Romania to stage FIDE World Youth Chess Championships
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FIDE is happy to announce that Romania will host the World Youth Chess Championships U14, U16, and U18 from September 05-17, 2022. The 11-round Swiss System tournaments, organized by International Chess Federation and Romanian Chess Federation together with Chess Club Universul and Chess Club Juniorul Constanta, will be held in Constanta Exhibition Centre. Every National Federation can register one official player in each category (under 14, 16, 18 years old, open and girls). This total of six official players plus one accompanying official (captain/trainer with a valid FIDE Trainer license) from the national federation are invited by the Organizers. The top 3 finishers in the previous U14, U16, and U18 World Youth Championships, and the respective Champions of the last Continental Youth Championships, shall have the personal right to participate in the World Youth Championships of the corresponding age category or a higher age category if the age requirement is met. Such players shall also be classified as Official Players and have to be registered by the national federation. Time control: 90 minutes for each player plus a 30-second increment per move starting from move one. Each player (official or additional) and each accompanying person/official must pay the Organizers the amount of €100 at the moment of their registration running up to July 20, 2022. This registration fee is compulsory and serves as a confirmation of participation; otherwise, registration will be invalid and will not be accepted. Entries must be submitted through the registration form by July 20, 2022. After this date, organizers reserve the right to refuse or decline late registrations or, if there is the availability of a spot, to charge a penalty of €80 for each late registration. Only member Federations of FIDE (not suspended, not in arrears) are entitled to submit registration forms. For more information, see the Regulations for World Youth Chess Championships (pdf)
Malta to host FIDE World Amateur Chess Championships
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FIDE has announced the World Amateur Championships 2022 to be held in Malta from October 20-30 in the 4-star conference hotel “Paradise Bay Resort”. It will be one more major international event hosted by Malta recently, after the successful European Small Nations Team Championship in December 2021. In total, six championship titles in three categories of the World Amateur Championships will be awarded (categories for FIDE ratings under 2300, under 2000 and under 1700): Open & Women u-1700, Open & Women u-2000, Open & Women u-2300. With the cooperation of FIDE, the Malta Chess Federation and the appointed organiser, the event (initially planned for April 2021) has overcome all the obstacles of the Covid-19 crisis. The prize fund has also been increased to €15,000 – from €10,000 last year. The deadline for registration is September 5, 2022. For full details of the event’s regulations, including registration procedure, participation costs, detailed prize fund and travel instructions, download the official information package from the FIDE calendar at https://fide.com/calendar/51221. The tournament’s website will also be launched soon. For direct enquiries, you can also contact the Organising Committee by sending your messages to: malta2022@chess.travel. See you in sunny Malta!
2022 Candidates, Round 9: Firouzja, Radjabov and Ding score first victories
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Tournament leader Ian Nepomniachtchi drew with direct challenger for first place Fabiano Caruana, while all three other games ended with a decisive result Ian Nepomniachtchi remains in the lead on 6.5/9, a full point ahead of Fabiano Caruana. A step behind, on 4.5, is Hikaru Nakamura joined by Ding Liren, who gradually made progress and has now scored his first win, having had a very poor start to the tournament. Following their first victories in the tournament, Teimour Radjabov and Alireza Firouzja are on four points, where they join Richard Rapport, who lost today. On three points out of nine, Jan-Krzysztof Duda is alone on the bottom of the board. It was a day of big upsets, and decisive outcomes in Madrid as three out of four ended with a victory, while there was just one draw. The derby of the round was between Fabiano Caruana, who had to win against tournament leader Ian Nepomniachtchi if he wanted to equalise for first place. The two drew their first game in Round 2. Following a difficult day in Round 8, where he lost after seven hours of play, Caruana had a challenging task as White in today’s game. The American came out with excellent home preparation in the Petrov and got an edge straight out of the opening. However, Nepomniachtchi managed to overcome the complications, showing resourcefulness in defence and equalising with a sequence of only moves as Caruana lacked precision in keeping things tense. A draw was obviously a satisfactory result for the leader of the event and somewhat a disappointment for Caruana. This game was a direct duel for first place. With this draw, Nepomniachtchi secured that he enters the remaining stage of the tournament with a full point ahead of his runner-up Caruana, his most serious contender for winning the Candidates. The events of the day also played into Nepomniachtchi’s hand as the only two other players who stood reasonable chances of making their way to the top – Hikaru Nakamura and Richard Rapport – lost their games. With a day of rest ahead, Nepomniachtchi is in a very comfortable position. Richard Rapport lost as Black to Alireza Firouzja in what was the first win for the youngest player of the event. In the Berlin defence, White captured the initiative early on. While Firouzja didn’t play in the most precise way and even allowed Black chances to turn the tables, in the critical moment of the game, Rapport made an error after which he could no longer recover. With a weak pawn structure, exposed king in the centre and undeveloped rook on h8, Rapport stood no chance to defend from Firouzja’s attack, and he resigned after 41 moves. Rapport is again back in the red, while Firouzja has finally broken the spell and scored his first victory in his first Candidates ever. The 19-year-old’s biggest challenge is fighting his own nerves. With this victory, Firouzja has shown that he has the strength to pull through difficult times. This will hopefully help boost his confidence and stability. Teimour Radjabov also has reasons to celebrate as he scored not only his first victory in this tournament but a first win since 2019. Playing with white pieces, he surprised Hikaru Nakamura in the Berlin and gained initiative early in the game. Nakamura offered a repetition of moves twice, but Radjabov refused. This was already an early sign of things to come. The position transpired to an endgame where White had two unopposed runners on the queenside. Nakamura tried to create some complications but without any success. Radjabov’s last victory was on 2nd October 2019, in the World Cup against Ding Liren. Today’s success is a great boost for his self-confidence and, hopefully, an opener for his creativity and innate dynamism, which, blended with his newfound solidity, make him an extremely difficult opponent to face, regardless of where he is on the scoreboard. After this defeat, Nakamura is back to 50 percent, a point behind Caruana and two points behind Nepomniachtchi. Had the game gone a different way and Black ended up winning, Nakamura would be sharing second place. It will be interesting to see how and if Nakamura recovers. The last game of the day to finish was between Ding Liren and Jan-Krzysztof Duda. Following an even position in the neo-Catalan, White transpired into a slightly better endgame in which Duda did not demonstrate necessary accuracy. Ding managed to preserve his a-passer, which eventually decided the game. To make things worse for Duda, White put his rook on c7, threatening to take the pawn on f7 and completely cut off black’s king while assisting the advance of his a-runner. Duda was struggling, but Ding was confident and, in the end, got his king to help provide support for the pawn on the a-file. With all options exhausted, Black accepted defeat after more than five hours of play. Duda has clearly crashed and seems he cannot recover from the defeat in round six to Nepomniachtchi. In the last four games, he won just half a point. Ding, on the other hand – finally won a game and did so in a convincing fashion. With 4.5/9, he is now in the middle on 50 percent, the same as Nakamura. While it is unlikely he will manage to achieve much in this tournament, this victory could help Ding get back into his element and score some more points in the remaining five rounds. Here follows a closer look at the games from round nine of the Candidates. Alireza Firouzja vs Richard Rapport: The spell is broken Rapport tested the Berlin defence against Firouzja and as early as move five Alireza started spending considerable time – an ominous sign based on the previous games. However, after 5.0-0 Black responded by putting a knight on d4 and going for the exchange and soon after, the position was even. Despite burning time on the clock, Firouzja was happy with the outcome of the opening. ‘I was