Senior Champions crowned in Bucharest
The World Senior Chess Championship, played in four sections, is concluded in Bucharest. Impressive lineups and the prize fund increased by FIDE warranted a very close contest and unpredictable outcomes until the very last round. The only exception was the highest-rated category Open 50+. In this tournament, the champion was essentially determined two rounds before the finish. A debutant of senior events Vadim Shishkin from Ukraine (he is just 50!) defeated his main competitors face to face and smoothly sailed in the last rounds. The Ukranian netted 9 out of 11 points without losses and won a clear first place. The champion owes his title to a winning streak (four victories in a row) he made in the middle of the tournament distance. As part of this streak, Shishkin beat his main competitor of the same age Vladislav Nevednichy (Romania). As a result, the latter finished just a half-point behind the champion and tied for the second with one of the best chess players of Latin America Ivan Morovic Fernandez from Chile. The last year champion Karen Movsziszian (Armenia) came fourth. The rating-favorites Kiril Georgiev (North Macedonia), Darcy Lima (Brazil), Zurab Sturua (Georgia) and Alexander Shabalov (USA) scored 7.5 points each tied for 5th place along with nine other GMs – it is just another evidence of extremely fierce competition in this event. The last round in the Open 65+ category could have been played in the USSR championship, say, 40 years ago. The leaders Anatoli Vaisser and Yuri Balashov split a point facing each other whereas an ambitious young competitor (their junior by two years!) Rafael Vaganian caught up with them and took the title thanks to better tiebreaks. These three excellent GMs representing Armenia (Vaganian), France (Vaisser) and Russia (Balashov) notched 8.5 points each. A large group of players headed by Carlos Garcia Palermo (Italy) and Evgeny Sveshnikov (Russia) finished a half-point behind. The tenth round became the decisive one in the Women 50+ section. Elvira Berend took down Natalia Sirotkina with black pieces, whereas Tatiana Bogumil, who was leading for the most part of the event, suffered a defeat at the hands of Tatiana Grabuzova. By making a draw in the last round, the rating-favorite, playing under the banner of Luxemburg, secured a clear first place with с 8.5 out of 11 points. Tatiana Bogumil is second with 7.5 points; Galina Strutinskaia, Tatiana Grabuzova (both Russia) and Marina Makropoulou (Greece) tied for the third place. Since by the end of the tournament Women 65+ all the favorites basically played each other, in the last rounds the front-runner, illustrious champion Nona Gaprindashvili (Georgia) had relatively easy opponents. Nona finished with three victories in a row and took the title scoring 8.5 out of 11 points. Two Russian players Elena Fatalibekova and Valentina Kozlovskaya tied for the second place. FIDE congratulates all the winners! The next year World Senior Chess Championship will be held on the same dates (mid-November) in Assisi (Italy). Photo: Mark Livshitz Official site
Tata Steel Rapid & Blitz: Carlsen pulls away
For the World Champion Magnus Carlsen and India #1 Viswanathan Anand, day two began not on the chessboard, but at Eden Gardens for the Cricket Test Match between India and Bangladesh. They partook in the ceremonial bell ringing to kick off day two of the test match, which has an audience of approximately one billion viewers. Back on the chessboard, many decisive and exciting games were seen on the second day of Tata Steel Chess India Rapid & Blitz. After a strong performance yesterday, Carlsen continued to steal the show with dominating play. Round 4 After several lackluster performances (by the World Champion’s standards) Magnus Carlsen seems to be back to his winning ways in Kolkata. In Round 4, he played with his closest pursuer Hikaru Nakamura and won this key game. Nakamura probably mixed something up in the opening as Carlsen got an extremely strong pawn center and a clear advantage. Hikaru defended resourcefully giving up a pawn to stop White’s onslaught but made a crucial misstep with 35…Rb8. After an easy 36.Rc1 White was not only a pawn up, but also much more active. Carlsen converted his advantage comfortably and broke away from the field. Anand came back after the disaster against Nepo from yesterday. In a very complex Giuoco Piano middle game, Aronian played really well against him, but not quickly enough. Running out of time, the Armenian GM stumbled and gave up a piece. That’s not the kind of advantage you can hand to one of the game’s greatest. After this victory, Anand was on 5 points. A few days ago Ian Nepomniachtchi convincingly won an online