Czech Championship 2023: David Navara and Julia Movsesian win titles
David Navara and Julia Movsesian are the new chess champions of the Czech Republic. The Open and Women’s Czech championships organized by the Světlá nad Sázavou Chess Club and Šachový svaz České republiky (Czech Chess Federation) took place from May 9-17 in the conference hall of the Skalský Dvůr hotel in Lísk. The events were held concurrently but in different formats. The open competition was a 10-player round-robin, while the women’s championship was a knock-out tournament with a single preliminary round followed by the quarterfinals, semifinals and final. GM David Navara turned in a dominant performance in the open event and claimed his twelfth national title with a round to spare. The current Czech number one scored an impressive 7.5/9 and became the only unbeaten player in the competition. The fight for the silver was much closer, with the second-youngest participant, IM Tomáš Kraus and GM Vlastimil Babula, coming into the final round tied for the second position. Kraus pulled out a crucial victory over the 2021 champion Vojtěch Plát and secured second place, as Babula managed only a draw against Navara with the black pieces and had to settle for bronze. Final standings Open: 1 GM Navara, David 2678 7½ 2 IM Kraus, Tomáš 2473 6 3 GM Babula, Vlastimil 2533 5½ 4 GM Krejčí, Jan 2517 5 5 GM Štoček, Jiří 2525 5 6 GM Šimáček, Pavel 2466 3½ 7 IM Zwardoń, Vojtěch 2494 3½ 8 GM Petr, Martin 2478 3½ 9 FM Finěk, Václav 2410 3 10 GM Plát, Vojtěch 2535 2½ In the women’s championship, the rating favourites, WGMs Julia Movsesian (pictured below) and Karolína Pilsová, made it all the way to the final, which the former convincingly won by a score of 2-0. The last-year champion WIM Nataša Richterová prevailed over WGM Olga Sikorová in the match for bronze. The complete results of the open and women’s championships can be found here. Official website: chess.cz/ Photos: Official website
FIDE and GCF to stage Solidarity Matches in Batumi, Georgia
FIDE and the Georgian Chess Federation have organized a double match-up between Top Ukrainian players Mariya and Anna Muzychuk and local stars Nino Batsiashvili and Meri Arabidze, respectively. The games will take place in the Hotel Legend in Batumi, Georgia, from June 5-11. Each of the matches will consist of six classical games, following this schedule: June 5: 1st gameJune 6: 2nd gameJune 7: 3rd gameJune 8: (rest day)June 9: 4th gameJune 10: 5th gameJune 11: 6th game Mariya Muzychuk Born September 21, 1992 Federation: Ukraine Rating: 2515 Mariya Muzychuk was the Women’s World Champion in 2015-16 and reached the semi-finals in the Women’s World Championship in 2018. She earned her spot for the Women’s Grand Prix 2022-23 thanks to her 4th place in the FIDE Grand Swiss 2021 held in Riga. Mariya was born on September 21, 1992, in Stryi, Lviv Region, Ukraine. She started her chess career in the village of Ugersko, where her parents used to work at a local sports school for children and youngsters. However, Mariya managed to train at home, too: her elder sister Anna used to help her along with her parents. Since she was 7, Mariya has participated in the Ukrainian youth championships; in 2002, she won the Ukrainian and European championships for children under 10. At the age of 11, Mariya was shortlisted for the Ukrainian women’s championship, then she won the World Youth Championship for children under 14 and later repeatedly won medals at the European and World Youth Championships. Her success at the European Women’s Championships brought Maria the title of women’s grandmaster, and in 2008 she was awarded the title of International Master. After taking her first serious steps into professional chess, Muzychuk got on the Ukrainian national team (while her elder sister was playing for Slovenia); as a member of the Ukrainian national team, she was the silver medalist (2018) and a three-time bronze medalist (2012, 2014, and 2016) of the Olympiads, as well as the women’s World and European (2013) champion as a member of the Ukrainian team. Moreover, she won the gold medal at the 2018 Olympiad, holding the best result on the second board. She is a two-time Ukrainian women’s champion (2012 and 2013). Muzychuk got her moment of glory in the 2015 knockout World Women’s Championship in Sochi: after outplaying Yuanling Yuan, Monika Socko, Antoaneta Stefanova, Humpy Koneru, Harika Dronavalli, and Natalija Pogonina one by one, the Ukrainian grandmaster became the fifteenth Women’s World Champion. In March 2016, Mariya Muzychuk failed to defend her title in a match against Hou Yifan, China. In 2014, Mariya Muzychuk won the first women’s prize at a prestigious Gibraltar Open tournament. Her beginning of this year has been fruitful: she won the second women’s prize in the same tournament, demonstrating an impressive performance with a score of 2718 points. Mariya Muzychuk holds the honourable FIDE Caissa award as the best women’s chess player in 2015. At the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament 2019 (Kazan, Russia), Mariya Muzychuk was the only woman chess player to defeat the tournament’s winner, Aleksandra Goryachkina, with their match game having been awarded the special prize for being the most beautiful game of the tournament. Like many other Ukrainian players, Mariya had to reallocate abroad since the start of the war, and for the last months, she has been living with her sister in Valencia, Spain. Despite the added difficulties, Mariya successfully defended the first for Ukraine at the Chennai Chess Olympiad, leading her team decisively contributing to a historical gold medal. Anna Muzychuk Born: February 28, 1990 Federation: Ukraine Rating: 2504 Anna Muzychuk is the fourth woman in history to reach 2600 Elo points. She collected all possible ranks in rapid and blitz chess, and she is also the 2017 World Vice-Champion. She finished 7th in the previous edition of the Women’s Grand Prix, and she qualified for the current one thanks to reaching the semi-finals in the FIDE Women’s World Cup 2021 in Sochi. Anna was born on February 28, 1990, in Stryi, Lviv Region, Ukraine. Her parents, chess candidate masters, were coaches conducting classes at a local sports school for children and youngsters in the adjacent village of Ugersko. They made little Anya familiar with the game; a bit later, her younger sister Mariya started playing, too. Anna Muzychuk took medals and first prizes in many world youth championships and won as many as five European youth championships. At the age of 12, Anna became an international master and, two years later, a grandmaster. In 2003, she won the Ukrainian women’s championship and repeated that achievement in 2014. Between 2003 and 2014, she represented the Slovenian Chess Federation in the international arena and then returned under the Ukrainian flag. She is World Women’s Junior Champion (2010), Two-Times World Blitz Champion (2014, 2016) and World Rapid Champion (2016). When playing on the first board of the Ukrainian national team at the World Chess Olympiad, she won silver in 2018 and twice received the bronze award (2014 and 2016). In 2016, she also won the gold for the best result on the first board. In 2017, at the World Women’s Championship, A. Muzychuk made it all the way to the finals, where she lost to the Chinese chess player Tan Zhongyi in a fierce struggle. At the end of the same year, Anna Muzychuk decided to boycott the World Rapid and Blitz Championship in Saudi Arabia despite being the current women’s champion in these two disciplines. Her Facebook post on the subject broke all records in the Ukrainian sector of that social network: it collected more than 160,000 likes and was shared by more than 70,000 people. “The age gap between me and my sister Mariya is two and a half years. Those who know us say that we’re totally different. She is fast, and I’m calm. But we’re on really good terms. We practice together, and never conflict; we just argue a little bit sometimes. A few times, we played against
Toronto Chess Festival for Women & Girls runs big
