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Tag: Chess Olympiad 2022

  • Chess Olympiad gold for Ukraine: ‘But medal can’t cease a conflict’

    AFTER FORCING a draw from the clutches of defeat in opposition to Poland’s Oliwia Kiolbasa, guaranteeing a gold medal for Ukraine within the Chess Olympiad on Tuesday, Anna Ushenina quietly walked to the facet of the corridor and slumped into the arms of her teammate Natalia Buksa.

    There had been no leaps of pleasure or high-fives, simply tears and hugs. When tens of millions again residence, dealing with a brutal Russian invasion, had been fleeing for all times and struggling for meals and shelter, the gold medal — an Olympiad gold no much less — introduced simply fleeting aid.

    Later, with a quivering voice and welled-up eyes, Ushenina put the triumph in perspective: “It’s obviously a great feeling, but the medal can’t stop a war.” There was a second of shocked silence as her voice echoed throughout the packed room.

    The 36-year-old Ushenina, her nation’s first girls’s world champion, is from Kharkiv, simply 30 miles from the Russia border and one of many closely shelled cities within the invasion. “It was a dreadful time because we were living so close to the border. As soon as we heard the news that the Russians were marching, we had no other option but to flee with our family without any preparations,” she says.

    Ukraine is the winner within the girls’s part of the forty fourth #ChessOlympiad! Congratulations! 🏆♟️

    📷: Lennart Ootes & Stev Bonhage pic.twitter.com/2SlMqKuJQE

    — International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) August 9, 2022

    The seasoned participant has not gone again residence but. Like most of her teammates. Everyone within the five-member group has a narrative of ordeal to relate. The Muzychuk sisters, Anna and Mariya, made a harrowing escape from Lviv, a metropolis in western Ukraine sharing a border with Poland, from the place they travelled to Germany and Spain.

    Although the information of an impending conflict was spreading, the sisters deliberated till the primary day of the full-scale invasion on February 24 earlier than fleeing. “At around seven in the morning I woke up because I heard a siren, which was a bit of a shocker, because you don’t know what’s happening. I immediately picked up my mobile to check the news, and I saw – a disaster,” Anna Muzychuk stated in a podcast on the web site chessbase.com.

    The group from Ukraine on the Chess Olympiad in Chennai.

    By that point, Kiev was being bombed from Belarus. “They are bombing our ships in the sea. They are invading from the west, through the north, to the south. And then like: ‘oh my God, this is a war, what should we do? Mariya, wake up, listen to the sirens, the war has started, I told my sister’,” she stated.

    That night time, with flights halted and trains full, the sisters reached the Polish border in a crammed bus with only a bag and a laptop computer. “We were very sad, because we didn’t want to leave. I love my city and my apartment, and we were leaving everybody behind. Our parents, our grandparents, most of our relatives. They are still in Ukraine,” she stated.

    At the border, they needed to look forward to 15 hours in a queue to cross. But she says they had been fortunate as these crossing by bus had particular lanes. “There were people who spent days in the queue,” Anna Muzychuk stated. When the sisters lastly discovered a retailer after crossing the Poland border, they discovered to her horror that almost all of their bank cards had been blocked — luckily one card labored.

    The males’s group captain Oleksander Sulypa was getting ready for a chess match in Reykjavik when the conflict struck. He instantly left his household behind and drove to the navy base in Lviv and volunteered to defend his nation. “I did not think twice. I wanted to be part of protecting my country. My job is to monitor the stations and stop cars that drive past it. On an average, we used to search 2,000 cars,” Sulypa instructed The Indian Express.

    The 50-year-old didn’t take part in direct fight, however helped seize a whole lot of Russian spies close to the navy camp and airport. “At that time, chess was the last thing in our mind. We did not know we would be alive for the Olympiad and I did not know where the players were, whether they were dead or alive,” he stated, including that if want be, he would return to the warfront once more. “My first duty is to protect my country,” he stated.

    There had been others whose homes had been razed, who misplaced pals and family, and who endured shut brushes with loss of life. And but, in Chennai, Ukraine’s girls’s group rose to high the desk on the ultimate day with a hard-fought win over Poland, regardless of drawing to India A and taking a look at one stage as in the event that they had been out of the race.

    One of the favourites, Ukraine received off to a breezy begin on this Olympiad, successful their first 4 video games earlier than they stuttered and managed solely attracts. But they bounced again and saved their nerves. Their destiny was not of their fingers and at last, the USA upsetting India gifted them the title. The males’s group, in the meantime, completed twenty ninth.

    It was additionally a triumph of collective will, with all members making essential contributions. The Muzychuk sisters — two of Ukraine’s most interesting — racked up 13 out of 20 factors. Ushenina managed 6.5/8 and Nataliya Buska 7/10. Ukraine was not one of the best group however they had been probably the most resolute; they didn’t really feel the stress as a result of that they had seen worse. The backdrop had crammed them with a way of equanimity. Now all they need, as Ushenina stated firmly, “is peace.”

  • Uzbek chess: More than simply Abdusattorov. Triumph at Chess Olympiad is ‘Our independence day gift’ to Uzbekistan, says coach

    The incessant give attention to Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Uzbekistan’s talisman and world speedy champion irritates coach Ivan Sokolov. “I can understand the attention he gets. He is a world champion, a national hero and gives stability on the first board. But this victory has proved that Uzbekistan chess is not just about him. We have more players here and thousands back home,” he says.

    As although to show a degree, he didn’t deliver Abdusattorov to the press convention room after the gold-sealing win over the Netherlands. Instead, he tagged alongside Nodirbek Yakubboev, and Jakhongir Vakhidov sporting the normal doppa, a spherical skullcap. Yakubboev is simply 20 however already rated 2620; Vakhidov is the oldest at 27 and is revered for his sound tactical sport. There can be the 16-year-old Javokhir Sindarov, thought of probably the most gifted children round. “There are these guys too. You can’t win a team event on the shoulders of just one guy alone, and we had quality on all five boards. It’s a sign that we are a genuine force. We have a history and culture of playing chess that goes a long way back,” he says.

