University of Sri Jayawardenapura wins Sri Lanka Inter Club Championship
University of Sri Jayawardenapura Chess Club team emerged as a champion of Sri Lanka National Inter Club Super League Chess Championship 2021 with two rounds to spare. The team turned in a dominating performance scoring 17 out 18 possible and finished 5 points ahead of the runner-up, Anandians. The National Chess Champion, Ranindu Dilshan Liyanage showed the best result (8 ½ out of 9) and passed the 2200 raring mark. Chamika Perera, SL National Chess Champion of 2011, performed his captain duties very well and contributed 8 points in 9 games. Lakshitha Randhil did a great job on the first board netting 6 points (no losses). The strongest team event in the country, the Sri Lanka National Inter Club Chess Championship 2021 was held by the Chess Federation of Sri Lanka from February 26 to March 2, 2021 at Sanhinda hall, Gangodawila. The round-robin event attracted the top ten local chess clubs. The last two teams in the final standings were relegated to the SL National Inter Club B Championship whereas the two best will play in the top league next year. Anandians Chess Club won the silver medal with the better tiebreaks after tying with Super Knight Chess Club team with 12 points. Theeksana Denuwan played a key role in Anandians’ success scoring 7 points out of 9. Kudos to Super Knights the only team that debuted in Super League after qualifying from Inter Club B last year. The renitent newcomers showed some spine and took bronze. The games with commentaries by the former National Chess Champions, Dulan Edirisinghe, and Harshana Thilakarathne were streamed on Chess Federation of Sri Lanka FB page. Final standings: 1. University of Sri Jayawardenapura CC – 172. Anandians CC – 123. Super Knights CC – 124. Blue and Gold CC – 115. SL Navy CC – 116. Sokians CC – 97. Grand Prix CC – 58. Kandy YMCA – 59. Maroons CC – 410. Black and Gold CC – 4 Ranindu Dilshan Liyanage receiving a prize for the best performance in the event Board prize winners: Board 1 – Laksith Randhil (USJP CC)Board 2 – Damith Karunarathne (Blue Gold CC)Board 3 – Chamil Priyankara (SL Navy CC)Board 4 – CM WCC Perera (USJP CC)Board 5 – FM Minul Doluweera (Blue & Gold CC)Board 6 – CM Ranindu Dilshan Liyanage (USJP CC)Board 7 – TN Alahakoon (Grand Prix CC)Board 8 – S Harishman (Blue & Gold CC) Text and photo: Godigamuwa Wijesuriya
List of Open Tournaments to receive FIDE aid packages
FIDE has received 54 applications from event organisers around the world. In view of the high demand, the FIDE Council has decided to allocate an additional €20,000 for this purpose, raising the total to €120,000. We hope that this increase will allow us to support as many Opens as possible, helping these tournaments to increase their prize fund and the number of titled players invited to their events. From all the applicants, FIDE has selected 27 events according to the announced criteria. Each one of them will receive an amount that goes from 7% to 20% of the total budget for the event. An individual agreement will be signed with each selected event, describing the procedures regarding payment and reporting. Country Open Dates ARG Rio Grande (Fireland) 7 – 11.07 ARM Asrian Mem, Yerevan 20 – 30.06 BRA Floripa open, Florianopolis Jan’22 CAN Banff 12 – 14.11 CHI Arica 14 – 21.12 CRO Zadar Dec’21 CUB Capablanca Mem, La Habana 13 – 24.11 CZE Czech open, Pardubice 15.07 – 1.08 ENG Caplin Hastings Masters 29.12 – 7.01 ESP Sunway Sitges, Barcelona 11 – 22.12 FRA Noisiel 23 – 28.08 GHA President’s Cup, Accra 16 – 20.07 GEO Gaprindashvili’s Cup, Tbilisi 24.09 – 3.10 GER Boblingen 26 – 30.12 ITA Imperia 5 – 12.09 LAT Technical University open, Riga 5 – 11.08 NED Groningen 21 – 30.12 POL Irena Warakomska Mem, Suwalki Aug’21 POR Guimaraes 24 – 29.08 RUS Voronezh 12 – 21.06 SRB Open Championship of Serbia TBA SUI Biel 19 – 28.07 THA Bangkok TBA TUN RIDEF, Djerba 13 – 22.11 UKR Kyiv Spring 23 – 30.03 USA Charlotte Jan’22 UZB Tashkent 20 – 30.06
