Σκακιστικά νέα

Hans Niemann lost his game yesterday against Fabiano Caruana as he missed his chances to escape with a draw. Niemann now scores 3/7 points, tying for the 5th place in the Sinquefield Cup. In the last round of the event, Niemann faces Ian Nepomniachtchi – Magnus Carlsen’s challenger in the 2021 World Chess Championship Match and the Winner of the Candidates Tournament 2022.

After yesterday’s victory over Wesley So, Alireza Firouzja overtook the lead in the Sinquefield Cup 2022 and he is now a heavy favorite to become the Winner of the 2022 Grand Chess Tour.

It was a pivotal day for the standings as Alireza Firouzja survived a difficult position to score an important victory over Wesley So, overtaking the lead in the penultimate round of the Sinquefield Cup. It was then not long after that Ian Nepomniachtchi joined Firouzja in first place, after he defeated Levon Aronian in a highly tactical game.

The ninth annual Sinquefield Cup is also the fifth and final leg of the Grand Chess Tour 2022. Eight Tour players: Wesley So, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Levon Aronian, Fabiano Caruana, Alireza Firouzja, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Leinier Dominguez, and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov are joined by wildcards Magnus Carlsen and Hans Niemann for a classical chess event which is played in 9 round-robin rounds.

Alireza Firouzja defeated Wesley So in the 8th penultimate round of the Sinquefield Cup 2022 and overtook the lead in the event. With today’s victory, Firouzja might overtake the lead of the overall Grand Chess Tour standings and the chance for possible tiebreaks is increasing. See the standings after 7 played rounds here

After Hans Niemann defeated the World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen in the third round of the Sinquefield Cup 2022, Carlsen decided to withdraw from the tournament without detailed explanations.

Hans Niemann’s fans gathered today in front of the Saint Louis Chess Club upon the start of the 8th penultimate round of the Sinquefield Cup 2022. A few girls were standing in front of the building to show support to Hans Niemann holding banners with different signs: “We love Hans”, “Checkmate Magnus”, “Hans has cool hair”, “Hans has an awesome accent”.

Chinese grandmaster Ding Liren is now the number one Rapid player in the World! Ding Liren currently plays the Chinese Chess league which includes combined rapid and classical events. Scoring 3.5/4 points in the first four rounds, Ding Liren earned 2.6 rapid ELO points to overpass Magnus Carlsen on the live rapid rating list. The Chinese grandmaster now has a live rapid rating of 2836.6 while Carlsen holds second place with a 2834 rapid rating.

Famous grandmaster and FIDE Senior Trainer Ivan Sokolov is one of the lecturers at the FIDE Training Seminar that is ongoing in Mamaia, Romania, concurrently with the FIDE World Youth U14, U16 and U18 Chess Championships. The seminar takes place from 7-12 September, in English language, with GM Ivan Sokolov and GM R.B. Ramesh as main instructors.

More by GM Simon Williams: The Iron English – Botvinnik Variation / The Hippopotamus Defence