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The St Louis Chess Club in the US held its annual Chess 9LX 2020 Tournament as an online competition owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In terms of grandmaster quality, the 9LX tournament was one of the foremost for 2020. Current world champion Magnus Carlsen was a participant, as was a previous world champion, the inimitable Garry Kasparov. The challenger for the last world championship title match Fabiano Caruana was there. So were six leading grandmasters: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So (last years Random chess champion), Levon Aronian, Leinier Dominguez, and Peter Svidler.

Alireza Firouzja, the worlds best junior, completed the ten participants of the round robin competition. It was played on the popular site Lichess and was contested according to the rules of Chess 960 at rapid time controls (20+10).

In Chess 960 or Random Chess, the pieces on the chess board are placed differently to the usual set-up. This new organization gives the game a different flavour. Take a look at the position of the pieces in the diagram, which is referred to as Start Position 476. It means that any chess game adopting the position of the pieces on the chess board would be known as Chess 960/476.

Before the start of each game in a Chess 960 tournament, the pieces are rearranged and carry different numbers. Random Chess or Chess 960 is the creation of world champion Bobby Fischer, as far as I am aware. He invented this method to take grandmasters out of book or out of theory and compel them to be more creative. During his lifetime, Fischers random chess never caught on. It is therefore encouraging that the St Louis Chess Clubis promoting the American chess geniuss idea. Fischers principal argument was it would lessen grandmasters dependence on known theory and make draws more infrequent.

Carlsen and So tied for first in the Chess 9LX Tournament. They shared the first prize. American grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura was third.

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Carlsen and So tie in Chess 9LX tournament - Stabroek News

The remaining seven rounds of the FIDE flagship event the Candidates are facing a fresh crisis as Chinese Star Wang Hao is considering withdrawing from the event scheduled to resume November 1 in Yekaterinburg, Russia.The 31-year-old GM said the tournament should be moved from Russia because the host country is not safe and accused FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich of rudeness towards him.

In September FIDE announced that the Candidateswill resume with the 8th round on November 1st in Yekaterinburg, Russia. The event that decides Magnus Carlsen's challenger for the World Championship title was halted abruptly on March 26th when only 7 rounds had been played.

On Monday, Wang Hao published e-mails he has had with FIDE lawyer Alexandr Martynov where he has made it clear that he is not a fan of the idea of holding the event in Russia. He has not yet decided whether he will participate.

Russia, like most of Europe and many other countries, is experiencing a spike in new Covid-19 cases and broke 10,000 new cases on October 4th, its highest number since May 15.

According to screenshots published on his private Facebook account, seen by chess24, FIDE has offered Hao a private flight, directly from Beijing to Yekaterinburg and is also willing to cover a business-class flight and VIP transfer in Germany, in case he needs a stopover. He also turned down offers to play in Tbilisi, FIDE's reserve venue, as he does not consider airports in Europe safe.

The World no. 12 is concerned with the venue in Russia. chess24 reached out to Wang Hao, who commented:

We are still discussing. But I was very disappointed and angry with the attitude of FIDE and the rudeness of the president.

The response comes after FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich intervened in the conversation with the following:

Wang Hao followed up:

I think that its risky to have the tournament this November. If FIDE wants to resume the tournament in November, the tournament cannot be held in some place which is not safe like Russia.And somewhere is easy for players to go, to have a direct flight, make sure less possibility of the infection.Also, players need to be compensated if they get infected during the way or in the tournament place, because we are taking risks.

After Round 7, Wang Hao finds himself one point behind the leaders Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Ian Nepomniachtchi, who scored 4.5.

The Chinese player, who qualified by winning the 2019 FIDE Grand Swiss tournament, had already expressed safety fears prior to the event.

He was not alone. Azerbaijan Grandmaster Teimour Radjabov also predicted big problems and went one step further by withdrawing before the tournament.

Radjabov was replaced by GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and the tournament started as scheduled. The 33-year-old has since said he wants his place back and was reportedly considering legal options.

Asked whether dropping out of the event is an option, the Chinese star says:

I am not sure about it. It depends on how the discussion goes.

