The first Bahrain Chess Championship runs big
The first Bahrain Chess Championship took place in 2023 and was a great success. The event brought together Bahraini chess players from all over the country, and offered a great opportunity for the community to come together and enjoy the game. The future of the Bahrain Chess Championship looks bright, and the local chess community is looking forward to next year’s edition. With the support of HH Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Bahraini Chess Federation will continue to grow and bring out the best from Bahrain’s vast pool of talent. The team of organizers is committed to creating a vibrant and friendly atmosphere for all participants so that everyone can enjoy the game of chess. HH Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa at Bahrain Chess School Tournament in 2022 The first Bahrain Chess Championship made a milestone in the history of chess in Bahrain. It has been made possible due to the edict issued in Jan 2023 by His Highness Shaikh Khalid bin Hamad Al Khalifa, which led to the formation of the Bahraini Chess Federation. The opening of the first Bahrain Chess Championship in 2023 was a remarkable celebration for the entire nation. Over 120 players from various governorates gathered to participate in this massive event that stretched over three weeks. The atmosphere of camaraderie permeated the whole tournament, and the enthusiasm for the game was clear to see as people eagerly discussed their moves and strategies. What began as just another regional event ended up becoming a high-energy gathering whose wholesome appeal quickly spread through word-of-mouth, drawing in more chess fans than initially believed possible. The national men’s team of Bahrain for the year 2023, which was formed after the tournament, consists of the champion Husein Ayyad (pictured below), Maher Ayad, Khalaf Boukhlef, Ibrahim Burshid and Ali Al-Ghasra. Bahrain Women’s Champion (2023) Hawra Sharaf Final standings: 1 FM Ayyad, Husain 2220 8½ 2 FM Ayyad, Maher 2090 8 3 Bukhalaf, Khalaf 1836 7 4 Al-Burshaid, Ebrahim 1704 7 5 CM Al-Ghasra, Ali 2048 7 6 Shaker, Musab 1709 7 7 Taqi, Mohamed 7 8 Monther, Alfardan 6½ 9 Sharaf, Hawra 1272 6½ 10 Obaid, Abdulrahman 1280 6½ You can find complete results here: https://chess-results.com/tnr721779.aspx?lan=1&art=4&turdet=YES&flag=30 The national women’s team of Bahrain for the year 2023 was also formed following the tournament and consists of Hawra Sharaf, Maram Al-Mousawi, Wafaa Ibrahim, Naglaa Ahmed and Sondos Obaid. Bahrain Women Champion (2023) Hawra Sharaf Based on the tournament results, various boys teams, Under 20, Under 18, Under 16, Under 14, Under 12 and Under 10 were formed. The top players in each category are Mohamed Taqi (Under 20), Abdul Rahman Obaid (Under 18), Ronen Abdullah (Under 16), Sayed Hashim Ali (Under 14), Mahmoud Al-Mousawi (Under 12) and Jad Tariq Jawad (Under 10). Similarly, for the girls, the players chosen for each category are Honorable Mention Hawara Sharaf (Under 20), Maram Al Mousawi (Under 18), Sondos Obaid (Under 16), Dania Obaid (Under 14), Reem Al Salman (Under 12) and Joud Al-Faraj (Under 10). All these players are highly talented and have the potential to bring glory to Bahrain in international tournaments. The event was officiated by a team of arbiters as follows: Chief ArbiterFA/FT/CM/SI Larbi Ben Yahya, Deputy Chief ArbiterNA Mohsin, Basim A. Arbiter : IM/FT/NA/ Mohamed Tissir| NA Mostafa Salah| NA Amal Jawad Alhashemi| NA Ahmed Ebrahim Hasan The event’s arbiters The first Bahrain Chess Championship was a resounding success, with many participants and spectators. This popularity is only set to increase in Bahrain and the broader region as chess continues to gain traction. With its rich history and strong foundations, Bahrain is poised to become a leading force in the world of chess. We hope to see you at the next edition of the Bahrain Chess Championship! Text: Ebrahim Al-Burshaid Photo: medium.com
