5/8/2024 0 Comments Beersmith 3![]() The men’s and women’s world championship Candidates, to decide the 2024 world title challengers and due to be played in Toronto in April, were in danger of being switched to Spain this week after it emerged that Canada had approved hardly any visas.įide made a public appeal to the Canadian government and all player and official visas have been approved and are now being processed normally, so that Fide was able to lift this weekend’s deadline. The World Rapid is now a major event with Magnus Carlsen, so its British version may need a further upgrade. That may be the answer to overcrowding for 2025, especially if the ECF wants to encourage more elite GMs to compete. The tournament had 215 entrants, of whom 132 were rated below Fide 2000, that is BCF 175 in old money, and a level below which some international opens require higher entry fees from low-rated players. Most players took only B&B accommodation for the Saturday night, so had to play rounds 7-11 on Sunday after checking out of their rooms. ![]() Alan Walton, a respected older expert, wrote in the English Chess Forum: “With the high volume of families present, the hotel couldn’t accommodate the volume, the restaurant/bar area was full all day with nowhere to sit down and eat/relax between games (only option on Saturday was to go back to your room, Sunday was stand up for 45-30 mins until the next game).” Its popularity at its new venue was clear, but there were some problems. Sivanandan, who shared the women’s third prize at Peterborough, will be competing in her first women’s all-play-all, the Menchik Memorial, in honour of the world champion killed by a V-1 flying bomb in 1944, from 22 to 26 March.įor decades, the British Rapidplay was only competed for at Halifax and entries were limited. The best measure of progress and consistency for juniors is the monthly Fide rating list, which can be set to show the top 100 names globally or nationally at standard, rapid or blitz time rates and where England’s Supratit Banerjee and Bodhana Sivanandan are regularly at or near the top. Most still have to achieve consistency, but two preteens who again impressed after previous successes at the Hastings and Cambridge Opens were Oleg Verbytski, of Charlton, and Kai Hanache, of Hammersmith. Her older brother Tarun, who also competed at Peterborough, is an IM, and both are first-year students at Carlow College, Leinster.Ī feature of the event was the large number of junior entrants, many of them preteens, who scored well and scalped higher-rated opponents. At 18, she already has two of the three norms needed for the women’s grandmaster title. ![]() Kanyamarala, who tied for first before losing the playoff, is Ireland’s most successful female player ever. Right: Royal v Gormally, round 10: 1.Ng4! 2 f3? Qc5+! 0-1 If 3 Rxc5 Rd1+ 4 Qe1 Rxe1 mate.Įarlier, Gormally won a pretty miniature where his opponent’s optimistic queen’s side castling was punished by an unusual diagonal skewer of both rooks.įor much of the event, 15-year-old Shreyas Royal, campaigning to become England’s youngest grandmaster, had played the best chess, with well-prepared openings and incisive middle games, as in this win against a strong IM. View image in fullscreen Left: Stanley Badacsonyi v Gormally, round five: 1.Nd5? 1.a3+! 2 Kb3 (2 Kxa3? Qc3+ 3 Qb3 Nc4+ 4 Ka4 Qa5 mate) Nd5 favours Black 2 Qf8 Nc3? Qc3+ fights on, although Black is worse.
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