Women’s Grand Prix: Skolkovo and Monaco recap
In recent months FIDE has made a remarkable effort to make a new cycle of Women’s World Championship very similar to the open one. Currently, the cornerstone of the 2019-2021 cycle is the Women’s Grand Prix (WGP) series that consists of four round-robin tournaments with all the top players participating. The two winners of the WGP who score the greatest number of cumulative points qualify for the Candidates Tournament, which is scheduled for 2021. The reigning World Champion and the Challenger in the recent World Championship match Aleksandra Goryachkina also participate in the Grand Prix events but they fight only for the titles and prize money (both already qualified). In anticipation of the third leg of WGP, which takes place in Lausanne on 1-14 of March, FIDE.com looks back at two events in Skolkovo (Russia) and Monte Carlo. Skolkovo (Russia) The first leg of WGP that was held in a luxurious playing hall on the outskirts of Moscow, in Skolkovo, turned into an exciting race of three favorites – Humpy Koneru (India) and two participants of the Women’s World Championship match Ju Wenjun (China) and Aleksandra Goryachkina (Russia). The World Champion was leading the field up to 9th round in which she suffered her only defeat at the hand of Kateryna Lagno (Russia). Humpy Koneru (India) who triumphantly returned to chess after 18-month hiatus due to family reasons, jumped on this opportunity and forged ahead. In Round 10 Ju Wenjun had a great chance to catch up with Koneru but failed to convert her huge advantage in a winning endgame against Goryachkina. In the final round, the leaders faced each other. All Humpy needed was a draw and she achieved the desired outcome. Meanwhile, Aleksandra Goryachkina scored an important victory and tied for second place with the Word Champion. Both Goryachkina and the champion did not lose a single game throughout the event. Monte Carlo The participants of the world championship match, which was just about a month away, chose different training schedules. Ju Wenjun opted to skip the leg in Monaco; Goriyachkina, on the contrary, decided to play in this tournament. In addition to Goriyachkina, the list of favorites included the winner of the first leg Humpy Koneru, the debutants of this WGP the Musychuk sisters and in-form Alexandra Kosteniuk who won both European Blitz and Rapid Championships in Monaco right before WGP. Comparing to the event in Skolkovo, the tournament scenario in Monaco was much more unpredictable. For one thing, none of the participants avoided defeat. Goriyachkina had a slow start, scoring just a half-point in two games; at some point many thought that Koneru would claim clear first place again and secure a slot in the Candidates (the Indian missed the previous one, as she was inactive for the biggest part of the year before the event) but in Round 9 Humpy suffered a surprise loss to Elizabeth Paehtz with white pieces. Meanwhile, Goryachkina reeled off 5.5/6 and grabbed the lead. Again, the last round saw the leaders’ clash. Goryachkina was fine with a draw, but it was not meant to be – Humpy prevailed and caught up with the leader. Somewhat unexpectedly they were joined by Alexandra Kosteniuk who won her two final games. Moreover, the former World Champion took the title thanks to better tiebreaks. Humpy Koneru and Aleksandra Goryachkina are comfortably sitting at the top of WGP standings. After another triumph at Cairns Cup in Saint Louis, the Indian GM, who basically punched her ticket for the Candidates, skips the competition in Lausanne. Since Goryachkina already qualified for the Candidates, the second slot most certainly will be hotly contested. Ju Wenjun and Aleksandra Goryachkina will meet over the board in Lausanne for the first time since their very close world championship match. It will be the final leg for Alexandra Kosteniuk – in order to qualify for the Candidates she has to take either first or second place. FIDE.com will be covering the event in Lausanne starting from March 1; there will be Livestream with commentary on FIDE’s YouTube channel as well.
