FFE becomes a member of National Olympic and Sports Committee
Brigitte Henriques, President of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee, and Éloi Relange, President of the FFE On Monday, May 23, 2022, the French National Olympic Committee General Assembly took place in the presence of all the member federations, the president, Madame Brigitte Henriques, and the Minister of Sports and Olympic and Paralympic Games, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra. On this occasion, the president of the FFE, Éloi Relange, officially presented the request for affiliation of his federation to this organization, representing the French sports movement on the national territory and internationally. It rewards a long work of presentation of our discipline to all the actors of the sporting world before this general assembly and announces large-scale changes for its federation, its regional leagues and departmental committees and its clubs. “This additional recognition will allow access to all the sports systems (administrative and financial) which were not open to us until now, structural and logistical aid for our leagues and our committees, numerous training courses for our volunteers, etc.” Éloi Relange said. The French Chess Federation welcomes the trust placed in it by the French Olympic movement and thanks all the clubs and the volunteers who support them for this new collective success for our discipline.
Czech Championship: David Navara clinches 11th title
GM David Navara came out as a winner of the Czech Championship 2022. It is the eleventh national title in his distinguished career. The Czech Championship, a 9-round Swiss tournament with classical time control, took place from May 14-22, 2022, in Ústí nad Labem. The event brought together 48 best Czech players, including the rating favourite David Navara (pictured below) and the defending champion Vojtech Plat. Photo: Milan Nemec The tournament turned into a very close race, with several players battling for the title to the very end. Suffice it to say that after Round 7, the eventual champion was only second, a half-point behind IM Vojtech Zwadron, who led the field with an excellent score of 6/7. However, in Round 8, the leader suffered a defeat at the hands of Vlasitimil Babula (pictured below), while Navara beat Plat and shot ahead, coming into the final round a half-point ahead of Babula and Zwadron. Photo: Lenka Kusova In Round 9, Navara drew his game with Jiri Stocek and clinched the title, netting 7/9 as his main rivals did not manage to win – Babula drew with Tomas Kraus, while Jan Krejci took down Zwadron and tied for the second place. Vlastimil Babula claimed silver thanks to better Buchholz; Jan Krejci had to settle for bronze. FM Richard Stalmach (pictured below) won a special prize for the best junior player, scoring 5½/9 and finishing 12th. Photo: Milan Nemec Final standings: 1 GM Navara, David 2682 7 2 GM Babula, Vlastimil 2576 6½ 3 GM Krejčí, Jan 2520 6½ 4 IM Zwardoň, Vojtěch 2482 6 5 GM Štoček, Jiří 2533 6 6 GM Plát, Vojtěch 2547 6 7 IM Kraus, Tomáš 2472 6 8 GM Rašík, Vítězslav 2433 6 9 GM Hráček, Zbyněk 2570 5½ 10 IM Černoušek, Lukáš 2440 5½ Photo: Lenka Kusova and Milan Nemec Official website: sachyusti.cz/
Superbet Rapid & Blitz: Day 4 Recap
The first day of the Blitz portion of the Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland saw a drastic shift in the dynamic of the event. While former World Champion Vishy Anand maintained his lead and even extended it to 1.5 points, It was Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian who stole the show today. The former scored a whopping 8 out of possible 9 points while Aronian netted 7 in the same number of games. The two Americans dominated the rest of the field to move to a tie for third, two points behind Anand, and half a point behind the consistent Polish GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda. After a slow start, the Polish hero bagged three consecutive wins toward the end of the day and is now in second place. It surely was not a good day at the office for both Richard Rapport and Wesley So, but it would be a grave mistake to write these two players out of the tournament just yet. The spectators couldn’t hope for anything better than tons of excitement that kept their eyes glued to the gigantic screens! | Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Fabiano Caruana The American was undoubtedly the sensation of the day. After a disappointing performance in the rapid games, Caruana showed a magnificent form in the blitz. Not only did he go on scoring eight points but his games were an indication of strength rather than ‘a good day at the office’. After his great performance at The American Cup’s blitz event, GM Caruana is now the #3 player in the world ranking for Blitz rating, only .2 Elo shy from GM Levon Aronian with whom he is tied for 3rd. A feat he is dreaming of enhancing by another massive performance on tomorrow’s final day. Whether he will have the same form or not is to be seen but it is clear that Caruana is in hot pursuit to place at the top of the leader board tomorrow. Fabiano Caruana at the beginning of Day 1 of Blitz games | Photo courtesy of Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Levon Aronian Aronian’s performance in the Rapid part wasn’t that great either, although he finished a point ahead of Caruana. Nevertheless, after a good performance on the first part of the Grand Chess Tour in Romania, Aronian knew better than anyone that he needed a massive score to improve his position on the leader boards. His 7 out of 9 wins today were fantastic and he is now the #2 blitz player in the world. Tied for third and two points behind the leader is certainly a tough hill to climb, but it wouldn’t be that difficult should Aronian continue to play the way he played today. ‘I am just simply that good!’ Levon Aronian in a cheerful mode before the round along with Richard Rapport | Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Jan-Krzysztof Duda Jan-Krzysztof Duda’s story of the day is probably the biggest comeback in this event so far. After finishing in the third place in the Rapid portion, The Polish representative in the upcoming Candidates started the day with two disappointing back-to-back losses. However, the young local hero couldn’t simply let go of it this easily: After holding Caruana in one of his two only draws with Black pieces, Duda bagged 5 points out of the remaining 6 and ended the day on sole second in aggregate. Should he improve on his performance, Duda is a serious contender for the top spot going to the final day. One thing that can make things slightly better for Duda is the fact that he has White pieces against Anand, Caruana, and Aronian. Another good day at the office. Moving to sole second, GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda | Photo courtesy of Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Viswanathan Anand If you are the leader and you extend your lead after a tough day by half a point, you have still made progress. That is what Vishy Anand did and I am sure he takes it any other day. In fact, Anand did pretty well against his main rival. He even could consider himself a tad unlucky as he failed to win a winning rook ending against Richard Rapport, and undeservedly lost to Caruana in a game where Anand started making mistakes with a few seconds on his clock, something he could avoid much earlier in the game. However, what Anand needs is to come up with a plan for his games against the last four of his ‘trailing’ opponents. He only scored 2 out of possible 4 points against the bottom of the field while everyone else who is his direct competition did much better against the last four players in the standing. With three of his white pieces games being against Korobov, Shevchenko, and Wojtaszek, Anand’s strategy could be ‘staying solid against his main rivals while trying to make the most against the tailenders. No matter how the last day pans out for the “Tiger of Madras” it is great to see him in such good form during this entire event. Going to the last day as the favorite Anand is not going to settle for anything but his best to win the event! ‘I am here to stay.’ GM Vishy Anand maintains his lead and even extends it by half a point | Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Wesley So and Richard Rapport The two top-10 GMs did not have a good day at the office. After a disappointing event in Romania, the candidate participant, GM Richard Rapport had a phenomenal rapid portion scoring 13 out of eighteen points, beating GM Vishy Anand in the process. However, things were completely off for Rapport today. After losing his first game against Caruana, Rapport never made it back to the event and ended the event with a disappointing 3.5 out of 9 possible points. It surely dragged him down in the standings but he remains among the mix of the leaders’ thanks to his great performance
Giri tops leaderboard as Chessable Masters heads into KO stage
The all-star field in the Chessable Masters was cut in half today as a nervy climax to the $150,000 event’s prelim stage saw eight go through to the knockout. Anish Giri finished top of the leaderboard on 29 points and $7,250 earned, pipping World Champion and long-time Meltwater Champions Chess Tour rival Magnus Carlsen. Giri and Carlsen sailed into the quarters along with world no.2 Ding Liren and the Indian teen sensation Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, who both secured the points they needed early. It was left to the rest of the line-up to scramble for places. And the drama was plenty. In a crucial Round 14 game, Norway’s no.2 Aryan Tari faced Wei Yi. Wei, who led the leaderboard on first two days, hadn’t won a game since Round 8 while Tari was on a run of four straight wins and going for a fifth. But it was Tari who was on the defensive for most of it before he suddenly had a chance to win in the endgame. The 22-year-old went for the safe option of a draw, however. It could have proved costly – but it didn’t. Wei sealed his place on 24 points, but Tari still had more to do. Also through at this point was the Azerbaijan no.1 Shakrhiyar Mamedyarov who drew his first two games to progress safely. Going into the final round six players were safe, and four were still in with a shout of filling two spots. It was a straight shootout. Wins for Tari and Anton meant they would be safe, while Harikrishna and the Swede Nils Grandelius needed results to go their way. On paper it was Tari who had the toughest opponent in Giri, who was yet to lose a game in the tournament. After taking only a draw in the previous round the Norwegian badly needed a win. Luckily for Tari another contender for a quarter-final place, Pentala Harikrishna, quickly found himself in big trouble against the former US champ Sam Shankland and lost. Soon after Giri and Tari agreed their draw – a result which aided both of them and meant Tari was nearly through and Giri finished top of the leaderboard. Seconds later, Pragg ended Vidit Gujrathi’s hopes by beating his fellow Indian and rubbering-stamp Tari’s place. Tari said: “I feel really good, it means a lot for me to qualify.” Meanwhile, Jorden van Foreest blew his chance of beating David Anton to claim a quarter-final berth when the Dutchman fell for a nasty trick while right on the brink of victory. It was heart-breaking for van Foreest. Anton