match against Ding, but it looks like both players are far from their best in Kolkata. After an unbelievable mistake in the handbook rook endgame yesterday, Ding Liren lost with white pieces against So. Ding was much better after the opening and was looking for winning chances, but somehow missed an easy pin with an ill-advised Rc8-e8 maneuver. The Chinese GM lost a knight and resigned immediately. The game Harikrishna – Nepomniachtchi saw a remake of Nepo’s yesterday triumph against Anand, but this time Ian was playing a victim. After Harikrishna obtained a dominating position with a strong knight on f5, Russian GM tried to escape in a tactical skirmish. It did not work as the local wild card found an elegant 28.Rc2 and secured his first victory in the event. Giri was trying to play for a win against Vidit with Black, but after a series of exchanges had to agree to a draw. Round 5 The World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen scored another victory, this time with Black against Anish Girl. With a strong pawn on e6 and the bishop aiming for a cool c5 square, Giri’s position after the opening looked very attractive. Strangely enough, a natural 18.Bc5 was the turning point of the game – Black’s bishops became very active, White had to retreat his pieces, whereas the e6-pawn gradually turned into a weakness. After transposing into a better endgame, Carlsen once again demonstrated his impeccable technique. Anand recently lost a few games in which his opponents launched a direct attack on his king, and it looks like it was Nakamura’s plan for their Round 5 encounter. This time though Anand wasn’t going down without a fight. His queen returned to the king’s rescue just in time and the game ended with a perpetual. It is quite a challenge to play Marshall Attack against Levon Aronian, who is indisputably the best expert in this always-popular line. Harikrishna wasn’t up to this challenge today. He had two bishops being a pawn down in the endgame, but Aronian eventually ground him down and finally got his first win in Tata Steel Rapid & Blitz. Both Nepomniachtchi and Ding have been underperforming in Kolkata so far, and the fifth round Ian’s troubles continued. The Chinese GM was slowly outmaneuvering him in a typical Rui Lopez middle game, but the outcome was still unclear until Nepo just left his rook hanging. Another Ruy Lopez brought So and Vidit to a queen endgame where the former was looking for the opportunities to play for a win, and the latter was defending. Eventually, Vidit lost the track of the game and threw in the towel. Round 6 In Round 6, Carlsen faced off against Indian wildcard Vidit Gujrathi. Vidit surprised chess fans by winning a pawn early on and then spent most of the game pressing for a win. However, Carlsen defended his position precisely and held on for a draw. With four victories and two draws so far, the World Champion sits comfortably on top of the leaderboard with 10 points. The American grandmasters Wesley So and Hikaru Nakamura are tied for second place with 7 points each. After a slow start on the first day, So turned in a fine performance today by defeating Ding and Vidit and drawing with Nepomniachtchi. Nakamura managed to rebound from his Round 4 loss by drawing with Anand in Round 5 and defeating Harikrishna in round 6. With one more day of rapid chess and two days of blitz to go, the tournament is still very much up for grabs. Standings after 6 rounds: Photo: Lennart Ootes (Grand Chess Tour) Official site
Tata Steel Rapid & Blitz: Carlsen takes the lead
The seventh leg of the 2019 Grand Chess Tour regular season kicked off today at the National Library in Kolkata, India. Over five days (November 22-26), eight of the world’s top chess players including the reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen plus two local wildcards Vidit Santosh Gujrathi and Pentala Harikrishna will compete in rapid and blitz chess for a prize fund of $150,000. The first day featured three rounds of rapid chess in which players each receive 25 minutes plus a 10-second delay. After an eventful first day, Magnus Carlsen emerged as the sole leader by scoring two impressive victories. Round 1 Anish Giri grabbed the lead right from the start repeating the scenario of the Grand Chess Tour event in Bucharest. In the first game, he defeated Ian Nepomniachtchi with Black. Russian GM was slightly better in the Catalan, but made a terrible mistake with 28.Qxa1?? completely forgetting about a dangerous black e-pawn. After 28…Qe6 White had to give up a knight to stop the pawn and was completely lost after that. All other Round 1 games were drawn. There were two more Catalan Openings – Harikrishna never got anything substantial against his compatriot