FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich on Hybrid Format
Dear chess friends, I would like to clarify FIDE’s intentions and goals regarding the introduction of the newly adopted regulations for Online Chess, and in particular, for what we have named “Hybrid format”. First, there was an unambiguous demand for a coherent set of guidelines regarding running online chess competitions, based on our experience throughout 2020. FIDE delivered, by setting clear technical requirements, recommendations for arbiters, and anti-cheating provisions. Second, the Online Chess Regulations do not contain any provision for ratings and titles. Those are being regulated by rating rules developed and implemented by the FIDE Qualification Commission. QC is generally not against rating and giving titles based on hybrid competitions, but firmly believes that it requires both testing (which we intend to do) and a very cautious implementation. The FIDE Council fully agrees with this approach. Third, a number of national, zonal, and continental federations are exploring the option of holding their championships under a hybrid format, in particular for the purposes of qualification for the FIDE World Cup due to take place in July 2021. It is now their right to do so. However, FIDE will be monitoring those projects closely, to make sure the events are in full compliance with the Online Chess Regulations. Any decisions regarding ratings and titles shall be taken separately, on an individual basis. Fourth, we are fully aware of the anti-cheating challenges related to the hybrid chess format. It is both about qualification and independence of arbiters, meeting technical requirements, and behavioral aspects playing online. While having improved substantially FIDE anti-cheating algorithms and allowing the use of statistical analysis as proof of alleged cheating, we believe it would still require a reasonable amount of time to make cheating in chess a high-risk and non-tolerable thing. Finally, we are in agreement that online (including hybrid) competitive chess is not entirely the same kind of a sports game as “over the board” chess. It lacks the same kind of emotional component and psychological pressures that are experienced when playing face-to-face. At the same time, it requires slightly different technical skills and attitude. Although it is acceptable to use it when circumstances do not allow us to continue with OTB activities, or in order to provide better connectivity of the global chess world, it is not intended as a full-scale substitute for traditional chess, which we are committed to supporting. As a matter of fact, FIDE has just adopted a new program of support for classical chess opens, which details will be announced shortly. There are many other things to discuss as well (time formats, better visibility of chess for a global audience, and many more) and we are willing to continuing this dialogue on a permanent basis. Arkady DvorkovichFIDE President
FIDE will provide aid packages to Open Tournaments
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted many important spheres of chess life – and the one that suffered most is open tournaments. Most of these events have been canceled during 2020, and FIDE’s concern is that if this situation does not improve soon, many of them might never be able to make a comeback. FIDE acknowledges the importance of supporting OTB events during this crisis and recognizes the crucial role that open tournaments play. We believe that, by helping them, we would be indirectly supporting many other segments of the chess community, including young players, professionals, and even beginners. In view of this, FIDE has approved the following initiative from the Global Strategy Commission (GSC): 1. To allocate an amount of € 100,000 to support the holding of open tournaments in 2021. 2. To assign the distribution of the specified amount to the President, on the basis of a list proposed by GSC. This list will be elaborated taking into account the application of the following criteria: a) Priority is given to traditional open tournaments that have taken place for at least three consecutive years. b) A geographical criterion is applied to maximize the countries and regions that will receive support. c) The recipient of assistance must present the tournament budget with a detailed breakdown, including reasonable prizes for women, veterans, and youth. d) The tournament will establish the lower fees (or absence of fees) for the agreed categories of participants (veterans, youth, women, representatives of developing countries), to ensure that FIDE sponsors can be reasonably represented at the tournament. The aid package allocated for one tournament should not exceed 20% of the total budget of the tournament (including all costs) and will be limited to a maximum of €15,000 per event. “Open tournaments represent a very important integral part of the entire chess community eco-system. It helps young players to grow, it provides bread – and sometimes butter – for hundreds of 2500-2700 players, and it represents a very important part of professional life for women players 2300-2500”, explained Emil Sutovsky, on behalf of the GSC. “It also helps local chess clubs and communities, and it is oftentimes an important link between chess and city hall or region. We must do our utmost to preserve it – as there is a real danger for many of the events. And we shall act quickly – as organizers are about to decide if they are going to stage their event this spring/summer.” With the good sponsorship prospects, particularly in connection with the upcoming World Championship match, the Global Strategy Commission is hopeful that this support fund might be increased in the near future. This possibility would be a joint decision of the President and the FIDE Treasurer. More detailed regulations will be published at the end of January. In the meantime, organizers of chess opens are invited to submit their inquires to GSC: gsc@fide.com
