In successive interviews for the Russian agency the two officials are certain that “Russia could host the World Chess Olympiad 2022 instead of Belarus”.

“Belarus refused to host the Chess Olympiad in 2022, mainly for financial reasons, and we are now discussing whether it might be easier to hold it in Moscow in 2022,”, FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich said.

RCF President Andrei Filatov followed with: “If the situation arises, we are ready to hold the Olympiad.”

He proceeded to advertise Russian vaccines: “Moreover, by that time the Russian vaccine against coronavirus will be fully certified, and I think there will be chess fans who would come to Moscow not only to follow the tournament of the highest level, but also to get vaccinated.”

Russian chess city Khanty-Mansiysk was planned to hold the 2020 Chess Olympiad this summer, but the event was postponed for 2021 due to pandemics. Later it was announced that the Chess Paralympics and the FIDE Congress will be held in Khanty-Mansiysk, while the main chess competition will be moved to Moscow.

Belarus was awarded with the organization of the 2022 Chess Olympiad. Earlier this year Belarus started to back away from the financial obligations that are necessary for such a demanding event, and the Olympiad was definitely cancelled after the officials and players of the Belarus Chess federation supported the people’s protests against Alexander Lukashenko.

It has never happened before that one country held two consecutive Chess Olympiads.

The key reason of Russian obsession with the 2022 Chess Olympiad might be the fact that during the event there will also be elections for the post of FIDE President. Holding the elections on the home soil would certainly boost the Russian effort to keep the control over the chess organization.

The Norwegian world champion is perfectly at ease in Wijk aan Zee. He will participate for the 17th time in January. Apart from Carlsen four other top 10 players will participate: Fabiano Caruana (this year’s winner and number two of the world), Ian Nepomniachtchi (4), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (5) and Shakhryar Mamedyarov (8).

The best Dutch chess player, Anish Giri (11) will also participate, of course. Iranian super talent Alireza Firouzja (18) will also be taking part in ’the Wimbledon of Chess’.

The Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021 will take place in De Moriaan in Wijk aan Zee from 15 January – 31 January 2021.

Whether or not (a limited number of) spectators will be allowed to visit De Moriaan will depend on the COVID-19 measures in place at the time. All games can be followed live online.

Positive worldwide response

Tournament director Jeroen van den Berg: “the flood of congratulations and positive reactions I have received from people all over the world after the announcement is proof of how special it is that the Tata Steel Chess Tournament will really be played in Wijk aan Zee in these times. People show tremendous respect for the fact that Tata Steel, the municipality of Beverwijk and the other authorities have gone to such great lengths to make sure that the world’s most prominent chess tournament can go ahead. Chess aficionados have had to do without big international classical chess tournaments for almost a year. The Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021 is seen as a beacon of hope. People all over the world are craving for it.”

Tough job for grandmasters

Jeroen van den Berg: “The 83rd edition of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament will definitely see exciting games. One reason is that most of the grandmasters have hardly played classical chess since the outbreak of COVID-19. Participating in the world’s most challenging classical chess tournament (with 13 rounds) will thus prove to be very challenging and could lead to surprising outcomes. And favourites like Carlsen, Caruana, Nepomniachtchi, Vachier-Lagrave, Mamedyarov and Giri will be facing the youngest generation of grandmasters, who will try to steal the limelight by beating them. That is what is so unique about our tournament: the mix of established players and up and coming talented players like Alireza Firouzja (Iran) and Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Poland).”

The participation of Vachier-Lagrave and Nepomniachtchi means that the leaders of the Candidates Tournament, broken off earlier this year, will be present. This tournament will be resumed in the spring, to determine who will become the next grandmaster to challenge world champion Carlsen. Caruana and Giri are also participating in the Candidates Tournament.

