Karjakin Loses His Appeal (in Two Senses)

On May 6, the FIDE Ethics and Disciplinary Commission dismissed Sergey Karjakin's appeal. That appeal challenged FIDE's 6-month ban for his breach of article 2.2.10 - essentially for his very public support of P****n's invasion of Ukraine. The ban means that Karjakin won't be able to play in the 2022 Candidates, slated to start in mid-June; his slot, as most of you already know, is going to Ding Liren. Karjakin does have one last means of appeal, if he chooses to use it: the Court of Arbitration of Sport.

Karjakin has done a fine job of making himself a pariah, but he has decided to double down with a weird prank, getting a couple of his friends to call FIDE Director General Emil Sutovsky, posing as the Ukrainian Minister of Sport. Having watched the video, the only thing that they did that could have really damaged Sutovsky, had he fallen for it, was their Borat-like attempt to get him to go along with promoting a chess event not with the Ukrainian army in general, but with the Azov fighters. That group is the one segment in Ukraine that has had some connection to anti-Semitism, which is part of P***n's pitiful "justification" for the war. Sutovsky didn't bite, so as far as I can tell Karjakin achieved nothing for the home crowd while making himself look even worse to the rest of the world.

It's a pity that Karjakin holds his reprehensible views, and a shame that he either lacks anyone with sense to counsel him, or that he simply ignores those people.

A Good Interview With Dubov

You may recall that Daniil Dubov was on Magnus Carlsen's team during the latter's world championship match with Ian Nepomniachtchi late last year, and was criticized for it by Sergey Karjakin, who deemed Dubov's action unpatriotic. In this interview, Dubov discusses Karjakin, and while it's clear that he disagrees with him (and Putin, and the war) he is remarkably gracious.

Read it all - it is not only about Karjakin.

Team Carlsen: Now We Know

There were really no surprises in this "reveal": Magnus Carlsen's team comprised all the usual suspects, with one new guy. Peter Heine Nielsen was the leader (which was already acknowledged by Carlsen during the match), and long-time assistants Laurent Fressinet (of "too weak, too slow" fame), Jan Gustafsson (since he was nowhere to be found on Chess24, everyone knew he was helping), and Daniil Dubov all helped out. The new guy was Jorden Van Foreest.

Of course, it's also pretty likely that there were other people who were helping in some capacity remotely, perhaps in a less official capacity. If so, we weren't given any information about that.

I'm not sure who was helping Nepo, other than Sergey Karjakin and Nepo's long-time coach Vladimir Potkin, so if any of you know please pass it along. About Karjakin: he was a bit tetchy about Dubov's assisting Carlsen. While the Ukrainian ex-pat seems more Catholic than the Pope when it comes to his love for Russia, and it should be remembered that Dubov has been helping Carlsen for years, I can see his being a little disappointed. It would have been disappointing to learn that, say, Nakamura or So had been helping Carlsen in his match with Caruana. On the other hand, Dubov, great though he is, is not a player on the level of Nakamura or So, or in the Russian context at the level of Karjakin or Grischuk. And, again, he had been working with Carlsen for years, I think even going back to the matches with Anand. So if it had been a player like Jeffery Xiong or Sam Shankland who had been helping Carlsen, and had been doing so for years at the time of the Caruana match, I'd have a harder time getting worked up about it. Maybe it would be nice if he sat that match out, but it seems to me that it would be going above and beyond for him to do so, rather than something he ought to do.

But maybe I'm wrong about this. And maybe it also depends on how tight or loose one sees the national community, if there are political aspects at stake (it wouldn't have been viewed kindly if there were "defectors" in the Spassky-Fischer match or the Karpov-Korchnoi matches, to put it mildly!). But as far as I'm aware there are no serious tensions between Russia and Norway, and it's not as if Nepomniachtchi is the golden boy of Russian chess, their one and only shining star in an otherwise chess-poor nation.

Anyway, some of my readers are Russian, and many of you are overseas and much closer to Russia than I am, and are bound to have better-informed ideas on this matter than I do. What do you think?

Norway Chess, Round 5: Karjakin Beats Carlsen in Classical

Coming into round 5 (of 10) of this year's Norway Chess tournament, Magnus Carlsen wasn't leading, but he had at least won every round. All his classical games were drawn, and he won both Armageddon games with White and drew both Armageddons with Black. Perhaps he would have drawn another Armageddon game with Black today, against Sergey Karjakin, but his erstwhile world championship match opponent "forgot" the script and won the classical game.

