Nana Dzagnidze wins Women’s Grand Prix Lausanne
The last-round clash between two leaders Nana Dzagnidze and Aleksandra Goryachkina ends in a draw. As a result, the Georgian clinches the trophy on tie-break. The last-minute entry Zhansaya Abdumalik takes an impressive third place. All six games of the final round were drawn at the Lausanne FIDE Grand Prix. Nana Dzagnidze refused to take any risk and played the exchange variation against Aleksandra Goryachkina’s Slav Defence. The game remained balanced all way through and the players repeated moves quite early on. Both share first place with 7 points, but the Georgian takes home the trophy thanks to her higher number of victories in the tournament. Zhansaya Abdumalik could have caught with them in case of victory. After her opponent Marie Sebag went for a solid line, both seemed happy to repeat moves after the opening. With this draw, the Kazakhstani secured her third place on the podium. Anna Muzychuk had some pressure against Alina Kashlinskaya, but the Russian gradually solved her problems and reached a draw. The opponents tied for fourth place with 6 points each. Mariya Muzychuk and Harika Dronavalli went for a sharp theoretical line of the Sicilian which resulted in a perpetual check. Ju Wenjun and Alexandra Kosteniuk also tested a sharp variation, but after things simplified around move 30, both champions agreed on a draw. The most exciting game of the round was played between Pia Cramling and Antoaneta Stefanova. White emerged from the opening with an advantage, but when the position got complicated the Swedish legend preferred the safest route and offered a draw on move 31. Thanks to her victory in Lausanne, Nana Dzagnidze made a huge jump in the standings of the Grand Prix Series. The first qualification spot in the Candidates Tournament seems to be reserved for Humpy Koneru, but the second place will be hard-fought at the last Grand Prix leg. At the closing ceremony, FIDE Vice-President Lukasz Turlej praised all players for their interesting and exciting games and thanked all sponsors and partners: Total, Kaspersky, Gazprom Bank, the Swiss Chess Federation and the Olympic Capital Lausanne. He added that the event had attracted a record number of spectators. Results of round 11: Nana Dzagnidze (GEO) – Aleksandra Goryachkina (RUS) ½-½Anna Muzychuk (UKR) – Alina Kashlinskaya (RUS) ½-½Mariya Muzychuk (UKR) – Harika Dronavalli (IND) ½-½Pia Cramling (SWE) – Antoaneta Stefanova (BLG) ½-½Marie Sebag (FRA) – Zhansaya Abdumalik (KAZ) ½-½Ju Wenjun (CHN) – Alexandra Kosteniuk (RUS) ½-½ Final standings: 1-2. Nana Dzagnidze (GEO) and Aleksandra Goryachkina (RUS) – 7 points 3. Zhansaya Abdumalik (KAZ) – 6½4.-5. Alina Kashlinskaya (RUS) et Anna Muzychuk (UKR) – 66-8. Harika Dronavalli (IND), Mariya Muzychuk (UKR) and Antoaneta Stefanova (BUL) – 5½9-10. Pia Cramling (SWE) and Ju Wenjun (CHN) – 4½11-12. Marie Sebag (FRA) and Alexandra Kosteniuk (RUS) – 4 Standings of the Grand Prix Series 2019 – 2020 before the last event: 1. Aleksandra Goryachkina, Russia, 398 (3 tournaments)2. Humpy Koneru, India, 293 (2)3. Alexandra Kosteniuk, Russia, 193 (3)4. Nana Dzagnidze, Georgia, 180 (2)5. Kateryna Lagno, Russia, 180 (2)6. Harika Dronavalli, India 180 (3)7. Anna Muzychuk, Ukraine, 165 (2)8. Ju Wenjun, China, 155 (2)9. Alina Kashlinskaya, Russia, 130 (2)10. Mariya Muzychuk, Ukraine, 120 (2)11. Zhansaya Abdumalik, Kazakhstan, 110 (1)12. Pia Cramling, Sweden, 105 (3)13. Elisabeth Paehtz, Germany, 95 (2)14. Valentina Gunina, Russia, 85 (2)15. Antoaneta Stefanova, Bulgaria, 85 (2)16. Marie Sebag, France, 40 (2)17. Zhao Xue, China, 35 (1) Pictures in high resolution are available for the press at our official Flickr account. Text: Yannick PelletierPhotos: David LladaContact: press@fide.com
FIDE Candidates Tournament starts in Yekaterinburg on March 16