WR Chess Masters: Gukesh and Abdusattorov join the leaders
Gukesh and Nodirbek Abdusattorov have joined the leaders with wins in the second round of the WR Chess Masters. Together with Wesley So and Levon Aronian, the two youngsters make up the quartet at the top of the table with 1.5 points from 2 games. A “fantastic game”, according to Yasser Seirawan, who was happy to watch Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Andrey Esipenko analyze the complications afterwards. Gukesh fought a fierce, wide-open battle in the Indian duel against Praggnanandhaa, who made a mistake under time pressure. Gukesh conjured up a remarkable mating final, which his compatriot did not want to see until the end. Praggnanandhaa is now alone at the bottom of the table with 0/2 – a snapshot. A fierce, wide-open battle between the two Indians Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa. | Photo: Lennart Ootes Nodirbek Abdusattorov showed nothing less than “a fantastic game” (Yasser Seirawan) against Andrey Esipenko, who had had to struggle for more than seven hours for his full point against Vincent Keymer the day before. On Friday, he was caught after just over an hour by a double-piece sacrifice from Abdusattorov, who got an almost irresistible attack in return. Three games ended in draws, including the rather uneventful encounter between Anish Giri and Wesley So, who gave the Dutchman the bishop pair in an almost symmetrical endgame – and proved that it meant no added value in that constellation. Jan-Krzysztof Duda seemed to have carved out some initiative against Ian Nepomniachtchi’s Russian Defense, but Black found enough counterplay to let matters fall flat. It was a similar story between Vincent Keymer and Levon Aronian. What initially looked like a threatening king attack was not nearly enough to shake the black bastion. Nodirbek Abdusattorov – Andrey Esipenko 1:0 After the game, Nodirbek Abdusattorov solved a mystery of the previous day, interviewed by Elisabeth Pähtz: Hadn’t he been virtually at a loss in his Benko Gambit after seven moves against Ian Nepomniachtchi? “Yes, I was,” the Uzbek admitted. He had confused a move sequence from his preparation, which led to 7…Be7? That could have been a fatal mistake. Esipenko’s luck: “Ian trusted that I knew what I was doing.” Had Andrey Esipenko not played for more than seven hours the day before, perhaps he would have found time to exchange ideas with his opponent Vincent Keymer about the cutting-edge Nimzo-Indian Variation that was on the board between Abdusattorov and Esipenko on Friday. Keymer associates it with intense memories of his debut in the German national team in November 2021, when he peppered a knight into the castling position of his opponent Jonas Buhl Bjerre – only to find out that the Dane was prepared for it. It was precisely this sacrifice and some related subtleties that Abdusattorov showed in the live stream after the game, a visual example of what’s in store against the two under-defended black Achilles heels, f7 and h7. The impact 15.Bxh7! on one of these weak points, followed by the conquest of the second by means of 16. Qh5+ should be particularly favourable. 14…Nxd2 had been a mistake, Abdusattorov explained, but an understandable one: It was already difficult to find a good move, and the exact consequences of the double piece sacrifice (White doesn’t intend to capture the knight on d2) were hard to calculate. In the course of the skirmish, which was hard for mere mortals to follow, Esipenko was offered one chance to save himself: 21…Qe8 would have kept black’s chances of survival intact. Esipenko instead played the natural-looking 21…Qg5, which leads to a loss – if White sees how to continue. On Twitter, grandmaster, author and chess coach Jacob Aagaard demonstrated how difficult this is by giving two best moves and asking which is now the correct 24th move. Position after 23…cxd4. White moves and