“Together with the Candidates” wins 2018 FIDE Book of the Year
We are delighted to announce the winner of the 2018 FIDE Book of the Year, also known as the Averbakh/Boleslavsky Award in respect of these two giants of chess literature. GM Artur Jussupow presided over the three-man independent jury, which also included GM Nigel Short and the World’s oldest living grandmaster, Yuri Averbakh. They originally selected three titles for shortlisting: “The quality of the entire competition was very high. All three books in the final were so good that each book was the favorite of a juror! Nonetheless, we have a clear winner with one first and two-second preferences.” “On behalf of FIDE and the Trainers’ Commission, I would like to thank the jurors for giving up their time to go through the nominated books and select the shortlist and the winners”, added GM Jacob Aagaard, Chairman of FIDE’s Trainer’s Commission (TRG). WINNER:“Together with the Candidates”by Alexey KuzminPublished by Thinkers Publishinghttps://thinkerspublishing.com/product/alexey-kuzmin-together-with-the-candidates RUNNERS-UP: “The Complete Manual of Positional Chess”by Konstantin Sakaev and Konstantin Landa Published by New in Chesshttps://www.newinchess.com/the-complete-manual-of-positional-chess “Applying Logic in Chess”by Erik KislikPublished by Gambit Bookshttp://www.gambitbooks.com/books/Applying_Logic_in_Chess.html
Tata Rapid & Blitz: Carlsen loses to Ding, but still cruises
During 9 rounds of blitz, chess fans witnessed some dramatic and electrifying games. The tournament leader Magnus Carlsen continued to show his dominance over the field by scoring an impressive 6.5/9. This boosts his total score to 21.5 points and he maintains a 5 point lead over Hikaru Nakamura going into the final day. Magnus Carlsen Blitz score – 6.5 Total – 21.5 Best game: Anand – Carlsen (Round 8) World Chess Champion was not as invincible as in rapid part of the event, but still was by far the best player of the day. He won 5 games but was visibly perplexed when asked by a charming tournament reporter Tania Sachdev what was his best win. Carlsen mentioned that he was trying to play solid chess and succeeded in not making many serious mistakes. Winning against Anand on his home soil is always nice although Magnus admitted that Vishy could have made a draw a few times. Hikaru Nakamura Blitz score – 5.5 Total – 16.5 Best game: Nakamura – Carlsen (Round 3) Nakamura proved once again that his blitz skills are still almost impossible to match. He was the only one not to lose a single game throughout the day. Hikaru tried not to take any unnecessary risks, but it has nothing to do with his game against Carlsen, in which he did make the last brave attempt to start a real pursuit of the leader. Hikaru was very creative and sacrificed two central pawns to win time for a direct kingside attack. Although the World champion was quite pessimistic about his position during the game and even in the post-mortem, a beautiful draw with perpetual came as a logical outcome of this amazing duel. Ian Nepomniachtchi Blitz score – 5.5 Total – 12.5 Best game: Anand – Nepomniachtchi (Round 1) Best combination: Vidit – Nepomniachtchi (Round 3) The #2 in the FIDE blitz rating (after Nakamura, ahead of Carlsen) finally had some sleep in Kolkata started the day with all guns blazing. He won a very nice game with Black in a typical Sicilian endgame against Anand and came up with an excellent combo against Vidit. This game was far from perfect though as Vidit could have won exactly one move before he missed Ian’s amazing idea. Vidit – Nepomniachtchi 31…Qd1+ 32.Kg2 Ne3+! 33.fxe3 Rxb2+! 34.Nxb2 f3+ 35.Nxf3 Qxf3+ 0-1 A mediocre game against Carlsen somewhat slowed Ian down, but still, it was a much better day for him than Rounds 1-6 of rapid. Viswanathan Anand Blitz score – 4.5 Total – 12.5 Best game: Anand – So (Round 4) Anand needs to finish in top 6 to qualify for Grand Chess Tour finals in London and with his sound play, he seems to be on the right course. Vishy lost two games with white pieces when his opponents were playing amazing chess but created a masterpiece of his own in the encounter with So. The tournament commentator, quick-witted Peter Svidler mentioned that he would have been proud to play such a game in classical chess. Wesley So Blitz score – 4.5 Total – 13.5 The Fischer Random Champion had an uneventful day. His only win came when Giri lost on time in a winning position. So definitely needs to pick up some steam tomorrow if he wants to retain his third place in overall standings. Ding Liren Blitz score – 4.5 Total – 12.5 Best game: Carlsen – Ding Liren (Round 5) It would have been an event to forget for Ding if not for the game against