had looked like being eliminated, but the draw instead dumped van Foreest out. The Knockout starts at 18:00 CEST tomorrow. Carlsen will be the favourite when he faces Anton. Giri takes on Tari and the battle of two prodigies will see Pragg vs Wei and the last quarter final is Ding vs Mamedyarov. For further comments contact: Leon Watson leon@championschesstour.com About the Chessable Masters The eight-day Chessable Masters started on May 19 and coverage will focus on the study of chess openings. A prize pot of up to $150,000 is up for grabs and two qualifying spots for the next Tour Major. For the first stage of the event, all 16 players will compete in a round-robin with the top 8 progressing to a knockout. The final will be staged on May 25 and 26. The Chessable Masters is leg 4 of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. The overall Tour winner in November will be crowned the world’s best online chess player. Action will be broadcast live with commentary from chess24’s studio in Oslo via chess24.com’s YouTube and Twitch channels, also available at chess24.com/tour. Play begins at 18:00 CEST / 16:00 UTC. About the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour The Champions Chess Tour is the leading online chess Tour worldwide determining the world’s best chess player over a full competitive season of online chess. The 2022 season begins in February 2022 and features monthly tournaments culminating in a Final in November 2022. The best chess players in the world are competing in rapid chess. All games take place online on chess24.com with players competing for a total prize pool of over USD 1.5 million. For more information visit championschesstour.com. About Play Magnus Group Play Magnus Group is a global leader in the chess industry focused on providing premier digital experiences for millions of chess players and students. The company offers e-learning and entertainment services via its market leading brands: chess24, Chessable, iChess, New In Chess, Everyman Chess, Silver Knights, Aimchess, the Play Magnus App Suite, and the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. The Group’s mission is to grow chess to make the world a smarter place by encouraging more people to play, watch, study, and earn a living from chess. Play Magnus Group is listed on Euronext Growth Oslo under the ticker PMG. www.pmg.me
Mr. Sheripov announces his candidacy for FIDE President
On May 19, Inal Sheripov (Belgium) announced his intention to run for FIDE President. His ticket has already been officially submitted to the FIDE office, with supporting letters from the federations of Ukraine, Zambia, Sierra-Leone, Barbados, and Timor Leste. The ticket includes Lewis Ncube (Zambia), current President of the African Chess Confederation, as a Candidate for the position of FIDE Deputy President. Born in Grozni (USSR) in 1971, Sheripov made a career as a filmmaker, producer, and screenwriter, a field in which he has won several awards. Among others, he is twice the winner of the Lumiere Brothers Prize (Naples, Italy), as well as the Angel Film Awards (Monte Carlo, Monaco), and the Federico Fellini Award (Jakarta, Indonesia). In the late nineties, he moved to the USA and has resided in California and, more recently, in Belgium. An art collector, he has one of the largest collections of Belgian impressionist painters. There, in 2017, he founded, together with FIDE and the Belgian Art Institute, the International non-profit association “World Chess Culture” that he presides. World Chess Culture is currently involved in developing an interactive chess museum, which plans to open in 2024 for the 100th anniversary of the founding of FIDE. Sheripov learned to play chess at the age of 5 and became a member of the Grozny chess club. During the eighties, he won several championships of the Chechen-Ingush autonomous republic, and in 1988 he became the winner of a zonal championship of the USSR in the junior category. Even though his later career would take a different path, chess has always been part of his creative work, founding the theoretical movement “chess cinema”, which he defines as “a multilevel system of signs and symbols, which, through the semantic definition, creates language constructs”. “Throughout my professional career, I have remained in touch with the chess community and developed various initiatives aimed at strengthening the popularity of chess in our lives. As a member of the KSK Rochade Eupen-Kelmis Chess Club, I have managed to occasionally participate in chess tournaments whenever time allowed”. His rapid rating is 2290, and the last time he competed was at the Rapid Belgian Championship 2018, where he took 6th place. Since 2020, he has played under the Belgian flag. “I have assembled a team of experienced and dedicated chess enthusiasts and administrators who want to ensure the desired growth of our global chess community. I am sure that my experience in the film industry, combined with the individual and collective competencies of my team, will contribute greatly to the promotion of chess around the world and make FIDE more successful. I have therefore decided to stand for election as President of FIDE in Chennai, India, in August 2022”, reads the announcement distributed by Sheripov. “I am pleased that my friend, the renowned chess organizer, President of the African Chess Confederation, Lewis Ncube, is running as my Deputy President. His years of experience and talent as an organizer will certainly be a reliable support for all the plans that I would like to implement in FIDE”, it concludes. It is not the first time that Sheripov runs for an official position in chess. In 2019, he was a candidate for the ACP Board.
