IT’S a rest day at the 81st Armenian Championship Highest League, so let’s peek at an event concocted and lately hatched by the World Chess Federation (FIDE) – the first-ever 2021 World Corporate Chess Championship Online Tournament which ended on Feb. 21 at the chess.com server.
The competition was joined by 284 corporate teams from all over the world (sadly, the Philippines again was missing from the roster) bracketed into eight divisions – East A, East B, East C, East D, East E, East F, West A, and West B. The players were employees or executives of companies, although each firm can hire the services of one chess prorated over Elo 2500 in the four-board competition. The time format for the tournament is 10 minutes plus two seconds increment per move.
Among the elite pro players hired by various firms were Magnus Carlsen, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Anish Giri, Dmitry Andreikin, Anton Korobov, Dmitry Jakovenko, and Georg Meier.
Meier’s team, Granke Bank of Germany went on to win the championship by beating the Nepomniachtchi-led Sberbank of Russia. The teams that hired Carlsen, Giri, Andreikin, and Jakovenko didn’t fare well because of their very shallow benches.
Nepomniachtchi, I (2789)-Anisimov, P (2527) [A00]
2021 World Corporate Championship Online chess.com (4.1), 20.02.2021
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Nf3 Ngf6 6.Nxf6+ Nxf6 7.Ne5 Nd7 8.Nc4 Nf6 9.Bf4 Be7 10.Be5 0-0 11.Bd3 b5 12.Ne3 c5 13.Qf3 cxd4 14.0-0-0 Qa5 15.Bxd4 Ba6 16.Ng4 Nxg4 17.Qxg4 g6 18.Kb1 b4 19.Bxa6 Qxa6 20.h4 h5 21.Qf4 Qb5 22.g4 Rad8 23.Qh6 e5 24.gxh5 Rxd4 25.hxg6 Rxd1+ 26.Rxd1 fxg6 27.Qxg6+ Kh8 28.Rg1 1-0
Giri, A (2764)-Bregadze, L (2454)
chess.com (6.1) 20.02.2021
1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nf3 d6 4.Be3 c6 5.c4 a6 6.Be2 Nf6 7.Nc3 0-0 8.0-0 b5 9.a3 bxc4 10.Bxc4 d5 11.Bd3 dxe4 12.Nxe4 Nbd7 13.Rc1 Nb6 14.Nxf6+ Bxf6 15.Be4 Nd5 16.Bh6 Re8 17.Ne5 Bxe5 18.dxe5 Be6 19.Rxc6 Qd7 20.Rxe6 fxe6 21.Qg4 Kh8 22.Rd1 Qa4 23.Rd3 Rad8 24.h3 Qa5 25.Rf3 Nc7 26.Rf7 Rg8 27.Qh4 Rd1+ 28.Kh2 Qxe5+ 29.Bf4 Qh5 30.Qxh5 1-0
Korobov, A (2683)-Burg, T (2514)
chess.com (5.1) 2021
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 a6 4.c5 e5 5.dxe5 d4 6.Ne4 Nc6 7.Nf3 Qd5 8.Ng3 Nxe5 9.e4 Nxf3+ 10.Qxf3 Qxc5 11.Bd2 Qb6 12.Bc4 Be6 13.Bxe6 Qxe6 14.0-0 Ne7 15.Rfc1 Nc6 16.Nh5 0-0-0 17.Nf4 Qd7 18.b4 d3 19.Rab1 Nd4 20.Qxd3 Qg4 21.Kh1 Ne2 22.Nd5 Nxc1 23.Rxc1 Bd6 24.f3 Qe6 25.b5 axb5 26.Qxb5 Kb8 27.Rb1 Qc8 28.Be3 c5 29.a4 Qd7 30.Qa5 f5 31.e5 Qc6 32.exd6 Qxd5 33.Bxc5 Rhe8 34.Qc7+ Ka8 35.Qa5+ Kb8 36.Ba7+ Ka8 37.Qxd5 1-0
Meier, G (2628)-Jojua, D (2557)
chess.com (4.1) 2021
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3 g6 3.Bg2 Bg7 4.0-0 0-0 5.d4 d6 6.b3 e5 7.dxe5 dxe5 8.Ba3 Qxd1 9.Rxd1 Re8 10.c4 e4 11.Nd4 Ng4 12.Nc3 e3 13.Nd5 Na6 14.fxe3 c6 15.Ne7+ Kh8 16.Nxc8 Raxc8 17.Bh3 Nxe3 18.Bxc8 Rxc8 19.Rd3 c5 20.Nb5 Bxa1 21.Rxe3 Bf6 22.Rd3 Re8 23.Kf1 Kg7 24.Rd7 Re7 25.Rxe7 Bxe7 26.Nxa7 Nb4 27.Nc8 Bf8 28.Bb2+ Kg8 29.a3 Nc6 30.Bc3 f5 31.Nb6 Bg7 32.Bxg7 Kxg7 33.Nd7 Kf7 34.Nxc5 Na5 35.a4 Ke7 36.b4 Nxc4 37.Nxb7 Kd7 38.Nc5+ Kc6 39.Ne6 Nb2 40.a5 Kb5 41.Nf8 Nc4 42.Nxh7 Kxb4 43.a6 Kb5 44.a7 Nb6 45.Nf8 g5 46.Ne6 Ka6 47.Nxg5 Kxa7 48.Kf2 Kb7 49.Kf3 Nd5 50.Ne6 Nf6 51.Kf4 Ng4 52.h4 Nh6 53.Kg5 1-0
Jojua, D (2557)-Jakovenko, D (2684)
chess.com (6.5) 2021
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 Be7 5.Bg2 d5 6.Nf3 c6 7.Qc2 Nbd7 8.0-0 b6 9.Rd1 Ba6 10.b3 Rc8 11.Bc3 dxc4 12.Ne5 Nxe5 13.dxe5 Nd7 14.Qe4 Qc7 15.bxc4 0-0 16.Nd2 Rfd8 17.Nb3 Nc5 18.Nxc5 Bxc5 19.h4 b5 20.cxb5 cxb5 21.Bd4 Bf8 22.Qe3 Rd7 23.Rdc1 Qa5 24.Bxa7 Rxc1+ 25.Rxc1 Qxa2 26.Bc5 Bxc5 27.Qxc5 h5 28.Bf3 g6 29.Qb6 Kg7 30.Kg2 b4 31.Qxb4 Bxe2 32.Bxe2 Qxe2 33.Qf4 Qd3 34.Qf6+ Kh7 35.Rc8 1-0
Abasov, N (2664)-Zawadzka, J (2399)
chess.com (1.5) 2021
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.0-0 Qd6 6.Na3 Be6 7.c3 c5 8.d4 cxd4 9.cxd4 0-0-0 10.d5 Bg4 11.h3 Bxf3 12.Qxf3 Qf6 13.Qg3 Re8 14.Nc4 Qg6 15.Qf3 Bd6 16.Bd2 Ne7 17.Rac1 Kb8 18.Na5 Ka8 19.Rc4 Rb8 20.Qe2 f5 21.Ra4 Bc5 22.Rc1 Qd6 23.Nxb7 Kxb7 24.Rxc5 Ra8 25.Rac4 Rhc8 26.Rb4+ Ka7 27.Be3 1-0
*******
PUZZLERS
WHITE TO MOVE,
MATE IN TWO.
The key to our last problem is 1.Rb6!, and Black’s futile options are: 1…dxe4 2.Qa1#; 1…d4 2.Rb5#; 1…fxe4/f4 2.Rg5#./PN
