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The 2021 Grand Chess Tour is ready to kick off

Press Release

The Grand Chess Tour (GCT) has confirmed new players in the field for the upcoming Superbet Chess Classic in Bucharest, Romania and Paris Rapid & Blitz tournament.

Hungarian Grandmaster Richard Rapport has been confirmed as a full tour player to replace Grandmaster Ding Liren from China and Russian Grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi will become a wildcard player for specific Grand Chess Tour events as he prepares for the World Championship title match later this year. The Superbet Chess Classic will now include a wildcard player, Romanian Grandmaster Constantin Lupulescu. The Superbet Chess Classic is sponsored by Superbet Foundation and will feature a 10 player round-robin battle for a total of $325,000 in prize money.

Continually looking for new ways to innovate, the GCT selected split wildcards for Paris. Former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik will compete in the blitz portion while French Grandmaster Etienne Bacrot will team up with Kramnik to represent the duo in the rapid phase of the tournament. Their combined score will be used to determine final standings. Three additional wildcards will round out the field for the Paris Rapid & Blitz leg. These wildcards include World Champion Challenger, Grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi, Grandmaster Alireza Firouzja, and Grandmaster Peter Svidler. The Paris Rapid & Blitz tournament is sponsored by Vivendi, Colliers, and Kasparov Chess and will include 9 rounds of rapid chess and 18 rounds of blitz chess for a total prize fund of $150,000.

"Although COVID-19 has continued to impact the chess community, we are pleased that this years tour will continue as planned with our five over the board tournaments," said GCT Executive Director, Michael Khodarkovsky. "Fans will certainly enjoy watching legends like Vladimir Kramnik square off against a new generation of young top players like Alireza Firouzja and Richard Rapport."

Additionally, International Arbiter David Sedgwick from England has been reappointed as the GCT Chief Arbiter for 2021.

The field for the two upcoming international events are finalized and are as follows:

#

Player Name

Player Type

Country

FIDE Rating

URS Rating

1

Caruana, Fabiano

Full Tour Player

USA

2820

2800

2

Aronian, Levon

Full Tour Player

ARM

2781

2784

3

Giri, Anish

Full Tour Player

NED

2780

2769

4

Grischuk, Alexander

Full Tour Player

RUS

2776

2785

5

So, Wesley

Full Tour Player

USA

2770

2792

6

Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar

Full Tour Player

AZE

2770

2771

7

Radjabov, Teimour

Full Tour Player

AZE

2765

2770

8

Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime

Full Tour Player

FRA

2760

2799

9

Rapport, Richard

Full Tour Player

HUN

2763

2748

10

Lupulescu, Constantin

Wildcard

ROU

2656

2652

#

Player Name

Player Type

Country

FIDE Rating

URS Rating

1

Caruana, Fabiano

Full Tour Player

USA

2820

2800

2

Aronian, Levon

Full Tour Player

ARM

2781

2784

3

So, Wesley

Full Tour Player

USA

2770

2792

4

Radjabov, Teimour

Continued here:
The Grand Chess Tour 2021 begins - with tournaments in Bukarest and Paris - Chessbase News

Super Grandmaster Wesley So officially ended the hopes of those who wished to see him represent the Philippines again when he became a U.S. citizen earlier this year.

"I want to give back to a country that has been so good to me," So told the US Chess Federation. "From the moment I landed here, I was encouraged and enabled to become better than I was. I like this attitude and the tremendous generosity of American culture."

Under a different flag: So, the first World Fischer Random Chess Champion, received his citizenship documents on Feb. 26, ABS-CBN reported.

The 27-year-old originally represented the Philippines in international competitions until he immigrated to the U.S. in 2014.

Following his transfer to the United States Chess Federation, So moved to Minnetonka, Minn., to live with his adoptive parents, Renato Kabigting and Lotis Key.

Key assumed the role of a momager a mom and manager to So about eight years ago.

I handle all the logistics of holding an elite players life together, she told ANCX in an interview. You would not believe how much effort that takes. Its an ever-increasing multitude of little things piled one on top of another, needed to keep an elite athlete in business.

