Kirill Shevchenko snatches victory in Lindores Abbey Blitz
Ukrainian GM has stunned the chess world with a surprise victory in the Lindores Abbey Blitz organized in honour of the 85th anniversary of the birth of Mikhail Tal Kirill Shevchenko (19) scored 14 points out of 18 games in a nine-double-round tournament. The former contender for the title of World Champion, American Fabiano Caruana, finished second, and Arjun Erigaisi of India is third, both on 13.5 points. Shevchenko came out on top in a field of 120 leading world Grandmasters, including the likes of Fabiano Caruana (world number three and this year’s runner-up in the Grand Swiss), world number ten Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Levon Aronian, Peter Svidler, David Navara as well as the former contender for the title of World Champion Boris Gelfand and Women’s Chess World Cup winner and former women’s World Champion, Alexandra Kosteniuk. Another big surprise of the event was 18-year-old Indian GM Arjun Erigaisi (pictured below), who dominated the tournament early on. Playing in the spirit of Mikhail Tal, with lots of combinations and sacrifices, the Indian secured 9.5 points out of 10 games, crushing along the way strong players such as Levon Aronian, David Howell and Rauf Mamedov with 2:0, and convincingly beating Fabiano Caruana in their first game of the match. But in the final rounds of the tournament, it was Shevchenko who took the spotlight, delivering a 2:0 blow to the Indian in their direct duel. In the final round, it was a three-way race between Caruana, Erigaisi and Shevchenko. Caruana drew his game with world heavy-weight Levon Aronian to finish on 13.5 points, hoping to be first on tie-breaks. Erigaisi also scored a victory, meaning that he was on 13.5/18 as well. Shevchenko now had to win to take first place. In a wild game with many ups and downs, he defeated the Armenian GM Martirosyan (who blundered a checkmate in one in a drawn position) and finished half a point ahead of everyone else. “I didn’t believe I could win this tournament with half a point advantage. The last game was a roller coaster… I would like to play much more Blitz tournaments than I do in my country [Ukraine]”, said Shevchenko, who is one of the most promising Ukrainian players. The winner will receive a 10,000 USD prize which he said he would give to his parents and then decide what to do with it. The total prize fund for the event was 6,000 USD. This includes a 10,000 USD fund provided by FIDE for prizes intended for female players only. With nine points, Batkhuyag Munguntuul from Mongolia won the prize for the highest-ranked female player in the tournament and pocketed a special prize of 3,000 USD. Dinara Saduakassova won second place among women, and Alexandra Kosteniuk was third. Final standings: 1 Shevchenko, Kirill UKR 2574 14 2 Caruana, Fabiano USA 2765 13½ 3 Erigaisi, Arjun IND 2616 13½ 4 Martirosyan, Haik M. ARM 2656 12½ 5 Navara, David CZE 2758 12½ 6 Xiong, Jeffery USA 2699 12 7 Dubov, Daniil RUS 2747 12 8 Aronian, Levon ARM 2767 12 9 Svidler, Peter RUS 2709 12 10 Sevian, Samuel USA 2668 12 Remembering “The Magician from Riga” The Blitz tournament was held in memory of the great Latvian chess player and eighth World Champion, Mikhail Tal (1936 – 1992), who would have turned 85 on the 9th of November. FIDE Managing Director Dana Reizniece-Ozola reminded the players and guests of Tal’s spirit, echoed in his comment that “life would be very boring if you wait for luck to happen”. Speaking about the Magician from Riga, Reizniece-Ozola said that Tal left a great footprint in the chess world which should serve as inspiration to us all. FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich revealed that he had the privilege of meeting Tal as a child, at one of the tournaments in Tallinn, Estonia. “I played chess with his daughter while our fathers were enjoying the evening”, Dvorkoich said. Dvorkovich said that the idea about this Blitz event came from Alexander Bakh, Mikhail Tal’s friend and a prolific chess tournament organizer from Russia, who was the guest in Riga on behalf of Lindores Abbey. The tournament was opened by Alexander Bakh, who said that this event is a part of the cycle of chess events organized by the Scottish company. “In 2019, Lindores Abbey organized its Chess Start tournament, and then we had the Lindores Abbey Rapid Challenge in 2020. This Blitz event is the next stage in our cycle of chess tournaments and we hope there will be more events to come”. Georgiy Tal, the son of Mikhail Tal, was supposed to be the guest of honour at the closing ceremony of the Blitz event but, at the last moment, was prevented from attending. The tournament took place in the same venue where the 2021 FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss was held from the 27th of October to the 7th of November. The official page of the tournament: https://lindoresabbeyblitz.fide.com/. Complete final standings can be found here. Discover the Lindores Abbey chess initiative. Official Partners: Lindores AbbeyKaspersky
FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss: Firouzja and Lei triumph in Riga
