Iturrizaga and Vega win 2021 Spanish Championship
Congratulations to GM Eduardo Iturrizaga and IM Sabrina Vega for becoming the 2021 Spanish Champion and Women’s Champion, respectively. The Spanish Championship took place from August 16-24 in Linares. The event attracted 171 participants, including 60 titled players. Both open and women sections competed in one big 9-round Swiss tournament but were ranked separately. The fifth-rated participant GM Eduardo Iturrizaga (who had switched federation earlier this year) turned in an excellent performance and, after winning a critical final round game over Paolo Ladrón de Guerrero with black finished clear first with 7½ out of 9, a half-point ahead of a huge group that scored 7 points. Jaime Santos and Francisco Vallejo took silver and bronze respectively thanks to better tiebreaks. Final standings: 1 GM Iturrizaga Bonelli, Eduardo 7½ 2 GM Santos Latasa, Jaime 7 3 GM Vallejo Pons, Francisco 7 4 GM Cuenca Jimenez, Jose Fernando 7 5 GM Anton Guijarro, David 7 6 GM Salgado Lopez, Ivan 7 7 GM Santos Ruiz, Miguel 7 8 GM Shirov, Alexei 7 9 GM Perez Candelario, Manuel 7 10 IM Garza Marco, Sergio 6½ Interestingly enough, the women’s champion Sabrina Vega faced top competition and played against only one female player on the road to the title (third in her career). Vega finished on 6/9 and won the women’s championship with a round to spare. Marta García and Viviana Galván got silver and bronze respectively. Photo: Ismael Nieto Official website: https://feda.org/feda2k16/
European Chess Championship 2021 starts in Reykjavik
European Individual Chess Championship 2021 kicks off on August 26 in Reykjavik, Iceland. 190 players from 36 different European federations are fighting for the title of European Champion and qualification spots for the FIDE World Cup 2023. The best-ranked player aged U20 will be granted a qualification spot for the 2021 FIDE Grand Swiss. The total prize fund of the event amounts to €100,000, with €20,000 reserved for the champion. 32 players rated 2600+ lead the field, and the top seeds are: Gawain Jones (ENG, 2684), Gabriel Sargissian (ARM, 2682), David Navara (CZE, 2675), Matthias Bluebaum (GER, 2674), Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (GER, 2671), Nils Grendelius (SWE, 2666), Constantin Lupulescu (ROU, 2659), Alexander Donchenko (GER, 2657), Nijat Abasov (AZE, 2656), Rauf Mamedov (AZE, 2654). The event is played over 11 rounds, Swiss system, with time control: 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one. All the players have to follow the health protocol and personal safety measures that are described in detail on the official website of the event. The official venue of the championship is Hotel Natura, a historic place with a rich history of chess events held there. Bobby Fischer stayed at this hotel during his 1972 World Championship match against Boris Spassky. A replica of the famous table used in 1972 can be found at the hotel. Several other high-profile events have been held at this venue, including the 1977 Spassky vs. Hort Candidates match and the 1991 GMA World Cup, as well as the GMA World Cup in 1991. Tournament regulations (pdf) Text: europechess.org Official website: www.reykjavikopen.com
Day 7: Vachier-Lagrave grabs the lead
A clear leader emerged today as Maxime Vachier-Lagrave broke through the gridlock with a crucial win over Jeffery Xiong, giving him a half-point lead over Wesley So and Leinier Dominguez, who could only draw their games. Meanwhile, Fabiano Caruana scored an important victory as Black over Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, propelling him into a tie for second place. With two rounds left to play, everything is still on the line both in terms of the tournament and the overall GCT standings. Rapport – Dominguez | ½-½, 45 moves A sharp counter-gambit (5…e5) in the Queen’s Gambit Accepted gave Dominguez the initiative from the opening, as he gained a lead in development while chasing down Rapport’s queen. Though Rapport defended well, finding all the right moves needed to go into a drawish endgame. More simplifications occurred before the players agreed to a draw in a dead-equal bishops of opposite color endgame. Vachier-Lagrave – Xiong | 1-0, 29 moves It only took one mistake (18…hxg4) for Xiong