Norway throws ChessParty 2020 in May
From May 22 to May 24, the Oslofjord Convention Cente, beautifully situated by the coast in the municipality of Sandefjord, Norway, will host ChessParty 2020. With over 12,000 beds in apartments and cottages and a plenary hall that seats more than 7,000 attendees, the Oslofjord Convention Center is on track to become one of Europe’s largest combined accommodations and events venues. ChessParty is first and foremost a major social event. It’s a party for everyone, where activities like football, skating, swimming, boating, beach volleyball, table tennis, and barbecuing mean the entire family will be able to experience Norway at its finest. • Meet many of the world’s top players such as Magnus Carlsen, Wesley So, and Fabiano Caruana• Watch Magnus Carlsen play simultaneously against his fans• PRO Chess League finals powered by Chess.com• Open Fischer Random Tournament• Norwegian Championship for Teams!• Children’s Grand Prix Tournament• Chess exhibition• Courses and lectures by well-known profiles such as Simen Agdestein and Henrik Carlsen• Opening show Friday and award show on Saturday• Player party both Friday and Saturday• Famous Norwegian hosts and artists• Continuous mini-tournaments at all levels There will be courses for both beginners and advanced players as well as lecture by Henrik Carlsen, the father of Magnus Carlsen. In the PRO Chess League, many of the world’s top players participate, such as Wesley So, Fabiano Caruana, Ding Liren, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Alexander Grischuk, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Anish Giri, Jan Krzysztof Duda, Hikaru Nakamura, Alireza Firouzja, Jon Ludvig Hammer and the 2017 junior world champion Aryan Tari. The regular season of the PRO Chess League is underway, and by March 12, it will be clear which four teams will be battling for the right to be crowned PCL champions in Norway. The Open Fischer Random Tournament will feature 6 rounds of rapid and 12 rounds of blitz. Cash prizes will be the same across both the winner of the open section, as well as the highest placing non-tournament winning gender. Bonus prize: The person(s) leading after the rounds of rapid chess will have the opportunity to play against the Fischer Random World Champion Wesley So. Official site: https://www.chessparty.com/
FIDE Qualification Commission to meet in March
The FIDE Qualification Commission Council will meet in Solihull, United Kingdom, on March 14-15. The scope of the Commission covers: – The rating regulations: https://handbook.fide.com/chapter/B022017– The rating regulations for rapid and blitz: https://handbook.fide.com/chapter/B02RBRegulations– The title regulations: https://handbook.fide.com/chapter/B01Regulations2017– The direct title regulations: https://handbook.fide.com/chapter/B01DirectTitles2017– The transfer regulations: https://handbook.fide.com/chapter/B042018 If you have items relating to these areas that you would like to be discussed at this meeting, then please email alexholowczak@gmail.com before Friday, 6th March. Proposals for the new regulations will be voted on at the FIDE Congress held in Khanty-Mansiysk in July 2020, with a view to them being introduced in 2021.
