Lubomir Kavalek (1943-2021)
It is with the deepest sadness that we learned about the passing of chess legend Lubomir Kavalek at 77. He was one of the greatest personalities of Czechoslovak and American chess. Lubomir (Lubosh) Kavalek was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia. He studied communication and journalism at Charles University. Lubomir won the national championship of his home country for the first time at the age of 19 (1962). Kavalek claimed his second title in 1968, in one of the strongest tournament in the history of Czechoslovakia championships. After the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, he first moved to Germany, and shortly after to the US, where he settled and won the national championship three times. He also represented the US at the Chess Olympiads, winning one gold and five bronze medals with the American team. In 2001 he was inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame. Kavalek was a second for Bobby Fischer during his famous 1972 match against Spassky and collaborated with Nigel Short between 1990-93. Lubomir was also a very active chess journalist, having worked briefly for “Voice of America”, and later on as a columnist for “The Washington Post”. FIDE extends its sincere condolences to Lubomir’s family, friends, and loved ones. Photo: Thomová Judita
Tata Steel 2021: Five-way tie on the top after Round 3
In Round 3 the sole leader after two rounds at the Tata Steel 2021 Nils Grandelius suffered his first defeat at hands of Pentala Harikrishna and allowed four players to catch up with him. Pentala Harikrishna comfortably solved all his opening problems on the Black side of the French Defense against Nils Grandelius but nothing foreboded the leader’s defeat. However, 25. Bc1 played by the Swede turned out to be a serious mistake. After the exchange of the dark-squared bishops, the Indian built up pressure with natural and strong moves and quickly won White’s a2-pawn. Black’s b-passer became unstoppable and Grandelius toss in the sponge. David Anton was confidently holding his ground in the game with Alireza Firouzja but a misstep on the control 40th move, allowing White’s knight on g6, cost him dearly. Alireza did not miss his chance to breach the defensive perimeter, scored a full point, and returned to the 50% mark. Fabiano Caruana and Jan-Krzysztof Duda arguably played the most riveting tactical game of the round. Both demonstrated deep calculation in an extremely sharp position with opposite-side castling. The American found a very strong sequence (the first line of Stockfish 12) and emerged up an exchange for two pawns. Chess engines are very optimistic about White’s chances but one inaccuracy by Fabiano (38.Re1 instead of immediate 38.a4) was enough for Jan-Krzysztof to escape with a draw. In the Norwegian duel, Magnus Carlsen was unable to break through Arian Tari’s accurate defense and had to settle for a draw. Radoslaw Wojtaszek got a clear edge with White against Jorden Van Foreest but erroneously traded all the rooks (23.Rc7, keeping one pair of rooks on the board looks much stronger) and let the Dutchman gradually equalize. The opponents shook hands on move 40. Andrey Esipenko opted for 4.Qxd4 in the Sicilian Defense to avoid Maxime Vachier-Lagrave‘s trademark Najdorf variation and very soon the opponents stepped into uncharted territory. On move 17 the Frenchman was forced to sacrifice his queen but got sufficient positional compensation. It seemed that both opponents had no desire to take extra-risks as a draw by repetition was agreed on move 33. Alexander Doncheko broke his losing streak and made a comfortable draw with Black facing Anish Giri. It is a very important result for the young German whose confidence might have been shaken after two straight defeats. Standings after Round 3: 1-5. Pentala Harikrishna, Magnus Carlsen, Anish Giri, Fabiano Caruana, Nils Grandelius – 2; 6-10. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Jorden Van Foreest, Andrey Esipenko, Alireza Firouzja, Radoslaw Wojtaszek – 1½; 11-13. Jan-Krzysztof Duda, David Anton, Arian Tari – 1; 14. Alexander Donchenko – ½. Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit – Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021 Official website: tatasteelchess.com/
Nihal Sarin wins Gazprom Brilliancy Prize
