Page 2 - David Llada News Today

ChessBase Magazine offers a window to the world of professional chess. The latest issue, CBM 215 is just out. Here our columnist, Nagesh Havanur takes a look at a recent issue. 162 games (41 annotated), decisive encounters from World Championship deeply annotated. 12 opening surveys, 3 opening videos, 9 demo lectures and several exercises for training. Annotators include Anish Giri, Boris Gelfand and Peter Svidler among others. The icing on the cake is a feature on Boris Spassky with 27 annotat...

Tuesday is the official start of the Women's World Cup in Bydgoszcz. The first two rounds will be played on Wednesday. 12 teams are taking part and the tournament will be played with a preliminary round in two groups, followed by a knockout system. FIDE has announced the line-ups and the draw for the groups.

Writers, columnists, photographers and analysts from US Chess had much to celebrate at the annual Chess Journalists of America (CJA) meeting on August 2 in Grand Rapids. US Chess took home 26 awards, including two of the “big three” – John Hartmann won “Best Story of the Year” for his January 2023 “L’affaire Niemann,” while WGM Tatev Abrahamyan was awarded the “Best Column” prize in her first year of eligibility.  

It’s been 13 years since a tied world championship match was decided in the final two games, with Anand defeating Topalov in the final game of a tied match. In the Women’s World Championship, it’s never happened!

In the ninth game of the Women’s World Chess Championships, Lei Tingjie and Ju Wenjun showed a remarkable level of understanding both in the middlegame emerging from a Sicilian Defence and in the ensuing rook ending. The game ended in a draw after 59 moves. | Photos: Stev Bonhage / FIDE

Today, 3 June 2023, Nils Grandelius celebrates his 30th birthday. Grandelius is known as his country's long-time leading player, an important member of the Swedish team, and has won several major international tournaments in his career to date. Grandelius worked as Magnus Carlsen's second for the World Chess Championship matches in 2016 and 2018, and is also a well-known author and teacher. | Nils Grandelius at the TePe Sigeman & Co. tournament in 2023 | Photo: David Llada

Update 05/10/2023: The tournament has concluded, and GM Peter Svidler finished in clear first with 4½/7 after drawing his last two games. Mishra lost a heart-breaking queen-and-pawn ending against GM Boris Gelfand in the final round, finishing in a three-way tie for second with GMs Gukesh D. and Nils Grandelius.  

Peter Svidler became the outright winner of the TePe Sigeman & Co tournament after collecting 4½/7 points. Svidler entered the final round sharing the lead with Abhimanyu Mishra. The 8-time Russian champion had black against top seed Gukesh, while Abhimanyu had white against an out-of-form Boris Gelfand. Svidler managed to hold a draw, while Gelfand won a tricky queen endgame — in a game lasting 125 moves! | Photo: David Llada

In the penultimate round of the TePe Sigeman & Co tournament in Malmö, points were split on all four boards, which means Peter Svidler and Abhimanyu Mishra remain at the top of the standings. Wednesday’s round kicks off three hours earlier than usual. Svidler will play black against Dommaraju Gukesh, while Abhimanyu will face Boris Gelfand with the white pieces. | Photo: David Llada

It should not be surprising when an eight-time Russian champion is leading a tournament. Especially when three fourths of the field aren't even 30 years old. And yet, GM Peter Svidler's standing atop the leaderboard of the 28th annual TePe Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament still counts as something of an upset.