FIDE Grand Prix Hamburg: Big win for Alexander Grischuk
Alexander Grischuk celebrated a great victory at the FIDE Grand Prix in Hamburg on Wednesday evening. He won the second game of the semi-final against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and advanced into the final. At the same time, he collected valuable points for the overall standings of the Grand Prix Series. The other encounter of the day ended in a draw. Daniil Dubov was pressing throughout the whole game against Jan-Krzysztof Duda but had to split the point after the Polish grandmaster defended well in a slightly inferior endgame. These two players will meet again in the tiebreak of the semi-final to determine the second finalist. Alexander Grischuk opened his game against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave with the non-committal 1.Nf3, but after just five moves, the players reached a position of the English Opening which the French grandmaster has played 18 times within the past two years! In his first game, played in 2017, he had beaten none other than Magnus Carlsen at the Sinquefield Cup. Later, however, he had experienced some problems. The last time Maxim played this line, he suffered a loss at the hands of Teimour Radjabov at the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk about a month and a half ago. This time around, ‘MVL’ clearly had some improvements prepared. Grischuk, however, was not surprised and continued quickly until move twelve. He created a strong centre and pushed the h-pawn attempting to create some weaknesses on the kingside. The game sharpened soon, as Vachier-Lagrave started an attack of his own by advancing his b-pawn on the other side of the board. This lead to a liquidation of the pawn centre but the French grandmaster committed an error by allowing White to continue the fight with a strong bishop pair in an open position. Additionally, he had to deal with a knight stranded at the rim of the board. Grischuk developed a dangerous initiative and after finding a convincing sequence of moves, reached a winning position. His rook had entered the seventh rank, and he could have placed his queen in the middle of the board, dominating his opponent. With time running short, he chose to threaten a mate in one instead, which Vachier-Lagrave parried easily and got back in the game. Nevertheless, he was still the defending party as Grischuk had a bishop vs. knight in an open position and a passed pawn on the a-file. As the technical part of the game began, Vachier-Lagrave had a sidelined knight blocking the white passed pawn. Grischuk now had to find a way to break black’s defence. He did so by exchanging queens and penetrating with his king into black’s camp. By this time, Grischuk’s time trouble was the last straw Vachier-Lagrave was grasping on, but the experienced Russian grandmaster managed to navigate through the remaining obstacles with fantastic precision and scored a well-deserved victory. Jan-Krzysztof Duda chose the solid Slav Defence against Dubov’s 1.d4. The players followed theory until move thirteen and reached an endgame after an early queen exchange. Over the next few moves, the Polish grandmaster stabilized his position and kept a sound pawn structure. Dubov, on the other hand, had an active dark-squared bishop and slightly better prospects in the centre. Duda handled the position a bit carelessly and permitted White to gain better control of important squares and lines. Both sides had only a rook and two minor pieces left, but the young Russian was the one exerting some pressure. He attacked a weak pawn on f6, but Duda activated a knight and counterattacked one of white’s weak pawns as well. This counterplay turned out to be enough for Duda to save a half-point after three hours of play. Semi-final, game 2 results: Alexander Grischuk – Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 1-0 Daniil Dubov – Jan-Krzysztof Duda 1/2-1/2 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 via 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
World Senior Championship kicks off in Bucharest
