Sunday 21 April 2024 02:25, UK

A campaigning Nigerian chess champion has played the game non-stop for 60 hours to break the world record.

Tunde Onakoya, 29, hopes to raise $1m (800,000) for children's education across Africa through the marathon attempt that began in New York City's Times Square on Wednesday.

He crossed the 58-hour mark in the early hours of Saturday, beating the current record of 56 hours, nine minutes and 37 seconds, set in 2018 by Norwegian pair Hallvard Haug Flatebo and Sjur Ferkingstad.

The Guinness World Record has yet to publicly comment about Mr Onakoya's bid.

It sometimes takes weeks for the organisation to confirm any new record.

Mr Onakoya played against Shawn Martinez, a US chess champion, in line with guidelines that any record attempt must be made by two players playing continuously for the entire duration.

Support had been growing online and at the scene, where African music kept spectators entertained.

The record attempt is "for the dreams of millions of children across Africa without access to education," said Mr Onakoya, who founded Chess in Slums Africa in 2018.

The charity aims to support the education of at least one million of the continent's poorest children.

Advertisement

After hitting the 24-hour mark, Mr Onakoya said: "My energy is at 100% right now because my people are here supporting me with music."

Read more on Sky News: Bitcoin's highly anticipated 'halving' event takes place Gamers compete in first professional women's tournament

Keeping him going was lots of water and the popular West African dish jollof rice.

For every hour of game played, Mr Onakoya and his opponent got only five minutes break.

Sometimes they were grouped together, allowing Mr Onakoya to meet his cheering well-wishers and even join in with their dancing.

Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News

Taiwo Adeyemi, Mr Onakoya's manager, said: "The support has been overwhelming from Nigerians in the US, global leaders, celebrities and hundreds of passers-by."

His record attempt was closely followed in Nigeria, where he regularly organises chess competitions for young people living on the streets.

This is a limited version of the story so unfortunately this content is not available. Open the full version

More than 10 million children are not in school in the West African country - one of the world's highest rates.

Among those to lend their backing was Nigeria's former vice president Yemi Osinbajo, who in a message to Mr Onakoya on the social media platform X said: "Remember your own powerful words 'It is possible to do great things from a small place'."

See the original post:

Chess champion plays for marathon 6 hours to break record - and raise cash for child education - Sky News

Top-grade grooming to play chess with great mental and physical strength and maturity mixed with fighting spiritequipped with this ammunition, D Gukesh created a cerebral firepower on the 64-square board. In the process, he did something incredible. Gukeshs achievement is unbelievable considering his age (just 17) and lack of relative experience in playing elite round-robin tournaments. Having his own style, hunger, calculating ability and tactics, Gukesh had the credentials. But even the chess pundits were not ready for a script of him getting the big reward. It took India more than 30 years to unearth the second man for the World Championship Candidates cycle (Anand was the first in 1991). Anand needed four years to graduate from Candidate to Challenger. Gukesh has done it in his debut attempt and within four months. Anands role in this journey is crucial. Westbridge Anand Chess Academy (WACA) took Gukesh under its wings at the right time and Anands former second, GM Grzegorz Gajewski of Poland (age 38), travels with him. Yes, India organised a last-minute Fide circuit tournament in Chennai last year to help Gukesh qualify for the Candidates he had failed to make the cut from other paths. Even China had organised tournaments for Ding Liren so that he got to play enough games to make the cut in the last Candidates cycle. Then, Frances Alireza Firouzja played some "arranged" games to increase his rating to make the cut this time.

Expand

More:

Fire & ice: India chess star Gukesh oozes class beyond his years - The Times of India

After 13 exciting rounds, the Candidates chess tournament reaches its climax today when the final round is played. The open section is a four-horse race between a teenager from India (17-year-old D Gukesh), two men from USA (World No 2 Fabiano Caruana and World No 3 Hikaru Nakamura) and one Russian (two-time Candidates winner Ian Nepomniachtchi).

To follow our live blog of the final round of the Candidates chess tournament, click here > Candidates chess Round 14 live

But the final round is expected to see plenty of drama, because Gukesh is facing Nakamura while Caruana takes on Nepomniachtchi in the 14th round.

Heading into Round 14, Gukesh has 8.5 points while Nakamura, Nepomniachtchi and Caruana are all on eight points.

