Indian eves crush Georgia to jump into sole lead
Led by Indian ace Koneru Humpy, top-seeded Indian eves won their sixth straight match, defeating former champions Georgia in the sixth round of the 44th chess Olympiad by a score of 3-1 here at the Four Points by Sheraton. The early indications gave an even fight between the two teams, but Vaishali R (pictured above), playing on the third board, proved to be the key factor as she cruised to a fine victory at the expense of experienced International Master Lela Javakhishvili of Georgia. The Berlin Defence of Ruy Lopez has a solid reputation, but on this day, Vaishali was well-prepared to punish it. The symmetrical set-up by the Indian gave her a slight but long-lasting advantage in the middle game, and the Georgian felt the heat as her pieces gasped for breath. Finding some solace in an exchange that cost her two pieces for a rook, Javakhishvili fought on, but Vaishali was relentless and romped home in 36 moves. Grandmaster D Harika played out an easy draw with Nino Batsiashvili on the second board. The mother-to-be Indian kept things under check right from the word go with black pieces, and routine exchange of pieces led to a drawn rook and pawns endgame where neither player had any hesitation in signing the peace treaty. On the top board, Indian ace Koneru Humpy facing Nana Dzagnidze, had things under control, and the consistent threat of pawn promotion from the advanced passer on the queenside forced the Georgian to resign on the move 42. On board four, Tania Sachdev held her forte quite nicely against Salome Melia, and a draw was agreed on the 35th move. This critical match victory will bolster Indian chances as their confidence in the rounds to come. On the second table, Romania held mighty Ukraine to a 2-2 score and remains in the hunt for a podium finish. Irina Bulmaga facing a former women’s world champion GM Mariya Muzychuk played innovative and fearless attacking chess from the get-go. Irina sacrificed an exchange to break through the centre on move 27 and got winning chances in the ensuing ending. Mariya had to summon all her defensive skills to draw the inferior ending. Mihaela Sandu faced the elder of the Muzychuk sisters on the second board. Anna, only the fourth woman in chess history to attain a FIDE rating over 2600, played an aggressive game pushing pawns on the kingside from the white side in a Ruy Lopez and forced resignation before the first time control. Two other games in this tense match were drawn. In a high stake clash, top teams Azerbaijan defeated Kazakhstan thanks to the victories on boards three and four. On the third board, Gulnar Mammodova came out on top against Xeniya Balabayeva in a complex French Defence encounter in which Black had a clearly better position in the middlegame. On the fourth board, Ulviyyan Fataliyeva outwitted Nakhbayeva Guliskhan to hand the match 3-1 to Azerbaijan. With five rounds still to come in the biggest chess extravaganza on the planet India A on 12 match points, has a full point lead over Romania and Azerbaijan, sitting on 11 match points. The battle resumes after the only rest day that will be preceded by the famous Bermuda party for the players and enthusiasts on late Wednesday night. The complete results for Round 6 can be found at the official website for the Olympiad, https://chessolympiad.fide.com/women-results. Standings after Round 6 can be found at https://chessolympiad.fide.com/women-standings. Photo: Photo: Lennart Ootes, Mark Livshitz and Stev Bonhage
Triple-gold Armenia leads the Olympiad halfway through
India’s 16-year-old prodigy Gukesh wins his sixth game in a row Three-time Olympic champions Armenia scored a huge win this afternoon in the 4 Points Sheraton Convention Centre, defeating India B by 2.5-1.5 in a very exciting match. Despite losing on board one – Sargissian was steamrolled by Gukesh – the Armenians were stronger on the lower boards, and GMs Samvel Ter-Sahakyan and Robert Hovhannisyan (pictured below) won their games. Going into the rest day, they are the sole leaders of the open section with a perfect twelve match-point score. However, the man of the day was once again 16-year-old Indian prodigy Gukesh D, who scored his sixth win in a row. The feat is reminding many of us of the brilliant performance of former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik at the 1992 Manila Olympiad. Barely known internationally, Vladimir scored 8.5/9, notching up a 2958 rating performance, and winning the gold medal on board five. Kramnik was only 17 at the time… Of course, both performances are not totally comparable – Gukesh is already a well-known grandmaster and the Olympiad is only halfway – but even so, his performance is already outstanding. The round began with a double-move opening ceremony. The Director of Citi Bank, Mr. Pradeep Sekar opened the Women’s India vs Georgia match while veteran Indian IM K. Murugan – representing NLC – played the ceremonial move on the India B vs Armenia first board. Murugan has been an Olympic team member for India on a few occasions and is highly respected in the national chess community. In addition to the key India B vs Armenia match, all eyes were focused on team India A. Would they be able to keep up the pace of the youngsters, against Uzbekistan, arguably an even younger team? A tough day in the office; a very focused Harikrisna defeated Abdusattorov with Black on board one, when the young Uzbek misplayed a topical Italian opening. On board four, Sasikiran was having trouble facing his young opponent’s attack, and in the end, it came crashing through: Vokhidov Shamsiddin scored a massive win putting the tie on the score boards. On board two Vidit drawed effortlessly but on board three Erigaisi was