Nakamura beats So to reach final
On his 33rd birthday, GM Hikaru Nakamura defeated Wesley So 13.5-12.5, thereby qualifying for Saturday’s final of the 2020 Speed Chess Championship. GM Magnus Carlsen and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave will play on Friday for the other spot in the final. The Nakamura-So match was a repeat of both the 2018 and 2019 finals of the Speed Chess Championship as well as a recurrence of their recent encounter in the Skilling Open. Nakamura lost that last one and had made it clear that he was out for revenge, after his win in the SCC quarterfinal: “Certainly, it’s payback time. I’m gonna be out for blood, I will say that much!” The match was one of the closest of the championship so far, with the players still in a tie before the bullet segment. Nakamura expectedly made the difference in the 1+1 games but in the end, the margin was only one game. It was So who started strongly in the five-minute segment. After two draws, he won both games that followed. To turn the tide, Nakamura decided to play a bit sharper. He chose the rare plan of castling queenside in the Italian and it worked out well. Nakamura also won games seven and eight and so he was leading 5-4 when the five-minute ended. He allowed his opponent to tie the score right away in the first 3+1 game as he mixed up the moves in another line of the Italian. So had some momentum there as he also won the next game and should have held the one after. A huge blunder still kept the match tied. So won the penultimate 3+1 game in crushing style, eventually doing what Nakamura did to him: castling queenside in an Italian. But by then, White was already winning due to an early blunder from Black. Afterward, So pointed out that his loss in the last 3+1 game (from such a solid position) was “very critical” as he won that second segment only by 4.5-3.5. “If I had won that game I would be on plus two and it doesn’t matter if I lose the bullet portion for sure but if I am on plus two I have at least a small cushion,” said So. “Losing that game was a big blow because coming to the match I knew for sure that I was going to lose the bullet.” However, So was hardly the worse player in the bullet either. Nakamura ended up winning it with 5-4 only. Still, the fact that he won for example a theoretically drawn rook endgame speaks for his incredible experience. So was playing the last 20 moves with just two or three seconds on the lock while Nakamura had about six, seven seconds all the time. He found the one moment where So slipped and took his chance. Nakamura was more in control during the bullet than the final score might suggest. He was leading 13.5-10.5 after game 24, with four and a half minutes left on the match clock. He was never going to lose three games in that timeframe, if only because he could stall at the right moment. There just wasn’t enough time for So to have real chances even after winning Game 25. Game 26 started with a minute and 49 seconds left on the match clock and while Nakamura was headling for another loss, he made sure to use enough time to get there in the end — a generally accepted match strategy. “I am very happy to win the match but in all seriousness, a lot of credit goes to Wesley, he played a very good match,” said a gracious Nakamura afterward. “I think in many ways, he was the better player of the match. It’s just that at the end of the day there were a couple of missed opportunities for him in the 5+1 and 3+1 and then in the bullet, I was just a little bit better. But I thought he played great.” So was a good sport after his loss: “First, I want to wish Hikaru a very happy birthday. Thank you for popularizing chess and doing a good job on your Twitch. Streaming is a big deal now that chess is moving online. May this be a good year for you and many more to come!” The 2020 Speed Chess Championship Main Event is a knockout tournament among 16 of the best grandmasters in the world who will play for a $100,000 prize fund, double the amount of last year. The tournament runs from November 1-December 13, 2020 on Chess.com. Each match will feature 90 minutes of 5+1 blitz, 60 minutes of 3+1 blitz, and 30 minutes of 1+1 bullet chess. Text: Peter Doggers Photo: chess.com
Isle of Man joins FIDE
The General Assembly approved the admission of the Isle of Man Chess Association as an affiliated organization. This is in recognition of the Isle’s continued contribution to chess, including what promises to be one of the world’s major chess events next year, the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss. The vote saw 107 votes in favor and just 4 against, with a further 4 abstentions. The status of “Affiliated Organization” is slightly below that of full “Member Organization”, which according to Article 9.4 of the FIDE Charter, would demand a territory to be recognized by the United Nations and the International Olympic Committee. Howard Dobson, the Chairman of the Isle of Man Chess Association, said: “In 2019, our chess friends and colleagues at IOM International Chess Limited successfully organized the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss Tournament as part of the FIDE World Championship Cycle. Furthermore, they recently won the bid to host the 2021 Grand Swiss and the Women’s Grand Swiss. In light of this, plus Isle of Man’s history of hosting high class international Swiss events extending back to the early 1990s, we believe that it is important that FIDE should acknowledge Isle of Man’s status in the chess world”.