    Scientific historical past proves chess existed within the nation a number of centuries in the past. During archaeological excavations in Dalvarzintepa (Surkhandarya) in 1972, chess items of the Kushan interval (I-II centuries) have been found, and in 1977, throughout a examine in Afrosiab (Samarkand), seven chess items of the VII-VIII centuries have been found. Samarkand, a metropolis in Southwestern Uzbekistan used to host annual tournaments as early because the 14th centuries, in response to information.

    Moments of triumph.

    Jakhongir Vakhidov, who gained the decisive sport within the closing match, bringing staff gold, is the hero of Team Uzbekistan.

    Photos by Lennart Ootes pic.twitter.com/dxuQ8Sk0gH

    — International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) August 9, 2022

    Modern chess historical past within the nation, a part of the erstwhile Soviet Union, started with the legendary Georgy Agzamov. Born in a small city of Almalyk within the province of Tashkent, right into a household of medical doctors, he took to skilled chess late and have become a GM solely when he was 30. But he was thought of as one of many most interesting gamers round and encountered the legendary Mikhail Tal and Tigran Petrosian. Tal was impressed with aggressive type of play and took him together with him for world excursions.

    A philologist, one other ardour of his ended his life on the age of 32. While on a tour to Sevastopol, the Crimea, he went for solo mountain climbing, slipped from a cliff and fell between two rocks. There have been experiences that native tribes murdered him for cash, however there was little proof and solely intrigue. But he’s broadly considered the daddy of contemporary chess in Uzbekistan. In his reminiscence, the federal government began the celebrated Tashkent Memorial on the Tashkent Chess Club, the nursery of all Grandmasters from the nation.

    Several years later sprung Rustam Kasimdzhanov, who gained the World Championship in 2004, beating a string of world-class gamers like Vasyl Ivanchuk, Alexander Grischuk, and Veselin Topalov earlier than embarking on a fruitful profession as a second to among the most interesting ever gamers. He was a longtime second to Viswanathan Anand, together with through the 2008, 2010 and 2012 World Championship matches. He has additionally educated with World Championship candidates Sergey Karjakin and Fabiano Caruana. Equipped with a powerful tactical sense, he was a grasp at giving philosophic quotes. Like this one: “Playing chess isn’t about what you see. Playing chess is about what you can seize from that.”

    Later he grew to become a chess instructor and most elite gamers have sooner or later sought his tutoring or recommendation. His DVDs on chess openings like ‘A World champion’s information to the King’s Indian’, are fairly widespread. But as his enjoying days staggered, resulting in a lull in Uzbekistan chess, got here alongside Abdusattorov, who most say has been the only largest affect on Uzbek chess. His Rapid World Championship triumph final 12 months was celebrated as a nationwide vacation. The 17-year-old, the youngest-ever world champion was gifted a two-room condominium and a hefty prize-money.

    Another spherical of celebrations and items await them after they land in Tashkent in two days. Sokolov chimes in: “The victory would be the most historic day in Uzbekistan chess. It’s our independence day gift to the people of the republic, and hopefully they would inspire thousands of kids to take up the sport. This would capture the imagination,” Thousands of youngsters, aspiring to be not solely Abdusattorov but additionally Yakubboev, Vakhidov and Sindarov.

  • Chess Olympiad: Praggnanandhaa retains India in title hunt as prime groups put together for last push

    As the night wore on, a way of tedium crawled into the venue. The alleys and aisles have been nonetheless crammed, the courtyard was full, however an eerie vacancy had draped the sector. Tired shoulders crashed into drained shoulders, sunken eyes met sunken eyes. The gamers, spectators, volunteers — your entire mass of people that had gathered right here — appeared fatigued, bereft of their voice and spirit, wishing that the humid Sunday would finish quick.

    The ninth spherical had all of the substances to be thrilling, extra so after the India B staff’s thrilling victory over the United States on Saturday. D Gukesh, the inarguable star of the match, might stretch his profitable run to 9 video games, which might be an Olympiad file. Should Armenia find yourself dropping or drawing to Uzbekistan, Gukesh and Co might parachute to the helm. There was the gang favorite R Praggnanandhaa and maybe a sight of chess-divine Magnus Carlsen.

    But because it unfurled, because it usually unfurls in direction of the tip of lengthy tournaments, groups and gamers immediately embraced risk-free, gamble-reduced approaches, earlier than they go full-throttle within the final two rounds – the recoil earlier than the final leap. It’s just like the lull simply earlier than a livid endgame, when gamers flip circumspect, even a fraction cagey.

    When the day started, Armenia topped the chart with 15 factors, trailed by India and Uzbekistan, each pegged at 14, with a 13-point pile of the Netherlands, Azerbaijan and Iran behind. The on the spot response could be to time period this version as one for the underdogs, a quicksand for the highest rung — prime seed USA, shackled by inhibitions, have been languishing in ninth spot, India A have been seventh, and Carlsen’s Norway not wherever within the prime 10.

    Uzbekistan defeats Armenia 3-1 and jumps to the highest of the standings within the Open part of the #ChessOlympiad.

    In Round 10 tomorrow, they’ll conflict with one other younger and aspiring staff, India B. pic.twitter.com/WNsCyU4EJv

    — International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) August 7, 2022

    When the day ended, the lead had modified palms. Uzbekistan had leapt to the highest with 16 factors, with India B and Armenia locked on 15. Azerbaijan, the Netherlands, India A and USA have been all tagged at 14 factors, retaining the end hazy and open. All these groups might make a last push in what might be a chaotic final two days.

    In the ladies’s part, 4 groups share the lead at 15 factors apiece – Poland, India, Kazakhstan and Georgia. It’s just like the pile earlier than the final bend of a 1500 metre race.

