2022 Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz – Day 1 Recap
A dream come true We’re back in the City of Saint Louis, the chess capital of the United States, for the final two legs of the 2022 Grand Chess Tour hosted at the Saint Louis Chess Club. After more than three weeks of top-level action, we will learn the name of the new Grand Chess Tour champion. The nonstop show kicks off with Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz, three days of rapid followed by two days of blitz. The Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz Opening ceremony was held in the spectacular World Chess Hall of Fame, with Dr. Jeanne Cairns Sinquefield and Rex Sinquefield. Co-founders of the Saint Louis Chess Club, welcoming guests watching from all over the world and declaring the tournament open. Dr. Jeanne Cairns Sinquefield delivering a speech at the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz Opening Ceremony | Photo: GCT/Lennart Ootes Lots were drawn as players picked their numbers for Rapid event, placed on editions of Mind, Art, Experience: 10 Years of Chess & Culture in Saint Louis and also found their numbers for Blitz on 1972 Fischer/Spassky: The Match, Its Origin, and Influence fridge magnets – courtesy of QBoutique at the World Chess Hall of Fame. Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz Opening Ceremony | Photo: GCT/Lennart Ootes Celebrating 50 years from the famous 1972 match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky, this brand new exhibition explores some interesting moments of the Match of the Century. And for the first time ever, we’re opening the Sinquefield Cup Opening Ceremony on September 1 to the public — check out the details here. The field of the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz is star-studded, with hometown grandmaster stars Aronian, Caruana, and Dominguez, along with fellow Americans Nakamura, Shankland and Xiong; complemented by French superstars Firoujza and Vachier-Lagrave, Azeri number one Mamedyarov and World Championship challenger Nepomniachtchi. Things will heat up even more once the Sinquefield Cup starts and the World Champion Magnus Carlsen joins the field. Round 1 The tournament officially began on Friday, August 26, at 1pm Central time. American GM Jeffery Xiong replaced the Hungarian grandmaster Richard Rapport (who had to withdraw due to travel restrictions) at the last minute. Jeffery played confidently against one of the favourites, Ian Nepomniachtchi and the game ended in a draw. Neither Levon Aronian nor Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (MVL) wanted to push their luck at the start, and their game was resolved in a move repetition a while later. Alireza Firouzja outplayed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in a great style, and Leinier Dominguez defeated Hikaru Nakamura. Caruana-Shankland, 118 moves right at the start of the tournament! Photo: GCT/Lennart Ootes And finally, we had a marathon at the start of the day, as Fabiano Caruana was trying to squeeze water out of stone against Sam Shankland. Just when it was about time to claim a draw by the 50-move rule (no pawns moved or pieces captured in the last 50 moves) by the defender, we might’ve had more drama. Caruana overpushed and gave Shankland a chance to play for a win. Suddenly it would be Fabiano having to find only moves to make a draw. But this one stayed behind the curtains as Shankland claimed a draw after some thought. Most of the players were following the end of the game and spent the break between the rounds discussing the ending of the clash between two Americans. Round 2 In terms of decisive results, it seems that we’ll have a strict schedule. Three draws two decisive results. Mamedyarov needed to calm down after a tough loss in the first round, and playing with black Aronian made a draw rather comfortably. There was a bit more excitement in the games of Shankland-Dominguez and Nepomniachtchi-MVL, yet it was soon clear all eyes would be on the two remaining games. Everything went wrong for White in the middlegame in Nakamura-Firouzja, and it seemed as if there was no hope for Nakamura. The American would not give up that easily, though, and managed to find a chance to save the game, only to blunder it away on the next one again. Hikaru was fighting until the end, but too many unforced errors resulted in another painful loss. A rough start for Nakamura | Photo: GCT/Lennart Ootes Nevertheless, the man of the round was Jeffery Xiong. He caught Fabiano Caruana off guard in an English variation sideline and gained a clear edge, with his bishop pair dominating Black’s pieces. He gradually went on to convert his advantage in a nice technical style. Jeffery possibly