Cairns Cup 2020: Ju Wenjun and Kosteniuk move into joint lead
In the bloodiest round of the Cairns Cup thus far, a remarkable five out of five games ended decisively. Every encounter produced intriguing fireworks as players were able to give it their all before the rest day. Nana Dzagnidze let her first place position slip after a disappointing loss to Humpy Koneru. Meanwhile, Alexandra Kosteniuk and Wenjun Ju scored thrilling victories to leapfrog the Georgian GM and secure a tie for the lead. Nana Dzagnidze – Humpy Koneru: 0 – 1 Nana Dzagnidze entered this round in clear first as she has displayed some of the most solid and impressive play of the event. In this hard-fought battle, however, she was outclassed. Humpy Koneru was well prepared from the black side of a Queen’s Gambit Declined and obtained a pleasant position in the middlegame. Despite missing some strong tactical shots, Koneru was in control throughout. In a tricky queen+bishop versus queen+knight endgame, she displayed an impressive endgame technique to take home the full point. This marks Dzagnidze’s first loss of the event, and she is now tied with Koneru for third place with 3/5 points. Kateryna Lagno – Wenjun Ju: 0 – 1 After grabbing a poisoned pawn in the opening, Ju Wenjun could have easily had a losing position by move 13! Kateryna Lagno spent over 30 minutes in the critical moment but failed to seize a golden opportunity (13.Rc1 looks extremely stong). Ju was able to stabilize in the middlegame and then steered the battle into a flurry of tactical complications. Because Lagno took so much time in the opening, she did not have enough time to calculate precisely in the late middlegame. A few mistakes spelled disaster for the Lagno as Ju ripped the white king from its shelter. The reigning women’s World Champion was thrilled to capture her second win of the event, knowing that the result could have easily gone the other way. She now sits in a tie for first with 3.5/5. Kosteniuk – Muzychuk: 1 – 0 After achieving a very pleasant position from the Open Variation of the Ruy Lopez, Alexandra Kosteniuk made some questionable decisions. First, she misplaced her knight on the very edge of the board rather than putting it on a key central square. Next, she played the terribly weakening 24.f3? which gave her opponent an opportunity to strike. Mariya Muzychuk could have replied with the highly aggressive 24…Re2 with the deadly threat of Bh3! After Black missed this chance, however, Alexandra reclaimed her spot in the driver’s seat. The Russian GM managed to maneuver her knight back into the center and achieved positional domination. In the end, Kosteniuk’s rooks dominated the 7th rank and Muzychuk ran out of time in a hopeless position. With this victory, Kosteniuk joins Ju in the tie for first with 3.5/5. Valentina Gunina – Harika Dronavalli: 1 – 0 After losing a heartbreaker against Ju yesterday, Valentina Gunina rebounded strongly in Round 5. She was well rewarded for her decision to play a somewhat exotic Closed Sicilian. The pleasant opening advantage eventually snowballed into a vicious middlegame attack. Gunina was relentless in pushing her kingside pawns while Harika’s pieces failed to coordinate in a defense. In the end, Gunina executed a beautiful mating sequence to score her second victory of the event. In a post-game interview with Tatev Abrahamyan, Gunina revealed that she has been watching The Foreigner starring Jackie Chan to help take her mind off some of the painful losses. With today’s one-sided demolition, it seemed that Gunina emulated the ruthless fighting style of Jackie Chan! Irina Krush – Carissa Yip: 0 – 1 This all-American clash kept chess fans on the edge of their seats. In an offbeat opening, Irina Krush emerged with a clear advantage. She wisely sacrificed a pawn with a powerful central break and took advantage of Yip’s tendency to be overly materialistic. After achieving a queen versus two rooks imbalance, Krush was in control. The combination of her queen, bishop, and h-pawn seemed to be deadly for Yip’s delicate kingside. Just as it seemed Krush was going to outplay her American counterpart, the evaluation swayed. After a few inaccuracies, Carissa Yip managed to activate her pieces and find safety for her king. It wasn’t long before Krush’s position collapsed and Yip scored her first victory of the event. “I feel pretty relieved,” Yip told Ramirez in the post-game interview. The youngster admitted to feeling the nerves given the elite field but was able to relax in today’s battle. With a rest today tomorrow, action will resume on Thursday at 1 PM local time. With over half of the games, producing decisive results and many players still contention to capture first, chess fans can look forward to an exciting second half of the tournament! Text: IM Eric RosenPhoto: Austin Fuller, Crystal Fuller, Lennart Ootes, Spectrum StudiosOfficial site: https://www.uschesschamps.com/2020-cairns-cup/
Cairns Cup 2020: Ju Wenjun claims first victory
