FIDE Executive Director holds meetings with the Serbian authorities
In early October FIDE Executive Director Victor Bologan paid a visit to Serbia to meet with Serbian sport and education officials. The first meeting was held at the Serbian Ministry of Youth and Sports, where he met with Mr. Predrag Peruničić, the Deputy Minister and a former world-class handball player. Among the key agenda points discussed at the meeting were the current state of chess in Serbia, its ability to host major chess events, and the possibilities of attracting funding and support for the Serbian Chess Federation. The next stop on Mr. Bologan’s busy schedule was the Institute for Education and Upbringing, where he was greeted by the Institute’s Director Zlatko Grušanović and his associates. Thirteen years ago the Institute played a pivotal role in introducing chess as an optional subject into the official primary school curriculum, spearheading the preparation and implementation of the entire project. The main topic of discussion was the current state of affairs in the education system of Serbia, its ongoing reforms and the status of chess therein. The Institute is currently in the process of forming a committee that will be in charge of creating the new chess curriculum, as well as the teacher training program. A working dinner ensued with representatives of the Serbian Chess Federation, where SCF President Dušan Cogoljević briefly informed Mr. Bologan of the future plans, stating that the main objective was to bring Serbian chess back on the world map by improving the national teams’ results and hosting major chess events. Another meeting took place on the next day, this time at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development. The Deputy Minister Milan Pašić expressed his satisfaction with the support Serbia enjoys both from FIDE and the national authorities. The Ministry promised to provide its share of resources – a meeting of their representatives and the Institute for Education and Upbringing’s expert team is scheduled for the upcoming week, with the main goal to start working on the new chess curriculum. Serbian TV made a short report about Mr. Bologan’s visit and those meetings, which was shown in a morning show. It is no secret that people truly love chess in Serbia, missing all the elite level chess events that took place in Serbia and Belgrade many years ago. The general sentiment is that if someone follows in the footsteps of Gligorić, Matanović, Ivkov, Ljubojević, Milunka Lazarević, Vera Nedeljković and Alisa Marić he or she will enjoy great deal support from Serbian fans as a new hope and a harbinger of the renaissance of national chess.
Grand Swiss: David Anton joins Caruana and Aronian at the top
After eight rounds on the Isle of Man Grand Swiss, there are now three players in the lead. The leaders after round seven, Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian drew their games, maintaining the top positions. As of round eight, they are joined by David Anton Guijarro, who defeated Alexander Grischuk after an excellently executed opening preparation, throwing his opponent into trouble from the very start. The second tier consists of 10 players who are on 5.5/8, which includes the World Champion Magnus Carlsen and Wang Hao of China who split a point in round eight. The highlight of the day, however, was on boards seven and eight where identical games were played until move 19, which drew a lot of attention from both other players and the public but also raised some questions for the arbiters. On board one Levon Aronian – who, with a late start, sprang up to the top in round seven – shared a point with the player who has been at the top from the very start, World No 2, Fabiano Caruana. In a balanced position, with the queens exchanged, White (Caruana) pushed the g-pawn in front of his king’s castle in an attempt to break a pesky f5-e4 pawn formation which threatened to develop into a dangerous advance for Black. Aronian responded with g7-g6, protecting the chain. This led to a series of exchanges in which Black planted his pawn on e3, pinning white’s e2-pawn. White secured a 2:1 pawn advantage on the queenside and then both sides wanted to take their chances: black to promote his e3-pawn, white to push his queenside runners, but the game was mostly even. The two players eventually agreed to a draw, not wanting to go for too much, but, also, probably having realized seen that most of the other top games had finished and that there was only one other player joining them at the top. The first game of the day to finish was an encounter between Wang Hao of China and World Champion Magnus Carlsen. After an hour and 15 minutes of play and 31 moves, the game ended in a draw. Wang decided to play an opening which resulted early on in the exchange of queens and a pair of bishops, quickly ending in an equal position. Carlsen was clearly disappointed – not with the position, but with the fact that his opponent played for a draw and forced a situation on the board in which he could maintain equality easily. After the game, Wang Hao told that he intentionally went for a draw as he was exhausted from the two previous games (round six where he managed to turn the tables on Luke McShane after more than six and a half hours of play, and the torturous round seven defeat to Levon Aronian). “El niño” Anton joins the leaders The game between David Anton and Candidates’ hopeful Alexander Grischuk brought more excitement than the top two boards but ended badly for the Russian. A somewhat unusual position developed in the first ten moves, with key action happening on the kingside where both white and black had to sacrifice their knights. Anton did not waste much time in the opening, demonstrating his clearly excellent preparation – for which he thanked his coach, David Martinez. On the other hand, Grischuk – who is known for entering into time trouble – was carefully assessing his moves but gradually moving into a dangerous zone. By move 16 there was a sharp position on the board with White having his queen centralized on d5, his rook on f4 and pieces ready for an active assault, while Black had most of his pieces on the back ranks. Instead of going for the exchange of queens, Grischuk pushed his f-pawn to the fifth rank, further exposing the king. White then offered a bishop sacrifice which Grischuk took, but from that moment on he was completely lost. At one point the situation was so dire that White could choose whether to take an extra rook or go for the king. Desperately low on time, 16 moves before the first control, Grischuk resigned. This win catapulted the Spaniard to the top of the rankings. With six points out of eight, he shares the top position with Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian. With five out of eight, Grischuk is now in the third tier of competitors. On board four Junior World Champion Parham Maghsoodloo was playing the Russian 2700-heavyweight Nikita Vitiugov. In an even position, after 23 moves, the two agreed to draw. With 5.5 out of 8 both players are still among the top 13, and with three more rounds to go still have strong chances to win the tournament. Wesley So had another (altogether, sixth) draw of the tournament, this time with Russian GM Kirill Alekseenko. After the cautious play by both sides, they ended with a bishop and knight and six pawns each in an even endgame, without chances of either side breaking through. A good day for Anand The eighth day at the Isle of Man Grand Swiss was a good day for Vishy Anand who was facing Vladimir Fedoseev. Anand, who was playing as white, immediately went on the offensive: by move 11 all of his pieces were developed and aiming for a kingside attack. One of the key moments of the game came when Anand played g4, launching an attack on the black’s kingside but at some point, after black had castled white lost momentum. Anand made an error, going for an exchange on the e-file and allowing the black rook on f8 to take command of the important f-file. The position was even, according to the computer, but Anand wanted to win: he pushed his remaining kingside pawns forward. Black tried to retaliate with bishop threats against white’s king, but Anand fended them off. By move 33 the Indian had black’s back ranks dangerously disturbed by a rook on c8 and the queen on h3, holding the h3-c8 diagonal under control. Fedoseev made the decisive blunder on the move 35 when he pushed his last