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Olympia High School(OHS) senior Addison Flora and the OHS Chess Academy signed up for the Washington High School Chess Associations Southwest Washington High School Chess Championship. After facing off with opponents from all over the southwest region of the state in an all-day tournament, Flora won the title of champion. There were some intense moments played under strict chess competition conditions, but the event was successful for both Flora and the team with wins sending them all to the state level competition.

The OHS Chess Academy meets every week when students at OHS filter out to different campus activities during Bear Time, an advisory period set aside for academic support and clubs. Math teacher Andres Lopezs advisory period is a chess club, focusing on improving skills and competing. With seniors graduating and freshman entering school, the students in his chess club change annually. On any given week, 35-45 students show up for chess. One of them is Flora, who began playing chess more seriously last winter.

My favorite part of chess is that its like a battle, Flora says. Its one-on-one, but you dont say anything. A lot of sports are very vocal and super intense, loud and with a lot of fans. I like how I can sit across from someone, and we can have that same intense battle, but its with pieces instead of a ball.

Not only a chess champion, Flora also plays tennis, runs track and field at OHS and plans to go to college to study aerospace and engineering.

When Flora and his fellow chess club members heard about the tournament, they decided to sign up and participate just for fun. Flora knows about chess great Magnus Carlson, watches the pros and other young players around the world and studies strategy so he can memorize and prepare.

The biggest way you can study for chess is by studying openings, Flora says. Ill pick the English opening, and Ill memorize what moves Im going to play. Then, depending on what moves my opponent will play, Ill respond to that. So, you can see its like a branch off from that. For each move they can play, theres a move I can play and so on and so on.

On tournament day, 210 chess players from 93 schools, 104 of which were high school students, converged on the Centralia College campus. They were met with rows and rows of tables set with identical chess sets.

During the tournament scoring was recorded for both individual players as well as cumulative team scores. Each win earned one point. No one would be eliminated as each player was matched with a similarly scoring player for five consecutive games. No points were issued for losses and only a half point for a draw.

The tensest moment is usually right after, Flora says of what proceeds from the planned opening. When you have all of the moves memorized at the beginning, youre not very stressed. But, once you have to make all of the moves yourself, thinking and calculating, thats when it gets hard and sometimes gets a little stressful.

Flora counted down each of his 25 allotted minutes per match on the time clock, and a lot rode on each move.

I like to play closed positions and make them complicated because I trust myself to calculate and think through these complex positions, Flora says. So, if I can get to one of those, I feel more comfortable.

Of the final match, Flora adds, It was definitely the best person I played at that tournament, and it was a really close back and forth game. Towards the end I had a really nice deflection.

Chess often gets accolades for the cognitive skills that it fosters. Studies nationwide claim positive benefits to academics. The National Scholastic Chess Foundation describes improvement to concentration and self-discipline and that all levels of critical thinking are at play, which include comprehension, evaluation and analysis. Chess is also fun, so participating in chess club during Bear Time is an opportunity for students to see if they enjoy the game, to experience competition and to perhaps take up a classic pastime that could potentially boost the rest of their school day.

Floras strategic chess moves proved well for him, and he finished with a perfect score, no draws and no losses, earning him the Southwest Washington Regional Chess Champion title. OHS scored 19 points as a team at the regional competition, more than any other team, earning the title of Southwest Washington High School Chess Team Champions, and they qualified to compete at the 57th annual Washington State High School Chess Team Championships in Stanwood, Washington one month later.

Ultimately, Flora and the OHS team have done well for themselves, volunteering to compete in experiences that were both challenging and memorable.

See more here:
Olympia High School Senior Addison Flora Wins the Southwest Washington Regional Chess Champion Title - ThurstonTalk

GM Ding Liren is the new world champion after beating GM Ian Nepomniachtchi in the final rapid tiebreak game of the 2023 FIDE World Championship. Following a 7-7 tie in a thrilling 14-game classical match, it all came down to the final rapid game, which Ding won with Black in sensational style. GM Magnus Carlsen's reign is no more. For the first time since 2013, the torch has been passed to Ding, the 17th world champion.

Aside from claiming the title of world champion, Ding will receive 1.1 million for his victory while Nepomniachtchi will receive 900,000.

How to watch the 2023 FIDE World Championship

Tears of joy and a rare outpouring of emotion from Ding were the first scenes coming out of the St. Regis Hotel in the moments after Nepomniachtchi had resigned in the fourth and final rapid tiebreaker in Astana. With his head in his hands, the realization and relief hit Ding all at once. The scene recalls what Ding had said in 2019: The meaning of life should be in those special, sparkling moments.

