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13 hours ago
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USA and Uzbekistan, along with India and China, possess the world’s current four best chess teams, so the announcement that the pair will meet at Miami on 27-28 July in an all-play-all rapid and blitz Scheveningen format is sure to create interest as a guide to what may happen when the 200-nation classical Olympiad takes place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan between 15-27 September. Full details of the forthcoming match are here.
The two teams in Miami will both be at virtually full strength. USA will field the world Nos 2 and 3, Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura, plus the world No 7, Wesley So, and world Nos 17 and 22, Leinier Domínguez and Levon Aronian. Only the world No 19, Hans Niemann, might have made it stronger.
Uzbekistan will include the world Nos 4 and 6, Javokhir Sindarov and Nodirbek Abdusattorov, the world No 39, Nodirbek Yakubboev, the world No 62, Shamsiddin Vokhidov, and the world No 132, Mukhiddin Madaminov.
The vastly experienced US team, winners of six Olympiad gold medals, have an average age of 38, while their opponents clock in at just 21.
How do England’s best grandmasters compare? Not very well, it seems. In February England’s No 5, Luke McShane, played a six-game match with Madaminov and lost 1.5-4.5, without winning a game.
There is a further purpose for the match format. The venue at Faena Miami Beach offers facilities for streaming, hospitality and live commentary which will enhance the spectator experience.
The Miami match is sponsored by WR Chess’s Wadim Rosenstein as part of his campaign to become the new president of Fide. Voting will take place during the Olympiad at the Fide general assembly in Samarkand, where Rosenstein’s rivals will be the incumbent president, Russia’s Arkady Dvorkovich, and Rosenstein’s fellow German multi-millionaire Jan Henric Buettner, whose running mate will be England’s international director, Malcolm Pein.
The Quantbox Chennai Grandmasters, an elite classical GM single round all-play-all, began on Thursday morning in Chennai, India, Seven of the eight competitors are rated above Fide 2700. Abdusattorov is cutting it fine, with only one day between Chennai and Miami.
Round one results: Abdusattorov 0.5 Niemann, Arjun Erigaisi (India) 0.5 Dmitry Andreikin (Fide/Russia), Pranesh Munirethinam (India) 0-1 Alireza Firouzja (France), Gukesh Dommaraju (India) 0.5 Nihal Sarin (India). Games are viewable on lichess starting at 10am BST.
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Supratit Banerjee advanced closer to a record-breaking international master title at age 12 when the Sutton Grammar pupil achieved his second IM norm last week at an invitational event in Sheffield. Banerjee now needs just one more IM norm, plus a 2400+ published rating, for which he is close, to become one of the world’s youngest IMs. He is already the world’s highest rated player born in 2014.
Banerjee shared first prize with Sam Chow of Australia on 6.5/9 and won a brilliant attacking game in round eight, ending with a queen sacrifice for checkmate against Lithuanian IM Gediminas Sarakauskas.
In transatlantic prodigy matches played on a giant screen on Sunday at ChessFest in Trafalgar Square, Banerjee lost 0.5-1.5 to Argentina’s Faustino Oro, 12, the world’s youngest grandmaster, while England’s 11-year-old Bodhana Sivanandan defeated USA’s Megan Paragua, 13, by the same 1.5-0.5 score.
Banerjee will hope to continue his hot streak and wrap up the IM title this weekend when he competes in the Wood Green Invitational, organised at Stafford by IM Loz Cooper, Wood Green’s team manager.
This is a significantly stronger event than Sheffield, with the top two seeds the nine-time British champion Michael Adams and England’s youngest grandmaster, Shreyas Royal, plus several other highly ranked players competing for GM and IM norms. Banerjee will do very well to make a plus score in this elite company.
You can follow the 12-year-old’s campaign for an English age record game by game here.
4033: 1 Ng5! Bxg5 2 Qe8+! Rxe8 3 Rxe8+ Kf7 4 Rf8 mate.
