Dominican Championship: Gian Carlo Arvelo claim title
Gian Carlo Arvelo and Raydily Rosario Almánzar are new chess champions of the Dominican Republic. The Open and Women’s Championships, Swiss tournaments with classical time control, were held from February 18 to March 06 (with a long break from February 20-25 in the open competition). The 18th rated Gian Carlo Arvelo produced a major sensation by winning the open event with an excellent result 9/11. The champion completed the tournament unbeaten, finishing with three straight victories and picking up 91 rating points. Gian Carlo qualified for the national team and will represent his country at Chess Olympiad 2022. “This day is very special for me because I become the National Chess Champion of the Dominican Republic. To be the number 1 in whatever is not an easy task; it is a dream that many cannot achieve, and today I could,” said the happy champion. The rating favourites FM Carlos Paul Abreu and IM Jose Lisandro Muñoz netted 8½/11 each and tied for second place. Silver went to Carlos Paul thanks to slightly better Buchholz over Jose Lisandro, who had to settle for bronze. Final standings: 1 FM Arvelo, Gian Carlo 9 2 FM Abreu, Carlos Paul 8½ 3 IM Munoz, Jose Lisandro 8½ 4 FM Guzman, Christopher 8 5 FM Hernandez Sanchez, Elvis 7½ 6 Mendez Ramirez, Victor 7 7 CM Crispin Ferreras, Darvi Abraham 7 8 IM Dominguez, Jose Manuel 6½ 9 Mesa Cruz, Juan Carlos 6½ 10 Sanchez Castillo, Jose Rafael 6½ In the Women’s Championship, Raydily Rosario Almánzar (pictured below) tied for the first place with CM Jennifer María Almanzar. The two will lock horns in the match for the title in April. CM Doribel Muñoz Santana claimed bronze scoring 6/8, while the defending champion Patricia Evarista Castillo Pena did not make it to the podium and finished only 5th. Final standings: 1 Rosario Almanzar, Raydily 6½ 2 WCM Almanzar Vasquez, Jeniffer Maria 6½ 3 WCM Munoz Santana, Doribel 6 4 WFM Diaz Cesar, Wilsaida Pieranlly 5½ 5 WCM Castillo Pena, Patricia Evarista 5 6 Gonzalez Peguero, Mary Loly 5 7 Coronado Paulino, Karen Libell 5 8 WCM Villar Acevedo, Darlin Rocio 5 9 Sanchez Jaspez, Rosangel 4½ 10 Ramirez Luzon, Franchesca 4½ Photo: Federación Dominicana de Ajedrez Facebook page
Chess for Ukraine: FIDE announces series of fundraising events on Women’s Day
In light of the ongoing war in Ukraine, and under the roof of the Year of the Woman in Chess, the FIDE Commission for Women’s Chess had established a fundraiser for Ukrainian chess players and their families affected now by war. They have also reached out to a number of women chess players in Ukraine, well-known in our chess community, to provide them with help and support. You can read their letters and messages and make your donation in the fundraiser. Also, the FIDE Women’s Commission, in partnership with Chess24, has prepared a series of events on the Women’s Day to support Ukrainian chess players and their families. The main hosts of the Women’s Day special broadcast will be IM Jovanka Houska and IM Eva Repkova. The Chess for Ukraine 3 min arena tournament will start at 17:00 CET. The first of a series, this tournament is named after the World Champions Anna & Marija Muzychuk and Anna Ushenina. FIDE Commission for Women’s Chess and Chess24 joined forces in this fundraising event to help female chess players in Ukraine. Everyone can join. To do it, click here. In addition the arena tournament, the team competition is planned at 20:00 CET. FIDE will have its own team represented by WGN Dana Reizniece-Ozola (FIDE Managing Director), GM Zhu Chen (FIDE Treasurer), WIM Salomeja Zaksaite (Chair of FIDE Fair Play Commission) and WGM Martha Fierro (Chair of Commission for Women’s Chess in Americas). The schedule of the events is the following: Time (CET) Event 16:45 The start of the Women’s Day special broadcast Main hosts: IM Jovanka Houska and IM Eva Repkova 17:00 Chess for Ukraine – “Women’s World Chess Champions Anna Ushenina and sisters Muzychuk” Two-hour arena tournament Time control: 3 min. 19:00 Talk with guests invited by FIDE/Play Magnus Group 20:00 Team competition Let us show our strong support for our Ukrainian chess players and their families by participating in these events and a fundraiser!