The 2020 FIDE Candidates Tournament will officially open on March 16, 2020 in Yekaterinburg, Russia. One of the most important chess events of the year, it will bring together eight top world players competing to become the challenger to Magnus Carlsen at the FIDE World Chess Championship Match at the end of this year. The participants of the tournament are Fabiano Caruana (USA), Ding Liren (China), Wang Hao (China), Alexander Grischuk (Russia), Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia), Kirill Alekseenko (Russia), Anish Giri (Netherlands) and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France), who replaced Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan) after the latter decided to drop out of the event. The eight players will play a double round-robin tournament (14 rounds). The rounds will be held between March 17 and April 3. The Opening Ceremony: The official opening of the Tournament will take place on March 16 at 7 PM at the Congress Centre – Ekaterinburg Expo (Address: 2, Expo Boulevard). Before the beginning of the ceremony, between 6.15 and 6.45 PM, members of the media will be able to meet with officials and the participants. On the same day, at 1 PM, there will be a pre-start press event mainly for Russian media, attended by the officials, organizers and some of the players. The event will be held at the Sverdlovsk Journalists’ Union, (Address: 1, Clara Zetkin Street). The Tournament: The games will take place at the Hyatt Regency Hotel (Address: 8, Borisa Yeltsina Street) from the 17th March to 3rd April. The First Round will begin at 4 PM local time (noon CET; 4 AM PST). Pairings for the First Round are: M. Vachier-Lagrave – F. Caruana; Ding Liren – Wang Hao; A. Giri – I. Nepomniachtchi; A. Grischuk – K. Alekseenko. The games will take place on the following dates: March 17-19; March 21-23; March 25-27; March 29-31, March 2 – April 3. Free days: March 20, 24, 28 and April 1. The beginning of all rounds will be at 4 PM local time, except for the 14th round, which will start at 3 PM local time on April 3. The closing ceremony is scheduled to take place on April 3 at 9.30 PM at Sima-Land (Address: 86, bld. 8, Chernyakhovsky Street). The Prize fund: The prize fund for the event is 500,000 Euros. This is the largest ever prize fund for a Candidates Tournament. The commentary: There will be live commentary in English, Russian and Chinese. The live broadcast will be on the main page of the official tournament website: https://en.candidates-2020.com/main. GM Danil Dubov and GM Evgenij Miroshnichenko will lead the English commentary. GM Sergey Shipov will lead the Russian commentary. The Chinese commentators will be ex-world champion Hou Yifan and three-time champion of China and 14-time champion of The Netherlands, Peng Zhaoqing. Spectators who come to the venue at the Hyatt Hotel will be able to listen to the live commentary of GM Sergey Shipov, which will take place in the activities zone. Health and safety: The following health and safety measures will be in force: 1. A check-point with a qualified nurse will be created for all participants of the tournament, and officials and visitors in the auditorium. At this point, visitors will be checked for symptoms of Covid-19 before entering the game room, including checking their body temperature. 2. Alcohol-based hand sanitizers will be available at all times. 3. N95 face-masks will always be available in the required quantity. Depending on the assessment of the situation, the wearing of masks may become mandatory for visitors in the auditorium. 4. Handshakes before and after the game are optional. 5. Spectators who come to the venue will not have access to the playing area. 6. Preventive measures (masks, disinfectants) must also be provided in all hotel rooms where participants and officials will be staying, as well as in all vehicles used for the tournament. Other preventive measures may be put in place, depending on requirements. The media: Camera-crews and photographers will be allowed in the playing hall for the first five minutes of play for each round. The length of time the photographers and camera crews have in the playing area is subject to FIDE regulations and decisions of the Chief Arbiter. For the duration of the event, all media organizations will have access to the official FIDE photos free of charge. The organizers: The organizers of the 2020 Candidates Tournament are the International Chess Federation (FIDE), the Chess Federation of Russia (CFR) as well as the Government of the Sverdlovsk Region and the Chess Federation of the Sverdlovsk Region. The Partners: Sima Land – the title sponsor of the FIDE Candidates Tournament Algorand – official blockchain partner Kaspersky – official cybersecurity partner PJSC PhosAgro – General partner of the CFR Pine Creek Golf Resort and SILA International Lawyers – partners Relevant links and contacts: Official website: https://en.candidates-2020.com/ FIDE website: https://www.fide.com Chess Federation of the Sverdlovsk Region: http://www.ural-chess.com Information about the partners: https://en.candidates-2020.com/partners Press inquiries: press@fide.com