wins – how? What Aagaard demonstrated as the best sequence, the two highly talented players on the board calculated and played in exactly the demonstrated way. Now on move 24 the key is that it’s not the tempting 24.Rh3 clinches the game, but only 24.Qf7! Abdusattorov played that too, and Esipenko soon ran out of ideas about how he could still pose problems. With this win, Abdusattorov, who has only just broken into the world’s top 20, moves into the vicinity of the top 10. He is now ranked 14th in the live list. Vincent Keymer – Levon Aronian ½-½ The extent to which players from the 2700 class are prepared was hinted at by Vincent Keymer after his game against Levon Aronian. Already on move five he had left well-trodden paths with the quasi-novelty 5.Bxc6 followed by 6.f4. “You have to try something in every game, after all.” But Keymer noted, even in this new position, “Levon knew one of the equalizing paths.” Structurally it looked good for White in the course of the game, “potential was there,” but Keymer failed to turn that potential into something tangible against Aronian’s precise play. The 18-year-old is nevertheless flirting with scoring a full point as soon as possible after his loss in the opening game. However, that requires a balancing act with veritable opponents like those in Düsseldorf: challenging fate in an exaggerated manner could “very easily lead to further defeats”. Jan-Krzysztof Duda – Ian Nepomniachtchi ½-½ With six weeks to go, Ian Nepomniachtchi will play a world championship match. On Friday in Düsseldorf, memories of his World Championship match at the end of 2021 against Magnus Carlsen may have come back to him. For 13 moves, Duda and Nepo followed the 4th match game, and then the Pole deviated. Meanwhile, Yasser Seirawan celebrated in the live stream his explanation of what it’s all about for White: pressure against d5. That’s why White should eliminate the white-squared bishops (which Duda did immediately with 17.Rxe7 and 18.Ba3), in order to be able to plant a rook on e5 in the medium term. The Nh4, meanwhile, would have the task of jumping to e3 or f4 via g2 in order to target d5 from there. The
Ofer Comay wins 19th International Solving Contest
Photo above: Israel Chess Composition Society The International Solving Contest (ISC), traditionally held on the last Sunday of January, has marked the beginning of solving seasons for almost two decades. It’s a hybrid competition, with the same groups of chess problems and endgames distributed around the world to be solved at the same time. This year, it attracted 601 solvers from 28 countries in 38 different locations. Each location had a local controller responsible for the integrity of competition and communication with the Central controller Axel Steinbrink. Solvers in Chennai, Rio de Janeiro, Ulaanbaatar and Tokyo | Photo: Mount Chess Academy, Lucas Roland, Tongon Sumiya and Tadashi Wakashima The problems, adjusted to three different levels of skills, were carefully prepared by a group of most devoted FIDE Solving Judges: Axel Steinbrink (Germany), Ivan Denkovski (North Macedonia) and Luc Palmans (Belgium). Miodrag Mladenović (Serbia) helped to enter results in the Solving Tournament Manager program (STM), and Borislav Gadjanski (Serbia) took care of the daily live transmission of results on the Mat Plus website. Axel Steinbrink did the most delicate part of the work, checking over a thousand scanned solving sheets. He was on duty for the 14th time! FIDE Solving Judges Ivan Denkovski and Axel Steinbrink | Photo Fujairah Chess & Culture Club They were the real heroes of the ISC 2023, each of them volunteering for the solvers’ entertainment, the way most of the projects by the World Federation for Chess Composition (WFCC) are done. The ISC is a friendly and easy-to-join competition aimed at popularizing chess art in the first place. After the careful supervision of the solving sheets, the ISC 2023 Winners were announced. The 