Page 7 - Annotated Games News Today

The XXXIII Pan-American Youth Chess Festival featured over 2,700 games played across 12 sections and seven days. Results, including team standings and direct titles conferred, were covered in an earlier article.

The 2023 FIDE World Cup concluded August 24 in Baku, Azerbaijan as both the title and third-place matches were decided after a pair of rapid tiebreak games. Top-seeded GM Magnus Carlsen defeated 18-year-old Indian GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu ("Pragg") 2½–1½ as GM Fabiano Caruana came back from losing his first classical game to Azerbaijani underdog GM Nijat Abasov to win 3–1.  

The 2023 FIDE Women's World Cup concluded August 21 when Russian GM Alexandra Goryachkina defeated Bulgarian IM Nurgyul Salimova 2½–1½, winning the second game of the rapid tiebreaks.   

The semifinals of the 2023 FIDE World Cup begin Saturday, August 19 at 6:00 a.m. CDT in Baku, Azerbaijan. At the same time, the finals and third-place match for the 2023 FIDE Women’s World Cup will begin. Now, let’s meet our (semi)-finalists and how they got here.  

The good news: two Americans have reached the quarterfinals of the 2023 FIDE World Cup.  The bad news: they're paired against each other! We left off as round four headed into tiebreaks, with GM Hikaru Nakamura facing GM Praggnanandhaa R and GM Leinier Dominguez Perez against GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek. Caruana had already qualified.   

Following up on our earlier report on the first round of the 2023 FIDE World Cup and Women’s World Cup, the fourth round is heading into tiebreaks tomorrow, August 11. At the time of writing, only one American has made it through to the fourth round, with two others being eliminated and two headed into tomorrow’s tiebreaks.

The U.S. Open is one of America’s most prestigious events, and tomorrow we’ll have our winner! With seven players tied for first, this tournament — which hasn’t seen any player take the sole lead at any point — will still be wide open going into the final round.  

Imagine a room the size of the movie theater, but bigger. From the front of the room rolls down a giant projector, where real-time chess action of the top boards is broadcast live to both the players and spectators miles away. On stage, the top three boards of each section are showcased, their tables standing firmly on the shining podium. In the two corners of the hall, myriad national flags wave proudly, displaying their vibrant colors in all their glamor.

Charlotte is the most populous city in North Carolina, well known for its NFL, NBA, and MLS professional sports teams. However, in recent times Charlotte is also becoming famous for its bustling chess culture thanks to the influence of the Charlotte Chess Center (CCC). CCC is an acclaimed hub for chess and is known to host prestigious open and norm tournaments year-round.

“One tournament, three schedules” is finally ready to become, simply, “one tournament.” After six days at Grand Rapids, the “traditional” schedule is ready to welcome the accelerated six-day and hyper-accelerated four-day players to their one-game-a-day way of life. In anticipation of the final three rounds, today’s annotations come from award-winning Chess Life columnist WGM Tatev Abrahamyan.