FIDE Circuit: Gukesh D regains the lead
Dommaraju Gukesh regained the lead in the FIDE Circuit race. The young prodigy from Chennai is now 6 points ahead of Levon Aronian following his solid performance at the TePe Sigeman, a strong round-robin that took place from May 4-10 in Malmo, Sweden. The event, an interesting mix of experienced grandmasters and young talents, saw a very close fight. This time around, experience won out in the end as Peter Svidler (pictured below) scored 4.5/7, finished clear first and jumped to 12th position in the FIDE Circuit leaderboard. Gukesh D, Nils Grandelius and Abhimanyu Mishra tied for second place and netted 12.22 FIDE Circuit points each. As a result, Gukesh returned to first place in the leaderboard while Grandelius continued his impressive run. After his triumph in Reykjavik last month, the Swedish GM did a great job in his home tournament and moved up to fifth position in the race. FIDE Circuit Race Top 10 as of May 11, 2023 You can find full current standings on worldchampionshipcycle.fide.com/ Photos: TePe Sigeman & Co tournament | David Llada
2023 Superbet Chess Classic: Day 5 Recap
Fabiano Caruana retained his half-point lead after Round 5 of the 2023 Superbet Chess Classic, as Alireza Firouzja inflicted the first loss to World Champion Ding Liren while Maxime Vachier-Lagrave scored a victory over Ian Nepommniachtchi. Going into the rest day, Caruana remains in first with 3.5/5, while Firouzja, So, and Rapport are tied for second with 3.0/5. DUDA – CARUANA | 1/2-1/2, 31 moves A well-prepared Caruana had few issues equalizing in the Arkhangelsk Ruy Lopez, as he forced a series of trades in the center before sacrificing a knight on the kingside to secure a perpetual. 23…Nxh3+! forced a draw after 24.gxh3 Qg5+ 25.Kh1 Rxe5 26.f4 Qf5 27.Rxe5 Qxh3+=, with a perpetual. Caruana showed great preparation today. | Photo courtesy of Grand Chess Tour, Bryan Adams FIROUZJA – DING | 1-0, 52 moves In a double-edged middlegame arising from a 4.d3 Berlin, Firouzja suddenly took on a lot of risks, sacrificing the e4-pawn in order to create pressure on the kingside. Things looked good for Black, but at the critical moment, Ding blundered, allowing Firouzja a combination to win a queen in exchange for a rook and bishop. The resulting endgame wasn’t immediately lost but quite difficult, as Ding quickly went wrong, and the French No. 1 scored the full point. Here 30…Nde4 would have kept a large advantage for Black. Instead 30…Nfe4? was played, allowing Firouzja to win material with 31.Bxd6 Nxd6 32.Bxf7 The World No. 2 was the first to defeat the new world champion. | Photo courtesy of Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes NEPOMNIACHTCHI – VACHIER-LAGRAVE | 0-1, 58 moves After surprising MVL with the 2.c3 Sicilian, Nepomniachtchi managed to get a slightly better position as the players exchanged queens early on. Nepo’s advantage was starting to grow while Black looked for counterplay along the h-file. After a few nonchalant moves, Nepo was suddenly in serious trouble and then simply lost as MVL’s rooks and knight became decisively active. After 58…a3, Black was winning in view of 59.Rxb3 Rh3+ MVL was worse out of the opening but managed to fully turn things around. | Photo courtesy of Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes GIRI – RAPPORT | 1/2-1/2, 49 moves Once again, Rapport opted for the French Defense but didn’t seem to face difficulties out of the opening in the 3.Nd2 Tarrasch Variation. Giri tried to create some initiative on the kingside in a roughly equal middlegame but misplayed the position, soon giving Black a clear advantage in the endgame. At the key moment, Rapport missed his chance to break through, allowing Giri just enough counterplay to survive. A solid 3.0/5 for Rapport so far, who’s tied for second. | Photo courtesy of Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes SO – DEAC | 1/2-1/2, 62 moves Coming out of an Italian Game, So was able to gradually build up a space advantage in the center of the board as Deac’s position became quite passive. However, in the endgame Wesley slipped, allowing Black counterplay with the f5 pawn-break, which saved Deac the game. Wesley So had some chances against Deac, but couldn’t fully capitalize. | Photo courtesy of Grand Chess Tour, Bryan Adams The 2023 Superbet Chess Classic continues Friday, May 12, with tournament action live starting at 7:20 AM CT with Grandmaster commentators Yasser Seirawan, Var Akobian, Cristian Chirila and International Master Nazi Paikidze on grandchesstour.org and on the Saint Louis Chess Club’s YouTube and Twitch.tv channels. Text: IM Kostya Kavutskiy Photos: Courtesy of Grand Chess Tour and Spectrum Studios; Credits available on Flickr. Further Information:Web: GrandChessTour.org | Twitter: @GrandChessTourInstagram: @GrandChessTour | Facebook: @GrandChessTour#GrandChessTour#SuperbetChessClassic Venue: Grand Hotel Bucharest, Bucharest, RomaniaMay 6 – May 15, 2023 Press Contact:press@grandchesstour.org Livestream:GrandChessTour.org
