Portrait of Hou Yifan

This month's featured photo on my main blog, Enhanced Chess Art (March 2025), won over another photo on the short list that I also wanted to use. Luckily, the second photo is equally appropriate for this current blog.

I play my enemies like a game of chess... © Flickr user Dunk under Creative Commons.

The description copied the first paragraph of Wikipedia's page on Hou Yifan (wikipedia.org), ...

Hou Yifan (born 1994) is a Chinese chess grandmaster, four-time Women's World Chess Champion and professor at Shenzhen University. She is the second highest rated female player of all time. A chess prodigy, she was the youngest female player ever to qualify for the title of grandmaster (at the age of 14 years, 6 months, 16 days) and the youngest ever to win the Women's World Chess Championship (at age 16).

... then added,

Portrait of Hou Yifan at the 2016 Chess Olympiad by Andreas Kontokanis via Wikimedia Commons [plus a link].

The Flickr title, 'I play my enemies...', is a line from the 1996 Fugees hit 'Ready or Not'. For a look at Hou Yifan's path to the Women's World Championship, see 2010 FIDE Knockout Matches (m-w.com; 'Antakya (Turkey), XII, 2010').

2024 Ding Liren - Gukesh, Third Week

Last week's post, 2024 Ding Liren - Gukesh, Second Week (December 2024), on the World Championship taking place in Singapore ended with the score '+1-1=5 after the seventh game' (3.5 for each player). That was the half way point for the 14 scheduled regulation games. Since that post, five more games have been played. Here are the daily reports published by FIDE:-

• 2024-12-04: The most exciting game of the match ends in a draw (worldchampionship.fide.com; g.08)
• 2024-12-05: The calm after the storm (ditto, also following links; g.09)
• 2024-12-07: Ding hits a brick wall as match stands at 5-5 (g.10)
• 2024-12-08: Ding cracks under pressure and Gukesh takes the lead (g.11)
• 2024-12-09: Ding Liren takes down Gukesh D and ties the match (g.12)

All reports continued to be signed 'IM Michael Rahal', now with the mention of 'Singapore' after his name. Adding those five games to the seven played previously gives:-

+1-1=5 after the 2nd week
+1-1=3 during the 3rd week
======
+2-2=8 after the 12th game

That's where this blog will pick up for the next post with two regulation games to be played. This week's featured photo shows the official commentators at work.

'Game 11 Howell, Houska, Hou'
GM David Howell, IM Jovanka Houska, GM Hou Yifan
Photo: FIDE / Maria Emelianova

Howell and Houska have commentated on every game. Former Women's World Champion GM Hou Yifan was their guest for an extended interview during the 11th game. According to my page World Chess Championship for Women (m-w.com), Hou Yifan first won the title in 2010, then defended it three times before retiring while still reigning champion.

The Next Cycle

In the previous post, 2024 Ding Liren - Gukesh, Warmup (November 2024), I emerged from a state of suspended animation and brought the blog up-to-date for the current cycle:-

In the nearly six months since my previous post on this blog, Toronto Candidates - Wrapup (June 2024), world class chess has moved from the end of a Candidates tournament to the start of a World Championship match.

For this post I updated my two main index pages. Both pages are now showing a second cycle with links to Wikipedia instead of to my own material:-

• World Chess Championship
• World Chess Championship for Women

A big difference between the two cycles is that the World Championship allocates two Candidate spots to the FIDE Circuit - one for the year 2024 and one for the year 2025. The Women's Championship allocates two spots to the 2024-25 Women's Grand Prix.

Another difference is that the World Championship allocates one spot for highest rating. The Women's Championship allocates one spot to 'FIDE Women’s Events 2025-26' (NB: events from 2024-25), which uses a point system to combine results from eight top women's tournaments.

Toronto Candidates - Wrapup

Having done as much as I wanted to do for the two recent candidate events -- the main event and the women's event -- it's time to wrap everything up. The equivalent post for the previous cycle, Madrid Candidates - Wrapup (August 2022), had 11 posts on this blog plus one on my main blog. This current effort has 14 posts plus one on the main blog.