Heres a breakdown of all the scenarios:

IF Gukesh emerges as the winner of the Candidates tournament, he will face the reigning world champion Ding Liren with the crown on the line. That battle is expected to happen next year.

If Gukesh beats Nakamura in the last round to be played on Sunday, then irrespective of the outcome of the Nepomniachtchi-Caruana match he goes on to challenge Chinas Ding Liren for the World Chess Championship in the coming cycle.

If Gukesh draws, he will learn his fate from the outcome of the Nepomniachtchi vs Caruana match. If that one too is a draw, then the Indian sails through; if there is a result, the winner plays Gukesh in a 2-match tiebreaker with tighter time controls.

Chess Candidates 2024 Live Updates: Gukesh takes on Hikaru Nakamura with history on line

If Gukesh loses, then he is out of contention even if the matter goes into tiebreaks, since Nakamura will have half a point more than him. In this scenario, Nakamura moves to the head of the table. If the Nepomniachtchi-Caruana match is a draw, Nakamurama gets to take on Ding Liren for the world chess crown. If it has a decisive result in either players favour, the winner plays Nakamura in the tiebreaker stage with tighter time controls.

If Gukesh is tied for first place after 14 rounds, a play-off to determine the winner shall be played. The play-off may consist of up to three stages. Considering the way the four players are placed, and the fact that theyre all facing each other, its only possible that two players can end up tied at the top of the standings, not more than two.

In Stage I, after a drawing for colours made on the day of Round 14, the two players tied shall play a match of two games with a time control of 15 minutes for each player + 10 seconds increment per move, starting from move 1.

IF the two games cannot decide a winner, the contest proceeds to even faster time controls in Stage II of the tiebreakers. After a drawing for colours, a match of two games shall be played with a time control of 3 minutes for each player + 2 seconds increment per move, starting from move 1.

IF there is still no winner after this, the contest proceeds to Stage III, where every game will be a knockout game played with a time control of 3 minutes for each player + 2 seconds increment per move, starting from move 1. The colours for the game shall be determined by a drawing of lots.

Gukesh can avoid this tricky path by simply defeating Nakamura.

Read more:

Candidates 2024: With Gukesh holding edge, breaking down all likely scenarios for Round 14, including tiebreakers - The Indian Express

So Dommaraju Gukesh has done it. At 17, and on debut, he's won the FIDE Candidates 2024, and he's done it in style. You can read more about that here, and here, but now let's get straight to the prize for pulling off that epic win: a shot at being World Champion.

2 Related

Of course, it's way too early for any kind of preview -- what with neither the date (though it should be later this year) nor the venue even being set -- but if fear of the unknown didn't stop Gukesh from creating history, we can't let it stop us writing this preview, either.

China's Ding Liren. And how he became it is quite some tale.

He wasn't even supposed to participate in the 2022 Candidates, but a ban for Russian GM Sergey Karjakin meant he was in. He finished second, behind Ian Nepomniachtchi.

Then Magnus Carlsen decided to, well, not defend his title. That set up a unique championship match: where whoever won would be crowned world champion for the first time.

He struggled early on against Nepomniachtchi, but as detailed here, stayed the course, put the pressure back on his opponent and eventually came up victor. It was one of the most unlikely of triumphs.

So much! And these stats highlight it best:

At 17, Gukesh is the youngest to challenge for the world title.

If he wins, he can become the youngest world champion ever.

This will be the first-ever men's world championship title clash that will not feature a European player.

At this level of elite chess, everyone's played everyone at some point. Most recently, Ding played Gukesh at the Tata Steel Masters on Jan 15, this year, and it was a demolition. Gukesh sacrificed a pawn early, attacking the queen side, but Ding saw through the strategy and took him on. He dangled a pawn, which Gukesh initially ignored, but eventually took -- and from there it was game over as Ding used his decisive attacking to take complete positional superiority.

But here's a fun fact: Gukesh's win at the Candidates not only made him India's no. 1 (again), but he's now gone one point past Ding in the ratings. Gukesh is right now the higher rated of the two!

As per chess.com, this is what Ding said after Gukesh's Candidates win: "He has a maturity that doesn't match his age, he has his own unique understanding of the position, and although I have the advantage in classical chess, he is a difficult opponent to face."

Love the "I have the advantage in classical chess." Just the world champ reminding everyone who the man is, that's he's 'got this'.