Vidit, whereas Ding Liren had some pressure versus Anand, but seemingly wasn’t in a mood for a big fight. Aronian tried to surprise Nakamura with quite a rare line in Italian Game, but the American GM was clearly unimpressed and equalized with ease. All eyes in Round 1 were on the rematch of the Fischer Random Championship final between Wesley So and Magnus Carlsen. In one of the sharpest lines of Najdorf (6.h3), Carlsen had some counterplay on the queenside but apparently blundered a pawn with 22…Bb6. Despite being a pawn up though, So never had a real chance to score a full point. With all the pawns on the same side of the board, Carlsen held him for a draw. Round 2 Carlsen played with his “classical games’ Nemesis” Nepomniachtchi and proved that in rapid he was a better player today. World Champion avoided major theory lines in the Sicilian but grabbed an opening advantage with the maneuver Nf3-d2-b3-a5 anyway. He denied his opponent of any counterplay and created an extremely strong passed pawn on the Queen’s side. Nepomniachtchi tried to escape but to no avail. Anand also scored a victory in Round 2 and joined the leaders. In classical Ruy Lopez Anand used the a-file to penetrate into Wesley So’s camp, but Fischer Random Champion was OK until he missed a nice geometrical knight maneuver. Anand won a pawn, but not a game as Black still had good chances for a draw. At some moment So had an easy escape but missed that he could go for a pawn ending. Now he needed to find some precise moves to hold the game but with time ticking down he didn’t manage to do it. Anand won a second pawn and the game. Giri didn’t have a real chance to retain a sole lead – his game with Aronian was an uneventful draw. Harikrishna had White second time in a row and this time he was close to his first victory. After he won a central pawn, Ding Liren’s position looked just lost, but somehow the Chinese GM activated his queen to regain a pawn and then this very queen ran all the way back to d8 to stop White’s passer. Probably the Indian wild-card missed some opportunities, but Ding’s creative defense is highly commendable anyway. The most double-edged game was the encounter Vidit – Nakamura. Once again, Catalan Opening was played where Vidit had some chances to grab the initiative. He missed several active moves though and at the very end, Nakamura even had a chance to play for a win with a computer move 40…Qd2!, but opted for an immediate draw. Round 3 After two losses, Nepo got into the beast mode, and Anand became a victim. In the English opening, Nepomniachtchi planted his knight on f5 and then went for a breakthrough in the center. After a careless 17…Rfe8? Ian found a simple combination that forced Anand to resign on move 22. In the central game of the round, Aronian and Carlsen fought in the Najdorf Sicilian with the opposite-side castling. Around move 25 Grand Chess Tour Bucharest winner missed a strong continuation, and it was all Carlsen after that. Fist, Black’s queen found a way into White’s fortifications and then a timely piece sacrifice left Aronian in dire straits. Levon defended stubbornly to bring the game to the ending with two light pieces against a rook, but Black’s extra pawns turned to be a decisive factor. In a completely winning position, Carlsen misplaced his rook on g7, thus allowing Aronian to save a half-point with an easy 49.Nf4+! but Levon also missed this move and soon resigned. Even more improbable miss decided the result of the encounter Ding Liren – Vidit. The world #3 from China was pressing the whole game and came very close to converting his advantage in the middle game. Vidit was defending really well and finally reached a drawish rook ending. He was the first to make a mistake there allowing the white king to invade the queenside where his Majesty took Black’s last pawn. With mere seconds on his clock, Vidit continued what looked like hopeless resistance and somehow saved a draw after Ding made an unbelievable blunder in a well-known position with 79.a7+?? As a result, the game ended with a stalemate. Playing versus Giri, Nakamura sacrificed a pawn to ruin Black’s pawn structure on the Queen’s side in the endgame. Giri’s position was unpleasant but not hopeless by any means, but he clearly underestimated the danger and soon found himself in big trouble. Nakamura was ruthless demonstrating an excellent endgame technique. So was pushing for a win against Harikrishna but Indian GM managed to defend all his weak pawns with two bishops and the game ended peacefully. Standings after Round 3: Photo: Lennart Ootes (Grand Chess Tour) Official site
2024 World Chess Olympiad Bidding Procedure announcement
