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In the November 7 edition of Titled Tuesday, GM Magnus Carlsen finally joined the list of players to win both tournaments on a single day, becoming the sixth player to pull off the feat. After a come-from-behind early win, where Carlsen was only tied for 10th place with just three rounds to go, he led almost wire-to-wire late, holding at least a share of the lead after nine of the 11 rounds and all of the last five.

The record player when it comes to Titled Tuesday sweeps is GM Hikaru Nakamura, who has done it five times. This week, however, he was taking some time to savor qualifying for the FIDE Candidates Chess Tournament 2024.

The other players to complete a sweep, once each, are GMs Wesley So, Alireza Firouzja, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Jose Martinez. Carlsen scored 9.5 points early and 10 points late to join the club.

Participation rebounded to 561 players, an almost 10% gain from the early event the week before. Carlsen appeared to be on track after defeating Martinez in round seven, ending the Peruvian's perfect start to move into a share of the lead. But Carlsen stumbled the very next round, losing to last week's late winner GM Pranav Vin a King's Gambit Declined.

But Carlsen won his last three games after that, getting back on track by going right back to the King's Gambit.

After defeating GM Grigoriy Oparin in round 10 with Black by replying to 1.g3 with 1...h5, Carlsen faced last week's early winner GM Liem Le in the final round. Le was trying to win for a third straight week, but could not handle Carlsen's Accelerated Dragon (achieved in the opposite move order from the usual).

With Carlsen knocking off Le, who had led the field outright before the round, the second-place game ended up being the contest between GM Jeffery Xiong and Jan-Krzysztof Duda. In fact, a win for Duda would have won him the tournament on tiebreaks, but it was Xiong who took the game home.

November 7 Titled Tuesday | Early | Final Standings (Top 20)

(Full final standings here.)

Carlsen won $1,000 and Xiong $750 for their performances. GM Dmitry Andreikin finished third for $350, GM David Navara fourth for $200, and GM Klementy Sychev fifth for $100. IM Polina Shuvalova won the $100 women's prize, scoring 7/11.

The late tournament went much more smoothly for Carlsen. The field of 396 produced one of the strongest top-fives ever: Carlsen, GM Nihal Sarin, Firouzja, Martinez, and Duda, but it was Carlsen who won easily.

Once again things turned in the eighth round, although this time that was a good thing for Carlsen. He defeated Nihal to move to 7.5/8, already good enough for the sole lead. This despite starting with 1.h4.

Duda held Carlsen to a draw the following round, which simultaneously allowed Firouzja to move into a share of the lead with Carlsen. Firouzja did so by defeating GM Gata Kamsky.

Even facing someone as good as Alireza Firouzja in round 10 wasn't enough to stop Carlsen from again starting with 1.h4. Firouzja replied with equal cheekiness, playing 1...a6. It was only the third time, according to the Chess.com database, that a game between masters started with those moves.

Beyond the opening choices, Carlsen ended up playing a crushing game to regain the outright lead in the tournament. Firouzja didn't make any obvious mistakes but gradually got overrun on the kingside. The ending was brutal: after Carlsen forked Firouzja's king and queen, capturing wasn't even the best continuation, with a pretty mate-in-two also on the board.

In the final round, where Carlsen defeated GM Aravindh Chithambaram to secure the tournament, Duda again found himself on the wrong end of a game for second place, this time against Nihal.

November 7 Titled Tuesday | Late | Final Standings (Top 20)

(Full final standings here.)

Carlsen won another $1,000 for a total of $2,000 on the day. Nihal, Firouzja, and Martinez all tied for second place on nine points; after tiebreaks, Nihal earned $750, Firouzja $350, and Martinez $200. The $100 prizes went to Duda in fifth place and WGM Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova with the women's highest score, 7/11, just ahead of IM Anna M. Sargsyan on tiebreaks.

Titled Tuesday is Chess.com's weekly tournament for titled players, with two tournaments held each Tuesday. The first tournament begins at 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time/17:00 Central European/20:30 Indian Standard Time, and the second at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time/23:00 Central European/2:30 Indian Standard Time (next day).

Link:
Magnus Secures Titled Tuesday Sweep - Chess.com

FIDE has announced the venue for the 2023 FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Championships.

The world governing body of chess confirmed the traditional Christmas event will take place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, from December 26 to 30, with a $1 million prize fund.

It follows concern among players, reported in the Norwegian press this week, that the announcement had been left late.

GM Johan-Sebastian Christiansen had told NRK: "It is simply hopeless and amateurish. It's like this every year and I really don't understand why. It ruins it for so many players. Not too much time is wasted on preparation, but it will be much more difficult if it ends up in a country with visa requirements."

