Basque in Beijing: Day Two

On December 11th the World Mind Games began in Beijing, China. One week some of the word's best players compete in Chess, Go, Draughts, Chinese Chess, (Xiangqi), and Bridge. In chess 16 top men and women play rapid, blitz and basque chess.

The chessplayers will play rapid, blitz and Basque chess (two players play two games simultaneously against each other - one with white, one with black). All in all 24 medals can be won. The first chess tournament is the rapid competition for men and women (Thursday and Friday). After that follows blitz (Saturday to Monday) until the Basque chess tournament finally rounds it off (Tuesday and Wednesday).

Final Day report by Alina l'Ami

From head to toe, from left to right, up and down and back again...the body, mind and soul of the 32 chess players have been worked out beyond their comfort zone in these hectic seven days spent in Beijing. As the plot thickened, after the Rapid and Blitz, the Basque event brought new and newer challenges, but once again, China and Russia came up roses! Congratulations to Hou Yifan and Ian Nepomniachtchi for their remarkable mental and physical efforts! 

To top it all, the techniques and strategies learned the hard way over the years went up in the air in the Basque race, leaving the Grandmasters with serious questions on both: the boards and the ticking clocks. So far no other chess tournaments had been able to avoid wear and tear like the "double simul" event just did, a competition where one could give eyeteeth to at least remember the last move of his opponent! If you believe this should be a piece of cake for these genius minds, we would agree with you, to some extent.

But when the head has to be split in two, dividing the attention on two clocks and two boards and two different colour of pieces, when the seconds are vanishing in thin air, when the chairs cannot physically keep up with the speed of your thoughts, when the hand simply hesitates to make a move and when you do it all for the medals at stake...all of this could drive one out of his mind. Just that chess players are a different species, proving it is humanly possible to juggle with all of it!

Triple Russian gold: Rapid, Blitz and Basque - Russia has it all
(photo: Vianney Thibaut)

In good spirits before the tournament; Grischuk and Nepomniachtchi
had no idea what Caissa had reserved for them!

Basque Standings

No triple silver for MVL - Teimour Radjabov in 2nd place

Replay Basque Rounds 5-6

Select games from the dropdown menu above the board

Russian silver surrounded by Chinese gold and bronze!
(photo: Vianney Thibaut)

A very good day for Alexandra: silver medal, after defeating Zhao Xue with 2-0!

The winner and your commentators, Erwin and Alina l'Ami, looking forward to celebrate Christmas

Regretfully, but quite in time for the overstretched body and minds of the chess players, the SportAccord World Mind Games came to an end, not without bringing a lot to chess and its players. For one week, the Olympic stadium looked over the shoulder on our boards, making with its near location and together with the prestige of the Mind Games, all of us feel as true Olympians! Playing in the summer season or in winter time...we don't mind either; but we do know that chess has proved to be suitable for - TV!

Basque Standings - Women

Replay Women's Basque 5-6

Select games from the dropdown menu above the board

Text and Photos by Alina l'Ami from China

Links Official tournament site Rapid Games - Women Rapid Games - Open The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.