Magnus Carlsen. Over the course of four days, Ding is the only one to outplay Magnus and he did it with Black. The moves 19…Kf7 and 27…f3 played in this game usually make any chess player feel good about himself. Anish Giri Blitz score – 4 Total – 13 Giri had a mediocre day in the office. His game against Aronian was thrilling, but despite a positive outcome, the ending was kind of disappointing – first Anish blundered a piece, but out-of-form Aronian blundered a rook in response. After a drama in the duel with So (Anish run out of time in a winning endgame) he was probably looking for the day to end. Pentala Harikrishna Blitz score – 4 Total – 12 It’s tough to keep your head above the water against such a line-up but the more experienced of two Indian wild cards managed to do it most of the time. He capitalized on his opponents’ hiccups twice and finished the day with respectable 4/9. Vidit Santosh Gujrathi Blitz score – 4 Total – 10 Best game: Ding Liren – Vidit (Round 2) The young Indian is doing much better in blitz, comparing to the rapid part of the tournament. In Round 2 he had his first win of the event beating Ding with Black. He easily refuted premature 10.d5, got a better game and slowly ground Chinese GM down. 4/9 scored against such opponents is not too shabby. Levon Aronian Blitz score – 2 Total – 11 Let’s just say that Levon needs to forget November 25, 2019, as soon as possible. Hopefully, he will rebound tomorrow. Combined rapid and blitz Day 1 standings: Photo: Lennart Ootes (Grand Chess Tour) Official site
Alexei Shirov wins Spanish Championship
For the period of November 16-24, 2019, Marbella hosted the Spanish Championship, one of the strongest in the history of the country. As many as 142 players (both men and women) took part in this 9-round Swiss system tournament fighting for the titles of Spanish Champion and Spanish Women’s Champion. The event also served as a qualifying stage for representing Spain at the European Team Championship. The first move in the tournament was ceremoniously made by none other than twelfth World Champion Anatoly Karpov, who visited the Championship as an honored guest. The competition was so close and intense, that despite relatively long tournament distance at no point the event had a sole leader. Before the last round, as many as fourteen players vied for the title including rating favorites Francisco Vallejo Pons (2694), David Antón (2686) and Alexei Shirov (2666). In the final round, the leaders GMs Jose Carlos Ibarra Jerez and Ivan Salgado Lopez who were a half-point ahead of a big group of players quickly drew their game, giving the pursuers an opportunity to catch up with them. In such a situation, a massive tie for the first is more than likely and that is exactly what happened – seven players finished scoring 7 points each with Alexei Shirov taking the title thanks to better tiebreaks. Sabrina Vega Gutiérrez notched 5.5 points and took the title of Spanish Women’s Champion. Final standings: 1. Alexei Shirov – 7/92. Iván Salgado López – 7/93. David Antón – 7/94. José Carlos Ibarra Jerez – 7/95. Francisco Vallejo Pons – 7/96. Manuel Pérez – 7/97. Jaime Santos Latasa – 7/98. Miguel Santos Ruis – 6½ /99. David Larino Nieto – 6½ /910. Jose Fernando Cuenca – 6½ /9
FIDE statement on the recent misleading reports
UPDATE: On Aug 4, 2021, FIDE and World Chess have signed an agreement that regulates operations of FIDE Online Arena. FIDE Online Arena is the exclusive official FIDE gaming platform, FOA ratings and titles are recognized by FIDE and are included in the players’ FIDE profile. FIDE Online Arena regulations form part of the FIDE Handbook and can be found at https://handbook.fide.com/chapter/B11FOARatingRegulations More information on chessarena.com Lausanne, November 25, 2019 The International Chess Federation (FIDE) has noted a number of publications over the past few days regarding the planned “hybrid IPO” to be launched by the company World Chess. Some of these publications contain a number of misleading facts that require clarification from our side: 1. FIDE holds all the organizing and broadcasting rights for the World Championship Match. The company World Chess does not have either the rights to organize the Match, or to exclusively broadcast it on their platform. World Chess is an organizer of the Grand Prix Series 2019 and similar Series in 2021 – but these are the only official FIDE events this company organizes. 