NICK BARNETT CHESS

GM MAGNUS CARLSEN won the Aimchess US Rapid (Meltwater Champions tour) by beating Vladislav Artemiev. Magnus called it “a fairly smooth ride” even though on the 29th August, rising star GM Alireza Firouzja managed to checkmate the King (ie Carlsen)! This is the game:

1.e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3.Nc3 Qa5 4.d4 Nf6 5.Nf3 Bf5 6.Ne5 c6 7.Bc4 e6 8.g4 Bg6 9.h4 Nbd7 10.Nxd7 Nxd7 11.h5 Be4 12.O-O Bd5 13.Nxd5 cxd5 14.Bd3 Bd6 15.Qf3 O-O-O 16.Be3 g6 17.h6 Rhf8 18.a3 f5 19.c4 e5 20.b4 Qc7 21.c5 Be7 22.Bb5 e4 23.Qh3 f4 24.Bd2 Bg5 25.c6 Nf6 26.cxb7+ Qxb7 27.Rac1+ Kb8 28.Bc6 Qe7 29.Rc5 e3 30.fxe3 fxe3 31.Be1 Ne4 32.Qh2+ Kc8 33.Bd7+ Kxd7 34.Rc7+ Ke6 35.Qe5# 1-0

You can get some analysis on the Agadmator’s Chess Channel on YouTube by searching for ‘Taking World Champion for a Nice Walk’

The final of Meltwater will take place from September 25th. At this point the tournament itself does not have a name. https://championschesstour.com

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NORWAY CHESS (9TH edition) started on September 7th. It is touted as ‘The World’s strongest tournament’ or ‘the world’s most prestigious tournament’ but is it really?

The players are: GM’s Magnus Carlsen (Norway), Ian Neponmiachtchi (Russia), Richard Rapport (Hungary), Alireza Firouzja (France), Sergey Karjakin (Russia) and Aryan Tari (Norway).

As at the time of writing Rapport had beaten Aryan Tari and scored three points, whereas GM Magnus Carlsen got 1.5 points for his armageddon win against Alireza Firouzja after the two had drawn before.

The third game, between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Sergey Karjakin, will be played on the rest day as Nepomniachtchi could only arrive in Stavanger in the morning of the first round after having visa issues. You can follow on www.norwaychess.no

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ON SEPTEMBER 8th 2021 the next stage of the FIDE Online Olympiad is to begin with fifteen qualifiers: Argentina, Belarus, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Moldova, Philippines, Shenzhen China, Slovenia, and Sweden, who will be joined by the top-25 nations.

You can follow on https://onlineolympiad.fide.com

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CAN CHESS MAKE you better at business? This is the premise of an article in Chess.com (no author cited) but the writer makes these assertions: Chess: makes you consider your strengths and weaknesses; helps you create plans; teaches you to adapt plans; makes you manage your resources better; as well as shows you the Importance of learning from the masters.

Which means all good chess players should be rich? * * * REMEMBER to check facebook.com/ SACHESSPLAYERS for news and tournaments in South Africa.

There is another Facebook page entitled: SA Chess players which may be interesting if you want to keep up-to-date with SA chess.

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