Intercontinental Online Chess Championship for Prisoners announced
The International Chess Federation is pleased to announce the first Intercontinental Online Chess Championship for Prisoners, organized as a part of the Chess for Freedom program. The project, aimed at introducing chess as a tool for education and social inclusion in prisons of different countries, is carried out under the 12th World Champion Anatoly Karpov’s patronage. The first events of the Chess for Freedom program were held earlier this year. The FIDE Online Conference “Chess for Freedom” and the invitational Online Chess Demonstration Tournament for Prisoners from 4 countries – USA, Russia, Armenia and Spain – took place on May ’11. The first Intercontinental Online Chess Championship for Prisoners will be a continuation of the international championship first held in 2019. The event will be organized by FIDE and the Cook County (Chicago, IL, USA) Sheriff’s Office and is scheduled for October 13-14, 2021, on the International Day of Education in Prison. The championship, hosted by Chess.com, is open for teams made of 4 players representing any correctional facility (jail or prison) without any specification by age and gender of prisoners. Each country can have one team for the event. However, additional teams from the same country can be represented by prisoners of female and juvenoid (U20) correctional facilities. Up to three teams can represent every country. The championship consists of two stages: the preliminary tournament, a 7-round round-robin, held on October 13, 2021, and the Championship Round for top teams, which will occur on the second day of the event, October 14, 2021. Regulations for Intercontinental Online Chess Championship for Prisoners (pdf) Chess for Freedom Presentation (pdf) The registration deadline is September 21, 2021, and there is no entry fee. Registration link: https://cutt.ly/kmgAbof About the Chess for Freedom program In recent years, we have witnessed the successful introduction of chess in prisons through different educative programs in the USA, Armenia, Norway, Russia, England, Brazil, Italy and Spain, with very positive outcomes. In prisons, just as in broader society, the impact of sport and games can be far-reaching. The experiences referred above demonstrate that chess improves behaviour, helping to reduce inmate violence and developing communication skills, while promoting positive use of leisure time. Chess also drastically improves the decision-making capabilities of a group of people that, very often due to the lack of opportunities and access to proper education, has ended up in jail after making a wrong choice in life. Besides, the game positively impacts the inmates’ overall health, fighting depression, stress and anxiety, and motivating them to change for the better. As a result, chess greatly contributes to efforts towards rehabilitation, and some studies have already proven it to reduce reoffending. It can be potentially life-changing, as many testimonies show. To support and promote this line of work, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) and the Cook County Sheriff’s Office (Chicago, USA) have signed a cooperation agreement and launched the “Chess for Freedom” program. Under the patronage of the 12th world champion Anatoly Karpov, this project kicked off in May 2021 with an online conference and an exhibition tournament with four participant countries. Later on, in October, the first Intercontinental Online Chess Championship for Prisoners – a much larger competition with the participation of tens of prisons will be held.
FIDE events postponed until 2022 due to COVID restrictions
Due to the many travel restrictions still in force all around the world, the FIDE Council has approved postponing several events, initially scheduled for 2021. With multiple states across the world still under lockdown and uncertainty remaining around border controls, the FIDE Council decided to postpone the following international tournaments until 2022: World School Individual Championships 2021 Panama City, Panama World Youth U14, U16, U18 Championships 2021 Mamaia, Romania World Cadet U8, U10, U12 Championships 2021 Batumi, Georgia World Senior Championship 2021 Assisi, Italy World Senior Team Championship 2021 Acqui Terme, Italy World Youth U14, U16, U18 Rapid & Blitz Championships 2021 Greece World Cadet U8, U10, U12 Rapid Blitz Championships 2021 Greece The decision was made following the recommendations of the World Health Organization, national sports authorities in the hosting countries, and concerns expressed by many participants and national federations. As for the World Amateur Championship 2021, which is scheduled to take place in Rhodes, Greece, from October 17th to October 27th 2021, the dates will remain unchanged. However, the tournament organiser is obliged to require the participants to get fully vaccinated with any COVID-19 vaccines or provide a valid negative COVID-19 test and run regular testing as COVID-safety measures. FIDE is also considering postponing some remaining 2021 competitions to 2022. We will keep monitoring the situation, and an announcement will be made as early as possible.
