FIDE Women’s Grand Prix: Show-down in Cyprus
By IM Michael Rahal (Nicosia, Cyprus) The fourth and final event of the 2022-2023 Women’s Grand Prix Series will kick-off tomorrow afternoon in Cyprus. Along with the 15,000 euros first prize, there is much more at stake: the overall winner of the series will take home an extra 20,000 euros and the first two players in the final standings will achieve direct qualification to the 2023-2024 FIDE Women’s Candidates. Located in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, Cyprus is the third-largest and third-most populous island and one of the major tourist destinations in the Mediterranean. The capital Nicosia, with an estimated 115,000 habitants, has established itself as the island’s financial capital and its main international business centre. The event will be held under the auspices of the Cyprus Chess Federation and supported by the Limassol-based Freedom Finance Europe, the European subsidiary of Freedom Holding Corp. The tournament will be played at the Hilton Hotel in Cyprus’ capital, Nicosia. Featuring 12 ballrooms and state-of-the-art technology meeting rooms, totalling 1,800 square meters of space for events, the venue is a very suitable option for both leisure and business visitors. Spectators are welcome to attend and live GM online commentary will also be provided. Photo: hilton.com According to the rules of the series, twelve of the sixteen qualified players participate in each of the four WGP events feature. Due to withdrawals, there have been three replacements in Cyprus: Bella Khotenashvili and Gunay Mammadzada replace Anna and Mariya Muzychuk, while Oliwia Kiolbasa replaces Alina Kashlinskaya. Sorted by rating, the participants are: GM Goryachkina, Aleksandra FID 2571 GM Lagno, Kateryna FID 2558 GM Kosteniuk, Alexandra SUI 2535 GM Tan, Zhongyi CHN 2517 GM Dzagnidze, Nana GEO 2513 GM Dronavalli, Harika IND 2501 IM Shuvalova, Polina FID 2484 GM Khotenashvili, Bella GEO 2478 IM Assaubayeva, Bibisara KAZ 2464 IM Mammadzada, Gunay AZE 2449 IM Kiolbasa, Oliwia POL 2422 WGM Wagner, Dinara GER 2417 After three of the four events, Zhu Jiner currently leads the standings with a total score of 308 points. However, having already played her three events, she will not be scoring in Cyprus. With 160 points for a win in any event, several other players have a good chance catching her and even taking over, winning one of the two coveted spots for the Candidates. Goryachkina, Kosteniuk and Lagno are the three prime candidates to fight for these spots but mathematically even Assaubayeva and Dzagnidze should have an outside chance, based on a perfect performance. The first round is scheduled for tomorrow Tuesday, May 16th at 3 PM. This afternoon a press conference will take place at the venue with the presence of Arkady Dvorkovich (FIDE President), Criton Tornaritis (President of the Cyprus Chess Federation) and Timur Turlov (founder of Freedom Finance). The official opening ceremony will follow and the evening will end with the players and official technical meeting. About Freedom Finance Europe Freedom Finance Europe, a subsidiary of Freedom Holding Corp., is a leading European stockbroker. The company’s Freedom24 web and mobile app investment platform provides traders with direct access to 15 global stock exchanges, including NYSE, Nasdaq, LSE, Euronext and others. Freedom Finance Europe is licensed by Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) with the right to cater clients from EU and EEA countries. The company is rated “B/B” by S&P Global Ratings. Headquartered in Limassol, the company has tied agents and representative offices in Berlin, Madrid, Paris, Milan, Vienna, Warsaw, and Athens. More information: https://freedomfinance.eu
FIDE World Championships 2024: Call for bids