Ahmed Adly and Ghayda Alattar clinch AAOIOCC 2021
Following the success of the Africa Online Individual Chess Championship (AOICC) 2021, the Arab Chess Federation and the Africa Chess Confederation partnered to stage the Arab-African Online Individual Open Chess Championships (AAOIOCC). The event was held online on lichess.org from February 25-27 in four stages: Preliminary Stage (February 25), Men’s Semifinal (February 26), Women’s Final (February 26), Men’s Final (February 27). All the games were played with the time control of 3+2. Photo: Timothy Babatunde The women’s final turned into an exciting race as 25 ladies battled it out in brilliant fashion under the watchful eyes of the organizers. Besa Masaiti (LaraCroft_1, pictured above) of Botswana and Boshra Alshaeby (Joqueen90) of Jordan jumped out of the gate both scoring 4.5 out of 5 and drawing their encounter. However, they both went on to lose their subsequent Round 6 games against Wafa Shahenda (LadyCactus) and Moaataz Ayah (Silvermist15) respectively, paving the way for both Egyptians to join the party. After Shahenda showed Besa “how not to play a dragon variation of the Sicilian opening”, she fell against her countrywoman while trying to use the Leningrad system of Dutch Defense. However, both Egyptians did not manage to keep pace with the top finishers. Coming on the back of her second loss in the tournament, Jordanian Ghayda Alattar (Jordanleader1) stormed to an amazing five straight wins in the final five games to secure her top place in the final standings (8.5 of 11). Her compatriot Alshaeby Boshra scored an equal amount of points with the champion but had to settle for silver due to inferior tiebreaks. Final standings: 1. Ghayda Alattar (Jordan) – 8.52. Alshaeby Boshra (Jordan) – 8.53. Moaataz Ayah (Egypt) – 84. Wafa Shahenda (Egypt) – 7.55. Lina Nassr (Algeria) – 7 Ezat Mohammed (Mezat) and Koniahli Malek (MaLeKkoNihli) were in fine form at the start of the open final. They had a perfect score after three rounds beating Bassem Amin (Dr-BassemAmin) and Bilel Bellahcene (Bilelou) respectively. In Round 4, the leaders followed the route taken by the ladies in the women’s final and suffered the same fate. In Round 5 the Egyptian blitz maestro, Ahmed Adly (GMadly) bested Ezat Mohammed and took full control over the proceedings. His only hiccup on the way to the champion title came in Round 9. Adly chose a wrong plan in the opening and Hesham Abdelrahman duly punished him, not minding the number of pawns he had to sacrifice to get his way. GM Ahmed Adly playing from home This defeat cost Ahmed Adly the top position, but in the subsequent round, Hesham Abdelrahman held the leader Bilel Bellahcene to a draw and gave GMadly a chance that he did not miss. The future champion scored two critical victories in Rounds 10 and 11 and came out on top (8.5 out of 11), just a half-point ahead of Bilel Bellahcene who drew his last round game as well and finished second. Five players tied of third place with 7 points each with GM Mohamed Haddouche (mardgos) taking bronze thanks to better tiebreaks. Final standings: 1. Ahmed Adly (Egypt)2. Bellahcene Bilel (Algeria)3. Mohamed Haddouche (Algeria)4. Adham Fawzy (Egypt)5. Khumalo Keith (South Africa) With the success of the Arab-Africa Online Individual Open Chess Championships (#AAOIOCC) 2021, the closing ceremony was an avenue for the FIDE President, Arkady Dvorkovich to show his support for the initiative and the partnership between the Arab Chess Federation and the African Chess Confederation. The FIDE President welcomed all the participants, informing them that FIDE will continue to support these types of initiatives to ensure that chess players are active during the pandemic. The ACC President, Mr. Lewis Ncube, also got the opportunity to say a few words, appreciating everyone who participated in the championship, the organization, as well as Sheikh Saud for the hand of friendship that has been received by the African Chess Confederacy. Text: Ogunsiku Babatunde (africachessmedia.com/)
