Round 03 Game 01: Magnus Carlsen on track to win
Fabiano Caruana returns to the competition after his win by forfeit Sunday, July 18th, 2021 – With the player field cut by more than a half, the venue is starting to look rather big in relation to the number of boards. The “weakest” players in the pairings tree are 2550+ and nearly all of the top dogs are still in contention. Wherever you look, 2650-2700+ players are walking around, in full concentration. An absolute pleasure to enjoy the presence of such fabulous players. The World Champion Magnus Carlsen is taking things very seriously: it’s clear that he has come here to win. The World Cup is one of the few events that Carlsen doesn’t yet have in his trophy case. This afternoon he made the first step to qualify for the fourth round by defeating his teammate Aryan Tari with the white pieces. Magnus Carlsen – Aryan Tari Tari was actually doing very well but low on time Aryan blundered 38…Bd4? 39.Rb5 a4? 40.Ne7+ and he had to resign because he was either losing a piece or on the bad side of an Anastasia mate (with Rh5). Instead of 38…Bd4, Tari could have played 38…a4 and although he is a pawn down, he might be able to hold the double rook ending. Everyone was happy to see Fabiano Caruana back on the stage after his win by forfeit in the second round. Although he was only able to get a draw (with Black against Rinat Jumabayev) he was relatively content with the result, having the White pieces tomorrow. Fabiano was kind enough to pop in for a brief interview in which he explained his thoughts on the game and confirmed that he was feeling great. Top-ten player Alexander Grischuk also made a huge step to qualify for the next round by defeating Argentina’s number one Alan Pichot with White. The intermediate move 17.Bf4! may have escaped Pichot’s attention but it left him in a very delicate position. Although Grischuk’s king had to make the walk to f3 he had everything under control and soon created a mating net which proved definitive. The top Russian player in the field explained his thoughts in a brief post-game interview. The all-Indian encounter between Santosh Vidit and Baskaran Adhiban also proved to be a fighting game. Adhiban was doing well in a King’s Indian until he blundered a pawn with 19…e4, maybe due to an oversight. Vidit played it safe and actively relocated his pieces, netting a second pawn and went on to win. Adhiban will have to go all-out tomorrow for a win but, as Vidit was quick to say in the postgame interview, “Adhiban goes all-out no matter the score”. Other important results this afternoon were: Dubov-Malakhov (1-0), Van Foreest-Piorun (0-1), Oparin-Karjakin (0-1), Vitiugov-Shirov (1-0) and the main surprise result Martirosyan-Mamedyarov (1-0) (the winner is pictured below) In the women’s group, the main favourite Aleksandra Goryachkina (pictured below) is still on 100% having defeated Olga Badelka with White. Today she played a solid Catalan opening, achieving a small positional plus after the opening. Later in the game she opened the a-file and penetrated into her opponent’s position with her heavy pieces, winning a pawn and converting in the endgame. Joining her on 100% is the older of the two very strong Muzychuk sisters, Anna. Today’s win over Pauline Guichard – with Black – gives her very good chances to qualify for the fourth round. She gave her thoughts on the game in a brief post-game interview. Other important results this afternoon include Kashlinskaya-Galliamova (1-0), Dzagnidze-Yip (0-1), Cramling-Kosteniuk (0-1), Gunina-Harika (1-0), Tan-Sebag (1-0) and Munguntuul-Lagno (0-1). All these players have the advantage going into the second game of the third round. Their opponents will have to win on-demand tomorrow in the Galaxy Centre in Sochi to force the tie-breaks. The general partner of the tournament Nornickel established a special prize – Platinum Crown – for the best games of Rounds 2, 3 and 4 at the FIDE World Cup and Women’s World Cup. Michal Krasenkow and Bibisara Assaubayeva were awarded Platinum Crown for the best game of Round 2. The games were selected by the jury – commentators Sergey Shipov, Evgenij Miroshnichenko, tournament director Mark Glukhovsky, and international arbiter Boris Postovsky. 57-year old Polish GM Michal Krasenkow beat Candidates tournament participant Kirill Alekseenko in a spectacular style. In the position on the diagram (see diagram below), he went for a rook sacrifice – 29.Rxh6! – eventually laying his hands on the Black king. 17-year-old Bibisara Assaubayeva developed great dynamics in the middlegame, based on careful calculation, crushing her compatriot and leader of Kazakhstani women’s list Zhansaya Abdumalik. Michal Krasenkow – Kirill Alekseenko Pairings of the second game of the third round, live games and PGN files can be found on the World Cup website alongside a great amount of other interesting information such as daily videos, a complete photo collection and other useful data. Text: Michael Rahal, FIDE Press Officer press@fide.com Photo: Eric Rosen and Anastasiia Korolkova About the tournament: Scheduled to take place from July 12th (Round 1) to August 6th (finals), the 2021 FIDE World Cup will gather together in Sochi (Russia) 309 of the world’s best chess players, with 206 of them playing in the Open World Cup (and 103 participants in the first-ever Women’s World Cup. The top two finishers in the tournament, aside from World Champion Magnus Carlsen who is also participating, will qualify for the 2022 Candidates Tournament, in addition to winning the 110.000 USD first prize (80.000 USD for the runner-up). Organisers: International Chess Federation (FIDE), Chess Federation of Russia, Russian Ministry of Sports, and Government of Krasnodar Krai. Partners: Gazprom – general partner Nornickel – general partner PhosAgro – general partner Chessable – event’s partner Aeroflot – CFR’s partner Educational centre “Sirius”
