NICK BARNETT CHESS

The FTX Crypto Cup, the 6th event on the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, begins Sunday, May 23rd at 17:00 CEST. Not only does it feature an astounding online chess prize fund of $320k it is the strongest field of all time. And importantly, GM Magnus Carlsen will face World Championship Challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi. The participants are:

1 Magnus Carlsen (2847); 2 Fabiano Caruana (2820); 3 Ding Liren (2799); 4 Ian Nepomniachtchi (2792); 5 Levon Aronian (2781); 6 Anish Giri (2780); 7 Alexander Grischuk (2776); 8 Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2770); 9 Wesley So (2741); 10 Teimour Radjabov (2765); 11 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (2760); 12 Alireza Firouzja (2759); 13 Hikaru Nakamura (2736); 14 Peter Svidler (2714); 15 Daniil Dubov (2710); 16 Alan Pichot (2630).

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The FIDE and Chess.com 2021 Women’s Speed Chess Championship is an online competition for titled female players. The qualifiers for the event will happen from May 28-June 6, while the main event runs from June 10-July 3. Players will battle for their share of a total prize fund of $64,000. Participants will be: Humpy Koneru; Alexandra Kosteniuk; Antoaneta Stefanova; Anna Muzychuk; Irina Krush and Kateryna Lagno.

It can be followed on Chess.com.

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The younger generation is hot on the heels of the current world leaders. 12-year old Abhimanyu Mishra is just 29 Elo points and 1 GM norm away from becoming the world’s youngest GM and beating Karjakin’s record for the youngest GM which stands since 2002 at the age of 12 years and 7 months. Abhimanyu has time until 5th of September. From New Jersey, US, he is already the youngest ever international master, at 10. Another youngster pursuing this dream is 10-year old Tanitoluwa Emmanuel Adewumi. His Christian family fled Nigeria in 2017 and were taken up by a pastor in New York. Taught by his brother to play, he participated in his first tournament and a year later he had accumulated seven trophies. In 2019, he played several friendly blitz games, against Nakamura, Jennifer Yu and Fabiano Caruana at St Louis Chess Club. He just made US National Master at the Fairfield County Chess Club Championship tournament in Connecticut.

Watch this space!

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How does Magnus rate world champions in terms of Genius, Entertainment value, Influence and Sanity? It is an interesting exercise, although the the definitions of these terms can be questioned? You can find out by going to Chessbase.com and look for ‘Magnus Carlsen about Fischer, Karpov, Kasparov, Kramnik, Anand, Polgar, Hou Yifan - and himself!’

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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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For comment or news please write to thechessnik@ gmail.com