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/
President of Uzbekistan issues chess decree
On January 14, 2021, the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev issued a decree “On measures for the further development and popularization of chess and enhancing the system of training chess players.” Under the Decree, the project “Chess in school” will be implemented through the expansion of the chess education system in elementary school, as well as holding competitions among students and schools, promoting chess among kids and teenagers, and many other important measures. The state program for the development of chess until 2025 has been adopted. The program set several ambitious goals such as: – Increasing the number of permanently studying chess to 3 percent by the year 2025; – Bringing the number of districts (cities) in which special attention is paid to the development of chess as a priority sport up to 40; – Establishing 25 new chess schools and clubs based on public-private partnership within the next five years; – Increasing the number of active chess schools for children by 20% with the target of 10,500 children involved in chess; – Uzbekistan’s entering the top-10 rated countries by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) by the year 2025. In addition, several annual chess competitions and events are established starting from the year 2021: International Chess Tournament for the Prize of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan (Tashkent) Agzamov (the first Grandmaster from Uzbekistan) Memorial Tournament (Tashkent) International Tournament of the XVII World Chess Champion R.M. Kasymzhanov (Tashkent) Sakhibkiran Cup Chess Tournament (Samarkand) Al-Beruni Chess Tournament (Khiva) The Week of Tourism and Chess (Bukhara, Termez, and Khiva) Full text of the Decree (in Russian)
Full tour participants confirmed for 2021 Grand Chess Tour
Saint Louis, MO, January 13, 2021 – The Grand Chess Tour is pleased to confirm the ten players that will compete as full 2021 tour participants. The 2021 tour schedule consists of five tournaments as follows: Superbet Chess Classic: June 3 – 15, 2021, Bucharest, Romania Paris Rapid & Blitz: June 16 – 23, 2021, Paris, France Croatia Rapid & Blitz: July 5 – 12, 2021, Zagreb, Croatia St Louis Rapid & Blitz: August 9 – 16, 2021, St. Louis, Missouri USA Sinquefield Cup: August 16 – 28, 2021, St. Louis, Missouri USA The full tour participants will play in both classical events as well as in two of the three rapid and blitz tournaments. Following the cancellation of the 2020 Grand Chess Tour due to the Covid-19 pandemic, invitations for the 2021 edition of the GCT were extended to the ten players who had qualified for the 2020 season. World Champion Magnus Carlsen and Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura have elected not to take part as full tour participants in 2021 and have been replaced by Grandmasters Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Teimour Radjabov. Grandmaster Radjabov will be making his GCT debut this year. “We are excited to return to over the board events this year,” said Executive Director Michael Khodarkovsky. “All five event locations will comply with local COVID-19 guidelines and fans can expect the same excitement and action that they have come to love and enjoy from the Grand Chess Tour.” The full tour participants for the 2021 season: # Name FED FIDE (Rank) 1 Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime FRA 2784 (5) 2 Ding, Liren CHN 2791 (3) 3 Caruana, Fabiano USA 2823 (2) 4 So, Wesley USA 2770 (9) 5 Nepomniachtchi, Ian RUS 2789 (4) 6 Grischuk, Alexander RUS 2777 (7) 7 Aronian, Levon ARM 2781 (6) 8 Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar AZE 2770 (8) 9 Radjabov, Teimour AZE 2765 (10) 10 Giri, Anish NED 2764 (11) The wildcard participants for the three rapid and blitz events scheduled to take place in Paris, Zagreb, and Saint Louis will be announced as they become available. About the Grand Chess Tour™ The Grand Chess Tour is a circuit of international events, each demonstrating the highest level of organization for the world’s best players. The legendary Garry Kasparov, one of the world’s greatest ambassadors for chess, inspired the Grand Chess Tour and helped solidify the partnership between the organizers. All Grand Chess Tour 2021 events will comply with local and regional COVID-19 restrictions. For more information about the tour, please visit grandchesstour.org.
