by Bodhana Sivanandan, eight, England’s girl prodigy, put on a stunning performance on Friday evening at the European Women’s Blitz Championship in Monaco. She totaled 8.5 points out of 13, finished 15th in a field of 105, won the best junior award, and was the best English player. Blitz is three minutes per player for the entire game, plus a two second increment per transition from move one.
Sivanandan along with wife no. 1 of Germany Elizabeth Pähtz, who is an open-level grandmaster, won or drew against several other elite women, and ended with a victory against Nurgyul Salimova of Bulgaria, the 2023 Women’s World Cup final that qualified for the life of women. championship contenders in Toronto.
The Harrow primary school pupil has been honored by Monaco organizers with a personal invitation after her stunning victory in Zagreb last month, where she became the highest scoring woman in the European open blitz. Sivanandan has also been invited to the European Women’s Rapid, which will take place this weekend, but is committed to games for her club in the British 4NCL League, which has two weekend rounds in Warwick.
Her Fide blitz rating is already 2107, and she will gain another 75 points from Monaco to move close to the masters level of 2200. English old masters who played her informally after the London Classic last month rated her strength even higher .
Alexandra Kosteniuk, who was the Russian women’s world champion and now represents Switzerland, won gold in Monaco to finish second at last month’s World Blitz. Sarasadat Khademalsharieh, formerly of Iran and now Spain’s No. 1, won silver and Georgia’s Bella Khotenashvili bronze.
World champion Ding Liren has confirmed that he will play this weekend at Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee, with his opening round on Saturday (1.15 pm GMT start, free and live coverage on chess24. com and other leading chess websites) and until January 28, and will defend his world crown later this year against the winner of the eight April Candidates at Toronto.
Ding will play the black pieces on Saturday against India’s Vidit Gujrathi, the recent Isle of Man Swiss Grand winner and one of the eight Candidates to challenge for Ding’s world title.
In an interesting open interview on chess.com with Dutch chess journalist Peter Doggers, Ding said he felt “much better” than when he briefly considered quitting during the Asian Games in September. He explained that his illness was “psychological, not physical” and stemmed in part from the extra media attention following his defeat of Ian Nepomniachtchi in the world championship match last year.
Related: Chess: forgotten world champion Ding Liren to return to Wijk aan Zee
Now he is eager for a battle at Tata Steel where, despite being a top seed, he thinks Anish Giri is the favorite given his success last year. Moreover, he is ready to defend his world crown against the winner of the Candidates in Toronto in April: “No need to worry about fans”.
An old master’s poem in a chess section is unique. The Doggers interview, where Ding is modest, humble and cultured, includes a translation of the verses Wei Yi, who also competes at Wijk, sent to his friend at the start of last year’s world title match against Nepomniachtchi.
As a warm-up for Wijk aan Zee, Ding competed at Changsu in the China Chess Kings, an eight-player victory. It didn’t go well. He lost his semi-final to Wang Hao and then the third-place final to Wei. The winner of the competition, Yu Yangyi, came fresh from his bronze medal in the World Rapid in Samarkand.
After one win out of six games at Changsu, Ding is pessimistic about his chances at Wjjk: “I’m not that confident in my strength. Also, I have the crown so there will be more cameras on me, which adds extra pressure”.
The knight dance of Nepomniachtchi v Daniil Dubov at last month’s World Blitz, which resulted in a double default for the Russian duo, was repeated when they were paired again at this week’s online title Tuesday. Nepomniachtchi has also published a podcast in which he explained that they were protesting against the excessive one-hour delay caused by an appeal. Other pre-arranged draws were not penalized, and the appeals committee was made up exclusively of Fide officials with no independent members.
Just like in the World Blitz, Dubov was motivated to do well and won the Title Tuesday on a tie break from Samuel Sevian, who scored a great match against Levon Aronian.
From February 2-16, a luxury resort on Germany’s Baltic coast will host a classic time limit super-GM tournament of “Freedom Chess”, alias Chess 960, Chess 9LX or Fischer Random, where the starting line of rank pieces will be decided rear. randomized in advance. Elite old masters like 9LX because it minimizes the initial preparation, although lower level players who find the normal game quite hard showed little enthusiasm.
The field for the $200,000 event includes Carlsen, Ding, Fabiano Caruana and Aronian along with four of the best young GMs: Alireza Firouzja, Vincent Keymer, Dommaraju Gukesh and Nodirbek Abdusattorov. The format is the best of two knockout matches at a classic time rate, with ties set at a fast pace.
Carlsen has always wanted to play 9LX at slower classic tempos rather than fast, and calls the event “a dream come true”. He is taking it very seriously, even to the extent that Wijk aan Zee is missing for the first time in a decade to prepare for 9LX.
3902: 1…Ng3+! 2 hxg3 Qh6+ 3 Kg1 Be3+ 4 Rf2 Bxf2+ 5 Kxf2 Qf6+ 6 Kg1 Qxa1+ 7 Kh2 Re5! and won with the double threat Rh5+ and Q or Rxa5.
Sevian v Aronian: 1 Bxh7+! Kxh7 2 Qh5+ Kg8 3 Bf6! It turns out. If 3…gxf6 4 exf6 with Qg5+ and Qg7 mate.