Proposals to change FIDE’s rating and title regulations
Dear Member Federations, The Qualification Commission would like to invite Federation representatives, FIDE officials and other interested parties to attend two open meetings discussing proposals to change FIDE’s rating and title regulations. The following meetings will be held via Zoom: FIDE Rating Regulationshttps://handbook.fide.com/chapter/B022017Monday, 19th July, 12:30 – 15:00 UTC FIDE Title Regulationshttps://handbook.fide.com/chapter/B01Regulations2017Wednesday, 21st July, 12:30 – 15:00 UTC If you are interested in attending one or more of these meetings, then please fill out and submit the following form: The link and meeting details will be sent to the email address provided on the form when you register for the day of the meeting. Alex HolowczakSecretary, FIDE Qualification Commission
Aronian wins his first Meltwater Champions Tour title
Levon Aronian has won his first Meltwater Champions Chess Tour title on Independence Day – just before he’s due to switch to the US. The 38-year-old breezed through the second match of the $100,000 Goldmoney Asian Rapid final to put to bed the challenge of Vladislav Artemiev. Russia’s young speed demon, who made the final on his Tour debut, needed a swift comeback to stand any chance of beating the vastly experienced Aronian. It didn’t come as Artemiev was simply outclassed on the ninth day of an exhausting online event. The 23-year-old went deeper into the tournament than anyone expected and will be rightly pleased with his performance. Artemiev showed he belongs at this elite level. Aronian, meanwhile, has played the Goldmoney Asian Rapid from Paris, where he is staying before a planned move across the Atlantic next month. The switch of the federation is coinciding with a stunning return to form for the world number 5. Aronian dominated the prelim stage of this event, topping the leaderboard for the first time in a Tour event. He then calmly knocked out Indian wunderkid Arjun Erigaisi in the quarters before downing World Champion Magnus Carlsen to get to the final. “I have to say at first that I was lucky against Magnus,” Aronian said. “I think, though, that I only played well today.” The tournament champion said he would “allow myself a glass of wine” to celebrate. Having comfortably beaten Artemiev in the first match of the final yesterday, Aronian was supreme again in the second. Aronian raced into a 1-0 lead as Artemiev desperately sacrificed pieces and got into time-trouble. It meant Artemiev now couldn’t lose the next game as he would be unable to win the second match. But the young gun rushed and Aronian stayed cool and calm to take an unassailable 2-0 lead. It left Aronian the winner of the seventh leg of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour and $30,000 richer. Aronian also picks up valuable Tour points in the quest to make the flagship Tour Finals event in September. The Goldmoney Asian Rapid was broadcast live on Norwegian TV station TV 2 and streamed with commentary in several languages on chess24’s YouTube and Twitch channels. Highlights will are be available in 60 countries on the Eurosport app. All games were played on the chess24.com playzone. For further information, please contact: Leon Watson, PR for Play Magnus Groupleon@chessable.com+44 7786 078 770
Aronian on brink of first Meltwater Champions title
Levon Aronian has raced ahead in the Goldmoney Asian Rapid final, leaving Vladislav Artemiev with a mountain to climb tomorrow. The 38-year-old Armenian declined to celebrate at the halfway point as he clinched up a comfortable 2.5-1.5 first match win over the Russian. Artemiev now needs a comeback to take the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour event final to a blitz playoff. The odds are heavily stacked against him. “I am sure Vladislav is going to bring everything he has,” Aronian said before tomorrow’s second half. “Because he is a great player. I have to be ready.” Artemiev is renowned for his prowess in speed chess but seemed out-of-sorts as he found himself struggling on the clock. After a draw in game 1, the 2019 European Champ had a golden opportunity to hit Aronian with an early win. Artemiev was streets ahead but let the advantage slip. Aronian used all his wily experience to pull off what he later described as a “miracle” save. With momentum behind him, Aronian then crashed through in game 3 to take the lead with just one game to go. Artemiev needed a win, but it was Aronian who attacked in game 4. The Russian tried hard but couldn’t lay a glove on Aronian, and the final game ended in a draw. Artemiev afterwards said it had been a “difficult day” but that he hoped to bounce back. He said: “Ok, I’m not very good today, but I have a chance to fight tomorrow.” Meanwhile, the two losing semi-finalists, World Champion Magnus Carlsen and Ding Liren of China were battling it out in the third-place playoff match. At the halfway