Taione Sikivou clinches Fiji Championship
Taione Sikivou has been crowned the new champion of the Fiji National Chess Championship for the first time. The championship which started on the weekend ended today after nine rounds. Sikivou who hails from Narovico in Rewa says started playing chess when he was 16 years old and he is super elated to finally win today after trying for so many years. 30-year-old Sikivou who defeated former champion Manoj Kumar in round four says he didn’t expect to win. The former Mahatma Ghandhi Secondary School student adds beating 15-time champion Kumar propelled him to winning the national title. “He was my toughest opponent and that game was really tough, it went down to the wire and we played almost close to four hours in that game and I was able to come away with a victory and that victory really propelled me to winning this tournament in the end”, said the champion. Kumar finished second while Avinesh Nadan came in third. Cydel Terubea won the women’s title. Yash Maharaj took the Intermediate Open title with Philip Sukhu winning the secondary school category and Arnav Lal is the primary school winner. Text: Akuila Cama Senior Multimedia Sports Journalist (www.fbcnews.com.fj/) Photo: www.fbcnews.com.fj/
Nicolas Croad wins 2021 New Zealand Championship
Photo above: Croad receives the Silver Rook trophy from the President of NZ Chess Federation FM Nicolas Croad became the winner of the 2021 New Zealand Championship. It’s his second national title. The 9-round event (NZ Open) was a part of the 128th Congress held in Palmerston North from January 2-12. The top four boards were broadcast live throughout the event. The second-rated Croad scored 7.5 out of 9, conceding just three draws to his opponents, and finished a full point ahead of the top-rated participant and his old rival FM Ben Hague (second with 6.5 points). From left to right: Anthony Ker, Leonard McLaren and Felix Xie Three players, namely Felix Xie, IM Antony Ker (14-time NZ champion), and Leonard McLaren tied for third place. Final standings: 1. Nicholas Croad (2455) – 7½2. Ben Hague (2497) – 6½3. Felix Xie (2110) – 64. Anthony Ker (2440) – 65. Leonard McLaren (2293) – 66. Robert Smith (2290) – 5½7. Russell Dive (2407) – 5½8. Ryan Winter (2165) – 59. David Cilia Vincenti (2276) – 510. Hao Tang (1950) – 5 The 128th Congress also hosted Major Open, Rapid, Lightning, and Junior championships. Major Open: 1. Clinton Wells (7/9); 2-4. Alan Winfield, Dion Charles, and Karl Holdo – 6½ NZ Lightning: 1. Anthony Ker – 8½/9 2. Ben Hague – 7½ 3. Russel Dive – 7. NZ Junior: 1. Josh Langford – 6/9 2.Weng Xintong (Winston) – 5½ 3-8. Daqi Mao, Isabelle Ning, Kendrick Botong Zhang, Euan McDougall, Paul He, and Thomas Vander Hoom – 5.
Svetozar Gligoric Trophy 2020
The FIDE Council approved, during its 4th quarter 2020 meeting, the proposal to consider online chess events when awarding the Gligoric Trophy for the year 2020. The decision is only natural, considering that the vast majority of chess events during 2020 were played online. Candidates to win the Svetozar Gligoric Trophy shall have demonstrated during the period January 1st, 2020, to December 31, 2020, the following accomplishments: – Outstanding gesture or action of sportsmanship during the sports event.– Outstanding contribution to the popularization of the values and principles of Fair Play.– Outstanding support towards initiatives on enforcement of ethical values.– Promotion of integrity and high ethical standards. The spirit of the “Fair Play Svetozar Gligoric Trophy” is to give recognition to an individual who, during the previous year, had displayed exemplary behavior that promotes the spirit of fair play and sportsmanship in chess. We would like to stress again that this is an award for the nominee’s accomplishments during the previous year, and NOT a recognition of a lifelong career. Nomination Procedure The winner of the Gligoric Trophy 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. Proposals for Nominations (Nomination Letter) shall be submitted by Continental Federations, National Federations, and FIDE Commissions, to the Gligoric Trophy Award Commission (gligorictrophy@fide.com) no later than February 20, 2021. Individual nominations, including self-nominations, are permitted, but they should be channeled through the Federation associated with the nominee. Please note, that Commission’s decision is final and not open to discussion, nor shall the members of the Commission be requested to give any justification beyond what they wish to, with their final announcement. About the award The fair play award named after Svetozar Gligoric was established by FIDE in 2019. In the 1950s and 1960s, Svetozar Gligoric was one of the top players in the world and 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 honestyRespectWritten rules are mandatory. Unwritten rules of respect to all are obligatoryFriendshipRivalry in sport does not exclude friendshipTeam SpiritA genuine consideration for othersEqualityCompeting on equal terms is essentialToleranceThe ability or willingness to accept what you may not agree withCareTrue champions care about each other
No fees for rating Rapid and Blitz tournaments
Last December, the General Assembly approved the new financial regulations, which came into effect on January 1st. These regulations cover all administrative matters and fix some important omissions. Among other changes, the regulations now include a reference to Rapid and Blitz tournaments, which were not contemplated before. Article 1.2 of appendix 2 of the Financial Regulations mentions that “All rated tournaments are subject to rating fees. FIDE Council, at its sole discretion, may waive or reduce rating fees for rapid and blitz tournaments for a given year.” We are happy to confirm that the FIDE Council has indeed decided “to waive rating fees for over-the-board Rapid and Blitz tournaments held in 2021 and 2022”. This decision is in line with FIDE’s general strategy of reducing all kinds of fees as much as possible. In the coming days, we will publish a more detailed report on how administrative fees have been reduced or waived altogether during the past two years. More information: New FIDE Financial Regulations (effective from January 1, 2021)Previous version of the FIDE Financial Regulations (effective until December 31, 2020)