On Sunday, May 14th, Toronto became the centre of the female chess movement. The All4chess & Chess4All: Toronto Chess Festival for Women & Girls, which took place at the Hart House Chess Club of the University of Toronto, brought together more than 60 participants. The one-day free-to-attend event came to life thanks to the joint effort of the FIDE Commission for Women’s Chess, Chess Federation of Canada, Ontario Chess Association, and Hart House Chess Club. Deputy Chair of the FIDE Management Board, WGM Dana Reizniece-Ozola, was the Festival’s special guest. It was her first visit to Canada’s largest city. The day was packed with activities. The morning started with inspiring and instructive lectures by WGM Anna Burtasova, who spoke about the first Women’s World Champion Vera Menchik, WGM Dana Reizniece-Ozola, “How to Win the Game: a Secret to a Smart Game”, and WFM Oksana Golubeva who demonstrated impressive tactical strikes from the games of top women players. In addition, Ala Mischanka told the audience about FIDE’s “INFINITE Chess” project for children with ASD amid the plans to launch it in Canada. Soon we will publish the recording of the speeches on the FIDE YouTube channel. After a lunch break with free pizza for all attendants, the next item on the menu was a simultaneous exhibition by WGM Dana Reizniece-Ozola, WGM Anna Burtasova, and WFM Cindy Qiao. The simuls warmed everyone up for the afternoon rapid tournament. Played over the six rounds, it had numerous prizes in age and rating categories. Fifty-four players played hundreds of games and only a handful ended in draws. WGM Dana Reizniece-Ozola showed her class by sweeping the rapid event by a perfect 6 out of 6, followed by the group of players who shared for second with 5/6. The tiebreak criteria put WGM Anna Burtasova in second place and WFM Oksana Golubeva in third. Our congratulations to all winners in the categories! Trophy for the best player from the University of Toronto: WFM Cindy Qiao (5/6) Top U9 Trophy: Chloe Huang (4/6) Top U12 Trophy: Laksshana Deepak (4/6) Top U15 Trophy: Lucy Gao (5/6) Top U18 Trophy: April Zhong (5/6) Top U2000: Lucy Gao, April Zhong (5/6) Top U1600: Ingrid Wu, Duong Ngoc Minh Chau, Shabnam Abbarin, Adie Todd, Anna Gavrileva (all 4/6) Top U1200: Chloe Huang (4/6) Top U800: Victoria Lai, Katherine Leung, Angela Wang, Tiffany Chen (3/6) Top Unrated: Liza Augustin (3.5/6) And the cutest prize of them all: 6-year-old Carter Payne, the youngest participant, got a teddy bear. The top boards were broadcast live on Lichess:Toronto Chess Festival For Women & Girls • Round 1 • lichess.org Photos: Michael Reyes
WGP Nicosia: Lagno and Tan Zhongyi maintain the lead going into the 4th round
Appearances can be deceiving. Although the final score of the day featured only one decisive outcome – Shuvalova defeated Mammadzada in the longest game of the afternoon – the other five games were intensively fought. Even the first draw of the afternoon had some interesting nuances. After three of the eleven scheduled rounds, Kateryna Lagno and Tan Zhongyi maintain the lead with 2.5/3 while no less than three players –Goryachkina, Harika and Shuvalova – are breathing down their necks. The event was honoured by the surprise visit by Ms. Elżbieta Witek, Marshal of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland. Witek is Poland’s number two authority. Escorted by three or four security guards and administrative personnel, she performed the ceremonial move in the game between Kiolbasa and Khotenashvili. “It’s a special opportunity to be able to, symbolically, take part in the competition of the top chess players in the world, and specially to be able to play the first move for Oliwia Kiolbasa, one of Poland’s most talented female player’s” Witek said appreciatively. “Chess teaches us so many skills which both young players and outstanding women grandmasters can use to build relationships based on common respect, choosing the proper strategies and responsibilities for taking decisions. Such a prestigious sport as chess fits ideally into the development strategy of Cyprus and in the construction of further cooperation as we discussed here intensively during the past days”. Witek added: “I am very glad that in a couple of months, we shall host the top chess female players in the city of Bydgoszcz, Poland,” in reference to the World Team Championship. GM Dzagnidze, Nana vs GM Dronavalli, Harika vs (0.5-0.5) The first game of the afternoon to finish ended in a peaceful draw. In a reversed Colle-Zukertort Attack, which by the speed