According to the Regulations of the FIDE Candidates, Wang Hao will be considered to have lost his remaining games:

5. 3. If a player withdraws after completing 50% or more of the games, the rest of his games are lost by default. In case a player completes less than 50%, all his results are annulled.

FIDE confirms to chess24 that discussions with Wang Hao are ongoing. General Director Emil Sutovsky made the following response:

FIDE makes a huge work trying to secure safest and at the same time most comfortable environment for players. Objectively, it is not easy - and we see that even in Stavanger foreign players had to quarantine for 10 days. We are going to resolve it without obliging players to quarantine, and we also are in constant touch with every one of them discussing every detail. It is a monumental task, but we realize how important it is and make every effort and beyond that.

Leon Watson contributed to this report for chess24.

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Wang Hao brands FIDE president 'rude' and threatens to pull out of Candidates - chess24

9/29/2020 From October 5 to October 16, Stavanger will again host the the Altibox Norway Chess Tournament. It is a double-round-robin with six players, who play live(!) against each other. Top seeds are Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Alireza Firouzja and Aryan Tari complete the field.

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The field of the Altibox Norway Chess Tournament was announced last week. Anish Giri was supposed to play, but in view of rising corona infection rates the Dutchman prefers to stay at home. He is replaced by the young Polish grandmaster Jan-Krzysztof Duda. Alireza Firouzja, currently the world's best junior, also gets a chance to prove himself in this top event. For both it is their first Altibox Norway Tournament.

Top seed, World Champion and clear favourite: Magnus Carlsen | Photo: Norway Chess

Magnus Carlsen (Norway)Fabiano Caruana (USA)Levon Aronian (Armenia)Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Poland)Alireza Firouzja (FIDE)ArianTari (Norway)

The tournament starts with the first round on October 5, and ends on October 16. October 9, and October 14, are rest-days.

In view of the Covid 19 pandemic, the organisers in Stavanger are taking all the necessary measures to ensure that the tournament is safe for all concerned.

Tournament page...

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Altibox Norway Chess 2020: Live and over-the-board! - Chessbase News

As a global pandemic continues to determine a new normal, tens of thousands of viewers have been tuning in to watch people play chess on a livestreaming website called Twitch.tv. An American chess grandmaster, Hikaru Nakamura, along with a number of celebrities of the video game world, is leading a renaissance in the ancient game.

While viewers eagerly await Nakamuras streams to begin, they are treated to a slideshow of memes involving Nakamuras face superimposed into scenes from pop culture. First a reference to a well-known Japanese animation, next a famous upside-down kiss with Spiderman and finally, Nakamuras characteristic grin is edited onto the Mona Lisa herself.

From Aug. 21 to Sept. 6, Twitch and Chess.com are hosting a tournament, called Pogchamps, where some of the most popular gaming streamers in the world compete in a chess tournament with US$50,000 on the line.

The current renaissance in chess is happening at the confluence of livestreaming technology, video game culture and one grandmasters exceptional skills as both a chess player and entertainer. What is emerging is an unexpectedly good pairing between chess and a digital generation that is showing how influential gamers can be.

The game of kings is more popular than ever, with over 605 million players worldwide, and now, memes are involved.

Twitch.tv is a live-video streaming website that was started in 2011 as a platform for users to watch other people play video games. In recent years, Twitch has grown to become the cultural hub of the gaming community. It now hosts tens of thousands of creators who broadcast live to a global audience of around 17.5 million viewers a day.

Since 2015, chess viewership has experienced exponential growth on Twitch. Then, a mere 59 people were watching chess streams at any given time. Today, that number averages 4,313. At the time of writing this, viewers have consumed close to 38 million hours of chess in 2020 alone.

At the helm of this explosion is Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura. Nakamura is a five-time U.S. chess champion and a top 10 ranked chess player in the world.

