Asian Senior Championship to be held in mid-July on Chess.com
The Asian Chess Federation invites all National Chess Federations to participate in the Asian Seniors Online Chess Championships in over 50 and over 65 years old categories. The event will take place over July 13-21, 2020 on Chess.com. The competition is open to all players, regardless of rating or title who reach the age of 50 and 65 by December 31, 2020, and are members of National Chess Federations in FIDE Zones from 3.1 to 3.7. There is no limit to the number of participants per federation. All the participants should have a valid FIDE ID number. The deadline for registration is July 6, 2020. Zonal tournaments shall be 7-round Swiss System events held every day. The over-65 category may be round-robin of 7 rounds or shall be merged if there are few players. All players should complete their respective tournaments. Top 3 men and best women qualify for the Finals. The Finals will be 9-round Swiss System events for over-50 and over-65 categories. The time control in all the tournaments is 10 minutes + 2-second increment per move. Top three winners of each category will receive Gold, Silver and Bronze Certificates for the Zonals and Finals. A total of $3,000 will be distributed as follows. Money prizes are not shared. Prize fund distribution: Over 50 Over 65 Best women 1st – $500 1st – $350 Over 50 – $300 2nd – $400 2nd – $200 Over 65 – $100 3rd – $300 3rd – $150 4th – $200 4th – $100 5th – $150 5th – $100 6th – $150 Strict fair-play rules will be applied throughout the event. All players will be monitored via Zoom and may not leave seats during the game. Regulations for Asian Senior Online Championship (pdf) Registration form (pdf)
Chessable Masters: Ding and Giri take the lead
Chinese powerhouse Ding Liren underlined his credentials in the $150,000 Chessable Masters today with a cool first-set win over Hikaru Nakamura. The 27-year-old national number 1 drew first blood in the heavyweight pair’s race to the semis with a crucial second game victory. Nakamura tried to fight back and threw caution to the wind in the next two games, but couldn’t break through “The Chinese Wall”. Ding closed out the set 2.5-1.5. Nakamura, who has become a huge star in online gaming, has failed to find his form so far in this tournament and only just scraped into the last eight from his prelim group. Ding is now the firm favorite to make it through while Nakamura has to win on Sunday to take it to a decider on Monday or face an early exit. World Champion Magnus Carlsen or world number 2 Fabiano Caruana will lie in wait for the winner in the semis. In the other tie, it took a two-game blitz chess play-off and then an Armageddon tiebreaker to separate Anish Giri and Alexander Grischuk after they played out four consecutive draws. The draws were not without drama though. Giri spurned a clear chance to go in front in game two and allowed Grischuk to pull off a miraculous save. Watching online, Carlsen remarked on Twitter: “My boy @anishgiri snatching a draw from the jaws of victory.” Giri and Grischuk then went into a blitz play-off which saw two more draws – making six drawn games in total between the two. In the Armageddon game, Giri chose the black pieces with a time disadvantage so only needed to draw which he duly did to finally win the set. On Saturday Carlsen and Caruana are back in action with Caruana needing a win. Ian Nepominachtchi is ahead in the other quarter with a 1-0 lead over Vladislav Artemiev. About the tournament The Chessable Masters, broadcast live on chess24, is the next stage of the Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour which carries a total prize pot of $1 million, a record for the online game. The event, which runs until July 5, is being put on in association with Chessable and the tour’s Education Partner, leading Swiss private banking group, Julius Baer. The final winner will take home top prize of $45,000 and a ticket to the $300,000 tour Grand Final. Coverage begins with commentary in 10 languages at 16.00 CEST. You can watch it live here: https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tournaments/chessable-masters-2020-group-a#live Highlights English:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1dpG2c-dmqs58tSDSZvxzGNqzgquJyO0g?usp=sharing FOR MORE INFORMATION:Leon Watsonleon@chessable.com+447786 078770