Mamedyarov wins World Stars Sharjah Chess Championship
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan) became the winner of the World Stars Sharjah Online Chess Championship 2020, a double round-robin tournament with 10 min +3 sec time control organized by the Sharjah Cultural & Chess Club. The event was held online on a popular platform Internet Chess Club (ICC) on June 12-13t 2020. The prize fund of the competition amounted to 10.000$. The Azerbaijani GM turned in an excellent performance and scored 7.5 out of 10. The champion didn’t lose a single game and showed an impressive 2886 rating performance. It’s also the first online chess tournament Shakhriyar won in his life. Pentala Harikrishna (India) finished second with 6.5 out of 10, a full point behind the champion. After winning three games in a row on Day 2 the Indian GM became the real contestant for the title. Before the final round, Mamedyarov and Harikrishna were sharing the first place and it came down to the wire – in Round 10 Mamedyarov defeated Salem Saleh, while Pentala Harikrishna lost against Radoslaw Wojtaszek (Poland). Wojtaszek finished in third place with 6 points, Rustam Kasimdzanov (Uzbekistan) is fourth just half a point behind. Salem Saleh (UAE) had a good start but scored only half a point on the second day and finished in fifth place. It was a really tough event for the highest-rated African player Bassem Amin (Egypt), who ended up in the bottom of the standings. The official commentators of the event GM Efstratios Grivas and WGM Anastasia Karlovich provided coverage throughout the event. Photos: Anastasia Karlovich Day 1: https://youtu.be/wK0hr_VEk9E Day 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8vzSjgfyiE&feature=youtu.be
Day 7: Carlsen and Caruana in neck-and-neck race
Day one of the Clutch Chess International finals was an absolute thriller from start to finish. The two highest-ranked players, World Champion Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana faced off in an echo of their 2018 World Championship match. This time around, both players left blood on the battlefield; the commentators were enthralled and fans were left on the edge of their seats during the back-and-forth affair. “How can you expect so many decisive games and trading blows?” Caruana reflected on the day in the postgame interview. “We certainly fought well,” Carlsen echoed his opponent’s sentiment. Tomorrow, one of these players will be crowned the Clutch Chess Champion and will take home the first-place bounty of $50,000, plus their share of $46,000 in clutch bonuses. The match started with two draws, but the final result belies the true story. Caruana himself later admitted that he was lucky to escape unscathed in the first game, as he found himself down a pawn in a rook and knight endgame. He was on the better side in the middlegame of their second encounter, but Carlsen neutralized with ease in the middlegame. Commentator Maurice Ashley praised the quality of the game and described it as a “high-class draw.” Carlsen drew first blood in game three with a stunning blow on move 25, tearing apart his opponent’s kingside and forcing a resignation 12 moves later. Caruana recovered quickly in the next game, as a blunder on move 43 cost Carlsen a crucial pawn and the game. The players weren’t done exchanging blows as the clutch games, worth two points each, were up next. Caruana put up a heroic defense in the middlegame with the black pieces, handling the position with absolute precision up to a certain point. However, his error came on move 44 and allowed Carlsen to pick up all his queenside pawns; Caruana resigned in a losing king and pawn endgame. With this win, the World Champion took a two-point lead in the match. The final game was another tough battle. Caruana found himself in another bad position but muddied the waters on move 24. Carlsen reacted poorly to the unexpected move, throwing away a winning advantage. Once Caruana was on the better side, he never let up, scoring a crucial win in a clutch game to even the score. In the postgame interview, Carlsen expressed his frustration about the result, as he thought he should have won the final game. Even so, the World Champion remained optimistic, as he feels that he has been playing better for most of the match. Tune in on Sunday, June 14 for the exciting finals of Clutch Chess, where World Champion Magnus Carlsen will square off against his familiar rival, World #2 Fabiano Caruana. GMs Maurice Ashley and Yasser Seirawan along with WGM Jennifer Shahade will call all the action starting at 12:50 PM CDT (19:50 CET) at uschesschamps.com. Text: WGM Tatev Abrahamyan You can watch the action LIVE at USChessChamps.com (official website) Press Contact: Rebecca Buffington rbuffington@saintlouischessclub.org
FIDE condemns racism in the strongest terms
During the past few days, we have received a few inquires about what is FIDE’s policy regarding racial discrimination, and how we deal with such cases. FIDE condemns racism in the strongest terms, and we stand for non-discrimination as one of the founding pillars of the Olympic Movement, to which FIDE belongs. This is reflected in the Olympic Charter, Fundamental Principle 6: “The enjoyment of the rights and freedoms set forth in this Olympic Charter shall be secured without discrimination of any kind, such as race, color, sex, sexual orientation, language, religion, political or other opinions, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.” Chess players tend to travel a lot, and the more you travel the more you are exposed to racism and xenophobia. Sadly, that has been the case for our colleague Pontus Carlsson and many others: we have heard their testimonies, and we would like to offer them our support. But most incidents occur outside the chess competitions: at chess tournaments, we are proud to say that the incidents are minimal, and we will stay alert to prevent this from happening. In fact, no one has filed a complaint about racial discrimination at any of our official events at least since the current administration took office in 2018. The Chess Olympiad, where players of 180+ countries live together for two weeks, is a true celebration of the unity of humankind in all our diversity. We believe there is something truly beautiful about chess: it makes us focus on what we have in common as human beings, rather than in what makes us different. The reason why is that when you play a game of chess with someone, it is like if you could see his/her thoughts. You get into your opponent’s brain, and you establish some kind of communication, even if both players don’t have a language in common. At the chess board, differences in age, sex, religion, color, or economical status become irrelevant: they simply vanish. You immediately develop some respect for a person you are exchanging ideas with at such a deep level. We could even say that chess is the ultimate equalizer. It is for this reason that chess is gaining so much popularity as an educational tool. The educational benefits of chess are not limited to intellectual development: the game is also a formidable tool for social development in children. The best contribution FIDE can do to fight racism is to keep working to bring this game to schools, and to honor our motto: “gens una sumus”. ####### For more information, please contact the FIDE Media Relations Team:Tel: +34 623021120, email press@fide.com