FIDE Events Commission would like to announce a call for bids for FIDE World Championships 2024. The deadline for bidders is July 14, 2023. There are 10 competitions: World Junior U20 Chess Championships 2024 World Senior Team Chess Championships 2024 World Senior Chess Championships 2024 World Youth U14, U16, U18 Championships 2024 World Amateur Chess Championships 2024 World School Chess Championships 2024 World Cadet & Youth Rapid & Blitz Championships 2024 World Cadet U8, U10, U12 Championships 2024 World U20 Junior Rapid & Blitz Championships 2024 World Schools Team Chess Championship 2024 Dear bidders, please pay attention: FIDE Events Commission has changed its approach to processing bidding applications. From now on, it is stricter and more formalized. More details about the procedure, including the Bidding Federations Responsibility, Bid Form and Bid Form Annex, Bid and Deposit Fees can be found HERE
Harker School and Ekpedeftiria Vassiliadi School win World School Teams Online Cup 2023
The FIDE – ISF World School Teams Online Chess Cup 2023, co-organized by the International Chess Federation (FIDE), the International School Sport Federation (ISF), and FIDE Online Arena, took place on May 6 and 7. The tournament showcased the remarkable talent and strategic prowess of 329 schoolchildren from around the globe, competing in the U-15 and U-18 category tournaments. On May 6, in the U-15 category tournament, 58 teams representing schools from 24 countries participated. The Harker School from the United States emerged as the champions with an impressive score of 35 points. The New Millennium School from Bahrain secured the second position with 30.5 points, while Doha Modern Indian School Doha from Qatar and the International School of Beijing from China both scored 30 points, but the Qatari school claimed third place based on superior tiebreaks. Complete results U15 Notably, the team results were calculated based on the four best results of the teams’ representatives in the tournament. The outstanding individual performances that contributed to their teams’ success were demonstrated by Dylan Tang from The Harker School and Haresh Kashyap from Doha Modern Indian School Doha, both scoring an impressive 10 points out of 11 games. Following closely, Rohan Rajaram from The Harker School, Le Nguyen Hoang Nhat Dinh from Nguyen Thai Binh Secondary School, and Aleksandrs Karasevics from Cantell School all scored 9.5 points. The following day, on May 7, the U-18 age category teams competed. A total of 29 teams from 17 countries participated in the event. Ekpedeftiria Vassiliadi School from Greece claimed the title with a score of 34.5 points, leaving no room for discussion. Indian School Muscat from Oman secured second place in the tournament with 29.5 points, closely followed by SMK Bukit Jambul from Malaysia with a score of 28.5 points. The High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China, BASIS Chandler from the United States, and SHSID from China took fourth, fifth, and sixth places, respectively. Complete results U18 In the individual standings, the representatives of the Ekpedeftiria Vassiliadi school team dominated the podium. Dimitrios Stoimenidis and Stefanos Magalakis both scored an impressive 9.5 points in 11 games, while Michail Karamichos trailed closely by half a point. Valentin Nicolas Unhold from Escuela Modelo de Bella Vista netted 8.5 points each and secured the fourth place, while Atharv Bansal from Indian School Muscat and Emils Janis Mierins from Riga Commerce School both scored 8 points, securing the fifth and sixth positions, respectively. As the FIDE – ISF World School Teams Online Chess Cup 2023 came to a close, the winners will soon be awarded valuable prizes carefully selected to help schoolchildren develop their chess skills. Among these prizes are unique chess sets signed by world-leading grandmasters, access to dozens of master classes by the strongest players in the world, and the grand prize – an individual online session with one of the most popular grandmasters, whose name will be revealed soon.
