FIDE Candidates Tournament: Drawings of lots and pairings
The drawing of lots for the FIDE Candidates Tournament was carried out today during the FIDE Council in Abu Dhabi, in a ceremony organized by the Chief Arbiter for the event, Anastasia Sorokina. The seven players who have already qualified for the Candidates have signed the contracts and are getting ready for the tournament. The eight’s place is still subject to the final decisions regarding Sergey Karjakin’s appeal to the Ethics and Disciplinary Commission. FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich drew the lots for Ian Nepomniachtchi, who will play under the FIDE flag. FIDE Deputy president Bachar Kouatly drew the lots for Alireza Firouzja, Michael Khodarkovsky for Fabiano Caruana (a number was automatically assigned to Hikaru Nakamura), Mahir Mammedov for Teimour Radjabov, Zhu Chen for Richard Rapport, and Łukasz Turlej for Jan–Krzysztof Duda. Photo by Ezz These are the starting numbers: 1 GM Duda, Jan–Krzysztof2 GM Ding Liren3 GM Caruana, Fabiano4 GM Radjabov, Teimour5 GM Firouzja, Alireza6 GM Nakamura, Hikaru7 GM Nepomniachtchi, Ian8 GM Rapport, Richard Format & System: The 8 players play a double round robin tournament (14 rounds). The winner qualifies for the 2023 FIDE World Championship Match. Round–by–round pairings: Round 1, June 17 Duda – RapportDing Liren – NepomniachtchiCaruana – NakamuraRadjabov – Firouzja Round 2, June 18 Rapport – FirouzjaNakamura – RadjabovNepomniachtchi – CaruanaDuda – Ding Liren Round 3, June 19 Ding Liren – RapportCaruana – DudaRadjabov – NepomniachtchiFirouzja – Nakamura Round 4, June 21 Rapport – NakamuraNepomniachtchi – FirouzjaDuda – RadjabovDing Liren – Caruana Round 5, June 22 Caruana – RapportRadjabov – Ding LirenFirouzja – DudaNakamura – Nepomniachtchi Round 6, June 23 Radjabov – RapportFirouzja – CaruanaNakamura – Ding LirenNepomniachtchi – Duda Round 7, June 25 Rapport – NepomniachtchiDuda – NakamuraDing Liren – FirouzjaCaruana – Radjabov Round 8, June 26 Rapport – DudaNepomniachtchi – Ding LirenNakamura – CaruanaFirouzja – Radjabov Round 9, June 27 Firouzja – RapportRadjabov – NakamuraCaruana – NepomniachtchiDing Liren – Duda Round 10, June 29 Rapport, Richard – Ding LirenDuda – CaruanaNepomniachtchi – RadjabovNakamura – Firouzja Round 11, June 30 Nakamura – RapportFirouzja – NepomniachtchiRadjabov – DudaCaruana – Ding Liren Round 12, July 1 Rapport – CaruanaDing Liren – RadjabovDuda – FirouzjaNepomniachtchi – Nakamura Round 13, July 3 Nepomniachtchi – RapportNakamura – DudaFirouzja – Ding LirenRadjabov – Caruana Round 14, July 4 Rapport – RadjabovCaruana – FirouzjaDing Liren – NakamuraDuda – Nepomniachtchi
Grand Chess Tour becomes part of the World Championship Cycle
The FIDE Council has approved a cooperation agreement with the Grand Chess Tour. By virtue of this agreement, the two top finishers of the 2023 and 2025 Series will qualify for the Candidates 2024 and 2026 respectively. More details on the agreement and the format will follow in due time.
American Cup: Day 8 Recap
The finals of the American Cup kicked off on April 27 with the first of two classical games in the matches between Aronian – Caruana and Krush – Lee. In the Open, Aronian managed to build up a winning endgame advantage but faltered at the last moment, allowing Caruana to escape with a draw. Meanwhile in the Women’s Field, Krush displayed her strategic skill once again, outplaying Lee in the early opening and middlegame to take a 1-0 lead in the match. CHAMPIONS BRACKET ARONIAN – CARUANA | ½-½ A quiet Italian Game quickly turned incredibly sharp as Caruana opted to sacrifice a pawn in exchange for long-term pressure against White’s kingside. After a complex struggle Aronian managed to trade the queens off and go into an endgame, where he then sacrificed an exchange in order to win a second pawn. Although the position was tenable for Black, Caruana soon erred and found himself in a dire straits. But a last ditch effort by Fabiano to create counterplay worked, as in time trouble Aronian missed his chance to achieve a winning ending and instead had to settle for a draw by repetition. After Caruana’s 45…Bh4, White’s only win was 46.Ne2 Kxd8 47.Rd3+! followed by 48.Rd4. Instead Aronian played 46.N8e6, but 46…Rg1+ 47.Ke2 Re1+ 48.Kd3 g6! saved the game for Black. | ½-½, 52 moves Aronian will have to defeat Caruana in two consecutive matches to earn the title. | Photo Courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Bryan Adams KRUSH – LEE | 1-0 In a repeat of the first game of their previous classical match, Krush achieved a serious positional advantage right from the opening, this time a Reverse Benoni where Black lost several tempi compared to the usual line. From there it was smooth sailing for Krush, who gradually improved her position until Black’s structure could no longer hold, and Lee’s kingside simply collapsed. After 26.Qb6, White’s pieces were simply dominant across the whole board. | 1-0, 39 moves Today’s win put Krush another step closer towards the $25,000 1st place prize. | Photo Courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Lennart Ootes Day 9 of the 2022 American Cup will take place Thursday, April 28 starting at 12:50 PM CT. Catch all the action live with grandmaster commentators Yasser Seirawan, Cristian Chirila, and Alejandro Ramirez on uschesschamps.com and on the Saint Louis Chess Club’s YouTube and Twitch.tv channels. Watch all the action LIVE at USChessChamps.com Text: IM Kostya Kavutskiy Photo credit: Saint Louis Chess Club, Lennart Ootes and Bryan Adams Dates & Location:April 20 – 29, 2022, Saint Louis Chess Club Web: uschesschamps.com | Twitter: @STLChessClub Instagram: @STLChessClub | Facebook: @STLChessClub YouTube: @STLChessClub | Twitch.tv: @STLChessClub Photo Credits:Photos and appropriate credits available on Flickr Press Contact:Rebecca Buffington rbuffington@saintlouischessclub.org Saint Louis Chess Club | Building Champions 4657 Maryland Avenue, Saint Louis, MO 63108 | (314) 361.CHESS (2437)