The meaning of life should be in those special, sparkling moments.

Ding Liren in 2019

"I feel that this was the match that reflects the deepest part of my soul," Ding said at the press conference after dedicating the victory to his friends, mother, and grandfather. With this victory, Ding becomes the first-ever classical world champion from China, also the home of Women's World Chess Champion GM Ju Wenjun.

With the scores locked at 1.5-1.5 in a match that White had statistically dominated overall (five wins for White and one for Black in the first 17 games), very few people expected that Ding would look to press with Black in the final game.

The Anti-Marshall was the arena for the 18th game. After finding success with the opening in earlier games where he had, in his own words, "had every chance," Nepomniachtchi declared his intent to play for a win with the unusual 13.Bb1.

As the middlegame progressed, both players made decisions that implied that they were playing for a win. Ding would later state: "The white pieces are not always the advantage."

As the position opened up, Nepomniachtchi's bishop pair began to look ominous, and many viewers began to write Ding off. During this time, Chess.com viewership across all platforms peaked at 441,000 viewers, almost doubling the average viewership of the broadcast which had been 220,000. Both numbers are records for the website.

With the chess world waiting with bated breath, Nepomniachtchi soon played an inaccuracy, 35.Ra1?, which brought the position back to equal, although the position still looked easier for Nepomniachtchi. "It was hard to imagine I could lose" were the self-admitted thoughts of the Candidates winner about this moment, and most viewers probably anticipated that it was a two-result match.

Both Caruana and Hess were alert to the fact that Ding's best remaining chance was to play into an ending where the a-pawn could become dangerous, and it seemed that Ding had the same intuitive feeling.

Then, the unexpected happened. With two minutes and 30 seconds left on the clock, Ding played the brilliant 42... Qe2!!, a move that Caruana suggested: "Nepo might have missed." The move, which left Ding's bishop en prise with a dangerous threat of a king and rook fork, shifted the momentum.

Nepomniachtchi briskly offered a draw by repetition with checks on the light squares, and the game appeared to be heading this way before Ding played the astonishing 46...Rg6. In what can only be described as a chess coach's nightmare, the now-world champion's idea to play for a win was to pin his second strongest piece to his king! "I felt my king was safer on h7," was Ding's nonchalant reasoning for a move that would later be identified as the catalyst for victory.

By the time Ding played 47...c4, Nepomniachtchi already knew that he was in trouble: "In the fourth game, I had to play more accurately. After the move c4, I had little time, and it was difficult." Part of this anxiety may have resulted from his opponent's clinical displays of endgame technique so far in the match.

GM Rafael Leitaokindly provides his annotations of the decisive fourth game as well as the others below.

In a style that will now become synonymous with his reign as the 17th world champion, Ding rolled his pawns up the board to victory. A shake of hands on the 68th move signaled the end of an extraordinary match that nearly needed blitz tiebreaks to split the players for the first time in chess history.

Congratulatory messages poured in from chess greats of all generations, although Ding would have likely felt most fulfilled getting the nod from the former world champion GM Magnus Carlsen, who tweeted: "Self-pinning for immortality. Congrats Ding!!"highlighting Ding's ambitious 46...Rg6, which consequently helped him win the crown.

For those interested in the three games that led to the final showdown, they were full of excitement and huge moments as well. Ding opened the tiebreaks with 1.d4, an opportunity for redemption after his game 14 spiraled out of control. In a return to his roots, a Catalan structure soon appeared on the board, and Caruana announced: "Ding was definitely dictating the result of the opening."

Nepomniachtchi played in his usual style, moving both quickly and actively, and neither player shied away from middlegame complications when they arose. Zwischenzug was a central theme for both players in the first game as they wrestled for the initiative.

The most exciting moment of the game came after Nepomniachtchi's 25...axb6!!, an "advanced Botez Gambit," in the words of Caruana, that forced liquidation and, consequently, a draw by repetition after 35 moves.

Speaking about the result, Caruana expressed: "Ian can be very happy after a dangerous opening," while Hess was more upbeat about Nepomniachtchi's courageous effort during the game, quoting Ernest Hemingway: "Courage is grace under pressure."

The Anti-Marshall was Nepomniachtchi's choice in game two, and the decision to play this opening was made with the knowledge that he had found small edges in both games 11 and 13 with the same setup. Like in the 11th game, Nepomniachtchi tried to coax Ding into playing with a b5-c5 setup and gain access to the d5-square, but Ding showed his own hand, changing the dynamics of the position with 11.bxa4.