2. FIDE Online Arena was created under the management of private investors according to the agreement with the previous FIDE administration in 2014, without any tender or similar transparent procedure. Later on, World Chess has acquired these rights, and, as approved by the previous administration, it uses the platform to provide online ratings and titles. However, FIDE has no intention to use neither the platform nor its titles and ratings for any official events before conducting a proper examination of the matter and ensuring the proper functioning of the platform. 3. Until the end of 2018, World Chess had the rights for conducting major official events – like the World Championship Match, Candidates Tournament, etc. However, effective January 2019, this partnership has been drastically scaled-down. At present, only FIDE has the rights to organize the World Championship Match — the only event where the World Champion title is contested and awarded. All the related rights of World Chess are fully described in the joint press release of the parties dated January 2019. We would also like to emphasize that World Chess is a private company, and it should not be mixed up with FIDE, the International Chess Federation. With headquarters in Lausanne, and recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Global Association of Sports Federations (GAISF), FIDE is the governing body of the game of chess, and regulates the international chess competitions and titles. FIDE is going to announce the venue of the World Championship Match-2020 within two weeks, and we are devising sponsorship and broadcasting packages, that will be offered to our partners.
Tata Steel Rapid & Blitz: Carlsen extends his lead
The rapid portion of the Tata Steel Chess India Rapid and Blitz concluded on day 3 with reigning World Champion Magnus Carlsen extending his lead even further over the competition. The National Library of Kolkata filled up with chess fans this Sunday afternoon as the day commenced with Magnus Carlsen squaring off against Viswanathan Anand. This was their first encounter on Indian soil since the 2013 World Championship Match, in which the Carlsen dismantled Anand for the coveted world title. Round 7 The battle of champions between Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand became a jewel of the 7th round. Somewhat unexpectedly, Anand opted for a very sharp line and tried to fight for the initiative from the very start. He sacrificed his h6-pawn then an exchange to keep the white king in the center. It is unclear whether this plan could have worked or not but 19…Re8, allowing the king to escape through f2 was definitely a mistake. Carlsen counterattacked in the center, activated his queen and won quite quickly increasing the gap from the whole crew to 4 points. Ian Nepomniachtchi chose the Scotch versus Vidit Gujharhi trying to turn the tide in a yet disastrous tournament. Once again, the Indian wild card was doing fine until the complex endgame. Even after winning a pawn Ian wasn’t in full command as Black queen was active and dangerous. Unluckily for Vidit, he completely missed Nepo’s idea of returning a pawn to force the queen’s exchange and secure a dominating c5-position for his knight. Commentators immediately pointed out that this endgame was hopeless for Black, and the course of the game proved that they were right. Nepomniachtchi won but remained at the bottom of the leaderboard. Aronian – So and Nakamura – Ding Liren were two Ruy Lopez games (the first one actually was Berlin Defense) where Black eventually equalized and forced massive exchanges. Anish Giri had an overwhelming advantage in the form of two extra pawns the endgame against Pentala Harikrishna but somehow let a victory slip away. Round 8 Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So began the day tied for second place and faced off in Round 8. The all-American matchup produced the only victory of the round as Nakamura displayed some brilliant technique. So misplayed an opening a bit and despite having white pieces immediately got a slightly worse ending. It looked like he never was in real danger, but these pesky bishops kept putting So under pressure. Finally, he made a few mistakes and fell apart. This result seriously damages So’s chances of qualifying for the GCT Finals in London. Harikrishna and Carlsen played a very interesting game in the Exchange variation of Slav Defense. In the position with highly unorthodox pawn structure Carlsen once again gradually outplayed his opponent and transposed into a rook endgame that was winning for Black. Harikrishna kept looking for chances and his efforts eventually paid off. The World Champion finally made a few human moves that were not that precise and allowed Harikrishna to escape. The outcome of the game looked like a miracle at this stage of the tournament. Right from the opening Ding Liren – Giri game went into an endgame slightly better for White. Ding seemingly had some possibilities to strive for