IM Iulija Osmak (UKR) qualified for the main event of the 2021 Women s Speed Chess Championship after defeating IM Nataliya Buksa (UKR) in an all Ukrainian final of the Qualifier IV
Pentala Harikrishna, Poland s no. 2
Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Sweden s no. 1
Nils Grandelius are excellent replacements.
Then, on the eve of the tournament, Daniil Dubov was also forced to cancel after someone close to him tested positive for COVID-19. His late replacement is 22-year-old German Grandmaster
Carlsen has won the Masters group of the event a record 7 times since 2008, when he shared 1st along with Levon Aronian. Caruana is the reigning champion and in fact only three other players (Levon Aronian in 2012 and 2014, Hikaru Nakamura in 2011 and Wesley So in 2017) have managed to win the event in the last 10 years.
Whether Carlsen can triumph again may depend on whether he recovers his form from earlier in 2020. The 30-year-old had an immensely successful year, winning a total of 9 online events and one over-the-board event (Norway Chess), but Wesley So crashed his 30th birthday party by winning the Skilling Open final, while his Airthings Masters came to an end in
We thought to dig further and find out what’s happening on the the ‘Queen’s Gambit’s Effect’ side apart from the already known facts.
Folks down at Housebeautiful, contacted Anthony Barzilay Freund, an editorial director and director of fine art at vintage site 1stDibs. He said, “The Queen’s Gambit is driving interest in the game of chess among new audiences and demographics. At 1stDibs, in just a month following the show’s release, we’ve seen a 100% increase in sales of chessboards, pieces, and tables as compared to this time period last year.”
Shopping site eBay had a massive surge in searches for chess sets. They reported a 273% growth in the search for chess sets, and that too within ten days of the shoot.