Σκακιστικά νέα

The 27th edition of Russian Team Chess Championship and the 21st Russian Women’s Team Championship started in the Grand Hotel Zhemchuzhina, in Sochi, following all health protocols of Krasnodar region.

The event takes place from 18-29 November, and teams of Mednyi Vsadnik from Saint Petersburg and Ugra defend the title of the Russian National Team Champions.

In total 23 teams (10 in open section and 13 in women’s section) represented by the best Russian players fight for the total prize fund of around 17.000 EUR.

After its several tournaments successfully completed online (European Online Chess Championship, European Youth Online Chess Championship and European Corporate Online Chess Championship), the European Chess Union announces European Online Women’s Club Cup to take place online from 19 to 22 December, through Tornel

International Chess Federation FIDE announced the FIDE Grand Swiss 2021 to be held from 25th October – 8th November in Isle of the Man.

The event will be limited to 164 participants, with 114 players in Open section and 50 players in Women section.

FIDE President and Russian CF President are campaigning through the state agency TASS to move the 2022 Chess Olympiad from Belarus to Russia.

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

The 14th Annual SPICE Cup Open is currently ongoing at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Chesterfield, Missouri, USA.

The event is a single-section 9-round Swiss with the possibility of obtaining FIDE title norms and concludes on 25th October.

The Higher League of the 73rd Russian Championship and 70th Russian Women’s Championship took place from 7-18 October 2020 in Grand Hotel Zhemchuzhina in Sochi, Russia.

The events were played in 9 rounds, Swiss system, with participation of top Russian players, fighting for a total prize fund of around 50.000 euros and 5 qualifying spots for 2020 Russian Championship Superfinals.

The U.S. Chess Championships for 2020 are being organised online for the first time ever featuring five national events: Junior, Senior and Elite National Championship.

US Junior Chess Championships concluded on 15th October and the winners are GM John Burke in the Open section and IM Carissa Yip in the Girls Section.

Altibox Norway Chess concluded yesterday in Stavanger and although the Winner was known before the last round, the games were contested for the second and third place.

Firouzja Alireza won Duda-Jan Krzysztof and took the second place, lagging behind the Winner of the event for only one point. The things got more dramatic for Firouzja after Magnus lost in the last round against Aronian, which certainly didn’t help him to get over the loss from the 9th round and direct encounter for the 1st place.

Would FIDE announce the reschedule, postponement or venue movement anytime soon altogether with explanations or we need to wait for player’s private social media announcements?
Not much time left to be seen, the clock is ticking out and the event is supposed to be continued on 1st of November.

Chessdom asked this on Wednesday. FIDE answered two days later, with a lengthy 7-paragraph announcement of which the only relevant part is:

After a direct encounter between Magnus Carlsen and Firouzja Alireza in the penultimate 9th round of Altibox Norway Chess, Carlsen claimed the top and became the Winner with a round to spare!

The dramatic game ended as Carlsen’s victory after Firouzja’s huge blunder in basic drawn pawn endgame 69.Kc3??