e-magazine march 2021 - european chess union

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E-MAGAZINEMARCH 2021

European Hybrid QualificationTournament for the FIDE World Cup willtake place from 22nd-30th May and willbe played Online as a hybrid event,through Tornelo online platform.

FIDE Candidates Tournamentcontinues this month, after it wasstopped due to Covid19pandemic.

The event continues inYekaterinburg, Russia,from 19th-28th April.

Candidates Tournament

European Hybrid Qulification

SF Deizisau e.V. wins EuropeanOnline Club Cup 2021

Briefly..

European Online Chess Club Cup 2021, after a spectacular final

stage the German team SF Deizisau e.V wins the event. 91 teams

participated and 18 teams continued to Play-offs. The best 10 teams

qualified for the finals which took place on 30th-31st March.

European Online Amateur Chess Championship, 10th-28th April

The event will be played on Tornelo Online platform in 4 rating

categories (A, B, C and D). More than 600 players coming from 48

European Chess federations have already registered for the event.

European Small Nations Chess Championship 2021 taking place

from 17th-25th April 2021 in a hybrid format, following a unanimous

decision by the ten ESNA member countries. (FIDE Zone 1.10).

European Online Hybrid Qualification event for the FIDE World

Cup, 22nd-3oth May 2021. The official regulations published.

contents

03

05

07

European Chess Union has its seat in Switzerland,

Address: Rainweidstrasse 2, CH-6333, Hunenberg

See, Switzerland .

European Chess Union is an independent

association founded in 1985 in Graz, Austria;

European Chess Union has 54 National Federation

Members;

Every year ECU organizes more than 20 prestigious

events and championships;

www.europechess.org

[email protected]

ECU Online Club Cup

The Winner of European OnlineClub Cup became the Germanteam SF Deizisau e.V!

Hybrid Tournament

European Hybrid QualifactionTournament for FIDE World Cup

ESNA Hybrid Event

European Small Nations

Hybrid Championship preview

09

10

11

French Chess Fed. 100 years

International Conference for theoccasion of 100 years anniversaryof France Chess Federation

#MagnusInvitational

Anish Giri wins Magnus

Invitational Tournament

Montenegro Chess Festival

Brief report on Montenegro

Chess Festival 2021

12

13

15


FIDE Candidates Tournament

continues this month!

Arbiters Corner

Legands Questions

Fun Zone

Newsletter March 2021

SF Deizisau e.V. winsEuropean Online Club Cup 2021

After an intense final stage of European Online ClubCup 2021 the German team SF Deizisau e.V wins theevent!

91 teams took part in the event and 18 teams advanced toPlay-offs. The best 10 teams of Play-offs qualified for thefinal phase which took place on 30th-31st March anddecided the Winners of the event!

3Newsletter March 2021

The Awarding ceremony of the eventtook place on Friday 2nd of April, withparticipation of the Medalists, ECUPresident Mr. Zurab Azmaiparashvili,President of Chess Club Cercled'Echecs de Monte-Carlo, Mr. JeanMichelle Repeire.

European OnlineChess Club Cup

European Online Chess ClubCup took place from 27th-31stMarch 2021 through Torneloonline platform.

The event was played withinthree stages: Qualification,play-off and Finals, with a totalprize fund of 14.000 EUR.

Details about the event can befound on the ECU Website.


Team of SF Deizisau e.V. scored 14

match points to be the sole Winner of

the event, while second place came to

Clichy Echecs 92 from France with 13

match points. Two teams tied for the

bronze medal with a score of 11 match

points, each: Mednyi Vsadnik (Russia)

and Poland Hussars (Poland), but

according to board points, Mednyi

Vsadnik took third place.

Special prize “Vasily Smyslov” is

awarded to a winner of the best game of

the tournament! The Winner of the prize

is Artemiev Vladislav who won Bartel

Mateusz!

The best individual players per board,

will be awarded special prizes according

to their performance: the top three

individual board players will receive e-

medals, while the best players per board

will be awarded a money prize of 400

EUR.

1st Board best player is GM Duda Jan-

Krzysztof (POL, 2729, Poland Hussars),

Performance: 2890

GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (IND, 2726,

Novy Bor), with performance 2786 was

the best individual player of board 2.

The best player of Board 3 is GM Socko

Bartosz (POL, 2618, Poland Hussars),

Performance: 2674.

Thee best individual player of board 3 is

GM Esipenko (RUS, 2701, Mednyi

Vsadnik), Performance: 2767.