As the position progressed, Nepomniachtchi earned the right to attack, courtesy of Black's ruptured pawn structure. Hess boldly claimed that there was a distinct "opening advantage for Nepomniachtchi," but Ding once again proved his mettle with clinical defense, exchanging into a drawn rook and pawn ending and keeping the scores level.

Nepomniachtchi, later ruing missed chances in this game, stated: "The key moment was in the second game, I had more chances to win but didn't realize it."

Sachdev highlighted the third rapid game as "the most peaceful," and it turned out to be the calm before the storm. In his last game with the white pieces in the four rapid games, Ding played 1.Nf3 for the first time in the world championship. The Chinese GM's double-fianchetto setup was easily tamed by Nepomniachtchi, and pieces began to fly off the board.

On move 21, a small moment of tension appeared when the commentators realized that Black would have to play a pawn down in a rook and bishop ending. Nepomniachtchi, who had confidently paced around the room for the majority of the game, saw no issues with the position and proved that White's advantage was superfluous. He eventually forced a rook swap that left the players hurrying toward a repetition.

After the fateful deciding game and being freed from the shackles that prevented them from sharing information about their preparation and teams, Nepomniachtchi would reveal that his team included none other than former world champion GM Vladimir Kramnik as well a "big team" in support that included GMs Maxim Matlakov, Ildar Khairullin, and Nikita Vitiugov.

Ding's second was slightly more obvious. His partner in crime, GM Richard Rapport, posed with friends, family, and fans after the historic win.

When asked about how he would celebrate the victory, Ding mentioned that he would "like to travel" in his spare time. As far as spare time goes, there will be little rest for the champion after this event. In four days, he will begin playing in the Grand Chess Tour in Bucharest, Romania, joined by Nepomniachtchi, Rapport, and other top GMs.

As this tournament wraps up and the cycle begins again, several questions come to mind. How long will Ding hold the most coveted title in chess? Will Carlsen challenge him in the next cycle? Regardless of the answers, this is certain: Chess has never been more alive than now, and the 2023 FIDE World Championship was an absolute testament to the excitement that chess can provide.

In the words of GM Anatoly Karpov: "Chess is everything: art, science, and sport."

You can watch video recaps of the FIDE World Championship in our playlist below (click here).

Match Score (Tiebreaker)

Match Score (Classical)

The 2023 FIDE World Championship has been the most important over-the-board classical event of the year and has decided the next world champion. Nepomniachtchi and Ding played a match to decide who takes over Carlsen's throne when the former world champion abdicated his title. The match had a 2 million prize fund and was played over 14 classical and four rapid tiebreak games.

Previous Coverage

Read more from the original source:
Ding Liren Wins 2023 FIDE World Championship In Rapid Tiebreaks - Chess.com

Greetings! Last months column received a request from reader Jim Morrison for tournament games such as the Electronic Knights, and so this months column is dedicated to games from the 2022 Electronic Knights tournament, with gratitude to Jim for reading.

The Electronic Knights tournament is a large Round Robin tournament in which contestants are paired up in groups of seven, and they play one game each against every other player in the group (three as White and three as Black). The tournament consists of three stages: the preliminaries, the semi-finals and the finals. Those players who score 4/6 or more points in a section will advance to the next round. The competition is fierce, and getting past the first round isnt easy. All play is via email. More information about the Electronic Knights can be found on the list of Correspondence Chess Events Offered by US Chess | US Chess.org.

Our first game, Chirillo Civan, shows John Chirillo tearing apart the Dutch Stonewall quickly and effectively. Ethan Civan is no weak player, so this game had to be an eye-opener! Black either sacrificed a pawn or hung one, but in either case White made the most of it, bringing home the point in only 23 moves.

I am not a fan of system openings, even though, I am also no fan of memorizing a gajillion book moves for each opening I choose to play. I find system openings (like the London System or the Colle Opening) to be a kind of shortcut to opening theory, and shortcuts can be unreliable or even dangerous. Systematic approaches take the thinking out of your moves, and you need to be able to explain each move you make. Of course, Magnus Carlsen makes me look a fool in writing these words, as he has beaten some of the worlds best with the London System, and so I should just sit in the corner with my mouth shut. But first I want to show you all a merciless takedown of the London System in our second game, McGroarty Hilburn.

Our third game is one of my own. I have played in several sections of the Electronic Knights tournament, starting eight or nine years ago, and while I have played some good games, I rarely get close to the top. Last year I was able to win my section with a perfect 6/6, and so I am going to be playing in the semi-finals later this year. In the preliminaries, Anthony Gold tested my mettle in the Carlsbad structure, but his attempts to mix things up backfired. In the end, Whites pieces that werent pinned were too far away to help.

