Saša Martinović wins Croatian Championship
Some encouraging news came from Croatia. As this Mediterranean country is getting back normal life and over-the-board chess, the local federations staged an Individual Croatian Championship. The 12-player round-robin brought together the strongest Croatian grandmasters and was held in Vinkovci (Robert Fischer won a tournament there back 1968!) from June 19 to June 29. The competition turned into a very close affair that came down to the wire in the end. In the central game of the last round, the tournament leader Ante Brkić (sitting on 6.5 points) was swept away by Zdenko Kožul’s powerful attack on the kingside. This victory allowed the veteran to catch up with the leader. You can watch this key game here. Meanwhile, Saša Martinović, who was trailing the leader by ½ point, gradually outplayed Ognjen Jovanić and scored arguably the most important victory in his career that brought him his first title of Croatian champion. Interestingly enough, the eventual winner drew his first nine (!) games but a very strong finish (3 out of 3) catapulted him to the top position in the final standings. Zdenko Kozul tied for the second position but took silver thanks to better tiebreak criteria; bronze went to GM Robert Zelčić. Final standings 1 GM Martinović Saša 2532 7.0 2 GM Kožul Zdenko 2597 6.5 3 GM Zelčić Robert 2527 6.5 4 GM Stević Hrvoje 2575 6.5 5 GM Brkić Ante 2593 6.5 6 GM Šarić Ante 2541 6.0 7 GM Jovanić Ognjen 2524 5.5 8 GM Palac Mladen 2529 5.0 9 GM Bosiočić Marin 2625 5.0 10 GM Rogić Davor 2492 5.0 11 IM Plenča Jadranko 2483 3.5 12 GM Kovačević Blažimir 2410 3.0 Live games: https://hrvatski-sahovski-savez.hr/ftp/CroCh2020/
Chessable Masters: Ding downs Nakamura
Ding Liren powered past Hikaru Nakamura and made it into the last four of the $150,000 Chessable Masters with the minimum of fuss today. It took the Chinese number 1 just three games to dispatch the American, known for his speed chess prowess and to set up a semi-final clash with World Champion Magnus Carlsen. It followed a dramatic match yesterday that saw Nakamura, the popular American streamer who boasts 435,000 followers on Twitch, come back to level the tie. Ding had convincingly won the first set on Friday while Nakamura needed a blitz play-off and an Armageddon tiebreak on Sunday to draw level. On his upcoming match with Ding, Magnus Carlsen said: “It’s going to be tough obviously but I feel good. “He [Ding] has shown in these tournaments, and especially in this match, that he has got some serious positional jobs, he can just run you over without giving you counter-chances in a lot of games. So he is extremely strong. Ding said of the semi-final clash to come: “It’s a very exciting match I have and just enjoy the games. I’m very happy to play against Magnus since we play a lot of exciting and fighting games.” Today’s deciding set started with a draw but then Ding took full control to win the second and third games, meaning a fourth wasn’t needed. About the tournament The event, broadcast live on chess24, is the next stage of the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour which carries a total prize pot of $1 million, a record for the online game. The Chessable Masters, which runs until July 5, is being put on in association with Chessable and the tour’s Education Partner, leading Swiss private banking group, Julius Baer. Players were split into two groups (A and B) of six for the preliminary stage before eight progressed to the knockouts. The final winner will take home the top prize of $45,000 and a ticket to the $300,000 tour Grand Final. Coverage begins with commentary in 10 languages at 16.00 CEST. You can watch it live here: https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tournaments/chessable-masters-2020-group-a#live Highlights English:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dpG2c-dmqs58tSDSZvxzGNqzgquJyO0g?usp=sharing FOR MORE INFORMATION:Leon Watsonleon@chessable.com+447786 078770
Arkady Dvorkovich: The match for the chess crown will be postponed to 2021
Sports are gradually returning to stadiums after the coronavirus pandemic. However, the main chess competitions will be held online until autumn. In his interview to TASS news agency, Arkady Dvorkovich, President of the International Chess Federation (FIDE), spoke about the expectations of the upcoming online Olympiad, expressed hope that the Candidates Tournament would be finished in Yekaterinburg, and admitted that almost certainly the World Championship match would be postponed to 2021. — Let’s start with the current events: the first leg of the Grand Prix Women’s Speed Chess Championship ended two days ago. What is so special about this event? — The women’s tournament consists of four legs plus a super-final. The twelve out of more than 200 players went through