Mediaboss Marketing

Leonard Barden on chess

Chinas new world champion became the first since 1886 to lead the title match only in the final game, while the Norwegian implied he will play fewer classical tournaments

Ding Liren began his reign as the 17th world chess champion by setting a new record for the 49 title matches in the historic competition dating back to 1886. The modest 30-year-old was the first player ever to win the crown leading only in the final game, defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi in their fourth rapid tie-breaker following their 7-7 score in the regular classical series.

Ding also did it with a defining move. His 46Rg6!, boldly playing for the win by self-pinning his rook, his second most powerful piece, against his own king, shocked the grandmaster commentators as well as his Russian opponent. It was also the right decision in the context of the match, which was about to go into five-minute blitz, a format where Ding only had an inactive over-the-board rating, and where his few online competitive games had been marred by disconnections and the need to start play in the middle of the night to match his European and US opponents.

Magnus Carlsen, in the moment of abdication from his championship reign of nine years and five months, recognised the significance of 46Rg6 and sent a congratulatory tweet reading: Self-pinning for immortality. Congrats Ding!

Garry Kasparov, who reigned for 15 years and is Carlsens rival as the greatest of all time, had a different take. Kasparov tweeted Welcome to our very, very small club!The chess was uneven but very hard-fought, a logical outcome in a new era of primus inter pares that may last a while. The seven living world champions are Boris Spassky, Anatoly Karpov, Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik, Vishy Anand, Carlsen, and now Ding.

Ding said he is ready to take on the challenges of remaining world champion. I have to build a strong team, with great teachers and powerful computers, he said. In Astana, he relied on the input of the world No 11, Richard Rapport, who brought all the creativity I was lacking in my openings. Their low-key approach to prep contrasted with Nepomniachtchi, whose team has been revealed as including Kramnik and three Russian grandmasters, and also had access to the Zhores super-computer in Moscows Skolkovo Institute of Technology.

Dings potentially most significant statement was that he was ready for all challenges, including playing against Carlsen if he wants to recover the title, or to defend it against the young stars. Could that remark open the door to a Carlsen v Ding match in 2024, played outside the normal qualifying route to the Candidates, and incorporating some rule changes to accommodate the all-time No 1? Sponsors would line up to back such a mouthwatering event.

In his latest interview, on a Norwegian podcast, Carlsen made a concrete suggestion about the match format: The most obvious is one Fide also suggested, to have two games per day with a shorter time controlwhich means the importance of preparation is reduced and youll get more decisive games. He suggested a time control of 60 minutes per player per game, or 45 minutes with 15 seconds increment added per move.

After the only previous occasion when a Fide world champion abdicated the crown, Bobby Fischer and his successor, Karpov, had three face-to-face meetings to try to arrange a match. In the first, at Tokyo 1976, it was alleged that Fischers initial greeting to Karpov was Why dont you leave the Soviet Union? Despite this, the meeting was friendly and constructive. Their second meeting, at Crdoba, Spain, was inconclusive but at the third, at Washington in 1977, they got as far as a draft agreement before Fischer refused to sign it.

Carlsen singled out Nodirbek Abdusattorov, the 18-year-old who led Usbekistan to Olympiad 2022 gold and won the world rapid title in 2021, as one of the two teenage stars who has impressed him the most. He is definitely the one with the most sporting qualities, Carlsen said. His concentration and discipline are extremely impressive. He tends to end up in difficult positions, but he will defend them very well. Hes apparently a machine on the treadmill and with weights. Hes a true sports athlete with huge potential.

Carlsens other choice, the current world No 4, is unsurprising. Alireza Firousja likes to do other things as well, but hes the biggest talent among them all.

The four games on the final day at Astana, shown live on the internet, attracted a huge global audience, with a peak figure of over 570,000 viewers, the second highest for a chess event after the 2021 title match, where the peak was 613,000.

