International chess has moved swiftly to adjust to Russia’s war against Ukraine. Major events have switched venues or been postponed, Russian sponsors have been removed, while a former world title challenger has been shunned for his pro-invasion stance, with further penalties possible.
India is the strongly favoured candidate to host the 150-nation Olympiad, the game’s flagship team event, after Moscow was stripped of the competition last week by Fide, the global chess body. The Indian chess scene is vibrant with talented young grandmasters in their teens or early 20s, inspired by the example of Vishy Anand, the world champion from 2007 to 2013. An official bid, with a guarantee of the previously announced $10m budget, was submitted to Fide this week.
Whether Russians will be barred or allowed to compete under a neutral flag remains unclear. On Thursday, more than 30 leading Russian players signed an open letter to Vladimir Putin saying “Stop the War!” The letter’s most prominent signatories included Ian Nepomniachtchi, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Daniil Dubov, Peter Svidler, and Andrey Esipenko.
Fide has taken a financial hit by its decision to terminate its backing from Russian state sponsors including the gas supplier Gazprom, the fertiliser giant PhosAgro, and the mining firm Nornickel.
However, Nigel Short, who is in effect Fide’s acting president in current conditions, said the organisation’s budget had expanded fivefold to over €13m since its new administration led by Arkady Dvorkovich took over in 2018, and that its current programmes would not be affected by the absence of Russian backing.
Fide has also postponed the world team championship, scheduled for April in Jerusalem. Israel will still be the host for the new date in November. Ukraine have qualified to play, as have Poland, who have stated they would refuse to meet Russia, the defending champions, if they were allowed to compete.
A more immediate question is the future of Sergey Karjakin. The 32-year-old was born in Crimea and his early successes, all achieved as a Ukrainian, included becoming the youngest ever grandmaster at age 12, a record which stood for 19 years. He transferred to Russia, moved to Moscow in 2009, and long before the war was noted for his pro-Putin views.
Karjakin has been referred to the Fide ethics and disciplinary commission for his statements supporting the invasion, which have been widely condemned. Norway’s annual tournament at Stavanger, which Karjakin has won twice and where he competed in 2021, has announced that he is no longer welcome and that other Russians will not be invited this year. The London Classic, where Karjakin took part in 2017, has followed suit.
A critical question now is whether Karjakin will be allowed to take part in the eight-player Candidates tournament in Madrid in June, which will decide Magnus Carlsen’s next official challenger, and for which he qualified by finishing second in the 2021 Fide World Cup. Earlier, in 2016, Karjakin won the Candidates, and went on to score 6-6 on his world championship match with Magnus Carlsen in New York before losing the speed tie-break.
It would be a controversial decision to bar Karjakin from the 2022 Candidates, but one of the severest punishments available to the Fide commission, which is due to report on the Muscovite’s case in a few weeks, is to “ban up to 15 years on taking part in chess competition … as a player … or representative of a chess federation”. The commission’s chairman is a South African, and its members are from India, Nepal, and Guyana, with a non-voting US secretary.
Ukraine, however, wants Fide and the European Chess Union to go further, much further. The Ukrainian Chess Federation president, Viktor Kapustin, asks for the immediate resignation of the Fide president, new Fide elections, and a blanket ban on Russians in all Fide competitions. Ukraine’s proposal will be considered at a meeting of the ECU in progress this week.
Meanwhile, the second leg (of three) of the Fide Grand Prix, which will decide the final two Candidates spots, has begun in Belgrade. All five Russians are competing under a neutral flag, Alexander Grischuk, the senior member of the group, made a strong anti-war statement, but two losses at the start suggested he may be feeling the pressure. Grischuk’s wife, the world No 4 woman, Kateryna Lagno, is Ukrainian.
There was too little time for the Russian quintet in Belgrade to be substituted, but it is still unclear whether they will be allowed to play in the final Grand Prix leg in Berlin later this month.
Away from the war, the world champion, Magnus Carlsen, continued his winning streak, defeating both Covid and Nepomniachtchi en route to a 4.5-2.5 final victory in the online $150,000 Airthings Masters, the opening event of the 2022 $1.6m Meltwater Champions Tour.
Just as in their classical world title match in Dubai, the Russian, who had tweeted his opposition to the war in Ukraine, held his own well for five games then collapsed at critical moments.
Last week’s low-key international masters all-play-all organised by Tim Wall at the Ilkley Chess Centre, West Yorkshire, proved a significant success for two of England’s best young talents, who finished joint second on 5.5/9.
Jonah Willow, 19, of Nottingham, is fast closing on the IM title. Willow is an active competitor both in English weekend opens and online in the weekly Titled Tuesday in which many world stars compete, and his hard work is paying off with good results.
Even more striking was the performance of England’s youngest chess hope Shreyas Royal, 13, who was the lowest rated of the 10 starters yet finished the nine rounds unbeaten, missing what might have been the youngest ever English IM norm by just half a point. His Fide rating jumped 76 points.
However, it was a Royal win that got away which provided the most bizarre moment of the tournament. At move 21, he missed a standard tactic which would have forced mate in three. At move 22, he missed a different mate in three which a novice would be expected to spot, and in the final position at move 23 where he agreed a draw he was still winning easily.
Low budget all-play-alls like Ilkley, with well chosen participants, are arguably the best value for money events available for English chess at the moment, and deserve further support.
3805: 1 Qd4! Qg5 (if Rxd4 2 f8Q+ Kg6 3 Qf6 mate so Black guards d8) 2 Rc5! (double attack on the e5 rook) Rxd4 3 f8Q+ Kg6 4 Qf7+ Kh6 5 Rf6+ and soon mates.