2020 World Senior Team Chess Championship Ends in Prague
2020 World Senior Team Chess Championship, organized in Prague under the auspices of Mayor MUDr. Zdeněk Hřib, has come to an abrupt but necessary end after the 7th round, following the prohibition of all public events with more than 30 attendees due to the state of emergency declared in the Czech Republic today to combat the spread of the COVID-19 outbreak. Earlier, on Tuesday, March 10th, the National Security Council of the Czech Republic had banned all public events with more than 100 people attending. Following the advice of the Deputy Minister of Health of the Czech Republic Mr. Roman Prymula, the World Senior Team Chess Championship was split across smaller venues to be able to comply with the ban. However, the latest measures have made it a sad necessity to end the championship immediately. FIDE would like to use this opportunity to thank Mr. Roman Prymula for his personal involvement and invaluable support. It should also not go unmentioned that Mr. Prymula is no stranger to the world of chess, besides being a prominent epidemiologist, he is also an experienced chess player who holds the title of FIDE Master! The 7th and – as it happened – the final round was to be an interesting one, with difficult matchups in both categories. This happened to be indeed the case and there was even more drama added because of the extraordinary times we all find ourselves in. In the 50+ category, USA was leading by one point over Czech Republic 1 and Iceland before today’s round. A quick match draw with the latter secured the championship for them since the Czechs also agreed to a quick draw with Team Yamal from Russia. But this wasn’t the end of the story. The President of the United States, Mr. Donald Trump announced that a travel ban from Europe to the USA will be put into effect on Friday which caused the team USA TOO to buy tickets and leave the championship at midnight in a rush to be able to go back home before the ban sets in. It later transpired that the ban does not apply to US citizens but by then it was already too late according to a post by Mikhail Koganov on Facebook. This resulted in a forfeit for USA TOO obviously and their strong opponents Lasker Schachstiftung GK moved with this much easier than expected 4-0 win into the second position, just above Czech Republic 1 and Island thanks to their better tiebreaks. Of the five teams with 10 points, the Czech team 1960-1961 and the Russian Yamal had better tiebreakers and they ended as 4th and 5th, respectively. The top three finishers among the women teams in the 50+ category are Russia Women (9 pts) who surged ahead of Czech Republic Women (8 pts) with the last round win and finally Latvia Women (6 pts). It was clear that the 65+ category would see an exciting finish as five teams were sharing the first place with 10 points after the sixth round! Their matchups were obviously critical for the final standings and the two teams who managed to win in the 7th round, Russia (d. Die Franken) and France (d. Israel), have got the top two places in the end, in that order. The 3rd and 4th places are shared by two German teams, Schachfreunde Leipzig and Germany 1 with 11 points. They are followed by a pack of five teams having 10 points with Israel as the team with the best tiebreaks among them getting the 5th place and Sweden the 6th. The two women teams in this category, Germany Women and Czech Republic, have also put up good fights and finished with 8 and 4 points respectively. 