Batsuren and Enkhtuul win Mongolian Championship
Dambasuren Batsuren and Altan-Ulzii Enkhtuul are the new champions of Mongolia. The Mongolian Championship 2022 in open and women sections took place from May 12-23, 2022, in Chinggis, Khentii. Both tournaments, 12-player round-robins with classical time control, were held simultaneously in the same venue. The second-rated participant, 18-year old Dambasuren Batsuren (pictured below), turned in a commanding performance and claimed his maiden title at the fourth attempt. The champion scored an impressive 8½/11 and became the only unbeaten player in the event. Ganzorig Amartuvshin and Bayarsaikhan Gundavaa finished a full point behind the champion and tied for second place, with the former taking silver thanks to a greater number of victories. Kudos to one of the lowest-rated participants, Ganzorig, who significantly improved his rating picking up 60 points. Final standings open: 1 GM Batsuren, Dambasuren 8½ 2 FM Amartuvshin, Ganzorig 7½ 3 GM Gundavaa, Bayarsaikhan 7½ 4 GM Bilguun, Sumiya 7 5 IM Gan-Erdene, Sugar 6½ 6 IM Agibileg, Uurtsaikh 6 7 GM Batchuluun, Tsegmed 5 8 IM Battulga, Namkhai 4½ 9 FM Enkhnar, Enkhbaatar 4 10 FM Amilal, Munkhdalai 3½ 11 FM Boldoo, Erdenepurev 3 12 GM Munkhgal, Gombosuren 3 Altan-Ulzii Enkhtuul (pictured below) dominated the women’s event, despite losing her second-round game against Turmunkh Munkhzul. After this hiccup, Altan-Ulzii notched up seven straight victories and clinched the title with a round to spare. Bayarjargal Bayarmaa stayed in the race for the most part but lost two games (including one against the champion) and came off second best. Turmunkh Munkhzul inflicted the only defeat on the champion and tied for third with Bat-Erdene Mungunzul but won bronze by dint of a better Sonneborn-Berger. Final standings women: 1 WGM Enkhtuul, Altan-Ulzii 9 2 WIM Bayarmaa, Bayarjargal 8 3 WIM Munkhzul, Turmunkh 7 4 WCM Mungunzul, Bat-Erdene 7 5 WFM Munkhzul, Davaakhuu 6½ 6 CM Nomindalai, Tumurbaatar 6½ 7 IM Munguntuul, Batkhuyag 6 8 WFM Altantuya, Boldbaatar 5½ 9 FM Khulan, Enkhsaikhan 4½ 10 WCM Amin-Erdene, Bayanmunkh 3 11 Tsetsenbileg, Munkhbayar 1½ 12 WFM Anu, Bayar 1½ Photo: Mongolian Chess Federation Facebook page
Jan-Krzysztof Duda wins Superbet Rapid & Blitz
The final day of Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland was filled with a significant amount of excitement in the history of The Grand Chess Tour. Going to the final round of the blitz games, four players had a chance to win or tie for first place for this event. In the end, it was the Polish wildcard GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda who secured the Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland first place prize. Duda’s performance was consistent throughout the event and his result only got better as the event came to a close. He posted 12 points out of the 18 available points and went on to score 5.5/9 on day one and 6.5 (tying for the best score of the day) on the second day, edging both GM Aronian and former World Champion Vishy Anand by half a point, while GM Fabiano Caruana came forth only a point shy of the eventual winner. With this result, Duda should be quite confident as he begins preparation for the upcoming World Championship Candidates tournament, which begins next month. GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda won the first prize of $40,000. The Polish super-GM is now looking ahead at the 2022 Candidates Tournament happening next month in Madrid. Now let us have a look at how things proceeded on the Day 5 by looking at some of the key individual performances and moments from the final day. Jan-Krzysztof Duda GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda started the day off in second place. The Polish hero began his work by beating GM Vishy Anand, the tournament leader, in an uneventful Petroff where the Pole’s tactical alertness earned him a material advantage and a consequent victory. After Anand faltered further down the road, Duda was in the mix of the leaders with Anand and later GM Aronian until the very last round, and despite his lucky last round win against GM Kirill Shevchenko, the Polish #1 was in control most of the time. Keeping his cool and playing good moves throughout the event leave us with a keen interest in his performance at the Candidates where a grueling schedule only favors those who can keep running all the way till the end. ‘That was hard but I did it!’ Poland Rapid and Blitz winner, Jan-Krzysztof Duda | Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Levon Aronian GM Aronian was the dominant player in the blitz portion of Poland Rapid and Blitz. The American started the blitz section four points behind the leader in fifth place. His 7 out 9 performance on day one would have simply been the talk of the day if it weren’t for Caruana’s incredible 8 out of 9. However, Aronian showed that he is a blitz powerhouse by posting another magnificent result going 6.5 out of 9 on the last day. He also proved that he meant what he said in his interview before the event that ‘given his success in the Romania Superbet classic, he intends to make the most out of this event. The last two rounds might have been a bit of a heartbreak for Aronian as he spoiled a piece-up position after Korobov blundered a piece out of the opening, and he also failed to convert his advantage on the clock and on the board against Caruana in the last round. Nevertheless, Aronian’s performance is good enough to move him to the first spot of the Grand Chess Tour standing at the end of the second leg. Highly motivated, the current leader of the tour, and is only .4 Elo shy of GM Hikaru Nakamura on the world blitz rating ranking. GM Levon Aronian | Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Viswanathan Anand Scoring +1 (9.5/18) is definitely not great for the five-time world champion after the kind of standard he had set in the rapid portion. On the last day of the event, Anand began poorly and opened with two losses, against Duda and Korbov, losing his 1.5 points lead in the process. He did some damage control after a draw and win but he again lost a crucial game to Aronian. With 1.5 out of 5 some could have easily gone ahead and written off the ‘Tiger of Madras’. However, Anand once again showed why he has remained a power to reckon with in the chess world even in his 50’s. The Indian legend went on to score a technical win against Rapport, almost beat Caruana (the game ended in a draw), drew Wesley So with ease from the Black side, and won against one of the members of his World Championship matches’ training member, GM Radek Wojtadszek. The even score wasn’t enough to catch up with Duda but a tie for second wasn’t that bad after quite a long break for the celebrated veteran. It is noteworthy to mention that Anand had already played a world championship against legendary World Champion GM Garry Kasparov, and had won the FIDE world championship before either GMs Kirill Shevchenko or David Gavrilescu were born! How does he do it?! GM Viswanathan Anand | Photo: Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Being one of the wildcards, similar to GM Duda, Anand took a lofty number of GP points from the rest of the contenders, along with a check of $27,500. Seeing Anand in action, although happening less often these days, is a feast to remember! Fabiano Caruana Finishing 4th is never an achievement for a World Championship contestant but GM Fabiano Caruana has a couple of things to be happy about. For a long time, Caruana has been considered as someone who does not fare equally well in Rapid and Blitz chess compared to his performance in classical tournaments. At least, the American GM proved that such claims are already long forgotten. After winning two matches in tiebreaks during the American cup, he tied for the first with Aronian in the subsequent blitz event and after a great performance in the blitz portion of this event, he is now #3 in the world in blitz rating,
FFE becomes a member of National Olympic and Sports Committee
Brigitte Henriques, President of the French National Olympic and Sports Committee, and Éloi Relange, President of the FFE On Monday, May 23, 2022, the French National Olympic Committee General Assembly took place in the presence of all the member federations, the president, Madame Brigitte Henriques, and the Minister of Sports and Olympic and Paralympic Games, Amélie Oudéa-Castéra. On this occasion, the president of the FFE, Éloi Relange, officially presented the request for affiliation of his federation to this organization, representing the French sports movement on the national territory and internationally. It rewards a long work of presentation of our discipline to all the actors of the sporting world before this general assembly and announces large-scale changes for its federation, its regional leagues and departmental committees and its clubs. “This additional recognition will allow access to all the sports systems (administrative and financial) which were not open to us until now, structural and logistical aid for our leagues and our committees, numerous training courses for our volunteers, etc.” Éloi Relange said. The French Chess Federation welcomes the trust placed in it by the French Olympic movement and thanks all the clubs and the volunteers who support them for this new collective success for our discipline.