Round 02 tiebreaks: Chess Armageddon in Sochi
Dominguez, Firouzja and Maghsoodloo eliminated in the tiebreaks Most of the round two matches were decided yesterday in the classical games. Nonetheless, 60 players (44 in the open section and 16 in the women’s section) returned to the playing hall of the Galaxy Centre to fight it out over the board for a spot in the third round of the World Cup. The tiebreaks in this event are a nerve-racking issue, only suitable for the fittest players. Two rapid games – 25 minutes base time + 10 seconds increment – to start off with, followed by two more rapid games (10/10) and finally two blitz 5/3 games if there is no winner. The “Armageddon” decisive game format is left for the end: 5 minutes vs 4 on the clock but the draw favours the player who chooses Black. Two of the thirty matches ended up in the “sudden death” blitz match, one of the most exciting chess-related topics that has been seen in quite a while. In the open group, Bulgarian GM Ivan Cheparinov (2667) defeated German GM Rasmus Svane (2615) in the last game with the Black pieces, with both players blitzing out their last moves to avoid losing on time. The final 5-4 score (9 games!) just gives us an idea of what might come further down the line. In the women’s group, Spanish WGM Ana Matnadze (2421) lost a heart-breaking “Armageddon” blitz game against WGM Olga Badelka (2418) from Belarus, losing on time in a winning position and only two seconds left for her opponent. The total score of this match was also 5-4. After taking a well-deserved break, Ana found time to graciously give her thoughts in the post-game interview (in Spanish). However, the most amazing surprise of the round was GM Alireza Firouzja’s (2759) loss to 16-year-old GM Javokhir Sindarov (2558), from Uzbekistan. Four solid draws in the classical and 25-minute rapid games were followed by a very lively King’s Indian defence, in which Sindarov played a very nice positional pawn sacrifice with 22…f3! Followed by …Nh5-f4, taking over the initiative and eventually winning the decisive game. Representing France for the first time, the elimination of Firouzja is a huge blow for his fans from all over the world. The other big surprise was the early departure of former Cuban (now USA) GM Lenier Dominguez Perez (2758), rated number 13 in the world’s best player list. But rapid matches can go either way, and it was GM Jakhongir Vakhidov (2534, Uzbekistan) (pictured below) who will now face Pavel Ponkratov in the third round. The key moment of the first rapid game occurred on move twenty when Lenier, in a difficult position, tried to defend his knight with 20…Rd5 (instead 20…Nc6 gives up the exchange for a pawn but there is still a game). After 21.e4 Rb5 maybe Dominguez missed 22.a4! in his previous calculations, and he had to give up material in worse conditions. In a must-win situation, he over-pressed in his next game and Vakhidov ended the rapid match with a clear 2-0. However, the afternoon was going to bring us even more mishaps. Another huge upset was the defeat of Iran’s best player, GM Parham Maghsoodloo (2698) against 55-year old GM Kiril Georgiev (2594), rated more than 100 points behind. Both of the classic games ended in solid draws, which theoretically might have favoured Maghsoodloo, who won the León rapid two years ago. However, it was the veteran player who took down the first rapid game. Parham, with White, went for an interesting sacrifice with 27.Nxg7 but Georgiev defended tenaciously and the knight was eventually trapped. All tomorrow’s third-round matchups are very interesting but our suggestion is to keep an eye on the games between Norway’s one and two Magnus Carlsen and Aryan Tari, Daniil Dubov against Vladimir Malakhov (both from Russia) and the all-Indian match between Santosh Gujrathi Vidit and Baskaran Adhiban. One of the most exciting matches of the second round in the women’s group was the 4-game encounter between seventeen-year-old IM Carissa Yip (2430) from the USA, against the strong Ukrainian WGM Nataliya Buksa (2413). After tying 1-1 in the classical games, Carissa got the best of her opponent in the first rapid game. Even so, she had to bring all her defensive skills to play in the second rapid game, in which Buksa threw all her pieces against Yip’s king in an open Sicilian. Although White had enjoyed a much better position in the opening, the key moment was the blunder 32.e5? (instead, 32.Rxc8 Rxc8 33.Qd1 and the position is more or less equal) after which Yip won a piece with 32…Qxb5 and converted in good fashion. Yip will face experienced Georgian GM Nana Dzagnidze (2523) in the third round. Carissa shared her thoughts with us after the game in a brief interview. Top German female player WGM Elisabeth Paehtz (2466) (pictured below) also qualified for the third round, albeit not without difficulty. She had to resort to winning the blitz games against her opponent, Bulgaria WGM Nurgyul Salimova (2395), who proved to be very resourceful during the whole match. Even though she was visibly exhausted after the grueling match, Paehtz kindly gave us her thoughts on her performance. Several third-round encounters will prove to be tremendously exciting. Our bet would be to follow the all-Russian matchups between Alina Kashlinskaya and Alisa Galliamova – they have played some really amazing games recently -, and young guns Polina Shuvalova and Leya Garifullina. The other exciting match might be the Ukrainian battle between former World Champion Anna Ushenina and Mariya Muzychuk, who boasts a 2550 rating and is one of the favourites to win the tournament. Pairings of the third round, live games and PGN files can be found on the World Cup website alongside a great amount of other interesting information such as daily videos, a complete photo collection and other useful data. Text: Michael Rahal, FIDE Press Officer press@fide.com Photo: Eric Rosen and Anastasiia Korolkova About the tournament: Scheduled to take place from July 12th (Round 1) to August 6th (finals), the 2021 FIDE World Cup will gather together in Sochi (Russia) 309 of the world’s best chess players, with 206 of them playing in the Open World Cup (and 103 participants in the first-ever Women’s World Cup. The top two finishers in the tournament, aside from World Champion Magnus Carlsen who is also participating,