• 2023-09-20: Forthcoming Events
• 2024-01-17: The Race for the 2024 Candidates Events
• 2024-03-06: Toronto Candidates - Kickoff • Crosstable showing the historical record of all previous games between the eight players.
• 2024-03-13: Toronto Candidates - Women • Ditto, but crosstable for women.
• 2024-03-20: Toronto Candidates - Visas
• 2024-03-27: Toronto Candidates - Sponsors
• 2024-04-03: Toronto Candidates - Last Resources
• 2024-04-10: Toronto Candidates - First Week
• 2024-04-17: Toronto Candidates - Second Week
• 2024-04-24: Toronto Candidates - Third Week
• 2024-05-15: A Soft-spoken Challenger • Video: 'Interview with FIDE Candidates winner Gukesh'.
• 2024-05-22: Toronto Candidates - Round by Round • Links to other reports.
• 2024-05-29: Toronto Candidates - Games with Most Views
• 2024-06-05: Toronto Candidates - Women

And from my main blog:-

• 2024-04-25: Candidate Yahoos • 'Of the 99 chess stories returned by Google News for the month of April, 27 were about the just concluded Candidates tournament'.

And that's a wrapup...

Toronto Candidates - Women

Due to severe time constraints, it's been a while since I posted Toronto Candidates - Third Week (April 2024). There I wrote,

I'll have a wrapup report on the entire event and a separate report on the Women’s Candidates as soon as I get a chance.

Let's have the Women’s Candidates first. Here is the crosstable as created by TWIC.

FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament 2024
(theweekinchess.com; TWIC)

The corresponding report started,

Tan Zhongyi is the clear winner of the Women's Candidates 2024 • Tan Zhongyi will challenge Ju Wenjun for the World Chess Championship in 2025. The 32 year old player was not the favourite for the event but her confident play dominated with only a round 8 loss to her closest challenger Lei Tingjie as a blemish in the event.

For a crosstable on the previous Women's Championship match, see 2023 Ju Wenjun - Lei Tingjie Title Match; Shanghai / Chongqing (China), VII, 2023. Both players were mentioned in the TWIC report quoted above.

Toronto Candidates - Last Resources

The two FIDE Candidate tournaments start tomorrow. After a series of four consecutive preliminary posts, starting with Toronto Candidates - Kickoff (March 2024), we're one day away from the real deal. Since there is nothing to say about the results, let's list some of the resources.

First, here are some general references. The TWIC pages are good for getting a bird's eye view of the two main events -- the Candidates and the Women's Candidates -- without having to scroll past the dozens of large, extraneous photos that the other main chess sites use to illustrate their reports.

• FIDE Candidates 2024 (theweekinchess.com; TWIC)
• FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament 2024 (ditto)
• FIDE Candidates Tournament 2024: All The Information (chess.com)

Next, here are some predictions. The favorite appears to be Fabiano Caruana.

• 2024-03-29: Who The Stats Say Will Be The Next World Championship Challenger (chess.com; NathanielGreen)
• 2024-04-02: Candidates: Who will win? (chessbase.com)
• 2024-04-03: FIDE Candidates 2024: Preview and Predictions (lichess.org)
• 2024-04-03: Magnus Carlsen Ranks The Candidates Players (chess.com; TarjeiJS)

One of the traditions on this blog has been to track the round-by-round progress of the players compared with the winners of previous events. For example:-

• Madrid Candidates - First Week (June 2022) • 'Chart showing the round-by-round progress of the participants in the 2013, 2014, and 2016 candidates tournaments [...] New chart for the 2018 and 2020 tournaments'

I'll do the same for the next post -- which should also be a 'First Week' post -- by adapting the chart developed for 2022 Candidates Tournament (m-w.com; see 'Cumulative Score'). I've always been impressed at how fast the main contestants can be identified. There is only one real prize : first place and a crack at the World Championship. Second place is the same as last place.

Toronto Candidates - Sponsors

Given all the visa trouble we saw in the previous post, Toronto Candidates - Visas (March 2024), you might well ask, 'Why was Toronto Canada chosen to host the event?'. The answer to the question starts with Partners (candidates2024.fide.com), where we find,

The Scheinberg Family • The Scheinberg family is a long-term partner of the International Chess Federation. The cooperation that started a few years ago has already resulted in three Grand Swiss events (2019, 2021 and 2023), two editions oa [sic; 'of'?] Women Grand Swiss (2021 and 2023), and the FIDE Candidates (2022). Supporting the FIDE Candidates Tournament 2024 and the FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament 2024 in Toronto, Canada is another step to help the top-level chess as well as to promote the game on all the continents.

