Michael Adams clinches British Online Championship title
Photo above: David Llada This weekend, Michael Adams became the winner of the Caplin British Online Chess Championship. England’s top-rated player defeated IM Ameet Ghasi in an exciting play-off for the title, after both scored 7 out of 9 in the main event. This is the 8th national title for Michael Adams, who first won the British Chess Championship in 1989, at just seventeen years old. In between, he also won in 1997, 2010, 2011, 2016, 2018, and 2019. His dominance in the national competition seems to be only increasing over time as if he had left behind his peer group, while none of the young talents has progressed enough to catch up with him. Final standings open: 1. Michael Adams (2716) – 72. Ameet Ghasi (2485) – 73. Matthew Wadsworth (2416) – 6½4. Matthew Turner (2509) – 65. Daniel Fernandez (2466) – 5½6. Mark Hebden (2453) – 5½7. Bogdan Lalic (2402) – 5½8. Harry Grieve (2351) – 5½9. Tanmay Chopra (2273) – 5½10. Tristan Cox (2141) – 5½ Photo: Paul Truong In the women’s competition, the main favorite Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant (pictured above) steamrolled her opponents and finished with a perfect score of 7 points out of 7. Despite low rating Nina Pert came in second, two points behind the champion; Dagne Ciuksyte is third, thanks to better tiebreaks over Trisha Kanyamarala and Olivia Smith. Final standings women: 1. Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant (2380) – 72. Nina Pert (1537) – 53. Dagne Ciuksyte (2294) – 4½4. Trisha Kanyamarala (2180) – 4½5. Olivia Smith (2012) – 4½6. Lara Putar (1930) – 47. Tashika Arora (1744) – 48. Imogen Dicen (1630) – 49. Alice Lampard (1763) – 410. Maria Emelianova (2113) – 3½ The Caplin British Online Championships included 20 different tournaments for various age groups from cadets to seniors held on the Chess.com platform with different time controls and stretched from December 21 to January 3. All standard play events were based on a game a day with 7 rounds of qualifiers and 9 rounds of finals each in Swiss format. Official website: www.englishchess.org.uk
FIDE approves Online Chess Regulations
The FIDE Council has approved a new set of rules to be applied to official online chess competitions. The document, which will be incorporated into the laws of chess, is the result of a joint effort by a dedicated task force, in which several FIDE Commissions were involved. “The vast experience of different competitions held online has been taken into account: many commissions’ experts (mainly arbiters and Fair Play Panel members) have been involved in FIDE major events and other online competitions held throughout 2020. The initial draft was prepared by the Rules Commission, with invaluable input from the Arbiters and the Qualification Commissions. Fair Play and the FIDE Commission for people with Disabilities also added specific rules adjusted to the online format, which are included as appendixes. During the final stage, the Global Strategy Commission was responsible for consolidating all the inputs, giving the documents its final shape”, explains Pavel Tregubov, Secretary of the GSC. The document’s structure is similar to that of the “over-the-board” Rules of Chess. The first part refers to basic rules, while Part II addresses specific rules for online competitions. Part III is entirely devoted to competition rules and divided into two subparts: A) Online competitions with supervision B) Hybrid competitions. The so-called “hybrid competition” is a new format where the games are played online, but the participants are physically present in a public place like a club, federation headquarters, hotel, et cetera. “We see a lot of potential in this format, which would allow hosting chess competitions with participants scattered across multiple venues, in a branded environment. This increases the opportunities for media exposure and sponsorship activations”, explains David Llada, FIDE’s Chief Marketing and Communications Officer. FIDE expects the hybrid format to be used in some official events in the near future, and some Continents have expressed their intention to hold their Zonal and even Continental Championships under this format. FIDE Online Chess Regulations (pdf)
FIDE appoints Dana Reizniece-Ozola as Managing Director
The International Chess Federation is proud to announce the appointment of Dana Reizniece-Ozola as Managing Director. She will be in charge of a wide range of vitally important areas of FIDE work, including administrative and financial matters, as well as functioning of most of the commissions. The main directions Ms. Reiznice-Ozola will oversee include chess in education – an area she sees as a top priority. She will also be in charge of development – a field in which Dana can contribute with her vast experience to the good work already done by the FIDE Planning and Development Commission (PDC). The third major line of work will be related to establishing relationships with other international institutions. Apart from being a very strong player – Woman Grandmaster who has won multiple titles, Reizniece-Ozola is a renowned politician and a Member of the Parliament of the Republic of Latvia, an institution she first joined in 2010. She has held the positions of Minister of Economics (2014-2016) and Minister of