With the rest day soon approaching, some players were keen on conserving energy while others were adamant about fighting until the bitter end. Round 5 produced two decisive games as Wenjun Ju defeated Valentina Gunina, and Alexandra Kosteniuk took down Carissa Yip. Nana Dzagnidze maintains her lead with 3/4 points, but there is a large group of players trailing close behind in 2nd place. Ju Wenjun – Valentina Gunina: 1 – 0 The longest battle of the day was also the most topsy-turvy. Ju Wenjun achieved a very promising position from the opening, but then let her advantage slip. Valentina Gunina demonstrated a strong middlegame play and capitalized on the reigning world champion’s inaccuracies. Unfortunately for Gunina however, she fell victim to time pressure. With only 5 minutes left on her clock, she missed an opportunity to snag Ju’s central pawn and obtain a very stable edge. Her position then went from clearly better to completely lost in just a few moves. GM Ramirez described the dramatic turn around: “It was like an avalanche that suddenly hit her.” Although it took a while to convert her advantage, Ju went on to win the game, scoring her first victory in the tournament. She is now part of the large group of players tied for 2nd place, while Gunina has suffered her third loss of the event. Carissa Yip – Alexandra Kosteniuk: 0 – 1 In what GM Ramirez dubbed “a very strange game,” it was Alexandra Kosteniuk who emerged victorious. After the play unraveled quite slowly in a closed and maneuvering middlegame, immense complications emerged later on. At a critical moment, Yip misplaced her bishop and gave the Russian GM a beautiful sequence of attacking moves. Kosteniuk pounced and unleashed a number of impressive tactical shots. In the end, the young American was defenseless to her opponent’s threats, thus losing her fourth consecutive game. This marks the third decisive outcome of the tournament for Kosteniuk who has been displaying some of the sharpest and most dynamic chess among all the competitors. Harika Dronavalli – Irina Krush: ½ – ½ Yesterday, Harika Dronavalli won a masterpiece against Alexandra Kosteniuk by achieving a monster passed pawn on the d4-square. Today, Irina Krush gave Harika a taste of her own medicine by creating the same type of monster on the same square! It seemed that Krush was well on her way to produce a masterclass, but the Indian Grandmaster defended resiliently. After a dubious decision by Krush to play 23…f6?! Harika exploited the light square weaknesses and eventually executed a nice tactic to force a draw. Despite being close to winning in many games, Krush has yet to score a win in this event. It is often said that the hardest thing to do in chess is to win a better position! Mariya Muzychuk – Nana Dzagnidze : ½ – ½ This battle between two experienced grandmasters featured a sharp variation of the Richter-Rauzer Sicilian. It was clear that Nana Dzagnidze was better prepared as Mariya Muzychuk started taking her time after just 2 moves! Muzychuk explained in the post-game interview that Dzagnidze “plays everything” and is “hard to prepare against.” At a critical moment well into opening theory, Muzychuk deviated from mainline with the incredibly rare 12.Be1. Not wanting to risk encountering further preparation from the Georgian grandmaster, Muzychuk played safely and solidly. As the middlegame soon transitioned to an endgame, play remained relatively balanced and neither player made any clear mistakes. The eventual draw was a very fair result, allowing Dzagnidze to maintain her spot atop the leaderboard. Humpy Koneru – Kateryna Lagno: ½ – ½ In the most peaceful game of the day, pieces disappeared from the board quicker than the Olive Garden catering disappeared from the Chess Club’s basement kitchen. Commentators compared the liquidation of pieces to a vacuum cleaner. An endgame was reached by move 13 and there was never a moment where either side had much of an edge. The game ended in a draw well before any other game concluded. I would like to predict that round 5 will be the most interesting and exciting thus far, as players can give it their all before the rest day. Be sure to tune in tomorrow at 1 PM central time for all the action! Text: IM Eric RosenPhoto: Austin Fuller, Crystal Fuller, Lennart Ootes, Spectrum StudiosOfficial site: https://www.uschesschamps.com/2020-cairns-cup/overview
Togo Chess Festival unites five African countries
From January 27th to February 2nd the Togo Chess community celebrated chess with the Togo Chess Festival 2020 organized by ATOJESTRA (Togo Association of Strategy Games) and FTDE (Togo Chess Federation) in Hotel Agla, Lome. This year’s festival was placed under the blessings of a great friend of Togo: the 6th FIDE President, Mr. Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. The program of the festival included different activities, events, and tournaments: a FIDE Arbiters’ Seminar, a FIDE Schools’ Instructors’ Seminar, a Workshop on The Benefits of Chess, a Workshop on Chess as a Tool for National Development, a Rapid Tournament and a Blitz Tournament. Two seminars were conducted by FT, IO, IA, FIDE Lecturer Bechir Messaoudi from Tunisia and the FIDE General Secretary, President of Togo Chess Federation, FI, IA, CM Enyonam Sewa Fumey. The workshops were animated by the President of Togo Association of Strategy Games (ATOJESTRA), Mr. Abalou Bodjona and the FIDE General Secretary, President of Togo Chess Federation, FI, IA, CM Enyonam Sewa Fumey. Two tournaments awarded with the Kirsan’s Cups have been won by IM Balogun Oluwafemi (Nigeria) for the 9 rounds rapid of 25 minutes and IM. Adu Oladapo (Nigeria) for the 9 rounds blitz of 3 min + 2 sec increment. These tournaments were played on electronic boards with live transmission of the first four boards online. The excitement has been great, as this technology was displayed for the first time in this part of the world. These different activities saw the participation of 48 players from 5 countries (Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria, Togo).