FIDE adopts simplified procedure for playing under FIDE flag
Dear players, In connection with the decision of the FIDE Council to provide a simplified procedure for performing under the FIDE flag for players representing Russia/Belarus, we herewith explain the details of the procedure: 1. For the transfer, a player should send a request to federations@fide.com with a copy of the identity document attached. In case of a minor player, a document certifying the identity of the player, as well as the identity of the legal representative, has to be attached. A copy of the request should be sent to the following e-mail addresses: dana.reizniece-ozola@fide.com and aleksandr.martynov@fide.com. 2. The right to play under the FIDE flag is granted until 31 May 2022. After this period, in the absence of other requests, the player will automatically be returned to the previous federation. 3. If a player wants to continue playing under the FIDE flag after 31 May 2022, he/she should submit a new request to FIDE after 1 May 2022. Such request will be considered in a due manner.
FIDE Grand Prix Belgrade: Round 5 Recap
Twists and turns in round five set a scene for a tense final day in the group stage of the FIDE Grand Prix Belgrade, organized by World Chess. Following a day of rest, 16 top-world players gathered in the “Atlantic-Pacific” playing hall of the Belgrade Crowne Plaza Hotel, for the final rounds of the group stage of the Grand Prix. With two more games to play before the knockout, the tension was high. Round five started at 3 PM CET time, and the first move was made by GM Aleksandar Colovic, ACP president and FIDE Fair Play Councillor, in the game between Sam Shankland and Dmitry Andreikin. Just half an hour later, at the same hotel, another chess event started – the “Belgrade 2022” GM tournament where ten strong players, from Serbia and abroad (including the likes of Parham Maghsoodloo, David Navara, Nihal Sarin and world rapid champion Nodirbek Abdusattorov), are taking part. Here are the results from each pool of the second leg of the Grand Swiss, taking place in Belgrade, Serbia. Pool A: The derby of Pool A, between leaders Sam Shankland and Dmitry Andreikin ended in a draw. With just over an hour of play, this was the first game to finish. In the Janowski variation of the Queen’s Gambit, Shankland got caught out in the opening by Andreikin. White played 9.Bh4 instead of the more common line 9.Bf4 and by move 12 Black equalised. Following the exchange of queens, Andreikin had an isolated pawn but got his rooks lined up on the c-file and actively positioned his pieces. Overall it looked very solid for both sides. Following threefold repetition, a draw was agreed on move 24. Soon afterwards, the second game of Pool A finished, where Etienne Bacrot and Alexander Grischuk decided to split point. In the Ruy Lopez with 6.d3 White achieved a position where he could have exerted some pressure with 14.d4. Instead, Etienne played 14.c4, allowing Black to get a slight edge. After exchanging minor inaccuracies the opponents started repeating moves and agreed to call it a day. Shankland and Andreikin both have 3/5 and are the joint leaders of Pool A. Bacrot has to win against Andreikin and hope that Shankland loses to Grischuk in order to be the qualifier. Grischuk, however, has no chance to move to the next stage. Pool B: It was a day of draws in Pool B. Amin M. Tabatabaei and Nikita Vitiugov played the Giuoco Piano. After a lot of slow manoeuvring in a roughly equal position, Tabatabaei ventured upon d3-d4, allowing Black to activate his knight and start posing problems for White. At first glance, Vitiugov had some advantage in the endgame but Amin had sufficient defensive resources to hold his ground. In the post-game analysis, both players agreed that “the draw was a fair result”. Anish Giri got out of the Ragozin with a better position against Pentala Harikrishna but then hastily played 17.Ne5, allowing Black to equalise. While this move is in line with the ideas of the opening, the concrete variations did not favour White. Harikrishna seized the opportunity and played 17…c5, opening the position and creating a protected c4-passer. Giri timely carried out a standard e3-e4 breakthrough in the centre to weaken Black’s c4 pawn. Pentala still had some edge but after he grabbed the a3-pawn further exchanges became inevitable and the two agreed to split a point on move 31. The clear leader in this group is Anish Giri with 3.5/5 and he is followed by Nikita Vitiugov on 2.5 