Samunenkov and Gurel receive wild cards for FIDE Grand Swiss 2023
The world’s strongest Swiss-system chess event, FIDE Grand Swiss, is set to be played on the Isle of Man from October 23 to November 6, 2023. The tournament is the gathering of the world’s top guns with two FIDE Candidates spots on stake, an opportunity to take home part of the USD 600,000 combined prize fund, and a perfect testing ground for young talents. At the end of July, we announced that 100 players had already confirmed their participation in the Grand Swiss and 40 players in the Women’s Grand Swiss. However, wild cards are still being distributed, and we’re happy to announce that two of them will go to the exceptional young talents, International Masters Ihor Samunenkov from Ukraine and Ediz Gurel from Turkey. Samunenkov in 2021, photo by Chess.com 14-year-old IM Ihor Samunenkov made headlines in 2021 when at the age of 12, he became the Ukrainian Champion, not in his age group, but an overall one! Currently rated 2515, Ihor is the world’s number two among players under 14 after GM Abhimanyu Mishra, who is already on the list of Grand Swiss participants. Gurel at the U16 Chess Olympiad, photo by Lennart Ootes IM Ediz Gurel from Turkey is also well known in the chess world. With 2512, he is the strongest 15-year-old in the world. These days, he’s leading the Turkish team at the Youth Olympiad U16 which is underway in Netherlands. He came there right after scoring a major upset at the FIDE World Cup where he defeated GM Velimir Ivic in the first game of their match. It is worth noting that two more players have just qualified for the Grand Swiss from the World Cup currently running in Azerbaijan. Hungarian GM Ferenc Berkes in the World Cup and IM Medina Warda Aulia from Indonesia in the Women’s World Cup got the tickets to FIDE Grand Swiss reserved for players who reach the Round of 16 in Baku.
Interview with FIDE CEO GM Emil Sutovsky
Taken during the FIDE World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan, on the 7th of August, 2023, by IM Michael Rahal, FIDE Press Officer of the event. You can watch the full interview on our YouTube channel. – I’m joined by International Grandmaster and FIDE Chief Executive Officer since 2022, Emil Sutovsky. Emil, good morning and thank you for coming to the interview. – Hi, Michael. – Emil, as a player, you went over 2700 in 2012, but now you’re basically just playing a few games each year. Your main role now is FIDE’s Chief Executive Officer. You were Director General from 2018 to 2022. Tell us about your new role in FIDE since last year, what does your job entail, and the difference with being a Director General? – Thank you. A good question. I keep doing more or less the same things, but it’s just more responsibility because now we have a wider scope of activities. I also have to take various decisions, which my present position reflects more because the description of Director General is a bit vaguer than CEO. Obviously, most of the decisions are related to the commercial side and professional side of the competitions because, as you are fully aware, FIDE does both the professional part and the social and educational part. So, I’m more focused on the commercial side, professional broadcasting, and I’m also in charge of all major events like World Championships, World Cups and so on. In the Olympiad, of course, the responsibility is huge, and it is growing. The number of our competitions is getting bigger and our team also has expanded to that effect. I hope that the results which we bring are well felt in the chess community. – We’re in Baku, in the trophy room of the Marriot Boulevard Hotel, in the wonderful surroundings of the World Cup 2023. The World Cup was originally planned for South Korea, but finally came to Baku. And I know that your personal and professional involvement was key, it was fundamental in bringing it here. Tell me, how did the bid come about? – We had negotiations with South Korea throughout 2022, and during the Olympiad in Chennai it was announced publicly that they’re going to submit a bid. For us, it would have been great if South Korea emerged as another major player on the chess map. As you know, we are trying to develop chess and stage it in as many countries and continents as possible. Of course, South Korea is an important strategical region where we’d be happy to host an event like the World Cup or similar. While we were expecting them to submit a bid, it started to take more and more time and when the deadline finally came, nothing official had been submitted. In parallel, we were taking to Baku. As you know, I was born in Baku. And actually, my first serious chess partner was none other than Garry Kasparov himself. We lived on the same street, literally 100 yards away. And I remember visiting him when I was 5 or 6 and so on. We played the game. Of course, he was already a top player and I was just a kid. It was an inspiration for me. I left Baku over 30 years ago, my family moved to Israel, but the ties remained and I think it was also noticeable throughout the years when I was a player and later a coach. I helped many of the young Azeri players since Radjabov. At one stage or another many of them were my students. So, I kept this good contact with the local federation. And we did organize some projects before. But when