Chessable Masters: Anish Giri takes the lead
Magnus Carlsen played one of the worst possible opening moves and still secured his place in the Chessable Masters knockout on a day his Dutch rival Anish Giri powered into the lead. Giri, a beaten finalist in the $150,000 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour event two years, emerged from rounds 9 to 12 unbeaten with three wins and a draw to clinch his place in the next stage. Netherlands #1 Giri, playing from The Hague, said: “I came in today thinking everything was going to be great, and it turned out well so I’m lucky.” He will be joined in the last eight by Norway’s World Champion who went all-out attack to guarantee his place. Carlsen also entertained with a highly unorthodox opening idea – 1.h4. The champ started the day aiming to put his loss against Indian teen Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa firmly behind him and was at his super-sharp best as he demolished England’s Gawain Jones. Carlsen then crushed Vidit Gujrathi of India in a Round 10 game when his brave but brilliant move 25.f6! caught the eye. It also led to the champ overtaking caught Wei Yi, the leader over the first two days. Following a draw in the 11th, Carlsen was then in showboating mood as he played the bizarre first move 1.h4 against Wei Yi in Round 12. Carlsen admitted after that his choice was “not great”. In fact, it’s one of the worst opening moves possible! Wei seemed unperturbed, but didn’t take advantage and Carlsen went on to push hard for a win. Right at the end, however, Wei found a way to escape with a draw and save his blushes. It was Carlsen’s third bizarre opening choice on the Tour, having already played 1.f3 and 1.c3. Carlsen said the end was a surprise and his opponent “defended really well, to a certain point”. He added: “It was a bit of a disappointing way to end the day. I think if you’re going to play a rare first move, it’s no less important to be well prepared.” Carlsen said: “I felt like my play was a lot better today than it was yesterday and the day before. It’s still looking up.” Behind Giri and Carlsen, China’s new Ding Liren also virtually secured his place in the last eight with three wins and a draw. Tomorrow he faces Carlsen in a fascinating world #1 vs world #2 clash. Norway’s second strongest player Aryan Tari also had a storming day. The 22-year-old had looked dead and buried in the tournament after a disappointing first two days. Today Tari won three games in a row to haul his score up to 15 points and give himself a shot at making the Knockout. Tari said: “Today, I couldn’t be more happy with my play and everything just worked out.” Jones grabbed his first win of the event with a Round 10 win over “El Niño” David Antón, who suffered a slump after performing well on day 2. Play resumes at 18:00 CEST tomorrow with Rounds 13-15 before the Prelims end and the competition heads into the Knockout stage. For further comments contact: Leon Watson leon@championschesstour.com About the Chessable Masters The eight-day Chessable Masters started on May 19 and coverage will focus on the study of chess openings. A prize pot of up to $150,000 is up for grabs and two qualifying spots for the next Tour Major. For the first stage of the event, all 16 players will compete in a round-robin with the top 8 progressing to a knockout. The final will be staged on May 25 and 26. The Chessable Masters is leg 4 of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. The overall Tour winner in November will be crowned the world’s best online chess player. Action will be broadcast live with commentary from chess24’s studio in Oslo via chess24.com’s YouTube and Twitch channels, also available at chess24.com/tour. Play begins at 18:00 CEST / 16:00 UTC. About the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour The Champions Chess Tour is the leading online chess Tour worldwide determining the world’s best chess player over a full competitive season of online chess. The 2022 season begins in February 2022 and features monthly tournaments culminating in a Final in November 2022. The