2023 Superbet Chess Classic: Day 6 Recap
All five games were drawn in Round 6 as Fabiano Caruana let Alireza Firouzja off the hook, missing a chance to increase his lead, while Wesley So stunningly repeated moves against Ding Liren in a nearly winning position. With three rounds left to play Caruana remains in clear first with 4.0/6, while Firouzja, So, and Rapport are all tied for second with 3.5. DEAC – GIRI | ½-½, 34 moves A positional line of the Najdorf saw Giri tank for more than 30 minutes out of the opening before uncorking the surprising novelty 11…a5. Deac responded naturally with 12.a4 and stood a bit better for most of the game, but without a clear way to play on he decided to repeat moves shortly before the first time control. Giri needed some serious time in the opening, but eventually found his footing. | Photo courtesy of Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes VACHIER-LAGRAVE – RAPPORT | ½-½, 34 moves A Winawer French developed into a heavy strategic battle, as Rapport castled queenside while Vachier-Lagrave put his king on d2. While it was MVL who had the space advantage, he couldn’t make much progress as Rapport’s pieces were placed optimally to create counterplay. Eventually Vachier-Lagrave tried a sharp winning attempt by abandoning his queenside in order to create a passed pawn on the kingside, but precise defense by Rapport allowed him to force a perpetual thanks to his active queen. After 18.Kd2, the position was tremendously complicated. Another draw for Rapport, who remains tied for second. | Photo courtesy of Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes CARUANA – FIROUZJA | ½-½, 45 moves In a symmetrical Grunfeld Caruana emerged with a clear plus in the middlegame, as most of his pieces were more active than their counterparts. As the players traded down into the endgame things didn’t get any easier for Firouzja, who was stuck passively in a rook and knight ending, with Caruana’s rook posted on the 7th rank. But on the 41st move Caruana let his entire advantage slip, allowing Firouzja to challenge White’s rook on the 7th and simply equalize immediately. Here 39.h4, followed by g3-g4-g5 would have posed serious problems for Black. Instead Caruana played 39.Nf7+ Kg8 40.Nd6 f5 41.Nc4?, which allowed 41…Rf7! helping Black to hold. A serious missed opportunity for Caruana, who had a chance to take a full-point lead. | Photo courtesy of Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes NEPOMNIACHTCHI – DUDA | ½-½, 36 moves Facing his own opening, the Petroff Defense, Nepomniachtchi played quite quickly out of the gate to put pressure on Duda, but couldn’t seem to get more than a symbolic advantage with the slightly more active pieces. Despite having a weak pawn on c6, Duda put pressure on White’s isolated d4-pawn in order to hold the balance, and eventually Nepo had nothing better to do than to repeat the position. Duda was under some difficulties today, but managed to hold. | Photo courtesy of Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes DING – SO | ½-½, 40 moves In what was the wildest game of the day, Ding played rather ambitiously in an English Opening, looking to claim a lot of space at the cost of his development. But So reacted quite energetically, blasting open the center while White’s king was still in the middle of the board. A highly tactical battle ensued which saw So sacrifice his queen for a rook and two pieces, but then to the shock of commentators he decided to repeat moves and force a draw in a position where he was clearly better. A miraculous escape for Ding, who was on the ropes early on. | Photo courtesy of Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes The 2023 Superbet Chess Classic continues Saturday, May 13, with tournament action live starting at 7:20 AM CT with Grandmaster commentators Yasser Seirawan, Var Akobian, Cristian Chirila and International Master Nazi Paikidze on grandchesstour.org and on the Saint Louis Chess Club’s YouTube and Twitch.tv channels. Text: IM Kostya Kavutskiy Photos: Courtesy of Grand Chess Tour and Spectrum Studios; Credits available on Flickr. Further Information:Web: GrandChessTour.org | Twitter: @GrandChessTourInstagram: @GrandChessTour | Facebook: @GrandChessTour#GrandChessTour#SuperbetChessClassic Venue: Grand Hotel Bucharest, Bucharest, RomaniaMay 6 – May 15, 2023 Press Contact:press@grandchesstour.org Livestream:GrandChessTour.org
Andras Adorjan (1950-2023)
