José Cubas and Thalia Landeiro win 2023 Pan American Chess Esports Finals
Chess was a part of the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago in the Esports category, with the open and women’s finals taking place online on chess.com from October 26-27. Both competitions were eight-player round robins with 3+2 time control. The opening ceremony was attended by the Vice President of FIDE, Mario Ramirez Barajas, who stressed the importance of chess in the Pan American Games; the President of FIDE America, Jose Carrillo Pujol, who summarized the scope of the event and inclusion of chess in multisport events and a member of the FIDE Chess in MULTISPORT Games commission, Mario Petrucci, who had a meeting Thomas Bach, President of the International Olympic Committee, where he discussed a possible chess inclusion in the Olympic Games. The open final saw the triumph of GM José Cubas (Paraguay). Despite losing to Diego Flores of Argentina in Round 2, Jose scored an impressive 5.5/7 and finished first a full point ahead of Andrés Rodríguez Vila (Uruguay). Santiago Yago Moura (Brazil) tied for third place with Diego Flores and took bronze thanks to a slightly better Sonnenborn-Berger. Final standings: 1 GM Cubas, Jose Fernando PAR 2542 5½ 2 GM Rodriguez Vila, Andres URU 2387 4½ 3 GM Santiago, Yago De Moura BRA 2453 4 4 GM Flores, Diego ARG 2603 4 5 GM Hernandez , Gilberto MEX 2521 3½ 6 WGM Francisco, Candela ARG 2320 2½ 7 GM Hungaski, Robert USA 2433 2 8 GM Zambrana, Osvaldo BOL 2373 2 The women’s tournament was a very close race, with Thalia Landeiro Cervantes and Miranda Yerisbel sharing first place on 5.5/7. Thalia came out on top thanks to a greater number of victories, whereas the runner-up, Yerisbel, became the only undefeated participant. Deysi Cori netted 5/7 and finished third. Final standings: 1 WGM Landeiro Cervantes, Thalia USA 2303 5½ 2 WGM Yerisbel, Miranda CUB 2262 5½ 3 IM Cori, Deysi PER 2367 5 4 WIM Corrales Jiménez, Zenia MEX 2140 4½ 5 WGM Pérez Rodríguez, Jennifer PAR 2242 3 6 WIM Argote Heredia, Valentina COL 2179 2 7 WIM Campos, María José ARG 2206 2 8 Ruchinskaya, Valerie CAN 1862 ½ Games and results
FIDE Grand Swiss: King’s Representative sparks excitement in Round 3
There were multiple draws on the top boards in the open section and many wins in the women’s section today. Only Tan Zhongyi and Anna Muzychuk have maintained their 100% score, with a massive tie for first place in the open section. Some players took risks; others didn’t, producing a mix of exciting and theoretical games in Round 3 The third round of the FIDE Grand Swiss was visited by His Excellency Sir John Lorimer, Lieutenant Governor and the King’s representative on the Isle of Man. He walked around the tables for a venue tour and had pleasant conversations with the tournament director Alan Ormsby, the FIDE Delegate Jeroen van den Berg and FIDE’s CEO Emil Sutovsky. The esteemed guest also paid a visit to the broadcast room, enjoying the live commentary of the games in progress. The visit happened after the start of the round, and while the players may have been aware of the visit, their opening choices didn’t seem affected by the occasion. On board one, Erwin L’Ami was somewhat surprised (meaning before the game he didn’t revise his notes on that particular variation – make no mistake, these players have analyzed everything, so it is only a matter of memorizing those notes) by Fabiano Caruana’s choice of the …a6 line in the Queen’s Gambit Declined, arising after 1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 a6. L’Ami went for the Carlsbad structure by taking on d5, and Caruana sprung another minor surprise by developing the knight on the c6-square. Instead of the more common 8…0-0 followed later by Nd7, Caruana played the rare 8…Nc6!?, a move played by his compatriot and a participant of the tournament, Jeffery Xiong. The Carlsbad structure was soon transformed. After Black jumped on e4, a couple of light pieces were traded, and the following position appeared on the board. Soon, the queens and the light pieces were exchanged, leading to an equal double-rook endgame and a draw. On board two, Arjun