Tata Steel 2021: All draws in Round 4
All seven games in Round 4 at Tata Steel 2021 were drawn, although at least two encounters could have ended decisively. All the participants made a half-step forward with the standings remaining intact. Magnus Carlsen was slightly better throughout the game with Jorden Van Foreest and even ended up a pawn up in an endgame but could not reverse a drawish trend. Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave had a discussion in a topical line of the Gruenfeld Defense in which Black sacrificed a pawn but got some compensation in the form of two bishops and pressure on c3-pawn. White preserved his extra pawn, but Black managed to transpose into a four-rook drawish endgame. The opponents split a point one move before reaching control. Nils Grandelius obtained a very promising position on the Black side of Najdorf variation of the Sicilian Defense against Andrey Esipenko and after White’s slow and somewhat passive maneuvers broke through in the center with 19…d5. After Esipenko’s capturing on d5 his problems were snowballing but Nils failed to find several decisive continuations (40…Rxb2 is the last of them) and let the opponent off the hook. Alireza Firouzja had a great chance to catch up with the leaders, but it was not meant to be. The teenager outplayed Arian Tari in a see-saw tactical battle but did not find a finishing touch 29…Be2! (which is not easy to spot, especially in time-trouble). After Firouzja played 29…Ne2+ a draw was agreed one move later. The game between Pentala Harikrishna and Fabiano Caruana saw a popular line of the Ruy Lopez. The Indian GM introduced a novelty on move 17 but did not get anything out of it. Moreover, Caruana got a slight edge and made White demonstrate accuracy to keep the game in the balance. Pentala was still facing some problems but Black’s 35…Qd4 turned out to be a mistake. Apparently, Fabiano missed 36.Nxg6! after which White had no problem reaching a draw. Alexander Donchenko emerged slightly better with White against Radoslaw Wojtaszek and eventually won a pawn but Black was never in real danger and comfortably sealed a draw. In the longest game of the Round 4 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave vs. David Anton, the evaluation was hovering around equality all the way. Although White eventually won a pawn, Black’s task of netting a half-point was not that difficult. Standings after Round 4: 1-5. Pentala Harikrishna, Magnus Carlsen, Anish Giri, Fabiano Caruana, Nils Grandelius – 2½; 6-10. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Jorden Van Foreest, Andrey Esipenko, Alireza Firouzja, Radoslaw Wojtaszek – 2; 11-13. Jan-Krzysztof Duda, David Anton, Arian Tari – 1½; 14. Alexander Donchenko – 1. Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit – Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021 Official website: tatasteelchess.com/
Lubomir Kavalek (1943-2021)
It is with the deepest sadness that we learned about the passing of chess legend Lubomir Kavalek at 77. He was one of the greatest personalities of Czechoslovak and American chess. Lubomir (Lubosh) Kavalek was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia. He studied communication and journalism at Charles University. Lubomir won the national championship of his home country for the first time at the age of 19 (1962). Kavalek claimed his second title in 1968, in one of the strongest tournament in the history of Czechoslovakia championships. After the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, he first moved to Germany, and shortly after to the US, where he settled and won the national championship three times. He also represented the US at the Chess Olympiads, winning one gold and five bronze medals with the American team. In 2001 he was inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame. Kavalek was a second for Bobby Fischer during his famous 1972 match against Spassky and collaborated with Nigel Short between 1990-93. Lubomir was also a very active chess journalist, having worked briefly for “Voice of America”, and later on as a columnist for “The Washington Post”. FIDE extends its sincere condolences to Lubomir’s family, friends, and loved ones. Photo: Thomová Judita
Tata Steel 2021: Five-way tie on the top after Round 3
In Round 3 the sole leader after two rounds at the Tata Steel 2021 Nils Grandelius suffered his first defeat at hands of Pentala Harikrishna and allowed four players to catch up with him. Pentala Harikrishna comfortably solved all his opening problems on the Black side of the French Defense against Nils Grandelius but nothing foreboded the leader’s defeat. However, 25. Bc1 played by the Swede turned out to be a serious mistake. After the exchange of the dark-squared bishops, the Indian built up pressure with natural and strong moves and quickly won White’s a2-pawn. Black’s b-passer became unstoppable and Grandelius toss in the sponge. David Anton was confidently holding his ground in the game with Alireza Firouzja but a misstep on the control 40th move, allowing White’s knight on g6, cost him dearly. Alireza did not miss his chance to breach the defensive perimeter, scored a full point, and returned to the 50% mark. Fabiano Caruana and Jan-Krzysztof Duda arguably played the most riveting tactical game of the round. Both demonstrated deep calculation in an extremely sharp position with opposite-side castling. The