Turkish Women’s Championship: Atalik clinches her fifth title
IM Ekaterina Atalık won her fifth national title after outperforming all the competitors in the 2021 Turkish Women’s Championship. Sponsored by a major Turkish home appliances company, Arzum, the event, a 7-round Swiss tournament, took place from June 13-19 in the beautiful halls of Çorum Museum which is also home to many important archaeological findings from Hattusa, the ancient capital of Hittites, and other settlements that lie inside the borders of the modern-day city of Çorum. The championship was expected to be a two-horse race between IM Ekaterina Atalık and WGM Kübra Öztürk Örenli and so it turned out to be in the end despite all the best efforts of the young and upcoming players in a dense field of 32 participants. The two regulars of the Turkish national team took the first two places with 6.5 and 6 points respectively after seven hard-fought rounds. Their eagerly awaited game ended in a draw after a tense battle, so the half-point loss WGM Öztürk Örenli suffered at the hands of the young Azra Ece Koç in the second round proved to be decisive for the championship race. 17-year-old WFM Esma Doga Duran finished clear third, a full point ahead of the rest of the field. The utmost care was given to the epidemiological regulations throughout the championship. The successful completion of the event without any health concerns sets an important example for the long-awaited full-scale return to OTB chess. Final standings: 1 Atalik, Ekaterina 6½ 2 Ozturk Orenli, Kubra 6 3 Duran, Esma Doga 5½ 4 Onur, Cigdem 4½ 5 Sahin, Hayrun Nisa 4½ 6 Kocyigit, Buse Naz 4½ 7 Gokbulut, Julia 4½ 8 Kalayci, Nino 4 9 Incecik , Seyma Zeynep 4 10 Akti, Ezgi 4 Text: Tarik Selbes Photo: official website Official website: kadinlar2021.tsf.org.tr
Amadou Lamine Cissé wins Senegal National Championship
Amadou Lamine Cissé won Senegal National Championship with an exceptional result of 9 out of 9 points. Cissé secured the title with a round to spare. The first part of the Senegal National Championship was held at Cours Sainte Marie De Hann from December 4, 2020, to December 6, 2020. The event was open for both Senegalese and foreigners. The seven-round Swiss tournament brought together 44 participants. Top ten Senegalese finishers qualified for the Senegal Closed National Chess Championship. The second and final leg of the Senegalese Chess Championships took place from June 11-20, 2021 at the Arène Nationale in Dakar, Senegal. The National Championship was originally supposed to be held in late December 2020 just after the Senegal Open Championship but was postponed due to tightened Covid-19 measures. The event was a 10-player round-robin tournament with a time control of 90 minutes for 40 moves followed by 30 minutes to the end of the game, plus a 30-second increment starting from move one. In second place with 7.5/9 is the top-rated Senegalese player Gbedo Sy Mansour who finished 1½ points ahead of third place. Bernard Lesbros and Mouhamadou Mourtada Fall tied for third place on 5½/9 with the former taking bronze thanks to better tiebreaks. Nadezhda Marochkina – the only lady participant in the tournament – proved herself against men’s competition by scoring 4½/9 and was crowned undisputed 2020 Senegalese Women National Chess Champion. Final standings: 1 Cisse, Amadou Lamine 9 2 Mansour, Gbedo Sy 7½ 3 Lesbros, Bernard 5½ 4 Fall, Mouhamadou Mourtada 5½ 5 Marochkina, Nadezhda 4½ 6 Wane, Al Hassane 3½ 7 Badji, Sekou Aransbene 3 8 Dioum, Mouhamadou Falilou 2½ 9 Diop, Wara 2 10 Kaundum, A. Robert Diatta 2 Official website: fesec.org Text and photo: Amadou Lamine Cisse
Players lists and full pairings of FIDE World Cups published
The final lists of the FIDE World Cup and the FIDE Women’s World Cup’s participants have been published. The knock-out events will be held from July 10TH to August 8th 2021 in the Gazprom Mountain Resort in Sochi. These top-rated events are part of the World Chess Championship cycles. The two finalists of the open event will qualify for the 2022 FIDE Candidates Tournament, whilst the three best players of the women’s competition will get spots in the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament. Two hundred and six (206) players will compete in the FIDE World Cup (eight rounds of KO play), and there will be one hundred and three (103) participants in the FIDE Women’s World Cup (seven rounds). The rating favourites of the open event are the current World Champion Magnus Carlsen (representing Norway, rated 2847 in the June 1st list), Fabiano Caruana (USA, 2820), Levon Aronian (Armenia, 2781), Anish Giri (Netherlands, 2780), Alexander Grischuk (Russia, 2776), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan, 2770), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France, 2760), Alireza Firouzja (FIDE, 2759), Leinier Dominguez (USA, 2758), Sergey Karjakin (Russia, 2757), alongside many other well-known chess players from all over the world. The organisers have nominated the Russian players Rudik Makarian and Kirill Shubin. In addition, top youngsters Gukesh D (India), Jergus Pechac (Slovakia), Nijat Abasov (Azerbaijan) and Vladislav Kovalev (Belarus) have received direct “wild cards” from FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich. The FIDE Women’s World Cup will feature the Russians Aleksandra Goryachkina (2596) and Kateryna Lagno (2558), the Ukrainians Mariya and Anna Muzychuk (2544 and 2535, respectively), Nana Dzagnidze (Georgia, 2524), Harika Dronavalli (India, 2515), Tan Zhongyi (China, 2511), and many other chess stars. The organiser’s nominee for the Women’s event is Anna Afonasieva (Russia), while Amina Mezioud (Algeria) has been given the right to play by FIDE President. The first round of the FIDE World Cup and the FIDE Women’s World Cup will start off with one hundred and fifty-six (156) and seventy-eight (78) players, respectively. The winners of the opening matches will advance and be joined by fifty (50) high-ranked players in the open event and twenty-five (25) in the women’s competition, who are seeded straight into the second round. All matches consist of two classic games and a third-day tie-break, if necessary. Full pairings can be found on the official website of the FIDE World Cup 2021. Great matches are to be expected already in the first round! The prize fund of the FIDE World Cup is 1,892,500 USD and 676,250 USD in the FIDE Women’s World Cup. The tournament venue is the Galaxy entertaining center located in the Gazprom Mountain Resort, Krasnaya Polyana, Sochi. Participants: FIDE World Cup FIDE Women’s World Cup Media accreditation: press@fide.com Official website: worldcup.fide.com