Dominican Championship: Gian Carlo Arvelo claim title
Gian Carlo Arvelo and Raydily Rosario Almánzar are new chess champions of the Dominican Republic. The Open and Women’s Championships, Swiss tournaments with classical time control, were held from February 18 to March 06 (with a long break from February 20-25 in the open competition). The 18th rated Gian Carlo Arvelo produced a major sensation by winning the open event with an excellent result 9/11. The champion completed the tournament unbeaten, finishing with three straight victories and picking up 91 rating points. Gian Carlo qualified for the national team and will represent his country at Chess Olympiad 2022. “This day is very special for me because I become the National Chess Champion of the Dominican Republic. To be the number 1 in whatever is not an easy task; it is a dream that many cannot achieve, and today I could,” said the happy champion. The rating favourites FM Carlos Paul Abreu and IM Jose Lisandro Muñoz netted 8½/11 each and tied for second place. Silver went to Carlos Paul thanks to slightly better Buchholz over Jose Lisandro, who had to settle for bronze. Final standings: 1 FM Arvelo, Gian Carlo 9 2 FM Abreu, Carlos Paul 8½ 3 IM Munoz, Jose Lisandro 8½ 4 FM Guzman, Christopher 8 5 FM Hernandez Sanchez, Elvis 7½ 6 Mendez Ramirez, Victor 7 7 CM Crispin Ferreras, Darvi Abraham 7 8 IM Dominguez, Jose Manuel 6½ 9 Mesa Cruz, Juan Carlos 6½ 10 Sanchez Castillo, Jose Rafael 6½ In the Women’s Championship, Raydily Rosario Almánzar (pictured below) tied for the first place with CM Jennifer María Almanzar. The two will lock horns in the match for the title in April. CM Doribel Muñoz Santana claimed bronze scoring 6/8, while the defending champion Patricia Evarista Castillo Pena did not make it to the podium and finished only 5th. Final standings: 1 Rosario Almanzar, Raydily 6½ 2 WCM Almanzar Vasquez, Jeniffer Maria 6½ 3 WCM Munoz Santana, Doribel 6 4 WFM Diaz Cesar, Wilsaida Pieranlly 5½ 5 WCM Castillo Pena, Patricia Evarista 5 6 Gonzalez Peguero, Mary Loly 5 7 Coronado Paulino, Karen Libell 5 8 WCM Villar Acevedo, Darlin Rocio 5 9 Sanchez Jaspez, Rosangel 4½ 10 Ramirez Luzon, Franchesca 4½ Photo: Federación Dominicana de Ajedrez Facebook page
Chess for Ukraine: FIDE announces series of fundraising events on Women’s Day
In light of the ongoing war in Ukraine, and under the roof of the Year of the Woman in Chess, the FIDE Commission for Women’s Chess had established a fundraiser for Ukrainian chess players and their families affected now by war. They have also reached out to a number of women chess players in Ukraine, well-known in our chess community, to provide them with help and support. You can read their letters and messages and make your donation in the fundraiser. Also, the FIDE Women’s Commission, in partnership with Chess24, has prepared a series of events on the Women’s Day to support Ukrainian chess players and their families. The main hosts of the Women’s Day special broadcast will be IM Jovanka Houska and IM Eva Repkova. The Chess for Ukraine 3 min arena tournament will start at 17:00 CET. The first of a series, this tournament is named after the World Champions Anna & Marija Muzychuk and Anna Ushenina. FIDE Commission for Women’s Chess and Chess24 joined forces in this fundraising event to help female chess players in Ukraine. Everyone can join. To do it, click here. In addition the arena tournament, the team competition is planned at 20:00 CET. FIDE will have its own team represented by WGN Dana Reizniece-Ozola (FIDE Managing Director), GM Zhu Chen (FIDE Treasurer), WIM Salomeja Zaksaite (Chair of FIDE Fair Play Commission) and WGM Martha Fierro (Chair of Commission for Women’s Chess in Americas). The schedule of the events is the following: Time (CET) Event 16:45 The start of the Women’s Day special broadcast Main hosts: IM Jovanka Houska and IM Eva Repkova 17:00 Chess for Ukraine – “Women’s World Chess Champions Anna Ushenina and sisters Muzychuk” Two-hour arena tournament Time control: 3 min. 19:00 Talk with guests invited by FIDE/Play Magnus Group 20:00 Team competition Let us show our strong support for our Ukrainian chess players and their families by participating in these events and a fundraiser!
FIDE adopts simplified procedure for playing under FIDE flag
Dear players, In connection with the decision of the FIDE Council to provide a simplified procedure for performing under the FIDE flag for players representing Russia/Belarus, we herewith explain the details of the procedure: 1. For the transfer, a player should send a request to federations@fide.com with a copy of the identity document attached. In case of a minor player, a document certifying the identity of the player, as well as the identity of the legal representative, has to be attached. A copy of the request should be sent to the following e-mail addresses: dana.reizniece-ozola@fide.com and aleksandr.martynov@fide.com. 2. The right to play under the FIDE flag is granted until 31 May 2022. After this period, in the absence of other requests, the player will automatically be returned to the previous federation. 3. If a player wants to continue playing under the FIDE flag after 31 May 2022, he/she should submit a new request to FIDE after 1 May 2022. Such request will be considered in a due manner.
