Tata Rapid & Blitz: Carlsen loses to Ding, but still cruises
During 9 rounds of blitz, chess fans witnessed some dramatic and electrifying games. The tournament leader Magnus Carlsen continued to show his dominance over the field by scoring an impressive 6.5/9. This boosts his total score to 21.5 points and he maintains a 5 point lead over Hikaru Nakamura going into the final day. Magnus Carlsen Blitz score – 6.5 Total – 21.5 Best game: Anand – Carlsen (Round 8) World Chess Champion was not as invincible as in rapid part of the event, but still was by far the best player of the day. He won 5 games but was visibly perplexed when asked by a charming tournament reporter Tania Sachdev what was his best win. Carlsen mentioned that he was trying to play solid chess and succeeded in not making many serious mistakes. Winning against Anand on his home soil is always nice although Magnus admitted that Vishy could have made a draw a few times. Hikaru Nakamura Blitz score – 5.5 Total – 16.5 Best game: Nakamura – Carlsen (Round 3) Nakamura proved once again that his blitz skills are still almost impossible to match. He was the only one not to lose a single game throughout the day. Hikaru tried not to take any unnecessary risks, but it has nothing to do with his game against Carlsen, in which he did make the last brave attempt to start a real pursuit of the leader. Hikaru was very creative and sacrificed two central pawns to win time for a direct kingside attack. Although the World champion was quite pessimistic about his position during the game and even in the post-mortem, a beautiful draw with perpetual came as a logical outcome of this amazing duel. Ian Nepomniachtchi Blitz score – 5.5 Total – 12.5 Best game: Anand – Nepomniachtchi (Round 1) Best combination: Vidit – Nepomniachtchi (Round 3) The #2 in the FIDE blitz rating (after Nakamura, ahead of Carlsen) finally had some sleep in Kolkata started the day with all guns blazing. He won a very nice game with Black in a typical Sicilian endgame against Anand and came up with an excellent combo against Vidit. This game was far from perfect though as Vidit could have won exactly one move before he missed Ian’s amazing idea. Vidit – Nepomniachtchi 31…Qd1+ 32.Kg2 Ne3+! 33.fxe3 Rxb2+! 34.Nxb2 f3+ 35.Nxf3 Qxf3+ 0-1 A mediocre game against Carlsen somewhat slowed Ian down, but still, it was a much better day for him than Rounds 1-6 of rapid. Viswanathan Anand Blitz score – 4.5 Total – 12.5 Best game: Anand – So (Round 4) Anand needs to finish in top 6 to qualify for Grand Chess Tour finals in London and with his sound play, he seems to be on the right course. Vishy lost two games with white pieces when his opponents were playing amazing chess but created a masterpiece of his own in the encounter with So. The tournament commentator, quick-witted Peter Svidler mentioned that he would have been proud to play such a game in classical chess. Wesley So Blitz score – 4.5 Total – 13.5 The Fischer Random Champion had an uneventful day. His only win came when Giri lost on time in a winning position. So definitely needs to pick up some steam tomorrow if he wants to retain his third place in overall standings. Ding Liren Blitz score – 4.5 Total – 12.5 Best game: Carlsen – Ding Liren (Round 5) It would have been an event to forget for Ding if not for the game against Magnus Carlsen. Over the course of four days, Ding is the only one to outplay Magnus and he did it with Black. The moves 19…Kf7 and 27…f3 played in this game usually make any chess player feel good about himself. Anish Giri Blitz score – 4 Total – 13 Giri had a mediocre day in the office. His game against Aronian was thrilling, but despite a positive outcome, the ending was kind of disappointing – first Anish blundered a piece, but out-of-form Aronian blundered a rook in response. After a drama in the duel with So (Anish run out of time in a winning endgame) he was probably looking for the day to end. Pentala Harikrishna Blitz score – 4 Total – 12 It’s tough to keep your head above the water against such a line-up but the more experienced of two Indian wild cards managed to do it most of the time. He capitalized on his opponents’ hiccups twice and finished the day with respectable 4/9. Vidit Santosh Gujrathi Blitz score – 4 Total – 10 Best game: Ding Liren – Vidit (Round 2) The young Indian is doing much better in blitz, comparing to the rapid part of the tournament. In Round 2 he had his first win of the event beating Ding with Black. He easily refuted premature 10.d5, got a better game and slowly ground Chinese GM down. 4/9 scored against such opponents is not too shabby. Levon Aronian Blitz score – 2 Total – 11 Let’s just say that Levon needs to forget November 25, 2019, as soon as possible. Hopefully, he will rebound tomorrow. Combined rapid and blitz Day 1 standings: Photo: Lennart Ootes (Grand Chess Tour) Official site