Carlsen had no problems in the opening, as he was well-prepared against the 7.Nd5 anti-Sveshnikov line Fabiano Caruana played against Carlsen in their 2018 world championship match. If anything, he had the advantage, and starting to feel frustrated by his lack of activity Karjakin uncorked the nice exchange sac with 23.Rac1 followed by 24.Rc6. Black should have said "Thanks, but no thanks", and kept the advantage. Once Carlsen grabbed the material Karjakin's position came to life, and soon he was much better. (One critical question, however, is what Karjakin would have played after 26...Rxa4. In the postgame interview with Judit Polgar, he gave a bizarre line: 27.Nc3 Rc4 28.Qxb5?? While watching this I wondered what was wrong with 28...Rxc3 - 29.bxc3 Bxf2+ followed by 30...Qxb5 is game over - and the answer is, of course, nothing; it's an elementary tactic. But I doubt that Karjakin really intended to do that; he was probably having a hard time remembering what he thought about the particular position, and may have mixed up his real plans with something he intended in some similar situation. Whatever the story, 26...Rxa4 would have been better than Carlsen's 26...Nd4.)

As noted before the long parenthetical, Karjakin was soon better, and while his subsequent play wasn't flawless, it was good enough and certainly better than his opponent's. There was one very nice finesse at the end, spotlighted by Karjakin after the game. After Carlsen's 47...Rxd3 the obvious move is 48.c7, but after 48...Rxb3! 49.c8Q Rxb5 Black has a fortress, and will draw by shuttling his rook back and forth from f5 to h5 and back again. Therefore, White played 48.b6! Rxb3 49.b7 Rb6 and now 50.h5! gxh5 51.Kh3 Rxc6 52.b8Q. Black is a pawn up, relative to the 48.c7 line, but what matters is that there's no fortress. The ...Rf5-h5-f5-h5 idea has been taken away, and Black won't have a ...Rg6-e6-g6-e6 fortress either, as White will take it away with f4-f5 at some point. Carlsen could have survived a while longer before his h- and f-pawns would have dropped, but as the technical degree of difficult for White was very low he gave up just two moves later.

Carlsen therefore not only failed to gain ground on Richard Rapport and Ian Nepomniachtchi, but fell behind Sergey Karjakin as well. He was even caught by Alireza Firouzja, who won one-sidedly after Aryan Tari met Firouzja's blunder with a bigger one of his own. Firouzja, with White, came out of the opening with an advantage, but by the time of 24...Qb6 the position was equal. Firouzja's 25.Kh1 was a serious error, giving Black a big, possibly winning advantage after 25...Bc4. Instead, Tari's 25...Ng6?? not only missed his chance, but left him with a nearly-lost position after 26.Qxe8+. Soon it was clearly lost, and Firouzja converted his plus with energetic play.

In the battle of the players in the top two spots, Rapport remained in first, but Nepo gained ground. Nepo as White obtained a small edge out of the opening, but wasn't able to convert it into something tangible and the game quickly petered out to a draw. The Armageddon game was another story. If the classical game featured solid, frankly dry play, the Armageddon game was anything but. Nepomniachtchi played 1.e4, Rapport played 1...d5 (why?), and more or less following theory was enough to give Nepo a big advantage, which was soon decisive. Rapport tried giving up the queen for a rook and a bishop and hopes of a fortress, but White had enough resources to break through and win.

At the halfway point, then, these are the standings. Remember, the scoring system is 3 wins for a classical win, no points for a classical loss, 1 point for a classical draw with an extra half point for winning the Armageddon game or drawing that game with Black. Thus Karjakin and Firouzja gained 3 points today, Tari and Carlsen got no points, Nepomniachtchi picked up a point and a half and Rapport a single point.

1. Rapport 9.5
2. Nepomniachtchi 8.5
3. Karjakin 7
4-5. Carlsen, Firouzja 6
6. Tari 3

Round 6 Pairings:

Carlsen (6) - Firouzja (6)
Karjakin (7) - Nepomniachtchi (8.5)
Rapport (9.5) - Tari (3)

World Cup Finale: Duda, Karjakin Qualify for the 2022 Candidates

Again, just tidying up on ancient history: Jan Krzysztof Duda finished the tournament of his young life - thus far - in fantastic style, defeated World Champion Magnus Carlsen in the semi-finals of the World Cup to qualify for next year's Candidates, while Sergey Karjakin also qualified by meeting Duda there. Duda won that final match to win the event, garnering more money and more prestige, but both players succeeded in their primary aim.