Cairns Cup 2020: Dzagnidze shoots ahead
Going into Round 3, the fight for first was tightly contested with four players tied atop the leaderboard. After a number of topsy-turvy battles and dramatic time pressure situations, Nana Dzagnidze emerged as the clear leader with 2.5/3. The Georgian GM doesn’t have an easy road ahead however, as she will play the top 4 seeds in the next 4 rounds. Humpy Koneru – Wenjun Ju: ½ – ½ The shortest game of the round ended after a mere two hours. Humpy Koneru opted for an English opening, and Ju Wenjun surprised her with the Kramnik-Shirov Counterattack. In the post-game interview, Koneru confessed, “I was not much aware of the opening theory…probably she was just very well prepared.” While the early opening fireworks seemed to foreshadow an exciting battle, the action was cut short when both players were content with repetition. The game ended in a draw after just 22 moves. As this is a long and strenuous event, it’s not necessarily a bad idea for players to conserve energy early on. With this draw, both Ju and Koneru move to 1.5/3 in the standings. Kateryna Lagno – Mariya Muzychuk: ½ – ½ In Mariya Muzychuk’s third Petroff of the tournament, the opponents quickly reached a very imbalanced position. In a topical theoretical line, Lagno showed superior preparation. She achieved 3 minor pieces versus a queen and pawn which offered excellent winning chances. The unusual material imbalance captivated commentators and spectators. Lagno elegantly coordinated her minor pieces and rooks for a powerful kingside attack but stumbled at a critical moment. Not wanting to risk miscalculation, she decided to force a draw rather than push for more. Lagno explained her decision in the post-game interview, “I already felt that something was going wrong. Maybe it was still okay, but I was not sure and I decided when you are not sure, let’s be safe.” Both Lagno and Muzychuk are now tied for second place with 2/3 points. Nana Dzagnidze – Carissa Yip: 1 – 0 Yip’s woes continued as she fell into early trouble against her more experienced opponent. Commentators oohed and aahed at Carissa’s choice to play a Hippopotamus Defense, but there’s a reason why the exotic opening doesn’t have the best reputation. Dzagnidze grabbed a substantial space advantage as Yip struggled to find productive squares for her pieces. Dzagnidze stated, “the position after 10-15 moves I think was absolutely winning.” Despite the opening success, it wasn’t easy to take home the full point. Yip showed resourcefulness in defending and both players fell into time pressure. Despite some inaccuracies, Dzagnidze never fully lost her edge. She managed to transpose into an endgame with a material advantage. Today’s victory put her into a clear first place with 2.5/3. Although it was Yip’s third loss in a row this tournament experience will prove invaluable. Her battles against these illustrious opponents will no doubt highlight key areas of improvement and will undoubtedly facilitate further growth for the young talent. Alexandra Kosteniuk – Harika Dronavalli: 0 – 1 Harika Dronavalli proved her dominance with the black pieces in a relatively balanced Ruy Lopez. Alexandra Kosteniuk fell into a disharmonious position in the middlegame, and was never able to recover. The Indian grandmaster displayed stellar technique and never loosened her grip on the position. In the end, Harika’s seemingly unstoppable center pawns stormed down the board against the former women’s World Champion. Kosteniuk resigned just before additional queens appeared for her opponent. With today’s game result, Harika leapfrogs Kosteniuk in the standings and now sits on the leaderboard at 2/3. Irina Krush – Valentina Gunina: 0 – 1 With both players seeking their first win of the tournament, this battle was hotly contested. Krush achieved a dream position in a Classical Nimzo Indian. She claimed a substantial space advantage along with the bishop pair in the early middlegame. However Guinina, as the defending Cairns Cup Champion, was in no hurry to back down. As both players entered into severe time trouble, onlookers witnessed a dramatic turn-around. Gunina recounted the time scramble situation: “She