ChessTech 2020 goes big
Running parallel to the FIDE Congress was ChessTech2020, the online conference on chess and technology, which drew 526 registrations from more than 70 countries. Following a welcome to the two-day-meeting from Zurab Azmaiparashvili, President of ECU, the FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich gave a keynote address Chess: Driving Technological Innovations in the 21st Century and answered a wide range of questions afterwards. The event, the 8th in the sequence of the London Chess Conferences, was directed by John Foley from ChessPlus Limited, a London-based training, and education company, with a programme developed by Stefan Löffler of ChesstechNews. FIDE was a foundation sponsor through its continental funding of the ECU. Commercial sponsors of the event included Tornelo, Chessable, DGT, LearningChess, ChessKid, ChessLang, SzuperChess, GameAhead Consulting, and ChessStars. The Zoom-based conference comprised 44 sessions with 122 contributors. The conference was very well received with an average satisfaction star rating of 4.3/5. According to the post-conference survey, the three most frequent descriptions of the conference were “interesting”, “informative” and “inspiring”. There were many memorable sessions. One of the most important topics was anti-cheating on which there were three in-depth sessions examining different perspectives. Many attendees were impressed by Chris Callahan’s overview of the free platform Lichess. The book presentations from David Smerdon (The Complete Chess Swindler) and Noam Manella (Think Like a Machine) provided deep insights into cognitive psychology. Daniel King’s honest account of how he built up his YouTube channel PowerPlayChess attracted many admirers. Another session on streaming chess gave advice from setting up Twitch to running a successful channel. The clear presentation by Shohreh Bayat and Judit Sztaray on online arbitration was praised by the arbiter community. Many chess teachers valued the presentations from a range of education companies including LearningChess, ChessKid, Chesser, AcornChess, and ChessLang. Chessable made a major announcement about the provision of free software to schools. The session on sponsorship was excellent. The gender issues from the previous conference were revisited in a lively international forum. There were three sessions on Erasmus projects: Castle, CGS, and 8by8; and one session featuring the European Research Council funded Digital Ludeme Project. There were several panels such as “Is Chess an Esport?” and “How to Make Chess Greener?” Many people praised the session on new formats for chess journalism. There was a competition for the best chess startup in 2020. This was won by Chessvision.ai by Pawel Kacprzak from Poland. Lecture by Dr. Alexey Root In addition to the above sessions in English, there were also segments of the conference conducted in French, Spanish, and German which were reported to be highly satisfactory. The conference also comprised a social networking “Chess Café” where it was possible to meet with other attendees in an informal atmosphere. For those who did not attend the conference, these are available in three categories. Some are available to the general public and are being released one-by-one with social media notifications. A second category is for those people who registered for the conference and may not have been able to get into some popular sessions. The third category is reserved for those with professional tickets. Access to categories two and three is available for a modest fee. Earlier conference report on ChessTechNews
Gawain Jones takes the title
On the final day of the European Online Blitz Championship, both semi-finals went to Armageddon: Gawain Jones (ENG) won over David Navara (CZE) while Alexei Shirov (ESP) beat Matthias Bluebaum (GER). In the final Jones convincingly defeated Shirov 2½:½. After losing the second game with white pieces (the first encounter was drawn) Alexei opted for a risky line in the third game but fell under a crushing attack. In the match for third place, Navara missed his chances in a won rook endgame that emerged in the first game and eventually lost. In the next two games, the German player scored 1½ points and took bronze. The medalists got trophies, medals, and invitations for the upcoming European Rapid & Blitz 2021, which will be held in Katowice, Poland. All the top-16 qualifiers got prizes. The players ranked from the 5th-8th place received a prize of €500 players from the 9th-16th place – a prize of €300, while the players ranked 17th-20th received the invitations for 2021. Special prizes were established for the best 3 female players: AntoanetaStefanova (BUL), Anna Sargsyan (ARM), and MonikaSocko (POL) received €200 each. Three best senior players – AvigdorBykhovsky (RUS), Igor Efimov (MNC), Leon Mazi (SLO) – and three best junior players – Bogdan-Daniel Deac (ROU), Kanan Garayev (AZE), and Nikolozi Kacharava (GEO) – are invited to the 2021 European Rapid & Blitz Chess Championship. A large number of spectators followed the live commentary in English by WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili, GM Marcin Tazbir, and WFM Maria Leks at the Polish national channel on Twitch TVP_Sports and the commentary in Polish provided by Infoszach. The organization of the championship was supported by the city of Katowice, the Ministry of Sport of the Republic of Poland, and Mokate. About Katowice: Katowice is one of the fastest-growing Polish cities which passed a deep restructuring in a short time. For the first time, the European Rapid Chess Championship in Katowice took place in 2017 and was certainly one of the greatest events in the history of the European Chess Union. The great organization of the competition back in 2017 made it possible for Katowice to receive the right to host the participants of the European Rapid Chess Championships in 2020 and 2021. Official website: https://www.katowice2020.eu/ Email: office@katowice2020.eu Social media: Facebook / Twitch
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Belgian Chess Federation turns 100 Field announced for Wijk aan Zee and Gibraltar WGP ‘Nepo’and Goryachkina, 2020 Russian Champions Brief news from National Federations ChessTech Conference 2020 Anniversaries READ NEWSLETTER
Kazhgaleyev and Abdumalik win Kazakhstan Cup 2020
Murtas Kazhgaleyev and Zhansaya Abdumalik won the 2020 Kazakhstan Championship in the open and women sections. Both championships were round robins that brought together the best Kazakhstani players. Murtas turned in a very solid performance in the open competition scoring 7½ out of 11 points. The champion lost just one game but compensated for it with five victories and finished a half-point ahead of Aslan Aitbayev. It is the third national title in Kazhgaleyev’s career. Aitbayev had a very good tournament as well – after reeling off three straight victories at the finish he took silver. The highest-rated participant of the event Rinat Jumabayev ended up in the third position. Photo: David Llada Final standings open: 1. GM Murtas Kazhgaleyev (2569) – 7½2. IM Aslan Aitbayev (2457) – 73. GM Rinat Jumabayev (2654) – 6½4. GM Petr Kostenko (2429) – 5½5. FM Ramazan Zhalmakhanov (2393) – 5½6. GM Anuar Ismagambetov (2528) – 5½7. IM Agmanov Zhandos (2407) – 58. Azamat Utegaliyev (2496) – 59. GM Rustam Khusnutdinov (2491) – 510. IM Ayan Akhmetov (2438) – 511. IM Denis Makhnev (2486) – 512. GM Nurlan Ibrayev (2395) – 3½ In the women’s tournament, the excitement was there until the final moves. In the penultimate round, IM Guliskhan Nakhbayeva defeated Abdumalik and gained a half-point lead going into the last round. However, on the final day, the leader lost to WFM Amina Kairbekova, while Abdumalik showed her mettle (it is not for nothing that boxing is her hobby!), won over Laura Abdildayeva, and leapfrogged Nakhbayeva to claim the title. Nakhbayeva finished second, Kairbekova took bronze. Final standings women: 1. IM Zhansaya Abdumalik (2478) – 72. IM Guliskhan Nakhbayeva (2328) – 6½3. WFM Amina Kairbekova (2065) – 54. Liya Kurmangaliyeva (1974) – 55. WIM Assel Serikbay (2247) – 4½6. WGM Gulmira Dauletova (2319) – 4½7. WFM Xeniya Balabayeva (2146) – 4½8. WFM Meruert Kamalidenova (2231) – 3½9. WFM Alua Nurmanova (2026) – 2½10. Laura Abdildayeva (1845) – 2