Erigaisi’s 1.e4 was met by Alexey Sarana’s Petroff. Sarana is a well-known Najdorf player, but here he opted for solidity. White went for the aggressive 5.Nc3, and soon the opponents castled to the opposite sides. In a well-known position, Sarana deviated from the main moves 10…c5 and 10…Re8 in favour of the third suggestion by the engine: Sarana opted for 10…d5, a move played several times by Wei Yi in 2019. The game soon left theory, and in the middlegame, Black sacrificed a pawn in order to establish a blockade on the dark squares. Black’s compensation is obvious as White cannot establish any control over the dark squares. After a lot of manoeuvring, White managed to first get into a double-rook endgame and then into a rook endgame and certainly improved his chances. However, as everybody knows, all rook endgames are drawn. On board three, a quick draw was agreed in the game between Andrey Esipenko and Alexandr Predke. This was a result of Black’s excellent opening preparation. In a long theoretical line of the Rossolimo that the engines evaluate as clearly better for White, Predke dug deeper and realized that Black, in fact, has a fortress-like position. White’s only active plan is to try to push f4, but Black is ready to deal with this. Therefore, Esipenko found nothing better than repeating moves with 22.Bg5 Be7 23.Be3 Bf8. Rest assured that Predke also knew how to deal with White’s plan of f4. An instructive example of a modern opening preparation! The surprise leader, Ramazan Zhalmakhanov, faced the stern test of playing Alireza Firouzja with the black pieces. The rating favourite chose the Catalan and had a lasting pressure on Black’s position, which the exchanges of all the pieces but the rooks didn’t entirely diminish. The game saw a curious double-rook endgame. Objectively, this is a draw, but White continued to press. Still, Zhalmakhanov deserves full credit for not buckling under the pressure and holding a draw. Anish Giri’s strategy against Etienne Bacrot is worth noting. Bacrot is known for his propensity towards time trouble, so Giri decided to surprise him early on, first by selecting the King’s Indian Attack after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d3, and later by playing the seemingly random move 7.a4. The intention was to give his opponent something to think about from the start. The move is only seemingly random – to discover the secret of its origin, switch on the engine, and you will discover that along with the natural and theoretical 7.0-0, it is the second line! (Depending on hardware and depth, it may also be the first.) Elite players pay attention to every suggestion of the engines. This approach bore immediate fruit as after spending tons of time, Bacrot decided to change the course of the game by 7…dxe4 8.dxe4 e5, but this weakened the d5-square and gave White a long-term target to aim for. Giri increased his advantage to quite some extent, but in spite of his usual time trouble, Bacrot held firm and managed to hold a draw. Hikaru Nakamura scored his first win against Aryan Chopra, but not without squandering a solid advantage first. Here, Black missed his last chance. In spite of having a lot of time after the control on move 40 he didn’t find the saving 41…Nxf3! and went for the other pawn with 41…Qxb4? which failed to 42.Qd3! and Black was losing due to the problems with the knight and the weak pawns on the kingside. In the women’s section, in the duel on board one between Tan Zhongyi and Antoaneta Stefanova, Black obtained good play against White’s hanging pawns. In a tense middlegame, Stefanova was undone by granting White a crucial tempo. Black wasn’t even forced to let the knight on d6, but once there, it had to be eliminated immediately with 23…Rxd6! 24.cxd6 Qd7. After taking the d6-pawn, Black would have had a good compensation thanks to control over the blockading square. Instead, Stefanova waited with 23…Qa8? but after 24.Bg5! Kh8 25.Qg3 she was already in trouble as taking the knight now (it was better not to!) led to the wrecking of her kingside structure with Bxf6. White soon wrapped up with a direct attack with Qh4 and Bd3. On board