2021 U.S. Championship & U.S. Women’s Championship kick off in St-Louis
The 2021 U.S. Championship & U.S. Women’s Championship kicked off on October 6 in St-Louis, featuring 24 of the country’s top players battling it out for two national titles. In the U.S. Championship, only GM Ray Robson and GM John Burke managed to win their first-round games, while in the U.S. Women’s Championship, GM Irina Krush, WGM Katerina Nemcova, WIM Ashritha Eswaran, and tournament newcomer WGM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova all started off with a victory. Check out the full replay of live coverage from the day here. The time control for the event is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an additional 30-second increment per move starting from move one. Round 1 of the U.S. Championship saw the top seeds under heavy pressure early on, with World No. 2 GM Fabiano Caruana falling seriously worse out of the opening against Bruzon, So facing difficulties against Xiong, and Dominguez in huge trouble against Lenderman. But somehow, they all managed to survive their positions, and all three games were drawn. In the meantime, Ray Robson (pictured above) played an excellent game to defeat Naroditsky, making the most of his space advantage in an Alekhine Defense. The 2020 U.S. Junior Champion GM John Burke (pictured below), making his U.S. Championship debut, also won his game, a wild back-and-forth struggle against GM Darius Swiercz. In the critical moment, Swiercz missed his chance to land a decisive combination and instead fell into a slightly worse endgame, which Burke promptly converted. In the U.S. Women’s Championship there were four decisive results today, with multiple games decided in mutual time-trouble. Top seed and eight-time U.S. Champion GM Irina Krush won fairly smoothly against WIM Megan Lee, outplaying her opponent in a sharp 7.Qf3 Taimanov Sicilian. Nemcova also won, taking down the #3 seed Zatonskih, while Eswaran used her advantage in an opposite coloured bishops middlegame to defeat Sharevich. In what was the craziest game of the day, WGM Tatev Abrahamyan maintained a near-decisive advantage for most of the round against WGM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova (also known as ‘Begim’), only to slip up at the very last moment, allowing her opponent serious counterplay which turned the game in Black’s favour. Round 2 of the 2021 U.S. & U.S. Women’s Chess Championships will take place October 7, starting at 12:50 PM CT. Catch all the action live with grandmaster commentators Yasser Seirawan, Maurice Ashley and Cristian Chirila on uschesschamps.com and on the Saint Louis Chess Club’s YouTube and Twitch.tv channels. Text: IM Kostya Kavutskiy Photo: Courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Lennart Ootes Livestream:USChessChamps.Com Web: uschesschamps.com | Twitter: @STLChessClubInstagram: @STLChessClub | Facebook: @STLChessClubYouTube: @STLChessClub | Twitch.tv: @STLChessClub#USChessChamps #STLChessClu Press Contact:Rebecca Buffingtonrbuffington@saintlouischessclub.org Photo Credits:Photos and appropriate credits available on Flickr Saint Louis Chess Club | Building Champions 4657 Maryland Avenue, Saint Louis, MO 63108 | (314) 361.CHESS (2437)
Teams from 31 countries to participate in 1st Intercontinental Championship for Prisoners
Forty-three teams from 31 countries will play in the 1st Intercontinental Online Championship for Prisoners, a two-day event that starts on October 13, 2021 – the International Day of Education in Prisons. The championship is a part of the “Chess for Freedom” Program, launched earlier this year with an online conference and the invitational Online Chess Tournament for Prisoners from four countries. “We find this initiative very important; it allows FIDE to extend its impact behind the borders of purely chess world. Chess provides a route for incarcerated people into education; they find positive use of their leisure time and learn skills that help to turn their lives around. Playing chess teaches them how to improve their thinking and make better life decisions”, says FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich about the program. The Intercontinental Championship for Prisoners is held for the first time; still, many prisons and correctional facilities across the world took a keen interest in the initiative and joined by registering their teams to take part in the tournament. 43 teams, including 5 female teams and 3 juvenile teams comprised of four players with an unlimited number of substitutes, will be playing in the event’s group stage. Prisoners from Italy, England, Armenia, Spain, Palestine, Germany, Russia, United Arab Emirates, Columbia, Portugal, Philippines, Australia, Norway, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Mongolia, Uruguay, Ukraine, Serbia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Georgia, Zimbabwe, Turks & Caicos Islands, Croatia, Kyrgyzstan, Argentina, Cyprus, The Netherlands, USA and Macedonia are divided into six groups and will first compete in a round-robin chess tournament. Two top teams from each group will advance to the Championship round held on October 14. The tournament will be broadcast live on the FIDE Youtube channel. On Wednesday, October 13 at 11:45 a.m. EDT (4:45 p.m. CET), media are invited to attend an online press conference featuring FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich and Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart. The virtual press conference will be held in Zoom and uploaded on the FIDE Youtube channel later that day. Media can either send their questions to the FIDE press team (socialmedia@fide.com) or, if they would like to participate on Zoom, send their contact info (name, media, position, contact phone number and email) to the same address. Zoom meeting link and log-in details to join the conference: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81265595820Conference ID: 812 6559 5820. All the information about the Championship can be found at the official website of the program: chessforfreedom.fide.com/ About “Chess for Freedom” program Promoting chess as a tool for education is one of FIDE’s top priorities. However, the scope of work in this field is not limited to chess in school programs, and many other opportunities exist. In recent years we have witnessed the successful introduction of chess in prisons, through different educative programs across the world, with very positive outcomes. Aiming to support and promote this line of work, FIDE and the Cook County Sheriff’s Office (Chicago, USA) have signed a cooperation agreement, and together we are launching the “Chess for Freedom” program. Under the patronage of the 12th world champion Anatoly Karpov, the project kicked off in May 2020 with an online conference and an exhibition tournament with four participant countries. On October 13-14, the program will continue with the first Intercontinental Online Chess Championship for Prisoners – a much larger competition with the participation of tens of prisons representing all continents.