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Its over. Its finally over.

After nearly three weeks, the 2022 FIDE Candidates is over. The players must be tired. Our annotator certainly is.

Despite the all-around fatigue, Mondays fourteenth and final round was one to remember. Against the common wisdom, which saw quick draws and peaceful players, there were three decisive results in an all-action day.

Image Caption

courtesy chess.com / Maria Emelianova

The most important of these was the game between GM Ding Liren and GM Hikaru Nakamura. The American streamer entered the day in clear second place, with a draw entirely sufficient to hold onto second and, should GM Magnus Carlsen refuse to defend his crown, seed him into a world championship match.

Alas, it was not to be.

Ding used a classic last round strategy, prolonging the game and forcing multiple decisions upon his opponent, and gave himself every chance to win. After Nakamura went wrong on his 35th move, both humans and engines howled, and after a few adventures, Ding collected a pawn and then the full point.

Nakamura was gracious in his post-game recap on his YouTube channel.

This victory left Ding in clear second place at 8/14 behind the winner, GM Ian Nepomniachtchi.

Image Caption

courtesy chess.com / Maria Emelianova

Nepo avoided his fate suffered in the 2020-21 Candidates, when he lost in the final round after clinching victory the previously day. Here, the result was never really in doubt, despite a couple of dicey moments.

With an undefeated 9/14 (+5), Nepomniachtchi has put his best foot forward in his second victory at the Candidates. Will it present enough legitimation for Carlsen to go ahead and defend his classical title? After yesterdays meeting with FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich, we may not need to wait too long to learn of Carlsens plans.

In other results, GM Fabiano Caruanas tough tournament continued with a loss to GM Alireza Firouzja.

And GM Teimour Radjabov continued his second-half renaissance with a victory over GM Richard Rapport.

So ends the 2022 FIDE Candidates. Congratulations to GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, who becomes one of a select few to win the Candidates twice, and congratulations to GM Ding Liren for finishing in a potentially important second place.

Many of these Candidates will soon travel to Chennai, India, for the 2022 FIDE Chess Olympiad. We at Chess Life Online will feature daily coverage of the event, with a focus on the two American teams. Be sure to check back with us then!

FIDE Candidates homepageUS Chess Candidates homepageCandidates Overview (including streaming links)Round 1Round 2Round 3Round 4Round 5Round 6Round 7Round 8Round 9Round 10Round 11Round 12Round 13

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Ding Takes Second in Action-Packed Final Round - uschess.org

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) [India], July 4 (ANI): The first-ever Chess Olympiad Torch Relay reached the city of Bhopal on Monday.

The State Minister of Sports and Welfare Yashodhara Raje Scindia received the torch from Grandmaster Anurag Mhamal in presence of eminent dignitaries.

1st Ever #ChessOlympiadTorchRelay Update City- BHOPAL: July 4 @yashodhararaje

Minister of Sports and Youth Welfare, Government of MP receives the torch from GM Anurag Mhamal in presence of eminent dignitaries #India4ChessOlympiad #AmritMahotsav, tweeted SAI Media.

Earlier on Monday, the torch had travelled to Indore. Minister for Water Resources of the state, Tulsi Silawat had received the torch from Grandmaster Anurag Mhamal and gave it to Nityata Jain and Cera Dagaria, chess players from MP.

1st Ever #ChessOlympiadTorchRelay Update City- INDORE: July 4 @tulsi_silawat Minister for Water Resources, Government of MP received the torch from GM Anurag Mhamal. Minister gave the Torch to Nityata Jain & Cera Dagaria, players from MP #India4ChessOlympiad, tweeted SAI Media.

Other cities that have been covered so far include Leh, Jammu, Srinagar, Dharamshala, Shimla, Chandigarh, Patiala, Amritsar, Panipat, Gurugram, Kurukshetra, Dehradun, Haridwar, Meerut, Kanpur, Kevadia, Ahmedabad, Dandi, Surat, Jaipur, Daman, Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and Panaji.

