The First Global Interactive Community Chess Simul
Over the past two years, the pandemic has significantly transformed the lives of individuals and communities. We have entered a new digital era, however, the online sphere has opened up new horizons, which has also affected the chess world. The number of people starting and actively playing the game, devoted fans following tournaments, broadcasts, and prominent figures in the sport has grown at an astonishing pace and scale. New communities, events, and platforms have been born in parallel. Judit Polgár, the best female chess player of all time, and the Hungarian Pavilion of Dubai Expo 2020 joint action “Judit Polgár vs The World”, the world’s first interactive community chess simul, strengthen and put this togetherness into a new context. On 20 March, Judit Polgár and the Hungarian Pavilion at Dubai Expo 2020 will host a global and integrated social event where millions of people will virtually sit down and play – live – against a single player. During the 11-board online simul, Judit Polgár faces ten influencers with a total of 6 million followers, and virtually the world on the “world board”. In the influencers’ section, among others, Judit will play with a children’s community on one board, and in line with our “2022 – Year of Women in Chess” initiative, members of a women’s community on another. Arkady Dvorkovich, the President of FIDE acknowledges: “This event can be regarded as a milestone in the global promotion of chess, offering a unique experience to a record number of participants thanks to its innovative and brand new format. I am curious of the final result, but even more so eager to enjoy the sportive tension and excitement that will be in the air while the world will be challenging the legendary chess queen Judit.” “I am extremely excited for this challenge and inclusive social event as Chess Connects Us in the virtual universe”, admits Judit. Influencers vs Judit The influencers will make their moves after consulting with their followers.The participants:● Agadmator – Antonio Radic (Croatia)● Botez Sisters (USA–Canada)● Samay Raina (India)● Rey Enigma (Spain)● Pepe Cuenca + Chess24/ES (Spain)● Jennifer Shahade + US Chess Girls Club (USA)● Silver Knights – children’s community (USA)● Anna Cramling (Sweden)● Anna Rudolf (Hungary)● BENIIPOWA (Hungary) The World vs Judit Can the world chess community beat Judit Polgár?On the world board, all participants in the game can vote on the next move on a dedicated platform. The system will make the move suggested by most players. The matches will be played in the Hungarian Pavilion’s Dome in the event’s built-in studio on custom digital chessboards. Judit will comment on the moves and strategies from there, involving influencers and their followers in the conversation. Professional commentators and surprise guests will support the show from the studio in Budapest. The First Global Interactive Community Chess Simul will be available live on the ChessConnectsUs Twitch Channel.
Pools for third leg of FIDE Grand Prix 2022 announced
Berlin, March 9, 2022 — The pools for the last leg of the FIDE Grand Prix Seies, organized by World Chess have been determined. The tournament in Berlin will be held from 21 March to 4 April at the World Chess Club Berlin. The event features 16 elite chess players competing for a prize fund of €150,000 and the last two places in the Candidates Tournament scheduled to take place in Madrid in June. The draw ceremony, held over Zoom, was chaired by the Chief Arbiter Klaus Deventer who divided the players into groups via randomized selection procedure. The players were allocated to four different pools: Pool A: Levon Aronian (USA), 2785Hikaru Nakamura, (USA), 2750Dmitry Andreikin (FIDE), 2719Grigoriy Oparin (FIDE), 2674 Pool B: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan), 2776Leinier Dominguez (USA), 2756Daniil Dubov (FIDE), 2711Vincent Keymer (Germany), 2655 Pool C: Wesley So (USA), 2778Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France), 2761Sam Shankland (USA), 2704Alexandr Predke (FIDE), 2682 Pool D: Anish Giri (Netherlands), 2771Nikita Vitiugov (FIDE), 2726Yu Yangyi (China), 2713Amin Tabatabaei (Iran), 2623 The third leg of the FIDE Grand Prix Series 2022 will take place in Berlin at Mittelstrasse 51-52 from March 21 to April 4. The rounds start at 3PM CET. The FIDE Grand Prix Series is brought to you by World Chess. The games will be broadcast live at worldchess.com: https://chessarena.com/broadcasts/13606 For further questions, please contact: media@worldchess.com Media Accreditation Form: https://forms.gle/nnfJ9b2LRDYebGg3A 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.
