2025 QC Meeting

 The 2025 FIDE Congress is happening right now. The various commission are meeting online, but the meetings have been recorded. If you wish to see me talk for far too long, then the QC meeting is at https://youtu.be/M_azwPqcS1U You can find the other meetings via https://congress.fide.com/commission-meetings-2025/

2025 FID World Cup - Sindarov!

 Javokhir Sindarov is the winner of the 2025 FIDE World Cup. He defeated Wei Yi in the 2nd playoff game to win the match 2.5-1.5 After 3 fairly even games (2 standard and one 15m+10s) the 4th game exploded into tactics with both players running short of time. Yi actually held an advantage, but having to move with 1 second on the clock (which he did a few times) eventually led to a mistake, and a win for the 19 year old.

At 19 Sindarov is th youngest World Cup winner ever, and is part of the surging Uzbekistan chess culture. With state support, and plenty of opportunities after their 2022 Olympiad win, the Uzbek players are becoming a force to be reckoned with. 

Yi has the consolation of qualifying for the Candidates tournament, as does Esipenko, who won the third place playoff yesterday. 

2025 Vikings Weekender - Win for Stopa

 GM Jacek Stopa has won the 2025 Vikings Weekender, finishing on 5/6. After starting with a round 1 HPB, he scored 3 wins, before drawing with 2nd seed FM Fred Litchfeld in round 5. He then faced Masaki Horikawa in the final round, needing a win to overtake Horikawa. He managed to do this in style (winning in 27 moves) to reach 5 points. He could have been joined by CM Hui Li on 5, if Li had decided to push for a win against Litchfield in a significantly better position. However Li decided that a guaranteed 2nd prize (shared) was better than risking going home empty handed, and so took the draw. These results left seeds 2,3 and 4 (Litchfield, Li and Horikawa) tied for 2nd on 4.5/6

The Under 1600 event finished in a tie between Nicholas Lee and Trent Parker on 5.5/6. Their Round 4 game ended in a draw, and they went 5-0 in their remaining games. Third place on 5/6 was taken by the quickly improving Kyle Zhang (861 ACF!) , whose only loss came at the hands of Lee.

The event attracted a capacity field of 73 players and offered a prize pool of over $3000. Tim Pearce did a great job as Chief Arbiter, handling the various tasks of tournament management, dispute solver, and DGT board  wrangler with great skill. The event organisers, Tuggeranong Chess Club, once again put on a great tournament, and look to welcome back all the players in 2026.

Results: https://www.vegaresults.com/vr/4577

Games (Top 4 boards): https://view.livechesscloud.com/#8412fb38-3d81-4a63-904d-f42b9a1a52cf

2025 Vikings Weekender - Day 2

 The 2025 Vikings Weekender (hosted by the Tuggeranong Chess Club, Canberra) has proved very popular, selling out a few days before the start. I missed the start of the event (still in transit from Goa) but turned up for Day 2. Top seed GM Jacek Stopa also did the same, taking  a half point bye for the Friday round, but then went 3/3 in today's round. He was joined on 3.5/4 by FM Fred Litchfield, Masaki Horikawa and Thomas Eleutherios. Horikawa and Litchfield drew their round 4 game (an interesting pawn ending), while Eleutherios and Stopa won their last 2 games of the day. With 2 rounds to play tomorrow, the top 4 players look to be playing a semi-final, and final, with the player who wins both of their games tomorrow taking home the $1000 1st prize.

The Under 1600 tournament attracted a larger field of 41 players, with the 1st place battle taking place between a mix of improving juniors and a few  experienced adults. As with the Open, there is a 4 way tie for 1st, between Nicholas Lee, Trent Parker, Padma Gyalpo and Vaibhav Sharma. Again, tomorrows rounds 5 & 6 will determine the destination of the $500 1st prize round 

2025 World Cup - Day 19

 After yesterdays quartet of draws, today's Rapid playoffs saw plenty of action. There were 3 matches to be decided, and the first game of the playoffs saw 2 decisive results. Even better (for spectators) the rematches saw 3 decisive games. Unfortunately for home fans, won of thise wins was by Wei over Arjun, knocking Arjun out of the tournament. In the other 2 games, the first game losers (Shankland and Sindarov) bounced back to extend their respective matches. 

In the 2nd set of playoffs, Esipenko beat Shankland 2-0 to go through to the semi finals. He seemed to handle the pressure a lot better, looking more relaxed than his opponent at all times. In the other match Alcantara's magic run came to an end, with Sindarov winning 1.5-0.5 in the 10m+10s section.

The end of this round also sees the end of my work at the tournament. As tomorrow is also a rest day, I won't even have games to watch as a spectator before I depart, but at least it means I get home the catch the semi finals online.

2025 World Cup - Day 18

 Day 18 saw won of the quickest games of the entire World Cup, when Alcantara and Sindarov reached a 'draw by repetition' position in about 20 minutes. Apparently the whole line has been played plenty of times before, although Sindarov did pause a few times, probably to make sure he remembered the whole line correctly.

Esipenko and Shankland also drew in under 2 hours, and so that was my days work finished. But I did hang around to see the finish of Arjun and Wei (another draw), but left before the long rook ending between Donchenko and Yakubboev, which was the 4th draw of the day. However, with Yakkubboev winning yesterday, he goes through to the semis, with the other 3 matches heading for playoffs.

Tomorrow will also be my last day working at the event, as the semis and finals will be handled by the CA and DCA. Then back to beautiful Canberra to enjoy the start of another glorious summer.  

2025 World Cup - Day 17

 The first games of the 6th round of the 2025 FIDE World Cup saw the earliest finish yet. The matchup between two highest remaining seeds (Arjun and Yi) was over within an hour, with the handshake being offered once move 30 was reached by Black. The other 2 draws had some fight in them, but once a level ending was reached, neither side was interested in working for more.

The only decisive game was between Yakubboev and Donchenko. Although Donchenko has probably been the most entertaining player  of the event, such strategy does carry a degree of risk, as he found out today. However, given he has faced elimination before, tomorrows game will be entertaining, no matter the result.

BTW I now have only 2 days left to go, as after round 6 my work here is done. I get back to Australia at the end of the week (late Friday), just in time to catch the Vikings Weekender in Canberra