WGP New Delhi: Goryachkina takes the lead in a day of decisive games

A day of high-stakes and thrilling victories in New Delhi, with three wins for White and one for Black. Kateryna Lagno, Zhu Jiner, Polina Shuvalova, and Aleksandra Goryachkina dominated the round

Following three rounds of the Women’s Grand Prix where all games ended in a draw, round four saw intense action on the boards in the third leg. Three out of four games were dramatic from the start but all four ended in victories.

Results of Round Four:

Kateryna Lagno – Vaishali Rameshbabu 1-0
Humpy Koneru – Zhu Jiner 0-1
Aleksandra Goryachkina – BibisaraAssaubayeva 1-0
Polina Shuvalova – Nana Dzagnidze 1-0

The day proved to be a disappointment for Indian players, as both Vaishali Rameshbabu and Humpy Koneru suffered defeats.

Vaishali Rameshbabu’s surprise opening line in the Sicilian did not unsettle Kateryna Lagno who quickly gained control over the position and confidently defeated her opponent. Humpy Konery had a steady game against Zhu Jiner, but a costly blunder in the final moments led to her downfall.

Meanwhile, Shuvalova outplayed Nana Dzagnidze. The Georgian could not find the right plan against Shuvalova and chose the wrong moves leading to a lost endgame with a rook against two bishops.

Aleksandra Goryachkina was the first player of the day to create a much better position on the board, but it took her five hours before BibisaraAssaubayeva finally had to surrender.

Here follows a recap of today’s games.

Kateryna Lagno – Vaishali Rameshbabu

This was only the second game in the tournament for Vaishali, given that she was free in rounds two and three.

The opponents had a discussion in the Four Knights Variation of Sicilian Defence, which is considered to be a sharp line. It was Vaishali’s preparation taking Lagno by surprise. However, after spending some time thinking, Kateryna grasped the position and started playing quicker.

On move nine, the Indian played 9…a5 instead of the more common 9…Qb6, which leads to a highly dynamic position on the board.

Lagno responded with 10.a3 Qb6 11.c4 – a logical sequence – and after 11…Ne3 12.Qd3 Nf1 13.Rf1, a roughly equal and sharp but by no means new position, emerged on the board. The first important moment came after 17.a4 – the first original move made in the game.

Vaishali opted for 17…f5?!, forcing Lagno to bring her knight to d6. Most likely 17…f6, keeping tension in the centre was a better option.

After 18.Nd6 Bxd6 19.exd6 c5 Kateryna got an edge thanks to control over dark squares. Even more importantly, Black had no active plan, while White had some targets on the board and a clear course of action.

Lagno proceeded to realign her heavy pieces towards the kingside, preparing an attack on the black king, using the advantage of the excellent, centralised e5-bishop. Vaishali eventually had to offer her rook for the white bishop, sacrificing an exchange but hoping to get some squares in return.

Lagno didn’t take the bait but, instead, used the third rank to transfer her rooks to the kingside and increase pressure. Soon, Vaishali ran out of reasonable options. Still, a short work over Black’s king deserved one more diagram.

37.Rxg7+ Qxg7 38.Rg3 Qxg3 39.hxg3 Rf7 40.Qd8! 1-0

This is the first victory for Lagno in the tournament, following two draws and a rest day. She is now on two points. Vaishali is still on one point.

Humpy Koneru – Zhu Jiner

In the standard line of the Nimzo-Indian the opponents followed the footsteps of Rapport and Vidit (Belgrade, 2022) up to move 15. With a lot of positional manoeuvring, both sides maintained equality on the board. Only in the fourth hour of play did one side make a breakthrough.

Here Humpy launched an overly-optimistic pawn march on the kingside with 20.g4? This was the beginning of the losing path for White.

After 20…g6 21.Ng3 Zhu relatively quickly found 21… Ne4!! offering a knight sacrifice. White couldn’t take it because she would end up in a completely shattered position.

Humpy played 22.Be1 and had to defend an inferior position with numerous weaknesses. Zhu sacrificed a pawn and emerged much better thanks to the two dominating bishops controlling the diagonals in all four directions on the board.

The lesser of many evils for White was to give up her d-pawn immediately by d4-d5, but Humpy made the fatal mistake – 26.Bc3?? After 26…Re3 Koneru’s kingside crumbled, and Black went for a hunt after White’s king: 27.Bb2 Rxf3 28.Rxf3 Bxf3 29.h3 Qd6 30.Qf1 Qxf4 31.Qf2.