The best reserve player of the event

is GM Keymer Vincent (GER, 2591, SF

Deizisau e.V.), with Performance: 2812.

All the rounds and games of the event

were broadcasted live from the ECU

LIVE studio, together with commentaries

by WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili and her

special guests: ECU President Zurab

Azmaiparashvili, ECU Vice Presidents:

Adrian Mikhalchishin, Dana Reizniece-

Ozola and Eva Repkova.

EUROPEAN HYBRIDQUALIFICATION TOURNAMENT

FOR THE FIDE WORLD CUP

European Hybrid Qualification Tournament for the FIDEWorld Cup will take place from 22nd-30th May and will beplayed in several venues, through Tornelo onlineplatform.

36 players will qualify for the FIDE World Cup 2021.


> 1st Round – Preliminary round

(Random pairings)

>2nd Round – 288 players

>3rd Round – 144 players

>4th Round – 72 players

>Tiebreaks for Prizes

Rounds 2,3 and 4 will be paired

according to regulations of the event

which are published on the ECU

Website, while the Final phase will

be played as a Swiss tournament of

36 players, 9 rounds with a time

control of 10 minutes + 3 seconds of

an increment.

Time control of the standard games

will be 120 minutes for the whole

game with an increment of 30

seconds per move, starting from

move one. Tiebreak matches will

consist of 2 games with reverse

colour, with a time control of 10

minutes + 3 seconds of an

increment per move. If the score is

still level after tiebreaks, the winner

of the match will be decided in an

Armageddon game.

The tournament will not be

calculated for the FIDE rating.

The event will be played ina Knock out system withmatches of 2 standardgames + tiebreak if needed.

The total prize fund for the event will

be 32.000 euros. Money prizes can not

be shared, but will be distributed

according to tiebreak criteria which is

defined within the regulations of the

event.

Prizes are:

1st place- 3000 EUR

2nd place- 2500 EUR

3rd place- 2000 EUR

4th-6th place- 1500 EUR



21st-30th place- 500 EUR

Prizes

European National Federation havethe right to nominate:A. European Players rated 2550and over (according to FIDEStandard rating list from 1st of April2021)B. 8 additional players if a nationalqualification event will take placeC. 5 additional players if a nationalqualification event will not take place

Registrations are made by theNational Federation filling the specialregistration form and sending it [email protected].

Registration deadline isMonday 10th May 2021.

REGISTRATIONS

Hybrid event


All the players compete from the

approved tournament halls per

country. Tournament halls shall be

selected and installed by federations

and local organisers. Each National

federation may select up to 2

venues that will be approved by

European Chess Union. In

exceptional cases, ECU may decide

on more venues in one country.

In each playing venue, Zoom calls

with screen sharing are mandatory.

The event’s Chief Arbiter shall be

provided with all Zoom recordings.

A detailed guide for the venues set

up will be sent to National

federations.

All details about the event,

altogether with Official

regulations and registration

form can be found on the

ECU Website.

European Small Nations HybridChampionship 2021

European Small Nations Championship 2021 takes place from17th-25th April 2021 in a hybrid format, following a unanimousdecision by the ten ESNA member countries of Zone 1.10.The winner of the event will be granted one of the ECU spots in theforthcoming FIDE World Cup 2021.

ach ESNA member Federation

nominated one of its players and the

event will be held with 10

participants, as a 9 rounds round-

robin tournament, with time control

120 minutes for the game for each

player, with 30 seconds increment

per move from move 1. Starting rank

list can be found on the following

link.

Every player will play from a

designated venue, decided by his

Chess Federation, which cannot

change during the Tournament

unless major events bind the player

or the Federation to do so.

E


The Championship will be played on

the platform Tornelo.com. Every

venue will be supervised by one

local arbiter who will connect a

second camera to grant a full sight

of the venue itself. All the venue

cameras will be connected to a

specific videoconference that will be

set up and circulated by the Chief

Arbiter Marco Biagoli.

Official Regulations of the event can

be found on the ECU Website.

UPCOMING IN APRIL

European Online Amateur Chess

Championship will take place from

10th-28th April 2021, on the Tornelo

playing platform.

The event will be played in 4 rating

categories:

A – For players rated 1000-1400

B – For players rated 1401-1700

C – For players rated 1701-2000

D – For players rated 2001-2300

FIDE Standard ratings from April 2021

rating list will be considered.

