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Chess Tidbits |
Candidates 2024 qualifiers
The qualifiers for the Candidates Tournament open are the following (ranking as of Mar 2024):
- Ian Nepomniachtchi (#7)
- Fabiano Caruana (#2)
- Alireza Firouzja (#6)
- Hikaru Nakamura (#3)
- Nijat Abasov
- Vidit Gujrathi (#17)
- Gukesh D (#15)
- R Praggnanandhaa (#16)
- 2023 World Championship runner-up: Nepomniachtchi
- The top 3 finishers in the Chess World Cup 2023 (after winner Magnus Carlsen withdrew): Caruana, Prag and Nijat
- The top two finishers in the FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2023: Vidit Gujrathi, Nakamura
- Qualifier by highest rating in Jan 2024: Firouzja
- The winner of the 2023 FIDE Circuit: Gukesh
The event will be held alongside the Women's Candidates Tournament. Koneru Humpy and R Vaishal qualified for this tournament. Tingjie Lei, Kateryna Lagno, Aleksandra Goryachkina, Nurgyul Salimova, Anna Muzychuk and Zhongyi Tan comprise the remaining participants in the Women's event.
World Junior Championship 2023
The most prestigious event for U-20 players in the world is the World Junior Championship. Four previous winners – Boris Spassky, Anatoly Karpov, Garry Kasparov and Viswanathan Anand – have gone on to win the World Chess Championship.
Marc'Andria Maurizzi from France won the event in 2023 while the ladies junior title went to Candela Francisco from Argentina. The winners got GM and WGM titles for winning the event.
Next world junior championship will be held in New Delhi.
World Rapid and Blitz Championships
World Rapid
Magnus Carlsen won the Rapid tournament with a score of 10/13 and earned his fifth world rapid title. Fedoseev and Yu Yangyi came 2nd and third respectively with 9/13.
Vidit Gujrathi, Murzin,MVL,Dubov, Prag,Andreikin, Grischuk, Abdussatorov. Svidler, Caruana and Madhsoodloo also scored 9/13 but had an inferior tie-break to Yu Yangyi. The women’s Rapid tournament was won by Anastasia Godnaruk with a score of 8.5/11. Humpy and Lei, Tingjie also scored 8.5/11 but had an inferior tie-break to Godnaruk.
World Blitz
Magnus Carlsen completed his sixth World Blitz Title with 16/21 and this is the fourth time (2014, 2019, 2022 and 2023) he's won both rapid and blitz titles.
Half a point behind him was Daniil Dubov who was penalized a 1/2 point along with his round 11 opponent Nepomniachtchi for bringing the game into disrepute with their unsporting draw in this round.
Valentina Gunina won the women's blitz title with 14/17, half a point clear of Alexandra Kosteniuk who pushed her all the way.
Prague Masters 2024 championships
GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov won the Prague Masters 2024 championships with a round to spare, winning the event with a 1.5 point lead over his nearest rival. He is world #4 on the live ratings. GM Thai Dai Van Nguyen came 2nd but could have done better if he had not missed several chances versus Vidit Gujrathi in the final round.
Abdusattorov said this about missing the Candidates: “I feel this cycle is not my cycle. I don’t regret to not play in the Candidates this year. I feel like I am not quite there yet. I’ll have more time till the next cycle and I’ll gain more experience. I hope I’ll be ready for the next tournament.”
In the Challengers event, 15 year old GM-elect Ediz Gurel won and qualified for next year's Masters.
Tata Steel 2024 championships
GM Wei Yi won the 2024 Tata Steel Chess Tournament after winning a thrilling four-way tiebreak that also involved GMs Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Anish Giri and Gukesh, all tied at 8.5/14.
Wei had typical winner's luck in the very first game against Abdusattorov in the semis, where he was dead lost but the latter needed to make a move in three seconds and allowed a perpetual. Wei then defeated Abdusattorov with Black in the next game to reach the final.
Meanwhile, 2023 winner Giri had started with a convincing win against Gukesh, but lost the second game and then also lost the first sudden death game.
In the final playoff, Wei defeated Gukesh in the first game and drew the next to emerge winner of Tata Steel 2024 edition.
With this fantastic win, the former Chinese prodigy entered the world's top 10 for the first time.
History was also created on the final day. World Champion Ding Liren and Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun, met for the first time and the game ended in a draw. This is a rare event. Earlier GM Magnus Carlsen and GM Hou Yifan played each other in the same tournament in 2015. Before that, it was between Gaprindashvili-Spassky, Goteborg 1971, and then we have to go pre-World War II: Alekhine-Menchik, Montevideo 1939.
GM Leon Luke Mendonca won the Challengers event and secured a spot in the 2025 Masters. He just pipped the tournament leader and world junior champion GM Marc'Andria Maurizzi in the final round.