Probably. Ding is a superb player whose ability to handle intense pressure was proven at the biggest stage of them all. But now, so has Gukesh.

Rank outsider in Canada, Gukesh exhibited a fearlessness that shook many of his opponents. He held no regard for traditional conservatism, going for the win whenever he could. He did not back down when put under the cosh, counterattacking in the belief that he was good enough to do exactly that.

What makes this match even harder to predict is the similarity in the demeanour of both players: calm, composed... you could even say, cold.

In the World Championship match in 2022, where you could see Nepomniachtchi visibly crumble, you could also see Ding just sitting there, expressionless intensity oozing out of him, just waiting for an opportunity to pounce.

Gukesh is similar -- just witness that tense last round match against Hikaru Nakamura. While Nakamura and the other two contenders (Nepomniachtchi and Fabiano Caruana) were gesturing wildly, their posture making evident the state of their games, Gukesh just sat there, did his thing and drew. Which saw him win the whole thing.

This one is genuinely impossible to guess, and we aren't going to be brave enough to hazard a guess.

With months to prepare, both Gukesh and Ding will be hunkering down and going into all-out preparation-mode. In the end it'll be a battle of Ding's experience vs Gukesh's willingness to push the boundary. Oh... and a battle to see which of the two coldest facades in today's chess world cracks first.

Read the rest here:

D Gukesh vs Ding Liren: A way-too-early preview for the World Chess Championship - ESPN India

By James Evans Eight schools participated in the inaugural Rutherford County chess tournament event Saturday, April 20 at the Patterson Park Community Center

Ethan Harrelson of Riverdale won all five games and the overall championship in Saturdays inaugural Contest of High School Chess Champions. Xavier Sztapka (Rutherford County Virtual School) and Ben Chen (Central Magnet School) finished second and third place, respectively.

Other competitors included Aiden Mauldin (Stewarts Creek), Darren Keoni (LaVergne), Atticus Hiott (Smyrna), Youssef Mekhail (Blackman), and Kenneth Lugo (Oakland).

The event was spearheaded by Rutherford County property assessor Rob Mitchell, who formed a partnership with Rutherford County Schools to provide chess materials to each high school in preparation for the championship.

Mitchell envisions a day when high school students throughout Rutherford County are fluent in the language of chess. He believes a county-wide integrated program will help reduce the need for remedial classes, will help students with their critical-thinking skills, and above all else, prepare them to be problem-solvers for life.

For a little more than a year, Mitchell has been talking to anyone who will listen, to raise money for this grassroots project. His efforts have caught the attention of many, including the state legislature, which invited Mitchell to the state capital to discuss the potential program.

Mitchell participated in an interview with Rutherford County Schools recently to discuss his vision, its origin and his ultimate goal.

QUESTION: You are obviously passionate about chess, tell me why.

Mitchell: I started playing chess my earliest recollection is playing when I was about five or six years old, watching my dad and a good friend of his play chess. So my best friend at the time who is my dads best friends son we picked up and started playing.

As I moved around the country my dad was in retail, and wed moved to a different city chess was always something that I could use, and I did use to kind of fit in with other kids and have something to talk about. Id ask if they played chess and if they didnt, I would teach them how to play. So that was kind of a way of me establishing a rapport as a kid with kids that I didnt know who were from different backgrounds and from all different parts of the country.

I kind of carried chess with me through high school and then through college I played chess in the Rec room over at MTSU and met people that way in between classes.

And then I kind of set it down for a little bit until I started having kids and my kids started going to school. I arranged to have some chess sets sent to Walter Hill (Elementary) when Butch Campbell was principal. And some of the kids picked up and played chess there. Then with Mr. Delbridge over at Siegel Middle School. I had some chess sets ordered up over there, and we had a little chess club on Thursday afternoons that we would meet over in one of the math classrooms and that the kids would play.

Then my kids got into band, and they didnt want to do chess anymore, so I became a band dad at that point.

QUESTION: I know for at least the past year, youve been talking to our School Board members and our director of schools about wanting to expand and do something more. Where did this most recent push come from?

My wife and I were watching a movie on Netflix called Critical Thinking. We started watching it, and its a true story about a chess club, actually it was a class, in a high school in the worst part of town in Miami, Florida.