This means that half the eight Candidates' spots are settled. In addition to Duda and Karjakin, one spot will go to the loser of the world championship match between Carlsen and challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi in November, and another is going to Teimour Radjabov (as compensation for his not playing in the 2020 Candidates).

In the old days (e.g. the previous cycle) one slot would be allocated by rating, but unfortunately for (most likely) Fabiano Caruana, that is no longer the case. Two spots will be allocated to the top two finishers in the FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament (starting October 25 in Riga) and two more spots go to the top two finishers in the FIDE Grand Prix (a series of three tournaments to be played between February and April of next year in Berlin; 24 players will qualify for this series, with each playing in two of the three events).

I congratulate FIDE on their continual improvements on the world championship cycle. In the old days, the world's best players were the most likely to get a shot at becoming the world champion. Those foolish days are long gone - Caissa has been deposed, and replaced by the worship of Tyche.

FIDE World Cup: Karjakin Guarantees Himself a Candidates Spot; Duda Hoping for the Second Spot

Sorry not to have covered the event as it deserved, but...life. Anyway, the parodying event I feared would come to pass is very close to happening. The 2021 FIDE World Cup is on the verge of its final match; Sergey Karjakin is one finalist (he defeated Vladimir Fedoseev 1.5-.5 in the regular, classical games) and the winner of today's tiebreaker between Magnus Carlsen and Jan-Krzysztof Duda will be the other. As the main point of the event is to qualify two players for the 2022 Candidates, Carlsen's participation is, frankly, rather stupid, as no matter what happens in his match with Ian Nepomniachtchi he's guaranteed of being either the world champion or qualified for the Candidates. Karjakin is guaranteed a place in the Candidates no matter what happens in the final match, but none of the players Carlsen beat prior to the semi-finals will qualify, even though they might well have made it had the world champion not participated.

It's especially a pity for Etienne Bacrot, who lost to Carlsen in the quarter-finals, and especially for Andrey Esipenko, who made it to three rounds of tiebreaks before Carlsen finally eliminated him.

When is a grandmaster's title less than grand?

That is the subtitle of this NY Times article, which is something less than a heartwarming tale of hard work and talent resulting in amazing records. Was Sergei Karjakin's last GM norm tainted by bribery? The authors present plenty of allegations to that effect, though they stop short of making an outright claim.

The authors do not allege any chicanery in the case of Abhimany Mishra's recently earned grandmaster title, but certainly suggest that the Budapest chess scene in which he earned his norms is something of a title factory, with largely unmotivated, over-the-hill players making norm aspirants' tasks relatively easy. (The point about Mishra's opponents being nearly 50 points lower, on average, than they were in the norm events he played in Charlotte isn't obviously relevant, however, as a lower average rating means that he must having a correspondingly higher score.)

Is there any "there" there? Of course players are going to look for their best opportunities to achieve norms, and parents are going to want to help their kids get ahead. There's a huge industry of getting kids into prep schools, even elite kindergartens. When there is outright cheating, stop it; but anyone who finds the rather routine part of the article involving Mishra's family bringing him to Hungary in a race to get his norms deserves a Captain Renault award.

Abhimanyu Mishra: Grandmaster!

Yes, of course, this is always how these things work: I say "no more blogging for a while", and then I blog. I hadn't intended to, but this bit of good news came in my email, so here goes: American prodigy Abhimanyu Mishra has broken Sergey Karjakin's surprisingly durable record for the youngest grandmaster ever. Karjakin acquired the record back in 2002 at the age of 12 years and 7 months, shattering Bu Xiangzhi's record of 13 years, 10 months, and 13 days. Since then, many have come close (and eight others players had bested Bu's mark), but only now has the record been broken.

Mishra got his third norm and broke the 2500 barrier to earn the grandmaster title, and did so at the ripe old age of 12 years, 4 months, and 25 days. There's little doubt that his record will fall too, even before we create CRISPR and cyborg babies, but it's still a great achievement that will offer him a measure of what is exaggeratedly called (chess) "immortality". Congratulations to the youngster; may it portend great things for him as his career continues to develop.

For more on the history of the record, this is useful. As for Mishra's achievement, here's the US Chess press release I was sent this morning:

American Abhimanyu (“Abhi”) Mishra is the Youngest Grandmaster in History! 

Twelve-year-old from Englishtown, New Jersey breaks 19-year-old record with 66 days to spare 

CROSSVILLE, TN: 12-year-old Grandmaster Abhimanyu (“Abhi”) Mishra from Englishtown, New Jersey is the youngest Grandmaster (GM) in history, breaking the record formerly held by Russian GM Sergey Karjakin. Karjakin set the record in 2002 and went on to unsuccessfully challenge GM Magnus Carlsen in a 2016 World Championship match. 

