The highlight of day 3 at the FIDE Grand Prix in Belgrade was Richard Rapport’s victory over Vidit Gujrathi. The Hungarian thus caught his round-3 opponent in the lead of pool C. The one other decisive result on Thursday was seen in the same group, as Vladimir Fedoseev got the better of Alexei Shirov. Anish Giri played a remarkable queen sacrifice against Pentala Harikrishna the game finished in a draw. | Photos: Mark Livshitz
The Ukrainian Championships took place in Kharkiv on 8-17 December 2021. The tournaments were nicely organized in the library of the Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University. Andrei Volokitin clinched first place in the open section by winning both his games in the two final rounds, while Kateryna Dolzhykova surprisingly got the gold in the women’s tournament. | Photos: Ukrainian Chess Federation
The eighth edition of the strong Open in Sitges was a thrilling tournament throughout, but it offered an extra dose of excitement on the final day of play. Four players finished with 8 points at the top of the standings table, and a knockout was organized to decide the winner. Dimitrij Kollars reached the final, where he lost to Uzbek prodigy Nodirbek Andusattorov. | Photos: Rupali Mullick
Thanks to a final-round victory over Armenia, Ukraine got their first gold medals at the open section of the European Team Championships. France came second after beating Azerbaijan, with Alireza Firouzja beating Shakhriyar Mamedyarov to climb to second place in the world ranking and become the youngest ever player to cross the 2800-rating barrier. Poland finished in third place. | Photos: ECU Press
An eighth win in as many matches gave Russia tournament victory at the women’s section of the European Team Championships with a round to spare. This is Russia’s fourth consecutive title and the seventh in the last eight events. Meanwhile, in the open section, four teams go into the final round tied for first place Armenia, France, Azerbaijan and Ukraine. | Photos: Mark Livshitz