Participants Tata Steel Masters 2021:

Magnus Carlsen Norway 2862 1
Fabiano Caruana U.S.A.. 2823 2
Ian Nepomniachtchi Russia 2784 4
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave France 2784 5
Shakhryar Mamedyarov Azerbaijan 2770 8
Anish Giri Netherlands 2764 11
Alireza Firouzja Iran 2749 18
Jan-Krzysztof Duda Poland 2743 19
Daniil Dubov Russia 2702 37
Andrey Esipenko Russia 2686 49
David Anton Guijarro Spain 2675 60
Jorden van Foreest Netherlands 2671 66
Nodirbek Abdusattorov Uzbekistan 2627 152
Aryan Tari Norway 2618 184

The COVID-19 crisis has led to the cancellation of many events, also in the world of chess. After thorough consultation with the Dutch Chess Association, NOC*NSF (Dutch Olympic Committee – Dutch Sports Federation) and the regional and local governments (including Veiligheidsregio Kennemerland – the regional safety authority), Tata Steel has concluded that it is possible to host a top sporting event with the 14 grandmasters of the Tata Steel Masters in De Moriaan in Wijk aan Zee in January.

Severe precautions will be taken and all the corona measures in place at the time will be complied with. The health of players, possible visitors, staff and employees takes precedence.

Due to the restrictions around COVID-19 it will not be possible to host the Tata Steel Challengers or amateur tournaments during this edition.

Chess On Tour, during which the grandmasters play a round in another city, will also not be hosted this time around. The Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021 will take place in De Moriaan in Wijk aan Zee from 15 – 31 January 2021.

Tournament director Jeroen van den Berg: “I am very happy that the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021 is on. So many chess events have been cancelled worldwide or turned into rapid tournaments since this spring that players and chess aficionados alike are really pining for big tournaments that actually take place behind the chess board. Well, the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2021 will be exactly catering to their tastes. And the strong field of participants will undoubtedly lead to spectacular games.”

Anish Giri participating

Holland’s best chess player, Anish Giri (currently no 11 in the world ranking) will take part in the Tata Steel Masters again in January. Together with Jeroen van den Berg he will announce the other participants on the website of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament (www.tatasteelchess.com) in the coming period.

Special set-up

Since only the 14 top chess players of the Tata Steel Masters will be playing in De Moriaan, a special set-up has been created, in which the grandmasters will literally be at the centre of everybody’s attention. All possible precautions will be taken to ensure a COVID-19 safe event for players, staff and possible visitors.

Screens will separate the arena in which the grandmasters will play from the rest of the hall and there will be a dedicated entry for the players. Whether or not (limited numbers of) spectators will be allowed to attend the event depends on the corona measures that will be in place during the tournament.

Steel and chess: creativity and innovation

The Tata Steel Chess Tournament has a long tradition. Starting as an employee tournament, it has grown into an international tournament of world class renown, for which grand masters and amateurs alike will clear their diaries. Tata Steel has chosen for chess, because chess entails strategic thinking and focuses on finding creative solutions for complex issues. Tata Steel has that very same focus. Steelmaking is a high-tech process with a crucial role for innovation. Tata Steel employees are continuously and relentlessly working on finding clever solutions to improve processes and products. Apart from that the sport of chess connects people from all over the world, which seems more important than ever before at the moment. Through #ChessConnects Tata Steel and its partners arrange ways to connect people through chess, with a special focus on young people.

For more info about the Tata Steel Chess Tournament, go to: www.tatasteelchess.com.

Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura stormed into the Skilling Open semi-finals as a thrilling day of online chess unfolded.

Three of today’s four ties went to play-offs as the last 8 were whittled down to four who go forward tomorrow to battle for a place in the final of the first Champions Chess Tour event.

Carlsen shut out his great Twitter rival Anish Giri with four draws to steer their four-game match to a 2-2 draw. Carlsen had started the day 1-0 up in matches and progressed without needing a play-off.

Carlsen said: “I have to commend Anish on a very tough fight. It was never easy for me at any moment and the whole match just came down to one game.”

Nakamura, meanwhile, was 1-0 down in his tie against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and needed to win today’s match just to go level on matches and then win the play-off.

In the preamble, Nakamura went into overdrive to simply overpower his French opponent with a game to spare sending the tie into overtime.