Nihal Sarin became the winner of the Gazprom Brilliancy Prize, a special trophy awarded to the best game from the FIDE Online World Cadets and Youth Championship (December, 20) by the General Partner of the competition. His victory over Francesco Sonis received 5 votes out of 9. One of the most talented players of his generation, Nihal Sarin won not only the Gazprom Brilliancy Prize but also the title in the U18 category, beating Shant Sargsyan in the final. FIDE had invited a panel of 9 popular streamers and YouTubers to be the judges for the Gazprom Brilliancy Prize, asking them to pick a favorite game. Five out of nine judges chose Sarin’s game as their top choice, announcing their votes in their respective channels: Daniel King / Powerplay Chess Nihal Sarin Sagar Shah / Chessbase IndiaNihal Sarin Levy Rozman / Gotham ChessNihal Sarin Fiona Steil-Antoni / FionchettaNihal Sarin Georgios Souleidis / The Big GreekNihal Sarin Maria Emelianova / PhotochessEdiz Gurel Michael RahalD Gukesh James Canty IIIAmirreza Pour Agha Bala Manuel Lopez MicheloneD Gukesh
FIDE approves hybrid competitions valid for rating
A few weeks ago, the FIDE Council approved a new set of rules to be applied to official online chess competitions. The document also established the framework for “hybrid” events, a format where the games are played online, but the participants are physically present in a public place like a club, federation headquarters, hotel, et cetera. In this format, all games are played under the supervision of an arbiter present on site. Considering that the conditions under which a hybrid tournament is played are very similar to those of “over the board events”, having these events rated has always been a possible – and desirable – outcome. After receiving some additional input from the Qualification Commission, and adding some minor amendments to the first version of the regulations, the FIDE Council has approved that hybrid competitions are officially rated in equal terms with traditional games. As stated in point 0.2 of the newly approved regulations, “The tournaments to be rated shall be pre-registered by the federation that will be responsible for the submission of results and rating fees. The tournament and its playing schedule must be registered one week before the tournament starts. The QC Chairman may refuse to register a tournament. He may also allow a tournament to be rated even though it has been registered less than one week before the tournament starts. All tournaments played under Hybrid conditions as described in 2.1 must be approved individually by the QC Chairman.” The requests will be examined on a one-on-one basis, and FIDE’s Qualification Commission reserves itself the right not to rate a specific tournament. This is a precautionary measure to protect the rating system from any unforeseen circumstance, as we enter uncharted territory. In that eventuality, the organizer of the tournament has the right to appeal to the QC. The best way to prevent this from happening is that organizers send requests with as much notice as they can, and include as much detail as possible, to the Qualification Commission: qualification@fide.com. This will ensure that there is a margin to make whatever adjustments are considered necessary so the event can be rated. These regulations are the result of a joint effort by a dedicated task force, in which several FIDE Commissions were involved. This included the Rules Commission, Arbiters and the Qualification Commissions, Fair Play, and the FIDE Commission for people with Disabilities. During the final stage, the Global Strategy Commission was responsible for consolidating all the inputs. The last bit was added to the document by the Qualification Commission, and it gives a green light to what many members of the chess community had been asked for: the possibility of rating chess games played through the internet.
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Tata Steel 2021: Nils Grandelius shoots ahead
Nils Grandelious became the sole leader of the Tata Steel Masters 2021 after two rounds of exciting chess. One could hardly predict such a feat given that a month ago the Swede was not even among the participants. In Round 2 Grandelius beat Jan-Krzysztof Duda in a very convincing manner after the Pole misplayed the opening. Nils drove a pawn-wedge on f3 and obtained a menacing attacking position. To save his king, Jan-Krzysztof gave up a piece and threw in the towel just ten moves down the road. The winner of Tata Steel 2020 Fabiano Caruana scored a full point after beating Alexander Donchenko and now sits on +1 together with Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri. The game was decided on a short stretch between moves 17 and 20. After playing four suboptimal moves (it seems 20.e6 was the last straw) Alexander fell under a crushing attack by Fabiano, parted with an exchange but only postponed the inevitable. All other encounters were drawn. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave got an extra pawn and very promising position against Alireza Firouzja but was not precise enough when converting his substantial advantage. After 30.Nc4 Alireza regained a pawn, traded most of the pieces, and reached a draw. David Anton gained a half-point in the game with the World Champion. The Spaniard was hovering around equality throughout the opening and the middlegame but eventually found himself a pawn down in an unpleasant ending, the type of position that is very hard to handle against Magnus. To his credit, Anton held his ground and earned a hard-fought draw. As Carlsen pointed out after the game, he missed a defensive idea 55.Kf5. Magnus was going to meet it with 55…Re1, but it fails to 56.Rxg5 Rxe3 57.Kf4! In the Dutch derby Jorden Van Foreest vs. Anish Giri, the former spurned repetition but ended up in a slightly worse endgame. Nevertheless, White’s position was solid enough to seal a draw in a rook endgame. Arian Tari put tremendous pressure on Radoslaw Wojtaszek and was very close to the victory but the Pole managed to wriggle out of a fix in an endgame with opposite-colored bishops. Pentala Harikrishna did not get anything out of the opening with White against Andrey Esipenko. Moreover, the Indian had to demonstrate some accuracy in an endgame to secure a draw. Standings after Round 2: 1. Nils Grandelius – 2; 2-4. Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, and Anish Giri – 1½; 5-10. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Pentala Harikrishna, Jorden Van Foreest, Radoslaw Wojtaszek, Andrei Esipenko, David Anton – 1; 11-13. Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Alireza Firouzja, Arian Tari – ½; 14. Alexander Doncheko – 0. Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit – Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021 Official website: tatasteelchess.com/
Tata Steel: Carlsen, Crandelius and Giri lead after Round 1
The 83rd Tata Steel Chess tournament got underway today in Wijk-aan-Zee. Unlike previous years, the 2021 event is limited to just the Masters group. Despite the withdrawal of Nepomniachtichi, Dubov, and Abdusattorov (replaced by Wojtaczek, Donchenko and Grandelius) the field is a very interesting mix of established and promising players. Round 1 saw three decisive outcomes although at some point it looked like all the games might have been drawn. Magnus Carlsen was the first to draw blood after taking some risks in the game against Alireza Firouzja. The World Champion did not get much with White out of the Queen’s Gambit declined, but decided to push with 28.e6, sacrificing a second pawn. This gambling approach paid off just seven moves down the road – the teenager collapsed after 35…Bf7? and resigned shortly facing an imminent checkmate. Nils Grandelius prevailed over Alexander Donchenko in a drawish endgame after the latter made a decisive mistake 36…Rd2? Apparently, the German missed that after 37.Re1+ Kd3 38.Re3+ White protects all his weaknesses and then active his king with decisive effect. Anish Giri and Arian Tari were following the footsteps of Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura in a sharp line of the Ruy Lopez till some point, but on move 11 the Dutchman introduced a novelty (apparently, he analyzed the position in-depth in his home laboratory) and quickly obtained a very promising although blocked position in which Black did not have even a shred of counterplay. Anish gradually infiltrated the opponent’s camp and delivered a coup de grace on move 47. All other games were drawn although Fabiano Caruana and Pentala Harikrishna had some winning chances against Jorden van Foreest and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave respectively. Standings after Round 1: 1-3. Magnus Carlsen, Nils Grandelius and Anish Giri – 1; 4-10. Fabiano Caruana, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Pentala Harikrishna, Jorden Van Foreest, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Radoslaw Wojtaszek, Andrei Esipenko, David Anton – ½; 12-14. Alexander Doncheko, Alireza Firouzja, Arian Tari – 0. Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit – Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021 Official website: tatasteelchess.com/
President of Uzbekistan issues chess decree
On January 14, 2021, the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev issued a decree “On measures for the further development and popularization of chess and enhancing the system of training chess players.” Under the Decree, the project “Chess in school” will be implemented through the expansion of the chess education system in elementary school, as well as holding competitions among students and schools, promoting chess among kids and teenagers, and many other important measures. The state program for the development of chess until 2025 has been adopted. The program set several ambitious goals such as: – Increasing the number of permanently studying chess to 3 percent by the year 2025; – Bringing the number of districts (cities) in which special attention is paid to the development of chess as a priority