Alexei Shirov wins Spanish Championship
For the period of November 16-24, 2019, Marbella hosted the Spanish Championship, one of the strongest in the history of the country. As many as 142 players (both men and women) took part in this 9-round Swiss system tournament fighting for the titles of Spanish Champion and Spanish Women’s Champion. The event also served as a qualifying stage for representing Spain at the European Team Championship. The first move in the tournament was ceremoniously made by none other than twelfth World Champion Anatoly Karpov, who visited the Championship as an honored guest. The competition was so close and intense, that despite relatively long tournament distance at no point the event had a sole leader. Before the last round, as many as fourteen players vied for the title including rating favorites Francisco Vallejo Pons (2694), David Antón (2686) and Alexei Shirov (2666). In the final round, the leaders GMs Jose Carlos Ibarra Jerez and Ivan Salgado Lopez who were a half-point ahead of a big group of players quickly drew their game, giving the pursuers an opportunity to catch up with them. In such a situation, a massive tie for the first is more than likely and that is exactly what happened – seven players finished scoring 7 points each with Alexei Shirov taking the title thanks to better tiebreaks. Sabrina Vega Gutiérrez notched 5.5 points and took the title of Spanish Women’s Champion. Final standings: 1. Alexei Shirov – 7/92. Iván Salgado López – 7/93. David Antón – 7/94. José Carlos Ibarra Jerez – 7/95. Francisco Vallejo Pons – 7/96. Manuel Pérez – 7/97. Jaime Santos Latasa – 7/98. Miguel Santos Ruis – 6½ /99. David Larino Nieto – 6½ /910. Jose Fernando Cuenca – 6½ /9
FIDE statement on the recent misleading reports
UPDATE: On Aug 4, 2021, FIDE and World Chess have signed an agreement that regulates operations of FIDE Online Arena. FIDE Online Arena is the exclusive official FIDE gaming platform, FOA ratings and titles are recognized by FIDE and are included in the players’ FIDE profile. FIDE Online Arena regulations form part of the FIDE Handbook and can be found at https://handbook.fide.com/chapter/B11FOARatingRegulations More information on chessarena.com Lausanne, November 25, 2019 The International Chess Federation (FIDE) has noted a number of publications over the past few days regarding the planned “hybrid IPO” to be launched by the company World Chess. Some of these publications contain a number of misleading facts that require clarification from our side: 1. FIDE holds all the organizing and broadcasting rights for the World Championship Match. The company World Chess does not have either the rights to organize the Match, or to exclusively broadcast it on their platform. World Chess is an organizer of the Grand Prix Series 2019 and similar Series in 2021 – but these are the only official FIDE events this company organizes. 2. FIDE Online Arena was created under the management of private investors according to the agreement with the previous FIDE administration in 2014, without any tender or similar transparent procedure. Later on, World Chess has acquired these rights, and, as approved by the previous administration, it uses the platform to provide online ratings and titles. However, FIDE has no intention to use neither the platform nor its titles and ratings for any official events before conducting a proper examination of the matter and ensuring the proper functioning of the platform. 3. Until the end of 2018, World Chess had the rights for conducting major official events – like the World Championship Match, Candidates Tournament, etc. However, effective January 2019, this partnership has been drastically scaled-down. At present, only FIDE has the rights to organize the World Championship Match — the only event where the World Champion title is contested and awarded. All the related rights of World Chess are fully described in the joint press release of the parties dated January 2019. We would also like to emphasize that World Chess is a private company, and it should not be mixed up with FIDE, the International Chess Federation. With headquarters in Lausanne, and recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Global Association of Sports Federations (GAISF), FIDE is the governing body of the game of chess, and regulates the international chess competitions and titles. FIDE is going to announce the venue of the World Championship Match-2020 within two weeks, and we are devising sponsorship and broadcasting packages, that will be offered to our partners.