World School Chess Championship is postponed
The International Chess Federation has decided to postpone the World School Chess Championship, which was scheduled to take place in Panama City, from May 28th to June 7th. The new dates are November 1-11, 2020. The Wyndham Panama Albrook Mall Hotel & Convention Center remains as the official hotel and playing venue, as it was initially planned: this hotel is located within 35 minutes from the two main airports: Tocumen International Airport (one of the main hubs in Central America), and the Panama Pacifico Airport. We regret the inconveniences that this may cause to the participants, but both FIDE and the Panama Chess Federation understand we have no option but to postpone the event in response to the coronavirus outbreak. The decision was made following the recommendations of the World Health Organization, the national sports authorities in Panama, and also attending to the concerns expressed by many participants and National Federations. Our top priority is the protection of public health. Bookings and deposits will be transferred to the new dates, and in case any participant is not able to attend the event in these new dates, he will be fully refunded for their hotel bookings and registration fees. We would like to note that since the reason for the postponement is force majeure and a recognized worldwide serious threat for public health, neither FIDE nor the organizers can be responsible for other expenses incurred by participants, including travel expenses and air tickets. However, since this is a global issue, most airlines are offering free changes or full refunds to all passengers who were supposed to travel during this period. FIDE is also considering the possibility to postpone all the remaining 2020 competitions to 2021, and the 2021 competitions to 2022. We will keep monitoring the situation, and an announcement will be made a minimum of 4 months prior to the planned starting date of the event.
Grand Chess Tour cancels 2020 season due to COVID-19
The Grand Chess Tour (GCT) regretfully announces the cancellation of its 2020 season. The global pandemic known as COVID-19 is impacting our lives, and all sporting events around the world are being canceled or postponed. “The Grand Chess Tour’s priority is the health and well-being of our participants, spectators, staff and partners,” said GCT Executive Director Michael Khodarkovsky. “The GCT board of directors reached this decision in collaboration with partners and sponsors based on recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO).” “We would like to reassure players and the world chess community that all our sponsors and partners: Superbet Group and Superbet Foundation, Vivendi SA, Colliers International, and the Saint Louis Chess Club have confirmed their commitment for the 2021 season,” said legendary World Champion and GCT President Garry Kasparov. “The sixth season is now to be held in 2021, and fans around the world can expect an expanded tour.” The Saint Louis Chess Club will await further developments and recommendations from medical and civic authorities before determining the fate of the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz, Sinquefield Cup, and Champions Showdown: Chess9LX, currently scheduled for August 24 – September 14 collectively. “The Saint Louis Chess Club hopes for the best global outcome possible,“ said Rex Sinquefield, founder of the Saint Louis Chess Club. “Our goal is to host these events as scheduled.” Details on dates and format for the Grand Chess Tour 2021 season will be announced in the coming months. Official site: grandchesstour.org.
2020 Extraordinary General Assembly Minutes
FIDE publishes the Minutes of 2020 FIDE Extraordinary General Assembly which was held in Abu Dhabi, UAE on February 28th. Download 2020 Extraordinary General Assembly Minutes (pdf)
Dzagnidze and Abdumalik shoot up in April rating list
FIDE April 1 rating listAll Top-100 listsAll rating lists – download Although chess competitions all around the world were suspended in March due to the outbreak of COVID-19, some tournaments were played at the beginning of the month (FIDE Women’s Grand Prix Lausanne and the traditional Nutcracker in Moscow) with their results being incorporated into the April ratings. Moreover, the first part of the FIDE 2020 Candidates also found its way into the list, which slightly influenced the standings in the TOP 10 Open. TOP 10 Open: 1. Magnus Carlsen – 2863 (+1)2. Fabianо Caruana – 2835 (-7)3. Ding Liren – 2791 (-14)4. Nepomniachtchi Ian – 2784 (+10)5. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave – 2778 (+11)6. Alexander Grischuk – 2777 (0)7. Levon Aronian – 2773 (0)8. Wesley So – 2770 (0)9. Teimour Radjabov – 2765 (0)10. Anish Giri – 2764 (+1) Photo: Maria Emelianova The leaders after the first part of the Candidates Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Ian Nepomniachtchi scored 4.5/7 each and picked 11 and 10 points respectively with the former moving 3 positions up. The pre-event favorites Fabiano Caruana and Ding Liren found themselves in the red zone rating wise but kept their spots in the top 3. Anish Giri netted just one rating point but even this small increase allowed him to tie for 10th place with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Biggest gains: 1. Bassem Amin – 2686 (+19)2. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave – 2778 (+11)3. Ian Nepomniachtchi – 2784 (+10)4. Andrey Esipenko – 2682 (+10)5. David W L Howell – 2663 (+10)6. Evgeny Tomashevsky – 2706 (+5)7. Luke J McShane – 2680 (+5)8. Jorden Van Foreest – 2682 (+4)9. Markus Ragger – 2679 (+4)10. Constantin Lupulescu – 2656 (+4) A rising star of African chess Bassem Amin was very productive in March. The GM from Egypt crushed the competition in the Arab Cities Chess Championship and Arab Chess Club Championship and earned 19 rating points – by far the biggest gain in the TOP 100 Open. Photo: Amruta Mokal, ChessBase India A young Russian GM Andrey Esipenko keeps climbing in the rating lists. This month he became one of the players to make the biggest progress thanks to his strong performance in the above mentioned Nutcracker tournament in which a team of Kings (Gelfand, Shirov, Tomashevsky, and Najer) played Princes (Sarana, Esipenko, Yuffa, and Lomasov) in classical and rapid chess. Eventually, Kings prevailed but it was not Esipenko to blame – Andrey scored solid +2 in classical games, netted 10 rating points and broke into the TOP 3 of the juniors rating list. Photo: Eteri Kublashvili Ironically, two “Kings”, namely Alexei Shirov and Evgeniy Najer dropped some rating points in March (in Sweden and in Moscow respectively) and had to leave the TOP 100 Open. On the other hand, their teammate Yevgeny Tomashevsky did very well in classical games in the Nutcracker 2020 and rose by 5 notches in the April rating list. Welcome to TOP 100 Open: Romain Edouard (2649)Sergei Movsesian (2649)Dariusz Swiercz (2649) We have three only three newcomers in April which hardly surprises anyone given the slump in chess activity around the globe. It is worth noting that two of them (Movsesian and Swiercz) did not play a single game in March. Photo: David Llada The third leg of FIDE Women’s Grand Prix in Lausanne saw the triumph of Nana Dzagnidze who scored the most important tournament victory in her career and picked up 15 rating points along the way. Maybe even bigger surprise was the performance by the 20-year old Kazakhstani Zhansaya Abdumalik. The #1 female junior finished third (+17 rating points) list and reached her career-high in the TOP 100 Women list. Photo: David Llada The participants of the recent Women’s World Championship match Ju Wenjun and Aleksandra Goryachkina had quite different tournament paths in Lausanne. The World Champion was far from her best which cost her 23 rating points, whereas the recent challenger turned in a strong performance and shared first place with Nana Dzagnidze. As a result, Goryachkina surpassed Ju Wenjun and returned into the top 3.
First Kazakhstan online tournament Uide Bol Cup 2020 to start on April 11
The first Kazakhstan national online blitz tournament Uide Bol (translated as Stay Home) Cup 2020 organized by Kazakhstan Chess Federation (KCF) in partnership with Kcell mobile telecom will start on April 11, 2020, on chess.com website. The registration started yesterday on the official website and will be open until April 10, 2020. Only citizens and residents of Kazakhstan are eligible to take part in the event. The participants (the total number shall not exceed 1,000 people) will have a chance to fight over virtual boards for the total prize fund of 2 million KZT (about USD 4,500). There will be separate prizes for women, seniors, juniors and children. “The overwhelming majority of the population of Kazakhstan is now under quarantine conditions caused by the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. This tournament provides an excellent opportunity for its participants to have fun and even earn money with their chess skills. We hope that the KCF initiative supported by the Ministry of Culture and Sport of Kazakhstan, Qazaq Cybersport Federation, and Kcell JSC will bring together a record number of participants. I wish them good luck and success,” – Mr. Zhandos Abishev, Executive director of Kazakhstan Chess Federation, said.
Arianne Caoili dies at 33
Dreadful news came from Yerevan. Levon Aronian‘s wife, Arianne Caoili passed away following the tragic car accident two weeks earlier. Our deepest condolences to Levon Aronian. No words can describe our shock and grief. In this dark time of life, we are sending all the strength in the world to Levon, the couple’s family, and friends. “I have no words to express the grievance over my wife Arianne’s death. She was intelligent, hard working and joyous person that lived a beautiful life. I love you honeybun, sleep tight….” wrote Levon Aronian on Twitter.
You can now subscribe to the FIDE newsletter
FIDE has recently launched a bi-weekly newsletter, which aims to provide you with relevant information about happenings within our organization, and the member chess federations. Not only will you find information about current FIDE events, but we will also share with you the main decisions, case studies, and inspiring stories. The first issue, on March 16, was distributed exclusively among the members of the FIDE directory. You can check it out HERE. The second issue is in the oven right now, scheduled to be published on Monday, March 30. And from now on, it will be open for anyone to subscribe and receive it. All you have to do is to register at the following link. Please fill the form with your contact email, and your full name. At the bottom, you will need to give FIDE your consent to send you the Newsletter and, optionally, you can also authorize us to send you some other kind of communications in the future, like tournaments announcements, special offers or information about FIDE seminars.