The story is how this teacher, who is passionate about teaching children that they could think their way to a better place in life, how it was his passion for (chess) and the children understanding the benefits of it.

These kids, many of them, couldnt even speak English at the time, went and won a national championship in chess. Its the first time that it ever happened in an inner city school, especially in Miami.

After my wife and I watched the movie we turned off Netflix and went back to the news and there was something about some kids involved in trouble up in Nashville, and she just looked over at me and said, Somebody needs to do that here. (referring to the chess program).

QUESTION: Youve told me you then reached out to the executive producer of the chess movie for more information and then started looking for sponsors.

I went to Twitter checking the news, and Marcus Lemonis, who is the CEO of Camping World, has his own nonprofit. Its called Lemon-Aide, and he posted a picture of a blank check and said, If I gave you this, what would you do with it?

And I just responded, I would create a critical-thinking and conflict-resolution (chess) program for at-risk children in schools, in Rutherford County schools.

I didnt think that much more about it. And then about four or five days later, I woke up on Saturday morning and opened my computer. My Twitter feed had just exploded.

I thought, what in the world is this, nobody ever pays any attention to anything that I say. I started going through the trail of things and at the very end of it is Marcus Lemonis saying, Im giving you $5,000 for this program. Thats when I knew that we were onto something.

So we got the $5,000 and we invited local politicians and community leaders to a chess event in the mid-summer. Two of the school board members, Claire Maxwell and Caleb Tidwell, were there, and we had a couple of county commissioners who showed up, and Dr. Michael McDonald, whos on the Juvenile Oversight Board for the county, were all there. We had a very successful event, and we raised another five or six hundred, maybe a thousand dollars.

We gifted the money to Rutherford County Schools to purchase the equipment necessary to get this program off the ground.

QUESTION: Branded chess sets and materials have now been delivered to all the schools. Whats your short-term and long-term goal for this initiative?

Well, the short-term goal would be to bring it to the forefront of kids understanding that this is something that anybody can do and that theres benefits to it long-lasting benefits. I want to give all the kids an opportunity to play if theyre so inclined.

The second step is there is a program thats put out by FIDE, which is the International Chess Federation, that gives teachers the ability to integrate chess into their current curriculum and lesson plans. That is something that theyre rolling out in Pakistan and therell be six million students going through this program within the next year or so. Its being done in the state of Alabama. Its being done currently in New Hampshire.

So I would like to have the opportunity to bring that to Rutherford County. I have reached out to the governors office and reached out to members of our legislative delegation to keep it on the governors highlight list.

If we get it, and its successful, (Gov. Lee) would also like to extend that offer to Shelby County so that they could have a pilot program as well. Wed have the ability to work for a couple of years integrating it into our schools and see what the actual results are prior to leading to a wider adoption, I hope, statewide.

QUESTION: So how do you get buy-in from teachers when theyre already asked to do so much?

Well, they wouldnt have to change their lesson plans, which is the big thing. They would learn how to do it through a professional development class taught by Mr. Jerry Nash, whos the chairman of education for the International Chess Federation.

Over a two- or three-day period in a workshop, they would learn how to integrate these into their current lesson plans.

They would learn the language of chess because it has its own language. They would be able to integrate that in with their current reading languages, with the current mathematical languages, and with their conflict resolution (lessons). His experience in Alabama was the teachers that were the most reluctant to try it, were the ones that became the largest and biggest advocates for it once they learned and saw the impact of it.

Its one of those things people tend to be afraid of. But when they actually start doing it, realize its not that big of a buy-in. Its just a tiny little thing, and if the children grasp the information quicker and retain it longer, that means we have to have fewer remediation classes going on or fewer repetitions of the same material over and over again.

QUESTION: Tell me about the tournament youre hoping to do in April? Whats the plan to get it going?

I know a chess person, a real chess person, is going to say you must have a big tournament at each of the schools. And if the schools want to do that, I think thats great. I would encourage it. But I dont want any school to be left out.

Thats why I said, You pick who your champion is, however you want to do it. It could be they have a chess tournament in the school, in between breaks, or one day after school, and then, whoever wins will be that schools representative.

But I want every high school to have the opportunity to have somebody participate.

Then well have a Swiss-style tournament, which means that certain people will play multiple times, and then whoever has the most points, that school and that individual will be the champion of Rutherford County.