Round 2 Game 2: Fighting chess at the World Cup
Aronian withdraws from the second round due to health reasons Friday, July 16th, 2021 – The second game of round two at the World Cup began this afternoon with a huge absence: world’s number 5 player, GM Levon Aronian, decided to withdraw from the event due to health reasons. As a result, his opponent GM Bobby Cheng advanced directly to the third round. Aronian took to social media to explain his decision: Cheng was kind enough to pop-in to the press centre to give us his thoughts on the match with Aronian and his upcoming third-round encounter. At 3 pm sharp, Fight Night MMA promoter Kamil Gadzhiev played the first move for GM Magnus Carlsen on Board 1, clearly a prelude of what the round was eventually going to bring. Although some matches went to the tiebreak, most players came to the Galaxy Center with a clear idea in mind: fight until the end to seal the deal. The World Champion, who won the first game of the two yesterday with Black, displayed once again his fantastic technique grinding down his opponent in a tricky knight vs bishop endgame with an equal number of pawns. Although it was probably a draw at some point, these endings are generally quite tricky and GM Sasa Martinovic blundered first with 53…Bh6 (53…Kd7 giving up the pawn is a draw even a pawn down), and then 54…axb5? which is definitely losing. The computer holds the endgame with 54…Kd7 but it’s not easy at all for a human player. Carlsen will now face GM Aryan Tari in the third round, in a match between Norway’s top two players. One of the first games to finish was GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave’s win over GM Elshan Moradiabadi. As the first game ended in a draw, the world-class French player needed a win to advance to the next round. In a fine positional game, Maxime took advantage of a few small mistakes in his opponent’s set-up. After 13…Nb6 (instead of …Ne7) Moradiabadi was already under serious pressure, and the nice manoeuvre 15.Bf4! e5 16.Be3 secured the d5 square for White. A few moves later Black’s position crumbled. Maxime was kind enough to explain his thought process in a brief postgame interview. Other favourites to qualify directly to the third round are GM’s Fabiano Caruana, Alexander Grischuk (pictured below), Anish Giri and Sergei Karjakin, while top players Mamedyarov, Firouzja, or Lenier Dominguez among others will have to return tomorrow for the tie-breaks. In the women’s group, most of the rating favourites advanced to the third round by scoring an on-demand win today after their first game draw in the match. Pre-event top-seed GM Aleksandra Goryachkina (2596) scored a clear 2-0 against WGM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova and advanced to the third round, while second seed Kateryna Lagno (2558) also qualified by defeating WIM Teodora Injac by 1.5-0.5. Both of them will face strong +2400 opponents in their next games. Also qualifying to the third round was top-rated Russian GM Alina Kashlinskaya, who defeated Cuba’s IM Lisandra Ordaz in a fine positional game. It seemed that Ordaz, with Black, had equalised after the opening, but she lashed out with the thematic pawn-lever 13… c5? at the wrong moment. Kashlinskaya captured the d-pawn and went on to grind down her opponent in a technical ending with an extra exchange. In her post-game interview, Alina gave us her thoughts on the game and her upcoming third-round challenge with WGM Alisa Galliamova, who is also from Russia. One of the best games of the afternoon in the women’s group was played by GM Alexandra Kosteniuk who defeated her second-round opponent WGM Deysi Cori in a wonderful ending. Although an exchange down, Kosteniuk manoeuvred her two bishops and created a passed center pawn. Her opponent was powerless, unable to stop detain the advance of the pawn, while Kosteniuk used her bishops and active king to block the long-distance attacks by Cori’s lone rook. A great display of technique! Kosteniuk gave us her thoughts in the post-game interview. Unfortunately, both of the Indonesian players, Medina Warda Aulia and Irine Kharisma Sukandar, although feeling well and having had negative testing, decided to withdraw from the second round as a safety measure with regard to the rest of the players. As a result, their opponents, GM Harika Dronavalli from India and GM Valentina Gunina from Russia, also advanced directly to the third round. Pairings of the second round tiebreaks, to be played tomorrow afternoon, live games and PGN files can be found on the World Cup website alongside a great amount of other interesting information such as daily videos, a complete photo collection and other useful data. Text: Michael Rahal, FIDE Press Officer press@fide.com Photo: Eric Rosen and Anastasiia Korolkova About the tournament: Scheduled to take place from July 12th (Round 1) to August 6th (finals), the 2021 FIDE World Cup will gather together in Sochi (Russia) 309 of the world’s best chess players, with 206 of them playing in the Open World Cup (and 103 participants in the first-ever Women’s World Cup. The top two finishers in the tournament, aside from World Champion Magnus Carlsen who is also participating, will qualify for the 2022 Candidates Tournament, in addition to winning the 110.000 USD first prize (80.000 USD for the runner-up). Organisers: International Chess Federation (FIDE), Chess Federation of Russia, Russian Ministry of Sports, and Government of Krasnodar Krai. Partners: Gazprom – general partner Nornickel – general partner PhosAgro – general partner Chessable – event’s partner Aeroflot – CFR’s partner Educational centre “Sirius”
