2023 GCT Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland: Day 3 Recap
Jan-Krzyszstof Duda won the rapid portion of the 2023 Superbet Rapid & Blitz after ending the third day with a score of 13/18, sole leading the event going into the blitz portion tomorrow. With 18 rounds of blitz to play, Levon Aronian is currently in second with 12/18 while Wesley So and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave are tied for third with 11/18 points. Meanwhile World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen ended the day in clear fifth, after scoring two wins a draw to regain his usual form. RAPID | ROUNDS 7-9 The day started with Vachier-Lagrave defeating So, one of yesterday’s co-leaders, after finding a nice breakthrough in the middlegame: 25.d6! Opened up the bishop on c4 and was followed with g4-g5, posing serious problems. Also taking place in Round 7 was Carlsen finally scoring his first win of the event, taking advantage of several mistakes in the endgame by Deac: After 23…c5, Carlsen managed to exchange his c-pawn and then win White’s a-pawn, converting the resulting endgame. The former champ showed signs of his usual self today. | Photo courtesy of Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes A draw by Duda with Shevchenko allowed him to pull ahead of So, as did Aronian who converted a nice middlegame advantage against Wojtaszek. In the next round Duda pulled ahead with a win over MVL, which featured a nice queen sacrifice for a rook and minor piece: After 19.Bxd3, Duda had a rook, bishop, and two pawns for Black’s queen, which proved to be more than enough. Last year’s winner looks poised to repeat his title this year. | Photo courtesy of Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes In the meantime Carlsen started to pick up steam, displaying more endgame magic against Shevchenko to win his second game with Black in a row: After 39…Bd4!, Carlsen was able to activate his king via the c5-square. In the ninth and final round of the rapid Duda drew with Aronian, solidifying their first and second place standing, while MVL was the sole winner, defeating Shevchenko in a Sicilian Dragon to sneak into third place. MVL started slow with one win and five draws, but went 2-1 today to keep himself within reach of first. | Photo courtesy of Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Carlsen’s third game of the day was a wild encounter against Rapport, who missed some chances as the players went into a messy time scramble which eventually ended in a perpetual check. One win, one loss, and seven draws in the rapid for Rapport. | Photo courtesy of Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes The 2023 Superbet Rapid & Blitz continues Wednesday, May 24, with tournament action live starting at 7:05 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: @GrandChessTour Instagram: @GrandChessTour | Facebook: @GrandChessTour #GrandChessTour #SuperbetRapidBlitzPoland Venue: Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, Poland May 21 – May 25, 2023 Press Contact: press@grandchesstour.org Livestream: GrandChessTour.org
5th FIDE World Championships for People with Disabilities: Registration is open
FIDE and the Polish Chess Federation are happy to invite all FIDE member federations, organizations affiliated with FIDE (IBCA, ICCD, IPCA) and eligible players to participate in the 5th World Chess Championships for People with Disabilities 2023. The championships will be held in Lublin, Poland from August 18 of August (arrivals) to August 28 (departures), 2023. Photo: Pankrzysztoff Only players with communication (hearing) impairments, visual impairments and physical disabilities are eligible to take part in the event. Players shall be approved by his/her National Chess Federation or organization affiliated with the FIDE or by the FIDE DIS Commission. The deadline for the registration is July 1, 2023. Regulations and invitation letter (pdf) Registration form 5th World Chess Championships for People with Disabilities official website will be launched by May 31. E-mail: wccpd2023@fide.com
FIDE WGP Cyprus: Wagner holds the lead with three rounds to go
Several guests made an appearance at the Nicosia Hilton this afternoon to follow the eighth round live. The ceremonial first move was played by Olga Milko, Business Development Director of Freedom Finance Europe, the main event’s sponsor. After starting the game between Assaubayeva and Khotenashvili, she was kind enough to spare some time to talk to us about the projects with the Cyprus Chess Federation. “Chess is the most underestimated sport as I see it now. After this tournament, I want to take a lot of initiatives to develop the sport in Cyprus, and probably in the next few years, we will see some great women and men taking part in international competitions of FIDE,” Olga explained proudly, having supported Bibisara in her game. Other guests included Alexandra Attalides, Member of Parliament for the Green Party; Annita Demetriou, Speaker of the House of Representatives of Cyprus and Criton Tornaritis, President of the Cyprus Chess Federation. Short interviews with all the guests can be found on FIDE’s Youtube Channel. IM Assaubayeva, Bibisara vs GM Khotenashvili, Bella (1-0) In an attempt to steer the game out of theory and surprise her opponent, Khotenashvili chose a very secondary move in the main-line Grunfeld (9…Qc7) that