That carries some pride with it because as we continue this the next year, the schools that didnt win, theres some pride involved because they didnt get a trophy. Theyll want to be better prepared, and theyll take the steps necessary, hopefully, to get there.

And if its part of a curriculum thats being worked into some of their classes, its in their mind, so it is kind of a marketing tool right there with it.

Read the original here:

Rutherford Co. Property Assessor Talks Chess in Schools, First Tournament - Rutherford Source

Canada is perhaps not one of the classic big chess countries, and it may have come as a surprise to some that the Candidates Tournament and the Women's Candidates Tournament, have been awarded to Canada. This has a lot to do with one of the main sponsors of the Candidates, the Scheinberg family, which is based in Toronto, Canada. And Canada has a long and rich chess history.

The Canadian Chess Federation

Organised chess in Canada dates back to 1844, when Canada's first chess club was founded in Montreal. In 1894 Montreal was also one of the venues for the world championship match between Wilhelm Steinitz and Emanuel Lasker. However, most of the games of this match were played in the USA.

A Canadian Chess Association was founded in Hamilton in 1872 to organise Canadian national championships. This was replaced in 1932 by the Canadian Chess Federation (CCF), in which for the first time all the major cities of the country were represented with their clubs. In 1945 the Federation was renamed Chess Federation of Canada. This was to avoid confusion with the "Co-operative Commonwealth Federation" (also CCF). The Canadian Chess Federation is based in Ottawa and has published the bimonthly magazine "En Passant" since 1979.

Tournaments

In addition to the closed Canadian National Championships, there have also been open championships since 1956. The 13-year-old Bobby Fischer was one of the participants in the first of these tournaments, but still had a lot to learn.

Over the years, Canada has hosted some outstanding tournaments and matches. In 1957, the World Junior Championship was held in Toronto. Fischer's friend and mentor Bill Lombardy won. In 1967, to celebrate Canada's centennial, an invitational grandmaster tournament was held in which Bent Larsen and Klaus Darga finished shared first. In 1971, Bobby Fischer defeated Mark Taimanov 6-0 in their legendary candidates' match in Vancouver. An outstanding super tournament was also held in Montreal in 1979, with Anatoly Karpov and Mikhail Tal as the winners. Another major tournament, the World Chess Festival, was held in St John in 1988. During the festival Kevin Spraggett won his Candidates match against Andrei Sokolov. The following year Spraggett was beaten by Artur Yusupov in Quebec.

Players

One of the outstanding personalities in Canadian chess history in the middle of the last century was Daniel Abraham (Abe) Yanofsky (1925 - 2000). Yanofsky was born into a Jewish family in Brody, which at the time of his birth belonged to Poland and is now in western Ukraine. The family emigrated to Canada when Daniel Yanofsky was eight months old and settled in Winnipeg.

Yanofsky learnt chess when he was eight years old. By the age of 12, he had already won the Manitoba provincial championship and participated in the Canadian national championship. In 1939 he was a member of the Canadian national team at the Chess Olympiad in Buenos Aires - at the age of 14. With 13.5 points, Yanofsky achieved the second-best result behind Miguel Naidorf (Poland) on board 2. But he did not win a medal for this result because Canada had only reached the B final, where the team finished second, 17th overall.

Yanofsky took part in ten more Chess Olympiads until 1980, until 1970 he played on board one. After the 1964 Chess Olympiad he became a Grandmaster. Yanofsky was the first Grandmaster of his country and even the first Grandmaster of the entire British Commonwealth.

Daniel Yanofsky (left) with Edward Lasker (Photo: British Columbia Chess History)

During the war, Yanofsky had won several tournaments in Canada and the USA and after the war was one of the participants in the first major international post-war tournament, the Staunton Memorial in Groningen in 1946.

The Canadian finished tenth and was one of two players to beat tournament winner Botvinnik. The other was Najdorf. Yanofsky received the brilliancy prize for his victory.

_REPLACE_BY_ADV_1

Yanofsky also played in two interzonal tournaments, in 1948 and 1962, and won the British National Championship as a Commonwealth participant in 1953. Yanofsky played most of his tournaments in Canada and some in Israel. In the 1968 Netanya tournament, Yanofsky finished second behind Bobby Fischer. He drew against Fischer. Between 1943 and 1965, Yanofsky won the Canadian National Championship eight times, a record he shares with Maurice Fox. Yanofsky played his last tournament games in 1989.