Baltag and Petrenko clinch Moldova championship
IM Iulian Baltag and IM Svetlana Petrenko are 2021 Moldovian Champions. Iulian Baltag defended his title in a Swiss-tournament, brushing aside the competition of 22 players, including eight International Masters. On the road to the title, he drew four games and scored five wins (7 out of 9), including a very important last-round victory. This is his third triumph in the national championship after 2012 and 2020. Photo: Iulian Baltag Facebook page Andrei Macovei finished just a half-point behind the champion; Ivan Schitco shared the third position with Nichita Morozov but took bronze thanks to better tiebreaks. Final standings: 1. Baltag Iulian (2393) – 72. Macovei Andrei (2453) – 6½3. Schitco Ivan (2473) – 64. Morozov Nichita (2400) – 65. Soltanici Ruslan (2410) – 5½6. Ceres Dragos (2244) – 5½7. Zajarnyi Anatolyi (2289) – 5½8. Agafii Victor (2236) – 59. Bargan Sergiu (2259) – 510. Buzdugan Alexandru (1658) – 5 In the women’s section Svetlana Petrenko and defending champion, Valentina Verbin both netted 6/9 and tied for first place. The tiebreak put Petrenko on top as she emerged as a winner in their direct encounter in Round 3. This is Petrenko’s 13th (!) national title. Twelve players took part in this 7-round Swiss tournament held at the beginning of February. Photo: https://sahmoldova.md/ Final standings: 1. Petrenko Svetlana (2030) – 62. Verbin Valentina (2014) – 63. Mihailova Alina (1741) – 54. Petricenco Ana (1720) – 45. Bargan Victoria (1542) – 46. Bitca Emilia (1238) – 3½7. Dulteva Anastasia (1268) – 38. Varekha Anna (1707) – 2½9. Golban Liudmila (1652) – 2½10. Grebeniuc Alexandra (1228) – 2
FIDE Athletes Commission composition announced
The International Chess Federation is pleased to announce the composition of the newly created Athletes Commission: GM A. R. Saleh Salem (UAE) GM Ahmed Adly (Egypt) IM Alina Kashlinskaya (Russia) GM Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria) IM Carolina Lujan (Argentina) GM David Navara (Czech Republic) IM Dinara Saduakassova (Kazakhstan) IM Ekaterina Atalik (Turkey) IM Jomo Pitterson (Jamaica) GM Joshua Daniel Ruiz Castillo (Colombia) GM Ju Wenjun (China) IM Odion Aikhoje (Nigeria) IM Sarasadat Khademalsharieh (Iran) By the deadline of December 21, FIDE had received nine candidacies for the ten elected positions. Therefore, as decided by the FIDE Council, voting was not required and these nine candidates made it directly into the Commission. Along with these athletes who presented their candidacy, four other members were appointed by the FIDE Council: IM Alina Kashlinskaya, IM Ekaterina Atalik, IM Jomo Pitterson, and IM Odion Aikhoje. The FIDE Council reserves itself the right to appoint two more members, in order to reach a total composition of 15 representatives of the players as stipulated in the regulations. The term of election and appointment of all members will be four years, but exceptionally the first term is limited to two years, until the 2022 FIDE Congress. Dinara Saduakassova (Kazakhstan) will be the first athlete to chair this commission for a period of half a year, followed by Ju Wenjun, and Ahmed Adly, in a six-month rotation.
