2022 African Chess Championship: Bassem Amin and Shahenda Wafa claim titles
Egyptian players dominated the 2022 African Individual Chess Championship winning gold in both open and women’s sections. The competition took place in Lagos, the largest city in Nigeria, from September 18-27 and brought together 93 participants from 27 African countries. Both championships were 9-round Swiss tournaments with classical time control. FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich opened the 2022 African Individual championship and made the first ceremonial move in the competition. The open event turned into an exciting race of two rating favourites and compatriots, GMs Bassem Amin (pictured below) and Ahmed Adly, who were in the lead from start to finish. Coming into the final round a half-point ahead of Amin, Aldy managed only a draw against Dante Beukes. His main competitor jumped on the opportunity and caught up with Aldy after defeating Kenny Solomon. Photo by Madelene Belinki Just like a year before, the two Egyptian GMs tied for first place with an excellent score of 8/9, but this time around, the tiebreaks (rating average of the opponents) favoured Bassem Amin, who won his sixth title of African champion. Another Egyptian GM, Hesham Abdelrahman, finished third. Final standings Open: 1 GM Amin Bassem EGY 2663 8 2 GM Adly Ahmed EGY 2578 8 3 GM Hesham Abdelrahman EGY 2374 7 4 IM Silva David ANG 2315 6 5 IM Rakotomaharo Fy Antenaina MAD 2492 6 6 IM Ortega Amarelle Mariano CPV 2474 6 7 IM Beukes Dante M NAM 2295 6 8 FM Adebayo Adegboyega Joel NGR 2267 6 9 Eyetonghan Denyefa Callistus NGR 2079 5½ 10 IM Okeke Isaac Chukwudalu NGR 2180 5½ In the women’s section, the top-seed Shahenda Wafa (pictured below) of Egypt lived up to the expectations and took gold after netting 7/9. The champion finished a half-point ahead of Charlize Van Zyl (South African Republic) and Bridget Michael (Nigeria), who scored critical final-round victories and tied for second place on 6.5/9. The silver medal goes to Charlize by dint of the higher rating average of her opponents. Photo by Lennart Ootes Final standings Women: 1 WGM Wafa Shahenda EGY 2110 7 2 WIM Van Zyl Charlize RSA 1710 6½ 3 Michael Bridget NGR 1800 6½ 4 WFM Luzia Pires ANG 1839 6 5 WCM Ampaire Shakira UGA 1657 5½ 6 Onoja Iyefu Joy NGR 1762 5½ 7 Paulo Jemima ANG 1886 5½ 8 Ofowino Toritsemuwa NGR 1857 5½ 9 WFM Oloruntola Oluwatobiloba NGR 1918 5½ 10 WFM Mbatha Constance ZAM 1613 5
Huge excitement in Astana WGP
Kateryna Lagno leads the tournament with one round to go The tenth round of the Astana Women’s Grand Prix started off with two very quick draws by three-fold repetition. One of them seemed like an intelligent strategic decision by Kateryna Lagno in an effort to retain her top position in the standings and pile the pressure on her main rival, Aleksandra Goryachkina. With one round to go, Kateryna Lagno leads with 7½/10, Aleksandra Goryachkina is second with 7, and Zhu Jiner is third, sitting on 6 points. Tomorrow’s round will start at 1 pm instead of 3 pm and features several interesting match-ups. Kosteniuk vs Lagno and Vaishali vs Goryachkina will be the two main games of the day in the fight for clear first, while Zhu Jiner will be playing with White for second place and possibly a GM norm. Lagno, Kateryna — Abdumalik, Zhansaya (0.5-0.5) The round had practically just begun, and the first game ended in a draw. Playing with Black, Zhansaya Abdumalik, who already made a quick draw against Goryachkina yesterday, proposed the Zaitsev system in the closed Ruy Lopez. Half a point ahead of her rivals in the standings, Kateryna Lagno probably thought it was a good idea to go for a well-known theoretical move repetition, forcing a draw and extending her lead to a full point with a round to go. As a side note, the clocks showed 1:32,59 for Lagno and 1:34,18 for Abdumalik – players start with 1:30,30 with a 30-second increment. Shuvalova, Polina — Vaishali, Rameshbabu (0.5-0.5) The second game to finish in a draw was also a quick one. Saved by the bell and arriving just on time to the venue, Polina Shuvalova went for a side-line against Vaishali’s Sicilian Sveshnikov, which leads to a forced perpetual check for Black. Both players blitzed out their moves, which makes me think that they were content with the decision, making a draw in less than twenty moves. Goryachkina, Aleksandra — Kosteniuk, Alexandra (0.5-0.5) Undoubtedly the most important game of the round. Pressured from the start by Lagno’s draw, Goryachkina, who turns 24 today, needed a win to tie for first and go into the last round with options to win the tournament. According to my database, previous encounters between both of them produced a head-to-head record of 9-7 for Kosteniuk, although a few of the games were played when Goryachkina was still a junior. Nonetheless, Kosteniuk eliminated Goryachkina in the 2021 World Cup final last year, a huge result for her. Kosteniuk went for the very solid Slav Defence main line and, slightly surprised, Goryachkina spent 8 minutes