Duda dominates in Sochi World Cup
“It was totally unrealistic but I am really happy to have won” Friday, August 6th, 2021 – “Huge congratulations to Duda for winning the World Cup. Considering the line of opponents, he beat in the last four rounds, never losing a game — then obviously never being in a must-win or desperate situation — is a massive achievement. So, he is a richly deserved winner” was what World Champion Magnus Carlsen had to say about his opponent’s magnificent performance. Unbeaten in 18 games against world-class opponents, including the current World Champion and a former World Cup winner, with a rating gain of 18 points – he is now number thirteen in the world – Poland’s 23-year-old Jan-Krzysztof Duda has made history by winning the 2021 World Cup. “I was also touched by all the local chess fans who were wishing me good luck each day, thank you to all of them” were his final words just after receiving the winner’s trophy, at the prizegiving. Attending the ceremony were the Deputy Minister of Sport of the Russian Federation, Alexey Morozov, the Minister of Sport of Krasnodar Krai, Alexey Chernov, the Executive Director of the Russian Chess Federation, Mark Glukhovsky as well as FIDE Vice-Presidents Nigel Short and Lukasz Turlej who gave the trophy to the winner and officially closed the tournament. During the ceremony, the winners of the Gazprom Brilliancy Prize (a special trophy sponsored by a General Partner of the World Cup) were announced. In the open competition, the best game of the tournament is Fedoseev – Carslen, the first game of the match for third place. The award is given to the World Champion Magnus Carlsen. In the women’s tournament, the best game is Goryachkina – Stefanova, the second game of the fourth round. The prize is awarded to Alexandra Goryachkina. Jan-Krzysztof’s journey began by defeating Paraguay GM Guillermo Vazquez (2527) in the second round by a 1.5-0.5, followed by two more wins against USA GM Samuel Sevian (2647) and Iran GM Pouya Idani (2614), with the same score. A very tough match followed in the 1/8 finals against top Russian GM Alexander Grischuk (2778), which Duda took down in the tiebreaks by 2.5-1.5. In the quarters he defeated India’s number two player GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (2726) by a clear 1.5-0.5 score, leading him up to the clash with the World Champion in the semi-finals. Duda prevailed again in the tiebreak, defeating Norway GM Magnus Carlsen (2847) by 2.5-1.5, leaving him in a great position to fight for the win in the final against Russian GM Sergey Karjakin (2757), whom he defeated by 1.5-0.5. Born in Poland in 1998, 23-year-old Jan-Krzysztof Duda (2738) was always considered a chess prodigy. World Under-10 Champion in 2008, European Under-14 Champion in 2012 and Grand Master at the age of 15 are just some of his many achievements as a kid. He topped these successes up by performing brilliantly in two top events in his own country, winning the European Rapid Chess Championship and achieving second place in the European Blitz Chess Championship, both at the end of 2014. The President of Poland, Andrzej Duda, awarded him the Silver Cross of Merit in 2016 for his sports achievements and contributions to popularizing chess. In 2018 he was already the best Polish player and the number one ranked junior in the world and that year he also won the Polish National Championship. Thanks to these results, at the beginning of 2019 he became the first-ever Polish chess player to exceed the 2800 rating barrier in Blitz. On October 10th 2020, he made the news once again. He defeated Magnus Carlsen at the Altibox Norway Chess tournament, putting an end to the World Champions’ unbeaten 125-game streak in classical chess. His main strength as a player has always been his intuition: as a young talent, he studied Kasparov’s “My Great Predecessors” book series. However, he still thinks he can improve in calculation. Outside chess, he enjoys listening to classical music such as Beethoven and Mozart and he is also a Queen fan. He even won a reality show in Poland called “The Brain” in 2017. He is currently a student at the University School of Physical Education in Krakow and keeps himself in good shape with excellent nutrition and daily swimming routines. With this win, he has qualified for the 2022 Candidates tournament where he will get the opportunity to fight for the chance to play against the World Champion for the title. More information, the full tournament tree, live games and PGN files can be found on the World Cup website alongside a great amount of other interesting information such as daily videos, a complete photo collection and other useful data. Photo: David Llada and Eteri Kublashvili About the tournament: Scheduled to take place