to land in massive trouble in the Berlin Endgame, as he erroneously opened up the h-file for White’s connected rooks. MVL wasted no time in seizing the initiative as he advanced his pawn all the way to f6 before taking over the h-file and soon crashing through with his pieces. Facing huge material losses with his king stuck on e8, Xiong resigned. MVL’s 20.Rh1! led to catastrophe for Black, as the resulting invasion along the h-file simply couldn’t be prevented. Svidler – Swiercz | 1-0, 35 moves Despite solid preparation as Black in the Ruy Lopez, Swiercz quickly got himself in trouble after an ill-advised pawn grab (18…Qxc3) left his position under severe tactical strain. Svidler rapidly activated his pieces and managed to stir up threats that would soon win him a full piece. With no compensation for the lost material, Swiercz was forced to throw in the towel. 21.Ba4! was the killing shot in Svidler – Swiercz, leading to huge material losses after the follow-up of Ra3. So – Shankland | ½-½, 34 moves It wasn’t the best day for So, who outplayed Shankland in a topical line of the English but quickly let his advantage dissipate as he failed to find the optimal way to capitalize on his edge. Shankland took the opportunity to equalize with a nice pawn break (23…f6), successfully neutralizing White’s space advantage. From there, So forced a repetition of moves, and the game was drawn. Mamedyarov – Caruana | 0-1, 38 moves The final game of the day to finish was exciting throughout, with both players opting for a sharp struggle in the 4.f3 Nimzo. It was Caruana who held the initiative early on, as he had the safer king and more active pieces, but Mamedyarov held the better long-term chances, thanks to his two bishops and somewhat healthier structure. After defending quite well, however, Mamedyarov ended up blundering in mutual time-trouble, losing the exchange without any significant compensation for it. Caruana grabbed the extra material and was able to consolidate, forcing resignation before the end of the first time control. 26.Qe2 was the start of White’s problems, as after Caruana’s reply 26…Nf6! Mamedyarov immediately erred with 27.Qd1, losing the exchange after 27…Bxd3 28.gxf6 Bxf1 -+ Round 8 of the 2021 Sinquefield Cup takes place on Wednesday, August 25, starting at 2:50 PM CDT, with all the action covered live by commentators GM Yasser Seirawan, GM Alejandro Ramirez, and GM Maurice Ashley. Watch live on grandchesstour.org as well as twitch.tv/kasparovchess. Text: IM Kostya Kavutskiy Photo: Lennart Ootes and Bryan Adams Further Information:Web: GrandChessTour.org | Twitter: @GrandChessTourInstagram: @GrandChessTour | Facebook: @GrandChessTour#GrandChessTour#STLRapidBlitz Venue: Saint Louis Chess Club, USAAugust 10- August 16, 2021 Press Contact:press@grandchesstour.org Photos: Courtesy of Grand Chess Tour and Spectrum Studios Credits available on Flickr. Livestream:Grandchesstour.orgKasparovchess.com
Division 3 pools out: action resumes on Friday
Tuesday, August 24th, 2021 – The pairings team have just published the group composition, team names and pairings of the Division 3 Pools. Five new groups of ten teams will resume play on Friday 27th for the three-day competition, the second stage of the Online Olympiad. Division 3 will run Friday 27th to Sunday 29th, and the three best teams of each pool will advance to Division 2. Thirty-four new seeded teams join the sixteen qualifiers of Division 4, played last weekend. The first stage of the Online Olympiad produced some cool statistics (based on registration information): 67-years-old Candidate Master Octavio Croes (Aruba) was the oldest participant in Division 4. 