more, but a draw was definitely a logical outcome. An all-Indian duel Vidit – Anand was an uneventful draw, but it was still much longer game then Nepo – Aronian in which the Russian GM didn’t get anything going and offered a draw on move 13. Round 9 The ninth and final rapid round saw a lot of fighting chess. Magnus Carlsen delivered yet another win, taking down Ding Liren. Levon Aronian defeated Vidit and increased his already great chances of qualifying for the GCT Finals in London. Meanwhile, Anand hiccupped as he failed to convert a winning position against one of two local wildcards Harikrishna. In order to qualify for the GCT Finals Anand needs to finish in clear 6th place or better to overtake Maxime Vachier Lagrave in the overall GCT standings. Play will resume tomorrow at 2 PM Kolkata time (GMT +5:30) with the first 9 games of blitz. Standings after Round 9 Photo: Lennart Ootes (Grand Chess Tour) Official site
Senior Champions crowned in Bucharest
The World Senior Chess Championship, played in four sections, is concluded in Bucharest. Impressive lineups and the prize fund increased by FIDE warranted a very close contest and unpredictable outcomes until the very last round. The only exception was the highest-rated category Open 50+. In this tournament, the champion was essentially determined two rounds before the finish. A debutant of senior events Vadim Shishkin from Ukraine (he is just 50!) defeated his main competitors face to face and smoothly sailed in the last rounds. The Ukranian netted 9 out of 11 points without losses and won a clear first place. The champion owes his title to a winning streak (four victories in a row) he made in the middle of the tournament distance. As part of this streak, Shishkin beat his main competitor of the same age Vladislav Nevednichy (Romania). As a result, the latter finished just a half-point behind the champion and tied for the second with one of the best chess players of Latin America Ivan Morovic Fernandez from Chile. The last year champion Karen Movsziszian (Armenia) came fourth. The rating-favorites Kiril Georgiev (North Macedonia), Darcy Lima (Brazil), Zurab Sturua (Georgia) and Alexander Shabalov (USA) scored 7.5 points each tied for 5th place along with nine other GMs – it is just another evidence of extremely fierce competition in this event. The last round in the Open 65+ category could have been played in the USSR championship, say, 40 years ago. The leaders Anatoli Vaisser and Yuri Balashov split a point facing each other whereas an ambitious young competitor (their junior by two years!) Rafael Vaganian caught up with them and took the title thanks to better tiebreaks. These three excellent GMs representing Armenia (Vaganian), France (Vaisser) and Russia (Balashov) notched 8.5 points each. A large group of players headed by Carlos Garcia Palermo (Italy) and Evgeny Sveshnikov (Russia) finished a half-point behind. The tenth round became the decisive one in the Women 50+ section. Elvira Berend took down Natalia Sirotkina with black pieces, whereas Tatiana Bogumil, who was leading for the most part of the event, suffered a defeat at the hands of Tatiana Grabuzova. By making a draw in the last round, the rating-favorite, playing under the banner of Luxemburg, secured a clear first place with с 8.5 out of 11 points. Tatiana Bogumil is second with 7.5 points; Galina Strutinskaia, Tatiana Grabuzova (both Russia) and Marina Makropoulou (Greece) tied for the third place. Since by the end of the tournament Women 65+ all the favorites basically played each other, in the last rounds the front-runner, illustrious champion Nona Gaprindashvili (Georgia) had relatively easy opponents. Nona finished with three victories in a row and took the title scoring 8.5 out of 11 points. Two Russian players Elena Fatalibekova and Valentina Kozlovskaya tied for the second place. FIDE congratulates all the winners! The next year World Senior Chess Championship will be held on the same dates (mid-November) in Assisi (Italy). Photo: Mark Livshitz Official site
Tata Steel Rapid & Blitz: Carlsen pulls away