And now a little combination for the end: 31…Bxd4! (a double deflection!) 32.Bxd4 Qxc1+ 33.Kh2 Rd8 34.Ne2 Bxe2 35.Qf6 – the last desperate attempt – 36…Rxd4 37.Qxd4 Qd1 and Black is up a piece and two pawns.

A huge blunder by Humpy Koneru who is now on 1,5 points while Zhu moves up, with 2,5.

Aleksandra Goryachkina – BibisaraAssaubayeva

This was the derby of the round. Goryachkina is one of the top candidates in the Women’s Grand Prix for first two places, while Assaubayeva – two-time world Blitz champion – is the leader in New Delhi after two victories in two rounds she played.

Assaubayeva launched her surprise on the second move by playing e6 after 1.d4 Nf6. She usually plays the King’s Indian, but here she opted for something different. Goryachkina spent five minutes checking her lines before she played 3.g3, going for the Catalan.

Bibisara seemed to be unfamiliar with the subtleties of the opening as after a couple of inaccuracies – 10…c6?! instead of thematic 10…c5 11.0-0 Ra6? (again, 11…c5 was a better alternative) – she found herself in a cramped position.

Aleksandra was building up pressure with natural moves and avoiding the worst Bibisara decided to part with a pawn, although defending an inferior position with equal material might have been a better option.

White is a pawn up, has more active pieces, and, simply put, a won position. Bibisara was clearly uncomfortable, sitting tensely in her chair.

Known for her excellent technique, Goryachkina traded the queens as soon as an opportunity presented itself and headed to an ending.

The final portion of the game required precision and patience from Aleksandra, which she demonstrated and gradually brought her opponent to defeat.

It is the first victory for Goryachkina in the tournament, following draws in the first two rounds and a rest day in the third round. She is now on three points. On the other hand, after two victories, BibisaraAssaubayeva suffered a first loss in New Delhi. She has two points.

Polina Shuvalova – Nana Dzagnidze

In another Catalan game of the round, Shuvalova introduced a novelty 12.Rd1, but did not achieve much as Dzagnidze harmoniously arranged her pieces and advanced queenside pawns.

Here Shuvalova opted to strike in the centre with 17.d5. After 17…Bc5 18.dxe6 fxe6 19.Qe2 White had a better pawn structure but the position was double-edge as Black had pressure on the f2 square.

Low on time, Dzagnidze opted to simplify things with 19…b4, which led to a series of exchanges which made things easier for Black who was confidently holding her ground.

Shuvalova just moved her king from the pinned diagonal. Here Dzagnidze started losing her way: 26…Qa2? – this foray failed to – 27.f4! and after 27… Nbd7? 28.g4 g6? White is winning. Nana gave up two her minor pieces for White’s rook, but it did not help.

Following the exchange of the queens, the two transitioned to an endgame where White had two bishops against a rook which was absolutely hopeless for Black. Nana tired her last chance by sacrificing an exchange and hoping for a well-known ending with a “wrong” bishop, but Polina did not allow Black’s king to find salvation on the h8-square.

In the post-game interview, Shuvalova said that she thought her opponent had a chance to save a draw.

Standings after the fourth round:

1	GM	Goryachkina, Aleksandra	2576	FID	3
2	WGM	Zhu, Jiner	2489	CHN	2½
3	GM	Harika, Dronavalli	2511	IND	2½
4	IM	Shuvalova, Polina	2484	FID	2½
5	GM	Lagno, Kateryna	2560	FID	2
6	IM	Assaubayeva, Bibisara	2440	KAZ	2
7	GM	Dzagnidze, Nana	2525	GEO	1½
8	GM	Batsiashvili, Nino	2489	GEO	1½
9	GM	Koneru, Humpy	2576	IND	1½
10	IM	Vaishali, Rameshbabu	2433	IND	1

The fifth round of the third leg of the Women’s Grand Prix will take place on Thursday, 30th March, at 3 PM local time.

The pairings of the fifth round are:

Zhu Jiner – Katerina Lagno
Nana Dzagnidze – Humpy Koneru
BibisaraAssaubayeva – Harika Dronavalli
Vaishali Rameshbabu – Nino Batsiashvili

Polina Shuvalova and Aleksandra Goryachkina have a free day.

