FIDE World Amateur Championship 2023 kicks off in Muscat, Oman
The World Amateur Chess Championship 2023 officially commenced on Thursday evening in Muscat, marking the beginning of an exciting competition that brought together amateur chess players from around the globe. Organized by the Omani Chess Committee, in partnership with the International Chess Federation, the championship runs from November 2 to November 11 in the main sports hall at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex in Bawshar. During a technical meeting on Thursday morning, the essential modifications to the rules and the playing system were discussed and clarified. These changes aim to enhance the competitiveness and fairness of the championship. Mahdi Abdulrahim, a distinguished member of the International Chess Federation, offered valuable insights into the rules and regulations that players must adhere to while inside the playing hall. The championship will also rigorously enforce fair play and time control measures in accordance with the FIDE rules and regulations. The championship is held in five categories: U2300 Open, U2000 Open and U1700 Open, U2000 Women and U1700 Women. All five competitions are 9-round Swiss tournaments with classical time control. Each championship day starts opening move at 4 PM. Ozgur Solakoglu, FIDE Technical Delegate and Honorary Chair of the FIDE Events Commission expressed his pleasure of being a part of the World Amateur Chess Championship, with over 400 players hailing from as many as 64 different countries. He emphasized that this remarkable turnout might be a historic record for the World Championship, giving the event status of a truly global competition. Mr Solakoglu also praised the favourable conditions and the absence of any complaints from the players. He expressed hope for a successful and competitive tournament and commended special trips for the players to explore the unique attractions of Muscat, enhancing their tournament experience. He concluded by stressing the vital role of amateur tournaments in the world of chess, as they form the foundation of the sport and provide a platform for the countless amateur players worldwide to engage with chess and foster the game’s growth and visibility. The first round of the championship was honoured by the presence of His Excellency Mr Said bin Sultan al Busaidi, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Youth for Culture, who made the first ceremonial move together with the President of the Oman Chess Committee Mr Ahmed Al Bulushi. Official website: worldamateur2023.fide.com/ Pairing and results: worldamateur2023.fide.com/result/ Live games: Open U-2300chess24.com/en/watch/live-tournaments/fide-world-amateur-championship-2023-u2300#live Open U-2000: chess24.com/en/watch/live-tournaments/fide-world-amateur-championship-2023-u2000#live Open U-1700: chess24.com/en/watch/live-tournaments/fide-world-amateur-championship-2023-u1700#live Women U-1700 https://chess24.com/en/watch/live-tournaments/fide-world-amateur-championship-2023-w1700#live Live broadcast (English/Arabic): youtube.com/@Omanchesscommitteeoman Text and photo: WACC 2023 media team
FIDE November 2023 rating list published
The November 2023 FIDE rating list was primarily impacted by the U.S. Championships, the European Club Cup, the 19th Asian Games Chess Team Competitions and the Qatar Masters. Fabiano Caruana consolidated his second position in the top 10 open after winning his second straight U.S. Championship title and picking 9 rating points, while Wesley So dropped one point despite finishing second but still moved three positions up in the top 10. Photo: Crystal Fuller | Saint Louis Chess Club After a long pause, women’s #1 Hou Yifan played nine classical games in the 19th Asian Games and earned four points – her first standard rating increase since December 2019. Biggest gains in top 100 Open and Women Yakubboev, Nodirbek GM 2643 (+28) Yip, Carissa IM 2399 (+27) Maghsoodloo, Parham GM 2732 (+25) Sindarov, Javokhir GM 2681 (+23) Tokhirjonova, Gulrukhbegim WGM 2370 (+20) Nurmanova, Alua WIM 2367 (+20) Vaishali, Rameshbabu IM 2467 (+19) Lee, Alice FM 2406 (+18) Artemiev, Vladislav GM 2714 (+17) Narayanan S L GM 2668 (+17) Nodirbek Yakubboev (pictured below) triumphantly returned to the top 100 Open after a 10-month absence following his solid performance at the 19th Asian Games (+9) surprising victory in Qatar Masters (+18) and won this nomination. Photo: Qatar Masters His teammate Javokhir Sindarov also did a great job in these two competitions (tying for third in Qatar), translating into 23 rating points. India’s Narayan also became one of the rating beneficiaries in Qatar. Three young players who made it to the podium of the U.S. Women’s Championship – the champion Carissa Yip (+27), the runner-up Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova (+20) and the bronze winner Alice Lee (+20) – substantially increased their rating with Alice reaching her career-high. Photo: Lennart Ootes | Saint Louis Chess Club Parham Maghsoodloo (pictured below) led team Iran to the gold medals at the 19th Asian Games, scoring a spectacular 7.5/9 on the first board. Coupled with a solid showing in the Qatar Open and Bundesliga, these results brought him 25 rating points, signifying his return to the 2700+ elite group. Photo: Niki Riga Alua Nurmanova underperformed in the 19th Asian Games (-11) but made up for this rating loss in the Qatar Open, where she gained an impressive 31 points. The same applies to Rameshbabu Vaishali, who netted a mere 0.1 points in the team competition but added 18.8 points to her tally in Qatar and completed her final GM norm along the way.
