Players lists and full pairings of FIDE World Cups published
The final lists of the FIDE World Cup and the FIDE Women’s World Cup’s participants have been published. The knock-out events will be held from July 10TH to August 8th 2021 in the Gazprom Mountain Resort in Sochi. These top-rated events are part of the World Chess Championship cycles. The two finalists of the open event will qualify for the 2022 FIDE Candidates Tournament, whilst the three best players of the women’s competition will get spots in the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament. Two hundred and six (206) players will compete in the FIDE World Cup (eight rounds of KO play), and there will be one hundred and three (103) participants in the FIDE Women’s World Cup (seven rounds). The rating favourites of the open event are the current World Champion Magnus Carlsen (representing Norway, rated 2847 in the June 1st list), Fabiano Caruana (USA, 2820), Levon Aronian (Armenia, 2781), Anish Giri (Netherlands, 2780), Alexander Grischuk (Russia, 2776), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan, 2770), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France, 2760), Alireza Firouzja (FIDE, 2759), Leinier Dominguez (USA, 2758), Sergey Karjakin (Russia, 2757), alongside many other well-known chess players from all over the world. The organisers have nominated the Russian players Rudik Makarian and Kirill Shubin. In addition, top youngsters Gukesh D (India), Jergus Pechac (Slovakia), Nijat Abasov (Azerbaijan) and Vladislav Kovalev (Belarus) have received direct “wild cards” from FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich. The FIDE Women’s World Cup will feature the Russians Aleksandra Goryachkina (2596) and Kateryna Lagno (2558), the Ukrainians Mariya and Anna Muzychuk (2544 and 2535, respectively), Nana Dzagnidze (Georgia, 2524), Harika Dronavalli (India, 2515), Tan Zhongyi (China, 2511), and many other chess stars. The organiser’s nominee for the Women’s event is Anna Afonasieva (Russia), while Amina Mezioud (Algeria) has been given the right to play by FIDE President. The first round of the FIDE World Cup and the FIDE Women’s World Cup will start off with one hundred and fifty-six (156) and seventy-eight (78) players, respectively. The winners of the opening matches will advance and be joined by fifty (50) high-ranked players in the open event and twenty-five (25) in the women’s competition, who are seeded straight into the second round. All matches consist of two classic games and a third-day tie-break, if necessary. Full pairings can be found on the official website of the FIDE World Cup 2021. Great matches are to be expected already in the first round! The prize fund of the FIDE World Cup is 1,892,500 USD and 676,250 USD in the FIDE Women’s World Cup. The tournament venue is the Galaxy entertaining center located in the Gazprom Mountain Resort, Krasnaya Polyana, Sochi. Participants: FIDE World Cup FIDE Women’s World Cup Media accreditation: press@fide.com Official website: worldcup.fide.com
Day 04 Recap
The first day of blitz was a rollercoaster day for many of the players, but the clear storyline was the surge of Alireza Firouzja – from finishing win-less and in the last place after the rapid portion of the 2021 Paris Grand Chess Tour to being tied for fourth after today’s 6.5/9 performance. Tomorrow, it will be a two-horse race to find out who will ultimately win between Wesley So and Ian Nepomniachtchi as they are so far ahead of the rest of their competitors. Vladimir Kramnik The former World Champion jumped into the action taking Etienne Bacrot’s spot in the blitz portion of this event. Kramnik had big shoes to fill in as Bacrot’s performance in the rapid was sublime. Unfortunately for Kramnik, he simply seemed out of form. Losing games on time and inattentive tactical moves showed he was a bit out of form. His lone win was against countryman and former second, Peter Svidler. Teimour Radjabov On a normal day, defeating Kramnik and Caruana with black indicates a good day. Not this time for Radjabov as he only scored 1/7 in the remaining games. It seemed like Radjabov was unable to keep up tactically today against any of his opponents. Fabiano Caruana Caruana has not been able to find himself in this leg of the Grand Chess Tour. With a full day of blitz left tomorrow, World #2 is already out of contention for first place in this event. The American will need a brilliant performance tomorrow to keep any hopes of winning the 2021 Grand Chess Tour. Richard Rapport Rapport had a very solid day today, drawing six of his nine games. His only win was against Kramnik, who forfeited in a lost position. Having missed the Superbet Chess Classic and with this performance in Paris, Rapport seems to also be putting himself out of contention for the 2021 Grand Chess Tour title. Levon Aronian 50% for Aronian keeps him in a tie for 6th with the Kramnik/Bacrot duo. Aronian played some excellent games today, like his win against Radjabov. Unfortunately, consistency wasn’t there and he suffered too many losses for him to seriously climb the standings. