Cercle d'échecs de Wavre

The Week in Chess

1. AI Cup 2023 - Games and Results

   The AI Cup took place Mon 25th to Fri 29th Sep 2023. This was the final event of the online Champions Chess Tour before the finals in person in Toronto December 9 to December 16, 2023 (Carlsen, Nakamura and Abdusattorov have made it and Caruana seems a likely fourth player of the 8 player field).

   Division 1 of the AI Cup has 8 players: Magnus Carlsen, Alireza Firouzja, Denis Lazavik, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Hikaru Nakamura and Anish Giri.

   MVL beat Carlsen twice on the final day to win Division 1. Vladimir Fedoseev won Division 2 and Sam Sevian Division 3.

2. chess.com Speed Chess 2023 -

   The finals of the chess.com Speed Chess took place Mon 4th to Fri 22nd September 2023. 16 players competed including Alireza Firouzja, Wesley So, Levon Aronianm, Ian Nepomniachtchi and MVL However it was last year's finalists Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura that met again.

   Last year Carlsen got off to a poor start losing the 5m+1spm portion 6.5-2.5 and although he pulled close Nakamura had the upper hand throughout and infamously ran down the clock at the end to ensure victory. This year felt much closer with only a point in it in all three sections. Carlsen won the initial 5m+1spm section 5-4, Nakamura won the 3m+1spm 5-4 but it was Carlsen who triumphed in the Bullet 4.5-3.5 to win by a point 13.5-12.5.

   Carlsen is the only player who can really challenge Nakamura in bullet and this year it decided the title in his favour. The course of the match was that Carlsen took an early lead of two points, the players then traded blows before Nakamura scored 5 unanswered wins between games 9...

3. Levitov Chess Week 2023 - Games and Results

   The Levitov Chess Week takes place in Amsterdam Fri 22nd Sep to Tue 26th Sep 2023. Players: Ian Nepomniachtchi, Wesley So, Levon Aronian, Viswanathan Anand, Vladimir Kramnik, Peter Svidler, Daniil Dubov, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Alexander Grischuk and Boris Gelfand.

4. Champions Showdown 9LX 2023 - Games and Results

   The Champions Showdown 9LX took place in Saint Louis Thursday 7th Sep to Sun 10th Sep 2023. The main point of interest was the participation of legend Garry Kasparov as he rarely plays at all, last year was a horror show for him but given his competitive nature I'd expect him to have prepared and hopes for a decent score but it's a very tough field. Nakamura, Caruana, Wesley So, Aronian, Dominguez, Xiong, Sevian and Shankland are the other players. I was very limited in the coverage I could mount as I can't display Chess960 games, but I did provide a download. Sam Sevian was the surprise clear winner of the event. Kasparov led after day 1 but then only picked up another half a point. I'd love to see him play against some younger players in a mixed strength round robin, a reach across the generations as some of his predecessors did in their older years, but his days playing events featuring only elite players are surely coming to a close.

5. Tata Steel India Rapid & Blitz Open 2023 - Games and Results

   The Tata Steel India Rapid & Blitz takes place 5th to 9th September 2023. Players: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Alexander Grischuk, R Praggnanandhaa, Santosh Gujrathi Vidit, Teimour Radjabov, Arjun Erigaisi, D Gukesh, Pentala Harikrishna and Vincent Keymer.

6. Tata Steel India Rapid & Blitz Women 2023 - Games and Results

   The Tata Steel India Rapid & Blitz Women's section took place 31st August to 4th September. Deshmukh Divya won the rapid with 7/9 and Ju Wenjun the blitz with 12.5/18, 17 year old Divya won the combined title.

7. Julius Baer Generation Cup 2023 - Games and Results

   The Julius Baer Generation Cup took place Wed 30th Aug - Sun 3rd Sep 2023. Players in the top group: Magnus Carlsen, M. Amin Tabatabaei, Denis Lazavik, Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Pavel Eljanov, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Alireza Firouzja. Magnus Carlsen beat Alireza Firouzja 3-0 in the winners final and in an Armageddon in the Grand Final. Ian Nepomniachtchi won Division 2 and Sam Sevian Division 3 after beating Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in a final reset match. Mamedyarov beat him in the Winners final but lost the Grand Final setting up the finale.