backfired. Confident after yesterday’s win, Assaubayeva played for the standard kingside attack and quickly exerted a huge amount of pressure both on the board and on the clock. In this position, Assaubayeva played 23.Ba4, hitting the knight and preparing to trap the black queen with the rooks. Instead, 23.Rf4! followed by ideas such as Qh3, f6, Rh4 would have led to a deadly attack. Although slightly worried that Khotenashvili would come up with a defence, Assaubayeva pushed through and notched up her second win in a row. After the game, she was popped into the press centre and gave a quick interview. “I am happy to be on 50%, and now I just want to play chess and see what happens. To relax here, I sometimes go to the gym or go for a walk, or just watch some videos,” she explained. GM Kosteniuk, Alexandra vs IM Kiolbasa, Oliwia (0.5-0.5) After four consecutive losses, Poland’s number two player IM Oliwia Kiolbasa finally scored half a point this afternoon in her encounter against GM Alexandra Kosteniuk. Playing with Black, Kiolbasa surprised her opponent with an offbeat line in the Sicilian, the Lowenthal variation. The idea worked well: Kosteniuk hesitantly played – 9.a3 was already a step in the wrong direction – and soon landed in serious trouble. At some point, she was probably lost, but there was never a clear-cut way to finish off the game, and Kosteniuk’s resilience in worse positions is notoriously well-known. In serious time trouble, Kiolbasa decided prudently to accept a three-fold repetition, probably a smart decision, with ten moves to go to the time control and no clear way to continue. “This is a completely different tournament. At the Olympiad (she won a medal), I was playing third-board against weaker opponents and here everyone is playing for a win, pressing to the end. It’s definitely a learning experience for me,” Oliwia explained pragmatically when I asked her how she was dealing with the tough tournament situation. WGM Wagner, Dinara vs IM Shuvalova, Polina (0.5-0.5) Wagner used up another one of her seven lives today. Shuvalova came to the game, as usual, with excellent opening preparation and blitzed out her first eighteen moves at the speed of light. Under such pressure, Wagner blundered a pawn and was already on the defensive; in addition, she was running out of time. However, in a complex position with an extra pawn, Shuvalova missed some chances to convert to a decisive advantage, and Wagner managed to bail out into an opposite-coloured bishop ending: even a pawn down, the draw was unavoidable. GM Dzagnidze, Nana vs GM Lagno, Kateryna vs (0.5-0.5) In an attempt to avoid any type of home preparation, Dzagnidze chose an offbeat variation in the Queen’s Gambit Exchanged, in the hope of creating an unfamiliar situation for Lagno. A tactical melee was the result, out of which Dzagnidze emerged with an extra pawn, albeit with very few winning chances due to the drawing nature of rook endings with four pawns against three on the same side. Lagno defended with precision and a draw was agreed on move sixty-eight. GM Goryachkina, Aleksandra vs GM Tan, Zhongyi (0.5-0.5) A classical match-up in women’s chess. Goryachkina and Tan Zhongyi have faced each other none less than ten times since their first encounter in 2015, with mixed results. Goryachkina eliminated Tan Zhongyi in the 2019 Women’s Candidates, but more recently, Tan Zhongyi unexpectedly eliminated Goryachkina in the 2022 Women’s Candidates. Today’s game was a theoretical Catalan Opening, which both players executed swiftly, directly side-stepping the middlegame. Following a 2018 game between Chinese GM’s Ni Hua and Lu Shanglei, which ended in a draw, they battled it out in a: knight-against-bishop endgame which was slightly better for Goryachkina. Aleksandra tried her best for sixty-two moves, hoping to secure an edge in the case of a mistake by her opponent, but, ultimately, had to settle for a three-fold repetition. GM Dronavalli, Harika vs IM Mammadzada, Gunay (0.5-0.5) As Harika explained herself in the post-game video: “It’s fair to say that I was lucky in this game, I didn’t play well at all.” Already on the opening, she spent more than fifteen minutes to play 14.c5, an incorrect plan in the position. The advantage was on Mammadzada’s side: she gradually increased the pressure, and it looked as if she was going to score her second win of the event. However, Harika spotted a very nice trick 51.f4!? in the opposite-coloured bishop ending that landed her a draw, although technically speaking, she was still losing. Don’t miss Harika’s analysis in the last interview of the afternoon, which was recorded on the board immediately after the game, and includes a brief explanation of how to handle these endings. Text: IM Michael Rahal (Nicosia, Cyprus) Photos: Mark Livshitz About Freedom Finance Europe Freedom Finance
FIDE WGP Cyprus R07: Missed opportunities