the qualification stage and joined 9 seeded participants. Now 21 players are competing in four legs of Grand Prix. Anna Ushenina from Ukraine won the first one, and the Russians Valentina Gunina and Alexandra Kosteniuk took second and third places. But there are still three legs to be played and everyone has a chance to compete for first place. We believe that there are not enough women’s chess competitions; commercial tournaments are held mainly among men. With this in mind, it is our duty to support women’s chess in this way. —Is there a big interest in women’s chess? — The interest is considerable, and the audience is already larger than it was before. The games of the first leg of the WSCC Grand Prix with English commentary were followed by a greater number of people comparing to the last Women’s World Championship match. By the way, in terms of viewership, the last Women’s World Championship became the most popular of all such competitions. Thus, the audience of women’s chess is constantly growing. — The Candidates Tournament and the World Championship Match are scheduled for this year, but both got suspended due to the pandemic. Is there any certainty about them? — Until September, most of our activities will be online. And the main event after the completion of the Women’s Speed Chess Championship is the Chess Olympiad, which will also be online. This year’s Olympiad was supposed to be held in Khanty-Mansiysk and Moscow, but we moved it to next year. And this year we will stage an online Olympiad, and in two or three days the registration of national teams for the tournament will begin. We want as many teams as possible to take part in the tournament — we have 195 FIDE members. I don’t know if all 195 teams can be involved… Photo: Alexander Scherbak (TASS) — But you will try. – Yes, we will do our best. About 70 percent of the countries will participate. The Olympiad will last almost a month. And then, indeed, we are determined to hold the second part of the Candidates Tournament in the autumn. As for location, the main option did not change — Yekaterinburg. But if the current restrictions and the epidemiological situation do not allow us to hold the second part of the Candidates in this city, we will consider other venues. Let me reiterate: it is very important for us to hold the second part this year, and if for objective reasons it is not possible to do in Yekaterinburg, we’ll have to move it to another place. I would like to stress that we will do this together with our partners from the Ural region, SIMA-Land, and the city authorities. It will be carried out only with full consent. But I hope that we will finish the Candidates Tournament in Yekaterinburg. The match for the World Championship will almost certainly be postponed to the next year due to the current situation. We have already discussed this informally, and I think a formal decision will be made shortly. We are discussing various options — both spring and autumn 2021, but we will announce everything later. — You said that all chess would be online until September… — I should clarify here – national tournaments are already held offline. In particular, there were tournaments in Iceland, Norway, and we will hold them as soon as the restrictions are lifted. I was referring to international competitions. We are not able to announce the start of tournaments as usual because of travel restrictions. But I am almost sure that if not in August, then in September-October international tournaments can take place. Not those under FIDE aegis, but commercial ones; still it will be an important step, as people will realize that it is already possible to fly abroad. — A few days ago, the FIDE Council was held, also online. What important issues were discussed? — We mainly discussed online activities, summed up the results of completed tournaments, and talked about upcoming ones. We also discussed the coaches and referees training system. We didn’t make any revolutionary decisions, but we have once again confirmed that the Chess Olympiad will be held in Khanty-Mansiysk and Moscow next year. It is an important decision. — There was also information that a FIDE office might be open in Moscow. Is that so? — It is a long-lasting story. A few years ago, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov (former President of FIDE) asked the authorities of the country and the city of Moscow to provide FIDE with office space. It was about the second office since the main one is in Lausanne. Since there are a lot of chess activities in Russia, a few months ago the government of Moscow decided to accommodate our request. Now there is a good location for our second office. Some minor repairs are needed, but I hope that this will happen soon and we will make preparations for the Olympiad directly from our Moscow office.
