Winning starts with what you know
The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.
Press release by FIDE
The Division 3 stage of the 2021 FIDE Online Olympiad finished today. After nine rounds in each of the 10-team round robin pools, 15 countries have qualified for the next stage of the tournament.
Pending the fair play report, these 15 qualifiers will join 35 new seeded teams in Division 2 – including powerhouses such as Cuba, Italy, Israel, Shenzhen, Slovenia and Sweden, all rated +2300 - which will run next weekend, September 2nd-4th.
The five winners of the division 3 pools are: Malaysia, Ireland, Scotland, Bolivia and Venezuela. The graphic illustrates all the countries that advance stage. Lebanon and Angola are the only two countries that will play in Division 2 after having started in Division 4.
Opening package: 1.b3 and Black Secrets in the Modern Italian
Wesley So published two new opening DVDs: 1.b3, the so called Nimzo-Larsen-Attack, for White and his black secrets in the modern Italian. Get them in a package and save money!
Despite suffering an unexpected loss against the IPCA team, Malaysia sealed the win in Pool A thanks to an exciting 3½-2½ victory over South Korea in the last round of the day.
Combined with the excellent later-round results by Chinese Taipei and Sri Lanka, South Korea lost its second place status and dropped down to fifth.
Therefore, Malaysia (16/18), Chinese Taipei (14/18) and Sri Lanka (13/18) will advance to Division 2. The International Physically Disabled Chess Association (IPCA) team also scored 13/18, but were edged out on tiebreak.
Top scorers in this group were WCM Chua Jia-Tien (8/8) and WFM Azhar Puteri Rifqah Fahada (8/9), both from Malaysia.
A common mating pattern appeared on board 2 of the match between Nepal and Fiji. White to play in the next diagram.
FM Manish Hamal used the Arabian mate pattern with 47.Nf6! followed by 48.Rh7, mate. Black can only delay checkmate a couple of moves by sacrificing his pieces with check.
Pool B was dominated from start to finish by Ireland, who scored 17/18 match points, conceding only one draw against Jordan. They advance as Pool B winners to the next stage.
With 14/18 points, Lebanon and Iraq shared second and third place and will also advance to Division 2. Having scored quite a few more board victories, the Lebanese team finished second on tiebreak.
Jordan had a chance to finish third and secure the qualification, but they needed to win their three matches. However, Kenya stopped them in their tracks with a minimum 3½-2½ win and their hopes of playing next week were shattered.
The top scorers in this pool were WIM Mouradian Knarik from Lebanon (8/9) and specially Cape Verde’s board one, IM Mariano Ortega Amarelle (originally from Italy), who won all of his games (9/9) and actually scored more points than the rest of his team together!
In the Flexible Panov Dutch IM Nico Zwirs will show you how to test Black to the limit in the Caro-Kann. 8 hours of video lessons included!
As expected, Scotland (16/18) and Angola (15/18) qualified with ease as first and second in this group and will advance to Division 2.
In their last-round showdown, Angola defeated Scotland by 4-2, but it must be said that the Scots had already won the group and fielded a slightly weaker team.
Wales (12/18), Zambia (11/18) and Botswana (11/18) went neck and neck in the last three rounds. The Welsh team’s very close win over Angola by 3½-2½ in round 8 allowed them to go the extra mile and secure the third qualifying spot by an inch.
Several players scored 6 points in this pool (the highest individual score), but GM Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant from Scotland and Paulo Jemima from Angola were the only players to win all of their games (6/6).
Although Bolivia lost to Paraguay by 4-2 in the first round of the day, they were still able to finish first with 16/18, edging out Uruguay on tiebreak. A more than reasonable classification taking into account that Bolivia did defeat Uruguay in their individual match.
Paraguay (14/16) took the third and final qualifying spot in this group, defeating Trinidad & Tobago (also 14/16) by five board points in the tiebreak. However, if any of the Division Two teams can’t make it, Trinidad would likely take the spot as best 4th place finisher of the five pools.
The best player in this pool was WIM Gabriela Vargas from Paraguay, with an outstanding 8/8 score!
In the next diagram, White is asphyxiating his opponent. Nonetheless, he spotted a nice tactic to finish off the game quickly.
Dominican Republic’s board 2 played 48.Nxc7! Nxc7 49.Bb6! and Black resigned. He will lose a lot of material (50.Ba6+ is the reply to any knight retreat).
Master Class Vol.4: José Raúl Capablanca
He was a child prodigy and he is surrounded by legends. In his best times he was considered to be unbeatable and by many he was reckoned to be the greatest chess talent of all time: Jose Raul Capablanca, born 1888 in Havana.
The best team of the third division was Venezuela. With an outstanding 18/18 100% match point score, they have dominated Pool E and will be a force to reckon with in the next stage. A total of 46½ out of 54 board points just gives an idea of the strength of the team on all boards.
El Salvador (15/18) and Jamaica (14/18) will join Venezuela in the next stage. Jamaica was defeated by El Salvador in round 8 by 3½-2½ and was therefore overtook in the standings. However, both teams scored important seventh and ninth round wins, proving Puerto Rico’s last-minute qualifying effort useless.
Top scorers in this Pool were CM Rachel Miller from Jamaica with 8/9, followed by her teammate FM Joshua Christie with 7½/9.
Pairings of the rounds, live games, PGN files and other useful information can be found on the FIDE Online Olympiad website. Please note that all results and standings remain provisional until the fair play panel submit its daily report.
The games can be followed online on www.chess.com (Events), presented by Wouter Bik, with expert analysis by WFM Alessia Santeramo, GM Roeland Pruijssers, WGM Jen Shahade and WGM Keti Tsatsalashvili. Commentary can also be followed on FIDE’s own Youtube channel.