on the verge of losing. All in all, a lucky save for India A – 2-2 in the end – who now have the same points as India B. Fabiano Caruana went from villain to hero. His clear win this afternoon over Iran’s top player Parham Maghsoodloo – 2.5-1.5 was the final score for USA – leaves the Americans in prime position to continue climbing up the standings ladder. They are now clear second with 11/12 points and things are looking brighter for them every day. Spain – Cuba ended in a 2-2, probably leaving the Spaniards slightly disappointed. Board two and elite player Vallejo Pons was unable to play again due to a slight throat infection: many players are suffering the outside heat combined with the air conditioning inside the playing hall. These results on the top matches have permitted none less than ten teams to tie for third place with 10/12 and although there are still five rounds to go, these teams will clearly be medal contenders. France, the Netherlands, Germany, Serbia, Peru … and the list goes on. The Netherlands are clearly an up and going team. Sporting first board Anish Giri, they seem to be on a roll after their unexpected loss against Israel. First a 4-0 win against Canada and this afternoon they defeated the always dangerous Georgian team by 2.5-1.5 with two wonderful exchange sacrifices on boards one and two. In his short postgame interview with FIDE Press Officer IM Michael Rahal, Giri was kind enough to offer some insight into the game. Check it out to improve your chess skills! Players will enjoy tomorrow’s day off and games will continue on August 5th according to schedule. India A vs India C will be the main dish on the menu although all eyes will be on Armenia vs USA for first place. Armenia (12) – United States of America (11) India A (10) – India C (10) France (10) – Netherlands (10) Serbia (10) – Germany (10) Cuba (10) – India 2 (10) Peru (10) – Uzbekistan (10) Games will begin at 3pm sharp and can be followed live on the tournament website. For a complete list of results, please visit the official website at https://chessolympiad.fide.com/open-results/ Text: IM Michael Rahal, FIDE Press Officer, Chennai Photos: Lennart Ootes, Mark Livshitz and Stev Bonhage
Women in Chess to be celebrated at FIDE’s first Queens Awards
Chennai, India – The International Chess Federation (FIDE) will be hosting its Year of the Woman in Chess Awards on August 5 at 8:00 p.m. as part of the 44th Chess Olympiad in Chennai, India. In January of this year, FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich announced FIDE’s Year of the Woman in Chess. Throughout 2022, FIDE and its member organizations hosted a series of events to support women’s development in all areas of chess. The awards categories reflect this as, outside of the best player award, other awards include outstanding administrator, influencer, arbiter, and even an award to the federation with the most women. FIDE’s Managing Director, Dana Reizniece-Ozola, said the awards present a great opportunity. “These awards allow us to highlight and celebrate the work of women in our international chess community. It sheds light on the great work these women are doing, but the variety of awards also promote other opportunities in chess.” Reizniece-Ozola concluded, “We believe that for true equality, we must have women serving in all aspects of our sport.” The award is one of seven initiatives FIDE decided to invest in throughout 2022 to establish and promote gender equity policies, programs, and practices. Other initiatives for the year include the Queens’ pavilion at the Olympiad, a global exchange forum for women to share ideas to improve the environment for women in chess, and also the expansion of FIDE’s 2021 Queen’s Festival. Federations throughout the international chess community were asked to submit nominees for the Year of Women in Chess. Following nominations, winners were chosen by a committee based on published and weighted criteria for their specific category. The winners have been invited to attend the closing ceremony in Chennai, India. The awards have been provided by Dr Alwahshi Abdullah Salem of the Saudi Arabian Chess Federation, which fielded a women’s team at the Olympiad for the first time. The Year of the Woman in Chess Awards will become a tradition celebrating men’s and women’s contributions to gender equality in chess.
South Korea to bid for FIDE World Cup 2023
In an interview given today, during the 6th round of the Chess Olympiad, Mrs Hyun In Suk, President of the South Korea Chess Federation, and Hando Oh, Vice-President, proudly announced their intention to host the FIDE World Cup in 2023. “We are eager to stage big chess events and to work with FIDE. We planned to bid for the Chess Olympiad 2026, but the Olympiad takes a lot of time to prepare. We didn’t want to wait many years, so we decided that organising the World Cup 2023 worked better for us. We will submit the official bid in September”, said Mrs HyunIn Suk. FIDE’s Director-General Emil Sutovsky accompanied the representatives of the South Korea Chess Federation during the announcement. After explaining that their discussions started long months ago, he expressed his enthusiasm. “This is big news for the chess world because South Korea has never hosted any chess event of this level. This is a competition with more than one hundred countries represented, as well as all the top players. We also expect Magnus Carlsen to participate, because this is the only chess event he hasn’t won. South Korea is one of the major hubs in many industries, like modern technologies, and I believe it could be a breakthrough event. I am delighted that it materialises”. The next edition of the FIDE World Cup is set to take place in the third quarter of 2023.