Zhu Jiner and Stavroula Tsolakidou strike first in WGP Nicosia
The first round of the Cyprus WGP was highly entertaining. Except for the encounter between the Muzychuk sisters, which ended in a quick draw, the four remaining games were fought to the bitter end, resulting in two important wins for Stavroula Tsolakidou and Zhu Jiner. The fourth leg of the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix 2024-25 kicked off this afternoon at 15:00 in the fantastic Hilton Nicosia. Evgenii Tiapkin, executive director of main sponsor Freedom24, performed the ceremonial first move for Stavroula Tsolakidou. One of the toughest events of the six that compose the Grand Prix, Cyprus features leg 2 winner Aleksandra Goryachkina, former Women’s World Champions Anna and Mariya Muzychuk, side-by-side with young powerhouses such as China’s Zhu Jiner and Greece’s own Stavroula Tsolakidou. If the fighting spirit displayed this afternoon at the Hilton Nicosia is a prelude to the rest of the tournament, glorious afternoons of great chess await us. Let’s take a closer look at all five games. Aleksandra Goryachkina 1/2-1/2 Nana Dzagnidze Thanks to her two excellent results in Shymkent and Monaco, Goryachkina currently leads the Grand Prix and is widely considered the favourite here: a strong performance in Cyprus would practically secure her spot in the next women’s Candidates Tournament. Starting off the tournament with White against Georgia’s Nana Dzagnidze, with whom she has a +3 =8 record with no defeats, couldn’t be better. But Dzagnidze is a very experienced player, and her international rating of 2513 is no small feat. She tends to play with strength and focus: defeating her takes a lot of energy and commitment. Goryachkina began with the Queen’s Gambit, one of her usual openings, against which Dzagnidze had prepared a line in the Accepted Variation, in which she faces an isolated queen’s pawn. Although Goryachkina developed a small initiative during the first moves, Dzagnidze neutralized White’s attack and ultimately exchanged queens. The endgame seemed to favour the Georgian GM very slightly but, low on time, she wasn’t able to capitalize, and the game petered out into a draw. Both players performed this afternoon at the highest level with an all-around 98% accuracy score. Anna Muzychuk 1/2-1/2 Mariya Muzychuk The Muzychuk sisters have faced each other in classical chess on twenty-one occasions in the past. Except for a single win by Anna in the 2002 U-12 Ukrainian Girls Championship, all the other games have ended in draws, and this afternoon’s encounter was no exception. Today they battled it out in a 99% accuracy Najdorf Sicilian, more specifically a line that features eleven master games that all end in equal endgings and subsequent draws: for example, a 2009 bout between elite GM’s Akopian and Miroshnichenko. Although the tournament rules forbid draws before 40 moves have been played, a three-fold repetition is one of the few exceptions to the rule, and a peaceful outcome was signed on move twenty-seven. Divya Deshmukh 1/2-1/2 Harika Dronavalli As per rules, players of the same federation must face each other in the first round. Both Indian players, playing in their second tournament of the cycle, decided to go for a fight, but proceeded with caution trying not to overstep. The result? A long, 50-move, 98% accuracy draw, more than enough for both players to be content with their over-the-board efforts. In their previous three encounters, Harika was dominating with two wins and one draw but today she had to settle for a half-point. For most of the game, in a well-known solid line of the Ruy Lopez Berlin, fan-favourite Divya nurtured a very small edge with White. But the pawn structure was symmetrical and Harika managed to force some interesting exchanges – it soon became clear that the talented young player from Nagpur wasn’t getting anywhere. Moreover, her experienced opponent finally obtained the bishop pair and, for a moment, entertained the idea to press for the advantage, but to no avail. Divya kept things under control and a three-fold repetition was recorded on move fifty. Zhu Jiner 1-0 Olga Badelka A six-event cycle that runs over several months is bound to produce replacements. Players that may fall ill, or run into other commitments, vacate their spots for other contenders, under the specific rules of the competition. Both Zhu Jiner and Olga Badelka fall into this category. Although Nicosia is the fourth of the six tournaments, and all players are set to play three, funnily enough, for both of them this is their first event! Olga Badelka has replaced Regina Theissl-Pokorna and will play in Cyprus and her home country Austria, while Zhu Jiner is