WWCC Game 3: Goryachkina dominates, but Ju saves a draw
Shan Xiali, president of the Shanghai Chess Academy, and Wang Lianyun, president of the Shanghai Xiangqi Association, made the first symbolic move in the third game of the Women’s World Championship match. Ju Wenjun, playing Black, countered Aleksandra Goryachkina‘s Queen’s Gambit with the Semi-Tarrasch Defence, transforming the duel into a comfortable, yet somewhat passive play for herself. The reigning champion failed to come up with a plan to fully equalize, and by move 23 Goryachkina enjoyed a considerable advantage. However, a momentary slip 23.Bd3 presented Ju with an opportunity to turn the tables with 23..Ne5, which was not played. As if Ju was so focused on defending an inferior position, that she simply missed her chance to snatch the initiative. Having also opted against 18.g4! in game 2, the World Champion seems to be wary when it comes to dynamic and tactical play. White continued to dictate and ten moves later and following the thematic break on d5, Goryachkina won a pawn. For a moment, it felt we would see the first decisive outcome of the match. However, the Russian played inaccurately in moderate time-trouble and before the first time control, the game steered into an easy save for the World Champion in a rook ending. Just like in game 1, the challenger kept pushing for another 40 moves, until the players agreed on a draw on move 85. Ju must feel relieved to be tied in this match after not playing her best game, especially with Black. Speaking at the press conference, the World Champion said that she was content with three draws. On her part, Goryachkina added that she felt good about dominating her opponent in two out of the first three games, yet somewhat frustrated having not capitalized on her chances. A difficult stretch of the match is coming for Goryachkina now as she will have black pieces in the next 3 out of 4 games. Game 4 will be played tomorrow, on January 9th. Official website: https://wwcm2020.fide.com Text: Michael Friedman Photos: Zhang Yanhong, Lewis Liu, Michael Friedman Contact: press@fide.com Photos in high resolution are available for the press at our official Flickr account.
90th FIDE Congress: List of Delegates
FIDE is publishing the list of delegates as is required by the FIDE Electoral Regulations Section 5.A.1. LIST OF DELEGATES (pdf) According to FIDE Electoral Regulations Section 5.A.2 At the latest five weeks before the opening session of the General Assembly, the President of each member federation shall inform the FIDE Secretariat in writing of any changes to be made to this list. If there has been no such notification by this deadline, and there is no delegate on the list that was published on the FIDE website pursuant to Section (1) above, the delegate shall be the President of the federation. In some cases, federations have already submitted documents requesting for a change of their delegate – these are to be approved after the verification of these documents. FIDE recommends that the following wording be used for informing the Secretariat, until 22 January (CET 17.00), of any change to be made to the list of delegates in accordance with this paragraph. “I, the President of the federation of _____________________ hereby inform FIDE that the Delegate of my federation at the FIDE 2020 General Assembly in Abu Dhabi will be _____________________. Date : _____________________ Signature: _____________________” —–FIDE Secretariat
FIDE World Cup 2021 – Allocation of Continental spots
We are publishing the allocation of Continental spots for the FIDE World Cup 2021 related to Article 2.1.V of the Regulations The quotas are calculated according to the average Rating of twelve standard FIDE Rating Lists from February 2019 to January 2020 of the world top eight juniors (born on January 1st, 1999 or later) and the world top sixty players (see here for the details).