21st European Union Youth Championship kicks off in Kouty nad Desnou, Czech Republic
On Wednesday, August 16th, the 21st European Union Youth Chess Championship U8, U10, U12 and U14 started in the Hotel Dlouhe Strane in Kouty nad Desnou in the Czech Republic. Following several previous successful editions, the European Union Youth Chess Championship 2023, under the patronage of the European Chess Union, is organized again by Sachovy klub Svetla nad Sazavou in cooperation with the Czech Chess Federation. Boys and girls in each category play the same competition (9-round Swiss tournament with classical time control), but they will be ranked separately. This prestigious event attracts many young chess players – this year there was registered 101 players from 15 national federations of ECU. The highest-rated player of the event is Czech player Matej Jasso (U14), with a rating of 2143. For players’ parents and all chess fans, the organizers prepared various chess and non-chess activities, plus online broadcast of all the games. All participants can use their leisure time for activities offered by the hotel, such as pool, wellness, bowling, billiard and table tennis. The list of local attractions includes a new aquapark recently opened in Velke Losiny, Sky Bridge 721 and The Sky Walk in Dolni Morava. On Thursday, August 24th, we will know eight new 2023 European Champions. The winners in each category will receive laptops, while those finishing second and third will be presented with digital chess clocks. All participants will receive memorial diplomas and medals, plus a T-shirt with the championship logo. After each round, the organizers will award special prizes for the best game in every category. Photos: Official website Official website: chess.cz/mistrovstvi-evropske-unie/
FIDE World Youth Olympiad 2023: Day 4 Recap
China is leading, followed by Armenia, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine. Despite the heavy double-round playing day yesterday, the young players were back at the boards today at 10:30 AM local time. Fortunately for them, they only had to play one game today. Perhaps the young world travelers can spend the rest of the day exploring the center of Eindhoven, where Mr. X will also make his appearance. At the beginning of the sixth round, the top teams started pulling away from the rest of the field. China is lonely at the top, while Turkey, Armenia, and Hungary are trying to close the gap. The first and last two played against each other. Xiangrui Kong plays a stunning game against Eray Kilic. Photo: Lennart Ootes After an hour of play, China seemed to be in control again. Xiangrui Kong dominates his opponent, Eray Kilic. In a sharp Ruy Lopez, the Chinese player with the white pieces manages to open lines while keeping the black king trapped in the center of the board. With 19.Qh3!, white prevents short castling, due to the pin on e6. After 19…Qf6, the position opens up: 20.e5 dxe5 21.fxe5. Even exchanging queens offers no relief: after 21…Qh4, 22.Bd7+ Kd8, and now white can simply exchange and infiltrate with the rook on the seventh rank. The position would then be: However, Eray didn’t fancy that. He decided to keep the queens on the board and see what his opponent had in mind. He didn’t have to wait long. When Eray refused with 21…Qg5. Here, Kong decisively continued with 22.Rad1. The black king is almost mated due to the open lines. With 22…Bc6, Eray tried to cover square d7, but it was met with precise 23.Ne4! The black player had seen enough and threw himself on the sword: 23…Bxe4 24.Bh5+ with the inevitable 25.Qd7# to follow. 1-0. At the fourth board, Miaoyi Lu also proved to be superior once again. In search of a plan in the following position, opponent Elifnaz Akat decided to seek refuge on the queenside with 14.Na4? However, that knight was immediately called back. After 14…b5!, a gap indeed appears on c5, but the white knight is not allowed to jump in. 15.Nc5? would be punished by 15…Nxd4!, eliminating the defense with a pawn capture. Elifnaz retreated sadly with 15.Nc3, but Lu was on a roll: 15…Qb4 at least wins a pawn. It’s clear that Chinese chess has a bright future with these top talents. In a resilient middlegame without queens, Tong(Qd) Xiao outplayed his opponent Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus. An amusing moment occurred toward the end: It was tempting here to exchange rooks with 36…Rxd3 37.Ne5+ Kd6 38.Nxd3. Black is already two pawns ahead, and their king is better. A piece of cake. But commentator Anna-Maja Kazarian came up with the clever 36…Nc3! here, threatening mate on b1. White must then proactively exchange rooks on d6 and then passively place the other rook on the bottom rank to prevent mate. The black king can then simply enter. Thus, there’s still something for the Chinese top player to learn: when your opponent is in time trouble, it’s better to play annoying moves rather than quick ones. But it didn’t affect the result: black easily won the endgame. 