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave The Frenchman is typically one of the most dangerous blitz players in the World, and while we are used to him dominating or scoring highly in the blitz sections. Today, however, it was a topsy-turvy day for MVL who scored 50%, finding better form in the second half of the day. Peter SvidlerThe Russian star seemed to be fading away on the early part of the day: losses to Aronian and Kramnik to kick off the blitz was certainly not what he wanted. After a series of draws, however, inspiration came back to Svidler as he finished the day with a hat-trick and surged in the standings: his combined Rapid and Blitz puts him in an excellent third-place position. Wesley So Wesley So’s 5.5/9 was a solid score and combined with his rapid results he is still in the lead. The 2016 Grand Chess Tour champion lost his first game of the entire 2021 Tour against Aronian. An excellent win against Firouzja was the highlight of the day for the American, but he will need to do better than 5.5 tomorrow if he wishes to secure first place. Ian Nepomniachtchi The World Championship Challenger continued to position himself right behind Wesley So’s first place heels. The American’s lead is only because the Russian superstar scored an excellent 6/9 today – a score that could very well have been 7/9 if he had converted against Firouzja. Nepomniachtchi is only half a point behind So, and another day like this might be all he needs to take first place. Alireza Firouzja The Prince of Chess stole our hearts today. What a comeback story: the young phenom had been unable to win a single game in the rapid part of the event, but he started the blitz in blazing glory. A marvelous 5.5/6 certainly made him the attention of the commentators and the audience. His loss to So prevented him from realistically fighting for first place, but he is currently tied for fourth. The coverage of the 2021 Paris Grand Chess Tour final day continues tomorrow, June 22 at 7:00 AM CDT with live coverage from GMs Yasser Seirawan, Maurice Ashley, Cristian Chirila and IM Almira Skripchenko exclusively on kasparovchess.com/grand-chess-tour. Text: GM Alejandro Ramirez Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Official website: grandchesstour.org
Sam Shankland wins Prague Chess Festival Masters
Prague International Chess Festival 2021, a big chess forum that included Masters, Open and Futures tournaments, concluded last Sunday in the capital of the Czech Republic. American GM Sam Shankland emerged as the winner of the most prestigious Masters event scoring an impressive 5.5 out of 7 and picked 18 rating points. Thanks to this excellent performance Sam is returning to a prestigious 2700+ club. On his way to the victory, Shankland defeated the rating favourite Jan-Krzysztof Duda in their second-round encounter and earned the Award of Grandmaster Lubomir Kaválek for the best game of the festival which was awarded for the first time. Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Poland) finished just a half-point behind the champion; another Polish GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek came in third. Final standings Masters: 1 GM Shankland, Sam USA 2691 5½ 2 GM Duda, Jan-Krzysztof POL 2729 5 3 GM Wojtaszek, Radoslaw POL 2687 4 4 GM Nguyen, Thai Dai Van CZE 2577 3½ 5 GM Abasov, Nijat AZE 2665 3½ 6 GM Grandelius, Nils SWE 2670 2½ 7 GM Van Foreest, Jorden NED 2701 2½ 8 GM Navara, David CZE 2697 1½ In the other round-robin – Futures tournament – Jakub Vojta took the title whereas the narrowest possible victory (number of black pieces being the last tiebreak) in Open Swiss tournament goes to Polish GM Marcin Krzyzanowski. Chief arbiter IA Pavel Votruba, tournament director Petr Boleslav, silver Kamil Warchol, victorious Jakub Vojta, bronze Matouš Hlavina, Futures tournament manager Petr Pisk Final standings Open: 1 Krzyzanowski, Marcin POL 2503 7 2 Blohberger, Felix AUT 2475 7 3 Nasuta, Grzegorz POL 2512 6½ 4 Petr, Martin CZE 2489 6½ 5 Greenfeld, Alon ISR 2507 6½ 6 Plat, Vojtech CZE 2521 6½ 7 Kraus, Tomas CZE 2466 6 8 Sorm, Daniel CZE 2345 6 9 Neuman, Petr CZE 2394 6 10 Pavlidis, Anastasios GRE 2333 6 Futures tournament manager Petr Pisk, chief arbiter IA Pavel Votruba, tournament director Petr Boleslav, silver Felix Blohberger, winner of the Open Marcin Krzyzanowski, bronze Grzegorz Nasuta, Open tournament manager Jiří Petružálek Photo: official website Official website: praguechessfestival.com
Wesley So grabs the lead after rapid portion