best chess players in the world are competing in rapid chess. All games take place online on chess24.com with players competing for a total prize pool of over USD 1.5 million. For more information visit championschesstour.com. About Play Magnus Group Play Magnus Group is a global leader in the chess industry focused on providing premier digital experiences for millions of chess players and students. The company offers e-learning and entertainment services via its market leading brands: chess24, Chessable, iChess, New In Chess, Everyman Chess, Silver Knights, Aimchess, the Play Magnus App Suite, and the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. The Group’s mission is to grow chess to make the world a smarter place by encouraging more people to play, watch, study, and earn a living from chess. Play Magnus Group is listed on Euronext Growth Oslo under the ticker PMG. www.pmg.me
Superbet Rapid & Blitz: Day 3 Recap
The rapid portion of Superbet Rapid and Blitz Poland came to an end with Vishy Anand winning the rapid section, though his two points lead was diminished to one after the Indian legend conceded his first loss in the last round to his closest rival GM Richard Rapport. Tomorrow will see the first round of blitz games, with nine games lined up to be played. With eighteen points up for grabs, it is safe to say that the top six players after the rapid portion have good chances to win the event. Round 7 Vishy Anand began the day with another victory in style. After a calm Scotch Game, Anand won pair of Bishop in exchange for a slightly inferior pawn structure. Anand demonstrated his trademark tactical wit and seized the initiative. Gavrilescu realized things are going wrong too late and Anand won the game in style, moving to a whopping 13/14 points. Such results may suffice in any other tournament to claim the Rapid portion but only if there is no Richard Rapport in it! The Hungarian GM posted his fifth consecutive victory after outplaying Polish GM Radek Wojtaszek from the White side of an offbeat Sicilian. With this result, it was apparent that the race for winning the rapid part over the next two days would be between Anand and Rapport. Richard Rapport showing his class | Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Levon Aronian did not display Houdini-like play this time as he made the most out of tactical errors of his opponent, Anton Korobov, who happened to have an off day at the office. Fabiano Caruana did not want to make a quick draw against Wesley So’s sound handling of the Italian Game and ended up being in a worse and close to losing position after taking a pawn at the cost of weakening his king. Wesley So had an advantage both on the clock and on the board but did not deliver the finishing punch on a number of occasions. Consequently, Caruana made the most out of his chances and gradually neutralized Black’s decisive attack into a manageable initiative. The players continued the game for sometimes but it was clear that a draw is bound to happen and such results were reached on move 92. Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Kirill Shevchenko pursued a well-known theoretical line in Chebanenko Variation of Slav Defense. Shevchenko appeared well prepared and he never had a problem in this game. Yet, under time pressure he had to concede to a Rook vs Rook and Bishop endgame where he needed to play another fifty moves to hold the game to a draw. In concentration mode – GM Kirill Shevchenko | Photo Courtesy of Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Round 8 The key battles of this round were between the leader Vishy Anand against Fabiano Caruana and Wesley So against Anand’s closest contender, Richard Rapport. Anand and Caruana entered a heavily theoretical battle in Petroff Defense, the very opening Caruana adapted as his ‘pet’ line against the world champion Magnus Carlsen in the 2018 world championship match. The player lashed out their first fifteen moves and then Anand went for 16.Bxd6. The game transposed to a game of Anand against the Chinese GM Yu Yangyi from 2019. Caruana played the best possible