European Online Chess Club Cup gets underway
European Online Chess Club Cup will be played from 27th-31st of March 2021, on Tornelo online platform with 91 teams participating. More than 500 players will take part in the event, including 404 titled players and more than 80 GMs rated 2600+, such as Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (AZE, 2770), Richard Rapport (HUN, 1763), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA, 2758), Jan-Krzysztof Duda (POL, 2743), Pentala Harikrishna (IND, 2732), Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (IND, 2762), Michael Adams (ENG, 2716), Nikita Vitiugov (RUS, 2715), Vladislav Artemiev (RUS, 2709), Evgeny Tomashevsky (RUS, 2706), Andrey Esipenko (RUS, 2701), Jorden Van Foreest (NED, 2701), Radoslaw Wojtaszek (POL, 2695), David Navara (CZE, 2697), Amin Bassem (EGY, 2695), Markus Ragger (AUT, 2680), Vasyl Ivanchuk (UKR, 2678), Parham Maghsoodloo (IRI, 2676), Luke Mcshane (ENG, 2674), Gawain Jones (ENG, 2670), Ivan Cheparinov (BUL, 2667), Gata Kamsky (USA, 2665), Nils Grandelius (SWE, 2663), David Howell W L (ENG, 2658), Rauf Mamedov (AZE, 2654) and many others. The event will be played within three stages: Qualification phase (27th-28th of March) – Groups consisting of 10 teams, each, play the Robin round event of 9 rounds. Two teams of each group qualify for Play-offs. Play-offs (29th of March) – The 18 qualifiers from the 1st phase divided into 3 groups of 6 teams. Best ranked 9 teams (3 from each group) proceed to the Finals. The final group (30th-31st of March) – 10 teams play Robin round tournament of 9 rounds. The 10th team is invited by ECU, the Winner of the European Women’s Online Chess Club Cup – Cercle d’Echecs de Monte-Carlo Official Regulations- European Online Chess Club Cup 2021 Lobby to follow – https://tornelo.com/chess/orgs/europechess Chess Results Start lists – http://chess-results.com/tnr553959.aspx?lan=1 Online Broadcast will be available through the ECU twitch channel and through the European Chess TV Youtube channel: Twitch – https://www.twitch.tv/europeanchessunion YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/c/europeanchesstv
Kirill Shevchenko and Julia Antolak win individual rapid
The FIDE World University Online Rapid Championship organized by the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley on Tornelo platform saw a huge turnout comparable with the blitz event: 884 university students took part in the qualifying stage (March 20-21, 2021). Six divisions of approximately equal strength played 12-round Swiss preliminary tournaments. One winner and the best female player from each group qualified for the final stage. The time control was 10 minutes for the entire game, plus a 5-second increment starting from the first move. The finals of the FIDE World University Online Rapid Championship were played on March 25 with the six division winners and six best female players battling for the titles in two short round-robins. After three rounds in the open final, the rating-favourite Grigoriy Oparin (University of Missouri) was leading the field followed by his teammate Mikhail Antipov and Kirill Shevchenko (Ivan Boberskyj Lviv State University of Physical Culture). In Round 4 Shevchenko beat Oparin with black pieces and pulled a half point ahead of his opponent together with Antipov who also won his game. Photo: Kirill Shevchenko Facebook As tournament fortune would have it, the leaders locked horns in the final round. Kirill Shevchenko (pictured above) scored a convincing victory and clinched the title. Mikhail Antipov got silver (it is his second medal after bronze in blitz) thanks to better tiebreaks over Grigoriy Oparin. Final standings open: 1. GM Kirill Shevchenko (UKR Ivan Boberskyj Lviv State University of Physical Culture) – 4 2. GM Mikhail Antipov (RUS University of Missouri) – 3 3. GM Grigoriy Oparin (RUS University of Missouri) – 3 4. IM Leon Livaic (CRO University of Zagreb) – 2½ 5. IM Robby Kevlishvili (NED Saint Louis University) – 2 6. GM Cemil Can Ali Marandi (TUR Saint Louis University) – ½ Despite losing the direct encounter to her main competitor Anna Sargsyan (Armenian State Institute of Physical Culture) in the women’s final, Julia Antolak (University of Texas Rio Grande Valley) won all her other games and secured the title. The champion of the blitz event Anna Sargsyan finished a half-point behind and took silver. Olga Badelka came in third and earned bronze. WIM Julia Antolak Photo: trojmiasto.pl Final standings women: 1. WIM Julia Antolak (POL University of Texas Rio Grande Valley) – 4 2. WGM Anna Sargsyan (ARM Armenian State Institute of Physical Culture) – 3½ 3. IM Olga Badelka (BLR University of Missouri) – 2½ 4. WFM Shengxin Zhao (CHN Shanghai University of Finance and Economics) – 1½ 5. WIM Isha Sharma (IND Mangalore University) – 1½ 6. IM Iulija Osmak (UKR University of Texas Rio Grande Valley) – 0