Legend of Chess: Carlsen moves atop the standings
World Champion Magnus Carlsen worked his magic to move to the top of the chess24 Legends of Chess leaderboard today as he racked up a stunning 3-0 win over Boris Gelfand. The Norwegian now has a perfect 12/12 points score having won all four of his matches in the $150,000 online super-tournament. Carlsen moved smoothly through the gears against Israel’s number 1 and even found time to pop out to the shops in between games. “I had more than half an hour, after the second game,” he joked in the post-match interview, after revealing he’d been off to buy groceries. In media interviews, Carlsen said: “I am not so concerned about who I will be facing in the final. I will have a good chance to win anyway.” In the other matches, China’s Ding Liren – who had been woefully out-of-form – picked up his first win by ruining Peter Svidler‘s impressive start with a final score of 2.5-1.5. Ian Nepomniachtchi and Vasyl Ivanchuk drew three consecutive games before the Russian triumphed in the last to win the match 2.5-1.5. Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi (who has also won all his matches but dropped one tournament point) are now strong favorites to make it through to the semis. Vladimir Kramnik beat Peter Leko in a similar fashion – a final game win allowed him to take the match 2.5-1.5. Anish Giri overcame the five-time world champ, Vishy Anand, in an Armageddon tiebreak after they drew all four of their regular games. Anand, who has struggled so far, ran out of time. Today was the fourth day of the round-robin battle for four places in the Legends of Chess semi-finals. The event, the fourth leg of the $1 million Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour, runs until August 5 and will carry a $150,000 prize fund. The winner will scoop a top prize of $45,000 and the last of the coveted spots in the tour’s Grand Final in August. Commentary is provided by Jan Gustafsson, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, and Tania Sachdev and special guests – including more legends to be announced later. The event is also be broadcast in 10 languages by chess24.com. Tournament rules and schedule The time control will be a rapid 15m + 10s from move 1 played in the chess24 Playzone. There will be two stages starting with a 10-player round-robin (July 21-29) with each round consisting of 4-game matches and Armageddon tiebreaks if needed. The top four will advance to the knockout semi-finals (July 31-August 2) and two will go through to the final (August 3-5). July 30 is a free day. All sessions will begin at 16:00 CEST. Highlights in English:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Rmx6IFrFYxYPrNhZVtxZbRWTiMAIICvc?usp=sharingNew files at around 23.00 CEST Rough edit highlights:https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1SItw6DwCyoTsZ0WiVAjw4BkVHEaGQFDI?usp=sharingNew files ready around 02.00 CEST FOR MORE INFORMATION:Leon Watsonleon@chessable.com+447786 078770
FIDE: birthplace and “parents”
Birthplace of FIDE. Photo: Google Maps This article was originally published on the FIDE Newsletter #10 (July 21, 2020). If you want to receive this biweekly publication directly in your inbox, please subscribe here. On July 20, 1924, FIDE was born in Paris. This is hardly news to any chess lover since the echoes of our birthday celebrations still resound on social media. But, where exactly was our Federation born, and who were its parents? FIDE was born at the Town Hall of the IX Arrondissement of Paris (6 Rue Drouot). This building is located a 2-min walk from the Richelieu-Drouot metro station and the Musée Grévin. As you probably know, that summer Paris was hosting the 1924 Summer Olympics, and a group of very determined men who truly loved chess decided to organize an important event alongside the Olympic Games: the first international team chess tournament, which is considered the first “unofficial” Chess Olympiad. This tournament was held at the “Hotel Majestic”, now known as “The Peninsula”. Among these men, there were two key figures. One was the secretary of the French Chess Federation, Pierre Vincent, who is described by “The Swiss Chess Review” as “the devoted and tireless secretary who was the initiator and soul of the tournament”. The other one was the world-champion-to-be, Alexander Alekhine, who back then was living in Paris under the status of “stateless refugee”. Pierre Vincent. Photo: January 1926 issue of L’Echiquier. On 20 July, the last day of the games, 15 delegates from all over the World signed the proclamation act of what was originally known as “Fédération Internationale des Échecs” or “FIE” (shortly after the acronym was changed to “FIDE”). These were the 15 founding signatories: Ignacio de Peñalver y Zamora (1857-1933) of Spain. Florenziano Marusi (1860-1936) of Milan, Italy. Francis Hooper Rawlins (1861-1925) of Bath, England. Steven Francis Smith (1861-1928) of British Columbia, Canada. Anatol A. Tscherpurnoff (1871-1942) of Helsinki, Finland. Marc Nicolet (1876-1942) of Biel, Switzerland. Jakov Ovadija (1878-1941) of Belgrade, Yugoslavia. Pierre Vincent (1878-1956) of France. Alexander Rueb (1882-1959) of The Hague, Holland. Istvan Abonyi (1886-1942) of Budapest, Hungary. Leon Willem Weltjens (1887-1975) of Anvers, Belgium. Ion Gudju (1897- 1988) of Bucharest, Romania. Karel Skalička (1896-1979) of Prague, Czechoslovakia. Izaak Towbin (1899-1941) of Korets, Poland. Roberto Gabriel Grau (1900-1944) of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Attendants to the first FIDE Congress, Paris 1924 Alexander Rueb, President of the Dutch Federation, was appointed as the first FIDE President. By profession, he was a lawyer at the Dutch Supreme Court and diplomat. As a player, he was a mere amateur, and not particularly strong, but he wrote books on endgame studies and he was a passionate collector of chess books (his collection is now in the library of the University of Amsterdam). Dr. Rueb served as president of Fide for 25 years, from 1924 to 1949, and you can find more information about his life in this article. Mikhail Botvinnik and Alexander Rueb