Yanofsky was never a professional chess player, but worked first as a research assistant at the University of Winnipeg and then as a lawyer with his brother Harry in their joint law firm. He was also active in politics and held various offices in Winnipeg. Yanofsky received several awards and honours for his achievements in various fields.

Yanofsky's contemporary Frank Andersson (1928-1980) was also a very strong player, but suffered from chronic rheumatism, which severely limited his career as a tournament player. Otherwise he would probably have become a grandmaster.

Canada's second Grandmaster was Duncan Suttles. Born in San Francisco in 1945, he came to Canada at the age of eight when his father took a job as a professor in British Columbia. At the age of 15, Suttles was a participant in the 1961 Canadian Championships. In 1965, he played in the Under-20 World Championships and won the B final, finishing ahead of players such as Raymond Keene and others.

(Photo: British Columbia Chess History)

Between 1964 and 1984 Suttles took part in eight Chess Olympiads with the Canadian team, three of his last four appearances on board one. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1972.

In addition to his professional work as a mathematician, first at university and later in industry, Suttles played in a number of tournaments. He won the Vancouver Open in 1981, beating Anthony Miles and Yasser Seirawan. A follower of Nimzowitsch, Suttles cultivated an eccentric style of play, with a penchant for unusual openings and tactical skirmishes. His last international appearance was at the 1984 Chess Olympiad.

Canada's third grandmaster was Peter Biyiasas, who was born in Athens in 1950 and grew up in Vancouver. He won the Canadian National Championship in 1972 and was a member of the Canadian team at four Chess Olympiads from 1972 to 1978.

Peter Biyiasas(Photo: British Columbia Chess History)

In 1972 he won the individual bronze medal on board 4, in 1976 he won bronze on board 2 and in 1978 silver on board 1. In 1978 he became a Grandmaster. In 1980 Biyiasas changed federations and started to play for the USA.

Legend has it that in 1981 Bobby Fischer, who was in hiding, stayed at Biyiasas' place for a while. During this time they once played a blitz match which Fischer won 17-0. Biyiasas retired from tournament play in 1985.

Kevin Spraggett, born in Montreal in 1954, is the fourth Canadian who became a Grandmaster and the first who was born in Canada. Spraggett is regarded as the best Canadian player in history.

Kevin Spraggett

He began playing tournament chess in the early 1970s and became a professional chess player in 1980. He achieved a number of notable successes, including winning the US Open in 1983 and the Commonwealth Championship in 1985. Between 1984 and 1996, Spraggett won the Canadian National Championship five times and the Canada Open eight times. Between 1986 and 2002 Spraggett represented Canada in eight Chess Olympiads.

Another important player in Canadian chess history was Alexandre Lesiege. Born in Montreal in 1975, he started playing chess at the age of six. At the age of 14 he won the Canadian Junior Championship in 1989 with 10 wins and one draw. In 1992 Lesiege became the second youngest Canadian national champion after Yanofsky.

Alexandre Lesiege

In 1993, he took part in the Interzonal Tournament in Biel. In 1992, 1998, 2002 and 2016, he was a member of the Canadian team at the Chess Olympiads. FIDE awarded him the title of Grandmaster in 1998.

Immigrants, emigrants and streamers

After World War II, several strong players from Eastern Europe emigrated to Canada - the best known names are Fyodor Bohatirchuk, Paul Vaitonis and Geza Fuster - and enriched the Canadian chess landscape.

Fyodor Bohatirchuk

The Ukrainian Bohatirchuk was one of the strongest players in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and came to Canada via West Germany in 1949. He represented Canada at the 1954 Chess Olympiad.

In 1980, Soviet Grandmaster Igor Ivanov used a stopover in Gander on a flight from Havana to Moscow to escape. Within a short time, Ivanov was Canada's top player. He won the Canadian championship in 1981, 1986 and 1987. In the 1981 World Championship match against Anatoly Karpov, Ivanov was one of Viktor Korchnoi's seconds. At the 1982 and 1988 Chess Olympiads, Ivanov played on the first board of the Canadian team. In 1990 he moved to Utah and joined the US federation.

Former U16 world champion Evgeny Bareev emigrated from Russia to Canada in 2006 and lives in Toronto. Bareev also joined the Canadian Federation in 2015 and is number one in the Canadian rankings ahead of grandmaster Eric Hansen. Together with fellow Canadian grandmaster Aman Hambleton, Hansen runs the video streaming channel "Chessbrah".