The preliminary rounds often find players who try to avoid opening theory, and those players are not to be taken lightly! Our fourth game, Miller Hilburn, has White refusing a standard French Defense. Instead, both players are left to their own resources on move two! Both players struggled through the opening and into the middlegame, each overlooking small ways to make their positions stronger, with the position remaining close to equality until move 21. Whites 21st move permits a continuation that results in a significant endgame advantage for Black, but Black misses the chance, and the game peters out to a draw.

In Hilburn Strobehn, Jerry Hilburn plays a form of the Scotch Gambit that I am unfamiliar with, and for which there are no games in my database. The fight was fairly level throughout, but Black first captured the d-file for his rooks, and then used the file to double his rooks on the second rank. Whites first move after that drops a piece.

Patrick Walsh, the winner of our sixth game, has forced me to turn over my king more than once. In this game, John Finnegan is his prey, and Whites knights run roughshod over Blacks bishops. In the end it is the White pawns that are the biggest threat.

In our final game, Finnegan Hutson, Black plays for the Grunfeld Defense while White develops his kingside knight first. The simple pawn exchange in the center works better for White since Black is denied the knight exchange on c3. The advantage changes hands during the middlegame, but after the queens come off the board Black makes his final mistake, and he gives up the ship ten moves later.

I intend to make the Electronic Knights games a regular part of the column, and I would like to include games from the Golden Knights (correspondence) tournaments as well. However, I cannot get the scores of those games unless they are sent to me. So, I invite you all to send me your games (correspondence_chess@yahoo.com), analyzed or not, in pgn format or typed into an email, to be included in future columns. I also invite readers to suggest column ideas.

Stay safe, and good skill in your games!

Robert

Paul O. Flueckiger of Navasota, Texas passed away on December 2, 2022. He had a 1618 CC rating.

William H. Hutchinson of Palmer, Alaska passed away on February 13, 2023. He had a 1478 CC rating.

Craig W. Ellyson of Morehead City, NC passed away on April 16, 2023. He had a 1589 CC rating.

Walter Muir E-Quad

22W22, Kevin Buswell 5-

23W03 Michael McCaffery 5-1

Victor Palciauskas

22VP12, Josh Pruett 6-0

John W. Collins Memorial

22C04 Craig Faber 6-0

Continue reading here:
Check is in the Mail: Join the Electronic Knights! - uschess.org

Are you ready to take down an old elementary school chesschampion? Think you can go head-to-head with a notorious chess hustler? These local legends with classic chess player personality tendencies are eager to accept your challenge!

Meet the Chess Club Regulars: Gavin, Lauren, Freddy, Grandpa Gambit, and Maya. The chess club closes next month, so play some games with them before they're gone! Just click the button below:

Strength: 650

Gavin was his schools 3rd grade chess champion over twenty years ago, and he wont let you forget it. Can you beat this former elementary school legend?

Strength: 1000

Lauren is the self-proclaimed "Office Queen of Chess." She plays on her lunch break and during boring meetings. Can you win quickly before she gets in trouble at work?

Strength: 1325

Freddy is a chess hustler from New York City. He makes his living hustling in the parks but runs away when he loses a big bet. Thats why he always wears his favorite tracksuit.

Strength: 1650

Grandpa Gambit is a lifelong chess player known to regale his opponents with a chess anecdote of his pastor two. Ready to take a trip down memory lane?

Strength: 2050

Maya is a child prodigy who commands a crowd any time she plays a game. She sits across the board, adjusts her pieces, and opens her fruit snacks. Youre in big trouble.

These bots are only here for the month of May, so play them before it's too late. And let us know who's your favorite in the comments section below!

Read the rest here:
Play Chess Against The Chess Club Regulars - Chess.com

Days before he officially abdicates his title, GM Magnus Carlsen shared some fascinating thoughts about the 2023 FIDE World Championship.

While GM Ian Nepomniachtchi and GM Ding Liren have been battling it out in Astana to decide who succeeds him as world champion, Carlsen in contrast has enjoyed the good life showing off his skills in celebrity poker.

I really need money to fund expensive habits like drinking, so I should probably take it pretty seriously, Carlsen joked, according to the Wall Street Journal.

He then appeared on the red carpet as he handed out an award at the Breakthrough Prize ceremony in Los Angeles. The 9th edition of the show was hosted by James Corden and honors scientists changing the world. The Norwegian entered the stage to hand out an award along with "Emily in Paris" star Lily Collins in front of a crowd of Hollywood stars such as Kristen Bell, Danny DeVito, Robert Downey Jr., Gal Gadot, Ashton Kutcher, Brie Larson, Edward Norton, Leslie Odom Jr., and Chris Pine.