Chess.com acquires broadcast rights for major FIDE events through 2023
Chess.com is the first official broadcast partner of the Women’s World Chess Championship cycle and the 2022 Women’s World Chess Championship as part of a historic multi-year agreement with the International Chess Federation (FIDE). FIDE is hosting the first-ever Women’s World Cup with the best female players competing for a $676,250 prize fund. This agreement underscores Chess.com’s commitment towards growing, supporting, and strengthening strong chess talent within the female chess community. “We’re more excited than ever about highlighting the talent in top-level women’s chess,” said Chief Chess Officer Danny Rensch. “The Women’s Speed Chess Championship was awesome and featured the highest-ever prize fund for a women’s online competition, and we’re thrilled to partner with FIDE to help shed a spotlight on the biggest stages of women’s chess.” The agreement includes broadcast rights for all major FIDE events in which GMs Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, and other chess celebrities will compete head-to-head for prize pools in the millions of dollars. Confirmed guest commentators on Chess.com’s broadcasts of these events include five-time former world champion GM Viswanathan Anand, 2018 World Championship Challenger and world number two Fabiano Caruana, GM Robert Hess, and GM Daniel Naroditsky. The FIDE deal means that in addition to the Women’s World Championship, Chess.com’s broadcast coverage will include live player cams for the FIDE World Cup, the Chess Olympiad, the 2023 World Chess Championship, the World Rapid & Blitz Championships, and more. Chess.com had previously acquired the broadcast rights for the 2022 Candidates tournament and was the first company to acquire broadcast rights for the 2021 FIDE World Championship Match. These broadcasts will include streams in the French, German, Russian, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Polish, and Turkish languages. “FIDE is excited about this new agreement,” said FIDE Director-General Emil Sutovsky. “Its scope ensures a wider exposure for our official events, and in particular we are happy to partner with Chess.com to promote the best women chess players. It is the first time the rights for top women competitions are getting acquired, and we are genuinely proud that the vision championed by FIDE is getting shared by a major online platform. We spare no effort to constantly improve the coverage of our events, making it accessible for both hardcore chess fans and players who just discover the magic of the game. Our partnership with Chess.com will take this experience to a new height, and we are committed to making it distinctively special,” Sutovsky said. Chess.com has become the top global chess broadcaster through its channels on Chess.com/TV, Twitch, and YouTube. Earlier this year, Chess.com’s PogChamps influencer chess tournament reached 28 million live views among the highly coveted 18-34 advertiser demographic. The peak concurrent viewership in the chess category reached 375,000 making chess one of the Top 10 most popular games on Twitch during that time. “We have been, and continue to be, incredibly proud to support women’s chess in all ways,” said Austin Gasparini, Chess.com’s Director of Business Development. “From increasing the prize fund of this year’s 2021 FIDE Chess.com Women’s Speed Chess Championship to be the richest online women’s chess prize fund in history, to striking this historic deal with FIDE to cover all of the most critical women’s tournaments in professional chess, Chess.com is dedicated to growing the game for players and fans equally around the world. We look forward to innovating and investing in our chess coverage to maximize women’s visibility and participation in the sport in the coming years.” Chess.com has hired 5x sports Emmy award winner Alex Brewer as Director of Programming to support the growing popularity in chess entertainment. Formerly an associate manager at ESPN, Brewer’s career spanned content creation and production operations roles working on key company priorities such as ESPN+, College Gameday, and SportsCenter. Before his departure, he worked within ESPN’s Programming and Acquisitions group, specifically supporting original content creation for ESPN+ and 30 for 30 brands. At Chess.com, Brewer will oversee the day-to-day operations of chess programming and oversee the production of a wide range of events for a growing audience of fans worldwide. “My mission now shifts from a career in sports media to the amazing world of chess, where I will strive to support this great community with the best content and events possible.” About Chess.com Founded in 2005, Chess.com is the world’s largest chess site and leader in chess news, lessons, events, and entertainment. Nearly 10 million chess games are played on the site every day. Visit Chess.com to play, learn, and connect with chess—the world’s most popular game. Media Contact: Laura NystromPublic Relations Managerpress@chess.com
Severino and Mendoza win Asian Chess Championship for Players with Disabilities
FM Sander Severino and Cheyzer Crystal Mendoza, both of the Philippines, won the Asian Chess Championship for Players with Disabilities (Open and Women, respectively) held from 9-11 July on Tornelo platform. You can replay the games on https://live.followchess.com/#!asian-disabled-online-chp-2021. Sander Severino (pictured above) tied with compatriot Henry Lopez but took gold thanks to slightly better tiebreaks. Cheyzer Crystal Mendoza Mendoza finished clear first with 5 points in 5 rounds winning all her games. FIDE Disabled Commission Chairman GM Thomas Luther attended the event and complemented Asia for being the only Continent to hold championships for disabled players. Asian Chess Federation (ACF) General Secretary Hisham Al Taher pointed out that Asian Chess Federation signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the Asian Paralympic Committee and the ACF is coordinating the 2022 Asian Para Games chess which will be held in Hangzhou, China. Official website: asianchess.com/