Other partners mentioned on the page are 1 Hotel Toronto, Chessable, and The Chess Federation of Canada. Here are some recent announcements by FIDE referring to the Scheinbergs:-

• 2021-12-28: Candidates Tournament to take place in Madrid sponsored by Chess.com (fide.com) • 'As the organising sponsor of this prestigious tournament, Chess.com signed an agreement on Monday with governing body FIDE and the Scheinberg family, patrons of the event.'
• 2022-04-19: FIDE announces long-term cooperation with the Scheinberg family (ditto; 'Photo credit: Pokerstars')
• 2023-03-27: Toronto will host the 2024 FIDE Candidates Tournaments (ditto) • 'The event will be sponsored by the Scheinberg family, as part of the long-term collaboration agreement that was announced in 2022.'

Despite the six previous events, the Scheinbergs have received only one mention on this blog: 2023 Grand Swiss, Isle of Man (November 2023). This says as much about their desire for privacy as it does about my journalistic skills. That one blog mention said, 'For the Scheinberg family, see the FIDE news item dated 2022-04-19 in the following list' [also above]. It turns out that there are three generations of the Scheinberg family with a keen interest in chess. All links are to Wikipedia:-

• Matafia Seinbergas (wikipedia.org) • 'Matafia Seinbergas (also Matafia Sembergas or Matafia Scheinberg; 17 November 1909 — 11 September 2002) was a Lithuanian chess player, medical scientist (immunologist, microbiologist, virologist), and the father of Isai Scheinberg, founder of PokerStars.'
• Isai Scheinberg (ditto) • 'Isai Scheinberg (born 1946 or 1947) is the Lithuanian Jewish founder of the PokerStars online poker site. Scheinberg previously had been a senior programmer for IBM Canada.'
• Mark Scheinberg (ditto) • '(Igal) Mark Scheinberg (born 1973) is an Israeli-Canadian businessman and investor with investments in various sectors including real estate and luxury hospitality. He is the co-founder and former co-owner of the online gambling company PokerStars, which was sold in 2014 to Amaya Gaming for $4.9 billion.'

I doubt that anyone has become fabulously wealthy working as a 'senior programmer for IBM Canada', but the 'online gambling company PokerStars' offers a clue. Here are two sources, the first American and the second Canadian:-

• 2020-01-24 The Incredible Rise Of PokerStars Cofounder Isai Scheinberg -- And His Surrender To Federal Agents (forbes.com) • 'Last Friday, Isai Scheinberg, the 73-year-old cofounder of PokerStars, the world’s biggest online poker company, boarded a plane in Switzerland for the nine-hour flight to New York City. On the other end, he would not be greeted at the airport by family members or businesses associates, but by federal agents who would take him into custody.'
• 2023-11-23: How a Canadian billionaire made a fortune from illegal gaming and avoided prison (ricochet.media; 'The Israeli-Canadian founder of PokerStars used his vast wealth and powerful connections to cut deals') • 'He is arguably one of Canada’s wealthiest and most successful business people that the country knows virtually nothing about. But Isai Scheinberg is okay with that. [...] In 2016, the Scheinbergs bought a substantial stake in Chess.com, the largest online chess platform in the world. [...] The Scheinbergs decided to end their investment in 2020.'

Here's the full story given from the poker perspective:-

• 2021-04-15: Isai Scheinberg: His Company, His Legacy, and How Black Friday Impacted Both (pokerstake.com) • 'Ten years after poker’s most infamous day, Black Friday, threatened to destroy the company he and his son Mark built, Scheinberg is ready to let the poker world hear from him for the first time.'

To understand that story, it helps to understand Black Friday. We're not talking the day after Turkey Day (aka Thanksgiving) here: United States v. Scheinberg (wikipedia.org). It starts,

United States v. Scheinberg (2011) is a United States federal criminal case against the founders of the three largest online poker companies, PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Cereus (Absolute Poker/Ultimatebet), and a handful of their associates, which alleges that the defendants violated the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) and engaged in bank fraud and money laundering to process transfers to and from their customers.

In the mid-2000s, I remember watching poker for the first time on television. It was at a bar run by a Brussels tennis club and it was riveting. Is there a connection between the success of online poker and the success of online chess? I bet that the management of Chess.com thinks so and that is has something to do with the Scheinbergs.