from July12th (Round 1) to August 6th (finals), the 2021 FIDE World Cup will gather together in Sochi (Russia) 309 of the world’s best chess players, with 206 of them playing in the Open World Cup (and 103 participants in the first-ever Women’s World Cup. The top two finishers in the tournament, aside from World Champion Magnus Carlsen who is also participating, will qualify for the 2022 Candidates Tournament, in addition to winning the 110.000 USD first prize (80.000 USD for the runner-up). The full tournament tree, live games and PGN files can be found on the World Cup website alongside a great amount of other interesting information such as daily videos, a complete photo collection and other useful data. Organisers: International Chess Federation (FIDE), Chess Federation of Russia, Russian Ministry of Sports, and Government of Krasnodar Krai. Partners: Gazprom – general partner Nornickel – general partner PhosAgro – general partner Chessable – event’s partner Aeroflot – CFR’s partner Educational centre “Sirius”
Liem Quang Le stuns Aronian to put himself on brink of final
A blistering display from Vietnam’s speed chess superstar Liem Quang Le put Levon Aronian on the brink of being knocked out of the Chessable Masters. Liem, the reigning Asian Champion and a former World Blitz winner, was at his tricky, fiery best to shoot down the in-form Armenian 3-1. Aronian had been installed as a pre-tournament favourite after winning last month’s Goldmoney Asian Rapid. Yet in Liem, he has come across a razor-sharp opponent who has found his killer instinct. Liem finished the 38-year-old off in stunning style with a queen sacrifice checkmate in a wild final game. Aronian now has a mountain to climb tomorrow and needs to win the four-game match just to take it to tiebreaks. Aronian said afterwards: “Definitely my opponent played better than me today. Something went wrong.” In the other semi, US star Wesley So also has one foot in the final after crushing Vladislav Artemiev. The young Russian was on top in the first game but accepted a draw by repetition when he looked to have the edge. The decision came back to haunt him as the 23-year-old then found himself under pressure in Game 2. Artemiev had to pull off an impressive save to survive. In Game 3, So then broke through to take the lead and held on for a draw in the final game to win the match 2½-1½. Artemiev was gracious in defeat admitting he played “without chances” today. “I’m unhappy now, but I feel like it was logical result because Wesley played very strong,” he said. Today’s semi-final matches kick off again at 17:00 CEST. All matches in the Chessable Masters are hosted in chess24.com’s playzone and available to watch on the platform’s Twitch and YouTube channels for free. The Chessable Masters is the penultimate leg of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour before the Finals event in San Francisco, where the ultimate winner will be crowned the world’s best online chess player. For further information, please contact: Leon Watson, PR for Play Magnus Groupleon@chessable.com+44 7786 078 770
155 Teams Registered for Online Olympiad 2021
We are pleased to publish the final entry list for the Online Chess Olympiad 2021. We will have 155 teams, divided into four divisions, with squads of Russia, the USA, China, India, Ukraine at the top of the list. Federations may change their submitted roster until 1200 UTC, 7 days before they are scheduled to play in the Online Olympiad for the first time, after which their squad composition will be fixed. This means the deadlines are as follows: Division 4 – Friday, 13th August 1200 UTC; Division 3 – Friday, 20th August 1200 UTC; Division 2 – Thursday, 26th August 1200 UTC; Top Division – Wednesday, 1st September 1200 UTC Visit the official website of the FIDE Online Olympiad (http://onlineolympiad.fide.com) to find the latest updates, documents, and information about the event. Chess.com will be again the hosting platform for this event that, on its inaugural edition, became one of the highlights of 2020. Once again, the event will consist of two stages: the “Divisions stage”, and the Play-offs stage with the top eight teams qualified from Stage 1 battling in knockout format. The games will be broadcast live with multilingual expert commentary on the on the FIDE’s official Youtube channel and by Chess.com. The second edition of the Online Olympiad will receive the support and sponsorship of the Shenzhen authorities, which include the Shenzhen Longgang District Culture and Sports Bureau, the Shenzhen MSU-BIT University, Shenzhen Chess Academy, Shenzhen Pengcheng Chess Club. Simaland, the Russian wholesale online store and proud sponsor of the Candidates tournament 2020-21, will also be a partner for the Online Olympiad 2021.