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Chess Tidbits |
Ding triumphs in World Championship 2023
The 2023 World Chess Championship match between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren took place in the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana, from April 7 to May 1. After Magnus Carlsen’s abdication, the match to decide the next World Chess Champion, was played over 14 games which resulted in a 7-7 tie. In the tie-break, Ding won 2.5-1.5. Thus Ding Liren emerged as the 17th World Chess Champion.
The match was played for a €2 million (about $2.16 million) prize fund, with the prize split 55:45 between the winner and loser.
The masterpiece of Ding Liren (Game 6) and the final tiebreaker games are given below.
Women’s World Championship
Ju Wenjun: Photo Source: Wikipedia
The reigning women’s world champion Ju Wenjun retained her title a second time defeating Lei Tingjie 6.5-5.5 in the title match in July 2023. Lei had beaten Tan Zhongyi in the Candidates final in 2022. Ju had won the world title in 2018 versus Tan Zhongyi. In 2020, she narrowly won the title match versus Russian Aleksandra Goryachkina in a tiebreak 6-6, 2.5-1.5.
World Cup 2023
Magnus Carlsen: Photo Source: Wikipedia
Former World champion Magnus Carlsen beat R. Praggnanandhaa 1.5-0.5 in rapid tiebreak to lift the 2023 FIDE World Cup in Baku. The 3rd place was won by Caruana beating dark horse Nijat Abasov. Since Carlsen has stated that he will not play in the Candidates, all the other semi-finalists will qualify for the next Candidates in 2024. Besides Prag, Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi and Vidit Gujrathi had all qualified into the last 16, a first for Indian chess. The crucial final game is given below.
Aleksandra Goryachkina: Photo source: chess.com
Tata Steel championships
MVL: Photo Source: Wikipedia
This year’s edition was a success for the veterans rather than the prodigies. Maxime Vachier Lagrave (MVL) won the rapid title ahead of TEimour Radjabov and Praggnanandhaa.
Divya Deshmukh: Photo Source: Chessbase India
In the women’s event, lowest seeded Divya Deshmukh won the rapid event ahead of world champion Ju Wenjun and the rapidly rising star Polina Shuvalova.
Grischuk: Photo Source: chess.com
Alexander Grischuk won the Blitz title, pipping prodigies Nodirbek Abdusattarov and Praggnanandhaa. They were followed by Arjun Erigaisi and MVL.
World champion Ju Wenjun won the women’s Blitz title, followed by Humpy, Harika and Divya Deshmukh.
Obituaries
Aleksandar Matanovic (1930-2023):
Photo Source: One of his last pictures from Serbian newspaper
GM Matanovic was a Serbian chess grandmaster and the founding editor-in-chief of Chess Informant, which publishes the Encyclopaedia of Chess Openings popularly known as ECO, the Chess Bible. It was the leading pre-digital chess publication of which he was the driving force.
He was awarded the GM title in 1955 at age 25. A part of the golden era of Yugoslav chess, Matanovic defeated some of the greatest players of his time, including Tartakower, Bogoljubov, Gligoric, Keres, Larsen, Geller, Hort, Portisch, Stein, Olafsson, Ljubojevic, Polugaevsky, Petrosian, Ivkov, Andersson and Timman. One of his most famous victories was against Mikhail Tal at the Interzonal in Portoroz, Slovenia in 1958. Tal won the tournament at which he suffered only one defeat - against Matanovic.
Following the death of Yuri Averbakh at the age of 100 on 7 May 2022, Matanović became the oldest living grandmaster. He was one of the few living players who had a Morphy number 3. The Morphy number is a measure of how closely a chess player is connected to Paul Morphy (1837–1884) by way of playing chess games.
In May this year, to commemorate his 93rd birthday, the oldest newspaper in the Balkans — the Serbian daily Politika — asked Matanovic to write a biographical article. He finished it with the following lines:
Chess is a game. Games (are a way to) determine the values of the various factors in sport. Not just human versus human. The chess player is the one side and chess is the other. When a chess player discovers all the secrets of chess, and that is in progress, chess will lose. When a violinist completely masters his instrument, or when a doctor discovers what causes a disease - they will win. The game is a conflict. Conflict, in anything, leads to progress. In chess, for example, the events on the board today are different from those of the previous era — they are on a higher level.
When you set out on a journey of no return, who and what you are depends on what you leave behind. When my time comes, I will leave behind my wife, son, three grandchildren, three daughters-in-law, four great-grandchildren, the chess language, and countless games played...
And the hope that everything that directed our lives will be better than it was.
A couple of games played by Aleksandar Matanovic:
Vadim Malakhatko (1977-2023):
Photo Source: Chessbase (Georgios Souleidis)
Ukrainian grandmaster Vadim Malakhatko died of a heart attack in Kyiv at 46. During his career Malakhatko won numerous open tournaments and played for the Ukrainian national team. In 2006 he was also runner-up in the European Rapid Chess Championship.
Disappointed with the Ukrainian Chess Federation, he moved to the Belgian Chess Federation in 2007, and won the Belgian team championship in 2008 with his Club Bredene. In 2009 he was number on Belgium's ranking. Malakhatko reached his highest rating in October 2008 with Elo 2633.
Jeremy Silman (1954-2023):
Photo Source: Photo Source: Wikipedia
Silman won the American Open, the National Open, and the U.S. Open, and was the coach of the US junior national chess team. He attained the IM title in 1988. He wrote over 35 books, mostly on chess for which he is well-known.