points, while the other two players are out. In the final round of the group stage, Vitiugov is White against Giri and he will have to win in order to stand chances to move on to the next phase of the tournament. Pool C: Alexei Shirov defeated Vladimir Fedoseev in the Sveshnikov System of the Sicilian. This is his first victory in five rounds. Black got a very promising position after planting his bishop on d3 but then launched a somewhat hasty attack on the kingside which proved to be without venom. Shirov – in his style – played bravely. As Black was mounting pressure on White’s king which looked dangerous but was in fact not really threatening thanks to an excellent defensive manoeuvre Nd5-e3, Shirov advanced his pawns down the d-file opening the a1-h8 diagonal and penetrated with his rook to the seventh rank. White’s arguments were much stronger, and although Shirov made an inaccuracy on move 29, he quickly converted his advantage into a full point. In an insightful post-game commentary, Shirov gave an in-depth analysis of the game from the first move. Despite not standing chances to move to the next stage, Shirov said that he was happy he managed to beat “one of the youngsters”. Vidit Santosh Gujrathi lost as White to Richard Rapport. In the French Defence, Rapport got control of the White squares but fell behind in development. Gujrathi didn’t manage to use this temporary advantage, allowing Black’s strategical long-lasting pluses to come to the fore. Rapport got a firm grip over the game, both threatening the white king and having control on the queenside. By move 43 Black had a three-pawn advantage and Gujrathi’s capitulation became just a question of time. The Indian GM resigned on move 61. With 3.5/5 Rapport is the clear favourite to qualify for the next stage. The only one who could catch up with him is Gujrathi (2.5/5) providing that he defeats Fedoseev as Black and that the Hungarian loses to Shirov as White. Seems it’s too much to hope for, but Caissa can be both generous and cruel. Pool D: A strange game transpired on the board where Alexandr Predke was playing as White against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. This was one of the last games to finish in the fifth round. In the Giuoco Piano White came out of the opening slightly better. However, Predke handed the advantage to Black with 20.Re4 but Mamedyarov did not find the best response – he played 20…d5 and the position was even again. In the subsequent play Mamedyarov emerged a pawn up but White had compensation as his opponent’s
Second season of FIDE Chessable Academy starts on Chessable Classroom
The FIDE Chessable Academy, the initiative of Chessable, the world’s leading chess E-learning platform, in partnership with FIDE, resumed on Saturday, 5 March 2022. The FIDE Trainers’ Commission (TRG) initially implemented a three-year junior educational program in summer 2021, when 265 most talented and promising young players between the ages of 8 to 16, representing 100 national federations, attended the program from July till December 2021. The new semester will be held from March to May 2022. And it attracted even more talented young players. 415 participants from 88 countries will learn and improve their chess working with the strongest trainers, including grandmasters Mikhail Kobalia, R. B.Ramesh, Evgeniy Najer, Farrukh Amonatov, Yu Shaoteng, Mikhail Gurevich, Alexey Kuzmin, Nigel Short, Alonso Zapata, Ilya Smirin and many others.. The introductory classes were held today in 10 Groups in English, Russian and Spanish languages and featured FIDE Managing Director Dana Reizniece-Ozola, Chief Executive Officer of Chessable Geert van der Velde, FIDE Executive Director Victor Bologan and other officials. FIDE Managing Director Dana Reizniece-Ozola: “Let me welcome you on behalf of FIDE! The fact that you are here means that you are not only among the most talented children in your country, but also you have worked a lot. I am a chess player myself, and I know that there’s no easy way to the top of the mountain. You have to work very hard, that is why I respect you so much! I hope you will have a great experience here. Just remember that every regular boring day, you are preparing yourself for the one extraordinary one. And my special greetings to girls! Now we have the Year of the Woman in Chess in FIDE and we want to emphasize how smart female chess players are what a strong part of the chess community they are. I have a dream that one day it will be a lady sitting at