gave Fabiano one small chance to escape in mutual time trouble later on, as it sometimes happens in fast time controls, but very much keeping control of the game. Jeffery Xiong vs Fabiano Caruana | Photo: GCT/Lennart Ootes Round 3 The tension was growing, and there was no game we could easily name as “balanced” in the final round of the day. There were ups and downs even in the games that ended in a draw. Caruana-Nepomniachtchi was the closest it got. At first, Nepomniachtchi was walking a very thin line, playing fast and loose in an objectively bad position after the opening. The tables turned later, and Nepomniachtchi got chances in the ending, but Caruana escaped with a draw. Jeffery Xiong was extremely close to another upset, this time against Leinier Dominguez, but missed the critical 28…e3! winning move. Rex Sinquefield and local spectators follow the games of round 3 | Photo: GCT/Crystal Fuller Steady pressure eventually paid off to MVL, and it was clearly not Mamedyarov’s day today, who missed a mate in two (albeit in an already desperate position). Lady luck smiled on Hikaru again in the third round of GCT as he scored his first victory in the tournament by winning vs Levon Aronian. Blind spot resulted in Aronian losing to Nakamura in a position that was worse but still solid. Drama of the day | Photo: GCT/Lennart Ootes One could not wish for a more dramatic game to end the day than the Firouzja-Shankland clash. Black seemed to be moving towards victory, gradually outplaying
Women Chess Conference kicks off in Prague
A conference highlighting women and girls in chess took place in Prague, Czech Republic, as part of the 22nd European Women’s Chess Championship and the Year of the Woman in Chess. A two-day-long educational and motivational networking conference for women in chess is aimed to share best practices and introduce successful female chess projects, engage strong female players to promote chess at the local and international level, connect women and discuss their possibilities for mutual cooperation. Among the speakers and invited guests of the event are many female chess role models, including FIDE Managing Director Dana Reizniece-Ozola, Chairperson of the FIDE Commission for Women’s Chess (WOM) Eva Repkova, Reigning European Women Champion Elina Danielian, Vice President of Chess Sports Association Lilli Hahn, and others. “Every chess player knows that in order to have a good game, you have to use all your pieces. The same is in life. To have harmony in any area, you need to use the best out of it, which means you need to use not only men but also women. We are striving to do our best to increase the number of women in all aspects of chess. The quantity is not the quality, but in order to have the quality, you need to have the critical mass. This event is dedicated to exchanging views, experiences, stories, so that we, the leaders of the chess world, would better understand what moves we have to make to empower women, to use their capacity for the diversity and harmony of the chess world,” said FIDE Managing Director Dana Reizniece-Ozola in her opening speech. The conference, open to all ECU federations (representatives, players, officials, etc.) wishing to support and promote women and girls in chess, has started with the presentation of the Year of the Woman in Chess. Chairperson of the FIDE WOM Commission Eva Repkova gave insight on what has been done so far and what is planned to make this year a game-changer year for women. The programme of the Year of the Woman in Chess includes the Queens’ Online Chess Festival, joined by over 1000 female players from 90 countries, Global Women’s Exchange Forums, educational seminars, workshops with female chess role models, and other events. The Queens’ Pavilion was one of the key attractions of the 44th Chess Olympiad in Chennai, India. Vice President of Chess Sports Association Lilli Hahn is a co-author and moderator of the FIDE podcast, one more initiative born under the roof of the Year of the Woman in Chess. She talked about the challenges of female chess coverage, as well as new concepts that can be used to promote women in chess. WFM Denise Trippold made a presentation on the gender gap in chess and its biological, psychological, social and historical factors. “There are two types of gender gaps in chess. The first one is the participation gap; there is only 11 percent of women among all chess players. Another one is the performance gap; at the moment, there is only one woman among the top 100 chess players worldwide. These gaps are connected. You can partly explain the performance gap with the participation gap, and you could also say that because there are less elite women chess players, there are less women