How great the impact of the result was and will be in China, where Chinese chess (Xiangqi) remains more popular than the international version, is unclear. No Chinese journalists came to Astana, but on the evening after the match a Ding hashtag quickly clocked up over 10 million viewers on Weibo. A key indicator may be whether Chinese players and teams, who did not participate at the 2022 Olympiad at Chennai even though they were the reigning open and womens champions, can resume active competition at all levels.

At the closing ceremony in Astana, where Ding received the traditional laurel wreath and gold medal, Nepomniachtchi cut a forlorn and dejected figure. The defeated Russian, who spoiled so many good positions in the match, took off his losers medal and did not join in the applause. There are suggestions that he could come back a third time after losing title matches to Carlsen and Ding, but the omens are not good.

Of the four previous players who were twice defeated for the world crown without ever winning it Mikhail Chigorin, Efim Bogoljubow, Viktor Korchnoi, and Veselin Topalov, none succeeded in coming back for a third attempt. Carlsens abdication, and a general perception that Ding is vulnerable to his next challenger, means that Fabiano Caruana, Anish Giri, Hikaru Nakamura and all the teenage talents will make the 2024 eight-player Candidates a top priority.

Nepomniachtchi poured out his troubles to Sean Ingle in the Guardians inside story of the match, with more interesting details on Seans Twitter page, including the challengers stream of consciousness account of the final day.

Ding and Nepomniachtchi will meet at the chessboard again as early as next Monday. They are the top seeds in the Superbet Classic in Bucharest, Romania, which has its opening round on Saturday and is the first leg of the St Louis-organised Grand Chess Tour. The elite Bucharest event includes six of the world top 10. Saturdays first round pairings are Ding v Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France), Fabiano Caruana (US) v Bogdan-Daniel Deac (Romania), Nepomniachtchi v Richard Rapport (Romania), Jan-Krysztof Duda (Poland) v Anish Giri (Netherlands), Alireza Firouzja (France) v Wesley So (US). Nepomniachtchi will play White against Ding in Mondays third round. Play starts at 1pm BST daily, and all games will be shown live and free on major chess websites.

3866: 1 Rxd4! Rxd4 2 Rxd4 Rxd4 3 Nd5! and the h6 pawn queens.

{{topLeft}}

{{bottomLeft}}

{{topRight}}

{{bottomRight}}

{{.}}

More here:
Chess: Ding sets world title landmark and is ready to take on Carlsen - The Guardian

The personalities of some leading players have also generated huge interest. The magnetic Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, five times world champion, sat out the latest tournament, thereby relinquishing his title.

He seems bored by his feebler challengers, who he claims just try to park the bus - in football speak - when playing against him to avoid defeat. That left Nepomniachtchi, ranked number two, to square off against Ding, ranked three. But the 32-year-old Carlsen will doubtless be back, promising dramatic new plot lines.

The fidgety and aggressive Nepo, as Nepomniachtchi is known, has demonstrated courage both on and off the board: He was one of 44 Russian chess players to sign a letter last year opposing the invasion of Ukraine. Although lower ranked, Ding showed extraordinary resilience after a shaky start and conjured up a stunning move in game 18 to clinch victory. A fresh generation of exciting teenage challengers is also emerging fast.

Broader lessons can be drawn from the successful reinvention of chess at a time when many are fretting about the impact of generative artificial intelligence.

Deep Blues triumph, which seemingly symbolised the eclipse of human intelligence in the most cerebral of sports, helped open up a new era of technology-assisted connection and creativity. As Kasparov knows to his cost, technology can destroy old certainties and raise fears of human obsolescence. But it can also generate unimagined new opportunities.

John Thornhill is the founder of Sifted, an FT-backed site about European start-ups.

Original post:
Commentary: How technology reinvented chess as a global social network - CNA

Like a lot of talented young chess players, Max Gedajlovic of Vancouver hit a plateau and started drifting away from chess in his high school years.

After learning the game in Grade 4, he improved rapidly and even represented Canada in the World Youth Olympiad. He became a master at 14, but couldnt break through to the next level and seemed destined to abandon tournament ambitions.