defense and that left Anand with no choice but to force a draw with a perpetual check. You know you are doing it right when a draw is somewhat disappointing. GM Vishy Anand in focus mode. | Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes While the Anand-Caruana game was somewhat uneventful, So-Rapport was a thrilling encounter. The Hungarian, once again, employed a sideline in King’s Indian defense and Wesley So responded in an aggressive fashion. The game was complicated but Wesley So blundered with 22.a4??, after which, Rapport demonstrated a great understanding of the position’s dynamic and brought the game to a winning point. But the reason we love this quicker time control is the drama and unpredictability. When 43…Bd7 was the only winning move Rapport threw the game with 43…Qe6?? After which Wesley So’s attack on the seventh rank was unstoppable. Rapport soon resigned and with this result, Vishy Anand secured the top spot with still one round to go. Go big or go home! Wesley So, seconds before his game against Richard Rapport | Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Speaking of drama, the two youngest GM’s in the tournament, Shevchenko and Gavrilescu provided the most fun and exciting moves in today’s head-to-head encounter. Shevchenko adapted the same King’s Indian attack that Rapport had employed the other day against Gavrilescu. Confident in his preparation, the young Romanian responded with the same setup. The choice proved fruitful as Gavrilescu achieved a winning position. Nevertheless, time pressure proved to be the decisive factor one more time. After the advantage went from hand to hand a couple of times Kirill Shevchenko showed his tactical accuracy with a few seconds on the clock and ultimately emerged victorious. Radek Wojtaszek demonstrated the reason why people are wary of the mainline of Najdorf Sicilian with his exemplary win over Anton Korobov. In a short-castle version of Najdorf Wojtaszek attacked White’s center before Korobov even manages to start any attack on the kingside. The Polish GM soon secured two pawns under his belt and went on to win the endgame with ease. The game between Levon Aronian and Jan-Krzysztof Duda could have been a draw at any point should the players wish to make one. In an opposite-color bishop middlegame, the opponnets refrained from solid ways to make a draw and entered a topsy-turvy bishop and rook endgame with a few minutes on the clock. Duda had an easier task and obtained a winning position after Aronian erred. But the local hero let go of it the first time until Aronian made a mistake again and this time the Pole’s a-pawn proved too strong and Duda scored a crucial victory to move into third place for
FIDE sponsors participation of African chess talents in Sharjah Championships 2022
In March of 2022, FIDE Zones 4.1, 4.2, and 4.5 held their Chess Championships 2022, and these tournaments were all financially supported by FIDE. One of the prizes stipulated in the invitation was that winners, once they met a certain rating level, would be eligible to participate in the Sharjah Masters/Challengers Chess Championships, UAE. WFM Luzia Pires and FM Calvin Klaasen | Photo: Adnane Nesla FIDE, via the PDC, is happy to announce that it will sponsor the airfare and accommodation for the following players, based on their exceptional performances, to take part in this event: Zone 4.1 FM Ilyass Msellek – Morocco Zone 4.5 FM Calvin Klaasen – South Africa Zone 4.5 WFM Luzia Pires – Angola Zone 4.2 Toritsemuwa Ofowino – Nigeria Zone 4.2 IM Mariano Ortega – Cape Verde. IM Mariano Ortega (pictured right) | Photo: Adnane Nesla This sponsorship forms part of the $100,000 allocations to each of the continents of Africa, America, Asia, and Europe in 2020, 2021, and 2022 respectively. Continents have primarily used these funds for chess development in the areas of tournament organization and participation, capacity building, chess in education, and other special projects. FIDE wishes the players the best of luck and remains committed to developing chess on the African Continent and all continents!
