The tenth edition of the much-anticipated FIDE World Cup kicked off on Sunday in Baku. The 50 top seeds in the open and the 25 top seeds in the women’s section received byes and will join the fray on Wednesday. The remaining 234 contenders (156 in the open and 78 in the women’s) played their first classical encounters, though. There was no lack of surprises on the first day of action, with 14-year-old Ediz Gurel from Turkey (the youngest participant in the open) stunning Velimir Ivic in brilliant style. | Photo: chess.com / Maria Emelianova
The European Women’s Championship came to an end on Wednesday in Petrovac, Montenegro. Since the games on the top boards finished drawn albeit not without a fight nothing changed in the standings relative to the previous rounds. Meri Arabidze from Georgia and Oliwia Kiolbasa from Poland tied for first place on 8½/11 points. Arabidze was declared the champion thanks to her victory over Kiolbasa in round 8. | Photos: European Chess Union
In September 2021, a pilot project of FIDE/UNCHR, Girls Club ‘Chess for Protection’ − Kakuma 2021/2022, was launched by the World Chess Federa
The 12th-seeded Armenia defeated the sixth-seeded Azerbaijan with a convincing 3-1 victory to reach 17 match points and become the joint leaders at the end of the 10th and penultimate round of the 44th FIDE Chess Olympiad. Dramatic developments in the fifth hour of play enabled the 14th-seeded Uzbekistan.