The World Senior Championship are already underway in Porto Santo and the 201 registered players took advantage of the Golden Island air to try to show the quality of ageless chess.
In the first of the 11 rounds of the three tournaments of these World Cup there were some surprises, demonstrating that status alone doesn’t win matches.
The greatest figure of these championships, Nona Gaprindashvili, for example, had to settle for a draw in the opening round of the women’s tournament, which brings together the +50 and +65 age categories. The first official female grandmaster in the history of women’s chess, World Champion between 1962 and 1978 and currently with 2243 Elo points, played black on the first board against German FIDE master Olga Birkholz (1875), who wasn’t daunted by the Georgian’s tremendous CV and imposed the point division.
Nona is the tournament’s number one and this draw in the opening round doesn’t detract from her favouritism to win the +65 title, which, at 83, would be one more for the living chess legend’s palmarès.
In the 50+ category, which features 15 grandmasters among the 80 participants, there were also surprises, starting with the draw conceded by the tournament’s number 2, grandmaster Gregory Kaidanov (United States, 2534), to Portuguese FIDE master Fernando Ribeiro (2125). The player from Casa do Povo de Mangualde, absolute national champion in 1997, thus became the first Portuguese hero of the tournament.
Another grandmaster surprised by a draw was Germany’s Klaus Bischoff (2445), who couldn’t beat Scotland’s Alan Minnican (2071).
The number one in the 50+ age bracket, Bulgarian grandmaster Kiril Georgiev (2553), came out on top against German FIDSE master Boris Dimitrijeski (2152), but had a tough match.
Among the veterans of the veterans, the 65+ category, also the number 2 in the competition, in this case German grandmaster Rainer Knaak (2458), conceded a draw against Argentinian FIDE master Marcelo Ibar (2044), but the biggest highlight of the day went to Israeli Abir Har-Even (2014), who defeated international master Vladislav Nasybullin (2374, Kazakhstan) on the sixth table.
Zurab Sturua, number 1 in the tournament with his 2502 Elo points and one of the eight grandmasters present, managed to win, but had to apply himself to the full to see off the Filipino Mario Mangubat (2052).
The World Veterans Championships are being held until 28 November at the Hotel Vila Baleira in Porto Santo, the Golden Island of the Madeira archipelago.
Every round we have 40 live matches, which can be followed from 3pm local time (16 CET) via the Lichess digital platform (https://lichess.org/broadcast/world-senior-championship-2024–open-50/round-2/ub079XDm#boards).
Photo: Kiril Georgiev, the +50 number one, side by side with Fernando Ribeiro, the first Portuguese hero of the tournament
Photo: Kiril Georgiev, the +50 number one, side by side with Fernando Ribeiro, the first Portuguese hero of the tournament
Full gallery at: https://facebook.com/fpxadrez
