Carlsen refuses to buckle on first day of final
Magnus Carlsen kept Russian ace Ian Nepomniachtchi at bay to edge ahead in a tight first day of the chess24 Legends of Chess final. The World Champion, who went into today’s match was on a run of 17 straight Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour wins, had appeared in cruise control yet again after winning the opening game and drawing the second. But after a rare Carlsen mistake in the third, Ian came back hard to level the score. A swift draw followed which left the match all-square on 2-2 and going into overtime. Carlsen, however, was not phased and took the two-game blitz play-off 2-0. Carlsen was critical of his own play but said: “I guess I’ll take it and I’ll try and play better tomorrow. The 29-year-old Norwegian is now one-up in the best-of-three final. Nepo has the chance to come back tomorrow and force a decider on Wednesday. During today’s play, the 12th World Chess Champion Anatoly Karpov joined the show live from the glittering Central Chess Club in Moscow. The event, the fifth 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. Tournament rules and schedule The time control is 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
Sachini Ranasinghe clinches Sri Lanka Women’s Grand Prix
WIM Sachini Ranasinghe (Nf3 Chess Club) became the champion of the inaugural Sri Lanka Women’s Chess Grand Prix 2020. Despite losing her last round game against young Tharushi Sandeepani of Devi Balika Vidyalaya, she finished with an excellent score 9 ½ points out of 11. The four-time women’s National Chess Champion (2009, 2011, 2012 & 2013), Sachini played at four FIDE Chess Olympiads in 2010, 2012, 2016, and 2018). The champion was awarded a trophy, gold medal, and prize money in the amount of Rs. 30,000. WFM Dinushki Premanath of the University of Moratuwa took a poor start (including a loss in a key first-round game to eventual champion) but picked up steam in the middle of tournament reeling off six straight wins to finish on 8 points. Dinushki took the National Women’s Chess Champion title in 2010 and 2018 and has participated in a couple of Chess Olympiads in 2012 and 2018. Dinushki got silver and a prize of Rs. 12,000. WCM Tharushi Niklesha (Visakha Vidyalaya) and WIM Nelunika Methmani (University of Sri Jayawardenapura) also scored 8 points each and tied for second place but had to settle for bronze and fourth place respectively due to inferior tiebreaks. Both received equal money with Dinushki Rs. 12,000 each. Asvini Pavalchandran finished fifth scoring 7½ points and she was awarded Rs. 4,000 in cash. The tournament, organized by the Chess Federation of Sri Lanka, became the first women sports event in the country after the COVID 19 outbreak. The competition was held at the Chess Federation Headquarters, Delkanda, Nugegoda, and stretched from July 25 to August. The total prize fund of the event amounted to Rs 70,000. Mr. Luxman Wijesuriya, General Secretary of South Asian Chess Council & Commonwealth Chess Association and Vice President of the Asian Chess Federation attended the awards ceremony as the guest of honor. Sachini, Niklesha, and Ashvini are the members of the national team which will take part in the FIDE Online Chess Olympiad. Final Standings: 1. WIM, Sachini Ranasinghe – 9½2. WFM, Dinushki Premanath – 83. WCM Tharushi Niklesha – 84. WIM, Nelunika Methmani – 85. Ashvini Pavalachandran – 76. Sandeepani Tharushi – 6½7. Prasansa Premanath – 5½8. Janadani Abeysinghe – 5½9. Oneli Weerawardena – 3½10. Sayumi Gamage – 311. Sayumi Vimansa Piyumanthi – 1½
Division 4: Day 3 Round-up
It was a relatively quiet day in most pools as many top teams had won the most important matches in previous rounds. Nevertheless, at the very end, we saw a real drama in group E. Pool A In Round 7, team Nepal, demonstrating some attractive chess lost its chance to qualify for Division 3. One of the team leaders, Bibek Thing, erroneously traded queens in a winning queen endgame, and after realizing that the emerged pawn ending was drawing he choked up and forfeited on time. As a result, Nepal lost to Hong Kong 2:4 and had to play a supporting role in the last round. On the other hand, Nepal did a great job even with this supporting role, ruining hopes of the rating-favorite Myanmar. After a disastrous first day, Myanmar was trying to make up but stumbled in Round 8. After Maynmar lost to Nepal the trio of qualifiers for Division 3 was finally formed – Hong Kong, Thailand, and Chinese Taipei. Hong Kong finished first after beating Thailand in the final round. It should be noted, that team Thailand gave a rest day to its leader FM Thanadon Kulpruethanon (6/6) and Pornouma Promsirinimit (5.5/6), playing on the fourth board. Pool B Since three teams – Syria, Mozambique, and Malta – had a good cushion after two days, only connection problems could have prevented