NICK BARNETT CHESS
THE 2021 CHAMPIONS Chess Tour is attempting to determine the world’s best chess player over a full competitive season of online chess. It began in November 2020, and features monthly tournaments culminating in a final tournament in September 2021. The best chess players in the world are competing in a total of ten tournaments of rapid chess. There are 3 Major tournaments, 6 Regular and 1 Final
The current Regular, Opera Euro Rapid started on February 6th and will end on 14th. The prize fund is $100,000.
At the time of writing (10 February) GM Magnus Carlsen had taken the lead. Unsurprisingly after his setback at Wijik aan Zee he described it ‘a very enjoyable day of chess’. At that point Carlsen was leading with GM Wesley So coming 2nd and GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, third.
You can follow it on https://championschesstour.com ***
FIDE has just announced the first World University Online Championships. It is open to students born in 1995 or later, who have their secondary education completed, and are currently officially registered as proceeding towards a degree or diploma at a university.
The championships will be organized by the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (www.utrgv.edu) and will consist of four different competitions that will take place over three consecutive weekends:
FIDE World University Individual Online Blitz Championship (13-14 March); FIDE World University Individual Online Rapid Championship (20-21 March); FIDE World University Team Online Rapid Cup (27 March); FIDE World University Team Online Blitz Cup (28 March)
FIDE World University Individual Online Blitz Championship (March 13-14 on Tornelo)
The Individual Blitz Championship will be a 20-round Swiss tournament, with a time control of 3+2. Students from the same university shall not be paired against each other. The winner will be announced at the World University Online Blitz Champion 2021, and the highest placed woman will be announced as the World University Online Blitz Women’s Champion 2021.
The registration deadline is March 5, 2021 (11:59 UTC), and there is no entry fee. https://worlduniversity.fide. com/registration_blitz.phtml
The championships will be played on two different platforms: the individual events will take place on Tornelo, while the team events will be hosted by Chess24.
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GM NIHAL SARIN, 16, made it into the ‘30 under 30’ list by Forbes India. Grandmaster at 14, he finished 2020 with an enviable roster of achievements that includes a gold each at the Chess Olympiad and the U-18 world youth chess championship, and a silver at the Asian team championship.
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REMEMBER to check facebook.com/ SACHESSPLAYERS for tournaments in South Africa. You need to do it often because notice is usually quite short.
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