    The hole was difficult — neither too big for the trailing groups to go all out nor for the leaders to sit down again and loosen up. So, even the often-aggressive India B adopted a barely defensive method towards a nuggety Azerbaijan, spearheaded by Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. His father was a boxer and skilled him to be a boxer too. But after he fell in love with chess, he swapped the gloves for the board and went onto develop into the nation’s most interesting chess participant but. On the board, he’s extra of a counterpuncher, weaving and ducking away from the punches along with his impregnable approach and ready for the right alternative to unleash his exact punches.

    One would count on Gukesh to commerce blows. But he was unusually watchful, enjoying a ready recreation, constructing an impregnable fort round him. Mamedyarov too was hesitant to assault, even when a chance introduced itself with a terrifically-placed bishop for a diagonal assault. But he hesitated, possibly he was barely cautious of Gukesh’s pawn on a4. Towards the endgame, each have been left with none clear shot at glory. The match was extra like arm-wrestling, the benefit tilting this was and that with no clear winner.

    So was Nihal Sarin’s recreation towards Rauf Mamedov, a turgid affair that by no means turned dynamic. Raunak Sadhwani’s recreation towards Nijat Abasov too flowed at the same tempo earlier than the previous dug deep and annoyed the Indian right into a semi-blunder when he moved his pawn to b4 on the forty fifth flip, slitting a gap for Mamedov to launch a comparatively easy assault. A dicey motion of Sadhwani’s rook to a2 left him with no options to claw again and handle a draw.

    A defeat would have virtually ended their gold medal hopes, however the ever-smiling Praggnanandhaa unfold smiles on the faces of his teammates and spectators with a tenacious win. Vasif Durarbayil had him observing a defeat by the 56th flip, when he pocketed his pawn on f6, a transfer that would have probably unlocked Praggnanandhaa’s defences on the finish of one other attritional recreation. But when pushed to a nook, Praggnanandhaa shed warning, reclaimed his imaginative and prescient and made a sequence of audacious strikes. He took out a few pawns, destabilising the opponent’s pawn construction, on the expense of exposing his backline. Somewhat scared, Durarbayil started to stress over the well being of his king. He blundered by shifting the king to h7, hiding it behind a pawn, with out realising the heavy artillery at Praggnanandhaa’s disposal. He then serenely wrapped up the sport to acquire a significant level and be certain that his staff remained within the hunt for the gold.

    The top-three would have remained as it’s however for Uzbekistan, seeded 14th, gunning down Armenia, in an occasion of the Goliaths overwhelmed by the hobbits. The prime boards of heavyweights drew towards one another, and people on the third and fourth appeared draw-bound however for Javokhir Sindarov and Jakhongir Vakhidov upsetting Ter-Sahakyan and Robert Hovhannisyan. There was late drama and the viewers would imagine that there could be some extra drama in retailer for the final two days because the match curls into the ultimate bend.

    Table (Open): Uzbekistan 16; India, Armenia 15; Azerbaijan 14, the Netherlands 14, India A 14, USA 14

    Women: Poland 15, India 15, Kazakhstan 15, Georgia 15.

  • GM Aronian’s affect endears in chess-obsessed Armenia although he now performs for USA

    The grandmaster of shock strikes, Levon Aronian, pulled off only one shock transfer on Friday. He didn’t flip up in any respect for the sport between his adopted nation and the nation of his start. He was neither amidst his new associates nor with these he had grown up, travelled and roomed for 20 years.

    But even in his absence, his shadow sprawled over the sport as a simmering undercurrent—for he’s such an eminent character in chess. Not solely that the tie may doubtlessly determine the Olympiad as Armenia and the US have been positioned first and second on the desk, but additionally that Armenians needed to show that there’s life to them past Aronian and that even with out him, they might mount a severe problem. Perhaps the US needed to reveal that they’re a power even with out Aronian. It was a recreation for factors in addition to pleasure, all these sub-plots including layers of intrigue.

    On the primary match board have been Fabiano Caruana and Gabriel Sargissian. Caruana is one in every of his finest associates, “ who he cooks food for.” So is Sargissian. A 12 months youthful to Aronian, who’s 39, each have been associates and collaborators since teenage. Beside them have been Wesely So, who lives subsequent door to Aronian at St Louis, and Hrant Melkumyan, who considers Aronian the “biggest influence of his life”. Aronian looms massive within the lifetime of all eight gamers. A joke that he had cracked. A transfer that he had taught them. More in order Aronian is as raffish a chess participant might be.

    What adopted was engrossing chess, with neither workforce prepared to give up simply. The finish consequence captured the feistiness of the sport—aside from the Welsey So-Hrant Melkumyan match-up, each recreation was a dogged affair. Both groups received two video games every in a supply of poetic justice. There was no Aronian to settle the tie, no Aronian to swing the sport this fashion or that. How heartbreaking it might have been for Armenia. Perhaps, not as heartbreaking as when he left them.

    But like most nations born out of conflict and have endured genocides, Armenia has a exceptional capability to maneuver on. Life with out Aronian would have been unthinkable. Until final 12 months, Aronian was Armenia’s guiding mild, their greatest hope, their perpetual inspiration, a nationwide hero, and the person each youngster and grownup within the chess-mad nation, which has probably the most grandmasters per capita on the earth, was the primary nation to make chess a compulsory a part of the curriculum, needed to be. The story of Aronian’s life is taught in class. Even if his life-story have been to be culled out of the syllabus, it’s a part of the folklore. How the Aronian household housed a homeless chess participant who had fled from Azerbaijan throughout the conflict of 1988, over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh area, in alternate for instructing their son chess. How Aronian fought poverty, walked 5 miles on weekends to play chess tournaments in Yerevan. And so on and so forth.

    But his departure has not plunged them to the pits of despair. Rather, it has motivated them to punch above their weight. They at all times had—a rustic of three million has received the Olympiad thrice. “Obviously, he was our best player and a very good player. But we, as a country, have been through a lot, so we don’t mourn for personal losses but find the best way to make the best use of what we have,” Armenian captain Arman Pashikian had stated in the beginning of the event when requested about Aronian’s swap.