Carlsen and Praggnanandhaa set up final day shootout
Magnus Carlsen and Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa will duke it out for the Oslo Esports Cup title tomorrow after India’s boy wonder finally cracked under pressure. Three points ahead going into the penultimate round of the $210,000 event, 16-year-old Pragg suffered a painful quickfire reverse against Poland’s World Cup winner Jan-Krzysztof Duda. It handed world No.1 Carlsen a golden opportunity to go level on points with the youngster and overtake him on the leaderboard due to their head-to-head score. Carlsen, as always, grabbed the opportunity with both hands by thrashing the lowest-ranked player in the field, Canadian streamer Eric Hansen. The Norwegian is now hot favourite to win the first Major of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour season. Duda also isn’t out of it, as he sits just one point behind on the leaderboard. However, the Pole needs a 3-point win against Hansen and defeats for both Carlsen and Pragg. Carlsen, meanwhile, faces the dangerous Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in Round 7 while Pragg is up against Anish Giri. Carlsen had the good fortune to face Hansen today – an opponent who felt seriously low on form and confidence. The 29-year-old Hansen blundered badly in the first game and was punished and then escaped with a draw in the second. Before the third game, Hansen said: “There’s something very off with my head right now. I’m missing so much, and in this game I was very lucky to come off with a draw.” But it didn’t get better for Hansen as Carlsen reeled off a fine game to retake the lead overall going into the final round. For Pragg, it was nowhere near as comfortable a day as he’d hoped. Game 1 started unconventionally as Duda played an English Opening with 6.e3 and then the ultra-rare 9.b3. Duda was allowed to advance a pawn on the f-file to the seventh rank and the result was inevitable. Pragg resigned on move 65. In the second game, the 16-year-old from Chennai overstretched with 24.c6 and from there Duda was ruthless. Pragg shook his head as he resigned in an impossible position on move 37. It left the youngster with an uphill struggle needing to win both remaining games on demand just to take it to tiebreaks. It wasn’t to be as the third game ended in a draw after the queens came off. The match ended 2.5-0.5 in Duda’s favour. Asked if he can win the tournament tomorrow, Pragg said: “I just want to play better chess tomorrow and then we’ll see.” So far, both matches had finished in three games and the third was no different as Liem Quang Le thrashed Play Magnus Group’s new ambassador, Dutch No.1 Anish Giri 2.5-0.5. The last match to finish was Mamedyarov vs Jorden van Foreest which went to a fourth game in which the Azeri needed to win to take it to tiebreaks. The game looked to be headed for a safe draw for van Foreest but the Dutchman let it slip and Mamedyarov went on to win. Tiebreaks beckoned. Van Foreest was clearly annoyed with himself and said afterwards: “To lose this game was pretty ridiculous.” The first blitz game followed the same pattern as the last rapid game as van Foreest was left furious with himself for letting the win go again with one hasty decision, this time in the endgame. The momentum appeared to be with Mamedyarov and in the second blitz game van Foreest fell apart. It ended in heartbreak for the 22-year-old as Mamedyarov took the match. The final round of the Oslo Esports Cup starts at 18:00 CEST on Thursday. Full coverage with commentary from the Oslo arena is available on chess24’s Twitch and YouTube channels. For further comments contact: Leon Watson leon@championschesstour.com About the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour The Champions Chess Tour is the leading online chess Tour worldwide determining the world’s best chess player over a full competitive season of online chess. The 2022 season begins in February 2022 and features monthly tournaments culminating in a Final in November 2022. The best chess players in the world are competing in rapid chess. All games take place online on www.chess24.com with players competing for a total prize pool of over USD 1.5 million. For more information visit www.championschesstour.com. About Play Magnus Group Play Magnus Group is a global leader in the chess industry focused on providing premier digital experiences for millions of chess players and students. The company offers e-learning and entertainment services via its market leading brands: chess24, Chessable, iChess, New In Chess, Everyman Chess, Silver Knights, Aimchess, the Play Magnus App Suite, and the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. The Group’s mission is to grow chess to make the world a smarter place by encouraging more people to play, watch, study, and earn a living from chess. Play Magnus Group is listed on Euronext Growth Oslo under the ticker PMG. www.pmg.me