World Junior Championship 2019 kicks off in New Delhi
FIDE World Junior Chess Championship (U20) 2019 started in the Indian capital New Delhi. The open section of the tournament brought together 94 players, including 15 grandmasters. The girls’ section attracted 95 participants. Amin Tabatabaei (2642) and Zhu Jiner (2507, top-rated U20 women player in the world, featured at ratings.fide.com frontpage) entered the competition as the rating favorites in the respective sections. The newly-minted World Youth Chess Championship winners U18 Open and Girls category 14-year old Praggnanandhaa and Polina Shuvalova came to New Delhi and will try to repeat their Mumbai success. The participants will play 11 rounds (Swiss system); the champions will be crowned on October 25. FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich took part in the opening ceremony. In his eloquent speech, FIDE President congratulated the Indian Chess Federation on the successful organization of the recently completed World Youth Championship and stressed the importance of youth and junior chess. Official site Photo: Niklesh Jain ChessBase India
Workshop for International Arbiters concluded in Sochi
А Workshop for International Arbiters, the fourth event in the FIDE & CFR Pilot Project for Training and Certification of the International Arbiters for the 2020 World Chess Olympiad, took place in Sochi, October 11-14. The Project’s objective is to train and to certify a cadre of IAs, especially female arbiters, who are on top of all recent changes in the Laws of Chess and the FIDE Competition Rules and able able to communicate in English efficiently to be integrated into multinational arbiter teams at the top-level FIDE events, culminating in the Chess Olympiads 2020 and 2022. The Principal Lecturer, IA/IO/FL Alexander Tkachev (RUS), the CFR Technical Director, opened the Workshop by summarizing lessons learned from previous Pilot Project events in Moscow, Tashkent, and Baku. Mr. Tkachev proceeded with a refresher on Anti-Cheating Guidelines, then IA Vladimir Makhnev gave a crash course on the use of a modern metal detector. During a group discussion on the FIDE Competition (Tournament) Rules, the workshop attendees shared their opinions on a wide range of issues that challenges of modern life bring into the chess world. Pharmacology’s impact on chess competitions, anti-doping measures, use of metal detectors on players with pacemakers or artificial limbs, dress code limitations, upcoming brain prosthetics, general standards for electronics used in tournaments, the priority of the host nation’s laws were discussed. The Guest Lecturer, IA/IO Vadim Tsypin (CAN) gave a refresher on the chess terms glossary in English, then led the participants in a practice of using English in typical tournament situations. On the second day, Mr. Tsypin proceeded by presenting real-life chess game situations that sharpened the attendees’ analysis and communication skills. IA Elena Polovina and IA Vera Penzina helped to animate a group discussion. For the first time in history, an examination test featured an equal number of questions in Russian and English. An experienced IA/FL Alexander Shaab obtained the best exam score. A post mortem discussion allowed participants to see their marked tests, to review difficult questions with the Lecturers, and to provide feedback on the Workshop. Several IAs asked to extend such events to three full working days. The next Pilot Project IA Workshop in the Russian Federation will be held in Moscow in January 2020. Please, check for updates.