    However, Armenians can’t hate him. He would polarise opinions with the only act of adopting one other nation, however he would proceed to be determine of inspiration for Armenians. “We cannot hate him, though obviously we are sad. He is a brother and friend to us. So many beautiful memories. But he will continue to be an inspiration for us and our country, though I hope that more players don’t follow his path and change the nation,” GM Ave Grigoryan, who instructed chessbase.com

    But the Armenian chess tradition is so deep-rooted that the sport would thrive on even after their biggest participant had left. In 1963, when Tigran Petrosian took on the Russian Mikhail Botvinnik for the World Championship, hundreds camped out in Yerevan, watching every transfer relayed by means of telegraph to an enormous demonstration board within the metropolis’s Opera Square. “There could be more chess clubs than coffeeshops in Yerevan,” Aronian himself had as soon as stated.

    There are geographic and social causes too. The Armenian-American author Peter Balakian had as soon as written in New York Times: “For a small, landlocked country, chess is a particularly ingenious way, and effective way, of mobilising both competitive spirit and sports competition and intellectual discipline, without the need for huge infrastructural resources and, of course, financial spending,” But they’ve misplaced the hero that embodied this spirit. But they might neither mourn nor shed a tear for Aronian.

  • The noisy silence of the chess followers: Why are the Chennai followers thronging the Chess Olympiad venue regardless of infinite restrictions?

    The Dalai Lama as soon as mentioned that there are 34000 distinguishable feelings. Even he can be exhausting pressed to point out a single emotion if he have been on the Chess Olympiad in Chennai as a spectator. Because it’s not allowed. They can’t say a whats up if a participant veers nearer to their enclosure, they’ll’t cheer for his or her favorite participant or flash banners to garner their consideration. Mobile telephones and cameras need to be stored within the cloak room; they’ll’t munch popcorn or guzzle the cola, overlook the bubbly concoctions; between the viewers, they’ll’t debate or struggle, no launch of pleasure after a bit seize following an elaborate manoeuvre, like after a rally on the Wimbledon Centre Court. Even the gamers don’t high-five or fist-punch. Nothing strikes, every little thing is static. Watching chess from the galleries appears an train in self-control. The silence suffocates.

    Perhaps, chess, as Garry Kasparov as soon as mentioned, isn’t meant to be watched from the galleries as another spectator sport. “You cannot say, go, go, rah, rah, good move! People want some emotion, but chess is not a sport, but an art,” he had as soon as mentioned. Kasparov by no means favored crowded halls as he felt the lots distracted him. So an inventive sacrifice or a inventive gambit or a shocking gamble are finest loved over a web-based stream or at a chess membership with buddies. Arguably, it’s this intrinsic, unchangeable nature of chess that makes it spectator-unfriendly when watching from the galleries.

    That’s the curse of board video games—no board sport is a spectator sport. Scrabble followers don’t agonise over the truth that it’s by no means going to be on the Olympics. They are so near the motion—nearer than maybe a bout of boxing or wrestling, nearly inside touching distance from the gamers, but they’re so removed from the motion to grasp what’s unfolding on the boards.

    Highlights from the start of spherical 5 of the forty fourth #ChessOlympiad pic.twitter.com/fMQjCkBlHe

    — International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) August 2, 2022

    Not that it has doused spectators from crowding the galleries on the Chess Olympiad. The gallery on the predominant corridor is a number of metres away from the boards, the place the spectators can stand and watch them from side-on from behind a wall, guarded by volunteers. Hall B provides a greater vantage level, because the platform is elevated and there are chairs.

    You might watch the gamers, if the gamers are expressive, most don’t betray feelings, gauge the temper; if you happen to a chess whiz your self, you possibly can observe the strikes by observing the motion of the arms.

    “You get a glimpse of what’s happening on the board closest to the gallery. You can see some of the blocks and then guess the moves and the lines. But for that you need to know the game at a decent level,” says R Raghunathan, a former chess participant who has been travelling to the venue daily.

    But he says he’s right here extra for the atmosphere than seeing what’s unfolding on the board. “I am here for the ambience. There are people from everywhere, most top players in the world, Carlsen, So, Caruana, Aronian. I don’t know when I can ever see them again in one tournament. Besides, there are a lot of boys from Tamil Nadu and we need to show them some good home support. If I wanted to enjoy the game and analyse the moves, I could have sat at home and streamed the games online,” he says.

    Fans flock in on the Chess Olympiad. (Pic: Sandip G)

    Most of the spectators contained in the gallery are supporters and kinfolk or buddies of gamers moderately than aficionados or simply there due to the excitement. Like Raghunathan, Felix Anandaraj has been shuttling from Tambaram to Mahabalipuram on his bike within the scorching solar simply to cheer for D Gukesh, who he knew since childhood. “I don’t know the game much and I don’t understand what’s happening either (from the gallery), but I come here on most days to show my support to meet the players and soak in the whole atmosphere,” he says.

    So, a lot of the chess nuts on the venue collect within the sprawling golf-banks like a courtyard on the venue. There is a big display screen streaming dwell video games from the FIDE dwell channel with the commentary of Judit Polgar and Mihail Marin. But most produce other dwell streams operating on their smartphones too in order that they’ll peek into different video games too. But they don’t watch the video games with out taking their eyes off it. Rather, they get pleasure from discussing the sport inside their teams.

    Says S Roshan: “What we do is we watch a move and analyse the line, strategies and possibilities among ourselves, doing sort of an alternative commentary. That way, we are playing the game ourselves, working out possibilities and permutations ourselves. Watching chess, like any other game, is best as a community experience. It feels a bit more interesting being here than it does just sitting in front of a chess board at our house.”

    It’s how the thoughts of a real blue chess fan works. While spectators of most different sports activities benefit from the second—when a objective is scored or a six is struck—chess followers get their pleasure from calculating what might probably occur subsequent, or after that. “We are always thinking of progression, of patterns and possibilities. The best thing about the game is that you can play their game yourselves, and games as far back as those of Capablanca or Alekhine. All you need is a list of moves and a board,” he elaborates.