0-1. So, for the final result in this match, it didn’t matter what happened on the first board. Ediz Gurel couldn’t break through against Hoawen Xue, and thus China won again with a crushing score: 3.5-0.5. Matyas loves rook endgames. Photo: Lennart Ootes In the match Armenia-Hungary, things were intense. Matyas Palczert once again had the chance to showcase his technique in a rook endgame, this time against Erik Gasparyan. Yesterday he went all the way in the endgame against Ukraine’s Anastasiia Hnatyshyn and won. Today, he managed it with some twists. After Matyas missed a few winning chances, the following position arose: Here, white can draw with the unlikely 59.g8Q! after 59…Rxg8 60.Kxg8 h3 61.Kf7, and white is just in time to stop both pawns. White has to keep giving checks for a while: 61…Ka2 62.Ra8+ Kb3 63.Rb8+ Kc3 64.Rc8+ Kd3 65.Rd8+ Ke3 (on 65…Ke2 to keep the rook off the bottom rank, 66.Rb8 follows). Now, white stands on the bottom rank: 66.Rd1 h2. The white rook can now keep going between b1 and h1. The point is that at the moment the black king comes to the second rank to support one of the pawns, white can capture the other pawn. For instance: 67.Rb1 Kd3 68.Rh1 Kc3 69. Ke6 Kb3 70.Kd5 Ka2?! 71.Rxh2, and the pin leads to a draw. Instead of all this, Erik played 59.Rc6?? and lost after 59…h3 60.Rg6 h2 with the point 61.Rh6 Kc1!! 62.Rxh2 and 62…b1Q+ is check! Matyas promoted, but the win was still not trivial. Shortly after, the oppoennts reached the following position: Perhaps Matyas didn’t want to go into the queen vs. rook endgame, so he decided on 64…Qg8?! That could have cost him the win, although the defense was again not trivial: with 65.Rg6! the black queen is trapped. If the king tries to move away from the pawn, white can give checks until they get back behind the b-pawn. For example: 65…Kd3 66.Rb6 Qa2 and now 67.Rxb2!! and the black queen can’t simultaneously support its own pawn and watch the white pawn on g4. However, things went differently once again. In the position above, Erik played 65.Rf3??, after which the black king could find shelter: 65…Ka2 66.Rf2 Ka1 67.Rf8 Qe6+ 68.Kh5 and here Matyas gave a few checks, but the point is that black can simply promote. After 68…b1Q 69.Ra8+ follows the nice finish with 69…Qba2! 0-1. At the first board, Robert Piliposyan continued his winning streak. Yesterday, he dismantled Dutch player Yichen Han’s position. Today, he stopped Zsoka Gaal, who had been on a winning streak. At the third board, Hungarian Kristof Pal Kolimar had done everything right in yet another tricky endgame, this time with a bishop and two pawns against a rook. But when victory was within reach, it went wrong. Here, the white king simply needs to move along with the d-pawn. But what’s not simple is
FIDE World Cup R6 Game 2: Goryachkina advances to Women’s finals
Aleksandra Goryachkina reaches the finals in the Women’s tournament after eliminating Tan Zhongyi. Carlsen, Caruana and Abasov all qualify for the Open semi-finals Leinier Dominguez Perez was eliminated from the race, after losing to Fabiano Caruana. R Praggnanandhaa staged a comeback against Erigaisi, as the two will be the only pair in the Open going to the tiebreaks. Both games in the Women’s tournament ended in a draw. After winning in the first game, Aleksandra Goryachkina eliminated the former World Champion Tan Zhongyi, while Anna Muzychuk and Nurgyul Salimova drew again and will have to play the tiebreaks. The Open Tournament Highlights Nijat Abasov was the first to qualify for the semi-finals of the World Cup, having defeated Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, checkmating him on move 44. The two split a point after a long and tense game yesterday. Today, the representative from Azerbaijan won with white pieces in the London System, taking the initiative as early as move 15 and then increasing the pressure until reaching a winning position by move 30. Magnus Carlsen drew his second game with Gukesh D. In the Alapin line of the Sicilian, Carlsen (playing as White) got slightly more initiative after the opening. However, the Norwegian opted for a secure path – transitioning to an even endgame where he was a pawn