FIDE Grand Prix Belgrade: Round 5 Recap
Twists and turns in round five set a scene for a tense final day in the group stage of the FIDE Grand Prix Belgrade, organized by World Chess. Following a day of rest, 16 top-world players gathered in the “Atlantic-Pacific” playing hall of the Belgrade Crowne Plaza Hotel, for the final rounds of the group stage of the Grand Prix. With two more games to play before the knockout, the tension was high. Round five started at 3 PM CET time, and the first move was made by GM Aleksandar Colovic, ACP president and FIDE Fair Play Councillor, in the game between Sam Shankland and Dmitry Andreikin. Just half an hour later, at the same hotel, another chess event started – the “Belgrade 2022” GM tournament where ten strong players, from Serbia and abroad (including the likes of Parham Maghsoodloo, David Navara, Nihal Sarin and world rapid champion Nodirbek Abdusattorov), are taking part. Here are the results from each pool of the second leg of the Grand Swiss, taking place in Belgrade, Serbia. Pool A: The derby of Pool A, between leaders Sam Shankland and Dmitry Andreikin ended in a draw. With just over an hour of play, this was the first game to finish. In the Janowski variation of the Queen’s Gambit, Shankland got caught out in the opening by Andreikin. White played 9.Bh4 instead of the more common line 9.Bf4 and by move 12 Black equalised. Following the exchange of queens, Andreikin had an isolated pawn but got his rooks lined up on the c-file and actively positioned his pieces. Overall it looked very solid for both sides. Following threefold repetition, a draw was agreed on move 24. Soon afterwards, the second game of Pool A finished, where Etienne Bacrot and Alexander Grischuk decided to split point. In the Ruy Lopez with 6.d3 White achieved a position where he could have exerted some pressure with 14.d4. Instead, Etienne played 14.c4, allowing Black to get a slight edge. After exchanging minor inaccuracies the opponents started repeating moves and agreed to call it a day. Shankland and Andreikin both have 3/5 and are the joint leaders of Pool A. Bacrot has to win against Andreikin and hope that Shankland loses to Grischuk in order to be the qualifier. Grischuk, however, has no chance to move to the next stage. Pool B: It was a day of draws in Pool B. Amin M. Tabatabaei and Nikita Vitiugov played the Giuoco Piano. After a lot of slow manoeuvring in a roughly equal position, Tabatabaei ventured upon d3-d4, allowing Black to activate his knight and start posing problems for White. At first glance, Vitiugov had some advantage in the endgame but Amin had sufficient defensive resources to hold his ground. In the post-game analysis, both players agreed that “the draw was a fair result”. Anish Giri got out of the Ragozin with a better position against Pentala Harikrishna but then hastily played 17.Ne5, allowing Black to equalise. While this move is in line with the ideas of the opening, the concrete variations did not favour White. Harikrishna seized the opportunity and played 17…c5, opening the position and creating a protected c4-passer. Giri timely carried out a standard e3-e4 breakthrough in the centre to weaken Black’s c4 pawn. Pentala still had some edge but after he grabbed the a3-pawn further exchanges became inevitable and the two agreed to split a point on move 31. The clear leader in this group is Anish Giri with 3.5/5 and he is followed by Nikita Vitiugov on 2.5 points, while the other two players are out. In the final round of the group stage, Vitiugov is White against Giri and he will have to win in order to stand chances to move on to the next phase of the tournament. Pool C: Alexei Shirov defeated Vladimir Fedoseev in the Sveshnikov System of the Sicilian. This is his first victory in five rounds. Black got a very promising position after planting his bishop on d3 but then launched a somewhat hasty attack on the kingside which proved to be without venom. Shirov – in his style – played bravely. As Black was mounting pressure on White’s king which looked dangerous but was in fact not really threatening thanks to an excellent defensive manoeuvre Nd5-e3, Shirov advanced his pawns down the d-file opening the a1-h8 diagonal and penetrated with his rook to the seventh rank. White’s arguments were much stronger, and although Shirov made an inaccuracy on move 29, he quickly converted his advantage into a full point. In an insightful post-game commentary, Shirov gave an in-depth analysis of the game from the first move. Despite not standing chances to move to the next stage, Shirov said that he was happy he managed to beat “one of the youngsters”. Vidit Santosh Gujrathi lost as White to Richard Rapport. In the French Defence, Rapport got control of the White squares but fell behind in development. Gujrathi didn’t manage to use this temporary advantage, allowing Black’s strategical long-lasting pluses to come to the fore. Rapport got a firm grip over the game, both threatening the white king and having control on the queenside. By move 43 Black had a three-pawn advantage and Gujrathi’s capitulation became just a question of time. The Indian GM resigned on move 61. With 3.5/5 Rapport is the clear favourite to qualify for the next stage. The only one who could catch up with him is Gujrathi (2.5/5) providing that he defeats Fedoseev as Black and that the Hungarian loses to Shirov as White. Seems it’s too much to hope for, but Caissa can be both generous and cruel. Pool D: A strange game transpired on the board where Alexandr Predke was playing as White against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. This was one of the last games to finish in the fifth round. In the Giuoco Piano White came out of the opening slightly better. However, Predke handed the advantage to Black with 20.Re4 but Mamedyarov did not find the best response – he played 20…d5 and the position was even again. In the subsequent play Mamedyarov emerged a pawn up but White had compensation as his opponent’s