chess role models and therefore, there are less women, in general, playing chess,” she said. She was followed by Laura Unuk (pictured above), who gave her insights on why women’s tournaments and women’s titles are needed and what are the expectations of the young generation on women’s chess. “I believe that if 50% of all people playing chess are women, we could be equally strong. But this is not something we can prove yet, as there are much less women playing chess now. Still, with women chess improving, we have these conferences and so many women’s chess tournaments; I hope we will achieve it one day”, she concluded. The full broadcast of the first day of the conference can be found here: https://youtu.be/nSh-ABxPQUo The full broadcast of the second day can be found here: https://youtu.be/9oVCHmuEyF0 Presentations from the conference: Dana Reizniece-Ozola: “Women in Leadership Positions” Denise Trippold: “Gender Gap in Chess: Insights From Science and Experience” Laura Unuk: “Chess Through the Eyes Of the Next Generation“ Jirina Prokopova: “Why You Want to Be an Arbiter“ Regina Theissl Pokorna and Denise Trippold: “Women Chess Initiative “Frauenschach_AUT” in Austria“ Maria Anna Stefanidi: “Project “Caissa” in Cyprus: How to A ract More Girls to Chess“ Lilli Hahn: “Taking the Stage: Innovative Approaches to Report About Women’s Chess” Lilli Hahn: “Best Practice: An Overview of Projects for Females in Chess” Czech Chess Federation: “Developing Women’s Chess in the Czech Republic” Coaching/Managing a Chess Team
2022 FIDE General Assembly: List of decisions
2022 FIDE General Assembly List of decisions August 7-8, 2022 GA-2022/01 To approve Treasurer’s report. GA-2022/02 To approve the Verification Commission’s report GA-2022/03 To discharge the Treasurer from the responsibilities for the financial year 2021 GA-2022/04 To re-appoint Ernst & Young as External Auditor for annual audit of FIDE accounts for 2022. GA-2022/05 To elect three Scrutineers: Mr. George Kweku Arko-Dadzie, Mr. Ragai Al Susi and Ms. N. Rob. GA-2022/06 To note the results of the completed elections in Zones and Continents. GA-2022/07 To note that the ticket B. Kouatly-I.Wilkinson has withdrawn from the FIDE Presidential elections. GA-2022/08 To elect Mr. A. Dvorkovich as FIDE President and Mr. A. Viswanathan as FIDE Deputy President. GA-2022/09 To elect the following as FIDE Vice-Presidents: Sheikh Saud bin Adulaziz Al Mualla (UAE), Ms. Xie Jun (CHN), Mr. Georgios Makropoulos (GRE), Mr. Michael Khodarkovsky (USA) GA-2022/10 To elect the following FIDE President’s nominations: Mr. Mahir Mammedov (AZE) – Vice-President, Mr. Joran Aullin-Jansson (NOR) – Vice-President, Ms. Zhu Chen (QAT) – Treasurer, Mr. Olalekan Adeyemi (NGR) – Vice-President, Mr. Mario Antonio Ramirez Barahas (MEX) – Vice-President/Secretary of the Council GA-2022/11 To elect the following members of the Constitutional Commission: Mr. Daniel Florea (ROU), Ms. Ivy Amoko (UGA). GA-2022/12 To elect the following member of the Ethics and Disciplinary Commission: Mr. Pedro Dominguez (DOM). GA-2022/13 To mandate the FIDE Council to approve the FIDE Budget 2023. GA-2022/14 To approve the update of the Financial Rules regarding tournament fees. GA-2022/15 To approve the Mitropa Chess Association as an affiliated member of FIDE. GA-2022/16 To readmit the ASEAN Chess Association as an affiliated member of FIDE. GA-2022/17 To approve editorial/minor/technical changes in the Laws of Chess. GA-2022/18 To approve the proposal of the English Chess Federation in respect of the proposed change in the FIDE Charter regarding Article 9.4. GA-2022/19 To reject the proposals of the Papua New Guinea Chess Federation in respect of the proposed changes in the FIDE Charter, regarding Associate Member Federations and Membership. GA-2022/20 To approve the Constitutional Commission’s report. GA-2022/21 To award the organization of the Chess Olympiad 2026 to the city of Tashkent, Uzbekistan. GA-2022/22 To note the reports of the Continental Presidents. GA-2022/23 To task the FIDE Council to finalize the issue in respect of the missing FIDE President Mr. Augusto Muro (ARG) for a period 1939-1946. GA-2022/24 To revert the matter in respect of a GM title for Ms. E. Paehtz (GER) to the FIDE Council to seek a systemic solution allowing to resolve such cases. GA-2022/25 To approve the title of Honorary members to Messrs. S. Bouaziz (TUN), J. Vega (GUA), V. Hort (GER), A. Tolentino (PHI), K. Jungwirth (AUT). GA-2022/26 To mandate the FIDE Council to further explore and decide on the matter of non-admission of the Russian and Belarusian teams to FIDE events. GA-2022/27 To approve the usage of a title Vice-President / Secretary of the Council for the respective Member of the Council.
