Added on 04.29.2022
The St. Louis Chess Club organized a very interesting tournament, with a rare format: a double-elimination. The format allows a player to lose a KO match but then play in the Elimination bracket with chances to get back in the main bracket. Here are the brackets: As you can see, the best American players participated in the $300,000 event! Nakamura was the only absent, as he is preparing for the Candidates' tournament. Caruana didn't lose any match and arrived in the finals with an...Full StoryAdded on 04.04.2022
The FIDE Grand Prix series of tournaments are over. The third one just finished in Berlin, Germany, and the two finalists, Wesley So and Hikaru Nakamura, had to play an extra day after the first two classical games of their match couldn't decide the winner. The second classical game even raised a wave of polemics over the socials! GM Benjamin talks about this particular fact in the video. But today it was an exciting day, with games keeping the watchers nailed to their chairs. When it comes to...Full StoryAdded on 04.03.2022
30 minutes, 14 moves. The infamous draw line of the Berlin (Qe4-Qe6) hit once again, and we're here with nothing to say about today's game. Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So deliberately chose to go to the rapid/blitz tiebreaks to decide who's the winner of the 3rd and last leg for the FIDE Grand Prix. Both players are extremely strong at rapid, though it's undeniable that Nakamura is the strongest in the world, at least at the moment. As for the Blitz, Nakamura is known for being the strongest...Full StoryAdded on 04.02.2022
As you surely know, Wesley So and Hikaru Nakamura are the two finalists of the 3rd FIDE Grand Prix 2022. GM Joel Benjamin's video recap shows how the two talents got there, disputing the final win of the tournament. Photo credit: Niki Riga The first game was not exciting, as the two players decided not to risk anything, and it ended in a peaceful draw after just 70 minutes of play....Full StoryAdded on 04.01.2022
The 3rd leg of the FIDE Grand Prix is at its final stage! The semifinals saw four players emerge victorious from the pools: Nakamura, Mamedyarov, Wesley So, and Tabatabaei. Nakamura lost his first game of the pools with Levon Aronian, and he needed to get revenge the second time around of the double round-robin. Then he defeated Oparin and Esipenko to win his group with 4.0/6. Wesley So went to the tiebreaks and defeated his fellow American Sam Shankland. Mamedyarov also had to play the...Full StoryAdded on 03.31.2022
The surprises never end in this 3rd leg of the FIDE Grand Prix. While we all expected a draw between Mameryarov and Nakamura, which punctually happened, nobody expected Wesley So to lose to the young Iranian talent Tabatabaei! Mame and Naka didn't risk anything, after the draw they had yesterday. The game flowed without any bumps, and the two agreed on a draw at move 51, with three pawns and a knight each on the board....Full StoryAdded on 03.30.2022
With Nakamura and Rapport already qualified for the Candidates, the tournament has lost most of the thrill, but there is money at stake, and obviously prestige. Today the four musketeers played the first game of the semifinals. Nakamura had White against Mamedyarov, and Welsey So had White against Tabatabaei. Nakamura and Mamedyarov played a Petrov, exchanging queens very early in the game. the exchanges continued and by move 22 the players were already into a drawish endgame. It was clear...Full StoryAdded on 03.29.2022
Today the other two semifinalists were decided, in the tiebreaks. Wesley So needed two rapid games to advance. Wesley won the first game and was actually losing the second one when Sam Shankland agreed to a draw. It's Rapid play, then it's easy for us sitting with an engine and scream "c'mon Sam, you were winning!". But the position didn't look so easy, and the clock was running down. Pool B Tiebreaks R1 R2 PTS Wesley...Full StoryAdded on 03.28.2022
The pools are over, and we know two of the four players who will play in the semifinals. In Pool A, the unthinkable happened. We all were ready to witness tiebreaks between Aronian and Nakamura. The standings indicated that a couple of short and uneventful draws would have led to a rematch of the 1st leg finals. But Oparin, who even with ups and downs played a great event, wasn't to allow the happy ending. Aronian went for an aggressive variant of the Catalan, extending his pawn formation on...Full StoryAdded on 03.27.2022
Round five, four decisive games, but all very important for the situation in the pools, with one round to go. In Pool A, Aronian won relatively easily with Esipenko, who is not having a good tournament. Surprisingly, Esipenko played wrongly his opening, a Nimzo-Indian. By move 13, the Russian was lost, and nobody can give Aronian +4 and hope to survive. Oparin, who instead is playing good chess, seemed to hold Nakamura in a drawish territory, but the American wizard pulled off a Carlsen-like...Full StoryAdded on 03.25.2022
