Checkmate Coronavirus: Road to Chennai. Vol 2
“The legend Nepo rolled a number, and I didn’t believe it was my ticket. I screamed crazily from joy and called my mother, telling her I won the trip!” The winners of the major prize of FIDE’s Checkmate Coronavirus project are packing their luggage to Chennai. Soon they will visit the Chess Olympiad, a free trip they won from the 2020 pandemic online project – a dream come true. Chess was affected by the pandemic like any other sport, with tournaments postponed or cancelled and clubs temporarily closed. Yet the nature of chess helped players, fans, and enthusiasts of the game to stay active and involved during this crisis, whereas online chess got an unprecedented boost. Checkmate Coronavirus, an online chess marathon launched by FIDE in May 2020, has gathered more than 120,000 participants from at least 140 countries. The weekly project prize draw winners received 1500 prizes, including souvenirs, free master classes, and mini-matches with top grandmasters. But the luckiest ones were the winners of the major prize, also awarded by a draw, so every Checkmate Coronavirus participant had a chance. Six-night trip to Chennai with paid air tickets, full board, and a chance to meet the greatest chess players of our times went to chess amateurs representing Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Brazil, Colombia, Egypt, Greece, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Myanmar, Pakistan, Serbia, South Africa, Spain, Sudan, Sweden and Thailand. We continue to share their stories. Project participant with the playing handle HisEloquency is 25 years old, and he lives in Belgrade. “I’ve been playing chess for as long as I can remember, using made-up rules my cousins came up with. I was properly introduced to the game at around five when my father taught me all the rules, even special ones like en passant, which caused my friends a lot of confusion for many years,” he says. HisEloquency mostly plays online. It used to be difficult for him to find ardent players in his area, so he only played sporadically before discovering lichess.org in 2015/16. They played over a hundred tournaments at the Checkmate Coronavirus project before winning the grand prize. “I saw my username mentioned in the YouTube video after the stream ended. I wanted to congratulate the winners of the major prizes, as many had congratulated me when I had won the mini-match in the first prize draw. I didn’t even consider I would get drawn for a major prize again, so I was very surprised, to say the least. I double, triple and quadruple-checked everything before I started phoning friends and family. It all felt unreal”. HisEloquency is very excited about the Chess Olympiad, as they’ve never attended a chess event remotely close to the scale, and looking forward to meeting great players and fellow chess enthusiasts from around the world. Carlos Gomes is 63 years old and the oldest member of the delegation. Carlos lives in Taguatinga, Brazil, and has been playing chess for 50 years. Carlos is probably the luckiest person on the project because despite playing online chess regularly, he had only played one Checkmate Coronavirus tournament before winning a prize! He did not even watch the prize draw and learned that he had won the main prize from his friend. Carlos has never been to India. However, this won’t be his first chess tournament abroad, as he travelled to Argentina in 1993 for the Latin American Children’s Chess Cup, where his student became the champion. Now Carlos is packing for Chennai to meet the chess elite and enjoy the city. Bakhti Noureddine is 33; he has 20 years of experience in chess. He participated in more than a hundred Checkmate Coronavirus tournaments and won not only an invitation to the Chess Olympiad but also a souvenir. “At the time of the draw of six invitations to the Chess Olympiad, I was at work, so my friend called me and said that I was on the list of winners. I was super happy,” confesses the winner. “I was following the final broadcast of the last big raffle, and the legend Nepo rolled a number, and I didn’t believe it was my ticket which won. I screamed crazily with joy and called my mother, telling her I had won the trip! Was the best news ever,” – says another winner, Morad Anwar from Egypt. “I was playing day and night wishing to collect as many tickets as possible, and I almost didn’t sleep to get more chances for tickets as it was my dream to watch the Olympiad live,” he adds. “I want to explore the city and do some shopping. Visiting the beach and following the olympiad is my very first priority. I want to thank FIDE for this great opportunity and brilliant initiative called “Checkmate Coronavirus”, which was fun and exciting from first to last moment!”