The event will be played according to

the Swiss System for all rating groups

with time Control: 10 min + 2 sec bonus

increment

Day – 1 All groups: Qualification Stage,

8 rounds, minimum 250 qualifiers to the

final stage.

Day – 2 Final Stage, 9 rounds, 250

players. Any player belonging to one

European National Chess Federation

has the right to participate.

Participants without a valid FIDE ID can

issue one through their National Chess

Federation (is a fast procedure).

The tournament(s) is not valid for FIDE

Rating.

#EOACC2021Prize list

The prize list of EuropeanOnline Amateur ChessChampionship 2021 includesmoney prizes for the bestranked players and Womenplayers, as well as specialprizes for the best ranked Youthplayers of categories for boysand girls U12, U14, U16 andU18, and special prizes for thebest ranked players ratedU1200, U1550, U1800 andU2150.

Europan OnlineAmateur ChessChampionshipschedule


Registrations and entry fee payments

are available online per category:

Group: 1000 – 1400:

https://tornelo.com/chess/orgs/

europechess/events/

eaocc-2021-1000-1400

Registration deadline for group A is

7th of April.

Group: 1401 – 1700: https://tornelo.com/

chess/orgs/europechess/events/

eaocc-2021-1401-1700 Group: 1701 –

2000: https://tornelo.com/chess/orgs/

europechess/events/

eaocc-2021-1701-2000 Group: 2001 –

2300: https://tornelo.com/chess/orgs/

europechess/events/

eaocc-2021-2001-2300

More than 600 players coming from

48 European federations registered

for the event, and the current starting

list of players can be found here.

Official regulations of the event,

schedule and full prize list are available

on the ECU Website.

International Chess Conference for the occasion of100 years anniversary of France Chess Federation

For the occasion of 100years anniversary ofFrench Chess Federation,the InternationalConference took place on20th March 2021,emphasizing thesignificance of France as achess nation for thedevelopment of chess inother European countries.

enown chess historians from

France, Germany, England,

Spain, Poland and the Czech

Republic were invited to

Conference to present their

research on the topic.

Among the participants of the

Conference were also: FIDE

President Mr. Arkady Dvorkovich

and ECU President Mr. Zurab

Azmaiparashvili

R


In ten lectures (5 were in French,

4 in English, 1 in Spanish), the

speakers spoke about almost

500 years of French chess

history.

The Conference started with

speech about first manuscripts

from the 15th century and the

18th century, and continued to

the great Philidor and his

reception in England and Russia.

Speakers also gave new insights

into the legendary Deschapelles

as well as the foreign chess

professionals in the Café de la

Régence of the 19th century.

Anish Giri (NED) took a

victory against Ian

Nepomniachtchi in the final

match to become the Winner

of Magnus Invitational event.

The Finals were played within

two days, and after equal

score after 8 played games,

the match proceeded to

tiebreak blitz match, where

Anish Giri convincingly

defeated Nepomniachtchi Ian

with 2-0

score.

Reigning World Chess

Champion Magnus Carlsen

played a play-off match

against Wesley So for the

third place of the event, and

after two days of fights

Carlsen won both matches to

claim the 3rd place and prize

of 25.000$.

Anish Giri wins #MagnusInvitationalMagnuc Carlsen Invitationaltournament as part of theMeltwater Chapions ChessTour took place from13th-21st March 2021.

Finals betweenAnish Giri andIanNepomniachtchi

Meltwater ChampionsChess Tour

Meltwater Champions ChessTour contains 10tournaments, whichconclude with Final event,taking place from 25thSeptember - 3rd October2021.The next event on theschedule is Regular#3 from24th April-2nd May 2021.


With a 1st place of Magnus

Invitational, Anish Giri won a

ticket for the Finals of

Meltwater Champions Chess

Tour which will be held from

25th September- 3rd October,

with a total prize fund of

300.000 $.

Details can be found on the

Official Website of the event.

Upcoming events:

Two IM tournaments were held in Nikšić,

while the host of GM and Mix

tournaments was Podgorica. IM and GM

tournaments were 10 players round-

robin with ten participants each. The Mix

tournament was played with 16

participants.