The torch relay was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The torch will travel to 75 cities for 40 days before it culminates at Mahabalipuram in Tamil Nadu. Over 200 countries are participating in the Chess Olympiad. Chess grandmasters will receive the torch at various identified venues.

This year, for the very first time, the International Chess Body, FIDE, instituted the Chess Olympiad Torch which is part of the Olympic tradition but was never done in the Chess Olympiad. India is the first-ever country to have the Chess Olympiad Torch Relay.

The 44th edition of the worlds biggest chess event will be held in Mahabalipuram near Chennai from July 28 to August 10. (ANI)

This report is auto-generated from ANI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.

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Chess Olympiad Torch Relay reaches Bhopal - ThePrint

India fielded a third team in the Open section after getting a last-minute entry to register their highest-ever participation at the 44th Chess Olympiad scheduled to be held at Mahabalipuram from July 28 to August 10.

A record breaking 187 teams, the highest-ever for any Chess Olympiad, has registered for the showdown in India In order to even out the number of entries, as per norm, FIDE approved a third team from the host country. The Women section has attracted 162 entries, the highest ever and India will be fielding two teams in this section for the first time too.

ALSO READ: CHESS Viswanathan Anand: There is more creativity in chess than ever before

Grandmasters Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Karthikeyan Murali, SP Sethuraman, Abhijeet Gupta and Abhimanyu Puranik comprise the third Indian team with Gujarat's first GM, Tejas Bakre as the captain.

Surya Shekhar Ganguly summed up the squads sentiment, saying: Nothing could be more exciting or thrilling than to be playing in an Olympiad again after a long time and first time in your own country.

Ganguly, a six- time National Champion, was Vishwanathan Anands second in four World Championships and has represented India in six Chess Olympiads so far. SP Sethuraman is also a former National Champion and was a part of the bronze medal winning Indian team at Tromso Olympiad in 2014.

ALSO READ: Tamil Nadu CM, MK Stalin speaks on Tamil Nadu hosting the Chess Olympiad and his vision for sports

On the other hand, Abhijeet Gupta was the third Indian to win the World Junior title after Anand and Pentala Harikrishna and is the only Indian to win the Commonwealth title on five occasions. The 23-year-old Karthikeyan Murali won the National title twice and will be making his debut for India at the Olympiad along with 22-year-old Puranik.

This is the best gift India could have ever got. Difficult to imagine even in the wildest dreams that 25 Indians would be competing together in an Olympiad. said Bharat Singh Chauhan, Secretary AICF and also the Olympiad Director.

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India to field 3rd team at the 44th Chess Olympiad - Sportstar

July 4 2022, 2:09 pm | BY Ricki Green | No Comments A blog by Damon Stapleton, chief creative officer, The Monkeys New Zealand.

The French Riviera. A sunny place for shady people. Somerset Maughan

When it comes to Cannes and advertising, people often start with whats wrong with it. I dont want to do that after a million zoom calls over the last couple of years. I would rather write about the joy of Cannes. And the joy comes from those mad people you see fleetingly every five years or so. People.

So, if you dont mind, I would like to start in another place full of people. To be specific, Brick Lane in London.

In the middle of a mile-long market I found a beret-wearing cigar-smoking man who could have been from a variety of European countries, playing chess against all comers. He was doing it for free. He was doing it because it made him happy. He reminded me how important it is to do things simply because they are fun.

There was a small crowd that began to grow as he played a young woman who had evidently been there the weekend before. She had been practicing all week and in a beautiful twist she beat our possibly French hero. There was applause and laughter. There was clapping of hands. Grumpy Londoners were delighted to be there. There was joy.

Joy. For a few years we were trapped in our own worlds. And then we were all in the same one.

There is a beautiful line in the Lawrence Kasdan 1991 movie Grand Canyon which is, Never go to the Grand Canyon alone. Perhaps, this is what Cannes was about this year. The festival was great but being with all those crazy people you hadnt seen for years was really special. The tribe found itself. And then we carry on for another year.

Cannes is not perfect by any means. I have been going for more than a decade. It has made me very angry and very happy and probably everything else. There is work that wins that I believe shouldnt. There is work I have done that I think should have done better. And I am sure every creative in the world feels that way. With at least 30,000 entries that will never change.

