World Rapid & Blitz: Gunina leads among Women as four players share first place in the Open
The first day of the World Rapid chess championship ended with four leaders in the Open section and Valentina Gunina leading alone in the Women’s tournament The World Rapid Chess Championship kicked off in Almaty today at 3 PM local time. As in other significant events, the first moves in Round One were ceremonially made by the FIDE President and dignitaries. Joining FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich among the top boards were Kazakhstan’s Minister of Culture and Sports Dauren Abayev, the Akim (mayor) of Almaty Erbolat Dosaev and Sergey Lukyanov, Chairman of the Management Board of Freedom Finance, General partner of the event. The first day saw five rounds in the open section and four in the women’s tournament. The Open Rapid Reigning World Champion in classical chess, Magnus Carlsen leads the pack of four players who finished the day on top with 4,5 points out of five games. Joining him are Vladimir Fedoseev, Arjun Erigaisi and Jorden Van Foreest. Just half a point behind is a big group of ten players, which includes Anish Giri, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, as well as the two-time winner of the Candidates Ian Nepomniachtchi and the defending World Champion in rapid, Nodirbek Abdusattorov. The most notable clash of the day in the Open section was in Round Four when two world champions: Carlsen (in classical chess) and Abdusattorov (in rapid) faced one another. After playing 1.b3 – in an opening popularised by the legendary Bent Larsen, the game transposed into a hedgehog formation. Carlsen took the initiative early on with the move 14.g4! (the idea introduced by Robert Fischer) forcing Black to gradually retreat until his kingside defence caved in. Asked if this was “sweet revenge” for the upset Abdusattorov staged in the World Rapid in 2021 by beating Carlsen and eventually taking the crown, and, also for managing to hold him to a draw when both were on five points in the World Blitz Championship in Moscow in 2018, the Norwegian coolly replied: “It’s never a revenge, but it was a good win”, with a cheeky smile on his face. The first day of the Rapid in Almaty was summarized succinctly by Carlsen: “I had three games as Black today so, overall, I’m very happy.” Along with Carlsen, Vladimir Fedoseev, Jorden Van Foreest, and Indian champion Arjun Erigaisi are also having a great start to the tournament and are sharing first place with Carlsen. Fedoseev began with three wins, then tied with Nihal Sarin. However, he finished the day strong and won as Black against the native player Arystanbek Urazayev in the fifth round. After each scoring four victories, Van Foreest and Erigaisi dropped half a point in the last round of the day. Van Foreest tied with the Polish superstar Jan-Krzysztof Duda in a game in which the Dutchman was significantly better on time but couldn’t do much on the board. The 19-year-old Erigaisi managed to win a pawn against Carlsen after the opening, but he couldn’t find a hole in the world champion’s defences in the later part of the game. In Round 6 Magnus Carlsen will be playing as White against Van Foreest, while Vladimir Fedoseev will be looking to capitalize on the first-move advantage against Arjun Erigaisi. The Women’s Rapid In the Women’s division, where four rounds were played on day one, three-time Women’s European Champion Valentina Gunina sits alone in first place with a perfect score of 4/4. She established dominance over Nino Batsiashvili in Round Four and swiftly pushed her to resign. The group of six players who are half a point behind Gunina is led by the previous Women’s World Champion Tan Zhongyi, who just won Pool B of the Women’s Candidates. Joining her are Leya Garifullina, Humpy Koneru, Elina Danielian and Gunay Mammadzada. The 2021 Women’s World Rapid champion Alexandra Kosteniuk is in the third tier, in a group of 15 players on three points. A big surprise on the first day of the rapid was 18-year-old WIM Zeinep Sultanbek of Kazakhstan. Rated only 1834, she has performed as 2522 in the first four rounds, beating WGMs Balajayeva, Shuvalova, and Sachdev and losing only to Danielian. Another young Kazakh player to keep an eye on! Despite playing in her native country, the 2021 silver medallist in Rapid, Bibisara Assaubayeva, is having a difficult time, with two draws, one victory and one defeat after the first four rounds. Round Five of the Women’s Rapid will see Valentina Gunina trying to hold on to her leading position in the tournament facing non-other than former Women’s World Champion Tan Zhongyi. The games on the second day of the World Rapid Chess Championships will start at 3 PM local time. The organization of the event and support The World Rapid and Blitz championships are held by the Kazakhstan Chess Federation together with the International Chess Federation and with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, as well as the Akimat of the city of Almaty. The event is made possible thanks to the agreement with Freedom Finance, which becomes a General Sponsor of the event. Freedom Broker is an investment company and a stockbroker. Provides access to NYSE, NASDAQ, LSE, HKEX and other largest stock exchanges on the planet. Text: Milan Dinic Photo: Lennart Ootes and Anna Shtourman Official website: worldrapidandblitz2022.fide.com/ ORGANIZERS: GENERAL PARTNER: PARTNERS:
Carlsen on ambitions in Almaty and the greatest lesson learnt from chess
