Czech Championship: David Navara clinches 11th title
GM David Navara came out as a winner of the Czech Championship 2022. It is the eleventh national title in his distinguished career. The Czech Championship, a 9-round Swiss tournament with classical time control, took place from May 14-22, 2022, in Ústí nad Labem. The event brought together 48 best Czech players, including the rating favourite David Navara (pictured below) and the defending champion Vojtech Plat. Photo: Milan Nemec The tournament turned into a very close race, with several players battling for the title to the very end. Suffice it to say that after Round 7, the eventual champion was only second, a half-point behind IM Vojtech Zwadron, who led the field with an excellent score of 6/7. However, in Round 8, the leader suffered a defeat at the hands of Vlasitimil Babula (pictured below), while Navara beat Plat and shot ahead, coming into the final round a half-point ahead of Babula and Zwadron. Photo: Lenka Kusova In Round 9, Navara drew his game with Jiri Stocek and clinched the title, netting 7/9 as his main rivals did not manage to win – Babula drew with Tomas Kraus, while Jan Krejci took down Zwadron and tied for the second place. Vlastimil Babula claimed silver thanks to better Buchholz; Jan Krejci had to settle for bronze. FM Richard Stalmach (pictured below) won a special prize for the best junior player, scoring 5½/9 and finishing 12th. Photo: Milan Nemec Final standings: 1 GM Navara, David 2682 7 2 GM Babula, Vlastimil 2576 6½ 3 GM Krejčí, Jan 2520 6½ 4 IM Zwardoň, Vojtěch 2482 6 5 GM Štoček, Jiří 2533 6 6 GM Plát, Vojtěch 2547 6 7 IM Kraus, Tomáš 2472 6 8 GM Rašík, Vítězslav 2433 6 9 GM Hráček, Zbyněk 2570 5½ 10 IM Černoušek, Lukáš 2440 5½ Photo: Lenka Kusova and Milan Nemec Official website: sachyusti.cz/
Superbet Rapid & Blitz: Day 4 Recap
The first day of the Blitz portion of the Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland saw a drastic shift in the dynamic of the event. While former World Champion Vishy Anand maintained his lead and even extended it to 1.5 points, It was Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian who stole the show today. The former scored a whopping 8 out of possible 9 points while Aronian netted 7 in the same number of games. The two Americans dominated the rest of the field to move to a tie for third, two points behind Anand, and half a point behind the consistent Polish GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda. After a slow start, the Polish hero bagged three consecutive wins toward the end of the day and is now in second place. It surely was not a good day at the office for both Richard Rapport and Wesley So, but it would be a grave mistake to write these two players out of the tournament just yet. The spectators couldn’t hope for anything better than tons of excitement that kept their eyes glued to the gigantic screens! | Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Fabiano Caruana The American was undoubtedly the sensation of the day. After a disappointing performance in the rapid games, Caruana showed a magnificent form in the blitz. Not only did he go on scoring eight points but his games were an indication of strength rather than ‘a good day at the office’. After his great performance at The American Cup’s blitz event, GM Caruana is now the #3 player in the world ranking for Blitz rating, only .2 Elo shy from GM Levon Aronian with whom he is tied for 3rd. A feat he is dreaming of enhancing by another massive performance on tomorrow’s final day. Whether he will have the same form or not is to be seen but it is clear that Caruana is in hot pursuit to place at the top of the leader board tomorrow. Fabiano Caruana at the beginning of Day 1 of Blitz games | Photo courtesy of Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Levon Aronian Aronian’s performance in the Rapid part wasn’t that great either, although he finished a point ahead of Caruana. Nevertheless, after a good performance on the first part of the Grand Chess Tour in Romania, Aronian knew better than anyone that he needed a massive score to improve his position on the leader boards. His 7 out of 9 wins today were fantastic and he is now the #2 blitz player in the world. Tied for third and two points behind the leader is certainly a tough hill to climb, but it wouldn’t be that difficult should Aronian continue to play the way he played today. ‘I am just simply that good!’ Levon Aronian in a cheerful mode before the round along with Richard Rapport | Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Jan-Krzysztof Duda Jan-Krzysztof Duda’s story of the day is probably the biggest comeback in this event so far. After finishing in the third place in the Rapid portion, The Polish representative in the upcoming Candidates started the day with two disappointing back-to-back losses. However, the young local hero couldn’t simply let go of it this easily: After holding Caruana in one of his two only draws with Black pieces, Duda bagged 5 points out of the remaining 6 and ended the day on sole second in aggregate. Should he improve on his performance, Duda is a serious contender for the top spot going to the final day. One thing that can make things slightly better for Duda is the fact that he has White pieces against Anand, Caruana, and Aronian. Another good day at the office. Moving to sole second, GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda | Photo courtesy of Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Viswanathan Anand If you are the leader and you extend your lead after a tough day by half a point, you have still made progress. That is what Vishy Anand did and I am sure he takes it any other day. In fact, Anand did pretty well against his main rival. He even could consider himself a tad unlucky as he failed to win a winning rook ending against Richard Rapport, and undeservedly lost to Caruana in a game where Anand started making mistakes with a few seconds on his clock, something he could avoid much earlier in the game. However, what Anand needs is to come up with a plan for his games against the last four of his ‘trailing’ opponents. He only scored 2 out of possible 4 points against the bottom of the field while everyone else who is his direct competition did much better against the last four players in the standing. With three of his white pieces games being against Korobov, Shevchenko, and Wojtaszek, Anand’s strategy could be ‘staying solid against his main rivals while trying to make the most against the tailenders. No matter how the last day pans out for the “Tiger of Madras” it is great to see him in such good form during this entire event. Going to the last day as the favorite Anand is not going to settle for anything but his best to win the event! ‘I am here to stay.’ GM Vishy Anand maintains his lead and even extends it by half a point | Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Wesley So and Richard Rapport The two top-10 GMs did not have a good day at the office. After a disappointing event in Romania, the candidate participant, GM Richard Rapport had a phenomenal rapid portion scoring 13 out of eighteen points, beating GM Vishy Anand in the process. However, things were completely off for Rapport today. After losing his first game against Caruana, Rapport never made it back to the event and ended the event with a disappointing 3.5 out of 9 possible points. It surely dragged him down in the standings but he remains among the mix of the leaders’ thanks to his great performance