didn’t know what to do, so we just danced.” At some point, Krush blundered away her whole advantage and it was Gunina who was playing for a win. In the interview with Gunina, GM Ramirez shared his perspective on the finish to the game: “After you got this endgame, it seemed you just didn’t let go. You played blow after blow and her position collapsed in time pressure.” Gunina was pleased to capture her first victory of the tournament as she admitted to be coping with jet lag. The first three rounds of Cairns Cup action have delivered nothing but exciting and instructive games. Chess fans can look forward to round 4 starting tomorrow at 1 pm local time. Text: IM Eric RosenPhoto: Austin Fuller, Crystal Fuller, Lennart Ootes, Spectrum StudiosOfficial site: https://www.uschesschamps.com/2020-cairns-cup/overview
Introducing Candidates: Kirill Alekseenko
(Photo: Lennart Ootes) Kirill Alekseenko (Russia)Born: June 22, 1997Rating: 2704This will be his first Candidates Tournament Kirill Alekseenko was born in Vyborg (the Leningrad region, about 140 km from St. Petersburg). When he was four years old, his grandfather initiated him into chess. A little bit later Vyborg’s strongest player, Sergey Baliakin, took the talented boy under his wing and helped him to make his first steps in chess competitions. In 2006, Kirill moved to St. Petersburg, where he joined a local chess club that bore the name of the legendary Mikhail Chigorin. First, he was trained by Vladimir Shushpanov, then by Honored Coach of Russia Andrey Lukin. In his junior years, Kirill won numerous prizes and titles in Russian, European and World Championships (he became the World Champion U-14). In 2012, Alekseenko earned all three qualifying norms of International Grandmaster but reached the required 2500 rating only a couple of years later. In 2015-2017 Kirill became the winner of the Chigorin Memorial 3 times in a row. One year later in 2018, he took the first prize in the Russian Cup Final. As a member of Medny Vsadnik’s team, Alekseenko has won the Russian Team championship several times. Kirill is studying international management at St.Petersburg State Polytechnic University. The grandmaster is passionate about sports (football and volleyball); he is taking foreign languages and plays guitar. Alekseenko’s real breakthrough came in 2019 – his rating crossed the 2700 mark thanks to an excellent performance at the FIDE World Cup and to a third-place finish in the 2019 Grand Swiss, the strongest ever Swiss tournament. The latter result made him a possible participant of the Candidates Tournament. Upon completion of all the qualifying competitions, the President of the Chess Federation of Russia (the country-host of the Candidates Tournament) Andrey Filatov announced that Kirill Alekseenko has been granted a wild card. Kirill is entering the event in a “dark horse” status which he is comfortable with. As Alekseenko pointed out in one of his recent interviews, he feels no extra pressure as nobody expects him to win the whole thing. It does not mean that Kirill has no ambition – he is working hard with his team, which he prefers not to disclose before the tournament. When it comes to his style Alekseenko (by his own words) tries to play profound chess and seeks to create some tension in any position. Сhoosing between simplifications and complications he almost without exception prefers the latter. Jakovenko – Alekseenko (72nd ch-RUS 2019)36… Nf2+ 37. Kg1 g5!! 38. Qa2 (38. a7 Ne4+ 39. Kh1 Ng3+ 40. hxg3 Rh6+) 38…Ng4+ 39. Kh1 Qf4 0-1
Cairns Cup 2020: Four at the top after Round 2