FIDE is deeply saddened to hear of the passing of GM Andras Adorjan in his 74th year of age after a long and serious illness. Born Andras Jocha in 1950 (he adopted his mother’s maiden name Adorjan in 1968), Adorjan showed promise early on and, in 1969, became the European Junior Champion (Groningen). The same year he finished runner-up in the World Junior Chess Championship (Stockholm) to Anatoly Karpov. In 1970 he was awarded the IM title and three years later became GM after jointly winning the Hungarian championship. His second and only outright victory in the national championship came in 1984. Adorjan reached his peak in the late 1970s. At the Riga Interzonal (1979), he tied for third place with his compatriot Zoltán Ribli (winning two last games against Bent Larsen and Tony Miles) and qualified for the Candidates after drawing the tiebreaker match (+1 −1 =2). At the Candidates, he narrowly lost his quarter-final match to Robert Huebner. Andras had an excellent record in team competitions. He was a part of the legendary Hungarian team at the Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires (1978) that wrestled the gold medal from the Soviet team dominating this competition from 1952 to 1974. As a coach, Adorján worked with Garry Kasparov and Peter Leko helping them prepare for World Championship matches. Known as one of the leading experts in the Grünfeld Defence, he influenced Kasparov and Leko in playing this opening. In later years, Adorján concentrated on writing, becoming renowned for his series of books advocating the cause for black side – Black is OK, Black is Still OK, and Black is OK Forever. FIDE extends its sincere condolences to Andras Adorjan’s family, friends, and loved ones. Photo: Dutch National Archive
1st International Schools Chess Festival in Ploiesti, Romania, announced
ISCU and FIDE, together with the Romanian Chess Federation, Ploiesti municipality and Prahova County Council, Prahova Chess County Association and Romanian Education Ministry, invite schools to participate in the 1st edition of the International Schools Chess Festival. The event will take place from July 3-9 in the Culture Palace in the city of Ploiesti, Romania. Any FIDE member federation and any FIDE continental federation can register school teams for the competition. In addition, schools can directly register teams to participate. Each team representing a school shall consist of four players – 2 boys and 2 girls. Players must have FIDE ID and shall not have reached the age of 12 before January 1, 2023. The event schedule: 3 July Arrival Day 4 July 10:00 Captains meeting 4 July 15:00 Opening 4 July 15:30 Round I 5 July 10:00 Round 2 5 July 16:00 Round 3 6 July Various activities Free day 7 July 10:00 Round 4 7 July 16:00 Round 5 8 July 10:00 Round 6 8 July 16:00 Round 7 8 July 20:00 Closing ceremony 9 July Departure Day FIDE established a special award for the competition winner: 1st ranked team will be eligible for a travelling grant and accommodation at the World Schools Team Championship in Kazakhstan, 3-8 August 2023. Regulations for 1st International Schools Chess Festival Official website: https://iscu.info/ Photo: cjph.ro/
FIDE World Senior Team Championships 2023: Registration is open
FIDE and the Chess Federation of North Macedonia are happy to invite all FIDE member federations and eligible teams to participate in the World Senior Team Chess Championships 2023. The championships will be held in Struga (Ohrid Lake) from September 18 (arrival) to September 29 (departure), 2023. The event will be played in two categories: age 50+ and age 65+ with separate events for women. Every player must reach the required age in the year of competition. There will be separate Women’s Championship(s) if at least ten teams from at least two continents take part. Otherwise, the women’s teams will play in Open competition. The Championships are open tournaments for teams registered by their federations. FIDE member federations have the right to send as many teams as they wish. The Championships are played on 4 boards (4 board players + 1 optional reserve player) The top 3 teams from the last-year championship have personal right to participate. The deadline for the registration is July 31, 2023. Regulations and invitation letter (pdf) FIDE Senior Teams Championship official website will be launched by May 30: seniorteam2023.fide.com E-mail: seniorteam2023@fide.com
Inaugural World Rapid Team Championship: Registration open for all
We are pleased to announce that FIDE has entered into a partnership with the German company WR Group Holding GmbH to launch together a new major competition: the World Rapid Team Championship. The inaugural edition, a 12-round Swiss tournament played over three days under rapid time control, will take place in Düsseldorf from August 25 (arrival day) to August 28, 2023. The event, with a prize fund of €250,000, is open to clubs from all over the world. Create your own team from your club members, members of different federations or your favorite chess players. Each team shall be composed in accordance with the following requirements: A. At least six and not more than nine players, including at least: a. one female player,b. one player, other than the one indicated in the previous point, who never achieved