Text: Milan Dinic

Photo: Ismael Nieto

About the Women’s Grand Prix

The FIDE Women’s Grand Prix consists of four tournaments played between September 2022 and May 2023 and includes 16 women players who take part in three of the four tournaments. The two players who score the greatest number of cumulative points in the series shall qualify for the FIDE Women Candidates Tournament 2023-24.

The players participating in the Women’s Grand Prix have been selected based on their performance in key FIDE events and their ELO. Also, each of the four local tournament organisers has a right to nominate a player of their choice.

The time control for the tournament is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move one.

The total prize fund for each one of the four events is €80,000, with another €80,000 being distributed among the top eight players in the overall standings for the Grand Prix series.

General information about the venue and the dates

The third leg of the Women’s Grand Prix will take place in New Delhi’s Leela Ambience Convention Hotel. The five-star hotel is designed to cater to business events and large meetings and should make an ideal place for a tournament of this level.

The rounds will be played each day from 3 PM local time (9.30 GMT).

For more information about the event, visit:https://womengrandprix.fide.com/.

Fortune favours the brave: Tan Zhongyi draws first blood in Women’s Candidates Final

Tan Zhongyi takes the lead in the six-game Candidates final after defeating Lei Tingjie in one of the most exciting games of the year.

Primarily remembered today for his formulation of an atomic theory of the universe, the ancient Greek philosopher Democritus left many quotes for history. “Boldness is the beginning of an action, but fortune controls how it ends” is one of them, very appropriate to understand what happened today in the first game of the Women’s Candidates Final in Chongqing, China.

The action began punctually at 3 pm local time with the ceremonial first move, performed by Du Xueyong, Deputy Director of Chongqing Sports Bureau, accompanied by FIDE Vice-President and former Women’s World Champion Xie Jun.

Playing with White, Tan Zhongyi opened with 1.c4, the English Opening, one of her two main weapons. Hardly a surprise for Lei Tingjie, she quickly replied with 1…e5, against which Tan Zhongyi blitzed out 2.d3, a secondary line which, according to my database, she had never played before in her career.

Already on move six, the position was completely new, a rare occurrence nowadays. Customary in English Openings, Tan Zhongyi went for the kingside fianchetto, followed by the typical queenside pawn expansion with a3 and b4. Lei Tingjie defended with precision, obtaining a very promising middlegame position.

Around move twenty, with both players under fifteen minutes to reach the 40-move time control, Tan Zhongyi boldly opted for a very risky and unbalanced idea, allowing her opponent two strongly connected passed pawns in exchange for active piece play and her own passer on d5. Soon, a second pawn had to be sacrificed to maintain the initiative.

Although the computers were indicating a decisive material advantage for Lei Tingjie, her king was considerably exposed – in addition, she was getting very low on time.

On move thirty, Lei Tingjie could have scored first blood if she had found 30…c4! (instead of 30…Qe6? played in the game): however, the lines are very difficult to calculate with only seconds on the clock.

Tan Zhongyi won a piece but still had to deal with her opponent’s advanced passed pawn. She missed a win on move thirty-five (35.e4! instead of 35.Qe8, with a decisive advantage), but luck was on her side today.

With less than thirty seconds on her clock and five moves to go for the time control, Lei Tingjie blundered with 36…f4? and was forced to resign a couple of moves later, after Tan Zhongyi correctly spotted 37.e3! followed by the exchange of queens on d3.

Commentating the match from the venue, GM Alik Gershon witnessed the meltdown live.

“What a blow for Lei Tingjie. Until the very last moment, she had a draw with 36…Qb1. This has been a very upsetting game for her” were Gershon’s final words.

Chief Arbiter Panagiotis Nikolopoulos retrieved the scoresheets from the players, certifying a win for White in the first game of the match.

Excited after her victory, Tan Zhongyi attended the press conference, while a disappointed Lei Tingjie retired to her chambers to regroup for tomorrow’s second game, in which she will be playing with White.

You can follow all the games with live commentaries on the FIDE YouTube Channel.

