FIDE World Blitz Championships 2019

[Hans Jung]

Apparently Abdusattorov got to Magnus in the blitz game. Magnus missed a tactic with less than a minute to go but managed to simplify and draw. Great speed chess nonetheless.

[Hugh Siddeley]

Firouzja appealed, saying that his clock was faulty. The appeals committee said it wasn’t and awarded Carlsen the win.

Incorrect. Firouzja couldn't believe it was a loss for him, not a draw, and demanded the chief arbiter show him the FIDE rulebook. When shown the rule, Firouzja then claimed Carlsen was talking to himself in Norwegian during the game and subsequently wrote a letter to the appeals committee saying he was distracted by this. The appeal was promptly declined and the next round started shortly after. All of this can be viewed in the following video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPysTEW0YZU

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Incorrect. Firouzja couldn't believe it was a loss for him, not a draw, and demanded the chief arbiter show him the FIDE rulebook. When shown the rule, Firouzja then claimed Carlsen was talking to himself in Norwegian during the game and subsequently wrote a letter to the appeals committee saying he was distracted by this. The appeal was promptly declined and the next round started shortly after. All of this can be viewed in the following video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPysTEW0YZU

I would expect that GM could cite all Rule clauses by heart an understand what they are citing.

As it was an opposite color bishop ending - no promotion necessary- pawns are gone - W Kh8 Bg8 B Kg6 or h6 B on a diagonal a1-g7# (in case Ba1, the last move Kf6-g6#)

[Brad Thomson]

Watching this live was exciting. Magnus certainly did let something slip once, and he physically gesticulated as well. Admittedly it was not pretty. But the game went on long after this and to its conclusion without any farther demonstrations. Magnus was completely forgiven by his opponent at the time of the "infraction" who did not seem to act as if he had noticed that it had taken place.

Did Nakamura show Magnus too much respect? Possibly in the RR game and certainly at the end? The games lacked fireworks. What did Naka have to lose, especially at the end? Why not go for the throat, especially when second place is locked?

[Vadim Tsypin]

Happy New Year everyone!

Here are a few photos of the Canadian players that I managed to take during the WRBC 2019.

Rapid Open, Rd 3, GM Eric Hansen (Black) v. GM Tigran L. Petrosian (ARM):




FIDE GSC Secretary GM Pavel Tregubov (White) v. GM A. R. Saleh Salem on the adjacent board.

[Vadim Tsypin]

Rapid Open, Rd 12, GM Eric Hansen (White) v. GM Alexander Huzman (ISR):

[Vadim Tsypin]

Blitz Open, Rd 14, GM Eric Hansen (White) v. the 2012 World Champinship Match challenger GM Boris Gelfand (ISR):




The adjacent board featured GM Aleksandr Rakhmanov (RUS) v. the 1996 FIDE World Championship challenger GM Gata Kamsky (USA).

[Vadim Tsypin]

Blitz Open, Rd 19, IM Artiom Samsonkin (Black) v. FIDE Executive Director GM Victor Bologan (MDA):









[ Continued in the next post due to the CT limit on the number of attachments. ]

[Vadim Tsypin]

Blitz Open, Rd 19, IM Artiom Samsonkin (Black) v. FIDE Executive Director GM Victor Bologan (MDA) (Cont'd).

Match Arbiter is the Chairman of the CFR Arbiters' Commission IA Vladimir Staratorzhsky.

[Hans Jung]

Very revealing pictures. Thank you for posting.

[Wayne Komer]

FIDE World Blitz Championships 2019

January 3, 2020

Blitz

A complete discussion of Firouzja – Carlsen is in an article today in chess24. It starts off this way:


The action took place in blitz (3 minutes per player with a 2-second increment after each move) on the top board during Round 19 of 21 in Moscow. There was, of course, a huge amount at stake. 16-year-old Alireza Firouzja from Iran was playing White and trying to win an opposite-coloured bishop endgame with three extra pawns, but he was also in time trouble. After some earlier moments when he misplaced his pieces, he finally knocked over his king while playing 66.Kg4, and his flag dropped before the three seconds it took him to put it back and hit the clock.

What should the result of the game have been? Does White lose on time? Is it a draw because Black has no material with which to give mate? Let’s take a look at the key article of the FIDE Laws of Chess.

6.9 Except where one of the Articles: 5.1.a, 5.1.b, 5.2.a, 5.2.b, 5.2.c applies, if a player does not complete the prescribed number of moves in the allotted time, the game is lost by the player. However, the game is drawn, if the position is such that the opponent cannot checkmate the player’s king by any possible series of legal moves.

It’s not relevant for our case, but the articles 5.1.a and so on refer to a game that ends in checkmate, stalemate or in some other manner. The critical point of the article is that the player whose time has run out always loses UNLESS his opponent has no possibility of giving mate, however remote that may be (a previous version of the FIDE Arbiters’ Manual included, “even by the most unskilled play”).

Applying the article it’s clear that Carlsen wins, since there are possible mates. For example:






Read the whole article at:

https://chess24.com/en/read/news/wha...en-vs-firouzja

[Tom O'Donnell]

So I assume that if you had say a K and P ending where there was literally no way for any pawn to move nor either K to access the opponent's position that would be a draw as well?

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

[deleted wrong position]

[Sam Sharpe]

W would win here. Kf3-g4xh4 after the B-K moves away from the h5/g6 squares. There is no assumption that B play good moves.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

W would win here. Kf3-g4xh4 after the B-K moves away from the h5/g6 squares. There is no assumption that B play good moves.

you are right. Noticed only after posting. But it took ages to correct.

A new one with a draw regardless whose flag falls.