down. A draw was enough for Carlsen to move to the semi-finals. R Praggnanandhaa made an impressive comeback against compatriot Arjun Erigaisi with the black pieces following yesterday’s loss. In the second Alapin game of the day, the two entered an even endgame, although Black had an extra pawn. However, a couple of inaccuracies by Erigaisi were enough for Pragg to activate his king and pose some serious problems for White. Eventually, Black broke up in the centre and penetrated with his king to the kingside, with decisive effect. Both sides ended up promoting a queen, but Black had three extra pawns, and White had none. Erigaisi tried to engineer a way to a perpetual check, but it was impossible. The game ended after Black promoted his second queen. The two will now have to play in the tiebreaks. The final game to finish was between Fabiano Caruana and Leinier Dominguez Perez. After a heroic escape from a lost position as Black in yesterday’s game, today, playing as White, Caruana was clearly better than his opponent. In the Tarrasch, the two entered a typical position with an isolated pawn in which White had a slight edge and a chance to pressure his opponent without taking serious risks. Black maintained balance for a while but eventually cracked closer to the time control. Fabiano won a pawn and slowly but surely converted it. This marks the end of the road for Dominguez Perez, who had a great tournament ousting several strong GMs, including the European champion, Alexey Sarana. The Women’s Tournament Highlights Former Women’s World Champion Tan Zhongyi is out after drawing with black pieces against Aleksandra Goryachkina. In the exchange line of the King’s Indian, Black managed to get some initiative but nothing substantial. Throughout the game, Goryachkina aimed to tame the position and keep it even, succeeding eventually. The former world champion now awaits to see who will be her opponent for third place, while Goryachkina becomes the first qualifier for the Women’s Grand Prix finals. Nurgyul Salimova and Anna Muzychuk also drew. In the Queen’s Gambit Accepted, Salimova (playing as Black) created some chances in an early endgame but quickly dropped them, and the two agreed to split a point after 41 moves. With two draws in both games, the two head for a tiebreak on Thursday. The full results of today’s games can be found here: worldcup2023.fide.com/pairings. Round six tiebreaks take place on Thursday, 17th of August, at 3 PM local time in Baku, Azerbaijan. Here follows a closer look at some of the games played today: Nijat Abasov is having a great tournament in his native Baku. The local star has so far eliminated the likes of Anish Giri and Peter Svidler, and has now added Vidit to the list of heavyweights he knocked out of the World Cup. In today’s game, in the London system, Abasov started increasing the pressure from early on. Add to that some mistakes by Vidit, and the Azeri GM quickly got into a strong position. This was the last moment in the game when the engine showed both sides to be equal. In the next several moves, White’s position gradually improved. 11…Ne5?! A dubious novelty by Vidit. 11…h6 or castle are considered as a better plan. 12.Nxe5 Qxe5 13.0-0 Bd7 14.e4 dxe4 15.Nxe4 Nd5?! 16.Rfe1 Bc6 17.Rad1 0-0-0? A very risky move as White is much better prepared for active operations. After 17…Nf4 18.Bb5! 0-0 19.Bxc6 White is clearly better but it was the best option for Black. In subsequented play the opponents made some inaccuracies but Nijat was more precise. 26.b5! With this move White started a direct attack on the black king. 26…Be8 27.a4 Kc8 28.Nb3 f6 29.a5 Qd1 30.Qb4 b6? The last error by Vidit led him to a completely lost position. 30…e5 or 30…Qd8 even offered more chances to hold, but now… 31.axb6 axb6 32.c5 bxc5 33.Qxc5+ Kb8 Now the black king is at the mercy of White. 34.Qb6 Kc8 35.Qxe6 Bd7 36.Qc4+ Kd8 37.b6Qd6 38.Qg8+ Ke7 39.b7 Be8 And now Abasov found a wonderful finishing sequence: 40.Bb5! Qd1+ 41.Kh2 Qd6+ 42.g3 Bf7 43.b8=Q Bxg8 44.Qxe8# 1-0 Pragnanandhaa defeated Arjun Erigaisi with black pieces. In the Alapin, Arjun tried to force an even endgame and chose a plan which ended up costing him a point. The position is even. However, White has to demonstrate accuracy. The best way to proceed was 28.Kf1 28.a4? After this natural but wrong move Black regrouped and started posing serious problem for White. 28…Be5 29.Kf1 Bd6 30.Ke2 e5 31.Kd3 Ke6 32.Rb7 Kd5 33.f3 c5 34.a5 Rf8? A mistake by Prag. He should have played 34…g5 and started his push on the kingside. 35.a6 Ra8 36.Kc3 g5! Black admitted his mistake and