NICK BARNETT CHESS

THE FIDE World Cup 2021 in Sochi has been one of shocks as one after the other highly rated player, came a cropper. After a relatively easy run, GM Carlsen was made to work when he met the young Russian GM Andrey Esipenko. He tweeted afterwards: “World cup is as unforgiving as it is exciting! Great match against a most worthy opponent.”

At the time of writing on the 28th July, those left in contention were Carlsen who was to meet Bacrot, Duda who was to meet Vidit, Fedoseev meeting Tabatabaei and Karjakin who was to meet Shankland.

Except for Carlsen naturally, the final eight will qualify for the next Fide Grand Prix which is another candidates route.

The Women’s World Cup offered more predictable results and in the semi-final the four left standing were Russia’s Aleksandra Goryachkina and Ukraine’s Anna Muzychuk as well as Russia’s Alexandra Kosteniuk and China’s Tan Zhongyi.

You can follow on https://worldcup-results.fide.com. * * *

ON THE HORIZON is the $100,000 Chessable Masters, part of The Magnus Carlsen Tour. It starts on July 31 and ends on August 8, 2021 and as players fall out of the FIDE World Cup they become potential participants in this attractive online option.

Interest in learning and improving at chess has spiked since the start of the pandemic and thus Chessable has invited 12-year-old Abhimanyu Mishra, from New Jersey, who made headlines worldwide when he broke the Grandmaster title age record last month. He will be pitted against an elite field featuring Hikaru Nakamura, the US speed king as well as fellow American Wesley So.

Alireza Firouzja will be back to battle for a place in the Tour Finals along with another rising star Jorden Van Foreest. Azerbaijan’s number 1 Shakhriyar Mamedyarov lines up with Vietnam’s Liem Quang Le and Eduardo Iturrizaga, who qualified via the Iberoamericano tournament.

Play Magnus Group also invited two of the world’s top women: reigning Women’s World Champion Ju Wenjun and India’s reigning Women’s World Rapid Champion Humpy Koneru who will make their Tour debuts.

Norway’s Aryan Tari, Adhiban Baskaran of India and Spanish Champion David Anton complete the confirmed list.

To see the eventual 16 contenders, go to https:// championschesstour.com

You can also find an interesting list of the latest standings and how much each contender has earned so far. It is interesting to note that the lowest earners are all on $2,500 (about R37,000) and one supposes that this is a performance fee.

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REMEMBER to check facebook.com/ SACHESSPLAYERS for news and tournaments in South Africa.

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