Anna Ushenina wins first leg of WSCC Grand Prix
Anna Ushenina, the classical World Champion in 2012, defeated Valentina Gunina in the final, leaving the score 7-4 in her favor. The Ukrainian outplayed her rival and was a deserved winner: a better opening preparation gave her the upper hand in most of the games, and she was also more accurate. Taking an early lead in the match was also an important factor that conditioned the rest of the final. Valentina was in general faster, as it is characteristic of her. But speed alone was not enough to prevail in this match and, in fact, none of the games was decided by the clock. Only in the last of the 3+1 games, when the Russian seemed to be gaining momentum, the comeback looked possible, but in a dramatic turn of events, a mouse slip when she was delivering checkmate in one move made her blunder her queen instead. After this blow, the remaining games became almost irrelevant. “It’s a really interesting tournament and a very hard one because everyone is very strong. I enjoyed being part of it,” said Anna Ushenina in a post-match interview. Leaderboard after the first of the four Grand Prix tournaments: GM Anna Ushenina UKR 12 GP points GM Valentina Gunina RUS 8 GP points GM Alexandra Kosteniuk RUS 6 GP points WIM Vaishali Rameshbabu IND 5 GP points GM Katerina Lagno RUS 2 GP points GM Ju Wenjun CHN 2 GP points WIM Munkhzul Turmunkh MGL 2 GP points WGM Le Thao Nguyen Pham VIE 2 GP points The games of the Grand Prix events are played on the Chess.com Live Server, at www.chess.com/live. All matches are broadcast live with chess-master commentary on www.Chess.com/TV. “Need for speed” In this thrilling and innovative event, the players face each other under three different time controls. First, they play under “rapid” format, where each player has 5 minutes to think, plus one second being added to her clock after each move. Then, the match continues under “blitz” format, with the time going down to 3 minutes per player, plus one second added per move. Finally, the match concludes with the “bullet” games, the fastest of all time controls, and very popular in online games: the players have only 1 minute each, plus 1 second added per move. The adrenaline rush as the players have less and less time to think their moves as they get closer to the final and decisive games or their matches, and they are forced to make decisions by pure reflex, often making more than one more per second. About the FIDE Chess.com Women’s Speed Chess Championship The Grand Prix will consist of four legs, with a total of 21 participants: the 12 players who qualified through the Swiss and Playoffs, plus 9 players nominated by FIDE and Chess.com. Each of the 21 players participates in three out of four Grand Prix legs. Each Grand Prix leg is 16-players playoff, and will last five days (including one rest day after the semi-finals). The dates are June 24-28, July1-4, July 7-11, and July 14-18. All matches in each Grand Prix leg are divided into three segments: 30-minute segment of matches with time control 5 minutes + 1 second per move30-minute segment of matches with time control 3 minutes + 1 second per move10-minute segment of matches with time control 1 minute + 1 second per move In each Grand Prix leg, every player scores GP cumulative points according to her position in the final standings (for details, please check full tournament regulations on the FIDE website). The two players who score the most number of GP cumulative points in all three Grand Prix legs qualify for WSCC Super Final. Each one of the Grand Prix legs has a total prize fund of 10,300 USD, with 3,000 going to the winner. WSCC Super Final The two best players of Grand Prix will play the Women’s Speed Chess Championship Super Final match on the International Chess Day, July 20th, at 7 AM PDT. The match will be divided into three segments: 90-minute segment of matches with time control 5 minutes + 1 second per move.60-minute segment of matches with time control 3 minutes + 1 second per move.30-minute segment of matches with time control 1 minute + 1 second per move. Games that start but “run over” the overall countdown clock count towards the final score. The player who accumulates the most cumulative points wins the match. The final has a prize fund of 10.000 USD, with 6,500 going to the winner, and 3,500 to the runner up. These amounts are free of taxes. Photo: David Llada
Chessable Masters: Giri makes it to semis as Nakamura hangs on
Anish Giri gave himself a big birthday present by ensuring a semi-final spot in the $150,000 Chessable Masters. The Dutch star rolled over three-time World Blitz Champion Alexander Grischuk with two wins to take today’s second set 3-1 and the tie 2-0. Giri, who turned 26, then hit back at World Champion Magnus Carlsen who has been goading him on Twitter, by declaring: “The karma is real!” It came after Giri scored a casual bullet chess win over Carlsen while the Norwegian was streaming last night. Asked what he got for his birthday, Giri added: “I’ve got so many gifts, my wife is like a gift pro – she’s like a professional.” Meanwhile, Hikaru Nakamura overcame a stunning mistake against Ding Liren to take their match to a deciding set tomorrow. The popular American streamer, who boasts 435,000 followers on Twitch, had looked in complete control with the score at 2-1. But on the verge of completing his comeback after