The last day of the rapid portion of the 2021 Paris Grand Chess Tour, gave us a series of intense and interesting games. Some players surged, while others tumbled hard, but it was American GM Wesley So who found himself with the most consistent play and landed in the top position as the players move into tomorrow’s blitz portion. The day started with a minute of silence for chess legend Carol Jarecki, who sadly passed away recently. Round Seven Going into the round, it was clear that the all-American matchup between Fabiano Caruana vs. Wesley So would be crucial for the standings. In a sharp variation of the Re1 Berlin, it seemed that both players were well prepared but So was just one step ahead! Immediately after preparation, Caruana made an inaccuracy and after that it was an amazing display of technique and precision by So. Flawless move after flawless move eventually toppled Caruana’s position for a huge win – and with the black pieces. Richard Rapport tried an enterprising 3.h4!? against Peter Svidler’s Grunfeld, and with smashing success. After some dubious decisions, Svidler’s position was untenable after only 18 moves and he was forced to resign. Etienne Bacrot had some winning chances against Teimour Radjabov, but the Azerbaijani defended precisely and saved a point. The other two games were drawn uneventfully. Round Eight The first game to finish was an amazing shock: So sacrificed a pawn to pressure Maxime Vachier-Lagrave’s Grunfeld, but the Frenchman navigated the complications well and he was close to equality. However, a horrific and unfortunate blunder by MVL was immediately punished and So scored his second straight victory as he won his opponent’s queen with a simple combination. Peter Svidler had a strong advantage against his countryman Ian Nepomniachtchi, but the resourceful World Championship Challenger tricked his opponent and forced a perpetual. Radjabov and Rapport split the two points without much happening. Caruana, perhaps hungry for points and feeling the pressure, tried too hard against Bacrot, who got the best of the American in a Rauzer Sicilian. With this win, Bacrot joined Nepomniachtchi in a surprising tie for second behind So. The longest game of the round was the marathon and rollercoaster between Firouzja and Aronian. Blunders, time pressure, a long rook endgame – the game had it all. The two points were eventually split after an astonishing 122 moves of chess! Round Nine The final round of the day was full of action and excitement as the only “simple” draw was between Bacrot and So; finishing an amazing run by Bacrot who will be replaced with former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik for the blitz portion! But there certainly was action everywhere else; MVL tried a piece sacrifice against Firouzja, but the phenom defended like a magician. Just as the game was petering out to a draw in a technical rook endgame, Firouzja finally fumbled and MVL took the two points. Although young Alireza had a myriad of opportunities in the rapid portion, surprisingly he is entering the blitz in the last place. Garry Kasparov not only watched the games, but he gave candid commentary live! Aronian, also exhausted from his previous round, blundered quickly against Svidler allowing the Russian to collect an easy pair of points. Rapport had Caruana against the ropes, on the verge of dealing the third loss in a row to World #2. After playing an excellent move, Rapport’s follow-up was lackluster and Caruana mustered defenses just on time to give a perpetual and save a point from the day. Nepomniachtchi played an absolute brilliancy against Radjabov, but his conversion was extremely poor. The game became a strange roller coaster with both kings running around the board, but in the end, the Russian player was able to prove superiority and collected two points, ending the Rapid portion only one point behind American So. The action continues with the blitz portion – don’t miss the debut of Vladimir Kramnik in the 2021 Grand Chess Tour. The coverage of the 2021 Paris Grand Chess Tour continues on June 21 at 7:00 AM CDT with live coverage from GMs Yasser Seirawan, Maurice Ashley, Cristian Chirila and IM Almira Skripchenko exclusively on kasparovchess.com/grand-chess-tour. Text: GM Alejandro Ramirez Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Official website: grandchesstour.org
Hou Yifan sails into the quarterfinals
GM Hou Yifan becomes the 8th quarterfinalist of the FIDE Chess.com Women’s Speed Chess Championship. In the last match of the Round of 16, she defeated IM Gulnar Mammadova 15:6. The top-rated female player started off with three straight victories and never looked back steamrolling her opponent in the 5+1 and 3+1 segments of the match. Gulnar, on the other hand, found some comfort in winning the last 1+1 section. Hou Yifan’s quarterfinal opponent is Bibisara Assaubayeva. 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.