American found a very strong sequence (the first line of Stockfish 12) and emerged up an exchange for two pawns. Chess engines are very optimistic about White’s chances but one inaccuracy by Fabiano (38.Re1 instead of immediate 38.a4) was enough for Jan-Krzysztof to escape with a draw. In the Norwegian duel, Magnus Carlsen was unable to break through Arian Tari’s accurate defense and had to settle for a draw. Radoslaw Wojtaszek got a clear edge with White against Jorden Van Foreest but erroneously traded all the rooks (23.Rc7, keeping one pair of rooks on the board looks much stronger) and let the Dutchman gradually equalize. The opponents shook hands on move 40. Andrey Esipenko opted for 4.Qxd4 in the Sicilian Defense to avoid Maxime Vachier-Lagrave‘s trademark Najdorf variation and very soon the opponents stepped into uncharted territory. On move 17 the Frenchman was forced to sacrifice his queen but got sufficient positional compensation. It seemed that both opponents had no desire to take extra-risks as a draw by repetition was agreed on move 33. Alexander Doncheko broke his losing streak and made a comfortable draw with Black facing Anish Giri. It is a very important result for the young German whose confidence might have been shaken after two straight defeats. Standings after Round 3: 1-5. Pentala Harikrishna, Magnus Carlsen, Anish Giri, Fabiano Caruana, Nils Grandelius – 2; 6-10. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Jorden Van Foreest, Andrey Esipenko, Alireza Firouzja, Radoslaw Wojtaszek – 1½; 11-13. Jan-Krzysztof Duda, David Anton, Arian Tari – 1; 14. Alexander Donchenko – ½. Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit – Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021 Official website: tatasteelchess.com/
Nihal Sarin wins Gazprom Brilliancy Prize
Nihal Sarin became the winner of the Gazprom Brilliancy Prize, a special trophy awarded to the best game from the FIDE Online World Cadets and Youth Championship (December, 20) by the General Partner of the competition. His victory over Francesco Sonis received 5 votes out of 9. One of the most talented players of his generation, Nihal Sarin won not only the Gazprom Brilliancy Prize but also the title in the U18 category, beating Shant Sargsyan in the final. FIDE had invited a panel of 9 popular streamers and YouTubers to be the judges for the Gazprom Brilliancy Prize, asking them to pick a favorite game. Five out of nine judges chose Sarin’s game as their top choice, announcing their votes in their respective channels: Daniel King / Powerplay Chess Nihal Sarin Sagar Shah / Chessbase IndiaNihal Sarin Levy Rozman / Gotham ChessNihal Sarin Fiona Steil-Antoni / FionchettaNihal Sarin Georgios Souleidis / The Big GreekNihal Sarin Maria Emelianova / PhotochessEdiz Gurel Michael RahalD Gukesh James Canty IIIAmirreza Pour Agha Bala Manuel Lopez MicheloneD Gukesh
FIDE approves hybrid competitions valid for rating
A few weeks ago, the FIDE Council approved a new set of rules to be applied to official online chess competitions. The document also established the framework for “hybrid” events, a format where the games are played online, but the participants are physically present in a public place like a club, federation headquarters, hotel, et cetera. In this format, all games are played under the supervision of an arbiter present on site. Considering that the conditions under which a hybrid tournament is played are very similar to those of “over the board events”, having these events rated has always been a possible – and desirable – outcome. After receiving some additional input from the Qualification Commission, and adding some minor amendments to the first version of the regulations, the FIDE Council has approved that hybrid competitions are officially rated in equal terms with traditional games. As stated in point 0.2 of the newly approved regulations, “The tournaments to be rated shall be pre-registered by the federation that will be responsible for the submission of results and rating fees. The tournament and its playing schedule must be registered one week before the tournament starts. The QC Chairman may refuse to register a tournament. He may also allow a tournament to be rated even though it has been registered less than one week before the tournament starts. All tournaments played under Hybrid conditions as described in 2.1 must be approved individually by the QC Chairman.” The requests will be examined on a one-on-one basis, and FIDE’s Qualification Commission reserves itself the right not to rate a specific tournament. This is a precautionary measure to protect the rating system from any unforeseen circumstance, as we enter uncharted territory. In that eventuality, the organizer of the tournament has the right to appeal to the QC. The best way to prevent this from happening is that organizers send requests with as much notice as they can, and include as much detail as possible, to the Qualification Commission: qualification@fide.com. This will ensure that there is a margin to make whatever adjustments are considered necessary so the event can be rated. These regulations are the result of a joint effort by a dedicated task force, in which several FIDE Commissions were involved. This included the Rules Commission, Arbiters and the Qualification Commissions, Fair Play, and the FIDE Commission for people with Disabilities. During the final stage, the Global Strategy Commission was responsible for consolidating all the inputs. The last bit was added to the document by the Qualification Commission, and it gives a green light to what many members of the chess community had been asked for: the possibility of rating chess games played through the internet.