FIDE is hereby opening a bidding procedure for the 2024 Chess Olympiad in connection with a bid for the FIDE Women’s World Cup 2022 and the FIDE World Cup 2023. Any federation member of FIDE or any Organiser approved by a national federation may apply for the organisation of the Chess Olympiad. Applicants are invited to read the FIDE Chess Olympiad 2024 Regulations and to follow the requirements described in Chapter 7. Bids are to be sent to the FIDE Secretariat to office@fide.com Deadline is May 1st 2020. Regulations for the FIDE Chess Olympiad 2024 Regulations for the FIDE World Cup 2023 Regulations for the FIDE Women’s World Cup 2022
World Senior Championship is on the home stretch
With just three rounds to go, the World Senior Chess Championship in Bucharest, Romania, is on the home stretch. This year all four veteran tournaments (Open 50+, Men 65+, Women 50+ and Women 65+) can boast of very strong lineups. The main reason behind this impressive turnout is FIDE’s decisions to increase prize funds and cancel fees for the participants. Kiril Georgiev, a well-known Bulgarian GM playing under the banner of Northern Macedonia tops the rating list in Open 50+. The semifinalist of the World Blitz Championship 1988 (he beat Garry Kasparov on the way) hasn’t suffered a single defeat yet, but with 6 points out of 8, he is just tied for the third. The top two lines in the standings are occupied by a “young” (only 50!) grandmaster Vadim Shishkin from Ukraine (7 out of 8) and Vladislav Nevednichy from Romania (6.5 out of 8). In the ninth round, Shishkin is facing Georgiev whereas Nevednichy takes on the commentator at the FIDE World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk Alex Yermolinsky with black. Vadim Shishkin Even more famous grandmaster is the rating-favorite in the Open 65+ section. A legend of Soviet Chess, USSR champion of 1989 Rafael Vaganian is the only player with rating 2500+ among the participants. Vaganian has 6 points under his belt but it will be very hard for him to win the title – in the seventh round, the Armenian GM was defeated by an Italian lawyer and grandmaster Carlos Garcia Palermo. The Italian is holding the top spot (7 out of 8), with several grandmasters, including the Russians Evgeny Sveshnikov and Yuri Balashov, trailing by a half-point. Carlos Garcia Palermo Women’s events have been attracting the best of the best even before the measures taken by FIDE and this championship is no exception. There are five Russian players in top-10 of the Women 50 section with Tatiana Bogumil leading the field (6.5 points) in the Women 50+. Elvira Berend from Luxemburg (she used to play for Kazakhstan under the last name Sakhatova) is a half-point behind. Two excellent blitz players Galina Strutinskaya (Moscow, Russia) and Nina Sirotkina (St-Petersburg, Russia) are tied for the third place. Tatiana Bogumil Nona Gaprindashvili, the fifth World Champion (1962-1978), is playing in Women 65 section and as usual, enjoys a lot of attention from the audience and journalists. Although the six-time winner of this event is going to celebrate her 80th anniversary in 18 months, she keeps a very high level of play. Sadly, in several games, some deep master plans by the great champion were wrecked by unfortunate blunders. With 5.5 out of 8, Gaprindashvili and Elena Fatalibekova are a half-point behind the leader, Brigitte Burchardt from Germany. Nona Gaprindashvili The championships in all four categories will conclude on Saturday. FIDE.com will follow the tournament progress. Photo: Mark Livshitz Official site Update – Key results of the 9th round: Shishkin – Georgiev: 1-0Yermolinsky – Nevednichy: ½-½Garcia Palermo – Van Riemsdijk: ½-½Sirotkina – Bogumil: ½-½Berend – Wagner-Michel: 1-0Sorokina – Burchardt: 1-0Dotan – Gaprindashvili: 0-1Fatalibekova – Bijunlkham: 1-0
Rating Analytics: USA dominates America’s top 10
Kaspars Migla is the creator and founder of chessratings.top. In his column, he analyzes monthly FIDE standard rating changes, career-high ratings, rating distribution by country, continent, region, and other rating-related statistics. For the first time in the history of FIDE rating calculation and probably for the first time ever America’s top-10 consists exclusively of the US players. By contrast, in the European top-10, six countries are represented, in Asia – 4; in Africa – 3. The last non-US man standing in America’s top-10 had been a GM from Peru Jorge Cori (2651) but after losing 20 rating points last month he slid down from 8th to 11th place in the list. The leading positions in America (which includes 38 federations) are held by Fabiano Caruana (2822), Leinier Dominguez Perez (2762), Wesley So (2760), Hikaru Nakamura (2741) and Jeffery Xiong (2712). You can see a full list here. The chess players from the U.S. came