stage, Carlsen is ahead after a 2.5-1.5 win. The champ looked back to himself after a bad day at the office when he lost against Aronian. Carlsen, who is playing from Oslo, revealed that he has been in quarantine throughout the tournament and barely left his room. On having to play in the third-place match, Carlsen said: “Everyone knows it’s not where I want to be, but sometimes you’ve got to play the cards you’re dealt or dealt yourself.” The Goldmoney Asian Rapid is broadcast live on Norwegian TV station TV 2 and streamed with commentary in several languages on chess24’s YouTube and Twitch channels. Highlights will also be available in 60 countries on the Eurosport app. Play begins tomorrow at 13:00 CEST. All games will be played on the chess24.com playzone. For further information, please contact: Leon Watson, PR for Play Magnus Groupleon@chessable.com+44 7786 078 770
Hou Yifan wins Women’s Speed Chess Championship
Hou Yifan is the winner of the 2021 FIDE Chess.com Women’s Speed Chess Championship. In a roller-coaster final match with tension running high to the very end, she defeated Harika Dronavalli 15-13. Both opponents showed a great fighting spirit. The winner picked up the $20,000 first prize, whereas the runner-up took home $12,000 for her efforts. The Indian star was off to a flying start grabbing the lead in the 5+1 section, but the world’s #1 stormed back in the 3+1 segment levelling the score after a series of wins. It was back and forth in the bullet portion before Hou Yifan claimed the championship by winning the last two games. Internet connectivity problems on Harika’s side also affected the 1+1 part of the match. “In-between bullet, my Internet connection troubled me today. It never happened to me before, so I was a little disturbed. At the same time, I can’t give such reasons; my opponent played much stronger. I tried to fight until the end,” said Dronavalli. Hou Yifan also noted her opponent’s strength and unfortunate connectivity issues: “Harika had a very good performance, especially in a segment of 5+1. At some point, I was behind 2 or 3 points. I think the turning point was when Harika got some Internet connection problems. It is not only a technical issue but also bad psychologically. I had a similar experience before, and it can be annoying, to be honest.” “In the bullet segment, my opponent played very well, very fast… At any point, it could have gone either way. I was just lucky at some moments to win this match,” the champion added. The FIDE Chess.com 2021 Women’s Speed Chess Championship is an online competition for titled female players. The qualifiers for the event took place from May 28-June 6, while the main event run from June 10 to July 3. Players battled for their share of a total prize fund of $66,000. Fans can follow the FIDE Chess.com Women’s Speed Chess Championship by watching the live broadcast with expert commentary on Chess.com/TV and Chess.com’s Twitch channel. They will also be able to enjoy the event through Chess.com’s Events page (https://www.chess.com/events). More info and a full schedule of the FIDE Chess.com Women’s Speed Chess Championship can be found here.
Aronian stuns Carlsen to face Artemiev in the final
A stunning end to the Goldmoney Asian Rapid semis saw Levon Aronian don his lucky Boston Celtics basketball jersey before slam-dunking Magnus Carlsen in overtime. The Armenian star, 38, pulled off an incredible comeback on the buzzer to beat the champ twice in tiebreaks and book a place in the $100,000 event’s final. Aronian, a big Celtics fan, will meet Tour debutant Vladislav Artemiev who also came from behind in stunning fashion to win on a breathless day of chess. It sets up a treat of a final between two underdogs that no one expected to get this far. Carlsen, the reigning World Champion, had been gunning for a hat-trick of wins in the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, having won the New In Chess Classic and the FTX Crypto Cup. But that run came to an end when Aronian thrashed him 3-1 in today’s second match and then again in the resulting play-off to turn the tie around. “This is something I dedicated my life to, proving people wrong,” Aronian said afterwards. “I am always excited when I can.” He added: “It’s been a very tough day, very tense.” Artemiev, the Russian speed demon, came back from even further behind to shoot down world number 3 Ding Liren. Having lost yesterday, Artemiev was heading for defeat again before a catastrophic blunder from Ding in the final game let the youngster back into the match. Ding, who rarely shows his emotion in matches, was visibly distraught. The Russian, who has been the surprise package of this tournament, then took all that momentum into the blitz tiebreak and ran out the winner. At 23, he will now be the youngest player to play in a Tour final. “It was a very difficult match,” Artemiev said. “Yesterday I lost with zero chances and I was disappointed. Today I wanted to give a fight to my opponent.” The final carries a $30,000 first prize and a coveted spot in the Tour finals in September for the winner. Carlsen and Ding, meanwhile, will fight it out for Tour points in a third-place play-off match. The Goldmoney Asian Rapid is broadcast live on Norwegian TV station TV 2 and streamed with commentary in several languages on chess24’s YouTube and Twitch channels. Highlights will also be available in 60 countries on the Eurosport app. Play resumes tomorrow at 13:00 CEST. All games will be played on the chess24.com playzone. For further information, please contact: Leon Watson, PR for Play Magnus Group leon@chessable.com+44 7786 078 770
