Team FIDE wins FIDE Candidates Countries Youth Tournament
On April 18-19, the Chinese Chess Association organized an online competition – FIDE Candidates Countries Youth Online Chess Tournament. The motto of the event, held on Chess.com, was “Go World! Be Chess Smart against COVID-19!” The tournament was broadcasted live on China Leisure Sports TV Network with GMs Hou Yifan (#1 in women’s rating list) and Peng Zhaoqin commentating on proceedings. It reached more than 10,000 views, even though the show was in the late evening in China. This youth competition was inspired by the Candidates Tournament 2020 with five teams representing China, USA, France, Russia, and the Netherlands taking part. Each team consisted of 5 young players under 16 each (3 boys and 2 girls). To make the number of participant teams even, a sixth team was added, playing under the FIDE flag and comprising five players from Cuba, Germany, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and India. The tournament started on April 18, 22:00 Beijing time. The highest ever rated woman-player Judit Polgar and the former women’s World Champion Zhu Chen recorded videos of making the first symbolic moves in the event. The organizers showed these videos before the start of the tournament. To ensure fair game, the arbiter group supervised all games via Zoom. All the teams were required to enter a Zoom room with one arbiter inside. During the game, every player set up a smartphone or same function device in the right (or left) corner to let the camera show the screen and the player. Besides the measure taken, all captains as members of the appeal committee have discussed and signed a guarantee letter, promising fair play. Team FIDE headed by GMs Nihal Sarin (2620) and Noribek Abdusattorov (2627) entered the competition as prohibitive rating favorites but in Round 1 it suffered a defeat at hands of the Chinese squad. Meanwhile, Russia was held to a draw by a lower-rated USA. Somewhat surprisingly, in Round 2 Russia dismantled China 4:1 and took the joint lead with the USA which beat France with the same score. In Round 3 team FIDE stopped Russia (3:2), but the USA won its match against France and preserved one-point distance from the closest pursuers. In Round 4, which became decisive one, team FIDE whitewashed the leader 5:0; China and Russia also scored victories. In the final round, team FIDE made a short work of France, but China convincingly outplayed the USA. As a result, the teams FIDE and China tied for first place with the former claiming the title by the total number of game points. Russia finished 3rd, USA 4th, whereas France and Netherlands shared 5-6 places. 16-year-old Bibisara Assaubayeva from the FIDE team showed the best individual result in the event with 4 wins and 1 draw. GMs Nihal Sarin (FIDE) and Huang Renjie (China) were the best on board 1, scoring 4 points each.
90th FIDE Congress: 2020 FIDE Extraordinary General Assembly Minutes and Annexes
FIDE publishes the Minutes of 2020 FIDE Extraordinary General Assembly which was held in Abu Dhabi, UAE on February 28th. Download 2020 Extraordinary General Assembly Minutes (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
90th FIDE Congress: 2020 FIDE Executive Board Minutes and Annexes
FIDE publishes the Minutes of 2020 Executive Board meeting which was held in Abu Dhabi, UAE on February 29th. Download 2020 FIDE Executive Board minutes (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