Chess prodigy: So became the youngest player to pass a 2600 Elo skill rating system for players in zero-sum games in October 2008, breaking the record previously held by Magnus Carlsen, the current No. 1 chess player and World Champion. Other players have since broken the record.

So made his Olympiad debut at age 12, representing the Philippines during the Turin Olympiad in 2006. He has so far competed in five Chess Olympiads.

In 2012, So won the Philippines first-ever gold medal in the Summer Universiade in Russia but was deprived of the incentives usually awarded to Filipino athletes, The Manila Times reported.

So said he decided to become an American citizen to have opportunities that he couldnt get in his country of origin.

You are not held back by your color, lack of connections or the amount of money you have, So was quoted as saying. If you work hard, you have a better chance of making it here than anywhere else in the world. I came here ready to work hard, and it turned out just as I dreamed.

Currently, So is ranked 9th in the FIDE (International Chess Federation) Standard. He defeated Carlsen to win two events at the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour: the Opera Euro Rapid in February and the Skilling Open last November, Yahoo reported. On Monday, Carlsen defeated So to win the FTX Crypto Cup event.

Featured Image via Euku (left), Chess24 (right)

Story continues

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Why Chess Genius Wesley So is Representing the US and Not the Philippines - Yahoo News

India No.3 Vidit Gujrathi has qualified for the FIDE chess World Cup 2021, to be held in Sochi, Russia from July 10 on the basis of his rating.

With this, Grandmaster Gujrathi becomes the fourth Indian man to qualify for the upcoming World Cup, a press release said on Thursday.

The Nashik-based player joins Grandmasters P Harikrishna, Aravindh Chidambaram and P Iniyan as the Indian men to have qualified for the World Cup.

Meanwhile, Koneru Humpy, D Harika, Bhakti Kulkarni, R Vaishali and Padmini Rout have qualified for the womens event at the World Cup.

This will be Gujrathis third World Cup appearance, having previously featured in 2017 and 2019. The Indian said he is confident of putting up a nice show in the tournament.

Really happy to be a part of the WC squad. Playing for India is always a proud moment and especially the World Cup which is the most prestigious event across any sport, Gujrathi was quoted as saying.

I am confident of putting up a nice show and will surely try to give my best in each and every game I play. Eagerly looking forward to the event as this is going to be my first Over the Board (OTB) event since February 2020, he added.

He is presently ranked 23rd in the World.

The FIDE World Cup 2021 will be a Classical event with standard time control.

Iniyan had recently won the AICF online qualifying event to book a berth in the World Cup.

Excerpt from:
Vidit Gujrathi qualifies for chess World Cup - The Indian Express

Once upon a time a 7-year-old refugee living in a homeless shelter sat down at a chess board in school and learned how to play. His school then agreed to his moms plea to waive fees for him to join the chess club.

The boy wasnt any good at first. His initial chess rating was 105, barely above the lowest possible rating, 100.

But the boy, Tanitoluwa Adewumi better known as Tani enjoyed chess as an escape from the chaos of the homeless shelter, and his skills progressed in stunning fashion. After little more than a year, at age 8, he won the New York State chess championship for his age group, beating well-coached children from rich private schools.

I wrote a couple of columns about Tani at that time, and readers responded by donating more than $250,000 to a GoFundMe campaign for Tanis family, along with a year of free housing. It was heartwarming to see Tani running around the familys new apartment, but I wondered: Is this kid really that good?

It turns out he is. This month, as a fifth grader, Tani cruised through an in-person tournament in Connecticut open to advanced players of all ages and won every game. He emerged with a chess rating of 2223, making him a national master.

At 10 years 7 months and 28 days, Tani became the 28th-youngest person ever to become a chess master in the United States, according to John Hartmann of U.S. Chess. Tani had one of the fastest rises, for he began playing chess only at the relatively late age of 7. And hes aiming higher.

I want to be the youngest grandmaster, he told me. I want to have it when Im 11 or 12. The youngest person ever to become a grandmaster, Sergey Karjakin, achieved that honor at 12 years 7 months.

Im delighted to see Tanis rapid progress, said the former world chess champion Garry Kasparov. The sky is the limit, and Im the last person to say that chess is not a viable career path.