WSCC 2021: Hou Yifan reaches the final
Hou Yifan defeated Lei Tingjie 11.5:9.5 in the Chinese semifinal derby and advanced to the final of the FIDE Chess.com Women’s Speed Chess Championship in which she will face Harika Dronavalli. The top-rated female player convincingly won the first 5+1 segment, but Lei Tingjie fought back in the 3+1 portion of the match to narrow the gap to just one point. The final 1+1 portion was a close affair, but Hou Yifan eventually got the better of her opponent to punch her ticket into the final. “It was a tough match for both of the players,” commented Hou Yifan. “I got some advantage after 5+1 but Tingjie had a comeback in 3+1 – at some moment, I lost 3 or 4 games in a row … The turning point was me winning a game pawn down, a few games before the final one.” The final is scheduled for Saturday, June 3. The FIDE Chess.com 2021 Women’s Speed Chess Championship is an online competition for titled female players. The qualifiers for the event took place from May 28-June 6, while the main event runs from June 10 to July 3. Players are battling for their share of a total prize fund of $66,000. Fans can follow the FIDE Chess.com Women’s Speed Chess Championship by watching the live broadcast with expert commentary on Chess.com/TV and Chess.com’s Twitch channel. They will also be able to enjoy the event through Chess.com’s Events page (https://www.chess.com/events). More info and a full schedule of the FIDE Chess.com Women’s Speed Chess Championship can be found here.
FIDE Binance Business Schools Super Cup announced
The International Chess Federation and Binance, TigerTrade and CryptoUniverse are excited to hold the first FIDE Binance Business Schools Super Cup, an online team competition that will take place from July 9-11, 2021. The Cup is an excellent chance for participating teams to get new business opportunities through chess and network with the world’s top business schools. With 64 teams and over 250 participants expected, the tournament will be a truly global team event uniting students and employees from business schools from all parts of the world. “More importantly, through the practice of chess, your alumnus and students will also be training useful skills like decision making, creative thinking, problem-solving approach, and the ability to calculate a few moves ahead. All this in a competitive but fun environment. We believe this is also a chance for the participating business schools to detect talent, reach new clients and business opportunities, and develop contacts with leaders and representatives of national and multinational businesses,” said FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich. The FIDE Binance Business Schools Super Cup 2021 will consist of two stages: a division and playoff stages. During the first two days, the teams divided by geographic principle will play round-robin tournaments, while on July 11 knock-out event will be held. The time control for all matches is 10 minutes for the game and two seconds increment per move, starting from move one. Each team will consist of four players, including at least one male player and at least one female player, and may have two reserves. They also have a right to include one invited player – a person not from business school – to be part of the team. The event will be played online, on the Lichess platform, and broadcasted live on FIDE Youtube and Twitch channels. The winning team will be declared Business Schools Super Cup Champion 2021 and will get the Winner’s Cup. Besides, the best four finishing teams in the final standings will secure seats in an online simul against one of the top grandmasters. FIDE Binance Business Schools Super Cup regulations (pdf) Applications for participation are accepted until July 07, 2021: https://www.binance.com/en/event/binancechesscup General inquires: businessschools@fide.com Media Contact: press@fide.com About the sponsors: Binance is the world’s leading blockchain ecosystem and cryptocurrency infrastructure provider with a financial product suite that includes the largest digital asset exchange by volume. Trusted by millions worldwide, the Binance platform is dedicated to increasing the freedom of money for users, and features an unmatched portfolio of crypto