The final round to decide the winner of Cyprus Grand Prix and two Women’s Candidates
GM Kateryna Lagno and GM Aleksandra Goryachkina qualified for the Candidates. It’s not often that the lowest-rated player in the field takes down a tough event, but WGM Dinara Wagner fought against the odds in Cyprus and achieved the most important success in her career. In the last-round, must-win scenario, Wagner defeated GM Bella Khotenashvili with Black in one of the most exciting rounds of chess I have ever witnessed. In addition to winning the fourth leg of the 2022-2023 FIDE Women’s Grand Prix and the first prize of 15,000 euros, Wagner scored her second IM norm and her first GM norm. With her important last-round win over IM Oliwia Kiolbasa, IM Polina Shuvalova shared second to fourth place with former World Champion GM Tan Zhongyi (third) and GM Harika Dronavalli (fourth), taking second on tiebreaks. The first game to finish in a draw was Lagno vs Assaubayeva. Although they played more than thirty moves, it was all home preparation, and both players seemed content with the result. Soon after, Goryachkina and Harika also split the point: with this result, Harika secured a well-deserved spot at the top of the table, confirming once again that her poor result in Delhi was already forgotten. Goryachkina also had a good reason to draw: after a series of very unfortunate results, a draw secured her qualification for the Candidates. Mammadzada and Kosteniuk battled it out in a technical queenless French Tarrasch, but neither of the two was able to unbalance the position to her favour, and the draw became inevitable. Shuvalova caught her opponent in opening preparation, and once again, Kiolbasa spent a huge amount of time: soon, she was in time trouble. Shuvalova missed a win and soon found herself in a complicated position but eventually, Kiolbasa blundered under the pressure. 40.Qxh6+ forced resignation due to 40…gxh6 41.Rg1+ In the key game of the day, Wagner outplayed her opponent with a very dangerous kingside attack, finishing things off with a nice tactic. 34…Bg2! Many roads lead to Rome and it is one of them. Bella tried 35.f3 but capitulated after 35…Qf4+ as Black checkmates in seven. From then on, she just had to wait to see if Tan Zhongyi could take advantage of her extra material against Dzagnidze. After some ups and downs, one of the most exciting games of the event ended in a draw. FIDE WGP Cyprus final standings Regarding the overall scores of the full Grand Prix, the winner is GM Kateryna Lagno, followed closely by GM Aleksandra Goryachkina. Both of these players qualify for the 2024 Women’s Candidates Tournament. Check out an interview with the overall winner of FIDE Women’s Grand Prix 2022-2023, Kateryna Lagno. FIDE Women’s Grand Prix 2022-2023 final standings During the closing ceremony FIDE General Secretary Lukasz Turlej expressed his gratitude to the Cyprus Chess Federation and partners Freedom Finance for the invitation to dispute the event in Nicosia and for the great conditions, hotel, and playing venue. Evgeniy Tyapkin, Executive Director of Freedom Finance Europe, confirmed that they were committed to cultivating the framework, the competition and the excitement in their partnership with FIDE in Cyprus and across the world. Olga Milko, Director of Business Development at Freedom Finance Europe, reminded everyone about the equality of opportunities. “Chess develops many strategic skills at the same time. Scientific research confirms that there is no difference in intelligence between genders, and if all other things are equal, girls show even better results.” Finally, Criton Tornaritis, President of the Cyprus Chess Federation, took the stage, congratulated all the players, and expressed his wish to see everyone again next year and organize more events in the future. Text: IM Michael Rahal (Nicosia, Cyprus) Photos: Mark Livshitz About Freedom Finance Europe Freedom Finance Europe, a subsidiary of Freedom Holding Corp., is a leading European stockbroker. The company’s Freedom24 web and mobile app investment platform provides traders with direct access to 15 global stock exchanges, including NYSE, Nasdaq, LSE, Euronext and others. Freedom Finance Europe is licensed by Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) with the right to cater clients from EU and EEA countries. The company is rated “B/B” by S&P Global Ratings. Headquartered in Limassol, the company has tied agents and representative offices in Berlin, Madrid, Paris, Milan, Vienna, Warsaw, and Athens. More information: https://www.freedom24.com/
Icelandic Championship: Vignir Vatnar Stefánsson wins maiden title