sport up to 40; – Establishing 25 new chess schools and clubs based on public-private partnership within the next five years; – Increasing the number of active chess schools for children by 20% with the target of 10,500 children involved in chess; – Uzbekistan’s entering the top-10 rated countries by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) by the year 2025. In addition, several annual chess competitions and events are established starting from the year 2021: International Chess Tournament for the Prize of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan (Tashkent) Agzamov (the first Grandmaster from Uzbekistan) Memorial Tournament (Tashkent) International Tournament of the XVII World Chess Champion R.M. Kasymzhanov (Tashkent) Sakhibkiran Cup Chess Tournament (Samarkand) Al-Beruni Chess Tournament (Khiva) The Week of Tourism and Chess (Bukhara, Termez, and Khiva) Full text of the Decree (in Russian)
Full tour participants confirmed for 2021 Grand Chess Tour
Saint Louis, MO, January 13, 2021 – The Grand Chess Tour is pleased to confirm the ten players that will compete as full 2021 tour participants. The 2021 tour schedule consists of five tournaments as follows: Superbet Chess Classic: June 3 – 15, 2021, Bucharest, Romania Paris Rapid & Blitz: June 16 – 23, 2021, Paris, France Croatia Rapid & Blitz: July 5 – 12, 2021, Zagreb, Croatia St Louis Rapid & Blitz: August 9 – 16, 2021, St. Louis, Missouri USA Sinquefield Cup: August 16 – 28, 2021, St. Louis, Missouri USA The full tour participants will play in both classical events as well as in two of the three rapid and blitz tournaments. Following the cancellation of the 2020 Grand Chess Tour due to the Covid-19 pandemic, invitations for the 2021 edition of the GCT were extended to the ten players who had qualified for the 2020 season. World Champion Magnus Carlsen and Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura have elected not to take part as full tour participants in 2021 and have been replaced by Grandmasters Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Teimour Radjabov. Grandmaster Radjabov will be making his GCT debut this year. “We are excited to return to over the board events this year,” said Executive Director Michael Khodarkovsky. “All five event locations will comply with local COVID-19 guidelines and fans can expect the same excitement and action that they have come to love and enjoy from the Grand Chess Tour.” The full tour participants for the 2021 season: # Name FED FIDE (Rank) 1 Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime FRA 2784 (5) 2 Ding, Liren CHN 2791 (3) 3 Caruana, Fabiano USA 2823 (2) 4 So, Wesley USA 2770 (9) 5 Nepomniachtchi, Ian RUS 2789 (4) 6 Grischuk, Alexander RUS 2777 (7) 7 Aronian, Levon ARM 2781 (6) 8 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar AZE 2770 (8) 9 Radjabov, Teimour AZE 2765 (10) 10 Giri, Anish NED 2764 (11) The wildcard participants for the three rapid and blitz events scheduled to take place in Paris, Zagreb, and Saint Louis will be announced as they become available. About the Grand Chess Tour™ The Grand Chess Tour is a circuit of international events, each demonstrating the highest level of organization for the world’s best players. The legendary Garry Kasparov, one of the world’s greatest ambassadors for chess, inspired the Grand Chess Tour and helped solidify the partnership between the organizers. All Grand Chess Tour 2021 events will comply with local and regional COVID-19 restrictions. For more information about the tour, please visit grandchesstour.org.
Taione Sikivou clinches Fiji Championship
Taione Sikivou has been crowned the new champion of the Fiji National Chess Championship for the first time. The championship which started on the weekend ended today after nine rounds. Sikivou who hails from Narovico in Rewa says started playing chess when he was 16 years old and he is super elated to finally win today after trying for so many years. 30-year-old Sikivou who defeated former champion Manoj Kumar in round four says he didn’t expect to win. The former Mahatma Ghandhi Secondary School student adds beating 15-time champion Kumar propelled him to winning the national title. “He was my toughest opponent and that game was really tough, it went down to the wire and we played almost close to four hours in that game and I was able to come away with a victory and that victory really propelled me to winning this tournament in the end”, said the champion. Kumar finished second while Avinesh Nadan came in third. Cydel Terubea won the women’s title. Yash Maharaj took the Intermediate Open title with Philip Sukhu winning the secondary school category and Arnav Lal is the primary school winner. Text: Akuila Cama Senior Multimedia Sports Journalist (www.fbcnews.com.fj/) Photo: www.fbcnews.com.fj/