Grand Swiss: Fabiano Caruana’s miracle
Day five of the Isle of Man Grand Swiss saw World No 2 Fabiano Caruana barely avoiding a loss at the hands of the Englishman Luke McShane in a spectacular game which lasted for over six and a half hours. On the second board, China’s Wang Hao split a point with the Junior World Champion Parham Maghsoodloo in a game full of twists and turns. On board 11, World Champion Magnus Carlsen scored a confident victory, getting back to the top pack. Candidate hopeful Alexander Grischuk won against Ivan Cheparinov. Aronian and Nakamura drew their games while World No 8, Wesley So, scored his first victory of the tournament. After five rounds, seven players are sharing the first place, with four points each: Wang Hao, Caruana, McShane, Fedoseev, Grischuk, Shirov and Maghsoodloo On board one, England’s Luke McShane was playing against Fabiano Caruana. The Englishman had a great start to the tournament, scoring three consecutive wins after a draw in the first round. On day five, it was Caruana’s turn to ‘do a Carlsen’ from round four, and pull off the impossible. For the second game in a row, McShane played with white pieces. After Caruana weakened his king’s castle with h6, McShane moved his king to h1 (a novelty) and started preparing the advance of his g-pawn directly at the black king’s defence. Caruana quickly responded by throwing his c8-bishop into the game and including the queenside rook, launching a counter-attack. McShane had two knights (one of them back on d1) against two bishops. Caruana managed to create a slightly better position, with more time on the clock. After black’s imprecision on move 21 (according to the computer), Luke McShane launched his g-line attack, but also managed to secure an extra pawn along the way (which later grew to two pawn advantage), and activating his pieces. McShane was, however, lagging on time: he had just under eight minutes for 13 moves, while Caruana was on 30 minutes. The Englishman, however, pulled it off: by move 40, Caruana was in a considerably weaker position. McShane pushed 41.d6, which was an introduction to a dominating advantage in which his queen and knight were setting up a clean kill. Then, an unbelievable thing happened: after the exchanges of pieces, the position unravelled into a rook vs bishop ending with White having a more active king. It still seemed like a clear victory for white, but the World No 2 put on an incredible defence and managed to prevent McShane from getting into a simple winning position. By move 74 – with the computer showing that White is winning – McShane was on three and a half minutes while Caruana had 10 minutes more. McShane then went for an exchange of pawns, but with black having an active g-pawn he was out of trouble. After six and hours and 40 minutes of play and 85 moves, the game ended in a draw. Hao and Maghsoodloo draw in a game full of twists and turns The game on board two, between China’s Wang Hao and the World Junior Champion, 19-year-old Parham Maghsoodloo, was full of turns. In the earlier stages of the game, Wang Hao sacrificed a pawn but pushed Black’s pieces to the back-lines. However, this situation should have been approached with caution: in many of Maghsoodloo’s games, he plays a lot from the back-ranks ready to counterattack. One thing played into the hands of the Iranian – he was consistently better on time. The game took an interesting turn in move 23 when, instead of accepting an exchange of queens, Wang Hao sacrificed an exchange to exploit black’s weak squares around his king. Maghsoodloo broke out with a brave march of his f-pawn and in a tense fight between time, tactics and material, the Iranian seemed to have managed to erase the compensational advantage the Chinese player had for his sacrifice. What followed was a dynamic tussle between a marvellous attacker (Hao) and an excellent defender (Maghsoodloo). At one point Maghsoodloo blundered – on move 45 he moved his king to g7, exposing the black monarch to a lethal check. Then, however, Hao returned the favour and missed an opportunity. After several turns and chances being on both sides, the game ended in a draw. Grischuk, Fedoseev and Shirov push forward Boards three to ten were reserved for 14 players who, after four rounds, had three points each. Former contender for the title of World Champion, Sergey Karjakin played as black against David Anton Guijarro of Spain. In the neo-Catalan accepted variant of the English opening, White managed to push his pawn to e5, pinning the centre and pressing Black. The position was playable, but the Spaniard offered a draw which was accepted. Both players are on 3.5 out of five which still gives them solid chances. Alexander Grischuk is one of the players hoping to secure a spot at the Candidates’. He achieved a slightly better position as white against Ivan Cheparinov on board three but was constantly behind on time. The opening led to a King’s Indian reverse, where black was two tempi down. By move 20, Cheparinov had weak pawns on a7 and c5. Grischuk went on to win the pawn on h6 and then transformed the game to a rook endgame where he was significantly stronger and forced Cheparinov to capitulate. Grischuk is now on four points. Vladimir Fedoseev last year’s Isle of Man winner, Radoslaw Wojtaszek played a sharp line in Nimzo-Indian. It looked like White was in danger as Fedoseev’s king got stuck in the center while Black seemed much better developed. However, other positional factors proved to be much more important. Gradually it became clear that Russian GM was outplaying his dangerous opponent. Wojtaczek tried to complicate the issue by sacrificing two pawns, but Fedoseev seemed unfazed and took every pawn and piece that was offered to him. Polish GM resigned on move 47 allowing Fedoseev to catch up with the leaders. On board five, Levon Aronian (who made a statement with his red shirt and red shoes) squared off against Ukrainian GM Yuriy Kryvoruchko. Aronian played one of his favourites, the Marshal Gambit, and