    Fans on the Chess Olympiad. (Pic: Sandip G)

    On that word, chess has extra space for the strategic in addition to emotional involvement from the spectators. Raghunathan chips in: “We are as emotionally invested in a game or players as spectators in other games too are. We like to see our favourites like in other sports too.” As Kasparov mentioned chess is certainly an artwork, however like all good artwork it too stirs emotion within the coronary heart of the connoisseurs.

  • Abdusattory: The Boa Constrictor from Uzbekistan who squeezes his opponents

    When Nodirbek Abdusattorov was simply 9 years previous, he was invited to play Grandmasters on the Tashkent Open with a baby prodigy status. The event was thought of nothing greater than an publicity alternative for Abdusattorov, who began enjoying chess watching his elder brother and sister who performed recreationally in a suburb of Tashkent.

    Little then the organisers knew they had been about to behold the launch of a brand new world-beating prodigy. He went on to clinically beat two seasoned Grandmasters, Andrey Zhigalko of Belarus and Rustam Khusnutdinov of Kazakhstan. The victories had caught the eye of the legendary Uzbekistan coach Dmitry Kayumov, who died final 12 months.

    He started to carefully observe the teenager, first with a contact of suspicion after which with eyes of admiration. Convinced of his potential, he took him beneath his wings, performed video games with him and made him play in opposition to the seniors. He was obsessed on his expertise. “During 40 years of coaching in different countries, I brought up many international Grandmasters, but I must admit that I have never met such a talent as Nodirbek. The boy is very athletic, hardworking, has an excellent memory, memorises game positions well and, what is most important and a rare quality, is not afraid of an opponent,” he had instructed ut.uz, an Uzbekistan information web site.

    17-year-old Nodirbek Abdusattorov, the World Rapid Champion, defeats world #5 Fabiano Caruana and ensures Uzbekistan ties the match in opposition to the highest seeds, USA. #ChessOlympiad pic.twitter.com/9Hf9ZYfKJm

    — International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) August 1, 2022

    It was not like a chess starved nation instantly stumbled onto a chess sensation. The nation has a wealthy historical past within the sport—having churned out 22 grandmasters after it tore off from the Soviet Union.

    Kayumov was satisfied that he would break the then world file of Sergei Karjakin because the youngest Grandmaster. Abdusattorov missed it by six months, extra as a result of sloppiness of his house federation. bizarrely diverted to the world colleges under-13 at Sochi. But Kayumov stated prophetically: “He will be a future world champion, the youngest one. Mark my words,” He, although, didn’t say which format.

    Four years later, using a sensational streak, he defeated a string of established names resembling Fabiano Caruana, Ian Nepomniachtchi, and the largest of all of them, Magnus Carlsen within the title decider to say the World Rapid Championship. And he was the youngest to take action, in any format, at 17 years and three months, surpassing Ruslan Ponomariov at 18 within the Fide model of the then disputed classical crown in 2001 and Carlsen, additionally at 18, within the 2009 World Blitz.

    Nodirbek Abdusattorov is instantly beating Fabiano Caruana and Uzbekistan have an awesome probability of taking down big favourites USA right now! https://t.co/yK6AoIlNqU #ChessOlympiad #c24live pic.twitter.com/dLvV2JKJGx

    — chess24.com (@chess24com) August 1, 2022

    His sport had the world rolling their eyes in disbelief, not at his pace however on the energy of his strikes . “One of the hallmarks of Abdusattorov’s game is his playing style, as he’s not the sort of tactical beast you come to expect from a young player. Instead, he has a more mature playing style, specialising in slowly squeezing his opponents, which is reminiscent of the legendary Anatoly Karpov,” wrote American chess creator John B Henderson.

    Nepomniachtchi praised his singular capability to punish the slightest of errors. As he did when beating Caruana within the Chess Olympiad. Caruana, enjoying with the white items made an awry transfer and the Uzbek latched onto the prospect to create an impregnable place. It was not fairly a David-slays-Goliath story, as Abdusattorov has a ranking of 2677. Fuelled by him, Uzbekistan may very well be the event darkish horse.

    Back to his world championship triumph, he didn’t know the dimensions of his achievement till he returned house to a hero’s welcome. A large number of lots awaited him on the airport. After he received out, he was taken for a table-top bus journey, earlier than the president honoured him with a money prize of round €20,300, and the Mard Uglon (“Brave Son”) medal, moreover the keys to a two-bedroom house on the coronary heart of town. “Of course it was great to beat the big stars, but I never thought it was a big achievement until I stepped out of the airport,” he had then stated.

    But he’s not somebody to be too carried by early success, as he instructed chess.com: “It’s just the start of my career, there is a long way to go before I myself become a great player, or something close to that. But that’s where I want to be, among the elites.” There was a fierce streak of ambition in voice, and the hammering of Caruana was one other instance that he may very well be punishing within the classical format as properly.

  • The hero with out a halo, Chennai’s ‘namma paiyyan’ (our boy) Praggnanandhaa has the followers on a string

    When the large display on the grassy centre courtyard of the venue started to stream R Praggnanandhaa’s sport, the scattered crowd turned their collective gaze in direction of the display. For the subsequent five-odd minutes their eyes stay fastened on the display. It didn’t matter what strikes he made, how clear his strains have been, or what the scope of his openings have been, whether or not you’re a chess geek or knew nothing in regards to the sport. They have been content material simply seeing him, his neck craning onto the board a lot so {that a} deep exhaling of breath might blow the items.

    The feed stopped; their gaze scattered. Inside the corridor, a couple of spectators have been stretching their heads to identify him— India B group’s board is the closest to the spectators’ enclosure. From their awkward perch, they might nearly see his head, however they might neither cheer nor shout. They can’t resist yelling out, however their passes can be struck out. Perhaps, somebody sometime would.