2020 World Senior Team Chess Championship ended with the official prize ceremony where the money prizes, medals, and cups were awarded to their deserved winners. The first and foremost thanks go to all the players and teams who have participated obviously. They showed tremendous enthusiasm and sportsmanship in an extraordinary time and deserve the highest praise. FIDE would also like to thank the Tournament Director Jan Mazuch, the Deputy Director Petr Laušman, the tournament managers Jiří Petružálek and Michal Horáček, and all the organization team for their professionalism and their efforts into keeping this tournament going, despite all the difficulties. 50+ final standings: 1. USA – 122. LASKERSCHACHSTIFTUNGGK – 113. CZECHREPUBLIC1 – 114. ICELAND – 115. 1960-61 – 106. YAMAL – 107. ENGLAND1 – 108. CANADA – 109. SLOVAKIA – 1010. MOSCOW – 9 65+ final standings: 1. RUSSIA – 122. FRANCE – 123. SCHACHFREUNDE LEIPZIG – 114. GERMANY 1 – 115. ISRAEL – 106. SWEDEN 1 – 107. SSC GRAAL-MUERITZ & FRIENDS – 108. CZECH REPUBLIC 1 – 109. DIE FRANKEN – 1010. GERMANY 3 – 9 Photo: Vladimir Jagr Official site of the 2020 World Senior Team Chess Championship: http://wstcc2020.net/
WGP Lausanne: Goryachkina and Dzagnidze lead with one round to go
The tenth round brought some crucial results in the fight for the tournament victory. Aleksandra Goryachkina joins Nana Dzagnidze in the lead, while Zhansaya Abdumalik trails by half a point. The FIDE Women’s Grand Prix is reaching its climax. Round 10 was extremely tense and some results had a crucial impact on the standings. The first symbolic move in the game between Aleksandra Goryachkina and Ju Wenjun was made by Lausanne Mayor Grégoire Junod. Both World Championship contenders followed a fashionable line where they felt comfortable in. The Chinese found herself under pressure after her opponent broke through in the center with the typical 19.d5 and 20.e5. Goryachkina played energetically and pushed the World Champion to collapse with a final mistake on move 34. The Russian joined Nana Dzagnidze in the lead with 6½ points. The Georgian had to defend an unpleasant position against Alina Kashlinskaya and eventually held a draw. The younger participant Zhansaya Abdumalik is having a great event. Today she beat Pia Cramling and moved to a sole third place before the last round. After playing several solid long games, the Swedish legend seems to get out steam, as she blundered mate in one. The third decisive outcome the round was registered in the game between Antoaneta Stefanova and Mariya Muzychuk. The Bulgarian managed to outplay the Ukrainian in a slightly better endgame and scored her second victory in the event. Alexandra Kosteniuk and Marie Sebag delivered a very interesting fight. The French sacrificed a pawn for wonderful compensation, but the former World Champion handled the situation very well and managed to draw by perpetual check. The encounter between Harika Dronavalli and Anna Muzychuk was a balanced battle, that ended peacefully on the 31st move. The last round starts at 11.30 on Friday. The tournament is raising to a climax ending, as both leaders Nana Dzagnidze and Aleksandra Goryachkina face each other. Zhansaya Abdumalik also has a chance to catch up with them if she beats Marie Sebag. Results of round 10: Alina Kashlinskaya (RUS) – Nana Dzagnidze (GEO) ½-½Aleksandra Goryachkina (RUS) – Ju Wenjun (CHN) 1-0Alexandra Kosteniuk (RUS) – Marie Sebag (FRA) ½-½Zhansaya Abdumalik (KAZ) – Pia Cramling (SWE) 1-0Antoaneta Stefanova (BLG) – Mariya Muzychuk (UKR) 1-0Harika Dronavalli (IND) – Anna Muzychuk (UKR) ½-½ Standings after round 10: 1-2. Nana Dzagnidze (GEO) and Aleksandra Goryachkina (RUS) – 6½ points3. Zhansaya Abdumalik (KAZ) – 64-5. Alina Kashlinskaya (RUS) and Anna Muzychuk (UKR) – 5½6-8. Mariya Muzychuk (UKR), Antoaneta Stefanova (BUL) and Harika Dronavalli (IND) – 5 9-10. Pia Cramling (SUE) and Ju Wenjun (CHN) – 4 11-12. Marie Sebag (FRA) and Alexandra Kosteniuk (RUS) – 3½ Program of the 11th and last round, 13 March at 11:30 am: Anna Muzychuk (UKR) – Alina Kashlinskaya (RUS)Mariya Muzychuk (UKR) – Harika Dronavalli (IND)Pia Cramling (SWE) – Antoaneta Stefanova (BLG)Marie Sebag (FRA) – Zhansaya Abdumalik (KAZ)Ju Wenjun (CHN) – Alexandra Kosteniuk (RUS) Nana Dzagnidze (GEO) – Aleksandra Goryachkina (RUS) Follow all the action live with commentary by grandmasters Mikhail Gurevich and Keti Tsatsalashvili on the tournament website http://wgp2019.fide.com. Pictures in high resolution are available for the press at our official Flickr account. Text: Yannick PelletierPhotos: David LladaContact: press@fide.com