At age 12 years, 4 months, and 25 days, Mishra earned his third and final norm (a performance-level measure) on June 30, 2021 at the Vezerkepzo GM Mix tournament in Budapest, Hungary, defeating GM Leon Luke Mendonca to take the final step on his long journey to Grandmaster. (He had already fulfilled the rating requirement, breaking the 2500 Elo mark in June, and FIDE—the World Chess Federation—must still confirm the record.) With Karjakin having earned his title at age 12 years and 7 months, Mishra bettered the previous mark by approximately 66 days. 

This is not Mishra’s first record shattered. He was the youngest master in U.S. history at nine years and two months, and the youngest International Master ever at 10 years, nine months, and three days, breaking the record previously held by GM Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa by 17 days. 

The US Chess Federation (US Chess) is the official governing body and nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization for chess players and chess supporters in the United States. Our mission is to empower people, enrich lives, and enhance communities through chess. Our vision is that chess is recognized as an essential tool that is inclusive, benefits education and rehabilitation, and promotes recreation and friendly competition. 

Will Mishra Break Karjakin's Record?

Sergey Karjakin's record for becoming the youngest grandmaster in history has lasted a long time - since 2002 - but it is looking like a very soft record these days. Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Javokhir Sindarov came close to breaking it in 2018, and Dommaraju Gukesh came even closer in 2019, missing out on tying Karjakin's mark by just 17 days. (Karjakin's record was 12 years and exactly 7 months; Gukesh took 12 years, 7 months, and 17 days.)

There are probably some other claimants who are threatening the record, but one player with an excellent shot is American youngster Abhimanyu Mishra, who was born on February 5 of 2009 and now has two GM norms (HT: Ervin Middleton). To break the record, he'll have to get his third GM norm *and* get his rating to at least 2500 by September 4. (Note: It doesn't have to be 2500 when he gets the third norm; as long as he achieves it at some point prior to that date, it's enough, provided he gets the third norm.) I think his odds of getting the norm are excellent, almost to the point that it's a foregone conclusion. The real difficulty will getting his rating to 2500, as his rating is currently 2424.

If he doesn't get it, it's because of the year lost to the pandemic, as he is clearly at GM strength at the moment. This will probably make his record much softer than it would have been, had he not had the wasted year, so my guess is that his new record (assuming he gets it) will be very temporary. Still, it will be a great accomplishment if he does it, and it will be nice to see Karjakin's "ancient" record be broken. (And for this American, it's nice to see yet another addition to our stockpile of talent, especially one that is home-grown rather than Sinquefield-recruited - not that I'm objecting to the latter!)

Nepomniachtchi Wins Russian Championship (With a Big Assist from Dubov)

Entering the last round of the 2020 Russian Championship (or the Russian Extreme Mega Stupendous Superfinal, or whatever they're calling it this year) Ian Nepomniachtchi and Sergey Karjakin were tied for first, with Vladimir Fedoseev a point behind. All three leaders had the black pieces, making the first order of business not losing rather than winning.

Indeed, none of the players managed to win, and in Nepo's case, he didn't even try. His game with Maksim Chigaev wasn't exactly a barn-burner: 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 Ng4 7.Bc1 Nf6 8.Be3 Ng4 9.Bc1 Nf6 10.Be3 and draw.

That rendered the result of the game between Andrey Esipenko and Fedoseev meaningless with respect to the battle for first many hours before their game wound up drawn (in 73 moves), so all that was left was Karjakin's game with Dubov. And what a game it was! Dubov, whose exceptional creativity in the opening (as elsewhere) has been praised even by Magnus Carlsen, trotted out a very rare line of the Italian against Karjakin, leading to an absolute mess. The line may not be a problem for a computer, but it was more than enough of a problem for the former world championship finalist. Karjakin was soon befuddled, Dubov won a great game, and Nepomniachtchi won the championship. (Dubov-Karjakin, with my annotations, is here.)

Congratulations to Ian Nepomniachtchi, whose victory came against a very strong field, as you'll see from the final standings:

1. Nepomniachtchi 7.5 (out of 11)
2. Karjakin 7
3-4. Fedoseev, Dubov 6.5
5-6. Chigaev, Artemiev 6
7-8. Vitiugov, Svidler 5.5
9-10. Esipenko, Matlakov 5
11. Goganov 3.5
12. Antipov 2 (But it was 2/6; he withdrew at that point.)