Σκακιστικά νέα

After seven rounds played at FIDE Candidates 2020 in Yekaterinburg, FIDE decided to stop the tournament on 26th March 2020 due to enhanced Covid19 prevention measures by the Government of Russia.

Five months later, International Chess Federation FIDE brought a decision to continue the event from 1st November 2020 keeping the results of the first 7 rounds valid. This means without Teimour Radjabov in the roster. The event will be continued in Yekaterinburg, but considering the epidemiological situation FIDE has designated a reserve venue in Tbilisi, Georgia as an alternative.

During the lockdown caused by pandemic of Covid19 virus, almost all chess players throughout the world were forced to turn to online chess.

Many over-the-board chess events were postponed, altogether with the FIDE Olympiad and the biggest European official events.

To celebrate the first International Chess Day, on 20 July (10:00-12:00 EST), Chess players, United Nations and governments officials, permanent missions to the UN, representatives of civil society, academia and other relevant stakeholders will attend and participate in a High-Level Virtual Event – “Chess for Recovering Better”.

The key stages of the Top Chess Engine Championship are now live at the official website of the competition. The Premier Division kicked off with a game between the current Grand Champion Stockfish and the newcomer to the division Ethereal (replay the game here).

The Top Chess Engine Championship TCEC is going to start in about 10 days time. And it is going to be amazing! TCEC S17 will have a solid hardware upgrade, a new adjusted format and a new structure, a dedicated news website with a merchandising section and more.

Saturday, Oct. 19 – Sunday, Oct. 20
9:30 a.m. – 8:30 p.m.

Location: JO Performance Hall

Four Board match between UT Dallas, Texas Tech and UT Rio Grande Valley. Each school will have their ‘A’ Team and ‘B’ Team playing. Winner gets to keep the prestigious Super Final trophy for one year.

Sat. Opening Ceremony is at 9:30 am. Round 1 is at 10 am and Round 2 is at 4 pm. Sun Round 4 is at 10 am and Round 4 is at 4 pm. The awards ceremony will be at 8 pm.

Season 16 of the Top Chess Engine Championship starts this Sunday July 14th at 15:00 CEST. A total of 18 engines will battle for six promotion spots in the newly formed Qualification Division. Among them are three Neural Networks – ScorpioNN, ChessFighterNN, and Stoofvlees.

TCEC Season 16 is going to start mid July with the participation of the strongest computer chess software.

Written by Guy Haworth and Nelson Hernandez
Reading, UK and Maryland, USA

Corresponding author: g.haworth@reading.ac.uk

The Russian chess player Aleksandra Goryachkina won the Women Candidates Chess 2019 with two rounds to spare. The youngest participant of the tournament finished with 9.5 points out of 14 and secured the right to play the Women’s World Championship Match against the Women`s World Champion Ju Wenjun (China). The prize fund of the coming championship match is 500,000 Euro, which is 150% higher than in the previous match.