    His huge spherical eyes twitching over the board, Praggnanandhaa is proof against the frenzy round him, or these exterior simply praying for his victory. He is in a cerebral tussle along with his Italian rival Lorenzo Lodici, contemporary from stalling Norway’s progress on Sunday. The Indian had endured a troublesome Sunday, trailing for a lot of the match and profitable on his opponent’s sloppy time administration. But none of this was to have an effect on him, or power him to the ultra-defensive. As is commonly the case, he started with a dynamic opening, the semi-slav, a tactical and aggressive opening. The early exchanges gave him the command, and a pawn sacrifice gave a sign that he might enterprise early for the kill.

    Magnus Carlsen keeping track of Praggnanandhaa (16), Gukesh (16), Sarin (18), and Sadhwani (16), the prodigious Indian group presently main the #ChessOlympiad in Chennai with a flawless rating (Arun Sankar/AFP Archive). pic.twitter.com/qxvMJ1Pcqg

    — Olimpiu Di Luppi (@olimpiuurcan) August 1, 2022

    But Lodici slowed the sport down, and what adopted was a cramming of the central strains, each their items nearly structured like a pyramid. Praggnanandhaa repositioned his knight, tempting him to counterattack. But Lodici simply stored fortifying his king, weaving an elaborate labyrinth that his adversary couldn’t breach. The Indian tried to decongest the central channels however Lodici refused to make inroads. He sensed the hazards as Praggnanandhaa had beneficial items for a sideways launch. He shut store.

    The middle-game laboured on endlessly and with out a clear conclusion. The bishop G2 on the thirty sixth flip was maybe his cube Praggnanandhaa threw at opening up his opponent’s wall. But Lodici refused to shed his dour defence, and after 42 strikes, with no clear consequence within the prospect, they shook arms for a draw. A case might be made that the Indian might have been extra aggressive within the middle-game, however once more, towards his deep defensive strains, it will have been troublesome to wreak havoc. Besides, there had been instances up to now the place his ultra-aggressive method when strangulated had resulted in defeats. So, he too performed alongside, and a draw towards a tricky opponent was not a foul consequence.

    The consequence appeared inconsequential for his supporters—that’s a lot of the crowd that had assembled right here. They nonetheless waited for him on the entrance, for an autograph, a selfie or that innocence-sparkling smile of his.

    For, there’s a deeper emotional connection at play that reduces a draw or a win or a loss to an instructional non significance. No matter how they mourn his defeat or have fun his victories, they don’t decide him by his outcomes. For, the predominant emotion is love. It’s distinctive, for as a lot as town loves chess, celebrates the chess heroes, brags and revels of their exploits, they’ve by no means beloved somebody as a lot as they’ve Praggnanandhaa.

    In him, they see their very own son, their youthful brother, their buddy–he has burst the cultural and social obstacles connected with the sport, even de-intellectualised the notion of a chess hero. He talks the language that each one grandmasters do, however he strikes a deeper chord that differentiates a hero and an idol.

    To use a Tamil chorus, he is likely one of the makkal (frequent man), or namma payyan (our boy) loveable and relatable, one of many lots, one everybody can aspire to, the everyman’s function mannequin. One you possibly can contact and really feel that he’s so human. The halo round him is that he has no halo.

    Simply, he confirmed that anybody might be a Grandmaster. The background doesn’t matter—his mother and father have hardly performed chess, even now their understanding of the sport is key, his background was privileged however a typical middle-class household. It additionally helps that he’s naturally charming—the smile disarms, the eyes nonetheless radiate a boyish mischief, the manners are delicate and there’s something ineffably endearing about him.

    The metropolis is watching his expertise unfold and fame soar because the nation as soon as did Sachin Tendulkar. He brings the caged sport into the galleries; he fuels a melange of feelings, from pleasure and like to dejection and reverence. Half the folks sprawled into the centre courtyard can’t fathom strikes or decode chess notation. But they observe him blindly, rejoice in his victories and mourn in his miseries, as if the expertise is deeply private, as if they’re experiencing the identical feelings as he’s.

  • Queen’s gambit: Chess Olympiad acquires some dance strikes in Tamil Nadu

    HAVING showcased the state’s Dravidian heritage within the spectacular inaugural ceremony for the forty fourth Chess Olympiad on Thursday, the Tamil Nadu authorities has carried out one higher. Chief Minister M Okay Stalin has uploaded a ‘Chess Dance’ video on-line the place the black queen triumphs over the white in a message that’s as a lot political as in regards to the sport.

    The 3.48-minute dance video, titled Check Mate, is the brainchild of Pudukottai District Collector Kavitha Ramu, who’s a educated dancer herself.

    Speaking to The Sunday Express, Ramu, who designed and choreographed the dance, mentioned for her, the venture was about color, gender and energy, moreover being a tribute to the sport that has made Chennai its residence within the nation.

    With the DMK authorities rolling out the crimson carpet for the occasion, Ramu mentioned: “I intended it to be a Chess Dance, with classical, folk and martial arts elements, to make it vibrant and colourful.”

    While she held the auditions in Pudukottai, the dance was shot in Chennai. “As I couldn’t join the dancers in Chennai owing to work commitments, the director, Vijey Raj, sent me video clips and photographs from the shoot.” Praising his meticulous dedication to the venture, she says she needed to make it possible for the dance caught strictly to chess strikes.

    Among the essential parts was getting the music proper, and it was composed by Narendra Kumar Lakshmipathy.

    Pudukottai District Collector Kavitha Ramu

    Ramu mentioned given the idea, the venture was conceived across the triumph of the black queen regardless of the white having the first-mover benefit.

    The black queen within the dance is portrayed by Priyadarshini Rajendran, a Bharatanatyam dancer from Pudukottai, who works within the IT business in Bengaluru, and performs chess. Laughing that she at all times prefers black, Rajendran says: “Some of us feel black has a better chance, maybe a counter-intuition.”