1st and the strongest Category had 12 problems split into two rounds of 120 minutes each. Together, there were two problems from each of the six different genres: mate in 2, mate in 3, mate in more moves, endgame, helpmate and selfmate. (This year, because of the sanctions, there were no competitions of the 1st and 2nd Categories in Russia and Belarus). In spite of the relatively long average time of 20 minutes per problem, it’s usually extremely difficult to get the perfect 60 points result (5 points per problem) in Category 1, and the 2023 edition was no exception. The main hitch was the following endgame: White to play and draw What looks like an elementary ending hides, in fact, a long sequence of the only moves on both sides before all resources get exhausted. The most successful solvers ended their search before the 9th move and got 3 points out of 5. There were five more moves to find, and only the Indian Grandmaster Karthikeyan Murali got 4 points. The ISC winner, Ofer Comay of Israel (second from the right on the first photo), also netted 3/5 in this endgame, but overall he scored 58 points and spent a shorter time (215 minutes) than Eddy van Beers from Belgium (2nd place) and Kacper Piorun of Poland (third place). The win of a senior solver (65+) may sound like a huge surprise, but the skills of the triple World champion in solving should never be underestimated. Ofer won WCSC in his first appearance back in 1980 and did it again in 1985 and 1996. Solvers in Lativa | Photo: Latvijas Problēmšaha Biedrība The best lady was Woman Grandmaster Laura Rogule (pictured above), 12 times chess champion of Latvia, and Ilija Serafimović (18) from Serbia was the most successful among the youngest participants (U23). The ISC Category 2 was for the participants with solvers rating up to 2000. It had the same format and genres as Category 1, but the problems were less difficult. The top result by the 15-year-old Daniel Dumitrescu and the 3rd place-finish by Radu-Cristian Fluerariu (20) confirmed the rise of the Romanian solvers, while the 2nd place was another success of the Latvian talent Emils Tabors (16). Among the obstacles to overcome, the next mate-in-five raises a tricky question: how to activate Rook and King – to the left or to the right side? The answer turned out to be – to both sides. White to play and mate in five moves The ISC Category 3 was a youth U13 competition (for those born in 2010 and later). It lasted 120 minutes and included 6 problems: 4 of them in 2 moves, 1 in 3 moves, and 1 endgame. This time youngsters had no trouble reaching the maximum of 30 points. No less than six of them did it, and the three winners were extremely fast. Grigory Filin spent only 22 minutes, Taras Rudenko – 26, and Viktoriya Merkulova – 28 minutes! To get the feeling of the traps the kids had to avoid, you may try to crack the following three-mover. Out of several seemingly equal choices, only one leads to the goal! White to play and mate in three moves The season of international solving competitions continues with the open championships of Finland (February 18), the Netherlands (March 4), and Poland (March 4-5). All of them are legs of the World Solving Cup, organized by the World Federation for Chess Composition. The solutions to the problems from ISC 2023 (with points in brackets) 1. (Martin Minski, Original for Seven Chess Notes 2023) 1. f4! Kxf4 2.Nf2 [1] 2. … K 3 3.Ng4+ Ke2 4.Ne5 [1] 4. … Bd7+! 5.Kc7! Bg4! 6.Bf1+! [1] 6. … Kf2! 7.Nd3+! Ke3! 8.Nb2 Kd4 9.Bb5! [1] 9. … Kc3 10.Bd7 Be2 11.Na4+ Kb4 12.Nb2 Kb3 13.Nd3! [1] (13. … d1Q 14.Ba4+! Kxa4 15.Nb2+) 2. (Isai Hillel Rozenfels, Shakhmaty v SSSR 1954) 1.a4! b5 2.Kg1 bxa4 3.Rf1 a3 4.Be1 & 5.Bc3# [2.5] 1…b6 2.Rd1 b5 3.Ke1 bxa4 4.Kd2 a3 5.Bc3# [2.5] 3. (Vladimir Bron, 1. Pr. Ukraine T. 1952) 1.Rd7! e5 2.Qa2+ & 3.Qa8# 1…Kf8 2.Qc5+ & 3.Qc8# 1…e3 2.Qxf3 & 3.Qa8# 1…Kh8 2.Qh4+ Kg8 3.Qd8# Text: Marjan Kovačević, WFCC President Official website: https://www.wfcc.ch/