2020 FIDE Extraordinary General Assembly Agenda and Executive Board Agenda
FIDE publishes the Agendas for the 2020 FIDE Extraordinary General Assembly and Executive Board, scheduled to be held in Abu Dhabi, UAE, 28-29 February 2020. We would like to draw your attention to the fact that all FIDE meetings including the EGA will be based on electronic desktop documentation. Kindly make your own arrangements should you prefer having printed documents. The missing annexes will be available for download in due course. 2020 FIDE Extraordinary General Assembly Agenda and Annexes Download AGENDA (pdf) Annex 1.1 Admission of new federations Annex 1.2 Admission of new affiliated members Annex 2.1 Change of FIDE Statutes: new FIDE Charter Annex 3.1 New Financial Regulations 2020 FIDE Executive Board Agenda and Annexes Download AGENDA (pdf) Annex 3.1 Report of the FIDE Treasurer Annex 3.2 FIDE Financial Statements for 2018 Annex 3.3 Verification Commission report Annex 3.5 Budget 2020 Annex 4.1 Report of Continental Association for Europe Annex 4.2 Report of Continental Association for Americas Annex 4.4 Report of Continental Association for Africa Annex 5.2 Arbiters’ Commission report (ARB) Annex 5.3 Chess in Education Commission report (EDU) Annex 5.4 Commission for the Disabled report (DIS) Annex 5.5 Commission for Women’s Chess report (WOM) Annex 5.7 Ethics Commission report (ETH) Annex 5.8 Events Commission report (EVE) Annex 5.8.3 Bids for World Senior Team Championship 50+ and 65+ 2021 (Italy and Russia) Annex 5.8.4 Bids for World Senior Championships 2021 (Malta and Russia) Annex 5.8.5 Bids for World Amateur Championship 2021 (Italy and Malta)Annex 5.8.6 Bid for World Junior and Girls U-20 Championship 2021 (Italy) Annex 5.8.7 Bids for World Youth Championships U-14, U-16, U-18 2021 (Italy and Russia) Annex 5.8.8 Bid for World Cadet Championship U-8, U-10, U-12 2021 (Egypt) Annex 5.8.9 Bids for World Cadet & Youth Rapid and Blitz Championships U-8,10,12 2021 (Croatia and Georgia) Annex 5.9 Fair Play Commission report (FPL) Annex 5.10 Global Strategy Commission report (GSC) Annex 5.11 Medical Commission report (MED) Annex 5.12 Online Commission report (OLC) Annex 5.13 Planning and Development Commission report (PDC) Annex 5.14 Qualification Commission report (QC) Annex 5.15 Rules Commission report (RC) Annex 5.17 Systems of Pairings and Programs report (SPP) Annex 5.18 Technical Commission report (TEC) Annex 5.19 Trainers’ Commission report (TRG) Annex 5.20 Data protection GDPR Annex 8.1 Chess ID Annex 8.3 Fischer Random Chess Annex 8.4 Athletes Commission
Prague International Chess Festival: Vidit works magic with white
On the 11-22 of February, Don Giovanni Hotel in the capital of the Czech Republic is hosting the second edition of the Prague International Chess Festival that includes several tournaments. The inaugural festival was held a year earlier, in the spring of 2019. The organizers (the major one is Nový Bor Chess Club) who had nurtured the idea of such chess forum since 2017 formulated their mission on the official site: “One of the main ideas is to give top Czech players, national team pretenders and aspiring juniors a chance to face the world’s absolute top players on home soil. We also hope our festival and its format will encourage players’ fighting spirit, incite their will to win, strengthen self-confidence and motivate further personal chess growth in a healthy way. The long-term goal of the project is to establish a tradition of organizing a chess festival on par with the world’s finest events, at both tournament strength and organizational levels”. For the second time in a row, the main event called Masters brought together several 2700+ players who don’t get many invitations to elite tournaments. Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Poland), Nikita Vitiugov (Russia) and Alireza Firouzja who substituted Wei Yi (the Chinese GM withdrew from the tournament at the last moment because of coronavirus epidemic) entered the competition as the favorites, but after 5 rounds they are chasing 25-year old Indian Vidit Santosh Gujrathi. The #26 in the rating list has recently become the second player in the Indian chess hierarchy. After this tournament, Vidit might come very close to a long time leader of Indian chess Vishy Anand. Vidit won three games with White routing Sam Shankland (USA) and one of his main competitors Alireza Firouzja. The 16-year old native of Iran rarely suffers a shellacking in the opening, but his encounter with the Indian was an exception. After this defeat Firouzja rolled back to 50% mark. Duda and Vitiugov are still in contention but they are a full point behind the leader. An even bigger sensation is brewing in a lower profile Challengers event. The tournament is featuring Jorden Van Foreest, who made a big splash in Wijk aan Zee last month and coming fresh from his tie for the first in Gibraltar Open Andrey Esipenko, but after 5 rounds the leader is a 47-year old GM from Iceland Hannes Stefansson (2529) with an excellent score 4/5 (no defeats). Esipenko and Mateusz Bartel (Poland) are a half-point behind, whereas Van Foreest drew all his five games. Young talents, including the highest-rated player in the U-10 category Vaclav Finek (Czech Republic, 2220), are fighting in the tournament called Futures. Predictably, the percentage of decisive outcomes in this event has been very high so far. As for the leader, the 11-year old Ediz Gurel from Turkey is ahead of the pack with 4/5. Play will resume on Tuesday with four rounds to go in all the events. FIDE.com will continue to follow the Prague International Chess Festival. Official site: https://praguechessfestival.com/ Photo: Petr Vrabec and Vladimir Jagr