Toronto Candidates - Visas

Visa problems for World Championship events and qualifiers aren't new -- consider, for example, the 1999 FIDE Knockout Matches (m-w.com; Las Vegas, VII-VIII, 1999), and the 2004 FIDE Knockout Matches (ditto; Tripoli, VI-VII, 2004) -- but they have never threatened to derail the organization of an event. The 2024 Toronto Candidates provided a new level of uncertainty:-

• 2024-03-04: Candidates Tournament: Visa trouble (chessbase.com; André Schulz) • 'Four weeks before the start of the Candidates Tournament in Toronto, almost all the participants and their travelling companions are still waiting for the visas they applied for months ago to be issued. FIDE has now sent an "urgent visa appeal to the Canadian government" and is even considering moving the "most prestigious tournament in the chess world" to another country.'
• 2024-03-08: Candidates Tournaments to take place in Toronto after all! (ditto) • 'FIDE has announced that all outstanding visa applications for the entry of the Candidates and their companions as well as organising staff have been approved by the Canadian authorities and the Candidates Tournaments will take place in Toronto starting from April 3, as was originally planned.'

The Chessbase.com reports provided a sober analysis of speculation concerning the global political issues behind the visa brouhaha. The corresponding Chess.com reports provided another level of brouhaha in the hundreds of comments about the situation:-

• 2024-03-02: FIDE Makes 'Urgent Visa Appeal' To Canadian Government Regarding Candidates (chess.com; TarjeiJS)
• 2024-03-07: Candidates Given Green Light As Visa Issues Resolved Just In Time (ditto)

The second Chess.com report mentioned,

The event was at risk of being relocated to Spain with over 40 players and officials grappling with pending visa approvals, as revealed by Vladimir Drkulec, the President of the Canadian Chess Federation, last weekend.

The CFC's Drkulec participated in the commentary ('vdrkulec') during the rapidly evolving situation. One of his last comments, a long summary documenting the resolution of the crisis, is an important footnote to the historical record.

Toronto Candidates - Women

In last week's post, Toronto Candidates - Kickoff (March 2024), I created a crosstable to determine the historical record of all eight participants playing each other. I ended the post saying,

Apologies for not creating a similar table for the Women's Candidates Tournament, which takes place at the same time in Toronto. I ran out of time for the table, but will make up for it when I can.

Since I was also interested in the results, I decided to give it priority. The last row is for the Women's World Champion, Ju Wenjun.

	Gor	Kon	Lag	Lei	Muz	Ram	Sal	Tan	:	Ju
Goryachkina	xx	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	:	*
Koneru, Humpy		xx	*	*	*	*	*	*	:	*
Lagno			xx	*	*	*	*	*	:	*
Lei Tingjie				xx	*	*	*	*	:	*
Muzychuk A.					xx	*	*	*	:	*
Rameshbabu						xx	*	*	:	*
Salimova							xx	*	:	*
Tan Zhongyi								xx	:	*
Ju Wenjun									:	xx

As with last week's table, the links under the players' names go to that player's FIDE rating page. The links in the crosstable go to Chessgames.com.

Toronto Candidates - Kickoff

It's been nearly two months since I last posted on the two 2024 Candidates tournaments; see The Race for the 2024 Candidates Events (January 2024). Since the tournaments are due to start at the beginning of next month, it's time to get serious.

For the past six Candidates tournaments, I've produced a crosstable of links to Chessgames.com showing the record between each pair of players. The post for the 2022 tournament was Madrid Candidates - Kickoff (June 2022). First, here are some relevant links for the 2024 tournament:-

• Official site: candidates2024.fide.com (fide.com)
• Current Local Time in Toronto, Ontario, Canada (timeanddate.com)

In previous kickoff posts, I included a link to my page for the event. I stopped creating my own pages starting with the current cycle, so I'll reference the Wikipedia page instead:-

• Candidates Tournament 2024 (wikipedia.org)

The following table includes each players record against the reigning World Champion, Ding Liren. The players' names link to their corresponding FIDE page.

	Aba	Car	Fir	Guk	Nak	Nep	Pra	Vid	:	Din
Abasov	xx	*	*	*	*	*	*	*	:	*
Caruana		xx	*	*	*	*	*	*	:	*
Firouzja			xx	*	*	*	*	*	:	*
Gukesh				xx	*	*	*	*	:	*
Nakamura					xx	*	*	*	:	*
Nepomniachtchi						xx	*	*	:	*
Praggnanandhaa							xx	*	:	*
Vidit (*)								xx	:	*
Ding Liren									:	xx

(*) Vidit Santosh Gujrathi

Four of the eight players plus Ding Liren competed in the 2022 Madrid Candidates Tournament (m-w.com). The newcomers are Abasov, Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, and Vidit.