Nakamura invokes Fischer’s spirit in Round 7 of FIDE Grand Swiss
The number of draws on the top boards doesn’t tell the whole story of hard-fought games, with plenty of interesting opening ideas and spectacular sacrifices. Fabiano Caruana essayed a rare move in the Semi-Slav tabiya, while Hikaru Nakamura hoped for inspiration by employing Bobby Fischer’s favourite variation against the Sicilian Defence. Santosh Gujrathi Vidit spotted an incredible tactical shot to beat Javokhir Sindarov and emerge as the sole leader as his friend Arjun Erigaisi couldn’t break Andrey Esipenko’s defence in an epic battle that lasted for 90 moves. In the women’s section, the draw on board one between Aleksandra Goryachkina and Anna Muzychuk meant that victories by Rameshbabu Vaishali and Antoaneta Stefanova (against Bibisara Assaubayeva and Mariya Muzychuk, respectively) allowed them to join the lead to form a trio at the top. The opening surprises were in no short supply on the top boards in Round 7 of the FIDE Grand Swiss. On board one, Radoslaw Wojtaszek played Fabiano Caruana and, just like in his round four game against Anish Giri, faced an opening he prepared together with Anand’s team in 2008 for the match against Vladimir Kramnik. In that match, the Semi-Slav (and the subsequent Meran) was Anand’s main defence against 1.d4, bringing two invaluable victories on the way to winning the title. Caruana doesn’t play the Semi-Slav often, so his choice was aimed at forcing his opponent to recall lines he hadn’t looked at in his pre-game preparation. The Semi-Slav is a fighting choice, so Caruana showed his aggressive intentions early on. He also introduced an early twist. In the tabiya of the Semi-Slav, Caruana went for a less common move. In this position, the most common move for Black is 8…dxc4 (played by Anand many times, where he demonstrated several ideas from their preparation), but there are also moves like 8…e5, 8…h6 or 8…Qe7. Caruana played 8…Re8, the move recently employed by the young talents Samuel Sevian and Mittal Aditya. Wojtaszek likes to think, and this move gave him something to mull over. He followed the theoretical path, but by move 14, Caruana had a 40-minute advantage on the clock. In addition to that, he also introduced a novelty on that very move. There are several computer games from this position, and in all of them, Black played 14…Bc7, but Caruana preferred 14…Nge5. After the exchange of knights, Wojtaszek retreated the bishop to e2. Needless to say, Caruana was still well into his preparation as Wojtaszek had less than an hour to reach move 40. The ensuing middlegame was balanced. White advanced his central majority with f4 and e5, to which Black replied with …f6-f5, establishing a blockade on the e6-square. At first sight, it may appear that the protected passed pawn gives White a solid advantage, but in fact, this blockade, which can also happen from some lines of the Berlin, is known to effectively neutralize White’s extra pawn on that side of the board. Here’s an illustration of Black’s blockade. White cannot make any progress. The queens were exchanged, and then Black advanced with his own pawn majority. Fabiano made certain progress and even managed to exchange his a-pawn for White’s b-pawn, thus creating a passed pawn on the c-file. He advanced this pawn as far as c3, but this still wasn’t enough to tip the balance. The following position was reached after Black’s 60th move. Draw was agreed one move later. On board two, Hikaru Nakamura faced the Four Knights Sicilian against Alexandr Predke. This variation, which arises after 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 has become very popular for several reasons: one is that it allows Black to avoid the Rossolimo by playing 2…e6, and the second is that after 6.Ndb5 Black can choose between the Sveshnikov Sicilian with 6…d6 7.Bf4 e5 8.Bg5 a6 or the very safe line 6…Bb4, third is that the complications after 6.Nxc6 bxc6 7.e5 Nd5 works nicely for Black. Therefore, it’s not a surprise that many players have chosen to avoid all of the above with moves like 6.Be2 or 6.a3, the latter one chosen by Nakamura. The little pawn move stops the pin with …Bb4, but this tempo allows Black to transpose to the Scheveningen setup where the move a3 isn’t strictly necessary. Nakamura’s twist came two moves later. Instead of the usual Scheveningen setup with 8.Be2 Hikaru chose the Sozin Attack with 8.Bc4. The Sozin was a fearsome weapon of the great Bobby Fischer. He was attracted to it because of the simple and straight-forward positional idea – White’s bishop on the a2-g8 diagonal is blunted by the pawn on e6, so White simply plays f4-f5 to attack that pawn, and in case of …e5, the diagonal for the bishop is opened and the bishop becomes a very strong piece. Modern theory hasn’t been kind to the Sozin Attack, as reliable defensive methods for Black have been found. Even Fischer gave up on it after the fourth game in his match with Spassky in Reykjavik in 1972 when Spassky countered it in a very effective fashion. And yet, here we are in 2023, and we see another American resurrect the fearsome weapon of his predecessor. Fischer had a lot of quick wins in his pet line by employing the f4-f5 advance and then using the weakened d5-square for his pieces. This was mostly because his opponents didn’t know how to react to this plan. Nowadays, Black players know what to do, and Predke wasn’t an exception. While White did take control over the d5-square, he had to give up something in return – in this case, the dark-squared bishop. Black obtained an excellent position thanks to his control of the dark squares, with the dominant bishop on e5 being the key piece. After White took the pawn on b7, Black responded with …Rb8 and took on b2. The position was heading to mass simplifications and a draw, but inaccuracies crept into Predke’s moves, and somewhat unexpectedly, White won a pawn. White didn’t really have realistic winning chances, but a pawn is a