Superbet Rapid & Blitz: Day 2 Recap
The second day of Superbet Rapid and Blitz Poland did not disappoint the tournament fans as day 2 was filled with exciting games and rapid action. The day came to an end with GM Vishy Anand continuing to maintain his two-point lead going to the last day of the rapid portion. The player of the day was undoubtedly GM Richard Rapport, who won all of his games which allowed him to secure the sole second place on the leaderboard. Round 4 Fans were curious to see what GM Viswanathan (“Vishy”) Anand’s form would entail on day 2. After all, Rapid and Blitz chess play is known for its unpredictable dynamic, where the players have a hard time maintaining consistent form throughout an event. That, at least for now, is not the case for Vishy. The five-time World Champion opened the day with a win over young Ukrainian GM Kirill Shevchenko. After Shevchenko went astray in his opening play of Sveshnikov-Pelican, Anand demonstrated impeccable technical accuracy and won the game with ease. “I have it under control!” – Five-time World Champion and the leader of the event, Vishy Anand | Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes GM Richard Rapport played an off-beat setup of King’s Indian Attack against GM David Gavrilescu where the latter played the middlegame inaccurately and ended up with poorly placed minor pieces. This enabled Rapport to gradually build a kingside attack against which Gavrilescu did not find a proper response given the time pressure. The game ended with a typical king hunt in Rapport’s favor. The Polish Derby between Radek Wojtaszek and Jan-Krzysztof Duda was a tense one. Duda employed the Hippopotamus setup but the game transposed to some form of Ruy Lopez. A close battle ensued and when it seemed that the game might end in a draw, Wojtaszek made a final blunder in time pressure and Duda swiftly scored a full point. With this win, Duda moved in sole second behind Anand. Friends and compatriots. GM Radek Wojtaszek (left) against GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda (right) | Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes GM Anton Korobov did not gain anything out of his English Opening against GM Fabiano Caruana. The players tried a few plans here and there but a draw was in the cards for the most part of the game and the game ended in a draw with a perpetual check. GM Wesley So and GM Levon Aronian played a well-known line in Catalan Opening where the game simplifies into a balanced ending. Wesley So created some interesting imbalance by sacrificing an exchange and later balanced the material by winning two pawns. While it seemed that So was outplaying his experienced opponent, Aronian fought hard and took advantage of So’s last-minute miss to save another game to a draw. Wesley So, seconds before his game against Levon Aronian | Photo Courtesy of Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Round 5 All eyes were on the game between Levon Aronian and Vishy Anand in Round 5. Aronian chose 1.e4, something he has begun employing more often these days. A promise of a fighting game was hinted at when Anand refrained from the typical recapture 15…dxe5 for a more dynamic 15…Rxe5. However, Aronian blundered away the next move with 16.Nc4??. Anand is still in too good of a form to miss tactical shots like 16…Nxe4! followed by 17..Nxf2! Vishy subsequently went on to win the game against Aronian in only 24 moves! Houdini was not in the office this round and unfortunately, the blunder was too big to be remedied for Levon Aronian | Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Bryan Adams Jan-Krzysztof Duda has been in a good shape so far but he mysteriously erred from a White side of an Italian Game, where an abundance of theoretical knowledge already exists. Wesley So seized the initiative and while Duda’s responses were fine at times, he began making mistakes due to the difficult nature of the moves he had to make. Wesley So demonstrated a pleasant technical play at the end and eventually won the game. The Ukrainian Derby saw young Kirill Shevchenko in the driving seat right out of the opening. Anton Korbov’s responses did not appear to suffice but in a severe time pressure Shevchenko found it too difficult to deal with the position’s complex nature and bailed out into a slightly better ending with marginal winning chances, after which the game dully ended in a draw. Kirill Shevchenko is making the most of this unique experience at the Grand Chess Tour by playing the sharpest chess! | Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes The game between David Gavrilescu and Radek Wojtaszek was somewhat uneventful. The players seemed cautious after their start at the event and the game was a draw in a Knight endgame without any incident. This secured the first point for the young Gavrilescu at this event. The last game of the round was Richard Rapport’s win over Fabiano Caruana. In an off-beat line of French-Winawer where White is objectively better, Caruana spent too much time in search of a decisive advantage and ended up playing a good part of the game with less than a minute on the clock. The American also stubbornly turned down a draw by repetition in a couple of moments and once he missed a few resources of Black’s position, he was too short on time to save the game and Rapport converted his advantage with relative ease. This victory moved Rapport into second place and only three points behind the tournament leader, Vishy Anand. “Cool shirts and cool play” – Richard Rapport entertains the audience and spectators on and off the board | Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Round 6 In the last round of the day, the leader, Vishy Anand, saw himself facing the French Defense against the host’s favorite, Jan-Krzysztof Duda. The Indian legend went for the same Advanced Variation that he chose while playing against Anton Korobov in Round 3. This time a more
Superbet Rapid & Blitz: Day 1 Recap
