C30 Zonal Hybrid Events

My most recent post on the series of events that kicked off the current cycle, C30 Zonal Rating Reports (March 2022), didn't go very smoothly. As I wrote then,

I encountered a problem -- most of the events had no rating reports. I don't know if they are missing because the events weren't rated -or- because they are documented elsewhere -or- because I made a mistake. I didn't have time to investigate more thoroughly.

A few days later I learned that FIDE had changed its presentation of ratings -- Mark Crowther on Twitter: "@FIDE_chess The old version of the page is back..." -- and had problems with it. That encouraged me to look at the rating reports again, but the zonal++ events were still missing.

Not having another good idea for this week's post on this blog, I decided to document one of the many hybrid events that made up the bulk of the zonal stage of the current cycle. I've already looked at the technology, once on this blog in FIDE Hybrid Competitions (March 2021), and once on my main blog in The Tornelo Online Platform (June 2021).

Last year the European Chess Union (ECU) issued a series of reports on its own World Cup qualifier. The reports explained, in text and in photos, how the tournament was conducted:-

• 2021-05-23: European Hybrid Qualification Tournament Starts (europechess.org, as are the other reports in this list)
• 2021-05-26: R1 report - European Hybrid Qualification Tournament
• 2021-05-28: R2 report – European Hybrid Qualification Tournament
• 2021-05-30: 36 players qualified for FIDE World Chess Cup
• 2021-05-31: Vladislav Artemiev wins European Hybrid Swiss Tiebreaks

That first report, 'Tournament Starts', included a couple of important references:-

• Official Regulations – European Hybrid Qualification event (europechess.org)
• FIDE Requirements for Hybrid World Cup 2021 Qualifiers (handbook.fide.com)

The 'FIDE Requirements' included a brief section:-

7. Rating calculations (Decision pending)

Since that section has been there for a year or so, we can conclude that the hybrid events were not rated. And that explains why there were no FIDE rating reports for the qualification events.

The Karjakin Affair

I added the FIDE announcement about GM Karjakin's ban to my page 2022 Candidates Tournament (m-w.com). Why is this important to the Candidates event, scheduled to start in June? From Karjakin Banned For 6 Months, Misses Out On Candidates (chess.com; Peter Doggers):-

The FIDE Ethics and Disciplinary Commission (EDC) has banned GM Sergey Karjakin for six months from participating as a player in any FIDE rated chess competition. The 32-year-old Russian grandmaster, who is a fierce supporter of Russian president Vladimir Putin, was punished for his recent statements on social media and will be missing out on this year's FIDE Candidates Tournament.

A related Chess.com analysis of the third, last leg of the ongoing 2022 Grand Prix (m-w.com), explains the details. From The Final 3: Who Will Qualify For The Candidates 2022? (chess.com; Nathaniel Green):-

Now we come to the other huge news of the past several days, Karjakin's six-month ban by FIDE. The Candidates rules dictate that Karjakin's spot goes to the highest-rated player on the May 2022 rating list (not an average over several months) who has played at least 30 rated classical games in the previous 12 months (since the June 2021 list).

This is doubly important because several players participating in the Grand Prix have the opportunity to raise their own ratings during the event. A number of scenarios are possible.

2022 Grand Prix, 2nd Leg (Belgrade)

Two weeks after adding 2022 Grand Prix, 1st Leg (March 2022) to my page on the 2022 Grand Prix; Berlin / Belgrade (m-w.com), I incorporated the second leg on the same page. Following is a summary of TWIC introductions ('by Mark Crowther') from the weeks when the event took place:-

• TWIC1425, 2022-02-28 • 'The second FIDE Grand Prix starts tomorrow in Belgrade, I have no idea what to expect.'
• TWIC1426, 2022-03-07 • 'The FIDE Grand Prix in Belgrade has a day off tomorrow as the group stages all proved decisive. Dmitry Andreikin, Anish Giri, Richard Rapport and MVL [Maxime Vachier-Lagrave] all topped their group without the need for a tie-break.'
• TWIC1427, 2022-03-14 • 'Richard Rapport has one foot in the Candidates tournament after his win in the second FIDE Grand Prix in Belgrade. The third and final one takes place in Berlin starting next Monday.'

The sentence in the first TWIC report, 'I have no idea what to expect', referred to the Russian attack on Ukraine that started a few days before the Belgrade event opened. Of the five Russian players, only GM Andreikin advanced from the preliminary stage to the playoff stage. He lost in the final match to GM Rapport of Hungary. There were no Ukrainian players.

The official site for the event FIDE Grand Prix 2022 Series (worldchess.com) offers a 'Fleece Hoodie', shown in the following image ('Time to say Berlin'). I can't figure out what the design means. A man dressed in white is fighting a black ghost over spaghetti, while stepping in something that can't be good. Hmmm.

C30 Zonal Rating Reports

After C30 Zonal Qualification Paths (February 2022), the next step would be a post like C29 Zonal Rating Reports (March 2020), to identify the different events on Fide.com (more specifically ratings.fide.com). When I started to do this, using C30 Zonals 2020-2021 (m-w.com) as a guide, I encountered a problem -- most of the events had no rating reports.

As I write this post, I don't know if they are missing because the events weren't rated -or- because they are documented elsewhere -or- because I made a mistake. I didn't have time to investigate more thoroughly. In the meantime, I located the same events on Chess-results.com:-

• 1.0 2021-05-29: European Hybrid Qualification
• 1.10 2021-04-25: European Small Nations Hybrid
• 2.0 2021-05-29: American World Cup Qualification Stage - FIDE World Cup 2021 Knock Out - Registrations (links to three stages)
• 2.1 Chess-results.com?
• 2.2 2021-06-03: Online Canadian Qualifier
• 3.0 2021-05-29: Asian Individual Hybrid Chess
• 3.0i 2021-05-30: AICF World Cup Qualifier
• 3.1 2021-06-07: Zone 3.1 Chess Championships 2021
• 3.2 2021-06-09: SAIF Powertec Asian Zonal 3.2 Chess Championship 2021
• 3.3 2021-05-09: Zone 3.3 Zonal Chess Championships 2021
• 3.4 2021-05-15: Zone 3.4 Zonal Open Championship 2021
• 3.5 2021-05-31: Zone 3.5 Zonal Open Championship 2021
• 3.6 Chess-results.com?
• 3.7 2019-12-19: National Senior Chess Championship - 2019
• 4.0 2021-05-27: 2021 African Individual Chess Championships - Open Section

I'll look at this once more before I update the page Zonals : Links and Other References; Last updated 2020-03-11 (m-w.com; 'Reports from ratings.fide.com'). Note that two events are also missing on Chess-results.com. Something is wrong here.

2022 Grand Prix, 1st Leg (Berlin)

In last week's post, 2022 Grand Prix Regulations (cont.) (February 2022), I wrote,

I added more detailed explanation to my page and will continue with the crosstables as soon as I can.

'My page' is 2022 Grand Prix, Berlin/Belgrade. It now has both crosstables and PGN for the first leg, which took place in in Berlin.

The second leg, in Belgrade, started this week. With war raging in nearby Ukraine, the organizers announced a new logo.

World Chess Changes Logo to Anti-War Version
(worldchess.com)

I'll add the Belgrade leg to my page after the results are known.