them from advancing to Division 3. Everything went smoothly and the leaders carried their quest in this pool to its logical conclusion. Round 9 was decisive in terms of top-3 finals standings. Mozambique somewhat unexpectedly fell to Qatar 2:4 – apparently, due to misconnection on board 5. As a result, the African team finished third, Malta is second and Syria came in the top. Pool C The clear favorites Nigeria and Lebanon along with the “revelation of the tournament” Mauritania progressed to Division 3 with a round to spare. After loosing to Mauritania Lebanon might have had some problems but the team resolved all the issues in a key match with Nigeria. The most spectacular move in this Division is authored by the Lebanon leader IM Fadi Eid – in the game with IM Oladapo Adu, the Nigerian, playing with Black, was dominating the entire game but let his guard down in time trouble: Fadi Eid – Oladapo Adu A careless 45…Qxa4? was met with a stunning 46.Kg5!!, and there is no adequate defense against 47.Kh6 followed by checkmate on g7-square. The game went on 46…Kh7 47. Rb7! Qe8 48. Qxg6+ Kh8 49. Qh6+ Kg8 50. Kf6! Qd8+ 51. Re7 and Black gave up his queen but got checkmated soon anyway. Despite losing the match 1.5:4.5 Nigeria had a great chance to take first place, as in the last round encounter with Mauritania the team looked like a clear favorite. After Rahilou Hemam (Mauritania) did not find an elegant checkmate in a few moves, one may have thought that Nigeria would eventually prevail, but then the unthinkable happened on first board: Abimbola Osunfuyi – Sidi Boidiya Abimbola Osunfuyi (Nigeria) made a misclick – 67.e5?? which resulted in a draw both in the game and in the match. Mauritania sensationally won the tournament in Pool C, Lebanon came second, Nigeria is only third. All three teams will be in the spotlight in Division 3. Pool D Again, we knew all three teams progressing to the next stage before the final round. Palestine, that shined on the starting day, first complicated its task by conceding an important point to Ghana in Round 7, and then blew all chances after losing a key match against Puerto-Rico (2:4). By winning this encounter Puerto-Rico secured third place, whereas the first two spots had been already taken by Angola and Suriname, the teams that comfortably defeated their opponents throughout the day. Angola also gave a day-off to its leaders in the last round. It is clear that this African team, scoring the absolute best result in Division 4, is capable of giving a hard time to many favorites. Pool E Unlike other pools, we saw a nail-biting finale in this group. After losing a key match vs. Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica had to take at least one point against Honduras and the team succeeded – 3:3 thanks to whitewashing on the women’s boards. In Round 8 all the favorites routed their opponents and before the final round, we had a very interesting situation. Nicaragua (15 points) locked up a spot in Division 3, Trinidad and Tobago (14 points) and Honduras (13 points) were playing each other, whereas Jamaica was more than likely to whitewash Sierra Leone (the team defaulted in the end). A simple calculation showed that a draw in the key match guaranteed both teams advancing to the next stage, but in chess, such a cynical approach and violation of fair play principles is a very rare case. Honduras won a very close match over Trinidad and Tobago 3.5:2.5 and climbed to the second position. FM Marlon Miller (Honduras’ second junior board) played the best game of the match; it is worth watching in its entirety (https://www.chess.com/events/2020-fide-online-olympiad-division-4-pool-e/09-Miller_Marlon-Mc_Intosh_Isaiah) – a sound positional play combined with a well prepared, spectacular attack. Any GM would be proud of it. As a result, Trinidad and Tobago fell back to fourth place and arguably became the unluckiest team in Division 4. Jamaica owes its third place to unstoppable Rachel Miller (pictured below) – one of the best young players in the Americas, she won all her nine games in an impressive style. In conclusion, let’s check out all the teams to advance to Division 3: Hong KongThailandChinese TaipeiSyriaMaltaMozambiqueMauritaniaLebanonNigeriaAngolaSurinamePuerto RicoNicaraguaHondurasJamaica They will be joined by 35 seeded teams lead by Denmark. FIDE Online Olympiad 2020 will resume on Friday, August 7. The composition of all the pools in Division 3 will be published within one-two days after the verification of Division 4 results by the Fair-Play Panel.
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Online Olympiad advances to the next stage: Division 3 Polish Power National Championships resume! “Chess Life” and the new chess boom A passionate chess coach from Msogwaba, South Africa New appointments by the Australian Chess Federation Anniversaries READ NEWSLETTER