World Cup: 41 Players through to the second round
Second games of the FIDE World Cup’s first round were played on September 11 in Khanty-Mansiysk. The World Cup newcomer Johan-Sebastian Christiansen from Norway (pictured above) delivered a major sensation by knocking out one of the rating favorites, Radoslaw Wojtaszek (Poland). The Norwegian won both games of the match. Another unexpected result was observed in a match between Daniil Yuffa (Russia) and David Navara (Czech Republic): the Russian checkmated his experienced opponent and won the match 1.5-0.5. Ding Liren (China), Anish Giri (Netherlands), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France), Ian Nepomniachtchi, Alexander Grischuk, Dmitry Jakovenko (all from Russia), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan), Wesley So, Lenier Dominguez, Jeffrey Xiong (all from USA), Pentala Harikrishna, Nihal Sarin (both from India), Niclas Huschenbeth (Germany), and Parham Maghsoodloo (Iran) advanced to the second round upon winning both games in their matches. The following players advanced with a win and a draw: the Russians Sergey Karjakin, Peter Svidler, Vladislav Artemiev, Daniil Dubov, Nikita Vitiugov, Ernesto Inarkiev, Evgeniy Najer, Anton Demchenko, Kirill Alekseenko, Alexandr Rakhmanov, Andrey Esipenko (he defeated the former World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov), Levon Aronian, Sergei Movsesian (both from Armenia), Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan), Santosh Vidit, Baskaran Adhiban (both from India), Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Poland), Maxim Rodshtein (Israel), Samuel Sevian (USA), Wei Yi (China), Rustam Kasimdzhanov (Uzbekistan), Gawain Jones (England), Rinat Jumbayev (Kazakhstan), Ivan Cheparinov (Georgia), and Alireza Firouzja (Iran). S.P. Sethuraman (India) managed to come back in a match with Tamir Nabaty (Israel). Constantin Lupulescu also managed to level the score after losing the first game to Igor Kovalenko (Latvia). Vladimir Fedoseev (Russia) lost the second game to Surya Ganguly (India), allowing the opponent to tie the match. S.L. Narayanan (India) also came back against David Anton Guijarro (Spain). In the longest game of the day, the Iranian Ehsan Ghaem Maghami defeated Yu Yangyi (China). All these players will continue on tie-break tomorrow. In the matches Gelfand-Lu Shanglei, Nakamura-Bellahcene, Piorun-Abasov, Sarana-Predke, Safarli-Shankland, McShane-Delgado Ramirez, Adams-Aravindh, Amin-Tabatabaei, Bu Xiangzhi-Xu Xiangyu, Tomashevsky-Petrov, Wang Hao-Pridorozhni, Bok-Saric, Andreikin-Mekhitarian, Mareco-Sjugirov, Parligras-Nisipeanu, Matlakov-Abdusattorov, Le Quang Liem-Alexandrov, and Gupta-Korobov both game were drawn. The first round tie-break with 23 matches scheduled will be played on Thursday, September 12. Tie-break Pairings Official website
World Junior Blitz and Rapid Championships start in Salobrena, Spain
Photo: President of the Spanish Chess Federation Javier Ochoa made a first symbolic move The World Junior Blitz and Rapid Championships U-14, U-16 and U18 in open and girls categories are underway in Salobrena, Hotel Salobreña Suites (Granada, Andalucia, Spain) The event will stretch over four 5 days (10-14 of September). 182 players from the USA, Netherlands, India, Israel, Portugal, Austria, Vietnam, Slovenia, Italy, Algeria, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Greece, Russia, Kazakhstan, Chile, Germany, Tajikistan, and Spain are contesting for the coveted medals. The strongest players are in the U-18 category are Lucas Van Foreest from the Netherlands, a current Absolute Dutch champion, Juan Plazuelo Pascual from Spain, the Spanish champion in different categories, Nguyen Anh Khoi from Vietnam and an Italian Francesco Sonis. The strongest girl comes from Russia – WFM Anna Afonasieva who is playing in the category U-18. Maria Eizagerri Floris, champion of Spain and the absolute Blitz champion of Spain will take part in the section U-16 boys. Official site: https://wyrbcc2019.com/