Four contenders chase Anna Muzychuk’s lead in WGP Cyprus
With her game ending in a draw, Anna Muzychuk remains at the top of the Cyprus WGP cross table after six rounds, with a total of 4.5 points. Anna’s opponent today, Zhu Jiner, trails her by half a point (4/6), maintaining the same gap with three other players just behind on 3.5/6—Aleksandra Goryachkina, Mariya Muzychuk, and Harika Dronavalli. FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich performed the ceremonial first move at the game between Divya Deshmukh and Stavroula Tsolakidou while Clea Hadjistephanou Papaellina, from the Department of Education of the University of Cyprus in Physical Education played the first move for Anna Muzychuk in her game against Zhu Jiner. After the round begun, Dvorkovich joined the commentator’s booth, expressing his satisfaction on how the WGP cycle is developing. “The Grand Prix cycle has expanded: there are six events now instead of four, prizes are higher, more players participate. It shows are focus on the development of women chess and are dedication to the whole World Championship cycle for women players,” he said. Dvorkovich is in Cyprus attending the FIDE Council, which meets in person once or twice a year to discuss many strategic subjects – for example the structure of the World Championship cycle. Among many other issues, this afternoon they attended the presentation of the virtual FIDE Online Museum, which will be officially inaugurated next week. Let’s take a closer look at the five games of Round 6. Anna Muzychuk – Zhu Jiner (0.5-0.5) The most important game of the day paired together the leader of the tournament, Anna Muzychuk (4/5), with Zhu Jiner, trailing Anna by half a point. They had faced each other previously in classical chess a couple of times in the past – both of those games ended in a draw. The commentators were slightly taken aback by Muzychuk’s choice in the opening, the 3.Bb5+ Moscow variation in the Sicilian. “An interesting choice, although not without its own dangers. I think that Anna wants to play for a win today but without risking too much,” explained GM Alik Gershon in the booth. The Chinese GM opted for the solid 3…Bd7 and, facing Muzychyk’s Maroczy bind, chose the interesting side-line 7…Qg4 instead of the much more common 7…cxd4, which basically forces the trade of queens. Interestingly, the elite Chinese GM Li Chao has played this line a few times in the past. It soon became clear that Zhu Jiner had analysed the endgame extensively and, in fact, Muzychuk soon realised that she had no advantage and proposed a draw by means of a three-fold repetition. Slightly ahead on the clock, Zhu decided to play on, exerted some pressure but after accurate play by the leader a draw was eventually agreed on move forty-two. Mariya Muzychuk – Elisabeth Paehtz 1-0 Apart from being good friends, Mariya and Elisabeth have faced each on nine occasions, with a good record for the younger of the two Muzychuk sisters: two wins and seven draws. Playing today with White, and considering Elisabeth’s shaky start, Mariya pushed from the get-go for an open and aggressive game, choosing the Open Sicilian. “The 6.h3 line against the Najdorf is one of the more fashionable lines, preventing …Ng4 in certain situations. In some lines it’s more useful whereas in others it’s less useful,” explained GM Alik Gershon on the live stream. “In other lines White can play the concrete g4, asking some questions to the f6-knight”. Soon the fight for the d5-square became the game’s focal point: by exchanging her dark-squared bishop for the knight on b6, Mariya managed to transfer her knight from b3 to d5 and secured a huge positional advantage along with excellent attacking chances on her opponent’s kingside. It’s not totally clear where Paehtz made her fatal mistake – it just seemed that she was positionally outplayed. Mariya was very happy with her first win in the event. In her postgame interview, she considered a couple of ideas that didn’t appear on the board. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=An59NxTPzlw Divya Deshmukh – Stavroula Tsolakidou 0.5 – 0.5 Belonging to the younger generation, Divya and Stavroula haven’t had enough time yet to string many classical games against each other. In fact, they have only played twice before, with two draws. For today’s game, Stavroula had prepared the 6…Be7 secondary line in the Open Ruy Lopez, a variation that Magnus Carlsen has used quite often in the past. Maybe she was hoping to surprise Divya but the Indian came very well-prepared to the game, even finding the 11.b3 / 12.Ba3 manoeuvre quite fast. The game quickly transitioned into a queen+rook+minor piece equal middlegame. In the commentary booth, WGM Anastasiya Kharlovich provided some insights: “Anand suggested that as Divya is an aggressive player, everyone wants to take her to the ending.” Although Stavroula’s pawn structure was slightly damaged, she had a good compensation