In addition to his traditional competitive career, in 2015, Nakamura began streaming chess on Twitch. At first, he was relatively unnoticed, but in 2019, when he started dedicating upwards of 30 hours per week to streaming, Nakamura became known as GMHikaru to his growing fanbase online. In 2020, those fans have already watched an astonishing 9.95 million hours of Nakamuras channel. At times, over 45,000 viewers have watched a single game.

Why is this flood of interest in chess happening now?

Nakamura is a great player and a jovial person, but there are many thousands of modern, high-production video games being played by charismatic and skilled streamers on Twitch. Viewers on Twitch have discovered a profound interest in learning the fundamental mechanics of a board game from the sixth century.

Nakamura has attracted the interest of other massively popular streamers with millions of followers xQc, forsen, Nymm and the late Reckful, to name a few. These collaborations with celebrities of the gaming world have been a huge boost to chesss popularity as Nakamura plays games against these streamers while blindfolded or foregoing the use of the queen. These games illustrate for the new fans and top streamers the skills, cunning and joy that are rapidly coming to be associated with chess. Hikaru is literally the discipline in action, comments Devin Nash, a popular Twitch analyst.

This popularity culminated in a chess tournament called Pogchamps. In June, 16 of Twitchs top streamers played in a round robin chess tournament after being coached by a number of world-class chess players, including Nakamura. The event was so popular with both the streamers and fans at one point more than 150,000 people were watching that a second Pogchamps was immediately scheduled. The second tournament is running through September 6 and features streamers like xQc and even Hafthor Julius Bjornsson the actor who played The Mountain in Game of Thrones.

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There are a few pieces involved in this world of online chess: the streaming technology of Twitch, Nakamura, the online gaming community and the game of chess itself. Just as in the board game, no single piece in this evolving landscape of chess is alone driving the popularity. As Nakamura, gamers and the chess world collide, each piece is changing the others.

My research focuses on understanding the economic and cultural significance of video game communities. This year has proven what many who study video games have long claimed: that online gaming is significant far beyond the confines of video games. Today, music artists are shaking the foundations of their industry by migrating onto Twitch to great success. Doctors and medical researchers as well are strengthening their ties with gaming and gamers: for instance, raising $3.1 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation in collaboration with Twitch in early 2020.

Beyond these headlines, I focus specifically on how streamers like Nakamura create micro-communities with their own cultural norms and spheres of influence. The strong human connections that develop in these spaces extend beyond the digital world. In the case of Nakamura and chess, the results are new ways of playing chess, a new meme-filled language surrounding chess and, as gamers continue to watch chess in huge numbers, an illustration of how gamers connect with each other and parts of the offline world in meaningful ways.

But not everyone is accepting of this cultural shift. Twitch viewers are mostly males in their early 20s and are, in general, a notoriously irreverent bunch. This is partly how they gain the reputation as disillusioned and dysfunctional.

As chess has grown in this community, an established elite guided by a few longtime chess players and commentators see the trend as detrimental to a once noble contest.

Ben Finegold, a prominent U.S. grandmaster, refers to the streamers with whom Nakamura has collaborated as negative talent. Unlike a normal person who has talent in chess, says Finegold, users on Twitch ought to be ignored lest they diminish the good name of a traditional chess community.

Some at the head of traditional chess, however, disagree. David Llada, the chief marketing and communications officer for the International Chess Federation, acknowledges the damage of insular thinking: Our main sin is that chess people tend not to think outside the chess board. They dont pay enough attention to the world around them.

Whatever the old guard of chess believes, this ancient game has found a new, passionate and receptive audience. A digital generation on Twitch has built bridges between worlds not only for chess but for the musical and medical worlds as well. The memes are here to stay. What is next for online gaming and the game of kings remains to be seen, but neither will likely be the same.

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Chess is taking over the online video game world and both are changing from this unlikely pairing - The Conversation US

Throughout his career, John Leguizamo has played cut-ups and wise guys. In his one-man show, "Latin History for Morons," he offered life lessons and illustrations of Latinx contributions to history. Now Leguizamo has directed and stars in "Critical Thinking," a crowd-pleasing drama that fuses these qualities. The film, based on a true story, recounts the efforts of the Miami Jackson High School chess team who became national champions in 1998 under the leadership of Mario Martinez (Leguizamo).