We were almost complaining after 16 games with only one decisive result in the last two rounds and BAM! The players today went all-out and produced FIVE decisive results out of eight games. In Pool A, Naka's back. The American won a great game against Levon Aronian. A great feat by Hikaru, that with this win catches Levon at 2.0/4. But they don't lead the Pool! Oparin, who so far is having a great tournament, defeated the higher-rated Esipenko, and now leads the group with...Full StoryAdded on 03.24.2022
Round 3 was again an apparently calm round, with only one decisive game. In Pool A, Nakamura had to fight hard to survive after finding himself in dire straits against Grigoriy Oparin, the Russian GM playing under the FIDE flag. Nakamura was able to take advantage of some imprecise moves played by his younger opponent and equalized a game that looked lost. Aronian and Esipenko drew in a Berlin defense. An interesting but basically uneventful game. After the first of the two round-robin in the...Full StoryAdded on 03.23.2022
For the first time since the FIDE Gran Prix started with its first leg, we had eight draws today. But it was not an easy day, at least for some of the talents gathered in Berlin. In Pool A Oparin, held to a draw the on-form Aronian, which is not an easy task, these days. Nakamura has to fight hard to survive against the young Esipenko, who is showing he belongs to the elite. Pool...Full StoryAdded on 03.22.2022
Back in Berlin for the third and last leg of the 2022 FIDE Grand Prix. The three tournaments decide who will fill the last two free spots in the Candidates' tournament. GM John Burke penned for us a preview article. It's not super-easy to understand the chances of the top players, but John makes it simple in his article. check it out! The 3rd leg started with a bang today: four decisive games, a couple of which were extremely important. In Pool A, which sees two of the major contenders -...Full StoryAdded on 03.21.2022
GM John Burke, who is going to participate in the Final Four at the beginning of April (John is a junior at Webster University), has agreed to write an article for the ICC about the 3rd and final leg of the 2022 FIDE Grand Prix, which will determine the two last participants in the Candidates' tournament. Here is John's article on the 3rd FIDE Grand Prix 2022. "The third and final leg of the 2022 FIDE Grand Prix will take place in Berlin, the same city as the first leg, and will...Full StoryAdded on 03.13.2022
Richard Rapport and Dmitry Andreikin didn't go to the tiebreaks. After an uneventful first classical game in the finals, today the second game was decisive, determining the winner of the 2nd leg of the FIDE Grand Prix 2022. The second game seemed to go in the same direction as the first, with the players playing very carefully. But this time they didn't exchange quickly all the pieces. The center of the board saw a long battle for a pawn, which lead to a possible repetition. But there, the...Full StoryAdded on 03.13.2022
Richard Rapport of Hungary is the winner of the second leg of the FIDE Grand Prix 2022. GM Richard Rapport - Photo Credit FIDE/World chess After the uneventful draw played yesterday, today the game was going the same way. the players seemed very careful - as it should be! - and by move 28, Rapport could have closed the game with repetition on this position: After a couple of repetitions, Richard went for Qe5, and there the game changed! In a few moves, Rapport had a mate net on the...Full StoryAdded on 03.12.2022
The first game of the final match between Russia Dmitry Andreikin and Hungary Richard Rapport was an uneventful draw. In a Four Knights game, the players hurriedly exchanged almost every piece on the board. By move 16, on the board there was a totally drawn position: Rapport and Andreikin kept playing, but it was hard to find any "trick" here to get an advantage. Andreikin fell into deep thinking, probably trying to find a way to make things more difficult to Rapport, but to no avail. At...Full StoryAdded on 03.11.2022
GM John Burke analyzes and commentates on the games that led two of the four musketeers who won the pools to the finals, which will take place starting tomorrow, March the 12th. One of the semis was decided in the classical time control mini-match, but it didn't lack the thrill! The second semis went to the tiebreaks. Rapid chess makes these super-GMs look almost human, with mistakes and even blunders happening much more often than in classical games. For "normal" people like us, it's...Full StoryAdded on 03.11.2022
The second semifinalist is Dmitry Andreikin. GM Dmitry Andreikin - Photo credit: Mark Livshitz/FIDE It took two rapid games for the Russian to defeat the favorite Anish Giri. The first game seemed to favor Giri with Black, but the players agree to a rather early draw by repetition. The Dutch grandmaster's advantage wasn't huge but looked worth a try. On the other hand, in a Rapid game, there is no time to assess the position carefully, and Giri decided that a draw was alright with...Full Story
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