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Lausanne, March 16

World chess governing body FIDE on Wednesday suspended Russia and Belarus from all its tournaments until further notice due to the invasion of Ukraine, jeopardising the two countries participation in the 44th Chess Olympiad in India later this year.

FIDE, however, said in individual tournaments of the World Championship cycle, players from these two countries can participate under the world bodys flag. Russia invaded Ukraine in February and found support from Belarus.

Taking into account the current recommendations of the IOC, the FIDE Council suspends the national teams of Russia and Belarus from participation in official FIDE tournaments until further notice, the FIDE said in a statement.

In the individual tournaments of the FIDE World Championship cycle, players from these countries will be able to participate under the FIDE flag.

The International Olympic Committee had recommended all the sports federations to exclude Russia and Belaruswhich has extended support in the invasionfrom international events, but had left the final decision to individual governing bodies.

Several international federations have since then banned athletes from Russia and Belarus from their events.

The recently concluded Beijing Winter Paralympics had also excluded athletes from these two countries just before the start of the showpiece.

The 44th Chess Olympiad will be organised in Chennai later this year, making it the second major global event of the sport to be held in India after the World Championship match in 2013.

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World chess body FIDE suspends Russia and Belarus from its official events - The Tribune India

Chess players from seven countries around the world have converged in Kimberley for the Mojo Chess Extravaganza. The players are battling it out in their different categories.

The tournament is the first in the world and ends on the 27th of March.

Honing their skills to perfect their craft, the diamond city is playing host to this international game. And the rule of the game is to overthrow your opponent.

With the queen and king being the most important pieces on the board, this game improves concentration and develops problem-solving skills amongst others.

The Vice President of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) Nigel Short says the tournament is important for the continent.

Just to promote the game in South Africa. South Africa is of course extremely important in chess, not only in chess but in chess in this region and for Africa as a whole. So its great to see a lot of people and battling, battling away, says Short.

The event is an economic booster for the city. The end game is to protect your king while defeating your opponents king for the prize money. When that happens, its checkmate.

VIDEO: Chess becoming a growing sport in South Africa

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Kimberley hosts Mojo Chess Extravaganza with players from seven countries around the world - TDPel Media

(Photos by Matt Zatkoff)

Over Presidents Day Weekend, 332 chess players formed 79 teams in Schaumburg, just north of Chicago, Illinois for the 2022 U.S. Amateur Team North (USATN), the first in-person iteration since the record-breaking, pre-pandemic showing in 2020.

Considering the state of the world, this well-above-average attendance was inspiring and an encouraging reminder of the power of the chess boom we are experiencing. As always, the story of the weekend was one of vibrant tomfoolery, replete with jokey names, silly costumes, and the joy of watching several generations of chess players, from unflappable seasoned vets to fidgety first-timers, all sharing in a special annual tradition.

The action on the boards was far from amateur hour and maybe a little less warm and fuzzy.

The main point of contention at the USATN was between local teams from the storied University of Chicago: UChicago A and UChicago B. Lettering aside, their primary distinction was their approach to their rosters.

Per USATN rules, a 4-player teams average rating must be below 2200. UChicago A fielded a strong and balanced team, with an impressive average rating of 2195.

UChicago A

FM Chandran, Kapil

2445

Eichinger, Christoph

2252

Sunjic, Dylan

2151

Heggli-Nonay, Oliver

1934

UChicago B employed a different strategy, fielding not one, but two grandmasters for their top boards, and an FM on board three. Now you may be saying, Well, JJ, who could possibly be on board four to keep their average under 2200? That would be Brian Hu, provisionally rated 812 at the start of USATN, his second-ever US Chess rated tournament.

UChicago B

GM Liang, Awonder

2701

GM Balakrishan, Praveen

2604

FM Graif, William

2338

Hu, Brian

812 (P)

With UChicago Bs rating averaging a mere 2113, these killer Bs floated like a butterfly behind a half-dozen other groups in the pre-tournament standings. It was an open question whether the imbalanced makeup of these Bs could sting against teams with four players rated above 2000.

Their strategy seemed precarious. All it would take would be one freak loss from a titled player to blow the race wide open. And it did. In the second round, team TrixR4Kids came through on board three with Ekansh Mehrorta (1909) pulling a 429-point upset over Graif.

By round four, non-collegiate super team dreamy knights, captained by Iowan masters Joseph Wan and James Neal, slowed down UChicago A thanks to boards three and four victories by Shreya Mangalam and Aria Hoelsey.

Going into the fifth and final round, local high schoolers GM Wannabes were the only team to hold a perfect score and looked like favorites to win.

GM Wannabes

Ladan, Nicholas

2256

Gupta, Aditya

2208

Platnick, Elijah

2123

Barretto, Ryan

2054

On board one for the Wannabes, Nicholas Ladan was in fine form, holding off an all-in attack from fellow local Michael Auger.