Apologies for not creating a similar table for the Women's Candidates Tournament, which takes place at the same time in Toronto. I ran out of time for the table, but will make up for it when I can. The links for both the official site and the Wikipedia page lead to info on the Women's event.

The Race for the 2024 Candidates Events

The new year saw a flurry of activity related to the next stage of the current cycle (all links are fide.com):-

• 2023-12-18: FIDE statement on rating specific tournaments • 'Concerns have arisen regarding the [Chartres, France] tournament's potential purpose -- whether it was orchestrated to aid Mr Firouzja in boosting his rating for potential qualification into the Candidates Tournament 2024'
• 2024-01-01: FIDE January 2024 rating list: Firouzja and Koneru qualify for Candidates
• 2024-01-13: Magnus Carlsen withdraws from Candidates 2024, the spot goes to Nijat Abasov
• 2024-01-15: FIDE publishes regulations for 2024 Candidates Tournaments

That last link includes full lists of the players who qualified for the two Candidates events and how they qualified:-

Candidates (*):-
Ian Nepomniachtchi, 2023 Match Runner-up
R Praggnanandhaa, 2023 World Cup 2nd
Fabiano Caruana, 2023 World Cup 3rd
Nijat Abasov, 2023 World Cup 4th
Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, 2023 Grand Swiss winner
Hikaru Nakamura, 2023 Grand Swiss 2nd
Alireza Firouzja, Best by Rating
Gukesh D, 2023 FIDE Circuit Winner

(*) Magnus Carlsen, who qualified for the Candidates by winning the 2023 World Cup, earlier informed FIDE that he will not be taking part in the event. As per FIDE Candidates qualification paths, Nijat Abasov, who finished 4th in the World Cup, took his place.

Women's Candidates:-
Lei Tingjie, 2023 Match Runner-up
Kateryna Lagno, 2022-23 WGP 1st
Aleksandra Goryachkina, 2022-23 WGP 2nd
Nurgyul Salimova, 2023 World Cup 2nd
Anna Muzychuk, 2023 World Cup 3rd
Vaishali Rameshbabu, 2023 Grand Swiss 1st
Tan Zhongyi, 2023 Grand Swiss 2nd
Humpy Koneru, Best by Rating (World Cup spot replacement)

Also worth noting is an official page on a new feature of the current cycle:-

• FIDE Circuit 2023 (wcc.fide.com) • 'FIDE Circuit is the new path to qualify for the FIDE Candidates Tournament 2024.'

Since the FIDE announcements are 'Just the facts, Ma'am', reports from the chess news sites add substantial background and color.

• 2023-10-25: Race for the Candidates: Four places still up for grabs (chessbase.com; Carlos Alberto Colodro)
• 2023-11-30: Kasparov: Can’t Follow the FIDE Mathematics (saintlouischessclub.org; video)
• 2023-11-30: Dominguez: After FIDE’s Changes, I Will Fight for the Candidates (saintlouischessclub.org; video)
• 2023-12-05: US Chess: Candidate Tournament Qualification Letter to FIDE (chessbase.com)
• 2023-12-06: FIDE Clarification On Candidates Race Draws Reactions (chess.com; TarjeiJS)
• 2023-12-19: FIDE statement on rating specific tournaments (chessbase.com)
• 2023-12-25: Caruana wins FIDE Circuit, second spot to be decided in Samarkand (chessbase.com)
• 2023-12-27: Firouzja playing in Rouen, FIDE changes tournament registration procedure (chessbase.com; Carlos Alberto Colodro)
• 2023-12-29: Firouzja Overtakes Wesley So To Grab Candidates Rating Spot (chess.com; Colin_McGourty)
• 2024-01-01: Gukesh, Firouzja and Humpy make it to the Candidates (chessbase.com; Carlos Alberto Colodro)
• 2024-01-03: The participants of the Candidates (chessbase.com; André Schulz)
• 2024-01-04: It's official: Carlsen will not play in the Candidates (chessbase.com; André Schulz) • 'Carlsen has now announced on his X account'
• 2024-01-15: Carlsen Confirms He Will Formally Decline Candidates Invitation (chess.com; TarjeiJS) • 'GM Magnus Carlsen was included in FIDE's full lineup for the Candidates tournament this week, but in an exclusive interview with Chess.com the former world champion says that he is formally turning down the invitation to play in Toronto.'

