FIDE Veterans Support Program 2022: A tribute
A few weeks ago, FIDE announced the names of twelve chess seniors who will benefit from FIDE’s support to chess veterans. A total of €30,000 will be distributed among them with each receiving €2,500. As we did on previous occasions, we would pay tribute to these illustrious veterans with a few words about each one of them, summarizing their careers and achievements: Alexey Yuneev (Russia) Jay Bonin (USA) Jiri Lechtynsky (Czech Republic) Vija Rozlapa (Latvia) Giorgi Macharashvili (Georgia) Reynaldo Vera (Cuba) Evgenij Ermenkov (Bulgaria) Alexey Kosikov (Ukraine) Sheila Jackson (England) Galina Strutinskaia (Russia) Rani Hamid (Bangladesh) Gediminas Rastenis (Lithuania) Vija Rozlapa Born in 1942 in Liepaja, Vija Rzlapa learned chess at the age of 12 and immediately showed great promise. Just four years later she won the Latvian Girl Championship (1958) and then Soviet Girl Championship (1960). In 1970 Vija became a national master. A four-time Latvian Women Champion (1967, 1971, 1972, 1974) she started her career as a chess trainer back in 1964 and successfully continues nowadays. She has been working in Riga Chess School since its foundation in 1972. The list of her students includes GM Alexei Shirov, WGM Laura Rogule (LAT) and NA Egons Lavendelis. An active participant of senior events Vija Rzlapa has won bronze at the World Senior Team Chess Championship twice (2014, 2015). Alexey Yuneev Born in 1957 Leningrad, Alexey Yuneev came master in 1980 and nine years later won his native city championship. A graduate of the Gertsen Pedagogical University, Yuneev has been working as a trainer-instructor since 1985 to date in the St. Petersburg State Palace of the Youth Creativity. The list of his students includes GM N. Vityugov, gold winner as a member of the Russian team at the World Team Championships (2010, 2013), Champion of Russia (2021, super finals winner), and GM M. Matlakov, (European Champion 2017), runner-up in the Championship of Russia (2021, super finals). Since 1990 Alexey Yuneev has been in charge of the municipal union of the chess instructors, which is a very important body for the St. Petersburg chess development. Starting from 2000 has been organizing and holding chess workshops for chess instructors helping more than 300 people to improve and hone their teaching skills which indirectly translates into thousands of young chess players. Giorgi Macharashvili Born in 1955 in Tbilisi, Giorgi Macharashvili became a professional chess coach in 1976. The author of 11 books, since 1992 he has served as the main coach of national youth and cadets’ teams at World and European Chess Championships. With Giorgi at his helm, the National Georgian Women’s team won silver at the European Team Chess Championship. The long list of his students includes GM Nana Dzagnidze – Women’s World Blitz Champion (2017), European Women’s Champion (2017) and the winner of Chess Olympiad (2008); WGM Maia Lomineishvili – the winner of Olympiad (2008) and European Junior Champion U14 and U20; WGM Ketino Kachiani-Gersinska, the winner of Word Junior Championship U20 (1989 and 1990). Reinaldo Vera Born in 1961, Reinaldo Vera achieved his first international success at Junior World Championship (Innsbruck, 1977) where he finished fourth. In 1979, he was awarded the IM title and nine years later received GM title. A prominent fixture of the National team for over 20 years, a two-time Cuban Champion, Reinaldo Vera took part in four World Team Championships and ten Chess Olympiads. His best result was an individual gold medal on the third board (Elista, 1998). His tournament record includes winning or sharing the first places in Havana (1980), Varna (1986), Leon (1996), and San Sebastian (2007). FIDE Senior Trainer since 2007 he gives chess lessons both live and online. Evgenij Ermenkov Born in 1949, Evgenij Ermenkov has been a competitive chess player the last 60 years of his life. He became the junior champion of Bulgaria at the age of 17 and quickly moved up in the rankings. He became an IM in 1974 and three years later received GM title. The 5-time national champion he represented Bulgaria at Chess Olympiads from 1978 to 1992. His most notable achievement in team competitions is silver medal on board 4 at the Olympiad in Novi Sad (1990). Ermenkov’s tournament resume includes victories in Albena (1997 and 1979), Plovdiv (1978 and 1979), Varna (1986), Dieren (1990), Beirut (2004) and Imperia (2005). Jay Bonin Born in 1955 in New York, Jay Bonin is known the “Iron Man of Chess”. One of the most active tournament players in history of chess, he played over 25,000 tournament games (over 13,000 games since the US Chess Federation started collecting data in 1991 and an estimated 12,000 games for his almost 20 years of tournament play prior). His prolific and long chess career took off in 1980s, when Bonin won the New York State Championship (1982). He later won this title in 1997 and 1999. In 1983 he earned the title of FIDE Master and two years later became Jay also won the championship of the Marshall Chess Club (in which he worked as a manager and tournament director from 1977 to 1979 and then from 1998 to 2002) in 1984, 1987 and 1997. The year 1997 was marked by his unique achievement as Bonin won “Triple Crown” of New York chess events: The New York State Championship, Manhattan Chess Club Championship, and Marshall Chess Club Championship. His life as a chess professional was twice profiled in the New York Times. A popular chess teacher, author, and lecturer, Jay Bonin is a true legend of US chess. Jiri Lechtynsky Born in 1947, Jiri Lechtynsky was one of the leading players of Chezcoslovakia in 1970s and 1980s. He earned the title of IM 1974 and eight years later became GM. The participant of three Chess Olympiad he played for Czechoslovakia in 1974 in Nice (with a score of 5/7 as a second reserve player), in 1980 in La Valletta, Malta (with a score of 2,5/4 as a second reserve player), and in 1986 in Dubai (with a score of 4/6 as a second reserve