Day 04: Magnus Carlsen debuts with a technical win
No big surprises in game one of the second round of the World Cup Thursday, July 15th, 2021 – Today’s round of the World Cup and the Women’s World Cup featured the arrival of all of the top-rated players, seeded directly into the second round of the competition, including the current World Champion Magnus Carlsen. Minutes before his debut, Carlsen received the 2020 Fair Play Svetozar Gligoric award, in recognition of an individual who, during the previous year, displayed exemplary behaviour that promotes the spirit of fair play and sportsmanship in chess. In the semi-finals of the 2020 online “Chessable Masters”, Magnus won a key game by the unfortunate disconnection of his opponent, Ding Liren. Carlsen demonstrated that “winning fair” was far more important to him than winning at any cost, therefore minutes later in the second game he gave up his queen and resigned after just four moves to restore parity in the match. Introduced by Laurent Freyd (Principal Tournament Arbiter), FIDE Vice-President and Chairman of the Award Commission, Mr. Mahir Mammedov, congratulated Magnus on his achievement and spoke a few words of encouragement to all the players in the hall. One of the first players to finish was GM Baskaran Adhiban (2660) from India, who defeated his opponent, GM Neuris Delgado Ramirez (2622), from Paraguay, in a fine attacking game. In a 4.f3 Nimzo-Indian defence, White sacrificed two pawns for a very strong attack. Baskaran Adhiban – Neuris Delgado Ramirez The move 15.c5! was an excellent choice, leaving Black’s queen and queenside pieces unconnected with the defence and allowing Bc4+ at some moment. After 15…Kh8 16.Qe2 Nd7 17.Nxh7 dxc3 18.Qh5 Qxc5+ 19.Kh1 Kg8 20.Bxf5 Qd5 21.Kg5 Nf6? (Black is already losing but 21…Rxf5 was the best try) the Indian grandmaster played a lovely queen sacrifice with 22.Qh7!+ and Black resigned, as 22…Nxh7 23.Bxh7+ Kh8 24.Txf8 Qg8 25.Qxg8 is mate. However, most of the expectation today was obviously placed on Magnus Carlsen’s game against GM Sasa Martinovic (2548), who was also celebrating his birthday! In a complicated middlegame without queens Martinovic, playing with White, miscalculated a tactical sequence and dropped a pawn. Even so, it wasn’t easy at all to convert but Carlsen’s endgame ability came to play once more and after 34 moves White had to capitulate. In his postgame interview with FIDE’s Press Officer Michael Rahal, Carlsen briefly explained his thoughts on the game and what the Gligoric fair-play award meant to him. In the Women’s section, most of the favourites started off with a win, although many pairings between more or less equal-rated opponents ended in a draw. Therefore, the second game of the match tomorrow will be decisive and I would even suggest that there will be quite a few tiebreaks for this round, in both groups. One of the candidates to win the women’s world cup outright is India’s top female grandmaster Harika Dronavalli (2515). Seeded straight into the second round, she was paired today with WIM Medina Warda Aulia (2360) from Indonesia. After an offbeat Ruy Lopez variation with Black, Harika played the strong pawn advance 13.e5 opening up the position and went on to win a nice technical game. She gave her thoughts in her postgame interview with the Press Officer. On a sadder note, GM Levon Aronian had to forfeit his first game of the second round. The Armenian Grandmaster has had some symptoms of fever earlier this week and even though he felt well today, in order not to risk the safety of the other players it was decided that he would withdraw from the first game, and undergo additional health tests before deciding if he is fit to play in the second game. Also, the organizers confirmed that one of the players had tested positive for Covid-19 – the result of the test became known during his second-round game. In line with the tournament’s public health and safety protocol, the player was asked to immediately leave the playing area, and his game declared a loss. The player in question was wearing a face mask during the game, and he has been placed in quarantine. His opponent, who was also requested to leave the playing hall immediately, will now undergo additional medical screenings and will be tested again tomorrow as scheduled. The player who has been forced to forfeit his game today had been tested before his trip, and then again in Sochi on July 10th, July 11th, and July 14th. After three negatives, it was this last test the one that turned out to be positive. The health agency that runs the tests for the event should have alerted FIDE of any positive before 1PM, local time. However, for reasons that we are investigating now, FIDE was not informed about the result of this test until 15:21, when the game had already started. FIDE did the only thing that was possible in the circumstances: to immediately stop the game, isolate the players, and provide medical advice to them. * Please note that, due to privacy regulations, FIDE can not disclose to the public the name of any player who tests positive. Pairings of the second game of the second round, live games and PGN files can be found on the World Cup website alongside a great amount of other interesting information such as daily videos, a complete photo collection and other useful data. Text: Michael Rahal, FIDE Press Officer press@fide.com Photo: Eric Rosen and Anastasiia Korolkova About the tournament: Scheduled to take place from July 12th (Round 1) to August 6th (finals), the 2021 FIDE World Cup will gather together in Sochi (Russia) 309 of the world’s best chess players, with 206 of them playing in the Open World Cup (and 103 participants in the first-ever Women’s World Cup. The top two finishers in the tournament, aside from World Champion Magnus Carlsen who is also participating, will qualify for the 2022 Candidates Tournament, in addition to winning the 110.000 USD first prize (80.000 USD for the runner-up). Organisers: International Chess Federation (FIDE), Chess Federation of Russia, Russian Ministry of Sports, and Government of Krasnodar Krai. Partners: Gazprom – general partner Nornickel – general partner PhosAgro – general partner Chessable – event’s partner Aeroflot – CFR’s partner