the board at the World Chess Championship match! Try hard to make my dream come true!” Chief Executive Officer of Chessable Geert van der Velde: “I am really proud that we have over 400 kids this season joining from almost 90 different countries and federations. That is a really broad spectrum of kids joining this year. You guys are obviously some of the strongest players already. Some of you actually are grandmasters, but it is still fantastic. One of the things that we envisioned when we built the Chessable Classroom was to create a live video learning environment where people can gather around the chessboard. One of the nice things that this board is interactive; I hope you will have a lot of fun with it. This is the second season of the Chessable FIDE Academy. We are still working on improving the product every single time, so you might see some new features released over the next couple of months. If you have any ideas for us on how to improve our product, we are very happy to hear your suggestions.” FIDE Executive Director Victor Bologan: “We had very good successful in-person meetings with pupils from the first season in Dubai during the World Championship match. It was a great experience. I remember myself when I was a kid; for me, those meetings, lessons and seminars with grandmasters and world champions were very inspirational. So I hope that these lectures with famous trainers will also help you. That’s why FIDE is very happy to support these courses and thanks Chessable for this great opportunity. I think it is a very good synergy of knowledge, tools, experience and platform. From the FIDE’s side, we do have a very good interaction with almost 200 national chess federations in the world. It’s a huge scale, and I understand we have the best of the best. We are aiming for good attendance, so don’t miss classes, even if sometimes you feel it is boring. It will surely positively impact your performance and chess skills. Good luck to all of you!” During three months of training, a panel expert representing FIDE and Chessable will oversee the participants’ progress, provide assignments, and work together to evaluate the young talents. Students will also get access to numerous free chess learning materials from Chessable. The players, showing the best performance during the training, will have a chance to attend the offline training with top grandmasters. About Chessable Chessable is the world’s leading chess E-learning platform and the largest digital chess library in the world. Chessable’s mission is to make learning chess as fun and efficient as possible. It has published interactive video courses by a wide range of presenters and authors, including many of the world’s top players, such as current World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen. The company was co-founded in 2015 by David Kramaley and International Master John Bartholomew. Chessable’s team consists of expert content creators, scientists, developers and chess grandmasters all working together to create the best chess learning platform in the world.
FIDE Grand Prix Belgrade: Round 4 Recap
A day of draws in the FIDE Grand Prix Belgrade organized by World Chess as Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is the only one to score a victory, producing a first decisive game in Pool D The fourth round of the second leg of the FIDE Grand Prix was mostly calm as seven out of eight games ended in a draw. The only one to win was the World Blitz champion and seasoned top-class player, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (MVL), who scored an important victory in Pool D, breaking a three-round long cycle of draws in that group. In the overall results, Anish Giri is doing best with 3/5, leading Pool B, followed by five GMs on 2.5 points: Andreikin and Shankland (leaders in Pool A), Rapport and Gujrathi (leaders in Pool C) and MVL, who leads in Pool D. Pool A: The game between Dmitry Andreikin and Alexander Grischuk was the first to finish after an hour and 15 minutes of play. The two played a well-researched line in the Grunfeld Defence, and the game followed a familiar theoretical path leading to a draw. As Grischuk said – “Dmitry only checked if I knew the theory and it turns out I do”. Dmitry Andreikin noted that he was happy with a draw given the overall standings as he prepares for the key duel in the group – the Round 5 encounter with the other leader of Pool A, Sam Shankland. Alexander Grischuk was more direct: “I can now buy a [plane] ticket, as it’s