FIDE 2020 Candidates: A roundup of the first part
The FIDE 2020 Candidates Tournament was brought to a halt after the decision of the Russian authorities to stop all international flights as of March 27. By that point, half of the tournament had been played (seven out of 14 rounds) and the chess community and the world, in general, had had a chance to enjoy spectacular games, a welcome distraction from the rolling news about the coronavirus. Explaining the decision to halt the Candidates, FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich said that the stopping of international flights to/from Russia would have “put too much pressure on the players and participants in terms of how and when they will be able to return home”. He added that FIDE did “everything to ensure the safe and secure return of everyone to their homes”. On the morning of the announcement by the Russian government, and following the decision to stop the event, FIDE immediately sorted out travel for both players and staff, by purchasing tickets and organizing a charter flight to ensure everyone’s speedy and safe return home. The Candidates tournament is one of the most important chess events of the year – to both the players and the chess community – and is directly connected to the match for the title of World Champion. This year’s event has a prize fund of 500,000 euros, which is the biggest ever for a Candidates tournament. FIDE was committed to doing everything in its power to ensure that play went ahead, providing maximum safety and security for all involved, which was maintained for the duration of the event. It should also be noted that every decision about the event was made in consultation and agreement with the players who took part. There have been questions as to whether the decision to go ahead with the event in the first place was right or wrong. FIDE maintains that when the decision was made to go ahead, it was done so taking into consideration the situation in Russia at the time (there were only a small number of cases and everything was done in coordination with the Russian authorities) and following discussions with the players. FIDE also put in place health & safety measures to ensure that the players, arbiters and the entire on-site staff had all the necessary protection. This included two daily check-ups with doctors, tests for coronavirus (two were carried out for the duration of the event, at the beginning and at the end, and all came back as negative), sanitizers and masks, as well as banning spectators and maintaining social distancing for all involved. It should also be noted that the constant health monitoring and high level of protection provided to everyone involved was much more stringent than anything currently available to the majority of people around the world on a daily basis. As World Champion Magnus Carlsen noted on his comments to Chess24, “having completed seven rounds has some merit – at least we tried, which I think in these days should not be discounted as nothing! I feel as though obviously this situation is chaotic and all those people who called for the tournament to be postponed from the start are going to say, ‘I told you so’ at this point, but I do feel as though they tried what they could and now it’s just not possible so they have to get the players out safely.” It is right to argue that the tournament took place under difficult, even unprecedented, circumstances. However, we are witnessing the creation of a new “normal”, where not just playing chess, but life, in general, will be completely different. How we do things in the future, in whichever field that may be, is very likely going to be significantly different from what it was before the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus. As Vishy Anand put it, “we are on the uncharted territory”. Bearing this in mind, FIDE’s decision to go ahead with the event was done by trying to minimize these disruptive circumstances. It was guided by having the best interests of chess at heart and in an attempt to help provide the chess audience and the public in general with a tournament that would lift everyone’s spirits during these troubled times, while also maintaining the health and safety of all involved. From the duration of the first part of the event, interest in chess has risen globally. The live stream and commentary of the 2020 Candidates have attracted a viewership of several million people around the world. Top-class players (including the current World Champion) took part in daily shows to comment on the games. Overall, chess portals with live commentary saw a strong increase in viewership. Reports about the 2020 Candidates appeared on prominent pages in media outlets around the world (Reuters, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Financial Times, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, to name a few), giving chess attention which has not been seen for years. While concerns about the decision to continue with the event were pointed out (FIDE acknowledged them and always faced them head-on), the chess community was praised for its endeavor to have the only major sporting event in the world going ahead for as long as possible. In chess terms, the seven rounds played at the 2020 Candidates produced some of the best examples of chess play and chess spirit ever seen. In the first part, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Ian Nepomniachtchi gave the best performances but other participants showed a high level of preparation and sophistication in their play. All 28 games played in the first seven rounds provided excitement and novelty, pushing the overall quality of chess currently played in the world to a higher level. Following the agreement between FIDE and players before the event, with regards to the current global developments, the tournament has now stopped and will continue at a later stage when circumstances allow. In the meantime, FIDE has said that it remains committed to ensuring that the chess community continues to function during this period. The international chess body will use
Eduardo Mieles Viteri passes away
March 30, 2020 It is with the deepest sadness that we learned about the passing of Eduardo Mieles Viteri, who was President of the Ecuadorian Chess Federation, as well as a member of the FIDE Executive Board. Eduardo was also an International Arbiter and member of the Confederation of Chess for America. We are very thankful for his dedication and his contributions to promoting chess from all these institutions, and we would like to express our sincerest condolences to his relatives, his loved ones, and all the members of the chess community in Ecuador. In particular, our thoughts are with his son, the International Master Daniel Mieles Palau.
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A roundup of the first part of the 2020 Candidates FIDE canceled events and our swift towards online activities Online chess activity peaks during the global lockdown 50 years ago, the USSR was battling the rest of the World READ NEWSLETTER