Winners crowned at 44th Chennai Chess Olympiad
FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich hands over the Olympic flag to the president of the Hungarian Chess Federation The closing ceremony for the 44th Chennai Chess Olympiad took place at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium yesterday evening, with the presence of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K Stalin along with FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich, Deputy President and GM Viswanathan Anand, among other authorities. During the action-packed evening, the authorities awarded medals and other prizes to all winners. Chief Minister M.K. Stalin presented the medals to the winners in the open category – Gold for Ukraine – while FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich handed over the open section winner’s trophy to GM Ivan Sokolov, outstanding coach and captain of the young Uzbekistan squad. In between awards, special performers included a “dance-drama” on the evolution of sports in Tamil Nadu. Dances included “jallikattu – kannamoochi” (hide and seek), “udal vithai vilaiyattu” (gymnastics), “kabaddi”, and sathurangam (chess) The audience was also delighted to see the V. Unbeatable dance group, famous for winning the 2020 “America’s Got Talent” show. Many other great performances enlivened the evening. At the end of the four-hour, full of entertainment, FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich closed the 44th Olympiad, and the Olympic flag was handed over to Laszlo Szabo, president of the Hungarian Chess Federation – Budapest will host the 45th Chess Olympiad. Individual board medals Although the chess Olympiad is essentially a team event, board prizes were awarded for the best performances on each individual board. In order to qualify for a medal, players had to have completed at least eight of the eleven games. Nonetheless, many of the players went the full distance. The immense majority of the players attended the ceremony and received their awards: however, the absence of the World Champion didn’t go unnoticed. There was a huge round of applause when siblings Praggnanandhaa, R and Vaishali, R shared the podium for bronze on board three. Standings: Gold – Silver – Bronze Board 1 Open Section: GM Gukesh, D – GM Abdusattorov, N – GM Carlsen, M Board 1 Women Section: GM Cramling, P – Roebers, E – GM Abdumalik, Z Board 2 Open Section: GM Sarin, N – GM Theodorou, N – GM Yakubboev, N Board 2 Women Section: GM Batsiashvili, N – GM Muzychuk, A – WGM Balajayeva, K Board 3 Open Section: GM Howell, D – GM Erigaisi, A – GM Praggnanandhaa, R Board 3 Women Section: WIM Kiolbasa, O – GM Ushenina, A – IM Vaishali, R Board 4 Open Section: GM Vakhidov, J – GM Pultinevicius, P – GM Santos Latasa, J Board 4 Women Section: WCM Mungunzul, B – FM Malicka, M – IM Tania, S Board 5 Open Section: GM Bartel, M – GM Hovhannisyan, R – GM Onyshchuk, V Board 5 Women Section: WGM Schneider, J – WGM Fataliyeva, U – WGM Divya, D Category prizes In the Olympiad, teams are distributed into five categories according to strength, and category or section medals are awarded for the best scores. For most countries, these medals are an opportunity to validate their chess improvement. In the open section Uzbekistan (overall winner) won the gold medal for category A, Moldova won category B, Tunisia category C, Libya category D and Maldives category E. In the women’s section Ukraine (overall winner) won the gold medal for category A, Lithuania won category B, Albania category C, Kenya category D and Eswatini category E. The Gaprindashvili Cup During her career, fifth women’s world chess champion Nona Gaprindashvili, who was also the first woman ever to be awarded the FIDE title Grandmaster in 1978, successfully competed in men’s tournaments, winning, amongst others, the Hastings Challengers tournament in 1963/4. The Cup named after her awards the combined supremacy of a team in both sections. Three teams tied in this endeavour – India, USA and India B – but the Cup went to India on a superior tiebreak. Grand Master title norms Many players fight for Olympiad title norms because a nine-to-eleven-round norm can be extremely useful to complete a Grand Master (GM) title. The requirements were – unofficially – achieved by the following players: Dragos Ceres, Viktor Gazik, Conor Murphy, Raja Panjwani, Fy Antenaina Rakotomaharo, Ivan Schitco, Alisher Suleymenov, Jingyao Tin. Additionally, Women Grand Master title norms (WGM) were unofficially completed by Bat-Erdene Mungunzul and Turmunkh Munkhzul, both from Mongolia. Complete final standings, including team and individual performances, can be found at the official website for the Olympiad:https://chessolympiad.fide.com/open-standings. Complete results for round 11 can be found at the official website for the Olympiad, https://chessolympiad.fide.com/open-results. For any other information, please visit the tournament website, http://chessolympiad.fide.com. Text: IM Michael Rahal, FIDE Press Officer, Chennai Photos: Lennart Ootes, Mark Livshitz and Stev Bonhage
Mikheil Chkhenkeli granted an honorary award by FIDE
The Minister of Education and Science of Georgia Dr. Mikheil Chkhenkeli was granted an honorary award by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) for his special commitment to promoting Chess in schools. The Award Ceremony was held in Chennai, India, in the framework of the 44th Chess Olympiad. The award was presented to the Minister by FIDE Deputy-President, the Chess Grandmaster and five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand. Dr. Mikheil Chkhenkeli addressed the audience and thanked the world chess community for the presented Award. This was Mikheil Chkhenkeli’s speech: “Chess, with its rich history, has been serving people’s intellectual development for centuries. It is important that this large-scale and unique tournament, the 44th Chess Olympiad, hosts representatives from many countries from all over the world, embracing many cultures and traditions united by the love towards chess. Chess has a centuries-long history in my country as well and has been documented in Georgian literature, poetry, and historical sources. Georgian women chess players have been especially successful worldwide, the most prominent of them are the world acclaimed Nona Gaprindashvili – a five-time world champion and the first woman in chess history to earn the grandmaster title among men- and Maia Chiburdanidze, Georgian chess grandmaster and a five-time world champion. We all agree that we live in the age of technological advancements. Therefore, it is vital to raise a generation equipped, from the very early stage of life, with the skills necessary to keep up with the ongoing progress in the modern world. Chess helps students to develop complex skills. Among them are – concentration, memory, logical and critical thinking. It helps to establish value judgments, make decisions and solve problems with creativity. Chess is indeed a very effective educational tool. It is also related to the competencies defined by mathematics and other subject standards. With this in mind, the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia made an important decision to introduce chess as a mandatory subject for first-grade students from the 2022-2023 academic year. It has to be noted that our decision aligns with the requirement envisaged by the Declaration of the European Parliament of March 15, 2012, on the introduction of chess in Education systems. Currently, the Ministry is carrying out intensive teacher training in cooperation with the Georgian Chess Federation. I’m deeply honored by the award for the commitment to promoting and developing Chess in schools granted by the International Chess Federation (FIDE). This is the recognition I highly value and cherish. I’m happy to have contributed to the development of children by supporting chess education in schools from an early age”. According to the decision of the Minister of Education and Science of Georgia, Mikheil Chkhenkeli, students will learn chess as a mandatory subject in the first grade from September 2022-2023.