For both Candidates tournaments, the FIDE calendar says, 'Toronto, Canada • 03 Apr 2024 • 25 Apr 2024'.

World Championships from 50 and 25 Years Ago

Last week on my main blog, I encountered a few World Championship topics that needed more time than I had. In the post January 1974 & 1999 'On the Cover' (January 2024), I commented,

That mention of Fischer and Marcos deserves further exploration, but I'm worried it might lead me down a rabbit hole from which I won't return in time to finish this current post. Maybe later...

That comment referred to January 1974, while a second comment in the same post referred to January 1999:-

The cover introduction continued with news about two World Championships. [...] Once again, that news 'deserves further exploration'.

The post quoted 'Chess Life & Review (50 Years Ago)':-

The great Philippines International Tournament, the most important chess event ever held in Asia and the Pacific area, ended November 6. The significance of the event was highlighted by the ceremonial presence of World Champion Bobby Fischer and Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos.

Re Fischer/Marcos, good thing I didn't go any further for that post. I've already dealt with the meeting in posts on both of my blogs:-

• 2012-09-19: The Philippine Connection • (WCCB) '1973 Manila: Fischer visits tournament; meets Marcos, Campomanes'
• 2014-07-03: Treated Like a World Champion • (CFAA) 'I [found] a 1973 Fischer photo that doesn't yet seem to have been made available on the web'

Here is that Fischer photo again.

Re the 1999 'news about two World Championships', the first concerned the FIDE Knockout Matches; Las Vegas, VII-VIII, 1999 (m-w.com). The post quoted 'Chess Life (25 Years Ago)':-

De Firmian, Benjamin, and the other semi-finalists, Dmitry Gurevich and Tal Shaked, qualified to participate in the FIDE World Championship, along with Boris Gulko and Sergey Kudrin, both of whom qualified by previous performance or rating; and Alexander Ivanov, who qualified by winning the 1998 Pan American Championship, which was held in Venezuela in October. Gata Kamsky has also been invited (by rating).

My page Zonal Qualifiers 1998-1999 (C18) (m-w.com) has info on all eight players:-

Zone 2.1
55. J. BENJAMIN (USA)
56. N. de FIRMAN (USA)
57. D. GUREVICH (USA)
58. T. SHAKED (USA)
59. B. GULKO (USA)

Nominee by the Administrator
14. S. KUDRIN (USA)

Nominees by Continental President
16. America: A. IVANOV (USA)

Qualified by ELO (average January-July 1998)
85. G. KAMSKY (USA) (2720)

The qualification of GMs Gulko, Ivanov, and Kudrin, is not consistent between the two sources. GM Ivanov's qualification is confirmed in TWIC 209, but the details about the other two GMs need further investigation.

Re the 1999 news about the second World Championship, the January 1999 CL said,

Alisa Galliamova-Ivanchuk forfeited her match with Jun Xie. China was awarded the bid for the match; Alisa wanted to play at least half of the match in Russia, so she didn't show up at all. Jun Xie, the former women's world champion, will now challenge the current champion, Susan Polgar.

The reference is to an unprecedented sequence of matches for the 1995-99 cycle outlined on the World Chess Championship for Women (m-w.com). The Candidates final match is listed there as 'Xie Jun - Galliamova (forfeit)'; the subsequent World Championship match is listed first as 'Xie Jun - Z.Polgar (forfeit)'; and then as 'Xie Jun - Galliamova'. I've already posted twice about these matches:-

• 2017-02-08: 1995-1999 Women's Cycle
• 2017-02-15: The Last Standard Women's Cycle

There is nothing more to add here.