The Winners of Montenegro Chess

Festival IM tournament 2021/01,

February 26th – March 4th (10

participants, 9 round):

1. Alivodic Dario MNE 2189 6,5

2. IM Nikac Predrag MNE 2320 5,5

3. GM Nikcevic Nebojsa MNE 2412 5,5

The Winners of Montenegro Chess

Festival IM tournament 2021/02, March

5-11th (10 participants, 9 round):

1. FM Pecurica Milos MNE 2320 7

2. GM Nikcevic Nebojsa MNE 2412 6,5

3. IM Nikac Predrag MNE 2320 5

Montenegro Chess Festival GM 2021/01

tournament took place from 12-18 March

(10 participants, 9 round) and the

Winners are:

1. GM Djukic Nikola MNE 2521 7

2.GM Delchev Aleksander BUL 2526 5,5

3. IM Suleymanli Aydin AZE 2512 5,5

Montenegro Chess Festival 2021Montenegro Chess Federation, incooperation with the chess club„Elektroprivreda“ from Nikšić,organized Montenegro ChessFestival from 26th of February to25th of March.

GM NikolaDjukic won theGrandmastersevent

Montenegro ChessFestival 2021

The organizers are callingeveryone who is interested infuture participation to contactthem, emphasizing that thesetournaments are going tobecome traditional. The datesof the forthcoming tournamentsare 16-22 April and 23-29 April.The organizers provided IM andtournaments for players with arating below 2300, while GMtournaments will be heldaccording to the possibleinterest.


The Mix event took place from 19th-25th

of March in Podgorica, and after 9

played rounds the Winners are:

1. GM Sanal Vahap TUR 2571 8,5

2. IM Suleymanli Aydin AZE 2512 6,5

3. GM Thybo Jesper Sondergaard DEN

2572 5,5

All the results of the events can be found

on the following link.

UPCOMING


The event that decides who will

be the Challenger for the World

Chess Championship title, will

resume on the 19th of April in

Yekaterinburg, Russia.

Results of the first 7 rounds

which were played last year are

valid and the event continues

with a lead of Nepomniachtchi

Ian (RUS) and Maxime Vachier-

Lagrave (FRA), who tie for the

top scoring 4.5 points each.

Fabiano Caruana (USA), Anish

Giri (NED), Wang Hao (CHN)

and Alexander Grischuk (RUS)

tie for the third place with 3.5

points, each, while Ding Liren

and Kirill Alekseenko have a

score of 2.5 points, each.

FIDE CANDIDATES TOURNAMENTFIDE CandidatesTournament continues thismonth, after it was stoppeddue to Covid19 pandemic.

Schedule

19th April 2021, Round 820th April 2021, Round 921st April 2021, Round 10(22nd April 2021, rest day)23rd April 2021, Round 1124th April 2021, Round 12(25th April 2021, rest day)26th April 2021, Round 1327th April 2021, Round 1428th April 2021, tie-breaks (ifrequired)


The event will take place from

19th-28th April 2021 and the

Winner will play for the title of the

World Chess Champion against

Magnus Carlsen!

Total prize fund of the event is

500.000 EUR.

All details and regulations can be

found on the Official Website of

the event.


For almost one year, ECU and FIDE

have turned to online chess as a means

to continue chess activity. Many minor

and major tournaments were organised,

various formats were tested and a lot of

experience gathered. In the beginning of

2021, several commissions put all of this

experience together and published the

FIDE Online Chess Regulations.

ECU soon followed and published the

ECU Annex for Online Competitions.

However, publishing regulations is

usually not enough. In the past months,

the ECU Arbiters' Council has organised

3 successful seminars for International

or FIDE Arbiters who wished to be

trained as Online Arbiters and work in

ECU events. The seminars consisted of

both theory (explanation of regulations)

and practice (familiarising with playing

zones) and concluded in an exam on the

final day.

After certifying 60 arbiters from 27

European federations and 5 arbiters

from other continents (the full list can be

found here: https://docs.google.com/

spreadsheets/d/

1Pn5JLJxobvZp004BGycNsE2qqcfbND

vNP2t5NQ6A8fY/edit#gid=0)

it is time to launch the National Online

Arbiter Certification Course.

The Course addresses all arbiters who

are licensed as NAs or higher and wish

to be informed about

• the FIDE Laws of Chess (overview)

• the FIDE and ECU Regulations for

online events

• Fair Play regulations

• the various Hosting Internet Platforms

• handling Video Conference Calls

through Zoom

• using Slack as means of

communication among arbiters

• Hybrid events

For a Course to be organised aminimum of 20 participants isneeded and maximum numbercan be 30.

The application deadline is onApril 8th and there are stillavailable places, so make sure toregister in time.

