FIDE Grand Prix: Dubov squeezes into semi-finals
For the tiebreaks of the second round, the stage of the Kehrwieder theatre was set for two players and a high-ranking visitor. As Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Alexander Grischuk and Jan-Krzysztof Duda qualified through the classical portion of the knockout round, the remaining spot of the semi-final would either go to Daniil Dubov or Peter Svidler based on the results of the tiebreaks played with shorter time control. Mr. Darion Akins, the Consul General of the United States of America, ceremonially opened the first rapid game between the two Russian grandmasters. Mr. Akins showed a great understanding of the royal game, which he used to play in college. Afterwards, fascinated by the two grandmasters, he stayed for half an hour to follow the moves. The players repeated the same line from their first classical game until Svidler deviated on move ten by pushing his pawn to b6. Dubov reacted with a rarely played advance of the h-pawn. Svidler reacted perfectly by bringing his queen to h4. The crisis erupted on the 21st move when Dubov allowed an excellent tactical shot by Svidler to force an endgame with a bishop and two pawns against a rook. The older of the two Russian grandmasters pushed for a win, but Dubov was able to save a half-point. Svidler opened the second encounter with 1.c4, but the game transposed into a sharp line of the Queen’s Gambit Declined. Dubov opted for a risky setup that involved weakening his kingside and castling queenside. After both players finished their development, Svidler had the upper hand due to better control over the center. Peter managed to win a pawn, but Dubov, who was playing much faster, started to bother the white king on f2. Svidler was controlling the course of the game. He exchanged pieces and even threatened mate in one with his queen. Dubov parried the mate and Svidler could have gone for a second pawn. Instead, he preferred to continue the attack, but Dubov found a tactical way to complicate matters. The players reached a queen and rook endgame with White being a pawn up. Svidler had a weak king and Dubov created enough counterplay to hold the balance. In the end, it was a question of nerves. The game turned in favor of Svidler, but in severe time trouble, he allowed a perpetual after having a winning position for several moves. After starting the day with two draws, the tiebreak rules required two further rapid games with a time control of 10 minutes + 10 seconds per move. Svidler avoided theory by playing a rare line of the Queen’s Pawn Opening but soon found himself in a worse position. After finishing his development, Dubov was in total control of the game. He won a central pawn and was ahead on the clock with four minutes against three minutes. Daniil forced a rook endgame that was winning due to his four vs two pawn majority on the queenside. White could not salvage his position and soon threw in the towel. In a must-win-situation, Svidler chose the Dutch Defense with Black. Dubov offered the chance to simplify the position in the opening, but this was not Svidler’s intention. Instead, he undertook some risky maneuvers. but did not get closer to achieving his goal. Dubov was on the verge of winning this game as well but offered a draw after 18 moves that Svidler accepted. Round 2, tiebreak results: Daniil Dubov – Peter Svidler 2,5-1,5 The pairings for the semi-finals: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave – Alexander GrischukJan-Krzysztof Duda – Daniil Dubov Time control tiebreak: 25‘+10‘‘ in the first two games. The next game will always start ten minutes after the end of the session. If the scores are level after the match (i.e. the overall result is 1:1), the colors are drawn for the first game of the next match immediately after the game. The match will continue with two games 10‘+10‘‘ if needed. Further stages will be two games 5‘+3‘‘ and finally a sudden death game 5‘ against 4‘ with 2‘‘ increment from move 61, if needed. The player who draws white for the armageddon game immediately chooses his color. 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
FIDE and ROSATOM festivals in Bangladesh and Turkey
As part of the agreement between FIDE and ROSATOM, two more chess festivals will be held during the last two months of 2019, with support from this company. International Chess Festival in Bangladesh The International Chess Festival in Bangladesh will take place between November 24 and December 4 in Dhaka. The main event will be the 1st SAARC Countries Chess Championships 2019, a Swiss system competition in Open and Women categories (9 rounds), with a total prize fund of $18.000. There is also a number of side events: – Blitz tournament, with an additional prize fund of $2.000. – Master class and simul exhibition by GM Nigel Short for SAARC chess players (28-29 November). – The 1st SAARC Chess Congress (29 November), which will be organized with the aim to establish a new organization, the SAARC Chess Federation. Its purpose will be to unite chess players and officials from this region to further develop chess in joint endeavors. – FIDE Trainers Seminar (30 November – 2 December), with GM Nigel Short as one of the lecturers. – FIDE Arbiters seminar (26-28 November), with Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh of Iran as one of the lecturers. Read full regulations International Chess Festival in Turkey The International Chess Festival in Turkey is to be organized from 7-14 December in the Turkish capital, Ankara. The festival consists of two main events: – The 1st Confederation Cup for disabled people 2019, organized by FIDE as a premier event on the eve of the 1st World Chess Paralympiad 2020. The teams, consisting of 6 players with different groups of disabilities from 4 Continents (plus 1 team designated by the sponsor) will take part in a round-robin to determine a Continental Team Champion and individual inners in all three disability groups, per gender as well. This is an invitational tournament and all participants will have their expenses covered. – The FIDE Cadet Blitz Festival 2019 (7 December), with the participation of the 12th World Chess Champion GM