Tani has watched the Netflix series The Queens Gambit, about an orphan girl and outsider who proves a chess prodigy. I definitely did see myself in it, he said.

He may see himself more directly on the screen. A book Tani and his parents wrote about their journey has been optioned for a feature film by Paramount Pictures. The script is being written by Steven Conrad, who wrote The Pursuit of Happyness, and Trevor Noah is to produce.

We look back and see where we came from and where we are today, and where we hope were going and every time we look back we give thanks to God, said his mother, Oluwatoyin Adewumi. She has just qualified as a patient care technician and is looking for work.

The family fled Nigeria because of fears of Boko Haram, the terrorist group, according to his father, Kayode Adewumi, who now is a real estate agent with Douglas Elliman Real Estate.

When Tani won the state championship, several private schools offered him places, but the family decided to keep him in the public school that had nurtured him. The Adewumis also used the $250,000 contributed by readers to start a foundation that helps other homeless people and refugees.

The Adewumis now live on Long Island, paying their own expenses, and the pandemic has been a struggle. Told that Tani needed a top chess coach to develop, the family scrimped and hired a grandmaster, Giorgi Kacheishvili, to coach Tani three times a week. When the money is too much, I reduce it to two times a week, his father said.

Another challenge is travel. Tani is sometimes invited to tournaments abroad, but cant go while his immigration case is pending for fear he might not be allowed back into the United States.

The larger lesson of Tanis story is simple: Talent is universal, while opportunity is not. In Tanis case, everything came together. His homeless shelter was in a school district that had a chess club, the school waived fees, he had devoted parents who took him to every practice, he won the state tournament (by a hair) and readers responded with extraordinary generosity.

But opportunity shouldnt require a perfect alignment of the stars. Winning state chess tournaments is not a scalable solution to child homelessness.

My challenge as a columnist is that readers often want to help extraordinary individuals like Tani whom I write about, but we need to support all children including those who arent chess prodigies. That requires policy as well as philanthropy, so let me note: President Bidens proposed investments in children, such as child tax credits and universal pre-K, would revolutionize opportunity for all struggling children.

Maybe we can be inspired by the wisdom of Americas newest chess master. I asked Tani how he feels when he loses.

When you lose, you have made a mistake, and that can help you learn, he told me. I never lose. I learn.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. Wed like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And heres our email: letters@nytimes.com.

Go here to read the rest:
Opinion | Remember the Homeless Chess Champion? The Boy Is Now a Chess Master. - The New York Times

Thecontroversial logo that shook thechess world

The2018 World Chess Championship found itself atthecenter ofaheated discussion about design, sex andLGBT culture. It was covered byall major media outlets, including anabove-the-fold front page feature bytheFinancial Times. Themedia called it one ofthemost important sporting events oftheyear.

One ofthekey issues inthediscussion was theprovocative logo that featured two figures playing chess inaway that, some say, resembled ascene from Kama Sutra.

Theorganizers andthesport had taken arisk bygoing outside its comfort zone andthemessage was amplified bythemedia, which loved theidea that themost conservative sport intheworld was using such provocative visual language. Inchess, theconsumers are also players, andthecampaign allowed them tofinally be associated with something considered cool.

Thelogo went much further than anticipated, getting theCannes Lions award andcreating awhole range ofmerchandise that is still popular.

Theevent itself was avisual experience forthespectators andtheplayers alike. Theexterior andinterior oftheCollege inHolborn, thehosting venue, was decorated with key visual patterns; this was also applied tothecostumes oftheactors who performed intheopening ceremony attheVictoria andAlbert Museum. Theplayful illustrations anddesign oftheonline broadcasting platform made watching thedifficult game easy.

Thedesign was visible outside oftheplaying venue andinside. Lettering andcolor patterns made theevent stand out.

Reporters before thefirst move inthefinal game ofthe2018 World Chess Championship

London hosted theMatch forthefirst time indecades, andLondoners were aware that something is happening intheir city.

Entrance totheplaying venue inHolborn

Visitors were treated with branded merchandise so they felt connected totheevent.

Disposable cups atthevenue

Continue reading here:
Looking Back to The Most Talked About Chess Logo Ever - World Chess