Text: IM Michael Rahal

Photo: Liu Yi

Official website: womenscandidates.fide.com/

The match

The 2023 FIDE Women’s Candidates Final is being disputed in Chongqing (China) from March 27th to April 6th. Chinese Grandmasters Lei Tingjie and Tan Zhongyi face each other in a six-game classical chess match. The winner will receive 60.000 euros and the right to challenge the current Women’s World Champion Ju Wenjun for the title in July.

The venue

Strategically positioned as a gateway to China’s west, Chongqing is China’s major modernized manufacturing base, a financial center, and an international transport hub in Western China.

Home to more than 32 million people, it was an obvious choice for hosting the event as both players were born in the city.

In addition, it’s an important center of chess activity in the country, abode to many important chess clubs and academies. A fun fact – both Lei Tingjie and Tan Zhongyi are teammates at the Chongqing Sports Lottery Chess Club.

FIDE Development Fund 2023 is now open

FIDE Planning and Development Commission (PDC) is happy to announce that the 2023 FIDE Development Fund cycle is now open for submissions of funding requests by National Chess Federations, Continents, Affiliated Organizations, FIDE Commissions and, starting this year, FIDE zones.

The submission period is open until October 31, 2023.

Beneficiaries may submit their funding requests or questions about the process to FIDE PDC (fedfunding@fide.com).

This year, the cycle is starting a bit later than initially planned due to the evolution of the documents to be used. We wanted to make the process smoother and get better connected with applicants.

All potential beneficiaries have to use the new documents for their applications.

To help National Chess Federations, FIDE Commissions, FIDE Zonal officials, FIDE Affiliated Organizations and FIDE Continental officials in their requests for funding in 2023, FIDE PDC is organizing a special webinar.
Scheduled for March 31, the webinar aims to explain and illustrate the application process, highlighting priorities and PDC vision on funding applications. For those who cannot attend, it will be recorded and posted on the PDC website.

The main topics of the webinar are:

2023 FIDE funding programme overview (orientations and priorities, covered expenses, etc.)
Application documents and process steps to follow
An illustration of application through a sample project

Date of the webinar: Friday, March 31, 2023 – 14:00 CEST

Open to federations and other beneficiaries’ officials.

Please fill in the registration link to get access to the webinar.

London Chess Conference: Back to classroom

The London Chess Conference established how chess enhances 21st century skills, interest in STEM subjects and even pre-school education.

No one seemed more surprised by the renewed interest in the London Chess Conference than its Director, John Foley, from ChessPlus, which organized the conference. His expectations were only for sixty attendees, and he started planning accordingly. Despite only two months´ notice and limited social media activity, 120 attendees from 32 different countries attended the conference centre at the University of Roehampton in Southwest London for its ninth edition, the first after the pandemic, the first that was not part of a London Chess Classic festival usually held in December, and the first streamed live throughout. The video recordings are available on the FIDE YouTube channel.

Friday afternoon was devoted to pre-school chess, or “Early Years Chess”, with presentations on different aspects and projects from Armenia, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain and the United States. Some of these presentations were delivered remotely and included talks in Spanish and German with subtitles. Christel Minne, a Belgian educator, presented her children chess book “Someday, I´ll be a Queen”.

Returning to its raison d’être of exploring chess in education, the conference headline theme was “Chess and STEM”, the acronym for academic subjects in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, which will be providing many of our jobs in the future. Several presentations demonstrated how strategic games are integrated into teaching mathematics, informatics and robotics. There is a familiarity with board games, and they make these rather dry subjects more attractive to students. Jerry Nash, the chairman of the FIDE Education Commission, showed how classroom chess could promote critical thinking or “21st-century skills” when the focus is not on the right move but on the process and reflection.

Alexey Root, Chief Science Officer at Chessable, presented the Chessable Research Awards and shared a first glimpse of an upcoming Harvard University study that shows how the lower participation rate of girls and women in chess is linked to the performance gap.

Leading providers of school chess brought their latest developments: conference co-sponsors Chess in Schools and Communities (CSC) for the first time mentioned that they are connecting chess and mathematics in their new curriculum, which also pays attention to social and emotional issues. They have also started to use classroom software for playing chess minigames and other strategy games on the chess board. Carey Fan and Mike Klein from ChessKid revealed that 50,000 kids come to the website daily, there are now more than 8 million accounts. They have just signed a contract with the Bolivian Ministry of Education which seeks chess as a tool in its fight against poverty.