Watch the clip from the ceremony below.

His appearance on the Botez sisters' Twitch channel also drew some attention among chess fans as he stayed silent for a whole Titled Tuesday before missing out on first place after a draw with Alireza Firouzja and joking:

"I quit the f****** world championship for this?"

Since returning to Norway, the five-time world champion announced a new company and launched a Fantasy Chess app along with Norway Chess andappeared on Sjakksnakk, a Norwegian chess podcast hosted by his friends Askild Bryn and Odin Blikra Vea.

In the one-hour conversation, the soon-to-be former world champion shared his insight on a variety of subjects that will be covered in a follow-up article, but another highlight is his thoughts on the ongoing world championship match.

"I didn't follow any games live, but I went through the games, so I know how it's been going." Carlsen said before Ding's 6-6 equalizer.

He followed up by discussing his thoughts on why so many games in Astana have been decisive games, in stark contrast to his matches in 2016 and 2018, where 24 out of 26 games were drawn.

"I think a lot actually depends on what type of positions you get from the opening. If you get very complicated games, there will also be more mistakes. To a large extent that is what has happened. To get exciting games. I feel like in previous matches you have seen that my opponents, with Black especially, have chosen the absolute most solid lines, trying to kill the game and achieve as little play as possible, which is very fair and probably the best strategy you can have against me. "

"In addition, with White people have played relatively solid as well, not taking too many risks and putting the emergency brake on if there are any risks, with the exception of my match against Caruana, where my games with Black were very exciting. I think it's a lot about that. I think they feel to a greater extent that you can take more risks. I think all my opponents have felt that if I take the lead, they are in big trouble in the match. If I have a repertoire as Black that I know well, which I've had in the matches, it's extremely difficult to get a chance without taking huge risks. And if I lead and play with White, I won't take any chances. But here you have seen that none of them have been able to defend, so you can also take more risks."

Carlsen gave an example from game two of the match, which led to Ding's first loss.

"You can even risk... when Ding plays 4.h3 with White in the Queen's Gambit, he's saying, 'Ok, I want to play a completely unknown position, absolutely not better for me; it's not a safe position either, but just a complicated position that I hopefully will know better than my opponent.' It's a bit early to deviate like that. And it went very, very poorly in that game, but stuff like that you haven't seen much in my matches."

"It's been exciting to follow. I think it's about how complicated it is. I expected a higher defensive level, but I am very impressed by how they managed to create chances and how little they were able to or wanted to flatten the games as early as possible."

Carlsen also mentioned Ding's win with White in game six.

"It was quite shocking that Ding played the London. He was just better because Nepo played a line he didn't know. What happened with that? Quite strange."

Carlsen went on to talk about his strategy in his 2016 match against GM Sergey Karjakin, which ended with him winning 3-1 in the rapid playoff after 6-6 in classical.

"I've had matches myself, especially against Karjakin, where I thought I was so much better than him, that I should just try to push in every game as White or Black, to create a fight as much as possible. It increases the chance that I would lose some games, but I thought I would create more than enough chances that I would win the matches anyway. In the end, I didn't go for that strategy, and ended up like in my other matches: 'I am really solid with Black, good luck beating me with White.' And I was hoping that I would create chances with a few games as White at least. It wasn't very successful, so it's a lot of fun to see others going for a different strategy."

Carlsen, however, is clearly not a fan of classical chess and came out against the idea that "classical chess is doing well" due to the decisiveness of the match.

"There is a lot of talk now that this WC match proves that 'classical chess is doing well' and all that. I have to admit that I don't buy that at all. What you see here is that people don't try to be destructive to the same extent."

By "destructive," Carlsen refers to openings that give little room for risky play.

"It's something completely different when you try to be destructive. And you also see more and more how deep people have to dig to find playable ideas at all. Yes, to a certain extent we can still play classical chess, even on the world-championship level, but why should we be doing that when you have to dig so deep to make a game playable at all? Why not do something else that... how I see it, makes it more exciting and gives you more chess. Because you do in fact want to find the best chess player. The current format doesn't give you enough room for that. It's great that you have a match now where the players are not as destructive, which is good, but as I see it that doesn't mean the structural problems have been solved."

In part two of this article, we'll hear Carlsen's thoughts about his new identity without the title, some insight into the discussions with FIDE in Madrid, the winning formula in Dubai, his time with an A-list Hollywood star, his new focus on playing speed chess, his thoughts on young talents GMs Gukesh D, Praggnanandhaa R, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Alireza Firouzja, his personal life, and much more.

More:
World Champion Carlsen On 'Shocking' Ding Choice, Risky Play ... - Chess.com