Blitz playoffs are Nakamura’s specialty but the world number 1 in the faster chess discipline simply self-destructed against MVL in a double-edged first game.

But in the second, Nakamura kept his cool after a bad start to hit back before the final Armageddon game saw the American secure a draw and go through to tomorrow’s semi – just.

In the other semis, Russia’s number 1 Ian Nepomniachtchi also started the day behind against Levon Aronian and got a key win to take the lead in game 1.

Aronian blew a chance to hit straight back in a chaotic game 2 before “Nepo” won the fourth to take the tie to another play-off.

Nepo convincingly won both two blitz games to complete his comeback.

It was a similar story in the final last-eight match as Wesley So took the match 2.5-1.5 against Teimour Radjabov to level the score and then triumphed in the play-off.

Tomorrow will see Carlsen vs Nepo, and an all-American So vs Nakamura match in the semis.

Pavel Spirin, Chief Commercial Officer for Skilling, said: “It was a day of comebacks and the dream of a Carlsen-Nakamura final is still a possibility!”

The head-to-head semi-final ties will start tomorrow at 18:00 CET with the possibility of quicker blitz and armageddon tiebreaks if the scores are tied.

The Champions Chess Tour, launched by the Play Magnus Group, replaces the hugely-popular Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour put on earlier this year.

Viewers will also be able to participate in interactive activities with the leading chess stars during the season using tour passes to be made available at ChampionsChessTour.com and chess24.com.

The event consisted of three stages: Qualification stage played within 2 groups whose winners proceeded to Semifinals and eventually the Finals of the Championship.

The Final stage consisted of four matches between the best two ranked players of the event in each section.

GM Valsecchi Alessio was announced as Italian Open Chess Champion 2020 after he took a convincing victory in a match against IM Lodici Lorenzo, with result 3-1.

IM Zimina Olga defeated IM Brunello Marina in the finals with result 2.5-1.5 and took a crown of the Women Italian Chess Champion 2020.

Di Benedetto Edoardo took a narrow 2.5-1.5 victory against Loiacono Antonio and became the winner of Italian Junior Chess Championship.

WFM Marianna Raccanello was crowned as Italian Girls Junior Chess Champion, as the best ranked U20 player on the final list of the Women Italian Chess Championship.

The results and details about the event can be found here.

Sanal Vahap won the event convincingly, as the top seed, scoring 7 points out of 9 played games. Second place came to IM Melih Yurtseven with 6.5 points, and bronze went to IM Gokerkan Cem Kaan with 6 points.

The total prize fund of the event was around 7.000 EUR, with 2.500 EUR reserved for the 2020 Turkish Champion.

The tournament was broadcasted LIVE together with commentary through Turkish Chess Federation Youtube Channel.

Official Website of the event

Two of the most exciting names in world chess have been added to the line-up for the Skilling Open, the first event of the new $1.5 million Champions Chess Tour.

The 16-player tournament kicks off on Sunday and includes the American speed chess king Hikaru Nakamura and teen hotshot Alireza Firouzja.

Nakamura is the world’s top blitz player and was only narrowly beaten by World Champion Magnus Carlsen in the first edition of the tour earlier this year.

Firouzja, meanwhile, is a 17-year-old who has taken the chess world by storm over the last year after leaving his home country of Iran.

Now resident in France, Firouzja is widely-tipped as a future champion who could one-day challenge pre-tournament favourite Carlsen.

Participants:

Ding Liren
Sergey Karjakin
Jan-Krzysztof Duda
Ian Nepomniachtchi
Levon Aronian
Liem Quang Le
Vidit Gujrathi
Peter Svidler
Teimour Radjabov
Wesley So
Magnus Carlsen
Hikaru Nakamura
David Antón Guijarro
Anish Giri
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
Alireza Firouzja

After the stunning mainstream success of Netflix show The Queen’s Gambit, tour organiser Play Magnus Group revealed the new competition will be broadcast by sports network Eurosport across Europe and Asia.

