Five FIDE Trainer Seminars to be held in India
The FIDE Trainers’ Commission (TRG) is pleased to announce unprecedented five FIDE Trainer Seminars to be organised by the All India Chess Federation (AICF) in February and March 2022. India, currently ranked in the top-3 nations in the world and increasingly dominant in junior rankings, is widely seen as the country with a great future. The AICF, together with the Government of India, continues to invest heavily in the development of chess in schools and capacity building, be it organisers, arbiters or trainers. The FIDE Trainers Seminars will both train and certify local trainers up to international standards. Four of India’s six FIDE Senior Trainers – Ramesh RB, Vishal Sareen, Chandra Sekhar Sahu, and Praveen Thipsay – who have been instrumental in developing the generations of young players – will conduct the seminars. The AICF made a promise to bring chess to every corner of India and deliver the goods. For the first time, the FIDE Trainer Seminars will be held in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh from February 18-20, in Patna, Bihar from February 25-27, in Bengaluru, Karnataka from March 4-6, in Guwahati, Assam from March 11-13 and in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh from March 25-27. Full details of each seminar will be available at the AICF website and TRG website. All the potential participants can already make enquiries about registration at indianchessfed@gmail.com.
Chess Federation of Sri Lanka celebrates 50th anniversary
The Chess Federation of Sri Lanka (CFSL) celebrates its 50th anniversary. The CFSL was formed in 1972, the year the World Chess Championship match between Boris Spassky and Robert James Fischer, a real milestone in chess history, took place. In the wake of this event, the local chess enthusiasts got together and established the Chess Federation of Sri Lanka on 3rd September 1972 under the presidency of Mr VP Vittachchi. A few years down the road, Mr Bodinagoda, the Chairman of the Lake House, became President and launched several progressive projects. There were some ups and downs between 1988 – 1999 due to political instability in the country and security level. The current era began in 1999 under the presidency of Mr Derrick Perera with two huge events, the Asian Junior Chess Championships held in a grand style in 2000 and 2001. Derrick was appointed as the General Secretary of the Asian Chess Federation in 2002. Christopher Parakrama of Royal College became the first national chess champion, and Sri Lanka debuted in Chess Olympiad back in 1978. The national team led by Arjuna Parakrama also included Harsha Aturupane, L.C. Goonatilleke and Sunil Weeramantry. After sporadic showings from 1982 to 1996, Sri Lanka has participated in all Chess Olympiads starting from 2000 (Istanbul, Turkey). Still, the highest achievement belongs to Suneetha Wijesuriya, who brought honour to the country at the FIDE Chess Olympiad 1992 in Manila by winning board gold. A new chapter started with Mr Luxman Wijesuriya’s taking the position of the CFSL President. He is also the General Secretary of South Asian Chess Council and Commonwealth Chess Association and a Vice President of Asian Chess Federation. Mr Luxman Wijesuriya has established a strong structure of internal events with cash prizes, spread the information on ratings and titles among players, and organized official Asian events regularly. This work gave Sri Lankan chess a much-needed boost, with Sachini Ranasinghe winning the Asian Zonal Women’s Chess Championship 2011 and becoming the first WIM in the country. She qualified for the FIDE Women World Cup in 2012 and became the first Sri Lankan player to take part in the event. Later on, Romesh Weerawardena turned in an excellent performance in the Asian Zone 2013 to win the IM title. Nelunika Methmani also got the WIM in the same year. Then Harshana Thilakaratne completed three IM norms and reached a 2400 rating. Ranindu Dilshan Liyanage became the first player to represent Sri Lanka in FIDE Chess World Cup held in 2021 in Sochi, Russia. CFSL has become one of the most active sports federations in Sri Lanka and Asia. Even in difficult pandemic years, the CFSL held over 100 online events and one OTB tournament. The CFSL have planned a lot of activities to mark its 50th anniversary as below: Golden Jubilee International Youth Chess Championships 2022 – 12 categories World Junior Online Chess Championships 2022 Asian Nations Cup Youth Chess Championships Asian Schools Chess Championships 2022 Training programmes for Technical officers Golden Jubilee International Open Grand Master Chess Championships Religious Ceremony on 2nd and 3rd of September 2022 The gathering of all top Chess Players and Officials