Finance (2016-2019), but she has also worked as the Chairperson of the Commission on Education, Culture and Science, Member of the Legal Affairs Commission, Member of the European Affairs Commission and Secretary of Budgetary and Finance (Tax) Commission in the Parliament. She has already made use of the experience gained in the political arena for the benefit of chess, having been a member of the board of the Latvian Chess Federation and, as well as Vice-President for the European Chess Union. “I will be happy to give my input in the further development of FIDE. The world would clearly acknowledge the international chess federation not only as a strong supporter to professional chess players and organizer of high-level chess competitions but also as a socially responsible organization that fosters chess in education and enhances social inclusion with this royal game”, states Dana. “Dana is an over-achiever, whose work and interests have stretched across different fields during her career, and she made high profile contributions in many different areas. In 2017, she was named Finance Minister of the Year in Europe. But not so many people know that she was leading the project of developing the first Latvian Satellite, which was launched that year. That speaks volumes about her qualities as a project manager and team leader”, said the FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich. “But something I would like to point out is the fact that, despite the demands of her successful professional career, she has always managed to stay involved in chess, demonstrating true love for the game”. As a player, Dana was a young talent who achieved outstanding results in youth competitions. She tied for first in the U14 World Junior Championship in 1995, got a silver medal in the U18 World Youth Championship in 1998, and won two consecutive European Youth Chess Championships in 1998 and 1999. She achieved the title of Woman Grandmaster in 2000 and is a four-time winner of the Latvian Women’s National Championship (1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001). She has represented her country at eight Chess Olympiads and five European Team Championships, defending the first board. In 2016, she made headlines all over the world when, while being the incumbent finance minister, she managed to defeat the reigning World Champion Hou Yifan at the Baku Chess Olympiad. Only a few days ago, she played a brilliant game that game her team the victory in the First Division of the 4NCL Online League. Photo: Jānis Deināts
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Dana Reizniece-Ozola joins FIDE in the role of Managing Director FIDE approves Online Chess Regulations Is yours the smartest company in the world? Yu Yangyi and Tan Zhongyi, Chinese Champions 2020 Michael Adams, seven-time British Champion “Team Hikaru” raises $355,720 for CARE “US Chess Women” shows the way Anniversaries READ NEWSLETTER
Teimour Radjabov wins the Airthings Masters
Teimour Radjabov clinched the Airthings Masters title, winning $60,000 and qualified for the tour final in September. In the match for third place, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave bested Daniil Dubov. After winning the first set of the final Teimour needed just a draw in the second one, but Levon Aronian did not go down easily. In the first see-saw game, Aronian went for a very sharp line which is refuted by the only and very hard-to-find move (21…d3). Teimour missed it and found himself in a lost position but then it was Levon’s turn to err. Teimour was winning but did not demonstrate necessary accuracy and the game was drawn. In the second game, Radjabov showed excellent technique and converted a slight advantage in an endgame with opposite-colored bishops into a full point. Being in a must-win situation Levon tried his best in game 3 but Teimour gradually traded most of the pieces, reached a draw, and won the match. “Today it was really tough. Trying to keep the focus and concentration to the very end and takes a lot of emotions as well to keep this way of calmness that I am trying to produce and not to show if I am happy or unhappy about my position. But it just took so much energy I am completely exhausted. I was trying to take Levon to the blitz part of the match, honestly, after checking his games of preliminaries and knockout stage. He was playing almost perfect chess very close to his highest level, which he always shows when he is in top form. Some can say I was playing some kind of dry chess, but my point was to win the tournament, not to please anyone, to be honest,” the winner said in a short interview right after the match. Daniil Dubov got a big advantage in the first and second games, but to his disappointment netted just a half-point. The Russian leveled the score after winning game 3 in good style but in the final encounter of the match, the Frenchman played his most consistent and cleanest chess in the match and tipped the scales in his favor. Chess24 has revealed that the $1.5 million Champions Chess Tour has a new title partner – the California-based firm Meltwater, a big player in the market for media intelligence and social analytics solutions. The tour will now be renamed the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. Official website: https://championschesstour.com/