the idea to stage the World Cup emerged, I came to Baku in advance to have some negotiations and to meet the sports minister who supported the idea. And then we managed to organize a meeting with the President of the country, Mr. Aliyev, and, of course, the FIDE President, Arkady Dvorkovich, led the delegation. I was a part of it and the decision was taken. I think it’s very natural that it’s organised in Baku, with its vast chess tradition and strong players. Typically, there was a well-known squad from Baku in Open competitions, but in recent years, the ladies from Azerbaijan have also progressed enormously, finishing top five in the Olympiad. Therefore, it was a natural choice and I think it was a good decision. And the level of organization is something we are pleased about. – We’re about to finish the third round, which is halfway through the tournament. Is it running as planned from what you’ve seen? Would you have changed anything? – In general, I’m happy. I think the event itself is unique for chess, a combination of the top players participating but also an opportunity for representatives from many countries. There are over 90 countries here taking part, and the champions are participating. For the first time ever, an Indonesian player qualified for the top 16: that’s already something very meaningful and hopefully can boost interest for chess in the country. FIDE has brought a huge team here to help the local organizers. Previously, that was not the practice, but already for a few years now we have been doing it in order to secure the highest possible level of organization. It’s a long four weeks event, and it requires a lot of preparation. Obviously, we can always find ways to improve. I think that one major area we will try to invest more and improve is making the games more spectacular on screen: maybe using other more sophisticated approaches to broadcast the events, because we have been improving the quality of the broadcasts, but the format remained the same throughout. Chess has been broadcasted over the last 20 years, and I still think that we can do a lot about
Important changes in FIDE Regulations for the Appointment of Arbiters in World Events
Dear chess friends, We would like to inform you about the most important changes in FIDE Regulations for Appointment of Arbiters in World Events (Handbook B06.4), effective from July 20th 2023. These regulations existed since 2022, and they established the first panels of arbiters. The reasons for changing the regulations are: a) increase the number of arbiters in each panel to enable more people to get appointments as Chief and Deputy Chief Arbiter of world events. b) adding the possibility to deal with unforeseen circumstances c) Fair Play Officers have been removed from the regulations d) correct some typos and unclear rules – distinguish between nomination and appointment e) open the process of establishing panels to other relevant bodies as FIDE Council, MB, EVE and GSC through a consultation team Some more detailed information: These regulations no more deal with Fair play officers as they have their own FIDE commission and it is different role being an arbiter and being a FPO. In accordance with FIDE policy, at least 25 % of arbiters in higher Panels (green, blue or red) must be female, each Panel must be geographically diverse, and have representation from each Continent. Higher Panels were enlarged (green from 20 to 25 members, blue from 35 to 45 members, red from 50 to 60 members) Until now, arbiter could be appointed as a Chief Arbiter to a maximum of two (2) FIDE official events per year, same applied for Deputy Chief Arbiter. Now the total nomination is limited – Arbiters can be appointed as a Chief Arbiter or Deputy Chief Arbiter to a maximum of two (2) FIDE official events per year. FIDE President keeps the rights to grant exception to arbiter from the lower panel. At the Olympiad, the Organiser may propose up to 25% of the arbiters, who do not need to be on a panel. They may come from the host Federation, or a Federation that shares a land border with the host Federation. The procedural rules to establish the Panels was updated. Councillors on the Arbiters Commission will discuss the Panel membership with other bodies – Continental arbiters commissions and also with a consultation team. The consultation team includes one representative from each of FIDE Council, the FIDE Management Board, the Global Strategy Commission, and the FIDE Events Commission. IA Ivan SYROVYChairmanFIDE Arbiters’ Commission IA Nebojsa BARALICSecretaryFIDE Arbiters’ Commission
FIDE World Youth Olympiad 2023: Day 3 Recap
