Hikaru Nakamura is granted wild card to FIDE Grand Prix
Hikaru Nakamura has been selected as the Presidential nominee to be one of the 24 participants in the FIDE Grand Prix, organized by World Chess. The series will take place in February — April of 2022 and will consist of three tournaments: two in Berlin and one in Belgrade. Not having played any official rated game since December 2019, Hikaru failed to qualify for the current world championship cycle. “Travel restrictions affecting US player, and his activity as one of the most popular streamers in the world, prevented him from taking part in key events. Nevertheless, he remains very active in online tournaments, where he consistently shows he is in top shape and among the best in the world”, explains the FIDE President, Arkady Dvorkovich. “Very strong and experienced, and popular among the fans, I believe he deserves a chance to fight. The chess community will be delighted to see him sitting at the chess board again”. Prior to the Grand Prix, Hikaru will also take part in the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship in Warsaw, breaking a two-year-long impasse without playing over the board competitions. Having recently turned 34 years old, Hikaru is currently ranked #21 in the world, with a rating of 2736. That would make him the 10th top seed in the Grand Prix series 2022, behind Ding Liren, Levon Aronian, Anish Giri, Wesley So, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Alexander Grischuk, Richard Rapport, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Lenier Dominguez. The field of 24 participants with be completed once the organizer World Chess announces its nominee – which is expected to happen in the next hours. Each participant will play in two out of three of the tournaments (Berlin, Belgrade and Berlin). Each event will consist of a group stage with 16 players, followed by a knock-out semifinal among the top-four players. Players receive Grand Prix points according to their finishing position in each tournament. The two players with the most Grand Prix points across the Series play to qualify for the Candidates Tournament 2022. About the FIDE Grand Prix FIDE Grand Prix organized by World Chess is a 3-event series that features 24 players, each of whom will compete in two out of three tournaments. Two winners of the Grand Prix Series will qualify for the Candidates Tournament. The series will take place in Berlin, Germany and Belgrade, Serbia. The prize fund for each event is EUR 150,000, which is a EUR 20,000 increase from 2019. The FIDE Grand Prix Series 2022 is supported by Algorand as the Official Blockchain Partner, Kaspersky as the Official Cybersecurity Partner, and FIDE Online Arena as the official gaming platform.
European Rapid and Blitz Championships: Duda and Motylev win titles
The European Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships 2021 finished on Sunday, December 19 in Katowice, Poland, after three days of play. After 11 double rounds in the Swiss blitz tournament, Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Poland) came out on top with 18 points. It was not an easy walk for the rating favourite as his compatriot Maciej Klekowski was hard on his heels throughout and scored 17½ points to take silver. Eight players tied for the third place netting 16½ points each. The tiebreaks favoured the European Champion Anton Demchenko, who claimed bronze. The total prize fund of the event was €11,000, with €2,000 allocated to the champion. In addition to the regular prizes for the best ranked 20 players, the best juniors, seniors, women, and best players of different rating categories were also awarded. Final standings blitz: 1 GM Duda, Jan-Krzysztof 2792 POL 18 2 GM Klekowski, Maciej 2444 POL 17½ 3 GM Demchenko, Anton 2531 RUS 16½ 4 IM Schneider, Ilja 2524 GER 16½ 5 GM Tazbir, Marcin 2518 POL 16½ 6 IM Teclaf, Pawel 2431 POL 16½ 7 GM Bernadskiy, Vitaliy 2500 UKR 16½ 8 IM Keinanen, Toivo 2358 FIN 16½ 9 GM Dragnev, Valentin 2396 AUT 16½ 10 GM Balog, Imre 2678 HUN 16½ The complete results can be found here. Three GMs, Alexander Motylev (Russia), Alexander Donchenko (Germany) and Paulius Pultinevicius (Lithuania) tied for the first place in the European Rapid Championship scoring 9½ points out of 11 each. The Buchholz criteria gave Motylev gold, with Donchenko and Pultinevicius claiming silver and bronze, respectively. Final standings rapid: 1 GM Motylev, Alexander 2703 RUS 9½ 2 GM Donchenko, Alexander 2535 GER 9½ 3 GM Pultinevicius, Paulius 2536 LTU 9½ 4 GM Krasenkow, Michal 2430 POL 9 5 IM Brodowski, Piotr 2414 POL 9 6 IM Janik, Igor 2462 POL 9 7 GM Bjerre, Jonas Buhl 2330 DEN 9 8 IM Keinanen, Toivo 2341 FIN 8½ 9 GM Balog, Imre 2629 HUN 8½ 10 GM Bernadskiy, Vitaliy 2616 UKR 8½ The complete results can be found here. The total prize fund of the event amounted €19,000, with $4,000 going to the 2021 European Rapid Chess Champion. Along with the regular prizes, the best juniors, seniors, women players and best ranked players of different rating categories were awarded. There was a three-way tie in the women’s category as well and again, Buchholz decided the winners: Alicja Sliwicka (Poland) first prize Klaudia Kulon (Poland) – second and Annika Froewis (Austria) – third. The closing ceremeony held on Sunday and was attended by ECU Vice President Adrian Mikhalchishin and FIDE Vice Presidents Lukasz Turlej and Anastasia Sorokina. Official website: katowice2021.eu/ Photo: Official website and Facebook page of the event