It means the game will take its place alongside tennis, football and other premium sporting events after Europe’s leading sports channel secured rights to show a full season in 60 countries.

The Champions Chess Tour, launched by the Play Magnus Group, replaces the hugely-popular Magnus Carlsen Chess Tour put on earlier this year.

It carries a record $1.5 million prize pot and will feature the world’s strongest chess grandmasters including Carlsen, the reigning World Champion.

Played on the chess24 platform, top grandmasters will be seen competing in front of cameras installed in their homes while studio commentary and analysis offers insights to viewers.

The full season consists of 10 elite chess tournaments running from November 2020 to September 2021 with the eventual winner crowned the best online player in the world.

Fifteen million people watched the first season of the Tour won by Carlsen in a thrilling finale against Nakamura, his American challenger, in August.

The renamed Champions Chess Tour is expected to attract an even larger audience as chess has become one of the most popular online games and entertainment streams during the covid-19 pandemic globally.

Viewers will also be able to participate in interactive activities with the leading chess stars during the season using tour passes to be made available at ChampionsChessTour.com and chess24.com.

Champions Chess Tour competition dates include:

• 22-30 November: Regular ($100,000 prize)
• 26 December – 3 January: Major ($200,000 prize)
• 6-14 February: Regular ($100,000 prize)
• 13-21 March: Major ($200,000 prize)
• 24 April – 2 May: Regular ($100,000 prize)
• 22-30 May: Regular ($100,000 prize)
• 26 June – 4 July: Major ($200,000 prize)
• 31 July – 8 August: Regular ($100,000 prize)
• 28 August – 5 September: Regular ($100,000 prize)
• 25 September – 3 October: Final ($300,000 prize)

The event takes place from 17th-19th November and after three played rounds, seven players tie fro the top, scoring 2.5 points each. The first on the ranking list currently is three times Ukrainian Chess Champion (2018, 2012, 2002) GM Anton Korobov. Among the participants, there are six female players, and after 3 rounds, IM Osmak Iulia, IM Buksa Nataliya and WIM Martynkova Olena emerged with the highest score with 1.5 points each.

Results, rankings and standings can be found here, while the LIVE transmission of the games can be followed through the official website of the event.

Opening ceremony of the 1st FIDE Online Olympiad for People with Disabilities took place yesterday.

FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich emphasised that he is happy to open such an event for People with Disabilities and greeted all the participants with a special message: “Chess is winning against obstacles and challenges. You already won against your challenges, you are great people, and I wish you health and all the luck.”.

The event starts today with the 1st round and will be played till 3rd December, the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Around 400 players representing 61 teams from 45 federations participate in the Online Olympiad for Disabled, which will be played through Tornelo Online platform within two stages: 1) 7 round Swiss system qualification stage, and 2) Finals with the best 4 teams fighting for medals. Time control of the event will be 25 min + 10 sec of an increment.

Details can be found here.

CNN report about World Junior Chess Championship for People with Disabilities

Chessable.com was firstly developed as a simple private opening memorisation tool, but then developed to a comprehensive and social learning website, which decided to cooperate with some of the best trainers and players in the world- Magnus Carlsen, Anish Giri, Sam Shankland, and among them IM Miodrag Perunovic.

Miodrag Perunovic, better known as The Butcher, decided to share how he masterpieces with Whites the Special Sicilian lines with 2.Nc3, and offers a memorising course plus over 20 hours of highly instructive video. Along with all explained lines, the course includes 577 trainable variations and 97 alternative lines, altogether with a collection of 188 top level games played in this opening.

Butcher The Sicilian is on offer (!) and can be in your hands for just 19.99$ or 109.99$ if you wish to have 20 hours of instructive video lessons by The Butcher!
Master the Sici with White once for all with Move Trainer!

What is the Move Trainer?
-Move Trainer developed by chessable.com turns chess books and videos into fully interactive courses. It finds out what a chess player knows, and what he doesn’t know, by regularly quizzing a person. Upon the results, the Move Trainer uses science-based principles to ensure efficient learning.