The film is the next generation of "Stand and Deliver," the 1988 film that nabbed Edward James Olmos an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of an inspirational math teacher who coached high school dropouts. Leguizamo's performance is not quite at that level, but it is squarely in that wheelhouse. His Mr. Martinez is from a not dissimilar background as his students, a mix of Black and Latino teens who are "not what you think they are." But even if the school's Principal Kestal (Rachel Bay Jones) likens Martinez to a glorified babysitter, the teacher is determined to show that chess is "the great equalizer." Even so, he points out that white always opens, and black has to be on the defensive.

The script, by Dito Montiel, may be on the nose at times there is talk of consequences and decisions, and development versus material gain but it works because Leguizamo is so impassioned and convincing. When Martinez tells his students that if they don't recognize themselves in their history books because people of color have been written out it is preachy but empowering. (Leguizamo gives viewers a homework assignment to look up Jos Ral Capablanca, a Cuban chess champion, whose name is dropped in this speech). Martinez may be corny, quoting Pablo Neruda, giving"scared straight" lectures, or insisting, "Your mind can be your weapon," but they show his efforts to find an opening move that will appeal to his students and get their attention. Because once he has them, it will end in checkmate.

"Critical Thinking" captures the audience's attention quickly, too. Leguizamo uses tracking shots and Latin beats on the soundtrack to pull viewers into the story. He also makes the fast-talking dialogue zing during the stagey classroom scenes. A seminar on "The Beautiful Game of Chess," Morphy's Opera House, becomes edge-of-your-seat stuff even if viewers have no knowledge of the game. Leguizamo presents this chess match in a rousing fashion and employs wigs, beards, and accents to guide his students through it. He knows how to showcase himself well, but he never showboats.

Wisely, the competition scenes are filmed and edited with energy, which is also a plus. However, as a filmmaker, Leguizamo tends to draw out the film's dramatic moments, which is where "Critical Thinking" missteps. He has two key subplots and he milks them both for melodrama.

In one, Sedrick (Corwin C. Tuggles) is dealing with a depressed father (Michael Kenneth Williams), who is mentally and verbally abusive. Sedrick's mother was killed in a hit and run more than a decade ago, and the pain of that situation still throbs for both men. The scenes between the intimidating "play-to-win" father and his son, who is finding his own rhythm, feel heavy-handed, rather than just awkward or uncomfortable. Leguizamo also pulls at the heartstrings when Martinez tells Sedrick of his own personal tragedy of losing someone he loved.

Likewise, a storyline involving Ito (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.) who may be the best player on team getting involved selling drugs for Andre (Ramses Jimenez) lacks the dramatic power it needs. Ito is being pressured by cops to finger Andre for a murder, which puts him in Zugzwang, a chess term that means "stuck between two bad moves." Leguizamo boxes himself into a corner here. That said, when Ito admits that his decision, "Is my mistake to make," it is an affecting moment.

Most of "Critical Thinking" is engaging and entertaining. The film provides comic relief in the form of the cocky Rodelay (Angel Bismark Curiel of "Pose"), and the team gets a secret weapon with the arrival of Marcel (Jeffry Batista), a Cuban with a 2300 rating. (He's dubbed "Bobby Fischer with a busted lip.")

Leguizamo does not downplay the big chess match in the end, but while the outcome is never in doubt, there is some suspense generated because of what transpires between the two opponents.

"Critical Thinking" succeeds because it shows how this rag-tag chess team has beaten the odds. When the team arrives at their first tournament and are dismissed as they register, they rise above it. When the teens understand the value of taking a draw, they realign their thinking. Yet the beauty of Leguizamo's film is that the filmmaker never tries to outmaneuver the viewer. This may be a textbook case of an inspirational teacher/underdog sports drama, but it surehandedly delivers the feels.

"Critical Thinking" is available on digital or VOD on Friday, Sept. 4.

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With "Critical Thinking," John Leguizamo directs a rousing "Stand and Deliver"-style chess story - Salon