FIDE Standard, Rapid or Blitz Rating of 2000 Elo points (or unrated) up to and including the April 2023 rating lists. B. A captain, who may also be one of the players. Registration is open until June 10, 2023, 12 pm Lausanne time. Each team shall apply for participation by filling out the registration form on the event’s official website. WR Group is a global provider of complex project logistics. WR also provides a range of services like certification, expediting, customs clearance, engineering and construction services. It currently has 12 offices in 8 countries. According to The Financial Times ranking, WR is the second fastest-growing logistics company in Europe in 2022. Apart from being the main sponsor for at least the 2023 and 2024 tournaments of this new event, WR Group Holding GmbH will become a commercial partner of FIDE in the organization of this championship, cooperating with FIDE in seeking and exploiting commercial opportunities connected with the event. Wadim Rosenstein, CEO of WR Group, said: “The World Open Team Championship has as its central aim the delivery of chess opportunities to people who may not ordinarily get a chance to play the “king’s game” in the world arena. Start by doing what is necessary, then do what is possible, and suddenly, you are doing the impossible. Our approach is unique in that no matter what your gender and federation, if you want to play chess there will be an opportunity to do so.” FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich expressed his satisfaction with excitement about this new event: “Team and rapid chess competitions are two of the most popular formats among players and chess fans. We strongly feel that an event like this would be an important addition to our portfolio of events. These teams are backed by their own sponsors and have their own fan base, so the championship is certain to increase fan engagement and, from the commercial standpoint, will be very appealing. We are excited to join forces with WR Group to make this happen.” Emil Sutovsky, FIDE’s CEO: “Chess is changing rapidly, as does the world. I see it important for FIDE not only to align with the processes, but to generate new ideas and formats. I am sure it’s going to be an exciting event. The unusual blend of top-notch professionals and club players foreseen by the format, will allow for a unique atmosphere and create a lifetime experience for many.” Regulations for FIDE World Rapid Team Championship Registration form: worldrapidteams.fide.com/registration Official website: worldrapidteams.fide.com/
FIDE Education Commission announces new “Preparation of Teachers” course
FIDE Chess in Education Commission is pleased to announce the dates of the new Preparation of Teachers course. Two courses are scheduled one straight after the other with different times so that people in different time zones get reasonable hours in one of the two courses. The courses will be held online in English from June 2-4 and June 9-11, 2023. The target audience is teachers, chess educators, beginner and advanced players who have a basic knowledge of chess and experience working with children. Based upon their exam results, the participants qualify for the FIDE title of School Instructor. Read the detailed course description below: cloud.fide.com/s/kEcf8892NCZpfPm Candidates who wish to attend the course must complete and return the following registration forms For 2-4 June 2023 attendance: cloud.fide.com/s/BSN9Co5NcsgJNcG For 9-11 June 2023 attendance: cloud.fide.com/s/5TdPEfp3semEEwS The cut-off date for applications is May 26. Applicants are accepted on a first-come, first-served basis, and the maximum number of places on each course is 20. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at edu.courses@fide.com
FIDE Circuit: Gukesh D regains the lead
Dommaraju Gukesh regained the lead in the FIDE Circuit race. The young prodigy from Chennai is now 6 points ahead of Levon Aronian following his solid performance at the TePe Sigeman, a strong round-robin that took place from May 4-10 in Malmo, Sweden. The event, an interesting mix of experienced grandmasters and young talents, saw a very close fight. This time around, experience won out in the end as Peter Svidler (pictured below) scored 4.5/7, finished clear first and jumped to 12th position in the FIDE Circuit leaderboard. Gukesh D, Nils Grandelius and Abhimanyu Mishra tied for second place and netted 12.22 FIDE Circuit points each. As a result, Gukesh returned to first place in the leaderboard while Grandelius continued his impressive run. After his triumph in Reykjavik last month, the Swedish GM did a great job in his home tournament and moved up to fifth position in the race. FIDE Circuit Race Top 10 as of May 11, 2023 You can find full current standings on worldchampionshipcycle.fide.com/ Photos: TePe Sigeman & Co tournament | David Llada