For the World Champion Magnus Carlsen and India #1 Viswanathan Anand, day two began not on the chessboard, but at Eden Gardens for the Cricket Test Match between India and Bangladesh. They partook in the ceremonial bell ringing to kick off day two of the test match, which has an audience of approximately one billion viewers. Back on the chessboard, many decisive and exciting games were seen on the second day of Tata Steel Chess India Rapid & Blitz. After a strong performance yesterday, Carlsen continued to steal the show with dominating play. Round 4 After several lackluster performances (by the World Champion’s standards) Magnus Carlsen seems to be back to his winning ways in Kolkata. In Round 4, he played with his closest pursuer Hikaru Nakamura and won this key game. Nakamura probably mixed something up in the opening as Carlsen got an extremely strong pawn center and a clear advantage. Hikaru defended resourcefully giving up a pawn to stop White’s onslaught but made a crucial misstep with 35…Rb8. After an easy 36.Rc1 White was not only a pawn up, but also much more active. Carlsen converted his advantage comfortably and broke away from the field. Anand came back after the disaster against Nepo from yesterday. In a very complex Giuoco Piano middle game, Aronian played really well against him, but not quickly enough. Running out of time, the Armenian GM stumbled and gave up a piece. That’s not the kind of advantage you can hand to one of the game’s greatest. After this victory, Anand was on 5 points. A few days ago Ian Nepomniachtchi convincingly won an online match against Ding, but it looks like both players are far from their best in Kolkata. After an unbelievable mistake in the handbook rook endgame yesterday, Ding Liren lost with white pieces against So. Ding was much better after the opening and was looking for winning chances, but somehow missed an easy pin with an ill-advised Rc8-e8 maneuver. The Chinese GM lost a knight and resigned immediately. The game Harikrishna – Nepomniachtchi saw a remake of Nepo’s yesterday triumph against Anand, but this time Ian was playing a victim. After Harikrishna obtained a dominating position with a strong knight on f5, Russian GM tried to escape in a tactical skirmish. It did not work as the local wild card found an elegant 28.Rc2 and secured his first victory in the event. Giri was trying to play for a win against Vidit with Black, but after a series of exchanges had to agree to a draw. Round 5 The World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen scored another victory, this time with Black against Anish Girl. With a strong pawn on e6 and the bishop aiming for a cool c5 square, Giri’s position after the opening looked very attractive. Strangely enough, a natural 18.Bc5 was the turning point of the game – Black’s bishops became very active, White had to retreat his pieces, whereas the e6-pawn gradually turned into a weakness. After transposing into a better endgame, Carlsen once again demonstrated his impeccable technique. Anand recently lost a few games in which his opponents launched a direct attack on his king, and it looks like it was Nakamura’s plan for their Round 5 encounter. This time though Anand wasn’t going down without a fight. His queen returned to the king’s rescue just in time and the game ended with a perpetual. It is quite a challenge to play Marshall Attack against Levon Aronian, who is indisputably the best expert in this always-popular line. Harikrishna wasn’t up to this challenge today. He had two bishops being a pawn down in the endgame, but Aronian eventually ground him down and finally got his first win in Tata Steel Rapid & Blitz. Both Nepomniachtchi and Ding have been underperforming in Kolkata so far, and the fifth round Ian’s troubles continued. The Chinese GM was slowly outmaneuvering him in a typical Rui Lopez middle game, but the outcome was still unclear until Nepo just left his rook hanging. Another Ruy Lopez brought So and Vidit to a queen endgame where the former was looking for the opportunities to play for a win, and the latter was defending. Eventually, Vidit lost the track of the game and threw in the towel. Round 6 In Round 6, Carlsen faced off against Indian wildcard Vidit Gujrathi. Vidit surprised chess fans by winning a pawn early on and then spent most of the game pressing for a win. However, Carlsen defended his position precisely and held on for a draw. With four victories and two draws so far, the World Champion sits comfortably on top of the leaderboard with 10 points. The American grandmasters Wesley So and Hikaru Nakamura are tied for second place with 7 points each. After a slow start on the first day, So turned in a fine performance today by defeating Ding and Vidit and drawing with Nepomniachtchi. Nakamura managed to rebound from his Round 4 loss by drawing with Anand in Round 5 and defeating Harikrishna in round 6. With one more day of rapid chess and two days of blitz to go, the tournament is still very much up for grabs. Standings after 6 rounds: Photo: Lennart Ootes (Grand Chess Tour) Official site
Tata Steel Rapid & Blitz: Carlsen takes the lead