International Children and Youth Chess Festival “Rudaga – Kaissa 2021 Online” kicks off on July 23
Masterclasses with top GMs and accreditations for the Chess Olympiad 2022 will be given to the top players of the event. The FIDE Endorsed International Children and Youth Chess Festival “Rudaga – Kaissa 2021 Online” will be held on July 23-24. The event is organized by the non-governmental organization “Rudaga Plus”, Latvian Chess Federation, and is supported by FIDE. The tournament will be played in 2 different age groups – under 12 and under 16. The tournament will consist of two stages: Qualifying Stage and Final Stage. The Qualifying stage includes two online 11-round Swiss System tournaments: Open & Girls under 12 (Qualifier A – U12)Open & Girls under 12 (Qualifier B – U12)Open & Girls under 16 (Qualifier A- U16)Open & Girls under 16 (Qualifier B- U16) From each Qualifier event, top 8 players per category (Top 8 Open and Top 8 Girls) will get to the final stage. The Finals will consist of 16-player Knock-out tournaments: Open Under 12Open Under 16Girls Under 12Girls Under 16 The time control for both stages will be 5 minutes + 3 seconds increment starting from the first move. The tournaments will be played on Chess.com. The young players from all over the world will be able to claim some of the special prizes of the tournament. In addition to electronic diplomas and certificates of participation, top-3 players in open and girls’ sections will be awarded a free online group lecture with Antoaneta Stefanova, Women’s World Champion (2004-2006) (for U12 category) and Ruslan Ponomariov, FIDE World Champion (FIDE World Chess Championship 2002) (for U16 category). More than that, the winners of the tournament in both sections in each category (U12, U16) will get accreditations for the World Chess Olympiad 2022 and an entrance ticket to the Opening Ceremony. The registration fee for participation in the tournament is 10 EUROS. Players shall send the completed registration form by July 21, 2021: The Regulations for the tournament can be found here. Organizer’s contacts: Tournament Director: Nadia Kravchuk tel: +380 50 906 44 61 (WhatsApp) E-mail: nadzeya.krauchuk@gmail.com
Magnus Carlsen awarded Svetozar Gligoric Trophy 2020
The World Champion Magnus Carlsen is the recipient of the 2020 Fair Play Svetozar Gligoric award. The Norwegian will receive his trophy today, minutes before his debut game at the FIDE World Cup 2021 in Sochi. The spirit of the “Fair Play Svetozar Gligoric Trophy” is to give recognition to an individual who, during the previous year, had displayed exemplary behaviour that promotes the spirit of fair play and sportsmanship in chess. One year ago, when all chess activities and competitions were transferred to the online arena, Magnus Carlsen reached the semi-finals in the $150,000 online “Chessable Masters” against Ding Liren. Ding, playing from China, had struggled with connection problems through the whole event, and in the final moments of his first game against Carlsen, suffered an unfortunate disconnection at a vital moment. Unable to reconnect on time, the Chinese Grandmaster lost the game. Minutes later, in the second game between, the World Champion gave up his Queen and resigned after just four moves to restore parity in the match. Despite the high stakes, and despite being a ruthless competitor, Magnus Carlsen demonstrated that “winning fair” was far more important to him than winning at any cost. “I have immense respect for Ding as a chess player and as a human being. I thought against him this was the only correct way and clearly, I wanted to win on the board. I might have kicked myself if I’d lost one of the last two games but I think it was the right thing to do”, said the World Champion. The Gligoric Trophy was established by FIDE in 2019, and its winner is selected annually by the Award Commission chaired by Mr. Mahir Mammedov and its two members, the Grandmasters Mrs. Judit Polgar (FIDE Honorary Vice-President), and Mr. Eugenio Torre. It honors the figure of Svetozar Gligoric, one of the top players in the world in the 1950s and 1960s, and also one of the World’s most prominent, owing to his particularly engaging personality. At the chessboard, Gligoric was an uncompromising fighter and at the same time a symbol of gentlemanhood and correctness. His impeccable reputation has been a deserved result of his success in chess games and fair-play manners. Gligoric’s trademark was high respect to his chess opponents: his main principle was – It’s chess pieces, not a man I play against! It is no coincidence that the book of Gligoric’s selected games is called “I play against pieces!” Svetozar Gligoric Award is a recognition of sportsmen who exercise the fundamental values of Fair Play both during and beyond the game. It’s a way of thinking rather than a mere behavior and includes the concepts of: FairnessTo enjoy the victory is not enough. Triumph must include fairness and honesty RespectWritten rules are mandatory. Unwritten rules of respect to all are obligatory FriendshipRivalry in sport does not exclude friendship Team SpiritA genuine consideration for others EqualityCompeting on equal terms is essential ToleranceThe ability or willingness to accept what you may not agree with CareTrue champions care about each other