Then after a four-year hiatus, Gedajlovic decided to see if he could attain the international master title, the designation just below grandmaster status. It quickly became obvious he was ready. In a three-month span, he earned enough norms to become Canadas newest international master at the age of 21.

A lot of people have mental blocks and find its hard to break through and go to the next level, he said. Most people just need is the right set of opportunities.

Gedajlovic is currently studying Economics at UBC, but his recent successes have prompted him to think about chess as a career. He says he also loves coaching other players.

He plans to spend some time in the Czech Republic competing against international masters and grandmasters in an effort to reach the next plateau a grandmaster title of his own.

How does White bring more pressure onto the Black King?

White played 28.Rc6 (the Rook cant be touched because of a Knight fork) Qxe5 30.Qg5 Kh8 31.Qh6+ Kg8 32.Rcxg6+ and Black resigned.

See the article here:
Vancouver chess player is Canada's newest international master - The Globe and Mail

A May 18 exhibition match between an international chess grandmaster and a 13-year-old American elementary champion will launch the fifth annual San Diego-Azerbaijan Youth Chess Tournament.

The game will feature Grandmaster Vasif Durarbayli, an Azerbaijani living in St. Louis, and 2022 U.S. National Elementary co-champion Isaac Wang of San Diego. It will begin a 4 p.m. on May 18 at the La Jolla/Rifford Public Library 7555 Draper Ave.

The match is a prelude to an open chess tournament that will feature 40 young San Diego County players. The tourney starts at 10 a.m. on May 20 in the Winn Room of the Coronado Public Library, 640 Orange Ave. Durarbayli will present certificates and make closing remarks that afternoon.

Vasif Durarbayli, who started playing chess at the age of 6, became an international master at the age of 15 in 2007, and three years later became a grandmaster. A native of Azerbaijan, which he represented in several Chess Olympiads, he now resides in St. Louis. The grandmaster designation is the highest designation in chess. Chess titles are awarded by the International Chess Federation. There are 1,721 grandmasters worldwide.

This fifth annual San Diego-Azerbaijan Youth Chess Tournament is an event of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Global Neighborhood Project, a grassroots outreach program linking San Diegos Switzer Highlands with the peoples of Azerbaijan, Botswana, Latvia, Mongolia, Morocco, Scotland, and Uzbekistan.

There is no charge for players to participate in the event, open to players aged 6 to 18. The tournament is limited to 40 players. To register:

https://coronado.librarycalendar.com/event/youth-chess-tournament-featuring-grand-master

Photo used by permission of Frank A. Camaratta, Jr.; The House of Staunton, Inc.; houseofstaunton.com

Read more from the original source:
Annual Youth Chess Tournament to include international grandmaster - San Diego Community Newspaper Group

In September, when the five-time world chess champion Magnus Carlsen accused a 19-year-old American player named Hans Niemann of cheating at a tournament in St. Louis, an uproar ensued. Carlsen implied that his opponent was surreptitiously playing moves relayed from an outside source, something Niemann strenuously denied.

As the controversy at the prestigious Sinquefield Cup became international news, the International Chess Federation, known as FIDE, which is the governing body for the game, promised a full investigation. The report, which was completed in February, was originally supposed to be published in April, according to a post on the organizations blog.

Now, the wait for answers just got a lot longer.

On Wednesday, a federation official, Dana Reizniece-Ozola, said the report was delayed because the organization has decided to hold the matter in abeyance until at least October of this year pending possible further developments in the civil suit between the parties.

The suit at issue is a $100 million defamation claim brought last year by Niemann against Carlsen and Chess.com, the worlds largest chess website, which had accused Niemann of cheating in online games. A top-ranked player, Hikaru Nakamura, was also named in the suit and accused of amplifying Carlsens statements in online videos.