The seventh leg of the 2019 Grand Chess Tour regular season kicked off today at the National Library in Kolkata, India. Over five days (November 22-26), eight of the world’s top chess players including the reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen plus two local wildcards Vidit Santosh Gujrathi and Pentala Harikrishna will compete in rapid and blitz chess for a prize fund of $150,000. The first day featured three rounds of rapid chess in which players each receive 25 minutes plus a 10-second delay. After an eventful first day, Magnus Carlsen emerged as the sole leader by scoring two impressive victories. Round 1 Anish Giri grabbed the lead right from the start repeating the scenario of the Grand Chess Tour event in Bucharest. In the first game, he defeated Ian Nepomniachtchi with Black. Russian GM was slightly better in the Catalan, but made a terrible mistake with 28.Qxa1?? completely forgetting about a dangerous black e-pawn. After 28…Qe6 White had to give up a knight to stop the pawn and was completely lost after that. All other Round 1 games were drawn. There were two more Catalan Openings – Harikrishna never got anything substantial against his compatriot Vidit, whereas Ding Liren had some pressure versus Anand, but seemingly wasn’t in a mood for a big fight. Aronian tried to surprise Nakamura with quite a rare line in Italian Game, but the American GM was clearly unimpressed and equalized with ease. All eyes in Round 1 were on the rematch of the Fischer Random Championship final between Wesley So and Magnus Carlsen. In one of the sharpest lines of Najdorf (6.h3), Carlsen had some counterplay on the queenside but apparently blundered a pawn with 22…Bb6. Despite being a pawn up though, So never had a real chance to score a full point. With all the pawns on the same side of the board, Carlsen held him for a draw. Round 2 Carlsen played with his “classical games’ Nemesis” Nepomniachtchi and proved that in rapid he was a better player today. World Champion avoided major theory lines in the Sicilian but grabbed an opening advantage with the maneuver Nf3-d2-b3-a5 anyway. He denied his opponent of any counterplay and created an extremely strong passed pawn on the Queen’s side. Nepomniachtchi tried to escape but to no avail. Anand also scored a victory in Round 2 and joined the leaders. In classical Ruy Lopez Anand used the a-file to penetrate into Wesley So’s camp, but Fischer Random Champion was OK until he missed a nice geometrical knight maneuver. Anand won a pawn, but not a game as Black still had good chances for a draw. At some moment So had an easy escape but missed that he could go for a pawn ending. Now he needed to find some precise moves to hold the game but with time ticking down he didn’t manage to do it. Anand won a second pawn and the game. Giri didn’t have a real chance to retain a sole lead – his game with Aronian was an uneventful draw. Harikrishna had White second time in a row and this time he was close to his first victory. After he won a central pawn, Ding Liren’s position looked just lost, but somehow the Chinese GM activated his queen to regain a pawn and then this very queen ran all the way back to d8 to stop White’s passer. Probably the Indian wild-card missed some opportunities, but Ding’s creative defense is highly commendable anyway. The most double-edged game was the encounter Vidit – Nakamura. Once again, Catalan Opening was played where Vidit had some chances to grab the initiative. He missed several active moves though and at the very end, Nakamura even had a chance to play for a win with a computer move 40…Qd2!, but opted for an immediate draw. Round 3 After two losses, Nepo got into the beast mode, and Anand became a victim. In the English opening, Nepomniachtchi planted his knight on f5 and then went for a breakthrough in the center. After a careless 17…Rfe8? Ian found a simple combination that forced Anand to resign on move 22. In the central game of the round, Aronian and Carlsen fought in the Najdorf Sicilian with the opposite-side castling. Around move 25 Grand Chess Tour Bucharest winner missed a strong continuation, and it was all Carlsen after that. Fist, Black’s queen found a way into White’s fortifications and then a timely piece sacrifice left Aronian in dire straits. Levon defended stubbornly to bring the game to the ending with two light pieces against a rook, but Black’s extra pawns turned to be a decisive factor. In a completely winning position, Carlsen misplaced his rook on g7, thus allowing Aronian to save a half-point with an easy 49.Nf4+! but Levon also missed this move and soon resigned. Even more improbable miss decided the result of the encounter Ding Liren – Vidit. The world #3 from China was pressing the whole game and came very close to converting his advantage in the middle game. Vidit was defending really well and finally reached a drawish rook ending. He was the first to make a mistake there allowing the white