The strongest-ever World Senior Championship took off in Bucharest, with the participation of 366 players from 58 countries in four different categories: +50 Open, +50 Women, +65 Open and +65 Women. The current World Champion in the main category, the Armenian Karen Movsziszian, won’t have an easy task defending his title: he is now 13th in the starting list, which is headed by Kiril Georgiev (MKD, 2582) Darcy Lima (BRA, 2540), Zurab Sturua (GEO, 2540), Alexander Shabalov (USA, 2528). Fifth in the ranking list is the local star Mihail Marin (ROU, 2521), who not only makes his debut in a senior event but is also playing his first World Championship ever. The +65 Open category, with 192 players, is the largest event. The field includes legendary players like Rafael Vaganian (ARM, 2514), Anatoli Vaisser (FRA, 2497), Evgeny Sveshnikov (RUS, 2485), Yuri Balashov (RUS, 2457) and Vlastimil Jansa CZE, 2436). Elvira Berend, of Luxemburg (2349) and Zoya Schleining, of Germany (2344) top the list in the +50 Women section, while in the +65W the absolute star is the defending champion Nona Gaprindashvili: she already has six senior titles under her belt, having been the only female World Chess Champion to obtain the World Senior title as well. The playing conditions for this event have dramatically improved, reaching a total prize fund of €46,000, further to the FIDE decision to increase the prizes by €30,000. The venue for the event is the main ballroom of RIN Grand Hotel Bucharest, a four-star hotel placed right next to the Vacaresti Natural Park, also known as “the Bucharest Delta”. The opening ceremony was conducted by the tournament director, Elena Cristian, the director of the Senior Center of the Municipality of Bucharest, Alexandra Dobre, the president of FR Chess, Sorin Iacoban, and the Grandmaster Florin Gheorghiu. FIDE was represented by the Belgian Jan Rooze, Senior Chess Director, and the Jamaican Ian Wilkinson, Honorary Vice President; both of them are taking part in the tournament. The honorary first move was made by the legendary Florin Gheorghiu, the first Romanian player to achieve the Grandmaster title and winner of the Junior World Champion in 1963 at Vrnjacka Banja. A participant in four interzonal tournaments, he won the Romanian Championship a total of nine times, being at the same time a university lecturer in foreign languages. Now, at 75, he is still a very active person and his passion for chess remains intact – as it does for every and each of the 366 players who gathered in Bucharest for this event. Official website: https://worldseniors2019.com/ LIVE games: https://worldseniors2019.com/live-games/ Contact: worldseniors2019@gmail.com Schedule: Round 1 – Tuesday 12 November, 15:00Round 2 – Wednesday 13 November, 15:00Round 3 – Thursday 14 November, 15:00Round 4 – Friday 15 November, 15:00Round 5 – Saturday 16 November, 15:00Round 6 – Monday 18 November, 15:00Round 7 – Tuesday 19 November, 15:00Round 8 – Wednesday 20 November, 15:00Round 9 – Thursday 21 November, 15:00Round 10 – Friday 22 November, 15:00Round 11 – Saturday 23 November, 14:00
Dates for the Candidates and the 44th Chess Olympiad announced
Moscow, November 11, 2019 The Russian Chess Federation called for a press conference today, at their headquarters in the historic building at Gogolevsky boulevard, to announce the exact dates and details of two of the highest-level events that this country will host along 2020: the Candidates Tournament and the Chess Olympiad. The speakers were the former World Champion Anatoly Karpov, the FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich, the President of the Chess Federation of Russia Andrey Filatov, and the Head of Sverdlovsk Region Chess Federation, Andrey Simanovsky. Also present were FIDE’s Director-General Emil Sutovsky, and Chief Executive Officer of RCF, Mark Glukhovsky, who conducted the press conference. Andrey Simanovsky started by thanking FIDE and the RCF for choosing Yekaterinburg as a host city for the 2020 Candidates tournament. “We have everything to make it a great event and will try our best to deliver”. The exact dates were confirmed: the event will take place from March 15 till April 5. Arkady Dvorkovich expressed his satisfaction with this bid: “We are happy to continue our cooperation with the Chess Federation of Russia and are thankful to them and to Sverdlovsk Region Chess Federation for their bid. Today, on behalf of the FIDE Presidential Board I’m glad to sign an official agreement to host this key event in Yekaterinburg. This tournament will decide who will face WC Magnus Carlsen in the World Championship match that will take place in November 2020.” Andrey Filatov also thanked the Sverdlovsk Region Chess Federation “for their interest and constant support of chess in Russia”. He continued: “It’s a pleasure that we have trust from FIDE to organize such an important event. The decision to host this event in Russia guarantees that there will be a Russian player participating. We’re still considering different options on how we’ll choose a Russian wild-card, but it will probably be a match or match-tournament with Kirill Alekseenko, third-place finisher in the Grand Swiss, taking part in it.” As a member of the Organizing