Cannes has also become massive. It is now a festival that encompasses a multitude of industries and channels. I hear gaming will be introduced next year. So if you think its big now, hold onto your hats. This is of course the problem. If advertising is everything and everywhere, how do you have a finite festival for it? Where is the centre of creativity? Maybe a topic for another blog.

More than a few people have said to me its lost its centre or soul. People complain about the size of the boats, how much ros is consumed and the kind of work that wins. This kind of criticism has happened ever since I first landed on that scary runway in Nice 15 years ago. All of this may or may not be true depending on your point of view. The truth is, each time I go I either have a brilliant time or a terrible time. There is no in between. Over the years, I have come to the conclusion that it has far more to do with me and where I am at in my career than the place itself. Cannes is a strange mirror. It is always just what is happening right now. Good and bad.

So what did the mirror show me this time? It showed me that there is no substitute for being there. It showed me there is no substitute for seeing all those crazy people that make advertising fantastic. Something we should be way prouder of than we are. The people are the place.

Like that cheering crowd in Brick Lane watching chess. It didnt make sense but it made sense to us. Isnt that what living is? People were excited again. Just because we were there. It made us happy because it was fun.

I saw junior teams in Cannes who were there for the first time with wide eyes and wider smiles. They were inspired. They realised how big their universe truly was. You could see nothing was going to stop them. I dont think there is a value or price you can put on that feeling. Our industry should not take it for granted. Especially if you are trying to do difficult things.

Perhaps I, like many of us, have become a little jaded by the passing parade over the years. But this Cannes I remembered what it felt like the first time I went to the South of France. I loved the ideas. I loved the adventure of it all. I loved the people. I saw the potential.

I was a creative not a critic.

This year, after a two year winter the sun came out. I think we all needed this. It felt like normality again. It felt like life and living. The world felt open again. And that felt joyous.

My shady people had found their sunny place once again.

damonsbrain.com

Excerpt from:
Damon Stapleton: The chess player in Brick Lane and the joy of Cannes. - Campaign Brief

World Amateur Championships 2022 to be held in Malta

The details of the World Amateur Championships 2022 to be held in Malta have been announced by the World Chess Federation (FIDE).

This official world event will take place October 20 and 30 with six world championship titles in play: U2300, U2000 and U1700, each open and womens.

The top womens category offers particular potential as it allows entry ranked just below the worlds top 25 girls and roughly top 150 women. The event initially planned for April 2021 will have an increased prize fund of 15,000.

The event follows the European Small Nations Team Championship held at the end of last year, part of the official European calendar.

The last official world event to take place in Malta was the 1st World Youth U16 Olympiad in 1994, which included 12-year-old prodigies Ruslan Ponomariov and Francisco Vallejo Pons.

Before that, the 24th World Olympiad was held in the Great Ward of the then newly-inaugurated Mediterranean Conference Centre in 1980, at which event Garry Kasparov (see photo below) made his Olympiad debut as second reserve for the USSR (gold) at the record age of 17, and winning the bronze medal behind Yugoslavias Pedrag Nikoli and Maltas Andrew Borg.

Entries are strictly through the respective chess federations by September 5. More information is available on the FIDE website.

CM Timothy Mifsud returns to First Saturday IM tournaments

The July 1, 2022 FIDE rating list published last week unveiled a new king atop Malta's active hill. Well, newish.

After a long hiatus, 18th Malta champion CM Timothy Mifsud returned to the board at the June edition of the famous First Saturday IM norm tournaments held in Budapest, Hungary.

Mifsud won the national championship six times (1993-98) and the national junior championship thrice (1992-94), and still holds the record of youngest ever champion (14 years).

Facing nine titled players with an average rating of 2248, Mifsud held his own performing only slightly below his last international rating, including wins against FMs Tibor Bodi and Mark Lyell, as well as draws against GM Tibor Fogarasi, IM Sandor Farago and WIM Isha Sharma.

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Chess: Malta and national champion return to world scene - Times of Malta