guaranteed I won’t reach the playoffs”. In the other game in this group, Sam Shankland drew with Etienne Bacrot. White got a better position out of the opening but did not manage to coordinate his pieces and allowed Black to regroup. By move 14th White’s advantage melted. Then it was Etienne’s turn to misstep – his rook made a long voyage to b4, but it was just a waste of time. Sam achieved a virtually won position but failed to find 34.e5! He went for Black’s a-pawn, hoping to advance his a-runner, but Bacrot also had a pawn on c5, which played an important role in his defensive setup. In the end, the Frenchman gave up his knight for White’s a-runner to collect Shankland’s pawns on the kingside to secure a draw. Pool B: Nikita Vitiugov split a point with Pentala Harikrishna. In the Anti-Marshal, the two quickly achieved a balanced position. Although it was not without venom, neither side had any serious chances. Both opponents made very logical moves, and a draw came as a natural outcome. Amin M. Tabatabaei and Anish Giri drew their round four game as well. The Rossolimo attack of the Sicilian was played, and both sides wanted to force the other out of their preparation, but neither succeeded. After Black played 11…b5, Tabatabaei spent 15 minutes thinking about his response, but he didn’t manage to find anything sharp. Giri easily equalized, and the game moved towards calmer waters. After massive exchanges, the position transpired to a rook endgame, and the two agreed to split a point on the move 31. Pool C: Vladimir Fedoseev was eager to catch up with Richard Rapport, but the latter opted for a very solid Petroff Defense. The two followed a critical line in which the Hungarian introduced a novelty recommended by chess engines. After exchanges on the queenside, Vladimir managed to win a pawn, but Richard had two strong bishops as compensation. The position was even, and the two agreed to split a point on the move 42. Alexei Shirov and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi played the longest game of the round (five and a half hours) before deciding to call it even. In the Open Variation Ruy Lopez, the opponents tested a very old line first played by the fifth World Champion Max Euwe in a couple of games back in 1920. The encounter played more than a century later did not change the evaluation of the position as safe for Black. The opponents ended up in a roughly equal endgame in which Shirov tested the precision of his opponent but to no avail. The game was drawn on move 57. Pool D: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Yu Yangyi drew their game. In the Ragozin Defence, Black solved all the opening problems and reached equality. Things shifted after White’s move 21.Rb2, allowing Black to get an edge after seemingly illogical knight exchange on d4. However, Yu either missed or underestimated a very strong move 22…b5 creating a protected b5-passer. As played, White avoided the worst, and after mutual annihilation of the weak pawns, the opponents split a point on the move 30. The duel between Alexandr Predke and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was the first one to produce a decisive outcome in Pool D after four rounds. Vachier-Lagrave played a less common line in his trademarked Najdorf. In a sharp game where both players forced each other out of preparation, Predke was the first one to err, venturing upon a breakthrough in the center that did not work out for him. The following middlegame was a typical complicated Scicilan battle: Maxime allowed White to exert pressure on the e-file, aiming for the uncastled king, but at the same time, he had enough resources to launch a counter-attack on the queenside. It was all going Black’s way in this critical portion of the game as the Frenchman completely outplayed his opponent. On move 30 White had to give up an exchange, and the rest was a smooth sail for MVL. The Frenchman is now the leader of Group D. Round 5 Saturday is a rest day at the FIDE Grand Prix. Round five will be played on Sunday, 6th March, from 3 PM local (CET) time. The pairings for the fifth round are as follows: Pool A: Sam Shankland (2704) vs Dmitry Andreikin (2724)Etienne Bacrot (2635) vs Alexander Grischuk (2758) Pool B: Amin M. Tabatabaei (2623) vs Nikita Vitiugov (2726)Anish Giri (2771) vs Pentala Harikrishna (2716) Pool C: Alexei Shirov (2691) vs Vladimir Fedoseev (2704)Vidit Santosh Gujrathi
Salinas Herrera and Gomez Barrera win Chilean Championships