GM Aryan Tari added: "As usual, we still don't know which country will host, which is ridiculous. As players, we are used to it not being announced until a couple of weeks before the tournament. It happens every year and has become a tradition."

World number-one Magnus Carlsen is likely to be back to defend the two world championship titles he claimed in 2022, though the local contingent will be strong, with Uzbekistan the reigning Olympiad champions.

The World Rapid and Blitz is the latest high-level event to be awarded to the rising chess power of Uzbekistan. The city of Khiva, in the north west of Uzbekistan, recently hosted the "Russian" half of the 2022/23 Women's Candidates, with the ease of Russian players being able to obtain visas perhaps a factor in the choice of venue.

The 2026 Chess Olympiad will also take place in Uzbekistan and, in a press release issued on Wednesday, FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich said: "FIDE recognizes Uzbekistan's rich chess tradition and its recent emergence as a chess superpower. This dedication and investment in chess led us to entrust the hosting of this prestigious event to Uzbekistan.

"Uzbekistan will also host the 2026 Chess Olympiad - and hosting such a major event as World Rapid and Blitz will certainly give a boost to preparations."

The format of the events remains the same. The first three days of rapid chess see 13 rounds in the Open section (11 in the Womens) of chess with 15 minutes per player and a 10-second increment from move 1. Then the final two days of blitz are played over 21 rounds (17 rounds for the Womens) of 3+2 chess.

The top prize in each Open event is $60,000, with $40,000 for the Womens tournaments. In last years event in nearby Almaty, Kazakhstan, Carlsen ensured he wouldnt be without a world title in 2023 by clinching clear first in both the World Rapid and Blitz Championships, to grow his world championship haul to 15 titles: five Classical, six Blitz, and four Rapid.

He finished 0.5 points ahead of GMs Vincent Keymer and Fabiano Caruana in Rapid, and a full point ahead of GMs Hikaru Nakamura and Haik Martirosyan in Blitz. The Womens titles were taken in Rapid by GM Tan Zhongyi (in a playoff against IM Dinara Saduakassova) and in Blitz by IM Bibisara Assaubayeva, who took the title for a second year in a row, half a point ahead of Humpy Koneru.

Playing on home soil there will be intense focus on the 2022 Olympiad-winning Uzbekistan team, including 2021 World Rapid Champion GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and 17-year-old GM Javokhir Sindarov, who just crossed 2700 on the classical rating list.

Another storyline is that the World Rapid and Blitz Championships will be the last event to be rated for the 2023 FIDE Circuit that decides one spot in the FIDE Candidates Chess Tournament 2024.

Its relatively unlikely that the event will decide the spot, but if it did it would be a hugely dramatic finish to the year.

Link:
Samarkand To Host World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships - Chess.com

Although you can always let your chess speak for itself, it's also great when you can communicate using words. In light of Chess.com's newly announced partnership with Duolingo, this article will teach you chess-related vocabulary in multiple languages.

Let's start with the chess pieces, shall we? Here's how you can say every chess piece in 11 different languages. I also threw in some other common chess terms so you can impress your foreign friends. Let's start with Arabic, French, German, Indonesian, and Italian.

And here's Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish.

Now, weirdly enough, it's also the case that sometimes we know chess terms in other languages without knowing what they literally mean. No more, I say! Or "no mais," even, if I were to speak Portuguese. Here are the most common chess terms that English borrowed from other languages and what they mean in English:

I'm forced to start with en passant (see what I did there?). This French term means "in passing," and it describes the magical act of capturing a pawn with another pawn by landing behind it.

Did you know that fianchetto is actually the diminutive of an Italian word? We're talking about "fianco" which translates to "flank." It makes a lot of sense when you think about it: you call it a "fianchetto" ("little flank") when you develop your bishop on one of the flanks instead of the center. Why little flank? I have no idea. Maybe Italians are just used to cute little places like Burano, so they decided to be cute with their chess terms, too.

Now, we arrive at the German chess terms that are harder to pronounce (at least for Portuguese speakers like me). Zugzwang means "compulsion to move," and it's not only hard to pronounce but also to spot during a game. On the bright side, the word has some rhythm and sounds cool. But not as cool as the famous "zugzwang immortal game" played by GM Aron Nimzowitsch, which you should definitely check out.

Zwischenzug actually translates to something like the English term "in-between move," despite Google thinking this has something to do with trains.

