A brainchild of Chokri Saidi, a French-Tunisian entrepreneur, the Djerba Chess Festival aims to combine chess, friendship, culture and tourism on the beautiful island of Djerba, the largest island off the coast of North Africa which is also known as the ‘island of dreams’. Furthermore, Saidi has gone a step further in his chess organizing pursuits and, from this year, he is also organizing the prestigious Jeddah International Youth Chess Festival. Diana Mihajlova informs.
The 51st edition of the Rilton Cup came to an end in Stockholm on Friday. The winner of the nine-round event was the Ukrainian GM Vitaly Sivuk, who now plays for Sweden, with a score of 7½/9. Israeli IMs Yahli Sokolovsky and Yair Parkhov (both with 7/9) finished second and third, respectively. | Photos: Lars OA Hedlund
We are three months away from the start of the Candidates Tournaments in Toronto. With no more rated classical games in the December-2023 period, we got the names of the two players who got the rating spot in the open and women’s sections Alireza Firouzja and Humpy Koneru (pictured), respectively. The 2023 edition of the FIDE Circuit has also finished, with Gukesh grabbing the Candidates spot by finishing in second place, since Fabiano Caruana the winner of the Circuit was already qualified via the FIDE World Cup. | Photo: FIDE / Lennart Ootes
Magnus Carlsen grabbed his 17th World Championship title the 7th in blitz by scoring 16/21 points at the World Blitz event in Samarkand. After losing his first game of the day, against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Carlsen grabbed six wins in a row to retake the sole lead. Two draws in the final rounds allowed him to outscore Daniil Dubov by a half point. In the women’s championship, Valentina Gunina got outright victory thanks to a final-round win over Anna Muzychuk. Alexandra Kosteniuk came close to catching the eventual champion, but fell just short and took the silver medal. | Photo: FIDE / Anastasia Korolkova
There was no shortage of controversy on day 1 of the World Blitz Championships in Samarkand. A dispute regarding an alleged clock malfunction delayed the start of round 7 by close to an hour, while a 13-move draw featuring only knight moves between Daniil Dubov and Ian Nepomniachtchi resulted in both players losing a half point as their encounter, according to the Chief Arbiter, would “bring the game of chess into disrepute”. Meanwhile, Valentina Gunina got a 1½-point lead in the women’s tournament after finishing day 1 with an astonishing 8½/9 score. | Photo: chess.com / Maria Emelianova