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First anniversary of the FIDE Newsletter India on the rise Gabuzyan and Gaboyan, Armenian champions 2021 EDU Commission launches new training program Chess as a therapeutic tool “The Chess Saga of Fridrik Ólafsson” Birthdays READ NEWSLETTER
Seminar on chess and autism announced
The International Chess Federation, together with its Commission for People with Disabilities and the Social Commission, is pleased to announce the 1st FIDE Introductory Seminar “Chess for children with an autism spectrum disorder. How chess can help children with autism”. The aim of this course is to inform Federations and FIDE Academies about opportunities for using chess in educating kids with this disorder and share the existing experience. FIDE also wants to identify the interest of Federations, provide the necessary training of teachers, and support the development of related projects. WHAT:At this seminar speakers will talk about the possibility of teaching chess to children with autism spectrum disorder covering the following topics: • What is an autism spectrum disorder• Teaching chess to someone with autism• Chess could become the bridge between two worlds• Role of social projects in National Chess Federations WHEN:29 March 2021, from 14.00 to 16:00 CET WHO:Moderator: Anastasia Sorokina, FIDE Vice-President Speakers:• Natalia Popova – WIM, FIDE Trainer, Trainer of the FIDE Chess Academy in Belarus, leader of the 2 years long project teaching chess to children with autistic spectrum disorder (Belarus). • Ala Mishchanka, Special needs educational assistant, more than 15 years of experience (Canada);• Līga Bērziņa, Head of the Autism Society of Latvia, developer of games for reduction of behavioural disorders (Latvia).• Anna Charchyan, Lilit Karapetyan (Armenia) How to register:For registration, please send an email with the name and contact details (email, telephone number in Whatsapp) of the representative of the National Chess Federation or FIDE Academy to Anastasia Sorokina, FIDE Vice President: a.sorokina@fide.com. We expect your registration by 22 March 2021. After registration, you will receive a link to the online seminar. Over two years in Belarus has been operating a chess club for children with autism. Children study according to a special program developed by Natalia Popova, the coach of FIDE Chess Academy in Belarus. During this time, noticeable results have been achieved, which the parents of children can best say about: С
Van Foreest and Esipenko hit 2700 mark in March rating list
Although chess competitions all around the world are still suspended due to restrictive measures caused by COVID-19, some things remain the same under any circumstances. The traditional Tata Steel tournament, also known as “chess Wimbledon” did take place in Wijk aan Zee in the second half of January with its results being incorporated into the March rating list. Since several elite-level players participated in the Tata Steel 2021 we see some changes in the top-10. 1. Magnus Carlsen – 2847 (-15)2. Fabiano Caruana – 2820 (-3)3. Ding Liren – 27914. Ian Nepomniachtchi – 27895. Levon Aronian – 27816. Alexander Grischuk – 27777. Anish Giri – 2776 (+12)8. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov – 27709. Wesley So – 277010. Teimour Radjabov – 2765 Magnus Carlsen was far from his best in Wijk aan Zee and lost 15 rating points there but his top position is still impregnable. Fabiano Caruana dropped 3 rating points despite solid performance (+3) but comfortably occupies the second line in the rating list. Anish Giri (pictured below) did a great job in Tata Steel – his +4 score translates into 13 rating points which allowed Dutchman to break into the top-10 leapfrogging four players and climbing to the seventh position in the rating list. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave most likely wants to turn his Tata Steel 2021 page and move on. Indeed, the Frenchman’s lackluster performance in Wijk aan Zee cost him 26 rating points and the place in the top-10. Two Polish GMs Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Radoslaw Wojtaszek also suffered rating losses dropping 14 and 11 points respectively. Biggest gains: Jorden Van Foreest – 2701 (+30)Andrey Esipenko – 2701 (+24)Anish Giri – 2776 (+12)Alireza Firouzja – 2759 (+10)Nils Grandelius – 2670 (+7) Jorden Van Foreest and Andrey Esipenko are the main beneficiaries in this category after a very strong showing in Wijk aan Zee. The Dutchman became the