to the fore in America in 2010, when Hikaru Nakamura overtook Leinier Dominguez Perez who represented Cuba back then. Two factors brought about the U.S. domination: firstly, several elite grandmasters (first of all Fabiano Caruana and Wesley So) changed federation and now are playing under the U.S. banner; secondly, meteoric rise of its own young talents. For example, Jeffery Xiong has been steadily improving his rating for eight months in a row, an achievement comparable with a breakthrough by Alireza Firouzja (Iran, 2720). The young Iranian picked 102 rating points since the beginning of the year, which is the best result among top-100. This November Alireza once again surpassed his best rating, mounting to 29th position (among active players). Five players rated over 2700 reached their personal best this November. Alongside with Xiong and Firouzja, this quintet includes Nikita Vitiugov (Russia, 2751), Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Poland, 2748), and Kirill Alekseenko (Russia, 2715). Sixteen players rated 2600 and above (with seven juniors among them) peaked in November 2019. Evgeny Shtembuliak (Ukraine, 2600) cleared this rating bar thanks to his outstanding performance in the World Junior Championship U20 in which he took the title. When talking about women, the result by IM Dinara Saduakassova (Kazakhstan, 2505) in the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss on the Isle of Man is definitely worth mentioning, as she broke her own record and reached grandmaster rating. A chess player from Denmark Gert Sogaard Kristensen (1705) showed the biggest rating gain in November – it took him three tournaments in his home country to earn 301 points. An FM Eugene Yanayt (USA, 2216) distinguished himself by playing the greatest number of games (41) in six tournaments the same month. (FIDE.com – Yanayt has not played chess for a while focusing on poker, where he became one of the best in the world in 2-7 triple draw lowball (one of poker variants). It remains to be seen, whether this great number of games means Eugene’s return to chess.) Among GMs, Yu Yangyi (China, 2753) has the most games, under his belt, namely 27, which is very unusual for a player from top-50. Nevertheless, all 27 games were played in very prestigious competitions – 16 in FIDE World Cup 2019 and 11 in FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss. Yuriy Kuzubov (Ukraine, 2652) is second with 25 games; Russian GMs Igor Naumkin (2400) and Ernesto Inarkiev (2665) are tied for the third with 24 games each. Chess remains a very popular game around the world. As many as 2219 new players with classical rating have been registered in November. The countries with the greatest increase are India (375 people), Germany (131), Russia (119), Iran (116) and France (96). The list of leaders over the last twelve months includes India (2893 people), Russia (2359), Spain (1789), Iran (1694), France (1642) and Germany (1424). Europe top-10 (active players) 1. GM Carlsen, Magnus (NOR) 28702. GM Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime (FRA) 27773. GM Giri, Anish (NED) 27764. GM Nepomniachtchi, Ian (RUS) 27735. GM Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar (AZE) 27726. GM Aronian, Levon (ARM) 27727. GM Radjabov, Teimour (AZE) 27678. GM Grischuk, Alexander (RUS) 27649. GM Karjakin, Sergey (RUS) 275410. GM Kramnik, Vladimir (RUS) 2753 Asia top-10 (active players) 1. GM Ding, Liren (CHN) 28012. GM Anand, Viswanathan (IND) 27573. GM Yu, Yangyi (CHN) 27534. GM Wang, Hao (CHN) 27525. GM Harikrishna, Pentala (IND) 27316. GM Wei, Yi (CHN) 27247. GM Vidit, Santosh Gujrathi (IND) 27228. GM Firouzja, Alireza (IRI) 27209. GM Le, Quang Liem (VIE) 271310. GM Bu, Xiangzhi (CHN) 2705 America top-10 (active players) 1. GM Caruana, Fabiano (USA) 28222. GM Dominguez Perez, Leinier (USA) 27623. GM So, Wesley (USA) 27604. GM Nakamura, Hikaru (USA) 27415. GM Xiong, Jeffery (USA) 27126. GM Kamsky, Gata (USA) 26847. GM Shankland, Sam (USA) 26798. GM Robson, Ray (USA) 26739. GM Swiercz, Dariusz (USA) 265910. GM Sevian, Samuel (USA) 2657 Africa Top 10 (active players) 1. GM Amin, Bassem (EGY) 26852. GM Adly, Ahmed (EGY) 26073. GM Hamdouchi, Hicham (MAR) 25624. GM Bellahcene,Bilel (ALG) 25395. GM Shoker, Samy (EGY) 25046. IM Arab, Adlane (ALG) 24857. GM Haddouche, Mohamed (ALG) 24838. GM Fawzy, Adham (EGY) 24789. IM Ezat, Mohamed (EGY) 245210-11. GM Rizouk, Aimen (ALG) 243910-11. IM Rakotomaharo, Fy Antenaina (MAD, 2439)
Moscow will host the King Salman World Rapid & Blitz Championships 2019