D03: Great entertainment at the Galaxy Centre for the tie-breaks
World Champion Magnus Carlsen debuts tomorrow in Round 2 Wednesday, July 13th, 2021 – Rapid and blitz game tiebreaks are the real test for today’s modern chess player. Calculation skills become slightly less important and are at a certain level substituted by much more intuition, as the time on the clock starts running low. Good nerves, decent physical condition, stamina, and a well-thought-out opening repertoire are some of the key skills that have to be honed at home before the competition to be a good tie-breaker. The Galaxy Leisure Complex enjoyed a huge amount of entertainment this afternoon. Twenty-eight matches were not decided in the two classical games, and had to be fought out in a series of two rapid games – 25 minutes base time + 10 seconds increment -, followed by two more rapid games (10/10 this time), and finally two blitz 5/3 games. A nerve-racking “Armageddon” decisive game is left for the end: 5 minutes vs 4 on the clock and Black advances with the draw. They say that better players excel even more with less time, thanks to their superior intuition and pattern knowledge plus match experience, and today’s tie-break round was no exception. Most of the favourites only needed the two rapid games to defeat their lower-rated opponents and move on to Round 2, where fresh top-50 opponents will be waiting for them. One of the matches that deserved special attention in the Open World Cup was the face-off between top Armenian GM Haik Martirosyan (2632) and Zambia’s IM Chitumbo Mwali (2281). Albeit the nearly 350 rating points difference, Mwali won his classical game, forcing the tie-break. But as the Zambian International Master confessed to FIDE’s Press Officer in the post-game interview “today was not his day”. Another really interesting match-up in the Open section was the all-Egyptian encounter between GM Abdelrahman Hesham (2397) and his Olympic team colleague and top-Egypt player Ahmed Adly (2625). Although on paper, Adly should have been cruising to the second round, these play-offs between team colleagues sometimes don’t go the logical way, and in this case, the Egyptian representative will be Hesham, who sealed the match win in the second game of the rapids. The protagonists of the other two huge surprises of the day were a couple of young IM guns: Ravi Haria and Volodar Murzin. The Englishman IM Ravi Haria (2440) put Russian’s experienced GM Vadim Zvjaginsev (2608) to the test in the rapid games. After winning the first one quite clearly, he had to defend a very tricky 4 pawn vs 3 pawn rook ending to seal the draw, not after suffering many moves with very little time on the clock. A huge achievement by the underdog in this match who declared in the post-game interview that he would now “have to reserve a few more days at the hotel”. Well done Ravi! Last but not least, Russian 15-year-old IM Volodar Murzin (2502) played one of the most memorable matches of round one, defeating none other than experienced Moldova GM Viorel Iordachescu (2589) by 3.5-2.5. After making one draw after another (solid play by both contenders), “the kid” prevailed in the second 10/10 rapid game. He will face another young player in Round 2, top Russian GM Vladislav Artemiev (2704), who is now 23 years old. In the Women’s Cup, similar scenarios occurred, with most of the clear favourites advancing to the second round in good fashion, where again they will be joined by the 25 top seeds including several world-class female players. One of the most memorable matches, and a very close win for the favourite, was the tie-break between WGM Shahenda Wafa (2106) (pictured above) from Egypt against French WGM and top-player Almira Skripchenko (2411). The match went back and forth for both players and actually, Wafa had some great opportunities to advance to the second round but finally it will be Skripchenko who will face her Olympic colleague Marie Sebag tomorrow. Watch out for the world’s top-five players tomorrow afternoon in the 1/64 round at 3pm sharp: World Number 1 Magnus Carlsen vs Sasa Martinovic World Number 2 Fabiano Caruana vs Susanto Megaranto World Number 5 Levon Aronian vs Bobby Cheng Pairings of the second round, live games, and PGN files can be found on the World Cup website alongside a great amount of other interesting information such as daily videos, a complete photo collection, and other useful data. Reigning World Champion Magnus Carlsen will be making his debut here tomorrow and will receive the Gligoric award for fair play before the start of the round. Text: Michael Rahal, FIDE Press Officer press@fide.com Photo: Eric Rosen and Anastasiia Korolkova About the tournament: Scheduled to take place from July 12th (Round 1) to August 6th (finals), the 2021 FIDE World Cup will gather together in Sochi (Russia) 309 of the world’s best chess players, with 206 of them playing in the Open World Cup (and 103 participants in the first-ever Women’s World Cup. The top two finishers in the tournament, aside from World Champion Magnus Carlsen who is also participating, will qualify for the 2022 Candidates Tournament, in addition to winning the 110.000 USD first prize (80.000 USD for the runner-up). Organisers: International Chess Federation (FIDE), Chess Federation of Russia, Russian Ministry of Sports, and Government of Krasnodar Krai. Partners: Gazprom – general partner Nornickel – general partner PhosAgro – general partner Chessable – event’s partner Aeroflot – CFR’s partner Educational centre “Sirius”
Fast and furious action on Day 2 in FIDE World Cup