replacing China’s own Lei Tingjie and will add the India and Austria legs to Cyprus. Even though the game began as a Ruy Lopez, it soon developed into a slow Italian opening. Going into the middlegame, it seemed that Badelka had equalised comfortable but a couple of minor inaccuracies – 15…Bxf3 and above all 20…Nh7 landed her in a very difficult position. Zhu Jiner had the two bishops against her opponent’s two knights, plays a superior pawn structure. To top it all, Badelka was slowly spending all her time, in an attempt to defend against her opponent’s attack. With excellent combinatorial play, the Chinese prodigy won a couple of pawns and opened up the gate to her opponent’s king, forcing the Austrian to resign on move forty-seven. In her postgame interview, Zhu Jiner gave us her thoughts on her fine performance. https://youtu.be/S92m9mKCaXY?si=jP-JmXJ89DH-ZL4p Stavroula Tsolakidou 1-0 Elisabeth Paehtz The other victory of the day went to Greece’s top-ranked female player, Stavroula Tsolakidou. The twenty-four-year-old player from Kavala, who actually turns twenty-five during this event, gave a fine performance against another very experimented GM, Elisabeth Paehtz, representing Germany. Both players went down a rabbit hole in an extensively pre-analysed variation of the Sicilian Rossolimo Attack. On move thirteen, with both opponents having used hardly any time on the clocks, Paehtz offered a draw by means of a three-fold repetition attempt. Eager to continue the fight, Stavroula went into the tank, considered her options, and
European Individual Championship 2025 begins in Eforie Nord, Romania
The European Individual Chess Championship 2025 has officially commenced in Eforie Nord, Romania. The event is being held from March 15–26 at Ana Hotels Europa. Nearly 400 players from 40 European federations have registered for the tournament, including 103 Grandmasters, 77 International Masters, and 71 FIDE Masters. The top seeds are: Bogdan-Daniel Deac (ROU, 2692)Alexey Sarana (SRB, 2689)Jorden Van Foreest (NED, 2676)Pavel Eljanov (UKR, 2666)Shant Sargsyan (ARM, 2666)Daniel Dardha (BEL, 2665)David Anton Guijarro (ESP, 2663)David Navara (CZE, 2663)Radoslaw Wojtaszek (POL, 2659)Benjamin Gledura (HUN, 2658) The starting list of players can be found here. The European Individual Chess Championship 2025 serves as a qualification event for the FIDE World Chess Cup. According to FIDE regulations and the ECU Board decision, 20 players will qualify. The tournament features a total prize fund of €100,000, with €20,000 awarded to the winner. The competition is an 11-round Swiss tournament, with a time control of 90 minutes for 40 moves, plus 30 minutes until the end of the game, with a 30-second increment per move starting from move one. The opening ceremony took place in the playing venue with the attendance by the Vice President of the Romanian Chess Federation Mr. Alin Berescu, Secretary General of the Romanian Chess Federation Mr. Gabriel Grecescu, and ECU Tournament Director Mr. Petr Pisk who addressed the distinguished guests. The first round started at 15:00 (local time). Live games with live video broadcast and commentaries by GM Alojzije Jankovic and WIM Lena Govedarica can be followed through the ECU TV and ECU YouTube channel. Photos: Florin Ardelean Official website: https://www.eicc2025.com/
Fair Play Commission leadership update
The leadership of the FIDE Fair Play Commission has changed. The current Commission’s Councilors Andrew Howie and Vincent Geeraets will take over the roles of Chair and Secretary, respectively. Both are experienced fair play specialists, committed to strengthening FIDE’s efforts in ensuring a fair and secure chess environment. In recent years, FIDE has made significant strides in fair play: enhancing detection methods, conducting training, establishing titles and providing control routines at major events. These efforts will continue with even greater intensity. We sincerely thank Bojana Bejatović and Yuri Garrett for their contributions to the Commission’s work. Moving forward, our priorities include expanding the use of advanced fair play detection tools, training and streamlining the work with arbiters, and strengthening collaboration with federations, tournament organizers, and online platforms. We will organize round table discussions with key stakeholders to align on best practices and further reinforce fair play policies in a professional and cost-efficient manner. FIDE maintains a zero-tolerance policy for cheating in all its events. We want to serve the chess community in the best possible way, and our mission remains clear: to prevent, detect and catch cheaters, ensuring that chess competitions are fair and secure for all.