On the third day of the Youth Olympiad, two rounds were played. It was a day filled with sharp openings and tough endgames, and above all, it became China’s day. At the beginning of the third day, China and the Netherlands 1 were leading the standings. In the fourth round, these teams faced each other. The winner of this match would take the lead. There isn’t a player who falls behind the others in team China: they all score above average. In fact, at the start of the day, all Chinese players are still undefeated. Although the Dutch team has also collected all match points, the individual results are somewhat more variable. Photo: Lennart Ootes The powerful Chinese player Miaoyi Lu continues to win. On the live stream, Stefan Kuipers tells his co-commentator Anna-Maja Kazarian about one of his favorites in this tournament: China’s board four player, Miaoyi Lu. Both in the opening and in the endgame, she is intimidatingly fast and accurate. In her game in the third round against the Dutch Dana Verheij, she pauses in a sharp Richter-Rauzer variation of the Sicilian: This seems justified. Interesting possibilities like 10.e5! are already on the horizon. When the d-file opens, the power of the battery of rook and queen becomes evident. At the same time, the knight and queen are tied to the defense of the bishop on d7. Miaoyi Lu chooses the equally strong 10.f4 and after 10…Be7, she plays 11.e5. This move has now become even stronger. After 11…dxe5 12.fxe5 Nd5 13.Bxe7 Qxe7 14.Ne4, it becomes clear that the dark squares are vulnerable in Black’s camp. Black seems to get away with 14…0-0 15.c4 Nb6 16.Qf2 Rab8; everything is covered. But that’s not the case. Miaoyi Lu demonstrates the weaknesses of the black position with 17.Nf6+!! Naturally, black must not capture, and after the sad 17…Kh8 18.Qh4 h6, the knight remains invulnerable, allowing white to calmly build up an attack. The game didn’t last much longer. After 19.Bd3 Na4, white wins the black queen: 20.Qe4 g6 21.Qh4! White retreats to threaten checkmate on h6 and bring a deadly discovered check into the position. After 21…Kg7, 22.Nh5+ decides the game. 1-0. Once again, an excellent performance by the Chinese player. At the second board, we see Tong(Qd) Xiao win convincingly against Arthur de Winter. For a long time, the players followed a recent top-level game between Pentala Harikrishna and Nikita Vitiugov, which was won by the latter. Even then, the player playing with the black pieces remained unfazed after a check and moved his king confidently with 10…Kf8. However, the king turned out to be less safe than expected. The following position emerged several moves down the road: Although black had the opportunity to fork the queen and bishop with 27…f4, white was not concerned about it. After 28.Bxf4 gxf4 29.Nxf4, the black king is under attack and the black pieces become dead wood. The rook on h8, the bishop on f8, and the knight on h6 are all written off, while the white rooks are ready to invade the seventh rank. White soon won. 1-0 When the third board between Prajit Sai Kumar and Xiangrui Kong was won by the Chinese player, Yichen Han on board 1 had to defend the Dutch honor against Haowen Xue. However, he only managed to achieve a draw with the white pieces. China confidently won by a score of 3½-½ and grabbed the lead. Inevitably, there are many teams in pursuit. The eagerness of the teams to win is evident from the number of Najdorf positions in the playing hall. Additionally, the fast time control of 45+10 leads to true chess spectacles. In the second board of the match Kazakhstan 1–Azerbaijan, Ahmad Khagan seemed to have more success with the white pieces against Daniyal Sapenov. The game followed the same variation as the game of the day yesterday (Milikow—Makridis, brilliantly won by the latter), but instead of the calm 9.Be2, White played 9.Nd5 Bxd5 10.exd5, resulting in a completely different pawn structure. The position in the next diagram seems intimidating for Black, but in reality, the black king can navigate through it. Meanwhile, the white pawn on d5 is merely blocking the white pieces. White tried to remedy this by sacrificing his pawn with 25.d6+, but it made little difference. Not much later, a draw by repetition was agreed. The match between Kazakhstan 1 and Azerbaijan was decided on the lower two boards. On the fourth board, a mutual pawn breakthrough led to almost comical scenes. Alua Nurmanova from Kazakhstan (Black) had already won a piece, but with advanced pawns, caution is always required. Her opponent from Azerbaijan Narmin Abdinova tried to complicate things with 36.Ne7+ Rxe7 37.b7, but by then, Black had enough material to sacrifice the rook with 37…Rxb7 and then advance her c-passer. Black won, resulting in a convincing 3-1 victory for Kazakhstan 1 over Azerbaijan. Unfortunately for WIM Zsoka Gaal of Hungary, who is one of the few girls consistently sitting at the first board in the tournament, her team couldn’t capitalize on her convincing victory with the black pieces over Ukrainian FM Maksym Dubnevych. Ukraine decided the match in their favor (3-1) despite Hungary’s higher ratings on all boards. The final position on board 3, between Vladyslav Fishchuk and Kristof Pal Kolimar, tells the story. The other two games were decided in the rook endgame. Matyas Palczert continued pressing for a win against Anastasiia Hnatyshyn in a seemingly equal position. However, he risked going down. Matyas played 45.Kb1?! here to escape from the check. He had his reasons for this move: Anastasiia had less than a minute on her clock, and moreover, the b-pawn could potentially become a dangerous passer. However, the subsequent moves were not always accurate, with both players missing chances to win. Additionally, Matyas’s clock was ticking down as well. In this position, Anastasiia could have taken advantage of Matyas’s earlier optimism with 52…e3! The point is that Black threatens …Rg1+ followed by …e2, promoting the pawn. White would need to move the king closer to the pawn with 53.Kd1, but that would give Black the