91st FIDE Congress: decisions, documents, numbers
Since its foundation 96 years ago, FIDE has celebrated 91 Congresses. This annual meeting, where the most important matters are discussed and voted on, has been held almost without interruption for nearly a century. Only five editions had to be canceled, due to force majeure. Just a few years ago, a global pandemic would have surely meant the cancelation of the FIDE congress. But in 2020, with broadband internet connection available almost everywhere in the world, we have managed to hold this event entirely online. The meetings were held via Zoom, and those of general interest were also broadcast via Youtube. This wouldn’t have been possible without the cooperation, will, and patience, of all our member federations, delegates, and commission members. Most of us have already mastered the use of Zoom and other video-conference solutions during 2020, but for many others without technological savvy, the experience posed a little challenge. An additional difficulty was that, with our members being spread across the whole planet in different time zones, we all had to make a little effort, and while some of our members had to get up early in the morning, for many others the meetings concluded well past midnight. We want to thank all participants for their patience, and in particular, to all those who had to make an extra effort to adapt to this new format. We would also like to thank our IT department, headed by Vladimir Kukaev and Gennady Rakhvalov, who provided explicit tutorials and provided assistance to the delegates during the whole process. Here is a recap of some of the most important decisions and topics discussed during this week at the General Assembly, the Zonal Council, and the Commissions’ meetings. The entire meeting is available on the FIDE Youtube channel. FIDE Treasurer report An important report at every General Assembly is the one by the FIDE Treasurer, which is normally offered right after the President’s opening speech. Zhu Chen shared the news that FIDE has now opened a Swiss bank account, which means that the organization is now ready to accept credit card payments, something crucial in order to organize activities like seminars, et cetera. The Treasurer informed that Ernst & Young concluded their audit for the year 2019 in which they examined every transaction, and “they were fully satisfied with FIDE’s internal control procedures”. The delegates voted in favor of appointing Ernst & Young again for the 2020 audit. Chen informed the delegates that FIDE’s cash balance is currently just below 3 million euros, and she expects it to be a bit over 4 million euros by the end of the year thanks to some advance payments that are expected in the next weeks related to next year’s World Championship match and the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss. “We are in a very small group of International Federations that have managed to deal with the crisis on our own, without applying for support from IOC or public funds. We must be proud of this achievement”, she added. The Treasurer also spent some time analyzing how the pandemic has impacted FIDE’s budget, compared to what was originally approved in February. The budget took a serious blow, but FIDE’s good situation allowed for even further reductions in several fees: in particular, the ones applied to titles and transfers. These new reductions are added to the ones already established in previous budgets, following the strategic plan announced by Arkady Dvorkovich during his electoral campaign. As for the budget for 2021, FIDE has prepared a very conservative estimate, but the budget will probably be reviewed, and it will depend greatly on the income generated by the World Championship match. FIDE’s Director-General Emil Sutovsky briefed the attendants about the most recent developments on the match and the candidates, and he said that he expects the match to generate a profit for FIDE of at least 1,5 million euros. The report of the FIDE Treasurer, the budget for 2021, the new Financial Regulations, the appointment of Ernst & Young, and the report of the Verification Commission were all approved without objections. Trainers Commission, by the numbers Leading up to the Trainers Commission Meeting held as part of the Online FIDE Congress, its secretary Peter Long shared a presentation that reported on the work done by this commission. In 2019, TRG organized a total of 38 seminars, which totaled 902 participants – using 42 different lecturers. Besides offering rotation which is a practice that the new FIDE management has established, this also tapped on the expertise of a large number of trainers. Of these seminars, 13 took place in Asia, 11 in Europe, 8 in Africa, and 1 in the Americas, while 5 of them were held online. This experience proved to be very useful for what was to come! In 2020 there was a shift to having seminars by region and language, so while TRG organized just 23, many were in cooperation with the continental chess bodies and even held together with other commissions, and so have become more available to many usually unable to attend when organized by country. Of these, 16 are already completed, and 7 will be held during the next few days. In total, there have been 605 participants and 37 different lecturers to date, 11 in English, 3 in Russian, 3 in Arabic, 2 in Spanish, 1 in German, and 1 in Portuguese. 2021 will see a complete shift to a teaching curriculum where the subjects have moved beyond just teaching to play chess, to include areas such as psychological and training issues and the use of technology, and critically needed by trainers today, and lecturers will be focused on sharing their own methods and the best practices. In total, 1,573 titles were awarded during these two years (note that very often the titles are awarded sometime after the seminar has concluded). Regarding academies, there are currently 42 FIDE Endorsed Academies, of which 14 are in Asia, 13 in Europe, 9 in Africa, and 6 in the Americas. At the end of 2019, there were 30 so 2020 added 12 more. More information: https://trg.fide.com FIDE honorary titles