https://chessbomb.bg/wjrtocc-event/ Organizer’s contacts: Tournament DirectorKaloyan Mateevinfo@chessbomb.bg+359 877 657 701
European Union Youth Championship 2021 kicks off in Kouty nad Desnou
On Saturday, August 14th, the 19th European Union Youth Chess Championship U8, U10, U12 and U14 took off in the Hotel Dlouhe Strane in Kouty nad Desnou in the Czech Republic. Following previous successful years, the European Union Youth Chess Championship 2021, under the patronage of the European Chess Union, is organized again by Sachovy klub Svetla nad Sazavou in cooperation with the Czech Chess Federation. Boys and girls in each category play the same 9-round Swiss tournament but are ranked separately. The time control is 90 min + 30 sec increment for each move played. This prestigious event traditionally attracts many young chess talents – 104 players from 12 national federations of ECU registered this year. Due to the new travel measures in EU countries, the number of players has been reduced to 81, and the number of federations has been cut to 10. The highest-rated player of the event is Bulgarian CM Nikola Kanov (2199). For players’ parents and all chess fans, the organizers prepared an extensive program of chess and non-chess activities. Visitors in Kouty nad Desnou can watch the games in the projection hall of the Hotel Dlouhe Strane. All participants can enjoy the leisure time activities offered by the hotel, such as pool, wellness, bowling, billiard and table tennis. There is a new aquapark opened In Velke Losiny. The guests and the participants also can visit a new The Sky Walk in Dolni Morava. On Sunday, August 22nd, we will know eight new young champions of the EU for the year 2021. The champions in each category will receive laptops, whereas the 2nd and 3rd place finishers in each category will get digital chess clocks. After each round, the best game of every category will be awarded a prize. All participants will receive a memorial diploma, a medal and a t-shirt with the championship logo. Text: Zdeněk Fiala, director Sachovy klub Svetla nad Sazavou Photo: the official website Official website: https://www.chess.cz/mistrovstvi-evropske-unie/ Results: http://chess-results.com/tnr573693.aspx?lan=5&art=0&turdet=YES&flag=30 Online broadcast of the category U8 Online broadcast of the category U10 Online broadcast of the category U12 Online broadcast of the category U14 Photo gallery of the championship: https://sachysvetla.rajce.idnes.cz/EUYCC_2021/ Photo gallery of the championship – players:https://sachysvetla.rajce.idnes.cz/EUYCC_2021_Players/