in the form of piece activity. Divya decided to call it a day and force a perpetual draw on move forty-one, just after the time control. Nana Dzagnidze – Harika Dronavalli 0-1 Nana and Harika have a lot of history together, having played a total of twenty-one classical games in the past, with a totally equal score of thirteen draws and four wins each. With regard to Dzagnidze’s unpretentious opening choice – the rare Agincourt defence – GM Gershon put forward his theory: “Nana just wants to get a game, with as little theory as possible and then let the better player win.” In any case, she definitely caught her opponent of balance: the move 7…c5 cost Harika twenty minutes while on move 8…d4 – which is actually an inaccuracy – she spent another twenty-eight minutes. It has to be said though, that Dzagnidze was also in unfamiliar territory, spending a lot of time as well. Ultimately, faced with an unfamiliar position, Harika decided to sacrifice a pawn, hoping to get some form of compensation. Both players entered time trouble, leading to mistakes. Dzagnidze’s 19.Nf5? (instead of the much better 19.Nxf7!) allowed the counter 19…e4! which
FACI Project: From five to eight countries
In 2025, the Freedom Asian Chess Initiatives (FACI) project, which supports chess federations in Asian countries where chess is still underdeveloped, will expand from five participating countries to eight. Since 2024, the Kazakhstan Chess Federation (KazChess/KCF), with financial support from Freedom Holding Corp. and in partnership with FIDE and the Asian Chess Federation (ACF), has been implementing the Freedom Asian Chess Initiatives (FACI) program. This initiative provides assistance to chess federations in Asian countries where chess is not yet sufficiently developed. The first beneficiary countries were Cambodia, Nepal, Oman, Tajikistan, and Sri Lanka. Starting in April 2024, Kazakhstani coaches have been conducting training sessions in these countries: Kirill Kuderinov – Sri Lanka Dmitry Stativkin – Oman Murtas Kazhgaleyev – Nepal Evgeniy Vladimirov – Tajikistan Bakhtiyar Askarov – Cambodia The program includes training sessions for youth and adult national teams, as well as educational seminars for local coaches. After the in-person sessions, training continues online. Overall, the program structure ensures that each coach spends approximately one month on-site, followed by eight weeks of online training, and then one final month in the country, making it a four-month intensive training cycle. Given the positive feedback from all five federations, a working group consisting of Victor Bologan (FIDE), Hisham Al-Taher (ACF), Darmen Sadvakasov, and Gulmira Dauletova (KazChess/KCF) reviewed applications for FACI 2025 in February. They decided to expand the program to include three more countries, bringing the total to eight (listed alphabetically):Bhutan, Jordan, Cambodia, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Sri Lanka. At the 45th Chess Olympiad 2024 in Budapest, the three newly added countries achieved the following results: The men’s teams of Pakistan, Jordan, and Bhutan ranked 97th, 130th, and 141st out of 188 teams, respectively. The women’s teams of Jordan and Pakistan finished 92nd and 122nd out of 169 teams. Bhutan did not compete in the women’s tournament. The list of coaches for each of the eight countries will be finalized soon. Additionally, the FACI official website has been launched, where key updates and news about the project will be regularly published.
European Championship 2025: Daniil Yuffa leads at the half-way mark
European Individual Chess Championship 2025 in Eforie Nord, Romania has crossed its midpoint. After six intense rounds, the participants are enjoying a well-deserved rest day. The sixth round of the competition was opened by Consul General of Turkey in Romania Ozan Cakir, Vice President of the Romanian Chess Federation Alin-Mile Berescu and Secretary General of the Romanian Chess Federation Gabriel Grecescu. GM Daniil Yuffa (ESP, 2654; pictured below, left) retained the sole lead with 5.5/6, after drawing with GM Robert Hovhannisyan (ARM, 2630) in Round 6. Daniil achieved a highly promising position on the white side of the Reversed Benoni but was unable to capitalize and conceded his first half-point of the event. A large group of eleven GMs trails by just a half-point sharing the second place with 5/6: Robert Hovhannisyan (ARM, 2630), Baadur Jobava (GEo, 2578), Benjamin Gledura (HUN, 2658), Aryan Tari (NOR, 2621), Gabriel Sargissian (ARM, 2628), Lorenzo Lodici (ITA, 2559), Matthias Bluebaum (GER, 2643), Gleb Dudin (HUN, 2544), Maxime Lagarde (FRA, 2615), Yuriy Kuzubov (UKR, 2603) and Paul Velten (FRA, 2515). With five rounds to play, the competition remains wide open. Standings after Round 6 Round 7 pairings You can follow live games and video broadcasts on the ECU TV platform and the ECU YouTube channel. Photos: Federația Română de Șah and David Llada