Three-way tie on the top after Day 2
Round 2 of the GCT Paris Rapid & Blitz was another exciting day of chess. The full tour participants are joined by three unique wildcards in this event: French hero Etienne Bacrot, wunderkind Alireza Firouzja and World Champion Challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi. Today’s round was full of surprises, battles, and tumbling leaders! Round Four Despite some games ending in uneventful draws, it was certain that the game between the 18-year-old phenom Alireza Firouzja and Fabiano Caruana would keep the spectators at the edge of their seats. The young player may have outplayed the World #2, who found himself with his back against the wall – but never underestimate Caruana; as the American managed to wiggle himself out of trouble with a bit of help from his opponent and some resourceful tactics. Meanwhile, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave must have felt the pressure to score a full two points in today’s French derby against Etienne Bacrot (pictured below). This proved to be a fatal mistake, as he overpushed a drawn rook endgame and ended up losing the game. Round Five A round full of action, Teimour Radjabov fumbled the opening and was in a tough situation with white against Wesley So. Unfortunately, the American was unable to put maximum pressure against his opponent and the game petered into a perpetual. Richard Rapport could not do much with his slight edge against MVL, who continued surprising us with his opening choices: a Slav today to complement yesterday’s French. The true action appeared today in the games of Caruana vs. Svidler and Nepomniachtchi vs. Aronian. Caruana went wild with his attack on the kingside, exposing his own position. It seemed that Svidler was handling things well, but a massive blunder on move 37 missing an important bishop retreat cost him the game – Fabiano does not forgive such mistakes. Meanwhile, the World Championship Challenger played a scintillating attack. A beautiful temporary piece sacrifice gave him the coordination necessary to topple his opponent’s defences. With that, Nepomniachtchi took the first sole lead of the tournament. Round Six It was the duel between Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Ian Nepomniachtchi that immediately attracted the spectators – both players fighting with incredible speed on the clock and with vehemently attacking each other over the board. The aggression was nonstop: Black annihilated White’s kingside pawns, but his own king was caught in some sort of net. The brilliant and surprising 26. Nd7!! Put an immediate end to the game and took down Ian Nepomniachtchi for the first time in this tournament. Spectacular 26. Nd7!! Firouzja as usual seems to play heart-stopping endgames. This round he had an insane rook and pawn endgame against Rapport, with both sides threatening to the queen, sacrifice their rooks and even checkmate on the middle of the board! The game ended in a perpetual check, and the players split the point. Other players also had chances in round six, but ultimately all the remaining games of the day ended peacefully. One more day of rapid remains before the players jump into two days of blitz. The coverage of the 2021 Paris Grand Chess Tour continues on June 20 at 7:00 AM CDT with live coverage from GMs Yasser Seirawan, Maurice Ashley, Cristian Chirila and IM Almira Skripchenko exclusively on kasparovchess.com/grand-chess-tour. Text: GM Alejandro Ramirez Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Official website: grandchesstour.org
Lei Tingjie and Anna Muzychuk advance into quarterfinals
Two more quarterfinalists of the FIDE Chess.com Women’s Speed Chess Championship were determined on Saturday, June 19. In the first match of the day, GM Lei Tingjie defeated young Indian star WGM Vaishali R by a score of 14:6. The 5+1 portion started with an exchange of blows. It was back and forth for six games before Lei Tingjie claimed this segment of the match after winning the seventh game. In the 3+1 section, Lei picked up steam and won four games in a row. Although Vaishali managed to strike back in a couple of bullet games, Chinese #4 eliminated any chance of a possible comeback crushing her opponent in five games at the end. In the quarterfinals, Lei Tingjie will meet with Antoaneta Stefanova. Before long, the second match of the day started – the battle between two Ukrainian players GM Anna Muzychuk and IM Iulija Osmak. It appeared to be quite a lopsided affair that ended with 17½:4½ in the favor of Anna who won all three segments. “It is the first time for me to play in such a strong tournament and I think lack of experience was my main problem in this match. My opponent played very well. It was a really good fight and I congratulate Anna for this victory,” said Iulija Osmak. “I had some troubles with the French defence in the first portion of the match, 5+1, but then it went better and pretty smoothly,” commented Anna Muzychuk. Her next opponent is Harika Dronavalli. The final Round of 16 Match between GM Hou Yifan and IM Gulnar Mammadova will take place on Sunday, June 20 at 4:30 a.m. PT/13:30 CEST. *** 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.