Alireza Firouzja and Lei Tingjie are the winners of the 2021 FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss and the inaugural Women’s Grand Swiss After a draw in the final round game with Russia’s Grigoriy Oparin, naturalised Frenchman Alireza Firouzja won the 2021 FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss. With 8/11, he is half a point ahead of everyone else. With this victory, Firouzja also secured a prize of 70,000 USD as well as a pass for the 2022 Candidates tournament, which will determine the challenger for the title of the World Champion in chess. In an interview immediately after the final round, Firouzja said that this was a very tough tournament and that he didn’t see himself as a big contender for the top place. “Chess for me is a game I can never quit. When you learn chess, it’s finished – you go all the way, and even if you’re not a professional, you will be thinking about chess”, said Firouzja. World number three and former contender for the title of World Champion, Fabiano Caruana, is second, with 7.5/11. Caruana took the second ticket for the 2022 Candidates tournament and also pocketed a prize of 50,000 USD. The third place – and 40,000 USD – went to Grigoriy Oparin of Russia, who also has 7.5 points but has a weaker tiebreak. The three are followed by as many as 13 Grandmasters with seven points, in the following order: Yu Yangyi, Vincent Keymer, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Alexandr Predke, Alexei Shirov, David Howell, Gabriel Sargissian, David Anton, Anton Korobov, Samuel Sevian, Andrey Esipenko, Bogdan-Daniel Deac, and Vladislav Artemiev. Those who won the 3rd to 8th place have all qualified for the 2022 Grand Prix series which will be held in Berlin and Belgrade in 2022. The inaugural Women’s Grand Swiss ended with a Chinese victory as Lei Tingjie claimed first place with nine points out of eleven games. The Chinese already knew she won the tournament the day before, having secured a 1.5 point advantage over everyone else in Round Ten. In the final round, she played a longer game and drew with compatriot Zhu Jiner. With this victory in the Grand Swiss, Lei has qualified for the 2022 Women’s Candidates tournament and has pocketed 20,000 USD in prize money. The second and third places in the women’s tournament were shared by Elisabeth Paehtz of Germany (who also secured her final GM norm) and Zhu Jiner of China, who both have 7.5/11. The German came in second because of a better tiebreak. With 7/11, four players share fourth to seventh place in the women’s section (in the following order): Mariya Muzychuk (the top seed in this tournament), Harika Dronavalli, Lela Javakhishvili and Olga Badelka. The top-4 in the final standings – Lei Tingjie, Elisabeth Paehtz, Zhu Jiner, and Mariya Muzychuk – have qualified for the next women’s Grand Prix cycle. Open Event Alireza Firouzja started the final day with half a point ahead of the field. He needed a draw to punch his ticket to the Candidates. His opponent Grigoriy Oparin was leading the white pieces and playing what was probably the most important game of his life so far. In order to qualify for the Candidates, Oparin had to win, given that he had one of the lowest tiebreak scores among the top players. Oparin and Firouzja played only twice before: two online Blitz games, in 2018 and 2020, and the result is 1:1. This was, therefore, the first time they met in a propper, classical game. In Ruy Lopez, Oparin played the anti-Berlin, which suggested he was looking for a more complex game. Firouzja’s basic goal was to exchange all the pieces on the board and steer the position to calm waters. To that end, he forced an exchange of several pieces on the board, and the middlegame was largely even. It was Oparin who decided not to overplay the position and opted for a repetition leading to a draw. On board two, Fabiano Caruana was White against Alexandr Predke. With no losses, Caruana had a very solid tournament. Aside from Firouzja, Caruana was in the most comfortable position to secure the ticket for the Candidates. Following Firouzja’s draw, Caruana’s second place seemed closer, but it was still unclear – if Yu Yangyi won in his game, and the rest of the top boards ended in a draw, it would have been the Chinese and not the American who would have clinched the second place with the ticket for the Candidates. The players blitzed the Ruy Lopez, rattling off 20 moves in the first 20 minutes. White emerged slightly better, but after the queen exchange the position became equal. With a timely pawn thrust, e5-e4 Predke exchanged his e-pawn to the opponent’s c-pawn and created a free-runner on the a-file. That, however, did not change the evaluation of the position. Since neither side had clear chances, a draw was agreed on move 46. In the post-game interview, Fabiano Caruana said he was slightly weaker against Predke, adding that the Russian was ‘super well prepared’. Caruana said he thought a draw secured his qualification to the Candidates, noting that the most dangerous game for him was the duel between Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Yu Yangyi. “I was very worried for both of them at some point. I was hoping for a draw, but Maxime’s position looked extremely suspicious, and near the end, I thought Yu Yangyi’s position was very dangerous”, said Caruana. On board three, Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave played his favourite Najdorf Variation of the Sicilian against Yu Yangyi of China. As often happens in this system, the opponents castled to the opposite wings and started pushing their pawns. Black was first to open files for a potential attack, but White got a strong footing in the centre and snatched a weak d6-pawn. At this point, Maxim’s position looked dangerous, but Yu decided to part with one of his bishops and let his advantage slip away. On the move 30, Yu exchanged his queen for two rooks, but the position was still even. Neither side could find real chances on the board, and on move 39, the two agreed to a draw. With 7/11, this left