NICK BARNETT CHESS
AS THE WORLD Championship match approaches, GM Magnus Carlsen has not let up, first grinding out a victory in Norway Chess 2021, then onto North Macedonia where he led his Oslo hometown team Offerspillen at the European Club Cup, then onto the Meltwater Champions Tour, where he is playing nine mini-matches against top opposition. But to add to that, he is scheduled to appear in a live virtual Q+A session by Mastercard, which has just been announced as a partner for the 2022 Champions Tour and which has named Carlsen as one of its global brand ambassadors in the company of Lionel Messi and Naomi Osaka. He was riding high on his win at Stavanger where there were 10 tense days of play, with 30 classical games and a further 14 Armageddon matches. Richard Rapport put up a good early fight as did young Alireza Firouzja. They finished the tournament in second and third places respectively but Carlsen prevailed, working hard for his win.
He characterized it as “a really satisfying victory. It wasn’t sparkling at all, but I came away with everything I could have hoped for”.
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THE LONG-RUNNING 2021 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour will end on the 4th of October. Wesley So did not fare well, crashing out in the blitz section. So’s loss came after Carlsen was bettered by Russia’s Vladislav Artemiev. Artemiev said afterwards that he had tried to play more aggressively against the champion and his plan worked well.
After Round 4 Carlsen was leading. You can follow it at https://championschesstour.com
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ON THE OTHER HAND, challenger to Carlsen’s world dominance, GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, who withdrew from the Meltwater Final at short notice, has seemingly retreated into deep preparation. Some indication of the reasons for this may be found in his comment after Stavanger, describing his performance as “disgusting, considering all the chances I spoiled” but added “at the same time it was, I believe, quite useful”.
Talk is that he has assembled a strong team of advisors, including the 2004 title challenger Peter Leko, plus the best that Russia can offer. It is no secret that Russia would be glad to add a World Cup to the Online Olympiad team gold.
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THERE IS A Facebook page entitled: SA Chess players (https://www.facebook.com/ groups/395074637226303) which may be interesting if you want to keep up-to-date with SA chess.
I would send you links to the CHESSA website or their Facebook page but the former has nothing new to say and the latter is no longer available… (Apparently politics still muddies the water, but what is new?)
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