Committee, Anatoly Karpov added: “I’m regularly visiting Yekaterinburg and I admire how the city has recently flourished. Yekaterinburg has all the needed infrastructure to organize the best Candidates’ tournament in chess history. I’ll be there myself taking part in the event’s cultural program”. Regarding the Chess Olympiad, the most important novelty is that this competition, one of FIDE’s flagship events, will grow even further with the inclusion of the first Chess Olympiad 2020, Competition for disabled in its program. The idea, championed by Nigel Short during the presidential campaign last year, received appreciation by Arkady Dvorkovich and all the FIDE team, and is now becoming a reality. This growth will imply that the Olympiad will have two host cities instead of just one, as it was initially planned. “The main host city will be Khanty-Mansiysk, that will host the FIDE Congress, the first-ever Chess Olympiad, Competition for disabled, and other official events. The dates are moved a little bit, and the official opening will take place in Khanty on July 29”, explained the FIDE President, Arkady Dvorkovich. “To make this great event more visible and accessible for the spectators, the joint decision made by RCF and FIDE is to hold the main tournament in Moscow, from August 5 to August 17”, he added. Khanty-Mansiysk has a long tradition hosting sports events for the disabled, having organized in recent years the IPC world championships 2011, the 2011 IPC Biathlon and Cross-Country Skiing World Championships, the Deaflympics 2015, and the International sledge-hockey tournaments “Ugra Cup” 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018. The FIDE Commission for the Disabled and the Ugra Chess Federation will work together in this new and exciting project. This will be the 44th men’s Chess Olympiad (the first one took place back in 1927 in London) and the 29th women’s Chess Olympiad. Moscow has hosted the Chess Olympiad twice, in 1956 and 1994 and Khanty-Mansiysk once, in 2010. The schedule for the Chess Olympiad will be as follows: July 29 (Khanty-Mansiysk) The opening ceremony of the Chess Olympiad July 30 – August 4 (Khanty-Mansiysk) Chess Olympiad 2020, Competition for disabled, FIDE Congress and General Assembly August 5 (Moscow) The opening ceremony of the Moscow leg of the Chess Olympiad August 6-17 (Moscow) Main competition August 17 (Moscow) The closing ceremony of the Chess Olympiad About the Candidates tournament: The Candidates tournament, in which eight top grandmasters will contest for the right to challenge the current World Champion Magnus Carlsen (Norway), will take place in Yekaterinburg from March 15 till April 5. Four participants are already known: Fabiano Caruana (USA), Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan), Ding Liren and Wang Hao (both China). Two other participants will be determined following the results of the Grand Prix Series; one slot will be granted to the player with the best average rating in 2019. The eighth participant will be nominated by the organizers. About the Chess Federation of Russia: The Chess Federation of Russia (CFR) is a public nonprofit organization that brings together individuals and the chess federations of republics, districts, regions, cities of federal significance, autonomous regions and autonomous districts of the Russian Federation. The activities of the CFR are aimed at developing and popularizing chess in the Russian Federation. The CFR was founded on February 15, 1992. The management bodies of the CFR are its Congress and Supervisory Board. The Board of Trustees of the CFR is a collegiate, consultative and advisory body acting on a pro-bono basis. The CFR is the organizer of the annual All-Russian Children’s Championship, the tournament “Belaya Ladya” involving school teams from all over Russia, the Championship of Russia, and other chess competitions. Since 2012, the program “Chess in Museums” has been taken place in Russia at the initiative of the CFR together with the Charitable Foundation of Elena and Gennady Timchenko. The CFR develops and implements programs for the development of chess, including chess for children, and assists in expanding the network of chess clubs and leagues in the regions of the Russian Federation. It acts as the organizer of individual and team competitions in Russia and the participation of Russian chess players in international competitions. It assists in strengthening the positions of Russian chess players in the international arena and develops connections with international chess federations, national and international organizations, including FIDE. Official site: http://ruchess.ru/