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Chess Tidbits |
Astana chosen as Nepo-Ding World Championship venue
https://en.chessbase.com/post/fide-announces-2023-world-championship
The 2023 World Chess Championship match between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren will take place in the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana, from April 7 till May 1. After Magnus Carlsen's abdication, the match to decide the next, 17th World Chess Champion, will once again be played over 14 games, with a €2 million prize fund.
Why was the Nepo-Ding venue announced so late?
As we reported in our previous article, it’s very unusual for a World Championship match venue to be announced so late, with the most delayed announcement in recent years coming in 2014, when Sochi, Russia was announced with 149 days to spare.
FIDE explained the delay as being due to a tempting bid from Mexico that ultimately never materialised, but there were also clearly factors complicating the process:
1) The absence of Magnus Carlsen: Since the reigning world champion and still clearly the world’s best player decided not to defend his title the match inevitably has less appeal.
2) Russia couldn't host the event: the continuing war in Ukraine meant FIDE would have faced a massive backlash if it imposed a Russian venue.
3) China wasn't an ideal venue either: China, with its huge resources and history of hosting Women's World Championship matches, was the obvious backup plan, but would have many drawbacks. It wouldn't be a neutral venue, the timezone is even more inconvenient for the Americas and Europe, and restrictions on internet/travel might have dampened hype surrounding the event.
4) The presence of a Russian participant: Ian Nepomniachtchi being one of the two players likely ruled out many US or European venues, where authorities could face a PR backlash or issues with sanctions.
What’s at stake in the Nepo-Ding match?
Above all, the title of the 17th World Chess Champion, following on from the 16th Champion Magnus Carlsen.
The match is being played for €2 million (about $2.16 million), with the prize split 60:40 between the winner and loser. If the match goes to tiebreaks it will be split 55:45.
Aronian beats Nepo and Gukesh to win WR Chess Masters
The oldest participant Levon Aronian has won the inaugural WR Chess Masters in a battle of generations after dominating a playoff against Gukesh and last-round winner Ian Nepomniachtchi. Levon had earlier made a quick draw against Gukesh in their classical game and then watched as Nepomniachtchi ground out an 82-move win on demand against Vincent Keymer to join them in the playoff. Aronian wins €40,000, while Gukesh and Nepo shared €20,000 each.
Women’s Grand Prix 2023
The 2022-2023 edition of the FIDE Grand Prix will be a series of four chess tournaments exclusively for women which will determine two players to play in the Women's Candidates Tournament in 2023–2024 cycle. The winner of the Candidates Tournament will play the reigning world champion in the next Women's World Chess Championship.
Each of 16 players will participate in three out of four tournaments and every tournament shall be a twelve-player round robin event. The tournaments are being held from Sep 2022- May 2023.
Former Women's World Challenger Kateryna Lagno won the first leg in Astana in Sep 2022 with 8/11 points.
Former Women's World Champion and winner of the 2021 World Cup Alexandra Kosteniuk won the second leg in Munich in Feb 2022 with 7.5/11 points. Despite losing to Chinese phenomenon Zhu Jiner in the last round, she still came ahead of 2nd placed Koneru Humpy (7/11 points) and Nana Dzagnidze. (6.5/11 points)
In addition to the €15,000 first prize, Kosteniuk left Germany with 160 Grand Prix points.
The next two legs of the event will be held in India and Poland.
First Olympiad for People with Disabilities at Belgrade
Belgrade, Serbia hosted the Chess Olympiad for People with Disabilities, which took place from Jan 29-Feb 5, 2023.
This was a team competition, played over four boards. 26 teams with participants from 33 countries competed for the title.
The Polish team won all six matches in Belgrade and took their first Olympic gold in chess since 1930. International selection of Physically Disabled Chess Players (IPCA) got the silver and Philippines won the bronze.
Like many times during the 20th century, the Serbian capital Belgrade was a place where chess history had been made, as players with disabilities showed their chess skills on a global stage in a first-ever Olympiad dedicated to them.
Poland achieved huge success, as the team led by GM Marcin Tazbir confidently won the Olympiad, defeating all of their opponents and scoring 12 match points. Tazbir is visually impaired. He started losing his eyesight when he was 16. He was already a good player, an International Master by that point.
One of the heroes of the Polish team was FM Marcin Molenda who played on board two. Molenda had an amazing score of 5.5/6, winning five and drawing just one game.
The team of Physically Disabled Chess Players (IPCA) won second place with 10 match points.
Four teams: Philippines, India, Serbia 1 and Uzbekistan shared fourth to eighth place, with 8 match points apiece.
Indian Team lead by IM Shashikant Kutwal, former World Disabled champion in 2017, finished fourth in final standings. However individual brilliance of Kishan Gangolli (5/6) got the individual Silver Medal on Board no.3 and also best game award, while captain IM Shashikant Kutwal managed 4/6. Naveen Kumar got Bronze medal on Board No.5.