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Tata Steel 2021: Nils Grandelius shoots ahead
Nils Grandelious became the sole leader of the Tata Steel Masters 2021 after two rounds of exciting chess. One could hardly predict such a feat given that a month ago the Swede was not even among the participants. In Round 2 Grandelius beat Jan-Krzysztof Duda in a very convincing manner after the Pole misplayed the opening. Nils drove a pawn-wedge on f3 and obtained a menacing attacking position. To save his king, Jan-Krzysztof gave up a piece and threw in the towel just ten moves down the road. The winner of Tata Steel 2020 Fabiano Caruana scored a full point after beating Alexander Donchenko and now sits on +1 together with Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri. The game was decided on a short stretch between moves 17 and 20. After playing four suboptimal moves (it seems 20.e6 was the last straw) Alexander fell under a crushing attack by Fabiano, parted with an exchange but only postponed the inevitable. All other encounters were drawn. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave got an extra pawn and very promising position against Alireza Firouzja but was not precise enough when converting his substantial advantage. After 30.Nc4 Alireza regained a pawn, traded most of the pieces, and reached a draw. David Anton gained a half-point in the game with the World Champion. The Spaniard was hovering around equality throughout the opening and the middlegame but eventually found himself a pawn down in an unpleasant ending, the type of position that is very hard to handle against Magnus. To his credit, Anton held his ground and earned a hard-fought draw. As Carlsen pointed out after the game, he missed a defensive idea 55.Kf5. Magnus was going to meet it with 55…Re1, but it fails to 56.Rxg5 Rxe3 57.Kf4! In the Dutch derby Jorden Van Foreest vs. Anish Giri, the former spurned repetition but ended up in a slightly worse endgame. Nevertheless, White’s position was solid enough to seal a draw in a rook endgame. Arian Tari put tremendous pressure on Radoslaw Wojtaszek and was very close to the victory but the Pole managed to wriggle out of a fix in an endgame with opposite-colored bishops. Pentala Harikrishna did not get anything out of the opening with White against Andrey Esipenko. Moreover, the Indian had to demonstrate some accuracy in an endgame to secure a draw. Standings after Round 2: 1. Nils Grandelius – 2; 2-4. Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, and Anish Giri – 1½; 5-10. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Pentala Harikrishna, Jorden Van Foreest, Radoslaw Wojtaszek, Andrei Esipenko, David Anton – 1; 11-13. Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Alireza Firouzja, Arian Tari – ½; 14. Alexander Doncheko – 0. Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit – Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021 Official website: tatasteelchess.com/
Tata Steel: Carlsen, Crandelius and Giri lead after Round 1
The 83rd Tata Steel Chess tournament got underway today in Wijk-aan-Zee. Unlike previous years, the 2021 event is limited to just the Masters group. Despite the withdrawal of Nepomniachtichi, Dubov, and Abdusattorov (replaced by Wojtaczek, Donchenko and Grandelius) the field is a very interesting mix of established and promising players. Round 1 saw three decisive outcomes although at some point it looked like all the games might have been drawn. Magnus Carlsen was the first to draw blood after taking some risks in the game against Alireza Firouzja. The World Champion did not get much with White out of the Queen’s Gambit declined, but decided to push with 28.e6, sacrificing a second pawn. This gambling approach paid off just seven moves down the road – the teenager collapsed after 35…Bf7? and resigned shortly facing an imminent checkmate. Nils Grandelius prevailed over Alexander Donchenko in a drawish endgame after the latter made a decisive mistake 36…Rd2? Apparently, the German missed that after 37.Re1+ Kd3 38.Re3+ White protects all his weaknesses and then active his king with decisive effect. Anish Giri and Arian Tari were following the footsteps of Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura in a sharp line of the Ruy Lopez till some point, but on move 11 the Dutchman introduced a novelty (apparently, he analyzed the position in-depth in his home laboratory) and quickly obtained a very promising although blocked position in which Black did not have even a shred of counterplay. Anish gradually infiltrated the opponent’s camp and delivered a coup de grace on move 47. All other games were drawn although Fabiano Caruana and Pentala Harikrishna had some winning chances against Jorden van Foreest and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave respectively. Standings after Round 1: 1-3. Magnus Carlsen, Nils Grandelius and Anish Giri – 1; 4-10. Fabiano Caruana, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Pentala Harikrishna, Jorden Van Foreest, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Radoslaw Wojtaszek, Andrei Esipenko, David Anton – ½; 12-14. Alexander Doncheko, Alireza Firouzja, Arian Tari – 0. Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit – Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021 Official website: tatasteelchess.com/