of their moves, both players knew perfectly, Dronavalli played a well-known piece sacrifice that, once accepted, inevitably leads to a forced perpetual draw. Funnily enough, the same draw pattern had been played in 2016 between two other very strong women masters, S.Foisor and N.Paikidze. GM Lagno, Kateryna vs GM Tan, Zhongyi (0.5-0.5) Soon after, another important game ended peacefully. Leading the field on +2, the winner of this match-up could easily forward her claim to be the overall winner of the event, even though it’s still early days. Many Chinese players excel in the Petroff defence (also called the Russian Game) and Tan Zhongyi is no exception. She knows the lines by heart and is capable of playing them at high speed. In a well-known theoretical variation, Lagno repeated a relatively new move – 15.Bf4 instead of 15.Qc2 – but the symmetrical nature of the position was just too hard of a nut to crack. Although Kateryna obtained an outpost for her rook on e5, the position was totally balanced and a draw was agreed on move thirty-five. WGM Wagner, Dinara vs IM Assaubayeva, Bibisara (0.5-0.5) For this important game, Assaubayeva once again opted for her beloved King’s Indian defence, in which she is an expert and has scored many excellent victories. Wagner likes to mix it up with White, and today she went for the Gligoric variation with Be2 and Be3, delaying kingside castling. I did notice a 2015 game played by her husband GM Denis Wagner in the same line: maybe they have been cooking up some interesting ideas in this variation! A typical KID middlegame was reached: White counted on an excellent knight on the e4 square and superior pawn structure, in exchange for many weaknesses on the dark squares. In her postgame interview, Assaubayeva recognized that she was slightly worse, but there were some options for counterplay. After some inaccuracies, Wagner forced the exchange of queen’s and the game petered out into a draw. IM Kiolbasa, Oliwia vs GM Khotenashvili, Bella (0.5-0.5) After two losses, Kiolbasa enjoyed the white pieces today. Opening with 1.e4, she went for a side-line in the Open variation of the Ruy Lopez – 6.Re1 instead of the more popular 6.d4. However, Khotenashvili came very well-prepared. She blitzed out all of her opening moves, including the engine novelty 12…Ng5, exchanging off some minor pieces to try and force equality. Kiolbasa still kept an edge going into the middlegame – a safer king in an opposite-coloured bishop, but it was hard to prove an advantage. In her postgame interview, Oliwia mentioned that maybe she was suffering a certain lack of experience and also that she overestimated her chances in today’s game. GM Kosteniuk, Alexandra vs GM Goryachkina, Aleksandra vs (0.5-0.5) Goryachkina introduced a very interesting novelty on move seven in a topical Italian game with 7….a5. Although it’s the first engine move, to date 7…0-0 and especially 7…Ne7 were the main lines. Nonetheless, it didn’t change the nature of the position very much. As far as I can tell, the key moment of the game revolved around the exchanges initiated on move fifteen, which left Kosteniuk with weak doubled pawns on the e-file and, more importantly, a fabulous outpost on e5 for one of Goryachkina’s knights. In exchange, Kosteniuk did have some pressure on the kingside – the f-file for her rooks and the f5 square for her knight. However, Goryachkina gradually pushed back Kosteniuk’s pieces and started to advance her own pawns on the queenside. Things were not looking good for White. After the 40th move time control, it became clear that only Black could win – finding the correct plan was the challenge. Kosteniuk has always been known for her fighting spirit and resilience in difficult positions and, once again, she defended tenaciously, forcing her opponent to surrender her queen for two rooks. A draw was soon agreed in a balanced position. IM Shuvalova, Polina vs IM Mammadzada, Gunay (1-0) Although Mammadzada has occasionally played the Sicilian Kan, she generally goes for the Najdorf variation. Today she revisited the Kan and ended up out of the opening in a slightly passive Marozcy position. It’s hard to pinpoint an exact mistake – probably 21…Be5, permitting some