Tata Steel Masters 2020: The Return of the King
One of the chess greatest Viswanathan Anand was the hero of Round 5 in Wijk aan Zee as he played an almost perfect game against young American Jeffery Xiong. It is Anand’s first win since he turned 50 a month ago. Round 5 of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament was played at the PSV Stadium in Eindhoven. A PSV player Daniel Schwaab officially opened proceedings with a hit on the gong. It looked like Anand was poised to score right out of the gates. In a classical line of the French Defense Black gave up an opportunity to castle on move 7 and got prepared for a lengthy defense hoping to exploit White’s pawn weaknesses later in the game. Probably Xiong was not fully aware of the subtleties of this adventurous line as he chose a rare move 8…h5 and then made an obvious mistake with 11…cxd4 – after that White had a clear plan of an onslaught on the King’s side while Black was definitely struggling. Anand was attacking energetically and the only time he missed the best continuation came on move 22 when he opted for a bit slow 22.Ne2. It didn’t really change the outcome, but Xiong grabbed an opportunity to activate his pieces at the cost of a pawn. Psychology and experience helped Anand to finish the game – he offered queen exchange, and Xiong declined as he didn’t want to suffer in a worse endgame. But it was a mistake – after 31.c4! Black’s position fell apart and Jeffery was forced into a completely lost rook endgame anyway. Nice win by Anand – he is back to 50% after the drama in Round 2 versus So. Alireza Firouzja returned to the top of the leaderboard after he beat Anish Giri. Giri was doing completely fine in one of the most double-edged lines of the Queen’s Gambit Declined which was first introduced in 2011 in Grischuk – Aronian Candidates match and became popular after that, and until he lost a key tempo with 17…Be5 (the immediate 17…Qe7 that favors Black is strongly recommended by engines). Still, there was no real danger for Giri and the game was heading for a draw but Anish erroneously went for exchanges – first, he traded his bishop for a knight and then erred in the evaluation of a pawn endgame that turned out to be winning for White. A huge disappointment for Anish and Dutch fans. Fabiano Caruana was also close to catching up with the leader Wesley So as he finally found a hole in Jorden Van Foreest’s opening preparation. In a sharp line of the English Opening (David Anton scored a spectacular victory versus Alexander Grischuk in this variation at the Grand Swiss) World #2 sacrificed a piece but got an overwhelming compensation for it. Had Fabiano played a natural 19.h3 move, most likely he would have scored his second victory but after 19.Rc4 van Foreest managed to spark much-needed chemistry between his pieces and timely reminded his opponent that he had an extra piece. In the final position, Van Foreest could have played for a win, but he was happy with a draw after such a bumpy start of the game. The leader Wesley So didn’t have any chance for a win today as his opponent Vlad Kovalev was looking for a calm draw with White after a disastrous start and comfortably attained his goal. Duda – Artemiev game was a completely different affair, a real thriller where both opponents missed their chances at some point. Jan-Krzystof Duda put the board on fire by sacrificing a bishop on move 21. Stockfish doesn’t approve and recommends 24…fxg4 as a refutation of the White’s plan. It’s hard to blame Vladislav Artemiev though who opted for a more human-like 24…Bf6. Duda’s attack continued and after an inaccurate 26…Qd7 he found 27.d5! to consolidate the advantage. Polish #1 missed a chance to win when he exchanged queens as pawn endgame was easy to hold for Artemiev. Nikita Vitiugov is definitely disappointed with his result against Yu Yangyi. He had an excellent opportunity to take revenge for a tragic loss to the same opponent in the World Cup quarterfinals that is definitely still haunting the GM from Saint-Petersburg. In the Catalan, Vitiugov got the type of position to dream about but then went astray. Nikita will probably have hard time explaining why he offered a queen exchange letting his clear advantage go. The World Champion’s Magnus Carlsen troubles continue in his game against his second Daniil Dubov. Dubov helped Carlsen in his preparation for the last World Championship match against Caruana, and it definitely influenced the opening choices of both opponents. Still, Magnus told in the interview that he was happy with the results of the opening, but made a horrible mistake with automatic 17.Nc4 (17.Nf1 was the right path for the knight) and after 17…Qe6 had to switch to fighting for a draw once again. He made a “defensive pawn sacrifice” as he explained in the post-mortem and managed to save a half-point. Carlsen admitted that his “no-losing” streak had an effect on his play in the first rounds, but he was just not getting the positions he wanted after the opening. Tomorrow the tournament is returning back to Wijk aan Zee for an epic game Carlsen – Caruana. Tata Steel Masters 2020 Standings after Round 5: 1-2. So, Firouzja – 3½; 3-5. Artemiev, Caruana, Van Foreest – 3; 6-10. Dubov, Xiong, Duda, Anand, Carlsen – 2½;11-12. Giri, Vitiugov – 2;13. Yu Yangyi – 1½;14. Kovalev – 1.
