NICK BARNETT CHESS

THE NEXT TOURNAMENT in the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour will start on March 13th and end on the 21st. This series of 9, (with 9 days of chess each tournament) will be decided in September.

GM Magnus Carlsen seemed on the back foot as GM Wesley So became the first player to take two Meltwater Champions Chess Tour titles. Although on the FIDE rating list Wesley So is at number 9 with a rating of 2770 (see full list below), he seems to have found his form. GM Anish Giri (Netherlands) stands ninth on the overall leaderboard, just outside automatic qualification, but he was voted by Chess24 members, along with GM David Anton (Spain) to play in the next Meltwater event. (This did not meet everyone’s approval – a fan club does not vote on merit and it veered into a debate tinted with nationalism!)

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FIDE HAS TRIED its best to keep abreast of ratings even while chess competitions all around the world are suspended. Tata Steel tournament in Wijk aan Zee in the second half of January had its results being incorporated into the March rating list. Since several elite-level players participated in the Tata Steel 2021 we see some changes in the top-10.

1. Magnus Carlsen – 2847 (-15); 2. Fabiano Caruana – 2820 (-3) ; 3. Ding Liren – 2791; 4. Ian Nepomniachtchi

– 2789; 5. Levon Aronian – 2781; 6. Alexander Grischuk – 2777; 7. Anish Giri – 2776 (+12); 8. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov – 2770; 9. Wesley So – 2770; 10. Teimour Radjabov – 2765.

The biggest gains below this list were: Jorden Van Foreest – 2701 (+30); Andrey Esipenko – 2701 (+24); Anish Giri – 2776 (+12); Alireza Firouzja – 2759 (+10); Nils Grandelius – 2670 (+7)

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THE QUEEN’S Gambit did well in the Golden Globes, winning two awards: best limited series and best actress in a limited series for Anya Taylor-Joy. Whether this further boosts the interest in chess among girls, will be interesting.

More importantly: will it improve the quality of chess among them? In this vein ChessKid.com, the scholastic branch of Chess.com, announced its first United States national online tournament exclusively for female players. The tournament will be U.S. Chess Online Quick Rated. Included is a free training camp taught by a U.S. Women’s Champion, including GM Irina Krush, IM Nazi Paikidze, IM Anna Zatonskih, IM Rusa Goletiani, WGM Sabina Foiser, WGM Jennifer Shahade, WGM Jennifer Yu, and WIM Elina Cotler. That is nearly every U.S. Women’s Champion this century.

So far, so good! * * *

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