It is unclear why FIDE believes it should steer clear of a lawsuit to which it is not a party, but Terrence Oved, an attorney for Niemann, believes it comes down to money. He noted that last year, Chess.com acquired Carlsens company, Play Magnus, and that FIDE has financial deals with two subsidiaries of Play Magnus, Chessable and Chess24. In 2021, for instance, Chess24 bought broadcast rights to FIDE events until 2026.

Given the deep-rooted financial ties between FIDE, Chess.com, Play Magnus and Magnus Carlsen, Oved wrote in an email, FIDEs sudden refusal to disclose the results of its independent investigation bolsters our belief that the results of that investigation are highly favorable to Niemann and raises serious concerns that this scandal runs even deeper than anticipated.

David Llada, FIDEs director of communications, said that the decision to postpone the release of the report and any potential disciplinary action was made by the organizations Ethics and Disciplinary Commission, not by its president or any high-level executive.

The E.D.C. are professionals and act according to the best interests of FIDE and the chess community, Llada said. They also act with the highest degree of independence from FIDE to preserve their impartiality.

In the chess world, there was hope that the report would clear up what exactly happened in St. Louis last year, one of the strangest and noisiest chess controversies in the games history.

It began when Niemann beat Carlsen, whom many regard as the greatest player ever, during an early match at the round-robin Sinquefield Cup. It was a surprising triumph, though Carlsens swift departure from the tournament quickly overshadowed it. The internet was soon awash with theories about how Niemann might have secreted a radio device on his body. In a postgame interview at the Cup, Niemann offered to play naked, in a radio signal-proofed room, to prove he was playing clean.

Two weeks after the tournament ended, Carlsen made clear what was implied by his hasty exit.

I believe that Niemann has cheated more and more recently than he has publicly admitted, Carlsen wrote on Twitter. He grew suspicious, he continued, because Niemann didnt seem particularly tense at critical moments and outplayed him in a way I think only a handful of players can do.

This was far from definitive proof, but not long after Carlsens tweet, Chess.com published a lengthy report about Neimanns online play, and stated that he had very likely cheated more than 100 times.

Niemann acknowledged in interviews last year that he had, in fact, cheated in online games when he was younger, something he said he deeply regretted. He also said emphatically that he had never cheated during an over-the-board game, as in-person chess is known.

Many in the chess world did not believe him. In the lawsuit, which was filed in October, Niemanns lawyers said that their client had been egregiously defamed by Carlsen and Chess.com and thrust into the center of what is now widely reported as the single biggest chess scandal in history.

Erik Allebest, the chief executive of Chess.com, said, Im not in contact with FIDE on this topic, nor do I have any theories, unfortunately. Henrik Carlsen, Magnus Carlsens father and adviser, declined to comment.

The Sinquefield Cup game between Carlsen and Niemann has become one of the most studied in decades, and grandmasters who looked closely found nothing supercomputer-like in the Americans play. Rather, they said, Carlsen made a few highly uncharacteristic mistakes. Viswanathan Anand, a five-time world champion, put it this way: I thought Carlsen literally cracked at the end.

Though the full contents of the report remain a secret, one crucial detail is known. FIDE retained a professor of computer science at the University at Buffalo named Kenneth Regan, who has developed what is widely considered the worlds most sophisticated cheating detection algorithm a way to track how closely a players moves mirror those of supercomputers that can outplay anything with a pulse.

Regan was asked by the chess federation to study Niemanns playing during the Sinquefield Cup and other over-the-board tournaments. Did he find evidence that Niemann had cheated?

Unequivocally no, he said in an interview on Wednesday. And theres not much more to say about it.

Time is slowly adding heft of its own to this verdict. Niemann has continued to play in professional tournaments, and he keeps getting better. His rating is higher than it was during the Sinquefield Cup, and has now crossed the 2700 threshold that separates merely great players from the most elite. When the Sinquefield Cup began, he was ranked 49th in the world. Today, he is ranked 31st.

Link:
Chess's Governing Body Delays Report on Cheating Scandal - The New York Times