losing Friday’s encounter, Nakamura collapsed in the final game of the set. It allowed Ding, China’s top player, a chance to level the score and take it to a two-game blitz tiebreak which also finished level. Nakamura, the noted speed chess specialist, finally won the rubber in an Armageddon tiebreak after beating his opponent with white pieces. With the match now squared, the pair will play a deciding set tomorrow. The eventual winner will face a marquee match against Carlsen, world number 1, in the last four. About the tournament The Chessable Masters, broadcast live on chess24, is the next stage of the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour which carries a total prize pot of $1 million, a record for the online game. The event, which runs until July 5, is being put on in association with Chessable and the tour’s Education Partner, leading Swiss private banking group, Julius Baer. The final winner will take home top prize of $45,000 and a ticket to the $300,000 tour Grand Final. Coverage begins with commentary in 10 languages at 16.00 CEST. You can watch it live here: https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tournaments/chessable-masters-2020-group-a#live Highlights English:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dpG2c-dmqs58tSDSZvxzGNqzgquJyO0g?usp=sharing FOR MORE INFORMATION:Leon Watsonleon@chessable.com+447786 078770
Sander Severino wins first IPCA Online Championship
The first world online championship of IPCA (the International physically disabled chess association affiliated to FIDE) was held on June 16-17 in collaboration with the Israeli Chess Federation. The Swiss tournament was open to players with at least 50 percent disability and attracted 124 participants from 25 countries. The rapid chess (nine-round tournament took place on a popular chess platform of lichess.org. The chief organizer and director Lior Aizenberg was assisted by the deputy director of the ICF Assi Philosoph, International arbiters Olexaner Prohorov (Ukraine) and Yuriy Borsuk (Belarus). 34-year old FM Sander Severino from Philippine scored 8.5 out of 9 (2602 performance!) and emerged as the winner of the tournament, 1.5 ahead of the runner-up. IM Andrei Gurbanov (Israel), IM Andrei Obodchuk, and FM Ilia Liplin (both Russia) tied for second place with 7 points each. Lukasz Nowak (Poland), Jasper Rom (Philippines), IM Igor Yarmonov (Ukraine), Henry Lopez ( Philippines), IM Dmitry Scerbin (Russia), Alexandra Alexandrova (Israel), Bakytzhan Maikenov (Kazakhstan) shared 5th – 11th place with 6.5 points each. Alexandrova, who finished in the respectable tenth place, was awarded as the best woman player. Young Israeli grandmasters Nitzan Steinberg and Ori Kobo and IM Omer Reshef provided English commentary throughout the entire event via Twitch on the ICF official website. The closing ceremony, conducted in Zoom, saw ICF chairman Dr. Zvika Barkai greeting all the participants and the winners in particular. Special thanks go to the IPCA president Svetlana Gerasimova and its honorary president Zbigniew Philimon for their contribution to the event’s success. The IPCA annual World Championship was initially scheduled to be held at the end of June in the Israeli coastal city of Ashdod, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it had been postponed and hopefully will take place in October at the same venue. At the same time, it is planned to carry on this new online initiative in the coming years regardless of the epidemiological situation as it provides excellent opportunities to physically limited players in terms of logistics and finance.
Chess after COVID-19 online discussion to be held on June 29
FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich and the 14th World Champion Vladimir Kramnik will take part in an online discussion Chess after COVID-19, organized by Roscongress Foundation and FIDE. The event starts on June 29 at 11:00 Moscow time (8:00 GMT). “We will talk about the last tendencies in chess, FIDE’s initiatives aimed at promoting and developing online-chess and explosive growth of interest to our game during the pandemic. We are also going to discuss a possible resumption of live tournaments, the prospects of chess inclusion in the school curriculum, the legacy of the biggest chess events, and other relevant topics. As long-term partners with Roscongress Foundation, we have been holding chess receptions and other sports projects at the largest economic forums and continue our cooperation in the virtual environment.” Arkady Dvorkovich said. The discussion, powered by Telesport Media television studio, also features the executive director of Chess Federation of Russia Mark Glukhovsky, the rector of Russian State Social University Natalia Pochinok, State Duma Deputy Alikhan Kharsiev, the sports minister of Primorsky Kray Jan Kuznetsov and the director for development and strategic partnership of “Odnoklassniki” social media and social networking service Alexander Volodin. Vice Prime Minister of Udmurtia Mikhail Khomich will serve as a moderator. You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRP17U1TAXQ Roscongress Cup chess tournaments featuring Russian political and business elite have become a trademark of St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, and Russian Investment Forum in Sochi. During the pandemic, these events migrated into the online format.