Tata Steel Masters: Thee on top after Round 6
Magnus Carlsen notched up his second win at Tata Steel Masters 2022 over Richard Rapport and joined the leaders Vidit Gujrathi and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who drew their games. Sergey Karjakin scored his first victory in the tournament over Jorden Van Foreest, while Fabiano Caruana suffered a painful defeat in a dramatic turn of events. Magnus Carlsen essayed a rare move 7.Be3 in the Catalan Opening (most likely prepared for the title match with Nepomniachtchi), but Richard Rapport found a logical sequence to reach an almost equal position. After the World Champion attacked the a7-pawn, the Hungarian GM struck in the center and snatched White’s d4 in return. It seems that Richard did not calculate all the consequences correctly as he almost immediately faltered with 20…Qe7? (missing very strong continuation 20…Ne5 with the idea of 21.Qxd4 Bxa3!) and then simply gave up a pawn. The rest was a smooth sail for Magnus, who deftly converted his material advantage. Fabiano Caruana and Anish Giri played an exciting, topsy-turvy game in the Double Fianchetto. As soon as the American started slowly regrouping his pieces for a kingside attack, the Dutchman timely ripped the position open on the queenside and grabbed the initiative. However, Anish did not play energetically enough and allowed Fabiano to launch a real onslaught with 24.f5, sacrificing a pawn. Caruana had a great chance to get there, but instead of going after Black’s king, he hastily snatched an exchange giving Black more than sufficient compensation. The opponents exchanged inaccuracies before the time control, but all of them pale compared to Fabiano’s 40.Rb6?? – the American tragically moved his rook to the square controlled by Black’s knight, lost an exchange and threw in the towel twelve moves later. Sergey Karjaking scored a fine positional victory over Jorden Van Foreest in their first-ever classical game. The Dutchman introduced an interesting idea of transferring his dark-squared bishop to b8 in the Italian Opening, but it did not work out for Black as White advanced his c-pawn to stir into a Kings-Indian-Defense-like position with a space advantage. Karjakin was making steady progress, and after Van Foreest imprudently advanced his pawn to a4, White surrounded and eventually won it. Jorden might have had some chances for a fortress in a closed position, but Sergey opened it up with a4-a5, infiltrated the opponent’s camp and forced his capitulation. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov ran into Nils Grandelius’ excellent opening preparation and timely made his arguably strongest “move” in the game, offering a draw in an inferior position. The Swedish GM failed to resist the temptation of making a draw with Black against one of the leaders and took a half-point. Jan-Krzysztof Duda demonstrated very deep opening preparation as Black in the Semi-Tarrasch Defense against one of the leaders Vidit Gujrathi. The moment White’s pieces started lurking around the Black’s king, the Polish GM reacted with a nice tactical sequence giving up two minor pieces for a rook and advancing his queenside pawns. Upon some reflection, the Indian GM decided to restore material equality, and the opponents agreed upon a draw by repetition. Daniil Dubov missed good winning chances in his signature Catalan Opening against Andrey Esipeko. White obtained a substantial advantage but seeming innocuous move transposition allowed Black to wriggle out with a nice tactical blow 36…Rxa2! The position became equal and a few moves later Daniil forced a draw by perpetual check. Sam Shankland and Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa made just a few original moves in a sharp line of Sveshnikov Sicilian with 7.Nd5. The American GM introduced a novelty on the move 21, but the Indian youngster’s demonstrated that Black had no problem reaching a draw despite a two-pawn deficit. Standings after Round 6: 1-3. Vidit Gujrathi, Маgnus Carlsen, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov – 4; 4-5. Richard Rapport, Andrey Esipenko – 3½; 6-8. Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Anish Giri, Sergey Karjakin – 3; 9-13. Sam Shankland, Fabiano Caruana, Daniil Dubov, Jorden Van Foreest, Praggnanandhaa R. – 2½; 14.Nils Grandelius – 1½. Official website: tatasteelchess.com/ Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit and Lennart Ootes – Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2022