2023 Grand Swiss, Isle of Man

Taking the previous blog post documenting a FIDE World Championship event, 2023 World Cup, Baku (August 2023), as a model, this post for the 2023 Grand Swiss needs the following info:-

• Official site and logo
• FIDE news items about the event

The rest can be found on Wikipedia via my main index pages:-

• World Chess Championship (m-w.com)
• World Chess Championship for Women (ditto)

The 2023 logo is shown here:-

2023 official site:

FIDE Grand Swiss 2023 (fide.com)

Compare that with the 2021 logo for the previous event:-

2021 official site:

The design on the left changed, although the two designs were inspired by the same motif. The text on the right has dropped the mention of 'Chess.com' as a sponsor. I looked for an explanation of that change, but found nothing. I suppose it was a high-level business decision by one or more of the parties. I copied the following infographic from the 2023-11-05 news item in the list below and added the corresponding web domains.

fide.com • iomchess.com • visitiom.co.uk • --

As for the Scheinberg family, see the FIDE news item dated 2022-04-19 in the following list. From FIDE.com:-

• 2022-03-18: Isle of Man to host FIDE Grand Swiss and Women’s Grand Swiss 2023
• 2022-04-19: FIDE announces long-term cooperation with the Scheinberg family
• 2023-01-07: FIDE reforms qualifications paths to Candidates Tournament
• 2023-03-20: FIDE Grand Swiss and WGS offer record prize funds
• 2023-06-14: Qualified players for FIDE Grand Swiss and Women’s Grand Swiss
• 2023-07-25: Grand Swiss and Women's Grand Swiss 2023: preliminary lineups and World Cup passes • World Cup passes?: 'It's important to note that the lineups are not yet final. More spots will be filled with wild cards and additional qualifications from the World Cup, set to begin on July 29 in Azerbaijan.'
• 2023-09-29: The Isle of Man’s Grand Chess Spectacle
• 2023-10-22: 2023 FIDE Grand Swiss brings grand expectations
• 2023-10-24: FIDE Grand Swiss and FIDE Women's Grand Swiss 2023 kick off in the Isle of Man
• 2023-10-31: FIDE approves new regulations for Affiliated Members • 'This development received a warm reception from the Isle of Man, currently hosting the Grand Swiss tournament, which applied to be a member federation of FIDE over 20 years ago, but the application was declined.'
• 2023-11-05: Indian Triumph - Vidit and Vaishali win FIDE Grand Swiss

That last news item doesn't mention who qualified for the 2024 Candidates tournament. Other sources tell us that Vidit Santosh Gujrathi and Hikaru Nakamura qualified from the 2023 Grand Swiss, and that Vaishali Rameshbabu and Tan Zhongyi qualified from the 2023 Women's Grand Swiss For the two index pages mentioned at the top of this post, I added links to Wikipedia pages for the two 2024 Candidates tournaments.

Forthcoming Events

The previous post, 2022-23 WGP Wrapup (September 2023), was the last of my updates for recent events. For this current post I updated my two main index pages by adding links to Wikipedia for forthcoming events:-

• World Chess Championship [WCC]
• World Chess Championship for Women

Also worth mentioning are two FIDE pages describing the next WCC cycles:-

• FIDE World Championship, Cycle 2023-2024
• Women’s World Championship Cycle, 2023-2025

At this time I'm not sure why there's a discrepancy between the years for the two cycles. The unrestricted championship says, '2024 DATES AND HOST CITY TO BE ANNOUNCED'. The women's championship says, 'DATES AND HOST CITY TO BE ANNOUNCED'. The FIDE Calendar currently lists four events for the two separate cycles:-

• FIDE Grand Swiss and Women’s Grand Swiss 2023 • Isle of Man • 23 Oct 2023 • 06 Nov 2023
• FIDE World Fischer Random Championship • • 19 Feb 2024 • 25 Feb 2024
• Women's Candidates Tournament • Toronto, Canada • 03 Apr 2024 • 25 Apr 2024
• Candidates Tournament • Toronto, Canada • 03 Apr 2024 • 25 Apr 2024

I include the 'FIDE World FRC [Chess960] Championship' for completeness. Perhaps one day it will be considered a World Championship of the same importance as the others, but I'm not holding my breath.

2022-23 WGP Wrapup

In the previous post (see the last link in the following list), I wrote,

The series of four Women's Grand Prix events needs a wrapup post to pull everything together.

The posts documenting the four events were:-

• 2022-10-05: 2022-23 WGP, Astana
• 2023-02-15: 2022-23 WGP, Munich
• 2023-04-05: 2022-23 WGP, New Delhi, Marred by Withdrawals
• 2023-09-06: 2022-23 WGP, New Delhi & Nicosia

Add a chart showing the cumulative Grand Prix points...

Standings - FIDE Grand Prix 2023
(womengrandprix.fide.com)

...and that's all I really need to do.

