World Senior Championship 2023 prize fund breaks record
FIDE happy to announce that the prize fund of World Senior Chess Championship 2023 will hit the absolute record. The participants in categories age 50+ and 65+, Open and Women and Open 75+ (special prizes) will share the total amount of 42,500 Euros. 1-14 places in both Open sections, 1-5 places in Women sections will be awarded the money prizes. The 3 prizes in Open 75+ category is also have been increased. In addition, the top three finishers in each category will receive memorable trophies and gold, silver and bronze medals, respectively. Place Open 50+ Open65+ Women50+ Women 65+ Open 75+ 1st 3,000 3,000 1,500 1,500 1,000 2nd 2,500 2,500 1,200 1,200 700 3rd 2,000 2,000 850 850 500 The World Senior Chess Championships 2023 will be held in Terrasini, Italy from 24 October (arrival) to 6 November (departure) 2023. The Championship will be played in four categories: 50+ Open and Women, 65+, Open and Women. The deadline for the registration is August 30, 2023. Registration form Regulations for the FIDE World Senior Championships 2023 (pdf) FIDE Senior Chess Championships official website: worldsenior.fide.com E-mail: worldsenior@fide.com Photo: Wikipeida, Bjs
WWC Match 2023: Lei Tingjie takes initiative once again but Ju holds her to a draw
In the second game of the Match, World Champion Ju Wenjun played with the white pieces. Despite this advantage, Lei Tingjie once again seized the initiative and put pressure on Ju. However, the Women’s World Champion managed to hold and secure a draw It wasn’t just the colours that changed today—following yesterday’s game, Lei Tingjie requested to change her chair. This request may hold significance, as Ding Liren, in his match for the title of World Champion, tried and changed several chairs, which turned out to be a positive sign for him. The first move ceremony was made by KK Chan, President of the Hong Kong Chess Federation and Xu Qi, Deputy Director of Shanghai Sports Bureau. Ju opened with her standard move 1.d4. In the Tarrasch defence, both sides played steadily, but Lei gradually took over the initiative with active pawn pushes on both flanks. Despite the position being roughly even, Black was the side with more chances to play for a victory. With 23…b4 Lei began an advance on the queenside which threatened to end with her rook getting down to the second rank and putting significant pressure on White. Ju found the best way to counter but she was in an uncomfortable position, under pressure, reminiscent of the first game of the match. However, Lei was in time trouble and had 15 minutes on the clock to make more than 15 moves to reach the first time control. With the clock ticking and Ju’s skilful response, Black’s initiative failed to materialize into a tangible advantage. Subsequently, piece exchanges occurred on the board, leading to an even bishop and rook endgame by move 34. After 40 moves and three and a half hours of play, the two agreed on a draw. The score is now 1:1. Another uncomfortable day for Ju as she was again on the defensive side, despite playing with white pieces. In the post-game interview, she acknowledged being under more pressure saying “White had to play precisely” to hold. At the post-game press conference, an interesting question came from Deputy Press Officer Gu Xiaobing. She asked which player the contenders would like to meet at the board. Ju Wenjun said she wants to play younger Ding Liren, whom she can beat, while Lei Tingjie would choose to play against Carlsen at any time. Friday will be the first rest day of the Match. As both sides recover and reflect, Ju will need to think more about how far she can continue playing defence, while Lei will need to reconsider how to push herself further to convert an edge into a victory. Here follows a closer look at the second game of the match: Unlike her counterpart in the first game, Ju Wenjun played her usual opening move 1.d4 to which Lei Tingjie responded with the Tarrasch Defence. The game saw a topical line that has been extensively tested by the elite players. 10…Bg4 Lei demonstrated a good opening preparation. This move is more precise than the immediate 10…Be6. As Grandmaster Alik Gershon put it, the idea behind this continuation was “forcing White to return the b5-bishop to e2, moving it to a worse position, and then she went for Be6”. The opponents followed a recent game Mamedyarov – Nepomniachtchi (Zagreb, 2022) up to certain point, but Lei deviated first. 13…Rc8 After this move, both players started spending more time on the clock, suggesting both were out of their preparation. 14.a3 A more natural choice was Qd2, connecting the rooks. At this stage of the game, Ju proceeded somewhat sluggishly and allowed Lei to become the more active side. 17…g5 Played by Lei after six minutes. After expanding on the queenside, Lei pushed on the kingside. The thematic sacrifice 18.Nxg5 hxg5 19.Bxg5 doesn’t work here as Black consolidates with 19…Kg7 followed by Rh8. By move 20 GM Alik Gershon concluded: “With a series of energetic moves, Lei has taken over the initiative”. 23…b4. Black has now started her sharp offensive on White, but Ju’s position – although slightly weaker – is definitely holdable. After 24.Na4 Qb5 offering an exchange of queens and threatening to get the rook on e2, Ju spent a lot of time thinking and lost the clock advantage she had over Lei but found the best defence. 26…Nxb4 Black had another interesting option 26…Bxf3. Lei again started falling behind on time at this point. After 27.Rd2 was played, Lei had 15 minutes on the clock, while Ju had just under 30 minutes. With 13 moves to the first time control, Lei needed to be mindful of her time problems. A couple of moves down the road, the challenger missed her last chance to pose some problems for White. 28…Bf5 According to chess engines, the endgame emerging after 28…Bxf3 is slightly better for Black, although with an accurate defence White should hold. As played, Ju timely defused the tension and forced massive exchanges. After 30.Ne5 Nxe5 31.dxe4 Rxe5 32.Nxd5 Nxd5 33.Bxd5 Re1+ 34.Kh2 a5, it came down to a drawn rook and bishop endgame. Both players knew this was a draw, but the rules forbid them from offering a draw before move 40, so they continued playing and shook hands right after reaching the time control. Text: Milan Dinic Photos: Stev Bonhage Official website: womenworldchampionship.fide.com/ About the Match The match will take place in two Chinese cities, where each of the contestants comes from. The first half of the match will be in Shanghai, while the second half takes place in Chongqing. The match will consist of 12 games of classical chess. The payers will have 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 more minutes for the rest of the game, plus a 30-second increment per move starting on move one. Players cannot offer a draw before they reach the 41st move. In case of a tie, there will be the following tiebreaks: Four games with a 25+10 time control. Two games with a 5+3 time control. Two more games with a 5+3 time control. One game with a 3+2 time control, until a