FIDE and Chess24 hold fundraising marathon for Ukraine on Women’s Day
A series of events aiming to support Ukrainian chess players and their families affected by the war were held yesterday, on International Women’s Day, by the FIDE Commission for Women’s Chess together with Chess24. The charity marathon included the Chess for Ukraine arena tournament named after the World Champions Anna & Mariya Muzychuk and Anna Ushenina, the team competition and a fundraiser to help female chess players in Ukraine. The main hosts of the Women’s Day special broadcast were IM Jovanka Houska and the Chair of the FIDE Commission for Women’s Chess IM Eva Repkova. They were joined by special female guests who spoke about the role of chess in their lives, and their feeling about being a woman in a male-dominated chess community. FIDE Managing Director WGN Dana Reizniece-Ozola, who was one of the guests of the broadcast, pointed out that the sense of belonging to a chess community gives a person a very important sense of the security. “This whole project is dedicated to a very serious and very important cause, which is helping our chess players in Ukraine. This is a very good momentum, when you see how important actually it is if you belong to such a community like chess family. Because if gives you a better chance that somebody will really care of you and try to help when you are in a difficult position. That is demanding from yourself as well. Because that demands also that while you are in a better position you ought to help the others. This is such a heartwarming feeling that there might be somebody out there who would think of me when I have some difficulties or some crisis.” Another guest, the Chair of Commission for Women’s Chess in Americas WGM Martha Fierro talked about the development of chess and especially women’s chess in Ecuador: “In Ecuador chess is becoming more popular. When I started to play in 1991, there were not so many women players. But now we have more support from the government and media and more and more ladies and girls join in.” Women’s Day Team Competition was joined by teams from chess24, FIDE, Play Magnus & Chessable. The FIDE WOM team was represented by WGN Dana Reizniece-Ozola (FIDE Managing Director), the women’s world champion (2001–2004) 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). A 7-team round-robin tournament was won by FIDE WOM team scoring 16/18 points. Team Chess24 finished a point behind the winner. Chess24 Spain with 13 points came out third. During the tournaments viewers were asked to make their donations in the fundraiser for Ukrainian chess players and their families. While preparing the broadcast the FIDE WOM Commission reached out to a number of women chess players in Ukraine, caught up in a conflict that would have been unimaginable just a month ago, and got their feedback. Here are some of letters received: “I am in Kharkiv, with no electricity, no mobile service, no 4g, no groceries at the stores, and those few places that do sell groceries charge crazy prices. Every three hours jets are dropping bombs on peaceful civilians.” “I am in Kherson. I had a few hours to make the decision to leave the city with small children, leaving my very sick husband at home by himself. We do not have safe sheltering. The only thing we can do is to pray and hope to not to go crazy from being so helpless.” “I spent six days and five nights in the basement without utilities, and am now looking for another place of refuge. I witnessed the hell on Earth.” You can read more and make a donation here. The fundraising campaign is not over yet. Please help us show our support for Ukrainian chess community! You can watch the full broadcast of the events on FIDE’s official Youtube channel.
FIDE Grand Prix Belgrade – Knockout: Day One Recap
Richard Rapport defeats Maxime-Vachier-Lagrave as White, while Giri and Andreikin draw The first round of the semi-finals of the second leg of the Grand Prix saw one decisive result and one draw. Richard Rapport defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Before this game, the two had played eight classical games, five of which were drawn and three were won by the Frenchman. Despite the head-to-head record favouring Vachier-Lagrave, every game is a story of its own, and this one did not have a happy ending for MVL. Rapport opened with 1.d4, and Vachier-Lagrave responded with his favourite, the Gruenfeld. The opponents tested a relatively rare variation in which the Hungarian introduced a logical novelty (the first line of Stockfish) 14.Bd2. White got an edge that only increased after Black opted not to contest for the open c-file on move 19. MVL tried to put pressure on the white king in the centre, however, Black was doomed after that. Indeed, Rapport had a very dangerous d-pawn and a stronger bishops pair. Black was better developed, but it just did not work for him in concrete variations. By move 23 White’s d-pawn seamlessly advanced to d7. Soon afterwards, the e-pawn joined the race and – supported by a strong pair of bishops – Black was hopeless in preventing defeat. On move 37 the Frenchman capitulated. The outcome of the first knockout round suggests that Maxime will have to play for a win in the second game, as he will be leading white pieces, and the Frenchman will certainly enter the match swinging. On the other board, the game between Anish Giri and Dmitry Andreikin ended in a draw, despite both sides (especially White) having a chance to win at certain points. The odds were even before the match as Giri and Andreikin played five classical games and drew all five of them. Their most recent clash was at the 2021 Tolstoy Memorial 2021, where they split a point. In the Sicilian with 3.b3, an offbeat line that has become trendy recently, the opening was similar to the one Nihal Sarin played against Andreikin in the 2021 World Cup. White (Giri) came out of the opening with a slightly better position, as he had more space, quickly castled long and put some pressure on the kingside. Andreikin rushed things with 17…c4? but this dubious move quickly backfired after a simple exchange followed by 19.b4. White dominated the board, but after 19…h6, attacking his g5-knight, Anish sacrificed it on f7 (which is not in his style), letting a greater part of his advantage slip away and allowing Black to find breathing space. Instead, a simple and natural knight retreat 20.Nh3 would have posed insurmountable problems for Black. White continued to pressure but then overstretched himself with 23.Rd5, giving an exchange for an attack that didn’t work. Following the exchange of queens on move 28, the tables have turned, and Black was now better; however, he had to be very precise as White had a very active bishops pair. Most likely, after avoiding the worst, Andreikin was happy with a draw, as a few more moves down the road the two split a point. In the post-game analysis, Giri and Andreikin said that it was a complicated game where they both missed some crucial lines and concluded that the outcome was fair. Pairings for day two of the knockout: Dmitry Andreikin vs Anish Giri Maxime Vachier-Lagrave vs Richard Rapport The round starts on Thursday, 10th March, at 3 PM local (CET) time. Leading partners supporting the FIDE Grand Prix Series 2022 include: Kaspersky as the Official Cybersecurity Partner; Algorand as the Official Blockchain Partner; Prytek as the Technology Transfer Partner; FIDE Online Arena as the official Partner. Text: Milan DinicPhoto: Mark Livshitz Official Photo FIDE Grand Prix Belgrade Press kit