English Chess Forum

Tim Harding wrote: ↑

Sun Oct 24, 2021 9:25 pm

So far as I'm aware nobody has yet caught Covid at one of the tournaments here but of course it's a risk and I wouldn't take it if I hadn't had two shots of Pfizer vaccine.

As far as anyone is aware that's exactly the same in English tournaments where the participants may have had Astra Zeneca vaccinations, but where mask wearing is voluntary, At least the paranoia about touching the opponent's pieces seems to have disappeared, I think organisers are being more circumspect with playing conditions by limiting tournament entries rather than trying to cram in as many boards as possible.

Round 1 pairings:

https://grandswiss.fide.com/round-1-ope ... lZeKOXIuQI

https://grandswiss.fide.com/round-1-wom ... fCC1ixAMh8

Sutovsky on FB:

We are very aware that tournament is always stressful. And if you can't go out for a walk after 8 pm, so at all. That's why we try to compensate somehow by creating the most cozy atmosphere.

The Marriott Hotel is completely given to chess players. On the last floor we opened the lounge where you can come anytime. Chat, play blitz, just reflect while looking at the city. Thanks to partnership with Coca-Cola, water and carbonated drinks are free round the clock. Of course tea and coffee too.

Food is very often a weakness in tournaments. Go feed 200 people of quality 45 times each... We have paid a lot of attention to this item and we can already see that the players have evaluated how high quality and generously they are accepted.

We have punched the resolution and open another porch in the air - if you don't take a special walk, then breathe anytime. It is important for us to make the players feel comfortable.

I say ′′ we ", but the main credit to Dana Reizniece-Ozola and her team here. However, this is how ′′ we ′′ works in normal operating organizations. Glad FIDE has become like this.

Opening of the tournament today!

Emil Sutovsky (on Facebook) wrote: Thanks to partnership with Coca-Cola, water and carbonated drinks are free round the clock

Health Protocol gets off to an early start...

"Following the Health Protocol, the Chief Arbiter at the Grand Swiss is currently in isolation after informing the organisers that he has been in touch with someone positive for Covid-19 before arriving in Riga."

The Chief Arbiter has been tested and the results came in negative, he has been previously vaccinated and has no symptoms. His isolation is part of the preventive measures drawn up by FIDE and the organisers to ensure the safety of all players and participants.

The Chief Arbiter is working closely with other arbiters and is involved in all the key processes. After the self-isolation period passes, the CA will return to the tournament in person.

The CA has been very cooperative and followed the Health Protocol to the letter, setting a good example for everyone. "

Chris Rice wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 27, 2021 11:07 am

Health Protocol gets off to an early start...

"Following the Health Protocol, the Chief Arbiter at the Grand Swiss is currently in isolation after informing the organisers that he has been in touch with someone positive for Covid-19 before arriving in Riga."...

Perhaps worth mentioning that the aforementioned Chief Arbiter is England's very own Alex Holowczak...

I myself had been due to travel to Riga to assist with the press function at the Grand Swiss event but when the lockdown was announced I withdrew citing my age as the main reason. However, there were subsidiary reasons and Alex's misfortune is an example of one of them. On my way back from the FIDE Women's Grand Prix in Gibraltar in May/June I was quarantined as a result of someone testing positive on the Gibraltar-Heathrow flight, which didn't cause me any problems as I was already at home and had no other commitments at that time but it would have been a major problem had it happened on the outgoing flight.

Win for GM Howell:

https://www.chessbomb.com/arena/2021-fi ... _David_W_L

TWIC

round 1 results and round 2 pairings include Howell v Neiksans

Women round 1 results Jovanka lost to Pogonina

round 2 pairings Jovanka v Kashlinskaya

Pete Doggers

Quite a few top players either withdrew or were forced to cancel due to travel restrictions, which are significant. Besides a total prize fund of U.S.$550,000, two spots for the 2022 Candidates and one spot for the 2022 Women's Candidates are on the line. The biggest names who were planning to play but are missing in Riga are GMs Alexander Grischuk, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Richard Rapport, Hikaru Nakamura, Vidit Gujrathi, Le Quang Liem, and Kateryna Lagno. (One player who stepped in at the last minute was GM Alexey Shirov.)

chess24 report

Howell has somehow made a draw on move 142!

And is rewarded with Black vs Praggnanandhaa - yikes.

Would someone familiar with KIDs care to tell us what THIS GAME is all about?

[SetUp "1"] [FEN "r1bq1rk1/ppp2pb1/3p2pp/3P4/2PQP1P1/2N1B3/PP3PP1/R3KB1R b KQ - 0 12"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. h3 O-O 6. Bg5 Nc6 7. Nf3 h6 8. Be3 e5 9. d5 Nd4 10. Nxd4 exd4 11. Qxd4 Ng4 12. hxg4

My guess would be some crazy engine aided preparation. Up to 12. hxg4, it's all fairly normal KID stuff, if a bit of a mixed bag of ideas.

It's about "two pieces are stronger than a queen when they are well co-ordinated, particularly when one of the two pieces is a bishop that's raking over the holes in the enemy kingside".

FIDE Grand Swiss, Riga: 1st= A Firouzja (FRA), I Saric (CRO) and A Predke (RUS) all 2/2; 4th= DWL Howell (ENG) ... 108 players.
David is black versus the Indian Praggnanandhaa in Round 3.

There's one game in my (very out of date) database previously up to 11...Ng4, in which white played the natural queen retreat. It didn't go so well for him.
[Event "Pardubice Czech op 25th"] [Site "Pardubice"] [Date "2014.07.26"] [Round "9"] [White "Potapov, Alexander1"] [Black "Goluch, Piotr"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "E90"] [WhiteElo "2399"] [BlackElo "2231"] [PlyCount "44"] [EventDate "2014.07.18"] [EventType "swiss"] [EventRounds "9"] [EventCountry "CZE"] [Source "ChessBase"] [SourceDate "2014.08.29"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 d6 3. Nf3 g6 4. Nc3 Bg7 5. e4 O-O 6. h3 Nc6 7. Bg5 h6 8. Be3 e5 9. d5 Nd4 10. Nxd4 exd4 11. Qxd4 Ng4 12. Qd2 Nxe3 13. Qxe3 f5 14. O-O-O a6 15. Bd3 b5 16. exf5 bxc4 17. Bxc4 Bxf5 18. g4 Re8 19. Qg3 Be4 20. Rhe1 Qf6 21. f4 Rab8 22. Rd2 Qxc3+

Nick Burrows wrote: ↑

Thu Oct 28, 2021 7:48 pm

Howell has somehow made a draw on move 142!

And is rewarded with Black vs Praggnanandhaa - yikes.

Impressive!



Also I saw a Mark Crowther tweet on another game which is very unusual:

"Yu Yangyi vs Vincent Keymer from the first round of the FIDE Grand Swiss finished in a draw in 40 moves. They still had all 32 pieces. I'm sure that's not a record but it's certainly - with a nod to Tim Krabbé - a curiosity."