Rules for the FIDE Open World Rapid Championship & FIDE Open World Blitz Championship Rules for the FIDE Women’s World Rapid Championship & FIDE Women’s World Blitz Championship FIDE is pleased to announce the dates and venue of the King Salman World Rapid & Blitz Championships-2019. According to the 3-year contract signed in 2017, the company Sela Sport Company Limited (acting for and on behalf of the General Sports Authority of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia) is a partner of FIDE and the owner of the rights to the World Rapid & Blitz Championships 2017-2019. This year, according to the decision of the organizers, the tournament will be hosted in Moscow from 25 to 30 of December 2019. Tournament schedule: December 25 — Opening CeremonyDecember 26-28 — Rapid competitionDecember 29-30 — Blitz competition FIDE is proud to note that the joint efforts of the parties secured a prize fund of 1 million US dollars for this event. The organizer will provide full board accommodation in a standard room (4-star hotel minimum), from December 25th to 31st 2019, to the players who meet the following criteria: Open competition Players rated at least 2550 in any of the FIDE rating lists (Standard, Rapid or Blitz) from January 1st to December 1st, 2019. Women’s competition Players rated at least 2250 in any of the FIDE rating lists (Standard, Rapid or Blitz) from January 1st to December 1st, 2019. VISA SUPPORT A participant can apply for a visa both in his home country and abroad. The main condition is to apply for a Russian visa only in official institutions such as the Consular Section of the Russian Embassy or Consulate-General. Other institutions (including an official Visa Application Center) and travel agencies offering their services will have no access to the information regarding the King Salman World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships 2019. All the embassies and consulates have been informed about the Championship by a circular letter of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. They are ready to assist players with applying for a visa in a time pressure situation. When applying for a Russian visa, alongside with a complete set of documents requested by the Embassy, a participant shall provide the official invitation from the Chess Federation of Russia. This invitation is the main basis for issuing a visa that substitutes for a telex/reference number. Any accredited participant, who needs a visa to enter Russia, should download the visa invitation letter through the registration system. The visa application can start on December 3.
Alexander Grischuk wins FIDE Grand Prix in Hamburg
Alexander Grischuk is the winner of the FIDE Grand Prix in Hamburg. The 36-year-old Russian grandmaster decided the tiebreak of the finals against Jan-Krzysztof Duda in his favor and claimed the victory in the third leg of the Grand Prix series 2019. With this win, Grischuk virtually booked his ticket for the Candidates Tournament which will take place in Yekaterinburg, Russia from March 15 to April 5, 2020. “Now it will be very pleasant for me to watch the final event. Of course, I wish luck to everyone who can still qualify, to “Shakh” Mamedyarov, to Nepomniachtchi and Maxime. But not too much luck to Maxime cause I don’t want him to overtake me. I can not be rooting against myself”, said Grischuk shortly after his victory. On the last day, full of exciting games played with short time control, Grischuk and Duda needed four rapid games to determine the winner. Duda started the first rapid game of the day with the English Opening. The critical position arose after his 12th move when he attacked the black pawn on e4. Grischuk decided to sacrifice this pawn and go for an attack on the kingside. That proved to be the wrong idea. Soon, Duda had complete control over the center, the bishop pair and an extra pawn. With time running down the only question remaining was if Duda could manage to convert his decisive advantage to a full point. He did and did it convincingly. In the endgame, he created a passed pawn on the ‘c’-file and combined it with a mating attack on the back rank. Grischuk struck back immediately in the second rapid game. He started with some excellent opening play in a well-known-line of the Queen’s Indian Defence, and after only 17 moves, he was a pawn up. Duda’s situation soon became desperate. Grischuk penetrated with his queen into black’s back rank and created irrefutable threats. In the third rapid game, Grischuk started again with the white pieces and took the lead. This time Duda chose the Slav Defence, but once again he faced a position which he wasn’t really familiar with. He tried to clear the situation in the center, but Grischuk found a fantastic pawn sacrifice which yielded him a strong initiative thanks to his active pieces and development advantage. Duda tried to find shelter for his king on the queenside, but this