After one-year hiatus caused by the pandemic situation, the Chilean Chess Federation held National Championships 2022 from February 18-27 (open and women). Both tournaments were OTB 12-player round-robins with classical time control. The only GM in the open section Pablo Salinas Herrera crushed the competition – conceding his opponents only three draws and took gold with an excellent result 9½/11. It is his fourth national title. Hugo Lopez Silva turned in a good performance and finished just a half-point behind the champion. Cristian Vasquez Toledo came out third. Final standings: 1 GM Salinas Herrera Pablo Patricio 2517 9½ 2 Lopez Silva Hugo Andres 2407 9 3 Vasquez Toledo Cristian 2154 7½ 4 FM Olivares Olivares Claudio 2380 6½ 5 FM Donoso Diaz Sebastian 2212 6 6 Diaz Vasquez Martin 2253 6 7 FM Diaz Villagran Robert 2318 5½ 8 Barriga Silva Felipe 2162 5 9 FM Aguirre Contreras Cristian Rodrigo 2261 5 10 Bahamondes Ortiz Benjamin 2164 2½ The rating-favorite of the women’s section WIM Javiera Gomez Barrera emerged as the winner, netting 8/11. Monserrat Morales Flores completed tournament unbeaten but finished a full point behind the champion. Francisca Sanchez Tobar claimed bronze and became the only player to defeat Gomez Barrera. 1 WIM Gomez Barrera Javiera Belen 2199 8 2 WCM Morales Flores Monserrat 1943 7 3 WCM Sanchez Tobar Francisca Valentina 1837 6 4 WFM Toro Pradenas Maria Jose 1979 5½ 5 WCM Lemus Peña Macarena 1703 5 6 WFM Reyes Jara Paula 1880 5 7 Rozas Lazcano Valeska 1456 4½ 8 Luna Benalcazar Gianella 1736 4½ 9 Vildosola Canales Melany Selena 1645 4 10 WFM Fuentes Inzunza Lesly 1816 3½
FIDE Grand Prix Belgrade: Round 3 Recap
Pool C is the only group where both games had a decisive outcome, while the rest ended in a draw Richard Rapport stopped Vidit Gujrathi, and Vladimir Fedoseev delivered a blow to Alexei Shirov in Group C. All other games in the remaining three pools ended with a draw. The first move in today’s round was made by two chess legends – Alisa Maric (the former contender for the title of women’s world champion) and Nigel Short (who played Garry Kasparov in 1993 for the world chess crown). They made the first move in the game between Vladimir Fedoseev and Alexei Shirov. Pool A: Dmitry Andreikin made a draw against Sam Shankland. In the Grunfeld, the opponents followed a well-worn theoretical line in which White sacrifices a pawn and gets compensation for it, but hardly anything more. The only concern for Black was to ensure that White did not coordinate his bishop and queen along the diagonal a1-h8. As soon as Andreikin restored the material balance, the position became even. While Andreikin described it as “a boring game”, Sam Shankland said that “it was a little bit uncomfortable for Black”, but he didn’t see himself losing with enough time on the clock. In the post-game analysis, the two players discussed whether the small advantages computers evaluate in a very close position have a realistic potential to be materialized. Both players agreed that this is hardly ever the case and suggested that players at a lower level should be much more careful when looking at such evaluations in “tight” positions. “The computer is a useful tool to have, but if you’re not reasonably strong yourself and think for yourself, it’s entirely useless. You need to use your own brain, otherwise – you just become a monkey pressing buttons”, concluded Shankland. In terms of their overall play so far, Shankland noted that he has “more points than he deserves”, referencing two mistakes in the openings of the previous games. Andreikin said that “the first two rounds were OK” for him but that in the third round – he was tired. The game between Alexander Grischuk and Etienne Bacrot was the first to finish. The two made a quick draw in the Petrof. “This was a more solid game than we played in Berlin”, said Bacrot. Grischuk opted for a very tricky line, but Bacrot knew the right moves. White was slightly better after the opening and even won a pawn. However, the position didn’t offer anything substantial, and the two moved to an endgame with opposite-coloured bishops with mutual weaknesses. While Bacrot made three draws in three rounds, Grischuk only scored half a point. Asked how he feels about his performance so far, he said: “I made seven blunders so far… Better to make a draw than to lose”. When asked if he feels that he is getting into his “element”, Grischuk just said “no”. Pool B: Nikita Vitiugov and Amin M. Tabatabaei drew their game after 40 moves. The queens were quickly exchanged in the