Anatoly Karpov, who will offer a seminar and a simul exhibitions for kids. Along with the Cup, there will be also a master class by GM Victor Bologan (13 December), and meetings of the FIDE DIS and Event Commissions (12 December). A round table with disabled chess players and members of the World project “Sales of Spirit” sponsored by Rosatom (will be held on December 11). “Sales of Spirit” is an inclusive project which united sales sportsmen with disabilities, who develop themselves through the sport as through an active adaptation and to achieve high sport results. Read full regulations These two chess festivals supported by Rosatom follow the ones already held earlier this year in Finland (August) and Uzbekistan (September). [Link to the respective reports from these two festivals] About Rosatom Rosatom is a global actor on the world’s nuclear technology market. Its leading-edge stems from a number of competitive strengths, one of which is assets and competences at hand in all nuclear segments. Rosatom incorporates companies from all stages of the technological chain, such as uranium mining and enrichment, nuclear fuel fabrication, equipment manufacture and engineering, operation of nuclear power plants, and management of spent nuclear fuel and nuclear waste. Nowadays, Rosatom brings together about 400 enterprises and organizations with the workforce above 250 K. https://rosatom.ru/en/about-us/
Superbet Rapid & Blitz: Korobov still ahead
The two wildcards ruled day one of the blitz in Romania. Le Quang Liem struggled to find his form during the rapid portion but ravaged through the field in blitz with a fantastic score of 7/9. Anton Korobov’s 50% score was enough to keep him on top of the leaderboard, but with a narrower gap. The tournament is still wide open as Levon Aronian, Le Quang Liem and Sergey Karjakin are within striking distance from the current leader, with Anish Giri, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Viswanathan Anand still keeping their hopes alive. Tomorrow, after another exciting 9 rounds of blitz, a champion will be crowned for GCT Superbet Rapid & Bitz. Anton Korobov had a shaky start to his day with two losses in the first three games against Le Quang Liem and Viswanathan Anand. His game against Anand was particularly exciting as the position was absolutely wild with both sides attacking and the evaluation changing constantly. Korobov’s results improved in the second half of the day, with back to back wins against Fabiano Caruana and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. In the postgame interview, Korobov declared that he is full of power going into the final day. Levon Aronian, on the other hand, was moving up quietly but surely. The Armenian star won only two games and drew the rest, but it was enough for leapfrogging in the standings. His wins came against Vladislav Artemiev and Wesley So. The game against Artemiev was a perfect example of how tricky rook endgames can be when the players get low on time, as Artemiev lost in a theoretically drawn endgame after a careless check. In the game against So, he sacrificed a pawn early in the Najdorf, then went on to unleash an attack using his better placed knight against his opponent’s bad bishop. If Levon can repeat this result tomorrow, he will be in an optimal position to qualify for the London finals in December. Le Quang Liem’s performance today was a reminder as to why he is a former World Blitz Champion. After starting the day with a win over Korobov and a draw against Karjakin, he went on a winning streak defeating Anand, Artemiev, So and Giri. The win against So was reminiscent of Caruana vs Karjakin from round 4 of rapid, as both Karjakin and So relaxed too early in a down a pawn endgame thinking it’s an easy draw and lost. His win against Giri was an extremely one-sided affair where he simply blew his opponent off the board. Due to his tame performance in the rapid, this result puts the Vietnamese star in third place, but it’s possible that another result like this tomorrow could possibly mean his winning the tournament. Another former World Blitz Champion is no stranger to showing strong performances in the Grand Chess Tour, having scored 7.5/9 in previous editions of the blitz. Sergey Karjakin had the third best performance of the day but only scored 5 points, which unfortunately did not improve his standings by much. The Russian player is in a must-win situation here as he needs those 13 GCT points to qualify for London. After a tumultuous start, he ended the day with +2, defeating Anand in a rook endgame and demolishing Mamedyarov in 22 moves with the black pieces. Anish Giri, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Viswanathan Anand ended the day with 13.5 points, three full points behind the leader. Giri was the long-time leader in the rapid but has since sunk in the standings. He did not manage to win any games today, drawing 7 and losing 2. Mamedyarov made a comeback on the last day of the rapid and was having a solid day today, but back to back losses against Korobov and Karjakin in rounds 7 and 8 respectively hurt his chances. Anand started and ended the day in a tie for the fifth place. The former World Champion played some of the wildest games in this event, scoring important victories against Korobov and Mamedyarov today. Neither American has been able to find his footing in this event. Wesley So was making a comeback scoring 4 points in the first 5 games but wasn’t able to maintain his form, losing two back to back games against Le Quang Liem and Levon Aronian. Fabiano Caruana started and ended the day in 8th place after missing many opportunities in multiple topsy turvy games. While the other two wildcards are thriving, Vladislav Artemiev is struggling in 9th place. The youngest participant of the tournament had a difficult day today scoring only 3 points with 6 draws and no wins. Combined rapid and day 1 blitz standings. In the rapid, a win is worth 2 points, a draw is 1 point and a loss is 0. In the blitz, a win is 1 point, a draw is .5 points and a loss is 0 Official site Livestream:GrandChessTour.org Photos:Courtesy of Grand Chess Tour and Spectrum StudiosCredits available on Flickr.