allowed Grischuk to launch a devastating attack. He broke through black’s defense and eventually won a full rook. Duda kept fighting as both players were short on time, but the outcome of the game was never in doubt. In the fourth and final rapid game, Duda started with 1.e4 and tried to turn the tables with the Four Knights Game. Both players spent most of their available time of ten minutes on the opening moves. Duda seemed to have a slight initiative in the middlegame, but Grischuk found a brilliant maneuver to centralize his knight on the e4 square. Duda exchanged this knight but consequently transformed into a middlegame with opposite-colored bishops wherein Black had the better minor piece. As usual, Duda fought bravely, but this time he was only able to get away with half a point by offering a draw in a hopeless position. Both players praised each other after the dramatic fight, and Grischuk drew an interesting comparison: “First I want to thank Jan-Krzysztof for this incredible match. I enjoyed every moment of each game all three days. All the games were very tense, and it was a huge fight with no short draws or anything. I was getting a feeling that Jan plays a little bit like an old computer, not exactly Stockfish, but like some Fritz without an opening database, without an opening book, because every game – White/Black – he plays not his best in the opening but then playing incredibly. I remember when I was young, the computers were not as strong, and you could try to compete with them, but still, they were beating you. And I was getting the same feeling today, but then twice I got just too much of an advantage to save even for Fritz or for Jan.” Even after losing against Grischuk, Duda had no reason to be dissatisfied with his performance in Hamburg: “First of all I want to congratulate my opponent. My openings didn’t work out, especially with Black, I think. The second game was terrible because I just blundered a pawn in the opening”. Asked about his overall performance, he replied: “My play here was great. I didn’t expect to get into the final, I didn’t even expect to get into the third round because I found Nepomniachtchi and Yu Yangyi to be the most and probably most unpleasant opponents for me because I haven’t won a single game in classical chess against both of them, but I was lucky that they both blundered a game actually in one move.” Final, tiebreak result: Alexander Grischuk – Jan-Krzysztof Duda 2,5-1,5 Modus for the tiebreak: Two 25+10 rapid games are played. If still tied, there are two 10+10 games, then two 5+3. Finally, a single Armageddon game is played, where White has 5 minutes to Black’s 4 (with a 2-second increment from move 61), but Black wins the match with a draw. Standings FIDE Grand Prix 2019 (after 3 of 4 legs) In principle, only three players are left with a chance to qualify via the FIDE Grand Prix for the Candidates besides Alexander Grischuk. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Ian Nepomniachtchi will most probably compete for the second ticket in Jerusalem with the Frenchman starting with the best prospects. Official website: https://worldchess.com FIDE Press officer for the event: Georgios Souleidis Official Photographer: Valeria Gordienko World Chess contact: media@worldchess.com Photo: Valeria Gordienko, Niki Riga Photos are available for the press from the following link to Dropbox. Leading partners supporting the FIDE World Chess Grand Prix Series 2019 include: Algorand as the Exclusive Blockchain PartnerPhosAgro as the Official Strategic PartnerKaspersky as the Official Cybersecurity PartnerPella Sietas Shipyard as Official PartnerPrytek as the Technology Transfer Partner
Obiettivo Risarcimento and Nona take European Club Cup
A record number of teams, 66 in the open and 14 in women’s sections participated in the European Club Cup that concluded in Ulcinj, Montenegro. The winners of the competition in the hotel complex Holiday Villages earned the titles of European club champions. In the open section Obiettivo Risarcimento Padova rolled up a 100% score – the Italian team staffed with experienced grandmasters from England, Hungary and Spain and two local players on the bottom boards dominated the competition winning all seven matches. Due to the short distance (only 7 rounds) and by the twist of the tournament fortune AVE Novy Bor avoided a clash with the champion. The team from the Czech Republic lost just two matchpoints and became second. The defending champion Mednyi Vsadnik from Russia suffered a defeat in the key penultimate round match with Obiettivo Risarcimento and finished third. The rating-favorite of the event and the champion of 2016 Alkaloid lost to both Obiettivo Risarcimento and Mednyi Vsadnik and