Carlsbad Variation of Queen’s Gambit, and the two sides moved to an endgame with a lot of positional manoeuvring. Black has a ruined pawn structure on the kingside in this line, but as tournament practice has demonstrated so far, it is really hard to exploit that. At some point, Nikita lost the thread and found himself in a slightly inferior position, but with no real weaknesses in his camp, he reached a draw by repetition with relative ease. One of the more exciting games of the day was played by Pentala Harikrishna and Anish Giri, who had a perfect winning score until this round. Despite ending in a draw, the game was full of sharp turns. In the Open Variation of Ruy Lopez, Harikrishna got a seemingly more promising position, threatening an attack on the Black king’s fortress. However, after White advanced his pawn from c3 to c4, Giri responded with a queen sacrifice: Pentala Harikrishna – Anish Giri 23…Qxf3, which was a straight way to force a draw. Harikrishna said that he was surprised by the move. Black got a rook and a bishop for a queen, but, more importantly, he had the perpetual check along the f-file, which Anish executed. Pool C: In Pool C, both games ended with a decisive outcome. Vladimir Fedoseev dominated Alexei Shirov in a rare line of the Slav. Before the game began, on first moves, Nigel Short suggested White should play the English opening, alluding to his country of origin. Fedoseev politely declined. Short later joked that if Fedoseev loses, it will be because he chose “the wrong opening”. However, that wasn’t the case as Fedoseev managed to create a very strong position against Shirov, surprising him in the opening. The opponent quickly found themselves in uncharted waters, and after Black’s 10…b5, White got a substantial edge making serious threats on the queenside and forcing Shirov to sacrifice an exchange. After grabbing an exchange, White opted to collect Black’s pawns on the queenside, allowing Shirov to move his king to safety and somewhat weaken the pressure. Feeling that in an ordinary course of events, Black will gradually go down, Shirov sacrificed a piece hoping to create some chances, but that only precipitated defeat. Following the move 23…Rb8 White was completely winning, even with his king uncastled and a passive rook on h1. On move 31 Shirov had to resign, facing an imminent checkmate. Richard Rapport scored an important victory over Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (who had won his previous two games). In the Carlsbad pawn structure that emerged from Nimzo-Indian, Rapport smoothly carried out a typical plan of building a strong pawn centre with f2-f3 followed by e3-e4. This plan – introduced by Steinitz and developed by Botvinnik – worked very well for White this time. With dominance in the center the Hungarian carefully regrouped his pieces for a decisive attack against which Gujrathi had no response. By move 28, it was all over for Black. Gujrathi almost made it to the time control but resigned on the move 40. Pool D: The last game of the
FIDE Chess Olympiad 2026 – Call for bids
1.1 FIDE is opening a bidding procedure to invite any federation member of FIDE or any organiser approved by the national federation to host the FIDE Chess Olympiad and FIDE Congress 2026 (see the Main Event Regulations, Competition for Players with Disabilities, and FIDE Congress). 1.2 The bid may contain special proposals on financial and commercial conditions. The FIDE Council shall decide whether these conditions are admissible. 1.3 The Bidding Form shall be filled in by an Applicant. A signed copy shall be submitted as e-mail messages to the FIDE Secretariat to office@fide.com from 3 March to 31 May 2022 by 23:59 Lausanne time (FIDE has a right to extend this deadline). All the documents shall be submitted in English. Additional documents may be requested by the FIDE General Strategy Commission (GSC) for further evaluation. 1.4 Bid Evaluation Report shall be presented by GSC for approval of FIDE Council. 1.5 Once the Organiser is granted the right to organise the event, a relevant announcement shall be made on the FIDE website.
FIDE-ISF World School Online Chess Cup 2022 postponed
By mutual decision, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) and the International School Sport Federation (ISF) announce that the FIDE-ISF World School Online Chess Cup 2022 has been postponed until further notice. New dates for this online event will be announced by FIDE and ISF at a later date, with registration remaining open.