    What makes the finesse of the ultimate video much more particular is the truth that the crew did solely two days of rehearsals, adopted by a shoot that lasted 24 hours, from 6 am at some point, to the following morning.

    The artistic director, Raj, who has labored as co-director in some Tamil movies, says they initially conceived the dance as a music video. “But the plan changed to a visual story about the game, with more specific characters and black as a metaphor. It was an immense challenge to tell the entire story in a few minutes. Many of the artistes had never been before a camera.”

    The dance video is the brainchild of Pudukottai Collector Kavitha Ramu

    According to Raju, the artistic liberty Ramu gave helped an incredible extent in projecting a “compelling narrative”.

    Rajendran says they had been absolutely ready by the point they went in for the shoot. “We were all briefed on the full story, from beginning to end. As the black queen, I had the maximum movements. As a Bharatanatyam dancer, I thought I would use those steps, but it was not intended that way. It was choreographed so that the focus was on the dynamics of collective body movement.”

    So whereas she moved one sq. at a time, just like the queen on a chess board, she was surrounded by faces painted as per the Tamil conventional artwork kind by which people gown up as horses.

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    Suram Sahana, who has beforehand collaborated with Ramu in quite a few dance exhibits, performed the white queen.

    The white king was Srinivas, a classical dancer. Manikantan, a freestyle dancer, was the black king. Poikkaal kudhirai artistes Muthukuran, Deepan, Baskar and Cheran, Manigandan, Karthigeyan, Manojkumar, Prathapan, Karthick, Lakshmanan, Divakar, Priyadarshan, Nishanthi, Oorvasi, Rithika Jayalakshmi, Narmatha, Krupavathi, Durga and Soundarya, had been additionally a part of the video.

  • The check-mates

    A month earlier than what was thought-about the match of the century in chess — the World Championship title bout between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky in Reykjavik in 1972 — the House of Soviet Cultural Centre in then Madras approached Manuel Aaron, then the one worldwide grasp within the nation, to begin a chess membership. Aaron had no second ideas. In a bit time, and a fortnight earlier than Spassky conceded defeat to Fischer over the telephone, altering the chess dynamics of the world, Madras had its first formal chess membership within the library of the Soviet centre.

    If Fischer’s victory led to a chess increase within the US, hitherto a chess hinterland, it sowed the seeds of a chess revolution in Madras as nicely, laying the bottom for it to emerge because the chess nursery of the nation.

    Aaron, now 86, recounts how the Soviet-US Cold War spilled onto the chessboard and reached so far as the Tamil Nadu capital on the time. “The match had so many layers that even those who did not follow chess started talking about it. The match was keenly followed even though there was no streaming or television coverage those days. We used to wait for some information from officials at the Cultural Centre,” he says.

    The chess membership was named after the legendary Soviet participant Mikhail Tal, Aaron’s favorite, and one whom he would encounter in a Chess Olympiad match. The centre supplied him all of the infrastructure, Aaron says — chess blocks, boards, books and magazines like Schachmatny Bulletin, Chess in USSR, and 64.

    Aaron would translate these into English, having taken up Russian on the centre in order that he might entry Soviet journals and make the identical accessible to different chess gamers. “Western publications were expensive whereas the Russian ones were free. I thought it would be useful for the next generation to have access to chess literature,” he says.

    Vehicles ply on the Napier bridge, painted in a black and white checkered sample, forward of the forty fourth International Chess Olympiad at Mamallapuram close to Chennai, July 16, 2022. (PTI)

    With a grand price of Rs 4 a 12 months for upkeep, the membership quickly had so many within the ranks {that a} separate small complicated needed to be constructed on the premises. Serious, semi-serious and leisure gamers spent hours right here locked in intense video games.

    Aaron, in the meantime, hunted for a younger participant he might groom right into a world champion. “I used to tell friends that given the right opportunities, I could produce the country’s first world champion in 15 years. In every young player that walked into the club, I looked for that spark,” he says.

    Three years on, a five-year-old boy with massive, spherical eyes and hair combed onto his temple got here in. It was Viswanathan Anand, and Aaron noticed him virtually instantly. “There was something about him, you knew he had a special talent,” he says.

    After a 12 months or two, Anand moved to the Philippines the place his father labored. By the time he returned to the membership two years later, he had a sooner, evolved-for-his age sport. “He had a tremendous blitz game, and I don’t remember him ever losing. The funny rule was that whoever lost should get up from their chair. Anand never got up,” Aaron says.

    Occasionally the membership would see worldwide Grandmasters like Yuri Averbakh, Vladimir Bagirov and Evgeni Bebchuk drop in, and play a simul. This helped the event of chess tyros like Anand.

    The actual passing of the mantle got here when Anand, 14, beat Aaron in a classical sport in 1983. Four years later, he grew to become the nation’s first Grandmaster. The singular second modified the historical past of Indian chess.

    A couple of years later, after the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, Tal Chess Club needed to be shut, because the now named Russian Culture Centre started to demand a hefty hire.

    The faces of DMK luminaries, from the ruling occasion’s founder C N Anna Durai to former CM M Karunanidhi and now Stalin to the rising Udhayanidhi Maran have been embossed onto a chess board. (Express Photo)

    But by then, a chess tradition was already flourishing within the metropolis, new golf equipment had been up, the state affiliation was organising extra tournaments, and town had a figurehead, Anand. “He inspired a generation of us to play chess. We were all his fanboys, following each game, analysing each move of his,” remembers R B Ramesh, one of many 23 Grandmasters Tamil Nadu was to provide after Anand.

    Over the subsequent twenty years, Anand would change into the World Champion (in 2000), World No. 1 (2007), reclaim his misplaced crown (2007), and fiercely defend it thrice, earlier than Magnus Carlsen dethroned him. “Everything about him is inspiring, especially the way he guides youngsters, grooming them and playing with them,” Ramesh says.