king to invade the queenside where his Majesty took Black’s last pawn. With mere seconds on his clock, Vidit continued what looked like hopeless resistance and somehow saved a draw after Ding made an unbelievable blunder in a well-known position with 79.a7+?? As a result, the game ended with a stalemate. Playing versus Giri, Nakamura sacrificed a pawn to ruin Black’s pawn structure on the Queen’s side in the endgame. Giri’s position was unpleasant but not hopeless by any means, but he clearly underestimated the danger and soon found himself in big trouble. Nakamura was ruthless demonstrating an excellent endgame technique. So was pushing for a win against Harikrishna but Indian GM managed to defend all his weak pawns with two bishops and the game ended peacefully. Standings after Round 3: Photo: Lennart Ootes (Grand Chess Tour) Official site
2024 World Chess Olympiad Bidding Procedure announcement
FIDE is hereby opening a bidding procedure for the 2024 Chess Olympiad in connection with a bid for the FIDE Women’s World Cup 2022 and the FIDE World Cup 2023. Any federation member of FIDE or any Organiser approved by a national federation may apply for the organisation of the Chess Olympiad. Applicants are invited to read the FIDE Chess Olympiad 2024 Regulations and to follow the requirements described in Chapter 7. Bids are to be sent to the FIDE Secretariat to office@fide.com Deadline is May 1st 2020. Regulations for the FIDE Chess Olympiad 2024 Regulations for the FIDE World Cup 2023 Regulations for the FIDE Women’s World Cup 2022
World Senior Championship is on the home stretch
With just three rounds to go, the World Senior Chess Championship in Bucharest, Romania, is on the home stretch. This year all four veteran tournaments (Open 50+, Men 65+, Women 50+ and Women 65+) can boast of very strong lineups. The main reason behind this impressive turnout is FIDE’s decisions to increase prize funds and cancel fees for the participants. Kiril Georgiev, a well-known Bulgarian GM playing under the banner of Northern Macedonia tops the rating list in Open 50+. The semifinalist of the World Blitz Championship 1988 (he beat Garry Kasparov on the way) hasn’t suffered a single defeat yet, but with 6 points out of 8, he is just tied for the third. The top two lines in the standings are occupied by a “young” (only 50!) grandmaster Vadim Shishkin from Ukraine (7 out of 8) and Vladislav Nevednichy from Romania (6.5 out of 8). In the ninth round, Shishkin is facing Georgiev whereas Nevednichy takes on the commentator at the FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk Alex Yermolinsky with black. Vadim Shishkin Even more famous grandmaster is the rating-favorite in the Open 65+ section. A legend of Soviet Chess, USSR champion of 1989 Rafael Vaganian is the only player with rating 2500+ among the participants. Vaganian has 6 points under his belt but it will be very hard for him to win the title – in the seventh round, the Armenian GM was defeated by an Italian lawyer and grandmaster Carlos Garcia Palermo. The Italian is holding the top spot (7 out of 8), with several grandmasters, including the Russians Evgeny Sveshnikov and Yuri Balashov, trailing by a half-point. Carlos Garcia Palermo Women’s events have been attracting the best of the best even before the measures taken by FIDE and this championship is no exception. There are five Russian players in top-10 of the Women 50 section with Tatiana Bogumil leading the field (6.5 points) in the Women 50+. Elvira Berend from Luxemburg (she used to play for Kazakhstan under the last name Sakhatova) is a half-point behind. Two excellent blitz players Galina Strutinskaya (Moscow, Russia) and Nina Sirotkina (St-Petersburg, Russia) are tied for the third place. Tatiana Bogumil Nona Gaprindashvili, the fifth World Champion (1962-1978), is playing in Women 65 section and as usual, enjoys a lot of attention from the audience and journalists. Although the six-time winner of this event is going to celebrate her 80th anniversary in 18 months, she keeps a very high level of play. Sadly, in several games, some deep master plans by the great champion were wrecked by unfortunate blunders. With 5.5 out of 8, Gaprindashvili and Elena Fatalibekova are a half-point behind the leader, Brigitte Burchardt from Germany. Nona Gaprindashvili The championships in all four categories will conclude on Saturday. FIDE.com will follow the tournament progress. Photo: Mark Livshitz Official site Update – Key results of the 9th round: Shishkin – Georgiev: 1-0Yermolinsky – Nevednichy: ½-½Garcia Palermo – Van Riemsdijk: ½-½Sirotkina – Bogumil: ½-½Berend – Wagner-Michel: 1-0Sorokina – Burchardt: 1-0Dotan – Gaprindashvili: 0-1Fatalibekova – Bijunlkham: 1-0