9-year-old Nathanael Fouda (Cameroon) was the youngest player in Division 4. Top scorer was Fiji’s Board 4, Aarti Sewak, who had a whopping 10.5/11 result! Here is a graphic with the countries that qualified: Division 3 – Pool A A tight group, very closely matched in terms of medium rating. On paper, the favourites seem to be Malaysia (rated 1973) with several +2000 FM’s and the IPCA team (International Physically Disabled Chess Association) with three IM’s. The Hong Kong team did not qualify for Division 3 after the fair play team reported that one member of the team was found in breach of the rules of the tournament in Pool A. As a result, fourth-placed Fiji advanced to Division 3, joined by the other qualifier Nepal. These two teams have been paired in this pool, whereas the other Pool A qualifier, Lebanon, will join Pool B. Division 3 – Pool B Ethiopia, Kenya and Lebanon are the qualified teams for this Pool, and they are joined by seven new seeded teams. Ireland and Lebanon seem to have the best teams, especially on their main boards, but on the other hand, Jordan, Iraq, Syria and Tunisia all have very compact reserve players. A very interesting group indeed. As an anecdote, Tajikistan only fields six players (no reserves): a tough challenge for them, hopefully, their roster will be available for the full eleven games. Division 3 – Pool C Scotland looks to be the favourite in this group, but only if they can play regularly with their main boards GM Jacob Aagaard, IM Andrew Greet and GM Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant. African teams Angola (qualifier), Botswana, Nigeria and Zambia will all be ready with strong teams on all boards to make their statement for qualification. Palestine will also try to demonstrate that their qualification was well-earned. The ICCD team (International Chess Committee of the Deaf), captained by Peter Berenyi, debuts in this Pool with twelve players from nine countries, including two WCM’s. Division 3 – Pool D It’s always tricky to decide which of the Pools fields the strongest team, but it seems that Pool D might be the winner. Aruba, Cyprus, Haiti, Malawi, Suriname and Trinidad & Tobago are all top teams qualified from Division 4, and they are joined by powerhouses such as Paraguay (with IM Guillermo Vazquez and six other titled players), Dominican Republic (IM Josue Araujo and five other titled players), Bolivia (GM Osqaldo Zambrana, IM’s Daniel Gemy and Jose Cueto leading a team of titled youngsters), and above all Uruguay, with two GM (Andres Rodriguez and Alejandro Hoffman), two IM’s and a total of ten titled players. However, the special Olympiad selection format requires extra care when fielding each of the boards: anything can happen, and that’s why it’s so exciting. Division 3 – Pool E The final Pool fields Ghana, Namibia and Puerto Rico, who qualified in the previous division, and they are joined by Jamaica and Panama as two of the main favourites. However, in this group, a team stands out by its own rights: Venezuela. Fielding eleven titled players out of the twelve team members, the South American country has a very evenly distributed and well though-out team, with strong main boards and excellent reserve players. Pairings of the rounds, live games, PGN files and other useful information can be found on the FIDE Online Olympiad website. Please note that all results and standings remain provisional until the fair play panel submit its daily report. FIDE IDs of the players sanctioned by the arbiters and/or fair play panel during the Online Olympiad can be checked out in the News section on the official website, under “Files”. The games can be followed online on www.chess.com (Events), presented by Wouter Bik, with expert analysis by WFM Alessia Santeramo, GM Roeland Pruijssers, WGM Jen Shahade and WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili. Commentary can also be followed on FIDE’s own Youtube channel. About the tournament: Scheduled to take place from August 20th to September 15th, the 2021 FIDE Online Olympiad is a national teams event in which all federations affiliated to FIDE have the right to participate. Team’s consist of six players with a minimum of three female players and two junior players. Played online on Chess.com, the event features two main stages: the “Divisions stage”, and the Play-offs stage. All games are played with a 15 minutes + 5 seconds increment per move time control. The full schedule can be consulted here. Organisers: International Chess Federation (FIDE) Chess.com as the hosting platform Partners supporting the 2021 FIDE Online Olympiad: Shenzhen Longgang District Culture, Radio, Television, Tourism and Sports Bureau Shenzhen MSU-BIT University Shenzhen Chess Academy Shenzhen Pengcheng Chess Club Shenzhen Longgang District People’s Government Shenzhen Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio, Television, Tourism and Sports Simaland