20-year-old IM Vignir Vatnar Stefánsson won his first Icelandic championship title in a close and exciting competition that came down to the wire. Like many previous editions, the 2023 Icelandic Championship was a 12-player round-robin tournament with classical time control that took place from May 15–25 in Hafnarfjordur, Iceland. As tournament fate would have it, as many as three participants – Gudmundur Kjartansson, Vignir Vatnar Stefánsson and Hannes Stefansson – scored 8.5/11 and tied for first place. In the final round, the leaders Vignir and Hannes drew their game (although the former was very close to a victory) while Gudmundur beat Lenka Ptacnikova and caught up with them. To determine the champion, a blitz double round robin (5 min + 5 sec increment) was played. Vignir Vatnar Stefánsson defeated Gudmundur Kjartansson and then escaped with a draw against Hannes Stefansson, while Kjartansson made quick work of Hannes Stefansson to score a full point. The competition culminated in the fourth-round game between Gudmundur Kjartansson and Vignir Vatnar Stefánsson. Playing with White, Gudmundur achieved a slightly better position but made a fatal error on move 28, allowing his opponent to launch a deadly attack. Now Vignir needed just a draw with the white pieces in the duel between Stefanssons. Although he was in danger at some point, Vignir (pictured below, left) managed to trade most of the pieces and reached a draw that secured his maiden national title. Final standings: 1 IM Vignir Vatnar Stefansson 2470 8½ 2 GM Gudmundur Kjartansson 2402 8½ 3 GM Hannes Stefansson 2521 8½ 4 IM Hilmir Freyr Heimisson 2353 8 5 GM Hjorvar Steinn Gretarsson 2539 6 6 FM Aleksandr Domalchuk-Jonasson 2338 5½ 7 GM Johann Hjartarson 2466 5½ 8 GM Henrik Danielsen 2501 4 9 IM Dagur Ragnarsson 2346 4 10 WGM Lenka Ptacnikova 2099 3 11 GM Bragi Thorfinnsson 2431 2½ 12 Johann Ingvason 2076 2 Official website: https://skak.is/frettir/ Photos: official website
Magnus Carlsen wins 2023 Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland
Magnus Carlsen won the 2023 Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland after another incredible performance during the second day of the blitz portion, ending with a score of 24/36 and taking home the $40,000 1st place prize. Placing 2nd was local favorite and defending champion Jan-Krzyzstof Duda, who led until the final day and ended just a point behind with 23/36, after nearly winning a final game against Carlsen that would have forced a playoff. Tied for third were Wesley So and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, each with 21½ points, with Levon Aronian finishing in clear fifth place with 20½. BLITZ | ROUNDS 10-18 Carlsen’s day started off with victories against Vachier-Lagrave and So, extending his fantastic win streak from the end of yesterday to seven. He was then held to a draw by Deac, who played most of the game on the increment, before going on to defeat Wojtaszek, Shevchenko, and Rapport in consecutive rounds to overtake the lead. 55.Qxb3! was the stylish finish in Carlsen – So, as 55…Nxb3 56.Nc2++- leaves White with three extra pawns. After 20…Nb4!, which ended the game Rapport – Carlsen. Then followed draws with Giri and Aronian, leaving Magnus a full point ahead of the previous day’s leader, Duda. Duda led for most of the event, and in the end was extremely close to forcing a playoff. | Photo courtesy of Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes For Duda the day was more up-and-down, as he won several games, defeating Rapport, Shevchenko, So, Deac, and Wojtaszek–but he also dropped a couple games to Giri, Aronian, and MVL. 23.Qd5+! allowed Duda to force a winning bishop ending against So. Going into the final round, Duda would need to defeat Carlsen with Black in order to catch up and force a playoff. Despite losing an exchange out of the opening, Duda managed to survive into the endgame and completely turn it around. The Polish No. 1 was even winning at various moments, with a bishop and two pawns against Carlsen’s rook. But in the time-scramble Duda missed a few chances and Carlsen managed to hold after 124 moves of play, clinching the title. After 116.Re8, …Bb6! was one of Duda’s missed opportunities in the game, as White cannot prevent e3: 117.Kd2 Kd4 (threatening e3+ Rxe3 Ba5+, etc.) The final game. | Photo courtesy of Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Finishing in third place were Wesley So and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, each taking home $22,500 and 7.5 GCT points. Wesley So | Photo courtesy of Grand Chess Tour, Bryan Adams Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | Photo courtesy of Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Fifth place and $15,000 for Levon Aronian | Photo courtesy of Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes $10,000 and four GCT points for Anish Giri | Photo courtesy of Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Current GCT Standings after Poland The 2023 Grand Chess Tour continues with the SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz in Zagreb, Croatia, taking place July 3-10. Tune in for live Grandmaster commentary 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#SuperbetRapidBlitzPoland Venue: Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, PolandMay 21 – May 25, 2023 Press Contact:press@grandchesstour.org Livestream:GrandChessTour.org