In the first press conference of the World Rapid and Blitz, World Champion Magnus Carlsen and FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich answered a broad set of questions from the media The first press conference of the World Rapid and Blitz chess championships was held on 26th December at the Almaty telecentre, the official communications centre of the government of Kazakhstan. The conference was attended by national and international media. Present at the conference were Magnus Carlsen, five-time World Chess Champion, Arkady Dvorkovich, FIDE President, Dauren Abaev, Minister of Culture and Sports of Kazakhstan, Galim Khusainov, President of the Kazakhstan Chess Federation, Darmen Sadvakasov, Vice-President of the Kazakhstan Chess Federation, as well as Sergey Lukyanov, Chairman of the Management Board of Freedom Finance, main sponsor of the event. Almost all of the questions were directed at Magnus Carlsen, five-time World Chess Champion. Carlsen first complimented the organisers on the opening ceremony: “It was a good ceremony with a nice and clear message – welcome to Kazakhstan. Not only me but a lot of people felt welcomed.” Here are the key quotes from Carlsen’s responses. On his ambitions in Almaty Magnus Carlsen was asked whether the fact that this is the last time he is appearing in the World Rapid and Blitz as the world champion in classical chess has any impact on how he approaches this event. “These championships have been very important for me for a decade, and they will continue to be an event to enjoy and covering for. I am always on the hunt for more titles and wins, and that will not change in the future regardless of the classical championship.” On playing Hans Niemann Carlsen was also asked if he would play against Hans Niemann if the two were paired. “I don’t have an answer. I understand it’s a question that people want an answer to, but I hope you can understand I can’t answer it.” On the role of chess in improving mental health Speaking about the recent rise in the popularity of chess, Carlsen noted the impact the coronavirus pandemic has had on forcing people to stay indoors, but he also pointed to the rising awareness of mental health and the role chess can play in improving it: “Across many societies, there’s an emphasis on having not only a healthy body and a healthy mind and chess is quite suitable.” Carlsen was asked if chess players work with mental coaches. “I never felt the need. I feel like I usually understand the reasons for my successes and failures. I haven’t felt the need to speak to professionals. I have people in my life I can talk to about these matters”, said Carlsen. “People who work with me work hard so I can work less and focus more on the games. I think about chess all the time – I visualise the games and think about the ways I can improve. There is not a lot of deliberate practice or something that people perceive as work. I never wanted a classic nine-to-five job, and I don’t think I can ever treat chess as this… I think my way goes to show that there are several ways to obtain a goal.” On the biggest lesson chess taught him The world champion was also asked what the biggest lesson chess is has taught him. “Chess has taught me that spending a lot of time on chess will make you good at it. Everything is not necessarily transferable. The most helpful thing I learnt from chess is to make good decisions on incomplete data in a limited amount of time.” On Kazakh chess players There have been many good Kazakhstani players of the past, Carlsen noted. “One of the early good victories was against Evgeniy Vladimirov, who was a very strong player in the 1980s and 1990s and notable as Kasparov’s coach… Zhansaya Abdumalik is one of the best female players in the world. There are some strong young players. For now, there has been more success for Uzbekistan, your neighbours, but I’m sure that’s motivating for the youngsters here.” On shogi and other board games “I am fascinated by other board games, especially the Japanese game shogi. As for go, I don’t know much about the game. I understand that it’s insanely complex. It’s more of a pure game than chess because the rules are simple and clear, and yet the game itself is so complicated. I’m used to playing chess, so I feel that it is more interesting because the pieces have different qualities. Chess has been around for a long time, and it’s still far from being figured out by us humans. It’s a wonderful game”. How to become world champion? The final question of the press conference was asked by a four-year-old. As usual, kids at that age ask questions which sound so simple but are very difficult. The question: How to become a world champion? Carlsen’s response? “Very easy, you just have to defeat the previous world champion!” Arkady Dvorkovich: A new era for chess Other questions at the press conference were directed at FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich. Dvorkovich praised Kazakhstan as the hosts and noted that FIDE “are always happy to come back” to this country. “Kazakhstan chess federation is well positioned to host FIDE events. We rely on the continuous support of the government and the Kazakhstan Chess Federation”, said Dvorkovich. Summarising the year behind, Dvorkovich noted that it was “one of the toughest and one of the most successful years for FIDE”. “Interest in chess is growing online and over the board. We contributed to that by doing our best. It was unfortunate that we had to shift the Olympiad, but we were able to do it, and we had a record number of participants in Chennai. We also held more than ten official FIDE championships postponed due to the pandemic. Chess is back on track both online and over the board.” Dvorkovich also announced more projects focused on schools