Shortlist for Yuri Averbakh/Isaac Boleslavsky Award announced
Once again the FIDE Trainers Commission has received a truly excellent selection of nominations by leading chess publishers for the FIDE Book Awards 2021. After long deliberation, the judges have now narrowed their choices to eight books that you will find below: Leading in number is Quality Chess, with all its three nominations: Decision Making in Major Piece Endings by Boris Gelfand, The Italian Renaissance – I: Move Orders, Tricks and Alternatives & The Italian Renaissance – II: The Main Lines by Martyn Kravtsiv and Think Like a Machine by Noam Manella and Zeev Zohar making the cut. New in Chess follows closely with two author titled books: Timman’s Triumphs: My 100 Best Games by Jan Timman and Zlotnik’s Middlegame Manual: Typical Structures and Strategic Manoeuvres by Boris Zlotnik. The shortlist also includes Elk & Ruby’s Masterpieces and Dramas of the Soviet Championships: Volume I (1920-1937) by Sergey Voronkov, Russell Enterprises’ The Life & Games of Vasily Smyslov. The Early Years: 1921-1948 by Andrey Terekhov, and Thinkers Publishing’s Your Jungle Guide to Chess Tactics: Sharpen Your Tactical Skills by Peter Prohaszka. In two weeks, the shortlist will be further reduced to just three titles, with the final winner being announced on July 21.
WSCC 2021: Nana Dzagnidze squeezes into quarterfinals
Nana Dzagnidze of Georgia progressed into the quarterfinals of the Women’s Speed Chess Championship 2021 main even after winning a tightly-contested Round of 16 match over Irina Krush (USA). The Georgian stormed into a lead 4.5:2.5 after the first 5+1 segment and even stretched it to four points at the start of the second 3+1 portion, but Irina found her way back into the match and eventually levelled the score by winning the last game. The fate of this dramatic match was decided on the best-out-of-four tiebreaker in which things went awry for Krush from the very start as she blundered checkmate in two in a superior position. Catching wind in her Sails Dzagnidze reeled off three more wins and punched her ticket into the quarterfinals. “My first goal was to make it a competitive match for the fans watching, no one wants to see a total blowout. Obviously, it did not start off the best way for me. I struggled, in a five-minute especially. The important thing was keeping it close as you go into the final portion and then somehow the bullet was working out for me. I was happy to make it close and exciting,” said the American player after the match. 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 Council decision on the suspension of the Mongolian Chess Federation
FIDE Council’s Decision related to the implementation of FIDE Ethics and Disciplinary Commission’s Decision on Case n. 04/2018: “Complaint of GM Efstratios Grivas against the Mongolian Chess Federation and Mr. Sainbayar Tserendorj” (EDC Decision) Whereas, FIDE Ethics and Disciplinary Commission (EDC) has decided to temporarily suspend the membership of the Mongolian Chess Federation (Federation); Whereas, this EDC Decision is final, it comes into force on 16 June 2021, and is subject to immediate enforcement; Whereas, for the clarity of the execution of Article 10.10.2. of the EDC Decision, further clarification has to be provided in order to fully guarantee the interests and rights of players, organizers, arbiters, trainers, clubs, etc. belonging to the Mongolian Chess Federation during the suspension period, FIDE Council takes the following decision. The EDC Decision will be implemented as follows: 1. All players retain the right to compete under the national flag (clause 13.6 of the FIDE Charter). 2. The calculation of rated tournaments is carried out with the approval of the FIDE Qualification Commission (QC), to which the organizers must send a notification on the event in advance according to the rules. The QC reserves the right to reject the ranking of any tournament in the absence of adequate evidence of compliance with all FIDE rules. 3. Applications for titles, standards, etc. are sent by the players themselves to the FIDE Office. 4. Any nominations of the players and/or other positions from Mongolia to the official FIDE events (if Federation nominations are required by the respective FIDE/event rules) are approved by the FIDE President, based on the proposal by the FIDE Managing Director and consultations with the Zonal President. FIDE hopes that the Mongolian Chess Federation will strive to fully settle its obligations and apply to the EDC for a review of the EDC Decision in due course. FIDE Council 2021-06-17