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Dark Knight / Le Chevalier Noir
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The first event of the 2025 Maritime Chess Festival is now complete. We had 37 particpants from 7 different provinces competing, including 3 International Masters.
1st Place and $410 went to IM Mark Plotkin with a score of 4.5/5.
Tied for 2nd with 4 points were IM Mike Ivanov, IM Tangi Migot, Jerjis Kapra, WFM Cindy Qiao, and Juan Ramirez-Orta (Top Under 2000).
Othe class prizes went to Niko He (Top Under 1750) and Darren Mandel (Top Under 1500).
Tomorrow we have the Maritime Amateur at 10:30am and the first round of the Maritime Open is at 11:30am.
Is that Hikaru?
Nice late addition to the tournament, but it is disappointing that this is the way for Hikaru to get the minimum number of games to qualify for the Candidates.
Still, it is within the rules and great that he is playing in a Canadian location.
Yep! That is none other then World # 2 Hikaru Nakamura playing on the top board against newly-titled WFM Michelle Zhang from the Maritimes. So nice to see a rising young star get a great opportunity like this!
To catch this game, along with the other top 3 DGT boards from the MCF Open Championship, check out this DGT link:
And just a friendly reminder that the Maritime Blitz Championship will be happening tomorrow evening at 7:30 PM for anyone who would like some fast-paced fun!
Its nice to see Hikaru playing in a Canadian weekend swiss. Presents a dilemma though. Who do I root for? Hikaru to get the points or Mark Plotkin to win the tournament?
Does Hikaru playing have anything to do with national Olympiad Team eligibility?
Bob A
No, this has to do with qualifying for the Candidates tournament.
One spot at the Candidates goes to the highest-rated player according to the 6-month average rating based on FIDE Standard Rating Lists from August 1st 2025 till January 1st 2026 provided the respective player has played at least 40 games calculated for FIDE Standard Rating Lists from February 1st 2025 till January 1st 2026. Hikaru is the second highest rated player behind Magnus, so Hikaru would get the Candidates spot by rating if Magnus turned it down. Hkaru has only played 29 games, before the Maritime Open, so he needs 11 more games and is playing in these smaller tournaments to protect his rating. The 6 games from this tournament will leave him needing 5 more games from another weekend swiss tournament. Hikaru has also played in small weekend swiss tournaments in Iowa City and New Orleans.
In the previous Candidates qualification system, the rating spot went to the player with the highest rating at the end of the year. There was some controversy when Alireza Firozia arranged a last chance tournament in December to increase his year end rating. The new six month average rating is intended to prevent that from happening this time. I expect changes to be made again for the next qualification to prevent players from protecting their rating by playing in lower rated tournaments.
Regarding national Olympic team eligibility, a few years ago Eric Hansen did something similar by playing in 3 small CFC rated weekend swiss tournaments to meet the minimum 20 games to play for the Canadian Olympiad team, while protecting his FIDE rating.
A very good explanation. Hikaru usually is not so happy to play for Olympic Team, he didn't play last year in Budapest. I don't think both Hikaru and Eric intended to protect their rating, in both cases they qualified with significant gap over next-in-line. They just wanted to comply with FIDE/CFC eligibility rules.
After 2 rounds there is a 4-way tie for 1st bewtween GM Hikaru Nakamura, IM Mark Plotkin, IM Mike Ivanov, and FM Calix Marchand. Game time this morning is 10am Atlantic. The top 4 boards are live at https://view.livechesscloud.com/#dff...6-54ec263db108
Live commentary on Hikaru's game, by his team, is going on at his site. We're going to try and hook-up a live video feed into his board for round 3.
Hikaru offered a draw, so he could play in an on-line tournament between rounds of the Maritime Open. Still, it was good play by Mike to keep the game even.
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