In women's chess, Zhou Qiyu ("Nemo") and Vancouver-based Alexandra and Andrea Botez have achieved a high profile, particularly through their activities on social media. The Botez family traces its roots to Romania. The sisters were born in Dallas, USA.

_REPLACE_BY_ADV_2

Kevin Spraggett has been mentioned as the strongest Canadian-born Grandmaster. In fact there was a Canadian-born Grandmaster who was probably even better. Joel Lautier was also born in Canada. The family emigrated to France when Lautier was nine years old. Lautier became the best player in France. However, he retired from chess a long time ago.

Paul Keres

Paul Keres plays a special role in Canadian tournament history. He visited Canada several times.

Paul Keres at a simul in Quebec 1975

On his return journey from the 1975 Vancouver Open, which Keres had won, the Estonian and Soviet top player died during a stopover in Helsinki. Since then, a memorial tournament has been held regularly in Canada in Keres' honour.

This is Keres' last tournament game, played at the Vancouver tournament 1975.

The man who was Dr. Zhivago

More about Paul Keres...

Go here to see the original:

Chess in Canada: Great tournaments, impressive personalities - Chess News | ChessBase

It's "the Indian earthquake in Toronto", said Russian chess legend Garry Kasparov as he lauded teen Grandmaster D. Gukesh for becoming the youngest ever challenger for the world title, a triumph which marks the "shifting tectonic plates" in the game's global order.

The 17-year-old Gukesh bettered the record created by none other than Kasparov 40 years ago. The Russian was 22 when he qualified in 1984 to clash with compatriot Anatoly Karpov, making him the youngest challenger of that time.

Gukesh wins the Candidates Tournament

"Congratulations! The Indian earthquake in Toronto is the culmination of the shifting tectonic plates in the chess world as the 17 year old Gukesh D will face the Chinese champion Ding Liren for the highest title," wrote Kasparov on 'X', obliquely referring to the Russian domination of the past.

Gukesh played out an easy draw with American Hikaru Nakamura in the 14th and final round to finish with nine out of a possible 14 points in the tournament that is held to decide the challenger to the world champion.

The triumph entitles Gukesh a clash against reigning world champion Ding Liren of China in the last quarter of the year.

India's five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand has spawned a chess culture in India and the country is reaping the rewards of the Grandmaster's success with thousands of youngsters, mostly in their teens, taking up chess.

Kasparov acknowledged Anand's contribution to Indian chess, saying, "The 'children' of Vishy Anand are on the loose!" Kasparov was responding to a congratulatory tweet by Grand Chess Tour following Gukesh's success here.

"Congratulations to Gukesh D for his victory in the FIDE Candidates, securing his place as a challenger in the World Championship Match! We eagerly anticipate his participation in our grand chess tour events!," wrote Grand Chess Tour on 'X'.

In another social media post Kasparov highlighted the shift in power centre of chess, saying, "Look at the names of many of the top junior players in the USA and England to see that the Chinese and Indian diaspora are just as passionate to achieve at chess.

"The Kasparov Chess Foundation has watched this wave rise and Gukesh's success will raise it further," Kasparov, the undisputed world champion from 1985 till 1993, wrote on 'X'.

Kasparov, following a dispute with the international chess federation (FIDE) set up a rival organisation, the Professional Chess Association. He was ranked world No. 1 for a record 255 months overall, from 1984 until his retirement from regular competitive chess in 2005.

Go here to see the original:

Gukesh's win tectonic shift in world chess order: Kasparov - The Hindu

CHENNAI: It was 2017 and an 11-year old D Gukesh was still learning the ropes of top-flight chess. But he was clear in his mind: "I want to become the youngest world chess champion," Gukesh had said in an interview. Since then, the Indian GM, full of determination and drive, has been toiling towards his ultimate goal. Thanks to the grind over the years, including "sacrificing childhood" as his coach Vishnu Prasanna would put it Gukesh is now just one step away from realizing his dream. His singular focus on chess and parents' decision to let him do what he does best have also contributed to his meteoric rise. "Gukesh has basically given up his childhood...He does not have anything that a normal kid has, he does not have free time. He has to take more stress than an average child. "It is like a generational thing (achieving chess targets in time), it will happen again only after a few decades. Everybody has goals, but it is very hard to come close to that," GM Prasanna, who has been working with Gukesh for the past seven years, told TOI after his ward emerged triumphant in the prestigious Candidates tournament in Toronto. "Right from the start, he was like that. He wanted to be the world No. 1, that was his main goal. His goal was far away until he qualified for the Candidates late last year. He has come closer to his goal in the last six months to one year. He has been very determined and the final step (World Championship title) remains," Prasanna added.

