Groups for First Leg of FIDE Grand Prix 2022 announced
Berlin, January 21, 2022 — In just two weeks, Berlin will host the first round of the FIDE Grand Prix Series 2022, organized by World Chess. From February 3 to 17 sixteen elite chess players, including Grandmaster Harikrishna, who replaced the drop-out Wei Yi, will compete for the chance to win the last two spots in the Candidates tournament to be held later this year as well as for a EUR 150,000 prize fund. The drawing of lots ceremony determined the pools for the first leg of the Series. The ceremony, held over Zoom, was chaired by the Chief Arbiter Ivan Syrovy and CEO of World Chess Ilya Merenzon, and attended by the Grand Prix participants. Before the drawing, the players were divided into four baskets according to January standard rating: Basket 1: 1. Ding Liren (China), 27992. Levon Aronian (USA), 27723. Wesley So (USA), 27724. Alexander Grischuk (Russia), 2764 Basket 2: 1. Richard Rapport (Hungary), 27632. Leinier Dominguez (USA), 27523. Hikaru Nakamura, (USA), 27364. Vidit Gujrathi (India), 2727 Basket 3: 1. Dmitry Andreikin (Russia), 27242. Daniil Dubov (Russia), 27203. Pentala Harikrishna (India), 27174. Vladimir Fedoseev (Russia), 2704 Basket 4: 1.Alexei Shirov (Spain), 27042. Grigoriy Oparin (Russia), 26813. Vincent Keymer (Germany), 26644. Etienne Bacrot (France), 2642 Chief Arbiter allocated the players to four different groups via a randomized selection procedure. The group stage promises exciting games, with the pairings to be determined at the opening ceremony: Pool A: 1. Alexander Grischuk (Russia), 27642. Hikaru Nakamura, (USA), 2736 3. Dmitry Andreikin (Russia), 2724 4. Etienne Bacrot (France), 2642 Pool B: 1. Ding Liren (China), 27992. Richard Rapport (Hungary), 2763 3. Vladimir Fedoseev (Russia), 2704 4. Grigoriy Oparin (Russia), 2681 Pool C: 1. Levon Aronian (USA), 2772 2. Vidit Gujrathi (India), 2727 3. Daniil Dubov (Russia), 2720 4. Vincent Keymer (Germany), 2664 Pool D: 1. Wesley So (USA), 2772 2. Leinier Dominguez (USA), 2752 3. Pentala Harikrishna (India), 27174. Alexei Shirov (Spain), 2704 The first leg of the FIDE Grand Prix will take place in the city center at Unter den Linden 26-30 from February 4 to 17. The rounds start at 3 PM Berlin time. The games will be broadcast live at worldchess.com:https://chessarena.com/broadcasts/13604. For further questions, please contact media@worldchess.com. Official Photo FIDE Grand Prix Berlin Press kit:https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ggyqowtp6odrqcg/AADc5Kkk34nd2q8CMQlqnRTsa?dl=0 About FIDE Grand Prix 2022: The competition consists of three legs that span over three months and two cities: First leg: February 3 — 17, Berlin, GermanySecond leg: February 28 — March 14, Belgrade, SerbiaThird leg: March 21 — April 4, Berlin, Germany The FIDE Grand Prix will feature 24 players, with each player competing in two out of three events. Each 16-player event will consist of a group stage followed by a knockout semi-final and final. At the group stage, the participants will compete in four double-round-robin tournaments, with only the winners of each pool advancing. Both the semi-finals and final will consist of 2 regular time limit games, plus tiebreaks if needed. Players receive Grand Prix points according to their finishing position in each tournament: Round Grand Prix points Winner 13 Runner-Up 10 Semi-final loser 7 2nd in pool 4 3rd in pool 2 4th in pool 0 Two winners of the Series will qualify for the Candidates Tournament that will take place later in 2022. Allocations Leg 1 – Berlin Leg 2 – Belgrade Leg 3 – Berlin 1 Ding Liren Ding Liren 2 Anish Giri Anish Giri 3 Wesley So Wesley So 4 Levon Aronian Levon Aronian 5 S. Mamedyarov S. Mamedyarov 6 A. Grischuk A. Grischuk 7 Richard Rapport Richard Rapport 8 M. Vachier-Lagrave M.Vachier-Lagrave 9 L. Dominguez L. Dominguez 10 Hikaru Nakamura Hikaru Nakamura 11 Nikita Vitiugov Nikita Vitiugov 12 P. Harikrishna P. Harikrishna 13 Vidit Gujarathi Vidit Gujarathi 14 D. Andreikin D. Andreikin 15 Daniil Dubov Daniil Dubov 16 Yu Yangyi Yu Yangyi 17 Sam Shankland Sam Shankland 18 V. Fedoseev V. Fedoseev 19 Alexei Shirov Alexei Shirov 20 A. Predke A. Predke 21 G. Oparin G. Oparin 22 V. Keymer V. Keymer 23 A. Tabatabaei A. Tabatabaei 24 E. Bacrot E. Bacrot Regulations for the FIDE Grand Prix Series 2022 (pdf) About World Chess: World Chess is a London-based chess gaming and entertainment group and FIDE’ official broadcaster and commercial partner. World Chess organized the FIDE Championship Matches in Russia, the USA, and the UK, and revolutionized the sport by signing the biggest media partnerships in history. World Chess develops Armageddon, the chess league for prime-time television. World Chess also runs FIDE Online Arena, the exclusive official chess gaming platform. More at worldchess.com. About FIDE: The International Chess Federation (FIDE) is the governing body of the sport of chess, and it regulates all international chess competitions. Constituted as a non-governmental institution, it was recognized by the International Olympic Committee as a Global Sporting Organization in 1999. FIDE currently has its headquarters in Lausanne, but it was initially founded in 1924 in Paris under the motto “Gens una Sumus” (Latin for “We are one Family”). It was one of the very first International Sports Federations, alongside the governing bodies of the sports of Football, Cricket, Swimming, and Auto Racing. It is now one of the largest, encompassing 199 countries as affiliate members, in the form of National Chess Federations. Chess is nowadays a truly global sport, with dozens of millions of players in all the continents, and more than 60 million games on average played every day. More information: www.fide.com
