TRG announces Trainer Professional Education & Development Workshops
The FIDE Trainers Commission (TRG) is pleased to announce the first of a series of Trainer Professional Education & Development Workshops to be organised quarterly with credits to be awarded towards title awards in seminars. Each 6-hour workshop will be held on a designated Saturday, usually from 10 a.m to 12 p.m, then from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. and finally from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. In our better teaching series, FIDE Senior Trainer and Grandmaster Artur Jussupow will present “How to Teaches Pawn Endings” on March 26, followed by “How to Teach Calculation” on May 14, then “How to Teach Rook Endings on October 24 and finally “How to Teach Positional Play” on December 10. The fee for each workshop is 80 Euros for the public, 50 Euros for licensed trainers. Recognising that 2022 is FIDE’s The Year of the Woman in Chess, there will be no fee charged for female participants nominated or endorsed by the FIDE Commission for Women’s Chess. A series of seminars on “Use of Technology in Chess” will also be organised by TRG, the first one with Chessable, on February 26, which will be free for all licensed trainers. Full details will be available at the TRG website: www.trainers.fide.com
New set of FIDE regulations came into force
A new set of regulations covering FIDE titles, rapid and blitz games and ratings became effective as of January 1, 2022. Worked out by FIDE Qualification Commission (QC), the new regulations came out after a lengthy period of consultation with other Commissions, federations, individual players, and chess supporters worldwide. Two important meetings, one limited to the QC members and another open to all, took place in 2020. The most significant point of interest was the minimum time controls for games to be rated by FIDE. After many different views were expressed, the QC put together a detailed questionnaire, again open to all (but not anonymously). There was then another worldwide Zoom meeting where final decisions were taken. As a result, 3-hour games (90+90) will be accepted provided that both players are rated below 2400, an increase from 2200. Hopefully, it will help the organisers of tournaments with shorter time controls to submit their events for FIDE rating. FIDE Title Regulations effective from January 1, 2022 Changes made to FIDE Title Regulations (effective from 1 January 2022) (Word document) FIDE Rating Regulations effective from January 1, 2022 Changes made to FIDE Rating Regulations (effective from 1 January 2022) (Word document) FIDE Rapid & Blitz Regulations effective from January 1, 2022 Changes made to FIDE Rapid and Blitz Rating Regulations (effective from 1 January 2022) (Word document) It should be noted that these regulations are intended for the long term. Chess is now returning to normal after almost two years of lockdowns and quarantine, but the damage to the rating system caused by this gap in results is yet to be assessed. Possibly, some short term adjustments will be required. If so, the chess community will be kept informed, although the consultations might not be as lengthy.
Tata Steel Masters: Magnus Carlsen join leaders
Magnus Carlsen scored his first victory at Tata Steel Masters 2022, defeating Anish Giri in Round 2 and joined Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Vidit Gujrathi at the top of the standings. The only other winner of the day is Richard Rapport who took full advantage of Jorden Van Foreest’s mistake in a knight endgame. All other games were drawn. Magnus Carlsen reaped the fruits of his preparation for the title match against Ian Nepomniachtchi. The World Champion played the Catalan with a pawn sacrifice on c4, and by move 12, the opponents stepped into uncharted territory. Five moves down the road, Anish allowed an interesting exchange sacrifice which gave White sufficient compensation but no visible advantage. However, Anish almost immediately made severe miscalculation and White’s pieces pounced on the Black’s king. Giri managed to trade queens, but Magnus’s passed c-pawn became a knockout punch. Jorden Van Foreest maintained the balance for most of the game against Richard Rapport but a terrible mistake 35…Nd7? in a pawn ending cost him dearly. White emerged with two extra pawns, and the rest was a smooth sail for the Hungarian. In the games, Vidit – Caruana and Karjakin – Dubov players made just a few their own moves. Both encounters followed long theoretical lines known for drawish tendencies. No surprise, both pairs split points. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov opted for a rare and very aggressive line 3.g4!? (after 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6) against Andrey Esipenko and quickly got a fresh position. The young Russian played very sensibly, arranging his pieces in the centre but spent a lot of time. Nevertheless, after the queens left the board, the opponents somewhat surprisingly decided to bury the hatchet. Sam Shankland and Nils Grandelius also agreed to a draw after White built a fortress with a rook and a knight against the queen, but it was American who had a fair chance to pull out his first victory. Unfortunately, Sam did not find 32.Rh1!, forcing Black to part with a pawn with no compensation. Later on, Shankland missed an interesting option Rd7 on moves 35 and 36 and let the opponent trade his most active pieces. Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Jan-Krzysztof Duda played a very solid game in which White had a slight advantage that was virtually impossible to turn it into something tangible. A draw came as a logical outcome. Standings after Round 2: 1-3. Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Magnus Calsen and Vidit Gujrathi – 1½ ; 4-11. Fabiano Caruana, Richard Rapport, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Sergey Karjakin, Andrey Esipenko, Praggnanandhaa R. and Jorden Van Foreest – 1; 12-14, Sam Shankland, Nils Grandelius, Anish Giri – ½ Official website: tatasteelchess.com/ Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit and Lennart Ootes – Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2022