Announcing winners of FIDE Trainer Awards for 2020-21
The FIDE Trainers Commission is pleased to announce the winners of the 14th FIDE Trainer Awards for 2020-21, which recognize and celebrate the achievements of the chess training community.
Rustam Kasimdzhanov (UZB) wins the Mikhail Botvinnik Award for the best achievement in Open Section competitions. Kasimdzhanov was a second for former World Champion
Viswanathan Anand, whom he helped in the preparation of his WC matches in 2008 against Kramnik, 2010 against Topalov, and 2012 against Gelfand. He was also the trainer of Sergey Karjakin in the Candidates Tournament of 2014, and then of Fabiano Caruana in the Candidates Tournament 2016 and the 2018 World Chess Championship match against Carlsen.
Ian Nepomniachtchi: “The strategy was not to lose”
The winner of the FIDE Candidates Tournament answered Eteri Kublashvili’s questions in great detail. We publish this interview, courtesy of the official website of the Chess Federation of Russia, with some minor edits. The video version is available here.
- Ian, you won one of the most important events in every chess player’s career and qualified for the World Championship Match. It’s a great achievement, congratulations! So, how do you feel now?
- Thank you. I feel really exhausted because it was an incredible tournament in many, many senses of the word. First of all, I guess it took 400 days from start to finish, it is kind of outstanding. Well, when you read about chess history, players were travelling by sea, from America to Europe and so on… In our times, you know, it’s not romantic at all because of the global pandemic thing.
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Of all the matches that were never played, Fischer - Karpov or Fischer - Kortschnoi might have been the most interesting. What would have happened if Bobby Fischer had not retired after his victory against Spassky in 1972? In this article I would like to deal with this question and its psychological background.
Bobby Fischer quits
Unfortunately, Bobby Fischer (1943 - 2008) did not play any match or tournament for 20 years after he had won the World Chess Championship Match against Boris Spassky in Reykjavik in 1972. It was not until 1992 that he played a rematch against Spassky and won 10-5 with 15 draws. However, no further tournaments or matches followed after that. In 2008, two months before his 65th birthday, Fischer died in his Icelandic exile. What impact did his retirement have on top chess?