Today’s round was filled with excitement as chess fans got to witness heartbreaking blunders, jaw-dropping tactics, intense time pressure situations, and one marathon endgame. It seemed like the games produced continual drama as there were multiple unexpected turnarounds. After the dust settled, Muzychuk, Kosteniuk, and Lagno emerged as the second round victors. There is now a large tie atop the leaderboard with four players sitting with 1.5/2. Mariya Muzychuk – Humpy Koneru: 1 – 0 Mariya Muzychuk came out of the gates swinging. After achieving a dynamic position against the Petroff Defense (which isn’t easy to do these days), she executed a highly creative rook lift. Her exotic Rb1-Rb4-Rf4 maneuver allowed for tremendous attacking chances on the kingside. After a single misstep (18… Qe7?) from Humpy Koneru, the Ukranian grandmaster launched an overwhelming attack. Muzychuk proceeded to lift a second rook and pummeled black’s fragile kingside to take home the full point. Muzychuk leapfrogs Koneru in the standings and now sits at 1.5/2 with this victory. Harika Dronavalli – Nana Dzagnidze: ½ – ½ After a series of early trades in the Catalan Opening, the players reached an endgame by move 15. In Harika’s post-game interview, she explained that her opening preparation was a success. “I definitely thought I had better chances and a very pleasant endgame.” Despite having a worse pawn structure, Harika’s rooks were much more active. The Indian GM pointed out that Kf2 would have offered her better practical chances rather than immediately grabbing Dzagnidze’s a-pawn. Sometimes it is better to be patient than greedy! After the precise 20…g5!, Dzagnidze was able to equalize quite easily and the game ended in an early draw. Ju Wenjun – Irina Krush ½ – ½ This marathon game kept the production team working overtime! The position became incredibly complex in the middlegame, and both players burned a lot of time to navigate through the chaos. The complicated tension in the position caused Ju Wenjun to blunder and allowed Irina Krush to respond with 19…Bc6! The resulting position would have led to a clear material edge and very good chances for the American to take down the reigning women’s world champion. However, Krush missed the golden opportunity, and the position liquidated into a drawish endgame. In the end, it was Ju pushing for a win with a knight versus bishop. However, there were not enough pawns on the board to create realistic winning chances. The near 5-hour battle ended in a draw and both players move to 1 out of 2 in the standings. Valentina Gunina – Alexandra Kosteniuk 0 – 1 In what was the most topsy-turvy game of the round, Valentina Gunina achieved a near-winning position after just 12 moves. After some mystifying queen moves by Kosteniuk, Gunina built up an impressive display of piece activity. The commentators raved about Gunina’s spectacular Bb6!! and it seemed like black was going down without a fight. However, Alexandra Kosteniuk fought valiantly and forced her Russian counterpart to make some difficult decisions. With the positional blunder 21.Nxg6? Gunina lost all her advantage. GM Ramirez voiced his criticism: “I cannot begin to understand how you give up the knight that defends your weakest square on the board for the absolutely trashiest bishop I’ve ever seen.” Kosteniuk then managed to completely reverse the momentum of the game. In the end, the combination of Kosteniuk’s rook, knight, and bishop was too powerful for Gunina’s lone queen. With this result, the defending Cairns Cup Champion has yet to score any point and Kosteniuk is tied for first with 1.5/2. Carissa Yip – Kateryna Lagno: 0 – 1 After yesterday’s loss, Carissa Yip opted for a quiet variation of the Scotch game. This surprise opening choice appeared to be inspired by Xiong’s quick victory over Sethuraman from the 2019 Winter Classic. After Kateryna Lagno’s novelty 12…Qd7, Yip spent over 40 minutes on her reply. Lagno’s experience and positional understanding proved to be valuable as she proceeded to outplay the youngster from a roughly equal position. Yip didn’t sense danger soon enough and was forced into an incredibly passive position. Lagno cruised to victory after pouncing on Carissa’s final mistake 27.Bxa5? Even though queen’s were off the board, Lagno’s kingside attack was simply overwhelming. This victory catapulted Lagno to a tie for first with 1.5/2. Text: IM Eric RosenPhoto: Austin Fuller, Crystal Fuller, Lennart Ootes, Spectrum StudiosOfficial site: https://www.uschesschamps.com/2020-cairns-cup/overview
Cairns Cup 2020: Koneru and Dzagnidze start with victories