    Among gamers set to take the legacy of Chennai chess ahead are D Gukesh and R Praggnanandhaa, each simply 16, each Grandmasters, the quickest and the second quickest Indians to finish the GM norms.

    You can virtually hint the household tree — Aaron on the prime, Anand within the subsequent rung, each alone, earlier than the branches unfold, with Ok Sasikaran and R B Ramesh, adopted by B Adhiban and S P Sethuraman, after which Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa.

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    And the roots lie right here, in a former library of the Soviet Culture Centre, born on the peak of the Cold War, in opposition to the backdrop of a proxy struggle on a chess board, performed out in Iceland’s Reykjavik, over practically two months.

  • Carlsen walks in like a deity, hints at being a mortal in a five-hour bout earlier than he exhibits who’s the boss

    The 64-squared world gathered contained in the cacophonous corridor paused, took a deep collective gasp and stood frozen like statues of their pose. Just their eyes rolled, as Magnus Carlsen breezed previous the crowded hallway, his half-quiff ruffled, and squeezed briskly into the corridor. The second was akin to pilgrims at a temple lastly granted the holy imaginative and prescient, slipping them right into a blissful trance. Not simply the passive onlookers, even the gnarled execs within the corridor, who’ve fought him numerous instances, stood enchanted by his aura.

    The deity entered with no trappings of divinity—he didn’t elevate his arms to applaud his devotees, or fold his palms in gratitude, and even smile again at them. He doesn’t indulge in his famous person aura.

    An over-strung Kenyan participant sought an autograph, he refused, and coldly shrugged his shoulders. Maybe the un-scattered consideration suffocated him, just like the drudgery of getting ready for the World Championship.

    He slipped into his chair—-rather throne—casually, smiled a half-smile at his adversary Georg Meier, a German Grandmaster relocated to Uruguay, a grasp in economics who spends his spare time studying Milton Keynes and Noam Chomsky. He has duelled Carlsen a number of instances, drawn him as soon as and even pushed him to the brink of a defeat as soon as. He is three years older than Carlsen, and a participant with a tough-as-nuts to beat repute, however even he sat genuinely awe-struck.

    Magnus Carlsen in India!! 🇮🇳@chennaichess22 #Chessolympiad pic.twitter.com/6goBk6HzYj

    — Chess.com – India (@chesscom_in) July 30, 2022

    But because the clock started to tick, Meier eliminated the lens of admiration and glanced defiantly on the items. He was not there to be simply one other to concede the match on a platter to Carlsen, whose motives, aside from route-mapping Norway’s maiden gold medal, could be to handle a dwell score of 2900 factors, the Mount Everest in Chess, and peak he had fallen brief twice by 20 factors.

    Perhaps, their previous encounters weighing in his head, Carlsen went for a secure than enterprising opening, the French Defence, a comparatively base-solidifying opening, after which he might tread a extra aggressive line. Meier was not completely stunned and made defensive strikes himself, absolutely cautious of an odd slip up that Carlsen might ruthlessly punish. But then Carlsen himself blundered by his requirements—a hasty pawn h3 jeopardising his actions. A type of self strangulation that Meier latched onto, shifting his queen to d6. Carlsen took two swigs of water, stroked his chin and shook his head within the realisation of his folly. He would then go for a stroll, the place once more he stopped the corridor, and the place once more he would find yourself ignoring autograph hunters.He makes for nice theatre, in a sport bored of emotionless heroes.

    He brooded an eternity for the following transfer, his face screaming that trapped feeling. One flawed transfer, and his opponent, taking part in with the black items, would have appreciable positional benefit. But such fears gained’t maintain him. The sport’s smartest drawback solver has an answer for each riddle. Ensued a cat and mouse recreation—he would tempt him with a transparent shot of his home, earlier than he would pull the shutters down. Meier, conscious of his opponent’s skills, would dither and withdraw right into a shell. As is commonly the case, it’s Carlsen’s repute that beats the opponent first. Meier captured Carlsen’s knight within the twenty first transfer—attacking his knights is commonly a most popular technique towards him, although not at all times profitable. But thereafter, he couldn’t push the benefit additional.

    .@MagnusCarlsen arrives at Olympiad after six years and first time in Chennai since he gained the World Championship in 2013

    📷Shahid Ahmed#Chess #ChessBaseIndia #ChessOlympiad pic.twitter.com/aIvcUn8Rt1

    — ChessBase India (@ChessbaseIndia) July 30, 2022

    The match dragged on, with each seeing by means of one another’s ruses. Those questioning how lengthy the match would final, how early Carlsen would wrap up the sport, have been now watching an intense tactical recreation. The match appeared to meander right into a draw, and possibly Meier thought as a lot. A draw, typically, is a victory towards Carlsen. And Carlsen most likely gauged that Meier was smelling secure shores. With shoulder twitches and head-shakes, Carlsen conveyed an impression that he was dejected, that he had frittered away the benefit. He certainly did a number of instances, particularly when he blundered his pawn on b2, however he would by no means give till the final transfer.

    Magnus Carlsen makes his first look because the World Champion within the metropolis he gained it for the primary time. @MagnusCarlsen #ChessOlympiad pic.twitter.com/J560qmxVIt

    — International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) July 30, 2022

    He step by step clawed again into the sport, ensured that he wouldn’t lose the sport it doesn’t matter what, after which stealthily attacked his queen. Meier flinched, He surveyed the shops for a draw, however there was none, and when Carlsen’s Queen took out Meier’s pawn on b1, the match was pretty much as good as over, and Carlsen wrapped it up shortly, ending a five-hour bout.

    By then, the corridor was principally empty. Carlsen peered on the boards of the few matches that remained. At the exit although, there was a mob of admirers ready for him, chessboards and notebooks in tow. Every time the door was opened, they’d start to shout his title. But Carlsen rushed by means of one other exit, although it didn’t stop them from working frantically in direction of the doorways. All for one more slice of Carlsen—a memorabilia, a wave of the palms, or really feel the sunshine of chess-divinity.