Tata Steel Masters: Mamedyarov and Rapport catch up with Vidit
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Richard Rapport scored victories in Round 5 of Tata Steel Masters and joined Vidit Gujrathi at the top of the standings with 3½/5. The other five games, although very interesting and hard-fought, were drawn. Magnus Carlsen and Andrey Esipenko are trailing the leaders by a half-point. Jorden Van Foreest had a very interesting theoretical discussion with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in the Open Variation of the Ruy Lopez, in which the Dutchman opted for a rare line on move ten. Jorden demonstrated a sensible idea of planting one his night on d4, but Shakhriyar struck with 18…c5 going for complications. Apparently, White missed something (20.Bc2 instead of 20.Ng5 looks better) as after the dust settled, Black emerged with two minor pieces for a rook and good practical winning chances. Van Foreest put up a stubborn defence, but when a draw was near at hand, he made a fatal error allowing Mamedyarov to protect his c-passer with tempo. Combining threats to White’s king with advancing his c-pawn, Shakhriyar won the game on the move 44. Richard Rapport fell into an excellent opening preparation of Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa in the Nimtzo-Indian and had to assume the defensive despite an extra pawn. However, the young Indian squandered a couple of good attacking opportunities and, after erroneous 17…d3? the Hungrian got the upper hand. Indeed, White preserved an extra pawn while his queen covered critical squares on the queenside. A few moves down the road, Rapport traded the queens and transposed in an endgame where his queenside pawns quickly decided the battle. Magnus Carlsen sowed the wind but nearly reaped the whirlwind in the game with Nils Grandelisus. On move 18, the World Champion, playing with Black, opened up the center at the potential cost of two pawns. However, Nils snatched just one of them and opted for solid but somewhat passive 20.Ba4 instead of 20.Qb4+ followed by 21.Qb3. After White missed this chance, Black was pressuring for the rest of the game, but the Swedish GM held his ground and reached a draw. Andrey Esipenko essayed sharp 7.g4 gambit in the Semi-Slave (introduced by Shirov and Shabalov in the 1990s) against Fabiano Caruana but ended up down a pawn with some compensation that seemed insufficient. The opponents exchanged inaccuracies in a highly complicated position, but at some point, many thought that Fabiano took control as he got two passers on the queenside. To his credit, Esipenko did not lose heart and found a tremendous defensive idea of attacking Black’s g7 pawn and escaped with a draw, although Caruana might have missed his winning chance on move 33. As played, the opponents transposed into a drawish ending in which Andrey demonstrated necessary accuracy. Jan-Krzysztof Duda – Sergey Karjakin was another fierce battle. The Russian GM caught his opponent unprepared in a sharp line of the Queen’s Gambit Accepted and emerged with an extra pawn. However, the position remained extremely complicated, with White launching an onslaught on the kingside. Trying to convert his extra pawn Karjakin overplayed his position with 34…Rg4, but being in time trouble, Duda missed the winning refutation 35.Rf1 and settled for a draw by repetition. Anish Giri surprised Vidit Gujrathi with his line choice in the Petroff Defense and got an edge, but one somewhat abstract, rule-of-thumb move from his part (17.Rad1) allowed the leader to intitiate massive exchanges in the center and completely equalize. Sam Shankland went for a long and forced sequence with a pawn sacrifice against Daniil Dubov in the Catalan opening to transpose into an endgame. White preserved an extra pawn, but Black had a sufficient positional compensation and made a draw quite comfortably. Standings after Round 5: 1-3. Vidit Gujrathi, Richard Rapport, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov – 3½; 4-5. Magnus Calsen, Andrey Esipenko – 3; 6-8. Fabiano Caruana, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Jorden Van Foreest – 2½; 9-13. Sam Shankland, Sergey Karjakin, Daniil Dubov, Anish Giri, Praggnanandhaa R. – 2; 14.Nils Grandelius – 1. Official website: tatasteelchess.com/ Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit and Lennart Ootes – Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2022