Carlsen, Nepomniachtchi storm into semis of Chessable Masters
Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi breezed into the last four of the $150,000 Chessable Masters with dominating displays today. Carlsen, the reigning World Champion, needed just three games to dispatch his 2018 title challenger Fabiano Caruana and reach the semis. The Norwegian won the second and third games after a first game draw to take the set 2.5-0.5 and the match 2-0 without needing a third day. Carlsen said: “I’ve got to say it was a pretty good, clean day.” In the all-Russian match, Nepomniachtchi also faced little resistance as he blew apart Vladislav Artemiev in similar fashion 2.5-0-5. Tomorrow Hikaru Nakamura and Ding Liren resume their battle with the winner of the tie set to face Carlsen. The winner of the Alexander Grischuk – Anish Giri tie will go up against Nepomniachtchi. If either of the best-of-three matches is tied after tomorrow’s second set, it will go to a decider on Monday. About the tournament The Chessable Masters, broadcast live on chess24, is the next stage of the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour which carries a total prize pot of $1 million, a record for the online game. The event, which runs until July 5, is being put on in association with Chessable and the tour’s Education Partner, leading Swiss private banking group, Julius Baer. The final winner will take home top prize of $45,000 and a ticket to the $300,000 tour Grand Final. Coverage begins with commentary in 10 languages at 16.00 CEST. You can watch it live here: https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tournaments/chessable-masters-2020-group-a#live Highlights English:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dpG2c-dmqs58tSDSZvxzGNqzgquJyO0g?usp=sharing FOR MORE INFORMATION:Leon Watsonleon@chessable.com+447786 078770
Asian Senior Championship to be held in mid-July on Chess.com
The Asian Chess Federation invites all National Chess Federations to participate in the Asian Seniors Online Chess Championships in over 50 and over 65 years old categories. The event will take place over July 13-21, 2020 on Chess.com. The competition is open to all players, regardless of rating or title who reach the age of 50 and 65 by December 31, 2020, and are members of National Chess Federations in FIDE Zones from 3.1 to 3.7. There is no limit to the number of participants per federation. All the participants should have a valid FIDE ID number. The deadline for registration is July 6, 2020. Zonal tournaments shall be 7-round Swiss System events held every day. The over-65 category may be round-robin of 7 rounds or shall be merged if there are few players. All players should complete their respective tournaments. Top 3 men and best women qualify for the Finals. The Finals will be 9-round Swiss System events for over-50 and over-65 categories. The time control in all the tournaments is 10 minutes + 2-second increment per move. Top three winners of each category will receive Gold, Silver and Bronze Certificates for the Zonals and Finals. A total of $3,000 will be distributed as follows. Money prizes are not shared. Prize fund distribution: Over 50 Over 65 Best women 1st – $500 1st – $350 Over 50 – $300 2nd – $400 2nd – $200 Over 65 – $100 3rd – $300 3rd – $150 4th – $200 4th – $100 5th – $150 5th – $100 6th – $150 Strict fair-play rules will be applied throughout the event. All players will be monitored via Zoom and may not leave seats during the game. Regulations for Asian Senior Online Championship (pdf) Registration form (pdf)
Chessable Masters: Ding and Giri take the lead
Chinese powerhouse Ding Liren underlined his credentials in the $150,000 Chessable Masters today with a cool first-set win over Hikaru Nakamura. The 27-year-old national number 1 drew first blood in the heavyweight pair’s race to the semis with a crucial second game victory. Nakamura tried to fight back and threw caution to the wind in the next two games, but couldn’t break through “The Chinese Wall”. Ding closed out the set 2.5-1.5. Nakamura, who has become a huge star in online gaming, has failed to find his form so far in this tournament and only just scraped into the last eight from his prelim group. Ding is now the firm favorite to make it through while Nakamura has to win on Sunday to take it to a decider on Monday or face an early exit. World Champion Magnus Carlsen or world number 2 Fabiano Caruana will lie in wait for the winner in the semis. In the other tie, it took a two-game blitz chess play-off and then an Armageddon tiebreaker to separate Anish Giri and Alexander Grischuk after they played out four consecutive draws. The draws were not without drama though. Giri spurned a clear chance to go in front in game two and allowed Grischuk to pull off a miraculous save. Watching online, Carlsen remarked on Twitter: “My boy @anishgiri snatching a draw from the jaws of victory.” Giri and Grischuk then went into a blitz play-off which saw two more draws – making six drawn games in total between the two. In the Armageddon game, Giri chose the black pieces with a time disadvantage so only needed to draw which he duly did to finally win the set. On Saturday Carlsen and Caruana are back in action with Caruana needing a win. Ian Nepominachtchi is ahead in the other quarter with a 1-0 lead over Vladislav Artemiev. About the tournament The Chessable Masters, broadcast live on chess24, is the next stage of the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour which carries a total prize pot of $1 million, a record for the online game. The event, which runs until July 5, is being put on in association with Chessable and the tour’s Education Partner, leading Swiss private banking group, Julius Baer. The final winner will take home top prize of $45,000 and a ticket to the $300,000 tour Grand Final. Coverage begins with commentary in 10 languages at 16.00 CEST. You can watch it live here: https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tournaments/chessable-masters-2020-group-a#live Highlights English:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dpG2c-dmqs58tSDSZvxzGNqzgquJyO0g?usp=sharing FOR MORE INFORMATION:Leon Watsonleon@chessable.com+447786 078770