2022-23 WGP, New Delhi & Nicosia

In the previous post, 2023 World Cup, Baku (August 2023), I reminded myself about a couple of actions:-

Last week, in Back in the Saddle with PGN (August 2023), I ended saying, "Next stop: The 2023 World Cup is nearing its finish in Baku. Also to do is the final leg of the Women's Grand Prix, last seen in 2022-23 WGP, New Delhi (April 2023)."

I tackled the first action in that Baku post, while the second action referenced an earlier post, 2022-23 WGP, New Delhi, Marred by Withdrawals (April 2023). The second action would have more accurately described as documenting 'the final *two* legs'.

***

2022-23 WGP, New Delhi

From Fide.com:-

• 2023-03-20: The home of chess welcomes Women's Grand Prix
• 2023-03-25: Letter of FIDE President regarding the Women’s Grand Prix in New Delhi, India
• 2023-04-05: Aleksandra Goryachkina wins in New Delhi on tiebreaks

***

2022-23 WGP, Nicosia

From Fide.com:-

• 2023-03-30: Cyprus to host fourth stage of FIDE Women's Grand Prix
• 2023-05-15: FIDE Women's Grand Prix: Show-down in Cyprus
• 2023-05-16: FIDE WGP: Five-time World Champion Vishy Anand welcomes players to Cyprus
• 2023-05-27: FIDE WGP: Dinara Wagner reigns in Cyprus

The series of four Women's Grand Prix events needs a wrapup post to pull everything together.

Back in the Saddle with PGN

Continuing with Back in the Saddle (August 2023), I added the PGN to the two women's events mentioned in that post. I also added the names of the two players in the title match to the Index of Women Players.

Next stop: The 2023 World Cup is nearing its finish in Baku. Also to do is the final leg of the Women's Grand Prix, last seen in 2022-23 WGP, New Delhi (April 2023).

Back in the Saddle with Crosstables

Following up last week's post, Back in the Saddle (August 2023), where I gave myself a few actions, I managed to accomplish one of them. I added the crosstables for two pages:-

• 2022-23 Candidates Tournament (m-w.com); 'Stage II'
• 2023 Ju Wenjun - Lei Tingjie Title Match (ditto)

These will likely be the last crosstables I create for the site. I created the first in 1997 and have kept their appearance the same since then.

Back in the Saddle

After a six week break -- the previous post on this blog was 2023 World Championship Side Events (June 2023) -- it's time to tackle some of the events that have taken place since the beginning of the year. In particular, I fell seriously behind in documenting women's events.

I created a new page for the recently concluded 2023 Ju Wenjun - Lei Tingjie Title Match (m-w.com), and added it to the index for the World Chess Championship for Women (ditto). The logo is shown below.

Source: FIDE Women’s World Championship Match

The new page needs a crosstable and PGN. The same goes for the previous event, the 2022-23 Women's Candidates Tournament (ditto; missing 'Stage II', played '27 March - 6 April 2023'). The title match should also be included on the Index of Women Players.

Last year I stopped adding new pages for the next cycle of the Women's World Championship. For this current post I did the same for the unrestricted championship (aka 'Open' according to current terminology), indexed on my site's main page, The World Chess Championship (ditto). From now on, I'll rely on links to Wikipedia to document future World Championship events.

There's more to do, but that's a good start. I'll fill in the blanks during the coming weeks.

2023 World Championship Side Events

For this current post let's have more of More Photos from Ding - Nepo (June 2023). See that post for links and a brief explanation.

Courtesy of FIDE / Photographers listed below

Photos for 'Side events', starting upper left:-

UL: 'Future World Champions - tournament for kids. 10 April, 2023' • Photo by Anna Shtourman
UR: 'Arbiter Workshop with IA Nebojsa Baralic. 11 April, 2023' • Photo by Stev Bonhage
LL: 'Dana Reizniece-Ozola gave a lecture titled "How to Win the Game: balancing work and family life'. April 16, 2023' • Photo by David Llada
LR: 'Chess in Education International Conference. 20 April, 2023' • Photo by Anna Shtourman

For more about the events in the bottom row, see:-

• 2023-04-16: Finding the work-life balance – advice from a Woman Grandmaster (worldchampionship.fide.com) • 'FIDE's Deputy Chair of the Management board and Woman Grandmaster, Dana Reizniece-Ozola'
• 'Chess in Education International Conference', Astana • TBD?

For a list of all side events, see Side Events FIDE World Championship 2023, Astana (ditto).