2023 Kyrgyzstan Championship: Eldiar Orozbaev and Nurai Sovetbekova win titles
FM Eldiar Orozbaev and WFM Nurai Sovetbekova are the new chess champions of the Kyrgyz Republic. The Open and Women’s Kyrgyzstan championships organized by the Kyrgyz Chess Union (Kyrgyzstan Chess Federation) took place from April 27 to May 9 in the conference hall of the Kyrgyz Chess Union’s office. Both tournaments were 12-player round robins with classical time control. Eldiar Orozbaev (pictured below) turned in a commanding performance in the open event scoring 9/11 and finishing a full point ahead of IM Semetei Tologon Tegin, who took silver. Both the champion and the runner-up completed the event undefeated. FM Ruslan Sezdbekov and IM Mikhail Markov tied for third place on 6.5/11 with the former taking bronze thanks to the direct encounter win. Final standings Open: 1 FM Orozbaev, Eldiar 2313 9 2 IM Tologon Tegin, Semetei 2372 8 3 FM Sezdbekov, Ruslan 2285 6½ 4 IM Markov, Mikhail 2347 6½ 5 IM Abdyzhapar, Asylbek 2293 6 6 FM Zhakshylykov, Erzhan 2274 6 7 MK Teiitbaev, Aktilek 2018 5 8 NM Degenbaev, Aziz 2196 4½ 9 FM Maznitsin, Andrei 2209 4½ 10 MK Sharshenbekov, Emir 1924 4 11 MK Iunusov, Nuriddin 1888 3½ 12 MK Tapaev, Totuhan 1885 2½ The women’s competition turned into a race between WFM Nurai Sovetbekova (pictured below) and WCM Assel Lesbekova. Despite losing to her main rival in Round 6, Nurai came to the final round a full point ahead of Assel. Sovetbekova played it safe and clinched the title by drawing her game against Aiiza Orozbekova. Lesbekova finished a half-point behind and claimed silver. Three players tied for third place, with Aiana Abaeva taking bronze as the winner of both direct encounters. Final standings Women: 1 WFM Sovetbekova, Nurai 1764 9 2 WCM Lesbekova, Assel 1772 8½ 3 WMK Abaeva, Aiana 1662 7½ 4 WFM Zairbek Kyzy, Begimai 1891 7½ 5 WMK Sezdbekova, Aizhan 1622 7½ 6 WMK Zhanybekova, Begimay 1671 7 7 WMK Zhunusbekova, Aimonchok 1577 5 8 WNM Omurbekova, Diana 1782 4½ 9 WMK Orozbekova, Aiiza 1539 3½ 10 Abdurahmanova, Ramina 1239 2½ 11 Tursunalieva, Nurelina 1432 2½ 12 Kasymova, Eliza 1248 1 Photos: 2023 Kyrgyzstan Championship Telegram channel
Kazakhstan to host inaugural FIDE World Schools Team Championship
FIDE Events Commission is happy to announce that the first-ever World Schools Team Championship (WSTC) becomes a part of the FIDE Chess Calendar starting from the year 2023. Currently, more than 25 million kids worldwide are involved in scholastic chess, and FIDE’s goal is to double that number. Increasing the number of scholastic events and creating a coherent system of annual tournaments will contribute to this goal. The new flagship event, the World Schools Team Championship, a competition among the teams of general educational institutions, will see its inaugural edition held in Kazakhstan from August 3-8, 2023. WSTC will consist of two stages. The first stage is the national championships among general educational institutions. The strongest teams will advance to the second stage, the Final, which will determine the best team in the world. The Finals will be played in two age groups: Under 12 and Under 18. The registration deadline is July 3, 2023. The first 50 National Federations to enter can nominate one of their teams for “invited team” status. The teams with this status are entitled to: Free accommodation (2 twin rooms and 1 single room for children plus 1 single room for the captain) Travel grant (from Asia and Europe up to $5,000 and from Africa and the Americas up to $10,000) to cover the cost of economy class flights and some internal travel expenses Each team will consist of four main players, one reserve, and one captain. For the Stage 2, it is very important that all members of the team obtain FIDE IDs. For Stage 1, we recommend that each federation holds local and regional competitions before organizing the national final, and encourage participation of both boys and girls. The time control for the National Championships shall be 45 minutes plus a 10-second increment per move starting from move one. The World Final will be held as an 8-round Swiss team tournament, played with two games per day over 4 days. The time control is the same, 45 minutes plus a 10-second increment. All Final Stage participants will receive Participation certificates; players and captains of 3 top teams will receive trophies, gold, silver and bronze medals, and other memorable gifts. In addition, there will be special board prizes for players who played six or more games. And of course, the winners earn the prestige as the best school chess team in the world! We will announce the city host of the Finals shortly and hope to see you there! WSTC Entry Form Regulations of the World Schools Team Championship (pdf) The official email: wstcc@fide.com