and chose the side-line 12.e5 – there are several more popular options such as 12.Bf4 or 12.Rd1. The second key moment of the game occurred on the move fourteen when Goryachkina refrained from exchanging bishops on g6, weakening Black’s kingside. Kosteniuk seized her chance, exchanged most of the pieces on the c1 square and headed for an equal queen + knight ending in which both players agreed on a draw by three-fold repetition on the move thirty. Alexandra Kosteniuk gave us her thoughts on the game in a short interview. Kashlinskaya, Alina — Zhu, Jiner (0-1) Poland’s number one female player Alina Kashlinskaya started off the Grand Prix in great shape, but she has been struggling to find her form in the last few rounds. According to my database, she had played twice against Zhu Jiner previously, a draw in the Chinese Team Championship in 2017 and a loss last year in the 2021 Grand Swiss. In today’s game, by move transposition, the position resembled a classical isolated d-pawn structure. While Zhu Jiner was preparing to blockade the d5 square and finish her development, Kashlinskaya uncorked a seemingly promising bishop sacrifice, destroying the kingside of her opponent. She followed it up with a clean rook sacrifice that couldn’t be accepted because of mating threats. However, as Zhu Jiner explained in her post-game interview, she had it under control: although she was slightly worried, she didn’t think it was correct. The continuation of the game proved her point. With precise 17…Qf4! the Chinese player cold-bloodedly repelled White’s threats and forced Kashlinskaya’s resignation on move 24. Assaubayeva, Bibisara — Paehtz, Elisabeth (0-1) Although German’s number one female player hasn’t been in top form in Astana, she played a very nice positional game in the Carlsbad structure today with Black against Bibisara Assaubayeva. Her plan based on 26…b5 followed up by the kingside attack worked perfectly and netted her the full point in a key moment of the tournament. In her post-game interview, Paehtz reflected on her opponent’s playing style and experience when deciding her game strategy. She also discussed some of the issues that top women players have faced since the end of the pandemic. Tan Zhongyi — Wagner, Dinara (1-0) With her third win in the last four games, Tan Zhongyi made a huge step today to fight for fifth place in the tournament. Playing fast and confidently, she prevailed over Dinara Wagner in a masterfully played two bishops against a two-knight endgame. In fact, as FIDE’s General Director GM Emil Sutovsky shared on Twitter, the ending has a striking similarity to game 23 of the 1951 Botvinnik vs Bronstein World Championship Match. In her post-game interview, Tan Zhongyi discussed with Press Officer IM Michael Rahal her style of play and handling of the clock. Round 11 (final round) | Astana | 29.09.2022 Wagner, Dinara — Shuvalova, Polina Paehtz, Elisabeth — Tan, Zhongyi Zhu, Jiner — Assaubayeva, Bibisara Abdumalik, Zhansaya — Kashlinskaya, Alina Kosteniuk, Alexandra — Lagno, Kateryna Vaishali, Rameshbabu — Goryachkina, Aleksandra Text and interviews: IM Michael Rahal, FIDE Press Officer, Astana Photos: Anna Shtourman
FIDE’s statement on sexist remarks
During yesterday’s Women’s Grand Prix live broadcast, one of the announcers expressed some very embarrassing comments. Although we have great respect for Grandmaster Ilya Smirin as a chess player, the views he expressed on air are completely unacceptable, offensive, and do not represent any of the values that FIDE stands for. Therefore, we unreservedly apologise to all those who were offended. Additionally, GM Smirin will not continue as a FIDE commentator with immediate effect. FIDE not only strives to increase women’s representation in professional sports and official positions but also to change the perception of chess as purely a men’s world. Our community has to be a place where women feel safe and respected. Therefore, any action that carries disrespect, sexism or physical, verbal or emotional assault is unacceptable.
FIDE Chessable Academy resumes in October
FIDE Chessable Academy will resume in October 2022 after taking a break for the FIDE World Chess Olympiad held in Chennai, India. This grassroots and young talent development program is now in its second year, with 336 students between the ages of 8 to 16 from 72 National Chess Federations returning for the final two months of lessons this year. Classes are conducted online on Chessable Classroom, every weekend, and each lesson is two hours where students are divided into ten groups in three time zones, New York, Berlin, and Moscow, and held in English, Spanish and Russian, accommodating all levels of students right up to Grandmaster level. Lecturers for this last semester in 2022 are leading trainers Ramesh RB, Igor Stohl, Alexey Kuzmin, Farrukh Amonatov, Melikset Khachiyan, Mikhail Kobalia, Alonso Zapata, Bernal Gonzales and Michael Oratovsky. The program is developed and administered by FIDE Trainers Commission with sponsorship from Chessable.