But if German is too hard for you (or if you're eating delicious pizza), you can also go with the Italian version of "in-between move." When you find one of these moves, roll up your sleeves, sit up on your chair, and proudly scream, "intermezzo!" But don't actually do it if you're in a tournament, or you risk getting kicked out.

What is your favorite chess term or piece from a non-English language? Let us know in the comments below!

Continued here:
Chess Pieces And Terms In Other Languages - Chess.com

Chess Played Quick (CPQ) is Chess.com's series of events where top chess streamers complete bounties for prizes.

Chess Played Quick-Duolingo Bot Battles happens on November 20 at 12 p.m. ET/18:00 CEST/21:30 p.m. IST. Top streamers have two hours to beat as many bots as possible. Players will be ranked according to the amount of different bots they have beaten at the end of the allocated two hours. They can earn points based on their placement and by completing different challenges. Challenges are presented in the form of a bingo grid, and getting bingos awards extra points. The event features 2000 Twitch/Kick subs as the prize fund.

Players have two hours to beat as many bots as they can on our Play Computer page. Players get points based on the number of different bots they have beaten at the end of the event and via extra challenges (beating the engine does NOT count as beating a bot). The extra challenges are presented in the form of a bingo card. If players manage to get bingos (full horizontal, vertical, or diagonal lines), they earn 5 bonus points per bingo. All games must be played in challenge mode.

Challenges And Proof

Each completed challenge awards a different amount of points depending on its difficulty on a scale of one to three:

Proof of completion must be sent for each successful challenge, with any proof working as long as it's clear. Examples of clear proof include:

The challenges and the bingo grid will be sent to the participants via email and Discord an hour before the event starts and will also be listed in this article.

Placement Points

There are 2000 Twitch/Kick subs at stake this month as the prize fund. The amount of subs for each point is determined by dividing the total prize fund (2,000 subs) by the number of total points earned by all participants.

The event happens on November 20 at 12 p.m. ET/18:00 CEST/21:30 p.m. IST and lasts two hours.

Fill out the official application form below if you would like to participate in this edition of CPQ. Please make sure the account you register to play with has no progress at all on our Play Computer page. You can either use a new account or reset your crowns here. Note that only active streamers who are eligible to receive Twitch or Kick subs can win prizes.

Use the form below to claim the challenges you managed to complete during the event.

View post:
Chess Played Quick - Duolingo Bot Battles: All The Information - Chess.com

GM Ding Liren has withdrawn from several events since becoming world champion. Now the Chinese star reveals to Chess.com that an unspecified illness is the cause of his absence and that he intends to return to tournament play in 2024.

Where is Ding? That's a question that has led to huge speculation among chess fans in the last few months. The world champion hasn't played a single tournament since May when he finished eighth in the Superbet Chess Classic in Bucharest, an event that he played less than a week after winning the title in a grueling 18-game match against GM Ian Nepomniachtchi.

Ding then withdrew from the Superbet Rapid & Blitz shortly after that event. It was an exhausted world champion who instead returned to Beijing to give interviews to the Chinese media. There, he hinted that he won't have a long career, but doesn't intend to retire just yet.

"I can't find more fun, and I want to find new happiness elsewhere," he was quoted as saying.

Ding then also cancelled his participation in the Global Chess League in June, Chess.com's Speed Chess Championship in September and the Asian Games shortly after. This week, the Grand Chess Tour also shared the news that Ding has been replaced by GM Levon Aronian and GM Liem Le in the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz and the Sinquefield Cup, where he was scheduled to play.

Ding's absence is in stark contrast to the former world champion GM Magnus Carlsen, who has been active this year. The Norwegian has played the Champions Chess Tour, the FIDE World Cup, the European Club Cup, and the Qatar Masters, and is also now set to play the European Team Championship for Norway in a week.

Ding, on the other hand, made his first public appearance in months during the Chinese National Mind Games tournament at the end of October, where he was a co-commentator on national TV along with GM Wang Rui.

His public appearance is a positive sign and hints at a potential comeback, which the Chinese star now confirms.

In an email to Chess.com, Ding reveals that he has been struggling with illness for some time. The world champion did not go into details, but said that has been the cause of his absence from tournament play.

The 31-year-old also says that he will not play in any more events in 2023 but intends to make a comeback in the 2024 Tata Steel Chess tournament that runs January 12-28. The field in Wijk aan Zee has not yet been officially announced.

The next World Championship match is scheduled to take place at the end of 2024 between defending champion Ding and the winner of the Candidates Tournament, which is set for Toronto, Canada in April 2024.

Here is the original post:
Ding Reveals Reason For Withdrawals, Expects Comeback In 2024 - Chess.com