2022 2nd FIDE Council meeting: List of decisions
2022 2nd FIDE Council Meeting List of Decisions August 4, 2022 CM2-2022/01 To note President’s report CM2-2022/02 To note Treasurer’s report CM2-2022/03 To note the Verification Commission’s report CM2-2022/04 To suggest to the General Assembly to authorise newly elected FIDE Council to approve the budget for 2023. CM2-2022/05 To suggest to the General Assembly to approve the Ernst & Young as the FIDE External Auditors for annual audit of FIDE accounts for 2022. CM2-2022/06 To approve amendment to the Financial Rules regarding the tournaments’ fees. CM2-2022/07 To refer the proposal of the English Chess Federation in respect of a proposed change of Article 17.6 of the FIDE Charter to the General Assembly for a final decision. CM2-2022/08 To suggest to the General Assembly to approve the proposal of the English Chess Federation in respect of a proposed change of Article 9.4 of the FIDE Charter. CM2-2022/09 To suggest to the General Assembly to reject the proposal of the Papua New Guinea Chess Federation in respect of the Associate Member Federations. CM2-2022/10 To suggest to the General Assembly to reject the proposal of the Papua New Guinea Chess Federation in respect of the proposed change of Article 9.4. of the FIDE Charter. CM2-2022/11 To note that regarding the proposal of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines that the current text of Article 2.7. of Arbiters-Regulations already allows an unlimited number of norms for World and Continental Championships in Requirements for the title of FIDE Arbiter, however for better understanding a comment in this respect will be included in the Arbiters’ Manual not later than October 1st 2022. CM2-2022/12 To acknowledge the developmental status of the FIDE Arbiter title and modify article 3.11 of the B06.1 of Arbiters – Regulations as follows: “There is no restriction on the number of norms from events of National level presented in an FA application.” CM2-2022/13 To approve the EDC Procedural Rules. To include it in the FIDE Handbook as a new section A.9 (effective from 1 September 2022). CM2-2022/14 To approve the updated Regulations related to Non-Elected Commissions. CM2-2022/15 To approve FIDE Fair Play Rules for Online Competitions with Supervision. CM2-2022/16 To approve Rules related to FIDE Compliant Electronic Chess Equipment. CM2-2022/17 To approve Rules related to Standards of Chess Equipment. CM2-2022/18 To approve Tie Break Regulations coming into effect from July 1st 2023. CM2-2022/19 To approve the Regulations related to Captain and Head of Delegation. To further analyze and discuss the document based on the feedback received during the 2022 FIDE Chess Olympiad. CM2-2022/20 To approve the Appeals Committee Procedural Rules. CM2-2022/21 To note the bid of the Uzbekistan Chess Federation for the 2026 FIDE Chess Olympiad. CM2-2022/22 To note the Constitutional Commission’s report. CM2-2022/23 To note the Arbiters’ Commission’s report. CM2-2022/24 To approve the recommendations of the Arbiters’ Commission on Seminars, Classification upgrades, Amendments to the FIDE lecturer list, FA norms and titles. CM2-2022/25 To approve the recommendations of the Events Commission on titles. CM2-2022/26 To note the Qualification Commission’s report. CM2-2022/27 To approve the recommendations of the Qualification Commission on titles. CM2-2022/28 To instruct QC to additionally discuss and submit to the Council its potential proposals for changes to Title Regulations on general criteria for assigning direct titles. To assign direct titles in Zone 2.3. events. CM2-2022/29 To approve the Rating Regulations for Rapid and Blitz Tournaments coming into force from 1 October 2022. Qualification Commission to propose necessary clarifications not later than 15 September 2022 if needed. CM2-2022/30 To approve the recommendations of the Trainers’ Commission on titles and Academies. CM2-2022/31 To note the Data Protection Committee’s report. CM2-2022/32 To finalize the Athletes’ Commission composition after the General Assembly, not later than by 31 August 2022. CM2-2022/33 To note Continental reports. CM2-2022/34 To suggest to the General Assembly to award the title of FIDE Honorary members to Messrs. S. Bouaziz (TUN), J. Vega (GUA), V. Hort (GER), A. Tolentino (PHI), K. Jungwirth (AUT). CM2-2022/35 To approve the title of Friend of FIDE for H. Herzog (AUT) CM2-2022/36 To approve the Certificate of Merit for Messrs. H. Metzing (GER), Dat Tat Thang (VIE), P. Spiller (NZL). CM2-2022/37 To award Gligoric Award to Jergus Pechac (SLO) and Shaw Jaden (JAM). CM2-2022/38 To approve that the World Cadet U8, U10 and U10 Championships 2022 (Georgia) and World Youth U14, U16 and U18 Championships 2022 (Romania) organizers are entitled to accept individual registrations in exceptional cases, after the registration deadline. In such case the players also may be obliged to play in the mentioned competitions under FIDE flag pending their request. CM2-2022/39 To recommend to the General Assembly to instruct FIDE Management to carry out public consultations regarding the missing FIDE President and to give the right to the FIDE Council to recognize Mr. Augusto Muro (ARG) as FIDE President for a period 1939-1946 if after the three months public consultations the decision proves feasible. CM2-2022/40 To approve that the World Youth Chess Championship 2023 will be organized in Italy. CM2-2022/41 To approve the changes in the regulations of FIDE World Amateur Chess Championships.