GCT SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz Croatia: Day 1 Recap
Five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand shined on the first day of the SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz, the third leg of the 2023 Grand Chess Tour hosted by Zagreb, Croatia. After three rounds of play, currently tied for second place are World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen, Jan-Krzystof Duda, and Richard Rapport, each just a point behind Anand. RAPID | ROUNDS 1-3 The early leader of the event turned out to be the Polish No. 1 Duda, who won his first two games against Nepomniachtchi and Firouzja in very nice fashion. 16.Nc6! was a nice find by Duda, winning Black’s queen. 1-0, 33 moves Duda got off to a hot start, beating two of his biggest rivals in back-to-back games. | Photo courtesy of Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Duda’s perfect run would be stopped by Rapport, who emerged with extra material after trapping Duda’s knight in the center of the board. Rapport also scored in Round 1, after finding an unexpected mating net in a nervy time-scramble against Caruana: 62.Kg4! forced resignation as Black had no defense to the threat of Rh2+, followed by mate. Wins over Caruana and Duda for Rapport, who’s tied for second heading into Day 2. | Photo courtesy of Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes This allowed Rapport to reach Duda in the standings and for Anand to jump into the lead, as he drew with Firouzja in Round 1 before scoring wins against Rapport and Lupulescu thanks to some excellent technique: Here Anand played 18.Qxb7!, correctly grabbing a pawn which he was able to hold onto. | 1-0, 41 moves The leader after Day 1, Vishy Anand. | Photo courtesy of Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes Ending with 4.0/6 along with Duda and Rapport was Carlsen, whose campaign started with a win over the youngest participant, Gukesh, but was then followed by draws against Saric and Nepomniachtchi. 21…f4! gave Black a fantastic initiative on the kingside, which Magnus duly converted. 0-1, 36 moves. A win and two draws for the top seed Carlsen. | Photo courtesy of Grand Chess Tour, Lennart Ootes The 2023 SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz in continues Thursday, July 6, with tournament action live starting at 7:05 AM CT with Grandmaster commentators Yasser Seirawan, Evgenij Miroshnichenko, 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 Further Information: Web: GrandChessTour.org | Twitter: @GrandChessTourInstagram: @GrandChessTour | Facebook: @GrandChessTour Venue: The Westin Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia July 5 – 9, 2023 Press Contact:press@grandchesstour.org Livestream:GrandChessTour.org Photos:Courtesy of Grand Chess Tour and Spectrum StudiosCredits available on Flickr.
FIDE WRTC 2023: Showdown in Düsseldorf
From August 25-28, 2023, German Düsseldorf will host a unique competition, the inaugural edition of the World Rapid Team Championship, organized by FIDE in partnership with WR Group Holding GmbH. The 12-round Swiss tournament with rapid time control will see the squads from all over the world fight for the €250,000 prize fund, with the winners taking home €100,000. The playing venue is Rheinterrasse located right in the heart of Düsseldorf, directly on the Rhine. The format Each team shall be composed of at least six and not more than nine players, and it must include at least one female and one recreational player, who never achieved FIDE rating of 2000. Each match is played on six boards, with at least one female and one recreational player in every match. The time control: 15 minutes for the first with an increment of 10 seconds per move starting from move 1. Matches are scored by match points, with 2 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, and 0 points for a loss. The team with the most match points will become the champion. The teams The World Rapid Team Championship attracted several dozen squads, with some of them assembling stellar lineups. Based on average rating, there are as many as four clear favourites: WR Chess (Duda, So, Nepomniachtchi, Abdusattorov, Keymer, Praggnanandhaa R, Hou Yifan and Kosteniuk), Freedom (Rapport, Anand, Dubov, Najer, Shuvalova and Shapiro), Team MGD1 (Erigaisi, Sarin, Harikrishna, Sadhwani, Dronavalli) and Kompetenzakademie Allstars (Caruana, Aronian, Gukesh D, Tsatsalashvili). Let’s not forget that in team events, average rating often is not as important as team spirit, camaraderie, grit and determination. Take, for example, Armenia’s three gold medals in the 2006, 2008 and 2012 Chess Olympiads. Another critical factor is the participation of recreational players in every match, which can add an element of unpredictability and serve as an equalizer in critical moments. With this in mind, squads like Ashdod Elit Chess Club (headed by Pavel Eljanov), Armenia (that can easily represent the country in Chess Olympiads), ASV AlphaEchecs LINZ, Uzbekistan (basically the country’s national team minus Nodirbek Abdusattorov) and some other teams also have a shot for the title. Since this democratic competition is open to all, many teams consisting of low-rated and recreational players will participate. For them, the World Rapid Team Championship is a unique opportunity to face the best players in the world over the board and gain valuable experience. Given a long 12-round tournament distance, all the top teams are bound to play each other, so we can expect a riveting chess spectacle in Dusseldorf. Check out all the registered teams and lineups on the official website.