winner of the event, picked 30 (!) rating points, and hit a 2700-mark for the first time in his career. The same applies to the Russian teenager who netted 24 points and cemented his #2 position in the junior rating list. The gap between him and Amin Tabatabaei bumped up to 72 points. Alireza Firouzja continues his ascent in the open rating list. The Iran-born teenager earned another 10 points in the Tata Steel 2021 and climbed to 13th position – the coveted top-10 is not that far away now. Nils Grandelius’ result (-1) in Wijk aan Zee does not seem very impressive but owing to the so-called low base effect it was enough to get 7 points and move up by ten positions in the open rating list. Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit – Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021
Gabuzyan and Gaboyan win Armenian championship
GM Hovhannes Gabuzyan and WIM Susanna Gaboyan are the new champions of Armenia. The Armenian Championship (so-called the Highest League) took place from 16-28 February 2021 in the Tigran Petrosyan Chess House (Yerevan). Although the top-5 rated Armenian did not participate in the open section, the round-robin brought together eleven grandmasters and one IM. The two highest-rated players Robert Hovhannisyan (2642) and Samvel Ter-Sahakyan (2640) entered the tournament as main favorites but it was 9th rated Hovhannes Gabuzyan (pictured below) who called the shots in this competition. The Yerevan-born GM grabbed the lead in Round 4 and never looked back, finishing with an excellent score 8½ out of 11, 1½ points ahead of Arman Pashikian. GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan tied for second but had to settle for bronze due to inferior tiebreaks. This is Gabuzyan’s second title after the victory in 2017. The champion had a couple of dubious positions along the way but routinely outplayed his opponents in complications and suffered his only defeat in the penultimate round after already sealing the title. Final standings: 1. Hovhannes Gabuzyan (2557) – 8½2. Arman Pashikian (2606) – 73. Samvel Ter-Sahakyan (2640) – 74. Manuel Petrosyan (2628) – 65. Shant Sargsyan (2596) – 66. Haik Martirosyan (2622) – 67. Tigran Harutyunian (2549) – 68. Robert Hovhannisyan (2642) – 5½9. Mamikon Gharibyan (2423) – 5½10. Zaven Andriasian (2606) – 3½11. Levon Babujian (2455) – 312. Tigran Petrosian (2601) – 2 One of the rating favourites of the 10-player round-robin tournament in the women’s section, along with defending champion WGM Maria Gevorgyan and WIM Siranush Ghukasyan, Gaboyan had a solid start with three wins and three draws in six rounds, but her loss in round seven complicated the tournament situation. It all came down to the last round – the leader Gevorgyan lost to Ghukasyan, while Gaboyan won the last two games and finished clear first with 6½ out of 9. WFM Mariam Mkrtchyan and WGM Maria Gevorgyan shared for second place, with tiebreaks putting Mkrtchyan higher. Final standings: 1. Susanna Gaboyan (2211) – 6½2. Mariam Mkrtchyan (2075) – 63. Maria Gevorgyan (2228) – 64. Siranush Ghukasyan (2222) – 55. Astghik Hakobyan (1820) – 4½6. Veronika Khachatryan (1767) – 4½7. Nare Arakelyan (1953) – 48. Mariam Avetisyan (2092) – 3½9. Anna Khachatryan (2086) – 310. Arpine Grigoryan (2091) – 2 Photo: Gevorg Perkuperkayn (ARMENPRESS)
Chess as a tool to fight Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Last month, a new clinical trial was conducted among 105 teenagers to test the effectiveness of a chess-based videogame to treat the cognitive training of patients diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). It is estimated that this neurodevelopmental disorder has a worldwide prevalence between 4% and 7%. ADHD is characterised by attention dysfunction and/or symptoms of hyperactivity and impulsivity, that can affect people in their daily life to a greater or lesser extent. María Rodrigo Yanguas, WFM and President of the Spanish Chess Federation Commission for Women in Chess, is also a sports psychologist. She has been part of the team that has developed this virtual reality video game, and she sent us the following article. “The Secret Trail of Moon” “The Secret Trail of Moon” (TSTM) is a serious virtual reality (VR) video game designed for the cognitive training of patients diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The gamification of chess is core to the development of TSTM. TSTM has been developed by a multidisciplinary team: 1) a video game company Gammera Nest [Daniel Sánchez Mateos (CEO of the company), Miguel Ruiz Domínguez (Lead programmer) and Marina Martín Moratinos (psychologist)]; 2) an expert on gamificiation:, Carlos González Tardón (psychologist and Professor at Tecnocampus-UPF); and a clinical and research group at the Hospital Universitario Puerta de Hierro [Hilario Blasco Fontecilla (psychiatrist) and her PhD student, María Rodrigo Yanguas, a sports psychologist specialized in chess]. ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder with a worldwide prevalence between 4-7%. Heritability is estimated at 70%. ADHD is characterized by attention dysfunction and/or symptoms of hyperactivity and impulsivity in two or more different areas with interference in daily life. The best treatment is multimodal treatment: pharmacological treatment, psychoeducation for parents and teachers, and cognitive-behavioral treatment. Unfortunately, cognitive-behavior psychotherapy is usually expensive and can be boring for some children and adolescents. Accordingly, some patients affected by ADHD cannot be benefited from this treatment. This was a major reason for TSTM to be created. TSTM, compared to other treatments, is innovative, enjoyable, and will be cheap when commercialized. TSTM uses a video game engine Unity 2020.1.1f0 in the development for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 and PlayStation VR. It is composed of 5 mechanics of game aimed to cognitive training of the most deficient areas from ADHD patients: attention, working memory, planning, visuospatial ability, and reasoning. It also works on other skills such as impulsive behavior, cognitive flexibility, or processing speed. Chess elements appear both in the story and in the mechanic of games. In fact, TSTM includes a complete mechanic of chess where the patient learns to play chess from the most basic level (knowledge of the board and pieces) to being able to perform checkmate exercises in 1 move. For this reason, we have created our own chess pieces incorporating them with the narrative story. Chess is core to TSTM because we incorporated all the experience gained in different settings using chess during the last decade. In 2016, Hilario Blasco-Fontecilla published the results of a pilot study conducted with 44 children diagnosed with ADHD with and without pharmacological treatment using an add-on strategy with chess. These children performed cognitive training using chess for 3 months (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25911280/). Most of the children benefited, independently of whether they were or not under drug treatment. Furthermore, gifted ADHD children were the most benefited by using chess. In a second step, we gained an i-PFIS contract (www.isciii.es) for: 1) developing a serious chess-based video game. 2) testing its effectiveness using a clinical trial (see below). We merged our project with another ongoing project (lead by Gammera nest) using VR to treat ADHD, and this settled the basis for TSTM. In November 2020 we published our first scientific article explaining the scientific basis underlying the use of TSTM (http://ceur-ws.org/Vol-2719/paper20.pdf). Currently, several other papers related to this scientific and industrial project are under consideration for publication. On January 26th, 2021, we finished a clinical trial aimed at testing the effectiveness of TSTM to ameliorate ADHD symptoms (https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04355065). The clinical trial was randomized, non-blinded, with the control group and pre-post evaluation. We recruited 105 patients aged 12 to 22 diagnosed with ADHD and under pharmacological treatment. All patients were randomized into one of these three groups: TSTM group: 12 sessions (1 session/week) of cognitive training with the video game Online chess group: 12 sessions (1 session/week) of online chess cognitive training. Control Group: 12 weekly follow-ups without any cognitive training. All participants were evaluated before and after 3 months. We retrieved clinical information from both the patients and their parents and used several questionnaires and objective measures (CPT-3) to evaluate ADHD symptoms and executive functions pre and post-treatment. The major hypothesis is that the use of either online chess or TSTM may help to improve ADHD symptoms in clinically stable drug-treated patients. Currently, we are analysing our data in order to get published our results. Lately, we have begun the second phase of TSTM development aimed at getting TSTM commercialized.