King Salman World Rapid and Blitz Championships 2017 took place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 24th till 31st of December 2017

Official website: riyadh2017.fide.com

The King Salman World Rapid Championship had a thrilling finale in which Viswanathan Anand claimed the title after the blitz tie-break with Vladimir Fedoseev.

Ju Wenjun of China continued the good run on the final day of the Women's Rapid Championship and after scoring two wins and three draws emerged clear winner with 11,5/15 points. Her compatriot Lei Tingjie was in position to direct a tiebreak match, but she could not win with black against Nana Dzagnidze, therefore being awarded the silver medal. Elisabeth Paehtz claimed the bronze with 10,5 points.

Magnus Carlsen (Norway) and Nana Dzagnidze (Georgia) became champions of their respective section in the King Salman World Blitz Championships.

Point and a half behind the champion are Sergey Karjakin and World Rapid Champion Viswanathan Anand. Karjakin took the silver medal on better tie-break, but the prize money will be shared.

The powerful finish of five straight victories lifted Valentina Gunina to the second place half a point behind the winner.

The rest of the field remained far behind. Ju Wenjun and Kateryna Lagno shared the third place with 14 points each, but the Rapid Champion Ju claimed the bronze in blitz thanks to the superior tie-break.

During the opening ceremony of the World Blitz & Rapid Championships, FIDE Deputy President Mr. Makropoulos proposed to His Excellency Turki bin Abdel Muhsin Al-Asheikh, Chairman of the General Sports Authority of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, that the name of next year’s event in Riyadh can be "King Salman Peace & Friendship Rapid & Blitz World Chess Championships" and that in the spirit of the FIDE motto “Gens Una Sumus”, chess players from all nations will be welcomed and able to participate.

2nd IMSA Elite Mind Games were held in Huai’an, China from 8th to 16th of December 2017.

Official website: iemg2017.fide.com

The IMSA Elite Mind Games included five disciplines: Chess, Xiangqi, Draughts, Go, and Bridge. Moreover, the card game—Huai’an Guandan appeared as an exhibition game.

Nearly 400 participants including athletes, arbiters and officials from 44 countries and regions were involved in this event. The selection for the final list of 12 participants in each category (Men and Women) of chess was based on the average ratings for last 12 months of the player’s (three ratings for classical, blitz and rapid).

The organisers of the event are the Board and Card Games Administrative Center of the General Administration of Sport, Beijing, China together with the Municipality of Huai’an in Jiangsu Province, People’s Republic of China.

Open Rapid:
1. Dmitry Andreikin RUS 4½
2. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov AZE 4½
3. Le Quang Liem VIE 4½

Women Rapid:
1. Antoaneta Stefanova FID 4½
2. Anna Muzychuk UKR 4½
3. Mariya Muzychuk UKR 4½



Open Blitz:
1. Vladislav Artemiev RUS 16
2. Alexander Grischuk RUS 16
3. Dmitry Andreikin RUS 14



Women Blitz:
1. Antoaneta Stefanova FID 14½
2. Ju Wenjun CHN 13½
3. Alexandra Kosteniuk RUS 13½

Open Basque System:
1. Alexander Grischuk Alexander RUS 6½
2. Anton Korobov UKR 6½
3. Pentala Harikrishna IND 6



Women Basque System:
1. Zhao Xue CHN 7½
2. Anna Muzychuk UKR 6½
3. Kateryna Lagno RUS 5½

World Youth U16 Chess Olympiad 2017 took place in Ahmedabad, India from 10th to 20th of December 2017

Russia won the Gold and 1250 Euro, India Green took the Silver and 1000 Euro. Iran took the Bronze with 800 Euro.

Daily reports are available here



The prestigious and mega event attracted 30 teams from 25 (including Uganda, which did not turn up at the last minute) countries from all continents – three from India, two from South Africa, two from Kenya, two from Nepal and other federations fielding one team each. The nine round Swiss team event had 9 rounds, with a time control of 90 minutes to each player, with an increment of 30 seconds per move.

Over the years, this tournament has jumped leaps and bounds in quality, with one GM, 14 IMs, 4 WIMs, 29 FMs and 7 WFMs, providing ample opportunities for IM and WIM norm seekers. The strongest ever team in Youth chess Olympiad was fielded by India in the name of India Green which had an average rating of 2503.

European Rapid and Blitz Championships 2017 took place in Katowice, Poland from 14th to 18th December 2017.

Official website: www.katowice2017.eu/en

The winner of the European Blitz Championship, with 18 points, is Sergei Zhigalko from Belarus. Second and third places were taken respectively by Luke J McShane and Peter Michalik. The result was decided by a tiebreak.



The winner of the European Rapid Chess Championship was nineteen-year old Maksim Vavulin from Russia, who finished the tournament with the total score of 10 points.

Jan-Krzysztof Duda stood on the second step of podium. The best chess Polish player held the lead in the tournament for 10 rounds, but in the last game he succumbed to the future champion. The third place went to Pavel Pankratov, also a representative of Russia.

African Youth Chess Championships 2017 took place in Giza, Egypt from 2nd to 10th of December 2017

The Egyptian chess federation has successfully hosted the African Youth chess championships in Cataract Pyramids resort in Giza, Egypt 2 - 10 December 2017.

The event has attracted 145 players from 13 African countries : South Africa - Nigeria - Namibia - Zambia - Angola - Kenya - Uganda - Madagascar - Morocco - Algeria - Tunisia - Libya - Egypt

Algeria won 5 Gold, 3 Silver and 4 Bronze medals. Egypt won 3 Gold, 3 Silver and 4 Bronze medals. South Africa, Kenya Libya and Madagascar won 1 Gold medal each.

Dr. Hesham Elgendy, the President of the Egyptian chess federation has welcomed the participants and congratulated the winners. He has also held meetings and discussed plans to develop African chess with delegates of the thirteenth African countries.

RESULTS

African Junior U20 Chess Championships 2017 Lome, Togo from 21 till 31 December 2017

IM David Silva of Angola & WFM Lina Nassr of Algeria were crowned Africa Junior U20 Champions winners in their respective categories

Read full report here

Panamerican School Chess Championship 2017 took place in El Salvador from 11th to 18th of December 2017.

FINAL RESULTS