(Annotation by JJ Lang)

Eichenger likewise began with an overwhelming position shortly out of the black side of a closed Sicilian, but after missing a few chances to clarify, gave Gupta chances to clinch the entire event with a draw, but eventually pushed through.

(Annotation by Christoph Eichinger)

The Wannabes did not wanna be rolled over and bounced back to salvage a draw on the bottom boards. When the dust settled, the Chicago collegians held the high schoolers to a half-point. But in doing so, cleared the way for their classmates on UChicago B to catch the Wannabes.

The final round saw UChicago B pitted against the dreamy knights.

dreamy knights

Wan, Joseph

2294

Neal, James

2201

Mangalam, Shreya

2167

Hoesley, Aria

2071

With the white pieces, Balakrishnans clutch victory over Neal was a one-sided affair.

(Annotation by JJ Lang)

This, along with Graifs win over Mangalam on board three, looked like it would close the book on any dreams of Wannabe upsets, as long as Liang could hold a draw as black.

After Liang saw his advantage drift away following a few inaccuracies, a draw appeared to be the most likely result. That is, until he pulled out one of those last-minute saves that always seem to show up for GMs, but not the rest of us.

(Annotation by Awonder Liang; read his recap with additional games.)

Although Hoesley leveraged her 1200-point rating edge over Hu for a board four win, UChicago B was ultimately victorious, scoring 3-1. This performance tied the Wannabes at 4/5, but UChicago B edged them out on tiebreak points, allowing them to come out on top.

Whether an upset or a cause to be upset, UChicago B finished atop the standings thanks to 5-0 performances and board prizes from GM Awonder Liang and GM Praveen Balakrishnan on boards one and two.

FM William Graif, the 2019 Canadian Junior Champion, clinched a number of matches with a 4-1 performance on board three. On board four, 812-rated Brian Hu picked up 116 rating points with a 1-4 performance, underscoring the immense difficulty of his pairings.

I was impressed by the significant number of traveling teams from other midwestern universities. The University of Illinois sent two teams from Champaign, and Washington University sent two more from St. Louis. There were also teams from Oberlin, Northern Illinois and, get this, five teams from Purdue.

My own team had the (mis)fortune of playing Purdues A squad in the second round, losing 2.5-1.5 in large part due to my opponent Andrew Bernal fighting through my unorthodox opening choice (and a 170-point rating gap) to thoroughly outplay me and earn the win.

(Annotation by JJ Lang)

The amateur spirit of the tournament was in full effect from psychedelic costumes down to team names ranging from timely to irreverent.

First, we had the fan-favorite names like The Socially Isolated Pawns, who also managed to win clear first with a 5-0 score in the u1600 section. Some of the high school teams chose to take the opportunity for inside jokes.

Barely a week off their Illinois state championship victory, Stevenson High School registered under the name 44-24, a not-so-subtle nod to their victory over rivals Barrington, or, as they appeared on the cross-table, the 3x State Championsalmost, referring not to their failure as a three-peat, but their success at almost getting to the top spot three years in a row.

While the rest of us will wait for next year (and can only hope that Liang and Balakrishnan graduate a year or two early), UChicago B is off to the semi-finals against the other amateur directionals.

This may some ruffle feathers in the East, where there is a rule preventing teams from having a more than 1,000-point differential between boards three and four.

While this rule is logical for preserving the amateur spirit of the event, my own sense throughout the weekend was that many players were excited to get paired against grandmasters (And I almost had him, too! declared local blitz legend Tom Murphy, referring to his round one encounter against Liang), and the true camaraderie of the various college teams added to the feel of a weekend designed to bring out the team spirit in chess.

So, UChicago Bs victory a story of a group of come-from-behind plucky underdogs, or of a rule-skirting super-team? Quite frankly: who cares!

Perhaps a team of three titled players who did not know each other would compromise the feel of this event, but instead what we witnessed was two teams of local college players who seemed to genuinely enjoy spending the weekend together, sharing their love of the game.

While I cant imagine calling UChicago Bs victory an upset, I also cant imagine being critical of two grandmasters choosing to put in a full weekend of entertaining chess for a pair of $50 Amazon gift cards and a chance to hang out with their friends.

Sounds like a bunch of amateurs to me.

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Teamwork Made the Dream Work at 2022 USATN Tournament - uschess.org

Choral Society bring hit musical to the Scouts Hall

Published: Sat 19 Mar 2022, 12:00 PM

NENAGH Choral Society are back- as they venture into the world of Chess, coming to the Scouts Hall stage this April.