The second leg of the Grand Chess Tour, Superbet Rapid and Blitz in Poland, kicked off yesterday, May 18th in the Museum of History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, Poland. The opening ceremony was kicked-off with a solo violin performance followed by a drawing of lots, where each player picked up his starting numbers (one for Rapid and the other for Blitz) by choosing two large demo pawns with either color. The day ended with an enthusiastic simultaneous exhibition in a relaxing environment where each player played the moves in tandem. The players at the Opening Ceremony of the Superbet Rapid and Blitz Poland | Photo courtesy of Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Round 1 The day couldn’t begin any better with four out of five games ending decisively. The first two decisive outcomes came shortly one after the other with GM Levon Aronian beating GM Fabiano Caruana in a heavyweight fight where Caruana’s opening plan went awry after he didn’t manage to put a dent into White’s well-structured center. Although the engines gave Black good enough chances the game was practically too hard to play and Caruana soon stumbled into a tactical error. The Romanian wildcard GM David Gavrilescu seemed to be off to a good start against the local hero GM Jan-Krzystof Duda. In a relatively uncommon line in the French defense, the Romanian underdog achieved a good setup but the position was difficult from a practical standpoint and its complexity proved too much to handle after Gavrilescu blundered an exchange a few moves after the existing theory of this line ended. The game quickly came to an end with Duda’s accurate play. French defense proved to work well for Candidate-participant GM Richard Rapport. After a risky line in advanced French the Ukrainian young talent, GM Kirill Shevchenko, essayed a sound piece sacrifice for the initiative. However, somewhere along the line Shevchenko overestimated his chances and did not redeem the sacrificed material, after which Rapport had no problem converting his advantage. It was a great treat for the chess fans to see GM Vishy Anand back at the Grand Chess Tour. The legendary five-time World Champion outplayed and got better of GM Radek Wojtaszek, a long-time member of Anand’s World Championship preparation team, in a complex Ruy Lopez. After the players went down some well-known opening labyrinths, Anand took control over the e-file before his opponent. The Polish champion had his chances in the ensuing battle but the practical difficulty proved too much to handle in time pressure and Anand emerged victorious by winning a piece. The round concluded with a draw between GM Wesley So and GM Anton Korobov where the latter showed great tenacity after ending up in a much worse position out of the opening. While low on time, Korobov found an intuitive exchange sacrifice that brought his a-pawn on the verge of promotion. Wesley So couldn’t improve his position despite material advantage and the game ended in a draw where White had to give perpetual checks. Jan-Krzystof Duda feels the weight of responsibility on his shoulders. For now, the Polish man is in a tie for second place | Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Round 2 The game between So and Anand was the defining point of this round and the entire day. Wesley So once again employed the same aggressive setup he had used twice in the past two events against GM Sam Sevian in The American Cup and the Superbet Classic of Grand Chess Tour against GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in Romania. Although Anand later said that he couldn’t exactly remember his preparation, he was prepared to face this setup. Wesley’s choice to castle queen-side proved dubious after Annad launched an attack immediately with simple sensible moves. After entering a much worse position, the current U.S. Chess Champion provided some resistance with a number of good defensive moves. However, the difficulty caused by having a weak king wasn’t going away and So finally succumbed to a blunder. The result moved Anand into a sole lead, as early as Round 2. Shevchenko’s Benko Gambit may be dubious in the eyes of the chess engines or hardly recommendable for a classical game but proved good for his game against Wojtaszek. While neither side had a substantial advantage at any point Wojtaszek ended up defending a Rook vs Rook and knight ending. The draw between GM’s Rapport and Aronian, however, had a completely different thing. Rapport responded with a non-theoretical slow play to Aronian’s Sicilian. The Hungarian’s pawn moves on the king-side were weakening but Aronian did not take advantage of them immediately. Once the center opened up, the game entered a topsy-turvy mode where Aronian blundered into a losing position. However, this turned out not to be the last blunder in the game as Rapport’s blunder a few moves later evened things out and players ended up exchanging their pieces into a position where neither side had sufficient material to play, and the game dully ended in a draw. Korobov didn’t gain much out of his opening against Gavrilescu, however, in the ensuing endgame, Korobov managed to outplay his young opponent and eventually won the double-rook ending when his opponent didn’t use his chances due to the time pressure. Caruana and Duda played an Exchange variation of Queen’s Gambit Declined, where Black gets the Bishop pair but concedes permanent damage to his pawn structure. Caruana’s positional play put Duda in a difficult spot and he subsequently sacrificed a piece for a couple of pawns and piece activity. Duda’s play was subpar and Caruana neutralized Black’s play but then it was Caruana’s turn to make inaccuracies under severe time pressure in the endgame. Once it began to feel that Duda had the worst behind him a couple of inaccuracies turned the table on Caruana’s table and this time the American did not let go of his advantage and converted comfortably. Age is just a number! Five-time World Champion Vishy Anand is in the lead