ARBITERS CORNER

National Online Arbiter (NOA)Certification Course, April 12th - 13th

Text by: IA Tania Karali

It will be organised in two days, April

12th and 13th, for 2.5 hours on each

day, and will consist of lectures and

various examples from practical

experience. Regarding Hybrid events,

the ECU Online Youth Championship

will be presented as a model, where

more than 700 players from 40

federations participated and were

spread in 60 venues.

After the Course, a certification from

ECU will be given to attendants who fulfil

the following criteria:

• Sufficient knowledge of English

(conversational level)

• Sufficient skills to work on a personal

computer (advanced user level)

• Sufficient knowledge of at least one

platform for online chess

• Deep understanding of Fair Play

principles for online chess

The language of the Course will be

English, but there is a chance to

organise it in the future in other

languages (for example, Russian,

Spanish, German and French), provided

that a sufficient number of participants

express their interest in advance. To

register for the Course in English, you

may click here.

If you wish to preregister for a future

course in a different language, you may

click here.

Detailed regulations for the seminar can

be found here.

By attending the seminar you will be

taught all you need to know about

working in online events and will get a

thorough view of the duties of an online

arbiter. You will get acquainted with the

different platforms and gain a good

understanding of the Fair Play

regulations.

*Links related to the Article can be found

within the Online version of Magazine.


1) What are You doing in life in the

current moment?

I am still actively interested in chess.

I watch and analize games from top

tournaments. However, most of the

time I study openings and especially

the analysis of very complicated

variations from very different

openings.

2) Your recollections with

meetings with the World

Champions?

In 1968-1986 I played ten games

with five world champions. Most of

them with V. Smyslov (+1=1-2), B.

Spassky (+0=1-2) and I lost with T.

Petrosian, A. Karpov and G.

Kasparov.

The games were difficult, however

my opponents also made some

mistakes.

3) Your best game?

Bent Larsen – Włodzimierz Schmidt,

0-1, Aarhus DEN, 1971-09-08.

4) Which Your achievement You

consider to be the most

important?

The first places in few strong

international tournaments, such as

Memorial of Akiba Rubinstein

Polanica Zdrój 1973 and 1981,

Budapest (Vasas) 1986.

5) Best and most important chess

books?

D. Bronstein – Zuerich 1953,

M. Dvoretsky – Handbook of

endings.

6) How did You start Your career?

The biggest success at the

beginning of my career was the first/

second place in Polish Junior

Championships up to twenty years.

I was fourteen years old!

7) Your favourite openings?

Sicilian, French, Kings Indian and

Gruenfeld defense - all black.

MEET CHESS LEGEND GM Włodzimierz SchmidtThe Winner of 35 different Medals in Polish Championships

10) Favourite city, food anddrink.I don't have a favorite citybecause I felt goodeverywhere.The food is: dumplings andpizza.Drinks are coffee and variousteas.

LEGENDS QUESTIONS

MEET CHESS LEGEND GMWłodzimierz Schmidt

10 questions by GM AdrianMikhalchishin

8) Who was the most difficult and

the easiest opponent in Your

career?

Specifically, I didn't have the hardest

and easiest opponent. I treated

everyone seriously. My successes

were largely the result of very good

opening preparation. Especially

blacks which are always harder to

play.

9) Non chess best book, film and

singer for You.

It's hard for me to name one book.

These are books on economics, new

technologies, consumer electronics,

computers and the Internet.

Movie: Pretty Woman with Julia

Roberts and Richard Gere.

Anna German's songs.

FUN ZONE

For this edition of theECU E-Magazine weprepared for you 4positions where Whitemates in 3 moves!

Solutions fromFebruary Magazine

#Puzzle 1:1.Qxg7!+ Kxg7 2.Nf5+ Kg83.Nh6##Puzzle 2:1.Na7+! Bxa7 2.Qxc6+ bxc63.Ba6##Puzzle 3:1.Rh8+! Kxh8 2.Qh1+ Kg83.Qh7#Puzzle 4:1.Qf7+! Nxf7 2.Nf6!+ gxf63.Bxf7#


Paul Keres

has said

about

chess:

>However hopeless the situation

appears to be there yet always

exists the possibility of putting up

a stubborn resistance.

>Even the best grandmasters in

the world have had to work hard

to acquire the technique of rook

endings.

>A player can sometimes afford

the luxury of an inaccurate move,

or even a definite error, in the

opening or middlegame without

necessarily obtaining a lost

position. In the endgame ... an

error can be decisive, and we are

rarely presented with a second

chance.

>Chess is a test of wills.

>An innovation need not be

especially ingenious, but it must

be well worked out.

e-magazine march 2021 - european chess union

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