Under the direction of Greg Browne, William Cullagh (Musical Director) and Stephanie Browne (Choreographer), NCS cast have been working hard for the last few months to finally stage this production, which is two years in the making. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic Chess the Musical was postponed two weeks before it was to be staged in 2020.

Chess was written in 1984 by ABBA songwriters Benny Andersson and Bjrn Ulvaeus, and Tim Rice. It tells a story of a love triangle, set against the background of the Cold War in which superpowers attempt to manipulate an international chess championship for political ends.

Two of the worlds greatest chess masters, one American, one Russian, are in danger of becoming the pawns of their governments as their battle for the world title gets under way. Simultaneously their lives are thrown into further confusion by a Hungarian refugee, a remarkable woman who becomes the centre of their emotional love triangle. This mirrors the heightened passions of the political struggles that threaten to destroy lives and loves.

The show includes the international hit singles I Know Him So Well and One Night in Bangkok. Other well-known songs from the score include Anthem, Heaven Help my Heart and Pity the Child.

This popular musical sees old and new faces return to the Scouts Hall stage. Russian Champion Anatoly - Paul Browne, American Grandmaster Freddie - Shane Kelly, Florence - Kirsty Ryan, Molokov - Andrew Whelan, Walter - Alan O'Brien, Arbiter - Paul Shesgreen, Svetlana - Niamh Chadwick.

Chess opens in the Scouts Hall on Tuesday, April 5, and runs until Saturday, April 9, nightly at 8pm. Ticket prices: Adult - 20 / Child(U16)/OAP - 15.

Box Office is open at the Scouts Hall from March 22 or by phone on 086 312 2725.

Published: Sat 19 Mar 2022, 12:00 PM

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'Chess' comes to stage in Nenagh - Nenagh Guardian

Chess the Musical announces stellar all New Zealand cast for five semi-staged shows coming to Auckland in June. Photo / Supplied

Producers of Chess the Musical are delighted to announce a stellar all New Zealand cast for five semi-staged shows coming to Auckland's Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre this June.

Playing the lead roles of Frederick and Anatoly fierce competitors on the chess board and for the love of one woman are music chart-topping pop artist Michael Murphy, and international opera star Edward Laurenson.

Caught in their love triangle is Florence, played by Heather Wilcock whose glorious soaring voice landed her the role of Elphaba in Wicked in multiple New Zealand productions. She has also played Tracy in Hairspray and Eva Peron in Evita in both Auckland and Wellington.

Trying to bring order and dignity to the game as Arbiter will be one of New Zealand's favourite entertainers, Jackie Clarke (MNZM). Jackie's highlights include performing in The Lady Killers with Tina Cross and Suzanne Lynch for 15 years.

Television and theatre star Stephen Butterworth (Ngati Porou) will be playing Walter. Stephen achieved a cult following for his roles at Pop-up Globe and has appeared in The Lord of the Rings and Shortland Street.

Playing Anatoly's sidekick, Molokov, is Matthew Cutts, a Kiwi whose star has shone brightly on the West End in London and across Europe, performing in some of the world's biggest productions, including Andrew Lloyd Webber's Starlight Express, Miss Saigon and Mamma Mia!.

Playing Anatoly's ex-wife Svetlana, is Rebecca Wright who has enjoyed an illustrious career in the musical theatre industry, most recently performing the role of Fantine in Les Misrables at The Civic in Auckland, to critical acclaim.

The production will also feature an outstanding ensemble and mass choir.

Written in 1984 by Abba's Benny Andersson and Bjrn Ulvaeus, and Sir Tim Rice (Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita) Chess the Musical features hits including I Know Him So Well recognised in the Guinness Book of Records as the biggest-selling UK chart single ever by a female duo and the upbeat pop favourite, One Night In Bangkok.

Chess the Musical tells the story of a complex love triangle combined with dramatic political intrigue, set against the background of the Cold War in the early 1980s, where Soviet and American forces attempt to manipulate an international chess championship for political gain.

The musical originally premiered in London's West End in 1986 (where it was revived in 2018), starring the beloved Elaine Paige. The season ran for three years, resulting in a BBC listener poll ranking Chess the Musical seventh in a list of Number One Essential Musicals of all time.

17 Mar, 2022 05:00 AMQuick Read

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Chess the Musical is produced by the makers of last year's theatrical extravaganza Jersey Boys and is directed by Jeremy Hinman (Jersey Boys, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert).

Venue: Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Aotea Centre, Auckland.

Dates: Performances from June 16, 2022.

Times: Thursday 7.30pm; Friday 7.30pm; Saturday 2pm & 7.30pm; Sunday 2pm.

Tickets: Tickets from $49.10. A service fee applies.

Tickets available from Ticketmaster.

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Chess the Musical announces all-star Kiwi cast for new Auckland production - New Zealand Herald