FIDE Grand Prix Berlin – Round 3 Recap
The local hero Vincent Keymer outplayed Daniil Dubov and joined Leinier Dominguez in the lead of Pool B of the third leg of the FIDE Grand Prix Series, organized by World Chess. The rest of Round 3 games ended in a draw, which allowed Levon Aronian, Alexandr Predke, and Nikita Vitiugov to keep leading positions in other groups. Two more games could have finished decisively today. Grigoriy Oparin came very close to upsetting Hikaru Nakamura, who eventually escaped with a draw. Sam Shankland had winning chances in the endgame with Alexandr Predke but could not make it work. It was the longest game of the day, which ended in a draw after 57 moves. Pool A Nakamura played the most existing game of the round. Oparin guessed his opponent’s choice in the opening right, which was the Queens-Indian Defence today. It has been more than five years since Hikaru Nakamura played it in the tournaments, so he was not expecting the idea of h4-h5-h6. White quickly got quite a promising position but had to play precisely in order not to give a chance for Black to consolidate. A beautiful move 19.Bg6 came as a huge surprise to Hikaru, who simply missed this option. “I was very upset with myself during the game because essentially I blundered one move. In this line with 19.Bg6 and after 19…fxg6 20. Qe7 Rd5 White has this Re6. I simply have forgotten this move existed,” said Hikaru in his post-game interview. Similarly to the game against Aronian in Round 1, the American player was ready to resign once his opponent had played 20.Bb1. Even better was 20.Bf5! simply winning a piece. Grigoriy failed to find these continuations and opted for 20.Bh7, which gave Hikaru some hope to escape with a draw. Despite being down a pawn, Black had some compensation due to the pair of Bishops and active pieces. After a few exchanges, the game ended in a draw after a three-fold repetition. “After finding Bg6 it feels it would be nice to win the game, but it is what it is,” said Grigoriy Oparin after the game. Andrey Esipenko and Levon Aronian tested one of the lines in the Ruy Lopez but Andrey mixed something up right in the opening and was clearly disappointed with his play. He had to show a certain level of creativity not to get into trouble and came up with an interesting idea 17.Bg5 which changed the course of the game. Levon Aronian saw the strongest continuation 17…Kh8 but started seeing ghosts in some lines as he pointed out after the game. He chose another option 17…h6 but it turned out that White could trade the queens and maintain the balance in the game that was drawn on move 33. Pool B The Ragozin Variation was played in the game Mamedyarov – Dminguez and for the first time in the tournament Shakhriyar Mamedyarov was satisfied with the outcome of the opening. He came up with a very tricky idea Ba2 hoping to get a very strong attack on the King’s side. The American Grandmaster proved he has nerves of steel once again and found very precise moves to stop ambitious plans of Azeri Grandmaster. 17-year-old Vincent Keymer managed to break his drawing streak in Berlin by defeating Daniil Dubov. Players chose a complicated line in Vienna Variation of Queen’s Gambit, where Daniil showed an original set up of the pieces by placing his knight on d7 with an idea of pushing c5. Vincent started to like his position after Black put his queen on e8 as he felt it was easier to play with White. The German thought he could afford many waiting moves without worsening his position. In contrast, Daniil thought he should get better after White’s Bishop maneuvers g5-f4-g3 as, in his opinion, it was not the way to play for victory with White. “I was trying to find some ways to get a better position, and I thought it must be winning, It became complicated and then I blundered a piece”, described the game Daniil. According to the heartless computer, the position became hopeless for Black after move 21 when Daniil didn’t remove his knight from d3 but went for a very complex line. White always had the upper hand from that moment to the very end. Vincent Keymer scored a crucial victory over Daniil Dubov, leaving him on minus two after three days of play. Pool C Sam Shankland and Alexandr Predke had an interesting discussion in the Carlsbad structure of the Queen’s Gambit. Alexandr chose an interesting plan of advancing his pawns and the queenside and trading his light-squared bishop on a6. White regrouped his pieces and managed to place his knight on the central square e5 but didn’t achieve much by this point. The first critical moment happened on move 23 when Predke carelessly played Nc4 missing a strong reply 24.a4, which left Black with weaknesses on the queenside. Shankland transposed into a rook ending with a pawn up, but it was not enough for a victory. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave used his pet Gruenfled Defence against Wesley So reached a draw quite comfortably. “I have no idea what to play against Maxim’s Gruenfeld after seven years now”, confessed Welsey So. He didn’t expect the line with c5 and Bf5, which was previously played by Alexander Grischuk and had prepared for a different variation. Maxim didn’t want to burn bridges despite the tournament situation and found the precise way to avoid any trouble. After massive exchanges, the players ended up in an equal ending and signed the peace after 37 moves. Pool D The game Yu Yangyi – Amin Tabatabaei saw a rock-solid Makagonov-Bondarevsky system in which White has problems getting any edge. After the Chinese player made a thematic breakthrough in the center e3-e4, the game liquidated in a drawn endgame in which the opponents spit the point on move 30. Nikita Vitiugov essayed the Paulsen System of Sicilian against Anish Giri, and very