Croatia — who had a bad start to the tournament — finished seventh, while second-seed Israel finished eighth and third-seed Hungary took the modest ninth place. Marcin Molenda (Poland) vs. Streltsov (Israel) was one of the most exciting games.
Tata Steel 2023
The Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2023 was the 85th edition of the annual chess tournament held in Wijk aan Zee. It was held from 13 January to 29 January 2023. The field of 14 players in the Masters section included the numbers one and two of the FIDE World ranking, Magnus Carlsen and Ding Liren, as well as five teenage grandmasters. Iran’s Parham Maghsoodloo was a late substitute for Poland's Jan-Krzysztof Duda. For the first time since 2015, Carlsen lost two classical games in a row: first in round 4 against Dutch grandmaster and five-times runner-up Anish Giri, and then in round 5 against the Uzbek teenager Nodirbek Abdusattorov.
Going into the last round, debutant Abdusattorov had a half point lead over Giri, but he lost his game against Dutch 2021 winner Jorden van Foreest, while Giri defeated Richard Rapport, making Giri the tournament's winner.
A grueling tournament came to an end for the three teenage Indian Grandmasters - R Praggnanandhaa, D Gukesh, and Arjun Erigaisi,. Competing in the Masters section, all the three Indian youngsters were given a reality check by some of the top GMs from the world. Prag was the best Indian performer in the prestigious event, finishing 9th with 6/13 points. He registered two victories in the event. The other two Indians - Gukesh and Arjun, finished further down as the former took the 12th spot with 5.5 points while the latter finished last with just 4 points. While Gukesh had two wins to show for his efforts in the tournament, Erigaisi failed to win even a single game in the entire event.
Germany's Alexander Donchenko won the Challengers section with 10/13, securing an invitation to the 2024 Tata Steel Masters section. He was a late replacement for Daniil Dubov who withdrew due to a close associate testing positive for COVID-19. Adhiban finished 5th in this event with a respectable 7/13.
Gashimov Memorial 2022
Abdusattorov won the Gashimov Memorial rapid and blitz event with five rounds to spare in Baku.
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Rauf Mamedov finished in shared second place with 20½/36 points. Both Azerbaijani grandmasters won their final-round games — remarkably, Mamedov beat Richard Rapport, who was in sole second place before that encounter.
In round 9 of the blitz, Abdusattorov defeated Gukesh with the black pieces. The clash of talented youngsters was a repeat of their dramatic round-10 encounter in Chennai (when an unexpected blunder by Gukesh gave Abdusattorov a crucial victory). The Uzbek prevailed once again with the black pieces in Baku. The 16-year-old from Chennai got to beat the eventual winner of the event in the final round, when he outplayed Abdusattorov in a sharp middlegame with queens and rooks on the board.
Chinese champions
Dai Changren and Tan Zhongyi are the new champions of China. The 2022 Chinese Championships took place in Xinghua, Jiangsu province, on November 2-11,2022. None of the top international players such as Din Liren, Wei Yi, Yu Yangyi, etc. participated. Dai scored 7/11 while Tan scored 9/11.
World Junior championship 2022
Open: Winner-IM Gadimbayli Abdulla (AZE):8/11
GM Kozak Adam (Hun), GM Kacharava Nikolozi (GEO), GM Sonis Francesco(ITA) and GM Mendonca Leon Luke (IND) scored 8/11 too!
Women's: Winner:WGM Beydullayeva Govhar (AZE): 8.5/11
Obituary
GM Nikitin, GM Basman and FM John Curdo passed away in 2022.
IM Aleksandr Nikitin (27 January 1935 – 5 June 2022) was a Russian chess master, chess coach, theorist and Master of Sports of the USSR in 1952. He was a coach of the Azerbaijan SSR (1980) and the USSR (1986) teams, and was a coach for Garry Kasparov from 1976 to 1990.
In 1992, Nikitin helped Boris Spassky during his exhibition match with Bobby Fischer. In the late 1990s, he served as the permanent coach of Étienne Bacrot, who became the youngest grandmaster in the world and the multiple champion of France. Nikitin also coached Russian grandmaster Dmitry Jakovenko, the individual European champion in 2012, who reached fifth in the FIDE world ranking.
IM Michael John Basman (16 March 1946 – 26 October 2022) was an English chess player, chess author and International Master. Basman was a prolific writer, who made many contributions to the field of chess openings, and was particularly known for frequently choosing bizarre or rarely played openings in his own games, including the St. George Defence (with which English Grandmaster Tony Miles once famously defeated the then World Champion Anatoly Karpov), the Grob (for Black and White) and also The Creepy Crawly, which is a3, then h3 followed by a quick c4. Possibly his greatest tournament success was when he tied for first place in the British Chess Championship tournament of 1973, although he lost the play-off match to William Hartston.
FM John Curdo is widely regarded as the winner of the most over-the-board chess tournaments. He won his 1,000th tournament in August 2018, and his record of tournament victories increased to 1,009, according to U.S. Chess Federation.