An impressive session was that on Chess and Mathematics. Tiago Hirth from the Portuguese maths association Ludus and Monika Musilek from the Pedagogical University in Vienna presented results of the Erasmus+ 8×8 project in which they showed that simple games can help with learning mathematics as the same thought processes are involved. Hari Neocleous, a maths teacher from London, showed how chess could be adapted to teach numeracy in primary school. Rita Atkins, recently appointed Secretary of the FIDE Education Commission, showed stimulating exercises which would stretch those taking mathematics in secondary school. The session concluded with Vince Negri pointing out that mathematical thinking is also about drawing conclusions from what is in front of you. His example was to show that the results of a calculation can be estimated within a range in a similar way to how the right move can be arrived at through elimination.

The session Chess for All Children tackled how chess helps students with learning difficulties or mental health issues. Beatrice Rapaccini, a science teacher and innovator from Italy, argued for teachers using the game to instill creativity, which is lacking in most school subjects. Since creativity is a parameter measured in the Pisa academic monitoring exercise, it is worth taking games seriously in the classroom. Anastasia Sorokina presented the Infinite Project for children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. She described suitable playing arrangements which would lead to more productive learning sessions. The speaker from Dansk Skoleskak, Mikkel Nørgaard, explained how chess could be used to improve mental health at school and how his organization has been training 200 special needs teachers.

Several presenters focused on their respective countries. In India, school chess is mostly seen as a sport and is only recently being recognized as an educational tool, said Abhijit Kunte on behalf of the Indian Chess Federation. The federation in neighbouring Pakistan was relatively inactive until a new team took over in 2022 and pushed activities energetically in several directions, with schools being of critical importance, as Hanif Qureishi, the President of the Pakistan Chess Federation, pointed out. Another very dynamic federation is Romania, whose new school chess materials have recently been accredited by the Ministry of Education, opening the way to thousands more teachers and hundreds additional schools, as Mădălina-Maria Lejean-Anușca revealed.

Mark Nowacki, founder of the Singapore-based education consultancy LogicMills and an advisor of FIDE, spoke about the consequences of school closings during the pandemic. Catching up by speeding the curriculum has been shown to increase the damage. Based on anecdotal evidence that children who benefited from chess were more resilient, Nowacki devised an international study and is inviting countries to join.

As usual, at London Chess Conferences, there were numerous side meetings. Notably, the FIDE Education Commission met for the first time under the leadership of Chairman Jerry Nash (USA) and Secretary Rita Atkins (Hungary). They are preparing a new website and a repository of research on chess in education. Franck Droin, the French chairman of the ECU Social Commission, met, among others André Vögtlin, President of the Swiss Chess Federation, who has replaced Geir Nesheim as chairman of the FIDE Social Commission. The programme was rounded up by a presentation from Mikhail Korenman on chess as an intervention for imprisoned men in Cook County, Illinois, which had a positive effect on recidivism.

From L-R: Rita Atkins, Secretary FIDE Education Commission, John Foley, Conference Director, and Dana Reizniece-Ozola, FIDE Managing Director

The conference, which had FIDE, ECU and CSC as partners and English Chess Federation, ChessKid, Chessable, Caissa, Chess: Manager and Game Ahead Consulting as co-sponsors, was amply used for interviews and side meetings. The FIDE Education and Social Commissions took the opportunity to hold several meetings at the venue. Social interaction was enhanced by large tables in the dining area and reserved spaces in a local pub to which many delegates resorted in the evening for dinner.

The conference ended with concluding remarks by Dana Reizniece-Ozola. The FIDE Managing Director encouraged all attendees to reach out to the wider education community and promised FIDE´s further commitment to high-quality conferences.

Text: John Foley and Stefan Löffler

Photos: John Yip / Roehampton University

Sessions on early years chess:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Qh6GDjgrTg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMVEksiVGt4

Welcome and sessions on science and technology:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzZ6P1W3MDU

Sessions on chess, STEM and mathematics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sha8KnwSp6U

Sessions on teacher training and chess for all children:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFvXBAtJtcA

Sessions on national school chess projects and chess related research:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umO16FVLYok

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WGP New Delhi: Goryachkina takes the lead in a day of decisive games

Fortune favours the brave: Tan Zhongyi draws first blood in Women’s Candidates Final

FIDE Development Fund 2023 is now open

London Chess Conference: Back to classroom