In a club that has admitted only 17 officially recognized members over the past 150 years or so, one would think that being the world chess champion would come with a little bit of justified hubris. But reigning Chinese world champion Ding Liren, who must defend the title he won in 2023 by the end of the year against young Indian phenom GM Dommaraju Gukesh, is proving an exception to the rule.
The strong A-Open, played alongside the Grenke Chess Classic, saw Hans Niemann becoming the outright winner after scoring 8/9 points. A victory with black in the final round, over Velimir Ivic, gave the rising star clear first place. Nine players finished a half point behind the winner, with Ivan Saric and Vladimir Fedoseev grabbing second and thid place on tiebreaks. | Photo: Angelika Valkova
The Grenke Chess Festival took place from Tuesday, March 26 through Monday, April 1 in Karlsruhe, Germany, and featured over 2,600 competitors across four sections.
The Jeddah Youth Chess Festival was held from 24 to 30 January in this Red Sea port in Saudi Arabia. It was a celebration of youth, chess and friendship. In the Young Masters tournament, a 10-players single round-robin for rising stars aged 18 or younger, Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus from Turkey finished first with 6½ points. Volodar Murzin (FIDE), Raunak Sadhwani (India) and Andy Woodward (United States) obtained 6 points each.
Two tournaments focused on attracting the strongest promising talents in the world are devised, organised and sponsored by Chokri Saidi, an entrepreneur in love with chess, arts, travel, philosophy, psychology and spirituality. In an interview conducted by Diana Mihajlova, the chess enthusiast asserted: “I like to believe that God invented chess”