Expand

Read the original:

Gukesh sacrificed childhood to come this far: Coach - The Times of India

The fearless approach with deep preparation of D Gukesh came out of syllabus for his well-versed opponents in the Candidates Chess tournament in Toronto. The only defeat that Gukesh suffered in the tournament came in the seventh round against French No. 1 Alireza Firouzja and the painful loss pumped the 17-year-old to give his best for the rest of the tourney. Gukesh took a sweet revenge of his defeat to Firouzja in the penultimate round and jumped to sole lead for the first time in the tournament and never looked back. At the press conference, when Gukesh was asked about the moment when he realized he might end up becoming the Candidates winner, he said, "If I had to pinpoint a moment where I really felt this could be my moment, it was probably after the seventh game, after I lost to Firouzja. Even though I just had a painful loss, I was feeling at my absolute best on the rest day. Maybe this loss gave me so much motivation and fired me up." He added, "After the loss I really felt that if I continue doing the right thing, and I am in the right mental state then I can really go for the triumph." He is just a step away from fulfilling his childhood dream of becoming the youngest world champion. Gukesh said, "I never think about the youngest or the first. My aim is to make it big at the world championship. The next goal and big thing is obviously the world title. I will give my absolute best but first I will try to relax. It has been stressful for the last three weeks." "After this much-needed break, I will think about the world championship and how I will plan to take things forward with my team. I will try to do the right things and be in the ideal shape required to play chess," he added.

Expand

Go here to read the rest:

Felt I could win the Candidates chess tournament after seventh round loss: Gukesh - The Times of India

Teams Surgut, Tehran, and Tula are in the lead.

The second round of the Asian Cities Team Championship was played at the Ugra Chess Academy on 22 April.

In the Russian derby, the experienced Surgut team defeated the young players from Moscow with a score of 2.5:1.5. Ilia Iljiushenok beat Stanislav Khudyakov, Aleksei Pridorozhni was stronger than Vasilii Titarov, Nikolai Kabanov lost to Marat Gilfanov, and the game I. Bocharov - D. Kirillov ended in a draw.

Grandmaster Ilia Iljiushenok: At first the game was not easy: in the opening the opponent tricked me a little. But, apparently, he mixed up something (as he told me after the game), and I began a decisive attack. Then a combination followed, and after that - victory".

Marat Gilfanov also shared his impressions of the game: I have mixed feelings about todays game. It seemed equal all the time, then in the endgame I had time trouble, but for some reason my opponent started playing quickly and blundered.

The men's team of Tehran, Iran, swept Baghdad, Iraq, with a clean score, despite the Tournaments top-rated player Bardiya Daneshvar not playing for them that day.

The Tula team defeated Pavlodar, Kazakhstan, with a score of 3:1. Daniil Manelyuk and Dmitrij Rodin won their games.

Tehran (8 individual points), Tula (7) and Surgut (6) are leading with 4 match points scored by each.

The women's team of Tehran is in fourth place with 3 match points: in the second round, they beat Kathmandu, Nepal, with a perfect score.

In other matches, Penang, Malaysia, defeated Sukhbaatar, Mongolia, 2.5:1.5, Colombo, Sri Lanka, beat Al Quds, Palestine, 4:0, and the encounter between Al Mahra, Yemen, and Muscat, Oman, ended in a draw.

The Khanty-Mansiysk team had a day off.

Round 3 pairings:

Tehran (men) Surgut Tehran (women) Tula Moscow Penang Pavlodar Baghdad Colombo Muscat Kathmandu Al Mahra Sukhbaatar Khanty-Mansiysk Day off Al Quds

Tournament on Chess-Results

Official website

Photos

Photos: UgraMegaSport

Visit link:

Round 2 of Asian Cities Chess Team Championship Completed in Khanty-Mansiysk -