28 chess matches will be decided tomorrow in the tie-breaks Tuesday, July 13th, 2021 – This afternoon at 3 pm sharp, FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich inaugurated the second day of the World Chess Cup, performing the initial move of the game between GM Marie Sebag (France) and Penelope Drastik (Australia). A few minutes earlier, Dvorkovich had presented Mr. Sami Khader with the “Vasily Smyslov” award for the best academy in the world, the FIDE Asia Chess Academy, located in Amman (Jordan). In addition to Sami, several other players and coaches have also received awards for their achievements and results during 2020-2021. They are Berik Akkozov (from Kazakhstan), Melikset Khachiyan (USA), Ye Jiangchuan, Ni Hua and Xie Jun (all from China), Yakov Geller and Sergey Zagrebelny (both from Russia) and Rustam Kasimdzhanov (from Uzbekistan). President Dvorkovich was kind enough to speak to the Press Officer of the event for the FIDE Youtube Chess Channel, in which he spoke highly of the World Cup’s organization. You can watch the interview here. But let’s dive in on the chess action this afternoon which has been fast and furious, as some of the favourites who lost the first of the two games of their match have had to step it up to make a come-back on the scoreboard and force the rapid games tie-break. Perhaps the most significant result was GM Vadim Zvjaginsev’s (2608) on-demand win against IM Ravi Haria (2440), who had beaten him in the first game. The key moment of the game was move thirty-three: Vadim Zvjaginsev – Ravi Haria Instead of 33… Bf4? which allowed 34.Nf5! (with the strong idea Ne7-g6), the Englishman could have sealed the deal and move on to the next round with the simple 33… Rg8, threatening both 34… Rxe6 and 34…b3. A tough moment for Haria who will have to get this game out of his mind quickly to compete at 100% tomorrow for a chance to advance. But undoubtedly the biggest surprise of the day in the open group was the victory of IM Chitumbo Mwali from Zambia, rated only 2281, who defeated Armenian GM Haik Martirosyan (2632), tying the match and forcing tomorrow’s tie-break. In a very complicated position, with both kings in troubled waters, the Armenian player went onto the attack with 33… Ne4? trying to create some threats against Mwali’s monarch. The Zambian remained calm and sensibly played 34.Re2!, parrying the threats of his opponent (the key is 34… Qe5 35.Qd4! winning), netting a piece and the game. Chitumbo Mwali – Haik Martirosyan 34.Re2! A huge achievement for the African player and a reminder that there is no easy game in the World Cup! In the Open Cup, a total of 59 players have advanced directly to the second round, while another 38 players (19 boards) will battle it out tomorrow in the tie-breaks. Among those who have defeated their first-round opponents by a clear 2-0 score I would highlight the young Norwegian GM Aryan Tari (rated 2639) (pictured below), GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov (2634) of Uzbekistan and GM Samuel Sevian (2647) of the United States of America. Among those also showing good form is tough Indian player GM B. Adhiban (rated 2660), especially in the second game, alongside the strong Ukrainian GM Yuriy Kuzubov (2653) and the veteran Russian player GM Alexander Motylev (2639), who should also be mentioned. However, most of the favourites who won their first game have played it safe today to secure the win in the match and move on to the next stage of the tournament, where they are already going to play in very high-level match-ups. The young Indian wonder boy GM Praggnanandhaa R has taken this approach, although he did have some winning chances in the second game. You can watch an interview with the Indian prodigy here. In the Women’s World Cup, the two favourites who had a bad day yesterday, GM Anna Ushenina and WGM Pauline Guichard, have made a huge comeback today, forcing the tiebreaks and maybe gaining a certain psychological advantage. However, the Ukrainian WGM Nataliya Buksa (2413) will have to wait until tomorrow to try to advance to the second round, after losing her game to WIM Sabrina Latreche (2076) this afternoon. The player representing Algeria severely punished Black’s tactical error 22… Nc5? with the decisive central advance 23.e5! winning piece. A big surprise at a crucial moment of the tournament! Sabrina Latreche – Nataliya Buksa 23.e5! and White won a piece A total of 9 matches (18 players) will be decided at the tie-breaks tomorrow but another 38 players have already advanced directly to the second round, some of them endorsing their opponents a clear 2-0 score. Some faces to look out for among them are WGM Carissa Yip (USA 2430), Laura Unuk (Slovenia 2407) and Olga Badelka (Belarus 2418). However, the main surprise result in my opinion was WIM Turmunkh Munkhzul (Mongolia 2278) who defeated her strong opponent WGM Marina Brunello (2379) from Italy by 2-0 in one of the big upsets of the first round in the women’s event. The full pairings tree and day-by-day results can be found on the World Cup website along with the tie-break rules for tomorrow. Finally, it should be noted that reigning World Champion Magnus Carlsen has won the Gligoric award for fair play, which will be given to him on Thursday before the start of his game in the second round. About the tournament: Scheduled to take place from July 12th (Round 1) to August 6th (finals), the 2021 FIDE World Cup will gather together in Sochi (Russia) 309 of the world’s best chess players, with 206 of them playing in the Open World Cup (and 103 participants in the first-ever Women’s World Cup. The top two finishers in the tournament, aside from World Champion Magnus Carlsen who is also participating, will qualify for the 2022 Candidates Tournament, in addition to winning the 110.000 USD first prize (80.000 USD for the runner-up). Organisers: International Chess Federation (FIDE), Chess Federation of Russia, Russian Ministry of Sports, and Government of Krasnodar Krai. Partners: Gazprom – general partner Nornickel – general partner PhosAgro – general partner Chessable – event’s partner Aeroflot – CFR’s partner Educational centre “Sirius” Text: Michael Rahal, FIDE Press Officer press@fide.com Photo: Eric Rosen and Anastasiia Korolkova