WWCC Game 7: Tension builds up in Vladivostok
The 7th game of the Women’s World Championship, played in Vladivostok, ends in a draw. Ju Wenjun, with white, put some pressure on Goryachkina, but the challenger defended well and was never in serious trouble. The score is now 3½-3½ with 5 games left. Wang Xue Chun, Deputy General Consul of China in Vladivostok and Zhan Kuznetsov, Minister of Sport of Primorsky region made the first symbolic moves in Game 7. After a near-disaster in Game 6, Ju Wenjun (playing White again) probably needed to have a game in which she would only be playing for two results — a win or a draw, with little chance of losing. With 4.d3 (Anti-Berlin variation of the Ruy Lopez), Ju achieved just that — a very comfortable position with some space advantage and minimum risk. Aleksandra Goryachkina (playing Black) was reduced to sitting back: however, her position had no glaring weaknesses. Therefore, computer evaluations rarely moved past +0.50 for White. Nevertheless, it must have been extremely unpleasant for Goryachkina to be at the board for so long, maneuvering without any real counterplay. The Challenger had to show a lot of character to defend a bland, slightly worse position without giving in. Such positions are often lost when a player on the passive side loses his or her patience. Aleksandra defended extremely accurately, especially after the knights came off the board. Goryachkina probably was relieved after Ju played 37.Nf5. With just four minutes on the clock, Ju was unable to work out all the complications that could have arisen from the more dynamic alternatives such as 37.h4. Despite 4 hours and 40 moves of exerting steady pressure, Ju never appeared to have a clear path to victory. Games 4-7 were going to be a real test for the challenger. Despite having one White and losing Game 4, she emerged from this stretch even, proving her highest chess level and readiness to be on the biggest stage. There are still five games left in the match and it is a bit early to be thinking about a tiebreak. However, given how tight the encounters have been so far, it seems very likely for the match to go the full distance. Official website: https://wwcm2020.fide.com Text: Michael Friedman Photos: Michael Friedman and Eteri Kublashvili Contact: press@fide.com Photos in high resolution are available for the press at our official Flickr account.
Call for Bids: Reopening Bidding procedure for FIDE World Youth Chess Championships 2021
FIDE did not receive any bids till the bidding deadline for FIDE World Youth (U14, U16, U18) Chess Championships 2021 (Africa) and FIDE World Youth U16 Chess Olympiad 2021. Because of that FIDE Events Commission has re-opened the bidding procedure for the FIDE World Youth (U14, U16, U18) Chess Championships 2021 (open for all continents) and FIDE World Youth U16 Chess Olympiad 2021 with the bidding deadline 27th January 2020. · A bid for any FIDE Competitions onwards shall include the name of a FIDE licensed International Organizer. · All bids should be submitted by the due date in a sealed envelope or scanned documents to the FIDE Secretariat postal address: Avenue de Rhodanie 54, 1007 Lausanne, Switzerland, Tel: + (41) 21 6010039, email office@fide.com by 27th January 2020, 16:00 local time. · Each bid should be accompanied with a bid fee. · Bid Fees are not refundable. Bid fees should be paid the latest by 3rd February 2020 to the FIDE bank account (free of charges) or to be enclosed in the bid envelope. · All bidders must fill in the bid form and the new bid form annex. · Prices of hotels, details about the accommodation and tournament hall must be written in the bid. · FIDE EVE will make first bid inspections and send its report together with a bid evaluation form. There will be a second inspection of the awarded organisation two to four months prior to the event. Accommodation and local transfer costs of the inspections must be paid by organizers. · FIDE Officials – Appeals Committee, Chief Arbiter, Deputy Arbiter(s) – will be decided and appointed by FIDE following the proposal of organizers. The bid form and new added annex can be downloaded here. BID FORM BID FORM ANNEX