The seventh round of the Cyprus Women’s Grand Prix ended with a huge surprise: WGM Dinara Wagner, the lowest-rated player in the field, leads the event with four rounds to go and is on track for her second IM norm and, who knows, even a GM norm. In addition to the surprise leader, the key element of the day was several missed opportunities. Both Tan Zhongyi and Gunay Mammadzada won their opponent’s queen for a rook and a minor piece but were unable to convert. The ceremonial first move was played by Christiana Erotokritou, Member of the Cyprus Parliament for the Democratic Party and Chair of the Budget and Finance Committee. After the round had begun, Christiana was kind enough to talk to us: “My heart feels support for women who want to push themselves, to push their brains and their minds, to take their efforts to the next level. And whatever inspires your mind to move quicker, faster, better, more cleverly — I think that is something women should be inspired by. And that’s why I’m here.” Christiana is passionate about the game, and her choice of move – 1.e4 – was based on his suggestion. IM Shuvalova, Polina vs GM Dronavalli, Harika (0,5-0,5) The first game to finish ended in a draw by perpetual check. Shuvalova went for a well-known line in the Rubinstein variation of the Four Knights Opening, which leads to a forced draw with perfect play. The key move, which Black must know beforehand, is 14…Qh4! Any other move allows White to consolidate the position and convert the extra material. I found several Grandmaster games with the same continuation, among them Vasilevich vs Lagno. Once again, Shuvalova finished the game with more time on her clock than at the beginning. GM Kosteniuk, Alexandra vs IM Assaubayeva, Bibisara (0-1) Bibisara Assaubayeva scored her first win of the tournament against Alexandra Kosteniuk. They had faced each other many times, but only twice in classical chess, with one victory each. Their most recent game finished in a win for Assaubayeva with Black, in the Astana leg of the WGP. Funnily enough, most of their games have been Sicilian Defence in which Kosteniuk had the white pieces. “I don’t know why, but I always play with Alexandra Kosteniuk with Black but the results in our games are different. Today I was more prepared in the opening, and that’s it,” Bibisara explained to Press Officer Michael Rahal after the game. In today’s game, Assaubayeva went for 2…Nc6 and Kosteniuk once again played the Rossolimo Attack, one of her main weapons in Cyprus. It’s hard to say if Kosteniuk mixed up her move order or just wanted to get out of the book as soon as possible – in any case, after eight minutes of thought, she opted for 8.Na3 instead of the most theoretical 8.Bf4. However, there is an important difference: the bishop can’t get to d6, and therefore, there is less compensation for the sacrificed pawn. Assaubayeva played very well, nullifying her opponent’s initiative and consolidating her extra pawn, plus the two bishops. On move twenty, the engine was already suggesting +4 advantages for Black, and Assaubayeva wrapped up the game with ease. After the game, she was kind enough to spend some time with us discussing the encounter and her tournament up to now. IM Mammadzada, Gunay vs GM Goryachkina, Aleksandra (0,5-0,5) Mammadzada and Goryachkina are from the same generation. They played several times in the Under-10 and Under-12 European and World Girls Championships and subsequently in quite a few events, with Goryachkina generally taking the upper hand. But today Mammadzada was in top form. In an equal position that emerged in a theoretical line of Slav defence, Goryachkina overextended with 20…e5, allowing Mammadzada’s knights to create havoc. However, the real damage was done after the blunder 28…Qc7 Any other queen move would have allowed Goryachkina to hold a worse, but not lost position, but the c7 square was unfortunate – Mammadzada’s 29.Qc5! highlighted the threats to the a7 and b4 pawns but, more importantly, Ne7+ winning the queen, a combination that was unavoidable and occurred in the game. However, Goryachkina is a tough nut to crack. She defended with rook and knight tenaciously, and although Mammadzada played well enough to create the imbalance needed to convert, she was unable to seal the deal. IM Kiolbasa, Oliwia vs GM Dzagnidze, Nana (0-1) Nana Dzagnidze won her second game in Cyprus this afternoon by defeating Oliwia Kiolbasa in a fine game. As expected, Dzagnidze went for the Taimanov Sicilian, and Kiolbasa prepared an interesting side-line, with 7.a3 followed by the aggressive push 10.h4 and 11.h5. After the game, Dzagnidze mentioned that Kiolbasa had already played this line and that she came well prepared. Nonetheless, Dzagnidze is a very experienced grandmaster with a huge baggage of classical games behind her. After some thought, she came up with a very principled way to continue, winning a pawn for dubious compensation. Kiolbasa was still able to complicate matters and fight back in an open position with opposite-coloured bishops, but Dzagnidze kept her cool and notched up a point. When asked about how she forgets a bad game and prepares for the next one, Dzagnidze was very professional: “When you play such a tournament, you are obliged to forget about the previous game and concentrate on what you have now. And if you are a professional chess player, you need to do your best in every single game”. For Kiolbasa, there just doesn’t seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel. After her fourth loss in a row, and six out of the seven games, it will require a mighty effort for her to stand up to the pressure and carry on for the last four games. GM Lagno, Kateryna vs WGM Wagner, Dinara (0-1) This clash promised to be interesting. In their only previous game together, Lagno defeated Wagner in Astana at the first leg of the WGP series. In this afternoon’s game, Lagno