Winners crowned at 2022 Biel Chess Festival
Despite all the turbulence, one constant is certain about the Biel summer: the Biel International Chess Festival opened its doors for the 55th time in an uninterrupted series – the fact that Peter Bohnenblust, president of the organizing committee, proudly highlighted in his opening speech. A popular chess forum running from July 10-22 included several exciting competitions and was financially supported by the City of Biel-Bienne, ACCENTUS, VINETUM, and FIDE Open Aid Project. The Grandmaster Triathlon was a centrepiece of the festival. The 8-player tournament combined three different time formats (blitz, rapid and classic), counting towards the final score. A win in a classical game was worth 4 points, with 1½ points for a draw. In the Rapid (15min+5s) segment, a victory was worth 2 points and a draw 1 point. The blitz (3+2) was played as a double round-robin with 1 point for a win and ½ points for a draw. He couldn’t be sure coming into the final round, but thanks to a draw against his first rival Andrey Esipenko, Lê Quang Liêm secured the title in the Grandmaster Triathlon. The Vietnamese GM, who was convincing throughout the tournament, proved to be the strongest player in classical and rapid chess and maintained his high level in blitz. He deservedly won Triathlon. Andrey Esipenko and India’s Gukesh Dommaraju completed the podium. Despite three wins in a row, Lê Quang Liêm had a tough test in the final round of the classical segment against his main rival Andrey Esipenko with Black. The Vietnamese was in trouble throughout an extremely complex game, but he found his way out to secure a draw and win the tournament. Gukesh D had a promising position with Black against Saleh Salem, but lost control over the proceedings and went down. Still, he retained third place in the final standings as fourth-placed Nodirbek Abdusattorov fell to Gata Kamsky, the Biel 2021 winner, who finished on a high note. Interestingly, the top 3 remained unchanged throughout the tournament, but the order was unclear until the very end. Final standings: Rank Player Classic Rapid Blitz Total 1 Quang Liêm Le 17½ 11 7 35½ 2 Andrey Esipenko 15½ 10 7 32½ 3 Dommaraju Gukesh 15 7 7½ 29½ 4 Nodirbek Abdusattorov 9½ 9 8 26½ 5 Saleh Salem 11 7 8 26 6 Gata Kamsky 14 1 8½ 23½ 7 Arkadij Naiditsch 12½ 6 2 20½ 8 Vincent Keymer 6 5 8 19 As part of the Year of the Women in Chess proclaimed by FIDE, the Ladies ACCENTUS Quadriathlon took place at the Biel Chess Festival with eight invited young talents. The Swiss were ruthless in this last round stealing the show. Zhuang Yongzhe (Switzerland) managed to beat Iris Ciarletta (France) with the black pieces, leapfrogged her opponent and won the event. Another local player, Gohar Tamrazyan, moved up to third place after defeating her compatriot Yulia Avilova, taking advantage of Juliette Cornileau’s loss to Laura Sumarriva. Margaux Moracchini needed a win to share third place but managed only a draw against Cecila Keymer. Final standings: Rank Player Classic Chess960 Rapid Blitz Total 1 Zhuang Yongzhe 19 3½ 10 6½ 39 2 Iris Ciarletta 9½ 5½ 9 12 36 3 Gohar Tamrazyan 19 2½ 8 5½ 35 4 Juliette Cornileau 13½ 5½ 10 5½ 34½ 5 Margaux Moracchini 17½ 1 5 9 32½ 6 Laura Sumarriva Paulin 12½ 3 7 8 30½ 7 Yulia Avilova 3 4 5 7½ 19½ 8 Cecilia Keymer 10 3 2* 2 17 The Master Tournament, a 9-round Swiss event, brought together 114 players and produced a major surprise. In the final round, Kirill Alekseenko playing with the white pieces, got an advantage against the co-leader Mahammad Muradli (Azerbaijan) on table 1 but let it slip away and had to settle for a draw. The two players finished on 7 points out of 9 and tied for first place as the games at tables 2 and 3 were drawn. It was then the Azeri GM who emerged victorious thanks to better tiebreaks. It was a breathtaking performance by Muradli, who, rated just 2523, was only 21st on the starting list, 200 rating points behind the favourites. Out of six chasers who had 6½ points before the final round, Armenia’s Shant Sargsyan claimed third place. The Indian players, who were on the top of the MTO standings for the most part, did not make it to the podium. Visakh, Sethuraman and Mendonca finished fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively. Final standings: 1 Muradli Mahammad AZE 2523 7,0 2 Alekseenko Kirill FID 2708 7,0 3 Sargsyan Shant ARM 2661 6½ 4 Visakh N R IND 2503 6½ 5 Sethuraman S.P. IND 2623 6½ 6 Mendonca Leon Luke IND 2567 6½ 7 Fedoseev Vladimir FID 2686 6½ 8 Martirosyan Haik M. ARM 2672 6½ 9 Aryan Chopra IND 2610 6 10 Motylev Alexander FID 2632 6 The Amateur Tournament (ATO) was dominated by the Indian players. In the final round the leaders Harisurya Bharadwaj overcame Gundepudi Majed Al Helao while Manmay Chopra bested Niels Stijve. The two above-mentioned winners, both Indians, scored an impressive 8/9, with Manmay Chopra coming out on top by dint of better tiebreaks. Al Helaoy (Syria) netted 7 points and took the last place on the podium, finishing a full point behind the winners. Final Ranking ATO: https://chess-results.com/tnr636483.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=9 Text and photos: official website Photos of the Biel International Chess Festival are available here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/143150736@N02/collections/72157720866132786/ Official website: www.bielchessfestival.ch