failed to make it into the top-3. In the women’s section, the favorites lived up to their reputation by occupying the winner’s podium, although in an order different than the ratings list would suggest. A team from Georgia Nona (named after legendary Nona Gaprindashvili) started with two draws but then won four matches in a row, including the encounters with its main competitors Kyiv Chess Federation and Cercle d’Echecs Monte Carlo, and deservedly took the title. Final standings Open section: 1. Obiettivo Risarcimento Padova (ITA) – 142. AVE Novy Bor (CZE) – 123. Mednyi Vsadnik (RUS) – 114. Alkaloid (MKD) – 105. Moscow Chess Team (RUS) – 106. Valerenga (NOR) – 107. Molodezka (RUS) – 108. Vugar Gashimov (AZE) – 109. Koge SK (DEN) – 1010. Primorsky District (RUS) – 10 Women’s section: 1. Nona (GEO) – 112. Kyiv Chess Federation (UKR) – 103. Cercle d`Echecs Monte Carlo (MNC) – 104. Odlar Yurdu (AZE) – 95. Ugra (RUS) – 8 Official site
FIDE Grand Prix Hamburg: Grischuk pushes but Duda holds
Once again, the spectators at the FIDE Grand Prix in Hamburg – and of course around the world – will be treated to one final day full of nailbiting rapid and blitz chess. The finalists, Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Alexander Grischuk put up an intense fight in the second round of the mini-match today, with the Russian player pushing for a win with the black pieces, but Duda defending like a lion and finally saving the half point. The Consul General of the Russian Federation in Hamburg, Andrei Sharashkin, ceremonially opened the second game of the final between Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Alexander Grischuk. Duda started the fight with 1.d4 but was obviously not prepared for the line of the Queen´s Gambit Declined which appeared on the board. Already after Grischuk’s 6th move, he had spent 18 minutes. And despite the long think, he only managed to slide into a position which is considered to be harmless for Black. Ten moves later, the players had reached a position with an isolated pawn on d5. As for white, he was still to develop his kingside and bring his king to safety by castling. Grischuk used about 30 minutes to find the critical continuation and lashed out with a pawn sacrifice at the end of it. Soon, he planted his light-squared bishop on d7, with the idea of exploiting White’s weak light squares on the queenside. The 21-year-old Polish grandmaster realized that he was in trouble and sank into deep thought. He took the pawn on d5 and, one move later, found the only defense to stay in the game. And then it was Grischuk’s turn to go into the think tank. He spent as many as 30 minutes in order to find the best continuation to keep the initiative going. As the game heated up, both players were down to 20 minutes after 13 moves. It was clear that time trouble might be a decisive factor. In a highly tactical position, Grischuk continued the attack with a piece sacrifice. Duda stood on the edge of the precipice but showed amazing defensive skills, despite being short on time. Grischuk was unable to find anything better than getting his piece back and transposing into a slightly better endgame. Both grandmasters played on with a queen and a rook. Grischuk had a passed pawn on the ‘b’-file to boast of. But in the end, this proved to be only a symbolical advantage. Duda fought his way out and drew the game. Even after the game, both players were still absorbed by this dramatic battle. Grischuk gave his impression of it in his trademark style: “Maybe a better calculator like Maxime Vachier-Lagrave would have found something, but he would not get this position because he doesn’t play the Queen’s Gambit, which is the most aggressive opening”. Final, game 2 result: Jan-Krzysztof Duda – Alexander Grischuk 1/2-1/2 The tiebreak of the final will start on Sunday at 15:00 (CET) with Duda having the white pieces in the first rapid game. Modus for the tiebreak:Two 25+10 rapid games are played. If still tied, there are two 10+10 games, then two 5+3. Finally, a single Armageddon game is played, where White has 5 minutes to Black’s 4 (with a 2-second increment from move 61), but Black wins the match with a draw. Official website and LIVE broadcast: https://worldchess.com FIDE Press officer for the event: Georgios Souleidis Official Photographer: Valeria Gordienko World Chess contact: media@worldchess.com Photos are available for the press from the following link to Dropbox. Leading partners supporting the FIDE World Chess Grand Prix Series 2019 include: Algorand as the Exclusive Blockchain PartnerPhosAgro as the Official Strategic PartnerKaspersky as the Official Cybersecurity PartnerPella Sietas Shipyard as Official PartnerPrytek as the Technology Transfer Partner