(Photo: Official site) The first round of the super-tournament produced two decisive outcomes with Humpy Koneru and Nana Dzagnidze scoring victories over Carissa Yip and Valentina Gunina respectively. The top-seed World Champion Ju Wenjun who had black pieces in her first-round game was tested by Mariya Musychuk in the Petroff Defense. White had a slight edge in the middlegame but it did not grow into anything substantial. After Ju gradually traded pieces and reached an equal endgame the opponents shook hands on the move 40. The game between Humpy Koneru and Carissa Yip saw a rare line of King’s Indian Defense. Slightly confused by her young opponent’s opening choice, the Indian GM spent a lot of time on the first moves but Black was comfortably holding her own. It all changed when instead of the quite natural 19…Bf6, the youngster opted for the erroneous 19…f6?. Humpy reacted with an excellent positional pawn sacrifice 20. Ne6! to take control over the light squares. Although Carrissa had some drawing chances in an ensuing endgame, Humpy once again demonstrated her excellent technique and scored a full point. Harika Dronavalli and Kateryna Lagno played the most erratic and topsy-turvy game of the round with the evaluation changing several times. Eventually, Kateryna ended up in a better endgame but being under tremendous time pressure preferred not to take chances. The draw was sealed on 37th move just three moves before reaching the first time control. (Photo: Official site) Nana Dzagnidze completely outplayed the winner of the inaugural Cairns Cup Valentina Gunina in the Trompowsky and by the move 20 obtained an overwhelming position. It looked like the rest would be smooth sailing for the Georgian, but the Russian, known for her ability to stir things up in desperate situations did it once again and was very close to saving a half-point. After natural 31… Qh3+ 32. Kh1 and then not so obvious 32… Kf6! or Kf8! (with the idea of hiding the king on g7 and then bringing the rook to h8) White has to deliver perpetual check – for example, 33. cxb4 Rc2 34. Ra1 Rxf2 35. Qc6+ Kg7 36. Qc3+ Kg6 37. Qd3+ Kg7 38. Qc3+, etc. Valentina missed this golden chance by playing 31…Qe6? and a few moves down the road it was all over for Black. Alexandra Kosteniuk tried the Alapin variation against Irina Krush’s Sicilian but did not achieve much. After some exchanges, Black even emerged slightly better with some pressure on the opponent’s isolated pawn, but White’s position was too solid to break through. The longest game of the round ended in a draw. Official site: https://www.uschesschamps.com/2020-cairns-cup/overview
Cairns Cup brings best female players together
Photo: https://dailyjournalonline.com/ The second edition of the Cairns Cup, a round-robin tournament for elite female chess players will take place in Saint Louis Chess Club on February 6-17. The event boasts of a $180,000 prize fund and promises to be the strongest women’s tournament ever held on American soil. The top three finishers will receive $45,000, $35,000, and $25,000 respectively. Photo: David Llada Comparing to the first edition, which turned into a race between Valentina Gunina and Alexandra Kosteniuk, the organizers managed to enlist a stellar lineup. This time the list of participants includes six players from the women’s top-10: the reigning World Champion Ju Wenjun (China), Humpy Koneru (India), Katerina Lagno (Russia), Mariya Musychuk (Ukraine), Harika Dronavalli (India) and Nana Dzagnidze (Georgia). They will be joined by Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia, #11 in women’s rating list), the winner of the inaugural Cairns Cup Valentina Gunina (Russia) and two local players Irina Krush and Carissa Yip. The World Champion Ju Wenjun and the leader of FIDE Women’s Grand Prix Humpy Koneru are considered the main favorites, but given an extremely strong lineup, they will have to work hard to live up to their advance billing. Schedule: February 6 – private opening ceremony (at 6 PM local time)February 7 – Round 1February 8 – Round 2February 9 – Round 3February 10 – Round 4February 11 – Round 5February 12 – Rest day/Community dayFebruary 13 – Round 6February 14 – Round 7February 15 – Round 8February 16 – Round 9February 17 – Playoff/Private closing ceremony All the rounds including playoff start at 1 PM local time Official site: https://www.uschesschamps.com/2020-cairns-cup/overview