products and offerings, including: trading and finance, education, data and research, social good, investment and incubation, decentralization and infrastructure solutions, and more. TigerTrade is an innovative software package for securities and cryptocurrency traders. TigerTrade company has over five years of software development experience in the trading field, and in this short time, TigerTrade has managed to earn the full trust of its loyal customer. More than 15,000 active users worldwide with a daily volume of 100 mil USD have already chosen TigerTrade for analysis and trading. TigerTrade provides intuitive interactive visualization of market data, 30+ components for cluster analysis, flexible, customizable workspace with the support of a few monitors, and other tools and features. CryptoUniverse.io is one of the largest mining platforms in the world, offering power and equipment for cryptocurrency mining since 2017. Registered in Estonia under EU law, it owns one of the biggest data centers in CIS, located in the Republic of Karelia. Its overall capacity is 120 MW, with electricity coming from a private hydroelectric power plant, leaving no carbon footprint. The company is glad to participate in the Cup because chess and IT management have much in common in terms of considering various moves and outcomes. About the organizers: Moscow School of Management SKOLKOVO is one of the leading business schools in Russia and the post-Soviet states established in 2006 by the business community. In 2020 it became No.1 in Eastern Europe in terms of quality of corporate programmes according to the Financial Times ranking. The School was awarded the EQUIS EFMD accreditation – one of the most prestigious international accreditations granted to 1% of the leading international business schools. The idea of the Cup belongs to its alumni: Oxana Kosteniuk, the president of the SKOLKOVO Chess Club, and its members: Sergey Raytsev, Tigran Mamikonian, Alexey Maiorov and Yuriy Mordvin. Lichess is a completely free, open-source chess platform — exclusively powered by volunteers and donations. Today, Lichess users play more than 3 million games every day. Lichess is one of the most popular chess websites in the world while remaining 100% free. Despite starting out as just a chessboard, Lichess now has a wide variety of features to meet the needs of the internet chess community: play, learn, events, community. Championat.com is the leading sports digital media in Russia and CIS. We are in the TOP-7 of Similar Web in category “sports media in the world”. More than 36 million unique visitors enjoyed Championat.com in May 2021.
Yuri Dokhoian passes away
Tragic news from Moscow. One of the best coaches in the world, Grandmaster Yuri Dokhoian, has passed away. He was only 56. The news is shocking – Yuri was strong, healthy, focused, smart and hard-edged. We used to talk a lot at tournaments, mostly about chess, but we also discussed all sorts of things. Yuri had a great sense of humour; he loved playing soccer and was pretty good at it – took to the field against guys half his age. A very decent Grandmaster himself, with a rating of over 2,600, Yuri relatively early switched to coaching and was Kasparov’s head coach in the late 1990s and 2000s. After the 13th World Champion retired from chess, Dokhoian faced new challenges time and again: he served as captain of the Russian women’s national team and was the personal coach of the Kosintseva sisters, then took charge of the Russia Olympic Team. He was an excellent analyst and, most importantly, had superb chess intuition. When analyzing, Dokhoian was on par with the top players. He helped most of Russia’s leading chess players, and last year he took Andrei Esipenko under his wing… Yuri had big plans, but illness spares no one these days. We offer our deepest condolences to Yuri’s family and friends. Very sad indeed. Emil Sutovsky, FIDE Director General I met Yuri in 2000 when I joined Garry Kasparov’s team before his world championship match with Vladimir Kramnik. Yuri was a rather private person on the surface, but that was a shell: when we got closer, he revealed a completely different side of himself – he was kind, fair, and frank. He had various interests beyond the world of chess. Yura abandoned the career of chess player early on but fulfilled his potential as a coach, becoming an incontestable authority among his colleagues. Under Dokhoian’s guidance, Kasparov got his second wind – he set a record by winning several super-tournaments in a row, reaching a new level despite fierce competition from younger generations. This was not surprising because Yuri and Garry had an important quality, which is absolutely necessary if one aspires to climb to the very top – an uncompromising attitude towards searching for truth. He was an unfailing friend who would never let you down. This is a great loss to the chess world. Mikhail Kobalia, Chairman of Trainers Commission