The FIDE World Cup was a complete success, as top players fought for spots in the Candidates, both in the open and in the women’s section. Magnus Carlsen and Aleksandra Goryachkina were the winners. As ever, GM Karsten Müller compiled the most interesting positions from the tournaments. Find here five instructive endgames from the open category! | Pictured: Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu | Photo: Stev Bonhage

GMs Magnus Carlsen and Alireza Firouzja will throw down in the Division I Winners Final of the 2023 Julius Baer Generation Cup.

The Julius Baer Generation Cup is the 5th event on the 2023 Champions Chess Tour.

Format

The Julius Baer Generation Cup features three Divisions of 8, 16 and 32 players. Each division is a double-elimination knockout where if one player loses one match he drops down to a Losers bracket and can still win the tournament. In the Grand Final if the player from the Winners bracket loses, there's a rematch.

The total prize fund is $235,000, with a top prize of $30,000 (150 Tour points) in Division I, $10,000 in Division II (50 points) and $5,000 (20 points) in Division III. The top 3 in Division I and the winner of Division II qualify straight to Division I of the next event on the Tour.

The time control for normal games is 15 minutes per player for all moves, with a 3-second increment each move. In Division I and II the Winners bracket matches are played over four games, while in the Losers bracket there are two games. In Division III all matches are over two games except the 4-game Grand Final. A tie in a match is decided by an Armageddon game with no increment, where the players bid for time they are willing to play with. The lowest bidder gets that time and can pick colour, while the opponent gets 15 minutes. Black only needs a draw to win the match.

Players

Division I

• Magnus Carlsen 🇳🇴 2835
• Fabiano Caruana 🇺🇸 2782
• Alireza Firouzja 🇫🇷 2777
• Wesley So 🇺🇸 2769
• Nodirbek Abdusattorov 🇺🇿 2725
• M. Amin Tabatabaei 🇮🇷 2696
• Pavel Eljanov 🇺🇦 2695
• Denis Lazavik 🏳️ 2560

Division II

• Ian Nepomniatchtchi 🏳️ 2779
• Levon Aronian 🇺🇸 2742
• Vladislav Artemiev 🏳️ 2698
• Alexey Sarana 🇷🇸 2685
• Nihal Sarin 🇮🇳 2684
• Bassem Amin 🇪🇬 2684
• Andrey Esipenko 🏳️ 2683
• Vladimir Fedoseev 🇸🇮 2676
• Laurent Fressinet 🇫🇷 2652
• Rauf Mamedov 🇦🇿 2633
• Nodirbek Yakubboev 🇺🇿 2630
• Eduardo Iturrizaga 🇪🇸 2617
• Maksim Chigaev 🇪🇸 2616
• Aleksey Dreev 🏳️ 2698
• Aydin Suleymanli 🇦🇿 2586
• Evgeny Alekseev 🇮🇱 2573

Division III

• Anish Giri 🇳🇱 2769
• Vladimir Kramnik 🏳️ 2753
• Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 🇦🇿 2747
• Dmitry Andreikin 🏳️ 2729
• Parham Maghsoodloo 🇮🇷 2702
• Samuel Sevian 🇺🇸 2698
• Igor Kovalenko 🇺🇦 2674
• Matthias Bluebaum 🇩🇪 2670
• Etienne Bacrot 🇫🇷 2662
• Jaime Santos Latasa 🇪🇸 2656
• Alan Pichot 🇪🇸 2642
• Gata Kamsky 🇺🇸 2641
• Shant Sargsyan 🇦🇲 2639
• Benjamin Gledura 🇭🇺 2637
• Georg Meier 🇺🇾 2629
• Yuriy Kuzubov 🇺🇦 2627
• Benjamin Bok 🇳🇱 2617
• Aram Hakobyan 🇦🇲 2612
• Samvel Ter-Sahakyan 🇦🇲 2609
• Olexandr Bortnyk 🇺🇦 2608
• Shamsiddin Vokhidov 🇺🇿 2597
• Nikolas Theodoru 🇬🇷 2586
• Constantin Lupulescu 🇷🇴 2584
• Bardiya Daneshvar 🇮🇷 2570
• Velimir Ivic 🇷🇸 2570
• Tuan Minh Le 🇻🇳 2559
• Vugar Rasulov 🇦🇿 2549
• Rudik Makarian 🏳️ 2546
• Nikita Meshkovs 🇱🇻 2544
• Diego Flores 🇦🇷 2534
• Pablo Salinas Herrera 🇨🇱 2464
• Garg Aradhya 🇮🇳 2395

Schedule

Division I

• Quarterfinals: 30th August
  • Game 1: 15:00 UTC
  • Game 2: 15:35 UTC
  • Game 3: 16:20 UTC
  • Game 4: 16:55 UTC
  • Game 5: 17:40 UTC
• Losers Round 1: 31st August
  • Game 1: 15:00 UTC
  • Game 2: 15:35 UTC
  • Game 3: 16:20 UTC
• Semifinals: 31st August
  • Game 1: 16:50 UTC
  • Game 2: 17:25 UTC
  • Game 3: 18:10 UTC
  • Game 4: 18:45 UTC
  • Game 5: 19:30 UTC
• Losers Quarterfinals: 1st September
  • Game 1: 15:00 UTC
  • Game 2: 15:35 UTC
  • Game 3: 16:10 UTC
• Final: 1st September
  • Game 1: 16:50 UTC
  • Game 2: 17:25 UTC
  • Game 3: 18:10 UTC
  • Game 4: 18:45 UTC
  • Game 5: 19:30 UTC
• Losers Final: 2nd September
  • Game 1: 16:50 UTC
  • Game 2: 17:25 UTC
  • Game 3: 18:05 UTC
• Grand Final: 3rd September
  • Game 1: 15:00 UTC
  • Game 2: 15:35 UTC
  • Game 3: 16:20 UTC
  • Game 4: 16:55 UTC
  • Game 5: 17:40 UTC
• Grand Final Reset: 3rd September
  • Game 1: 18:15 UTC
  • Game 2: 18:50 UTC
  • Game 3: 19:25 UTC

Links

• Champions Chess Tour
• Chess 24
  • Division I Winners bracket
  • Division I Losers bracket
  • Division II Winners bracket
  • Division II Losers bracket
  • Division III Winners bracket
  • Division III Losers bracket
• chess.com

Format

The World Rapid Team Championship 2023 is a 12-round Swiss tournament featuring 43 teams. Each team is composed of at least six and not more than nine players, and it must include at least one female and one recreational player, who never achieved FIDE rating of 2000. Each match is played on six boards, with at least one female and one recreational player in every match.

The time control is 15 minutes for the entire game, with an increment of 10 seconds from the first move. Matches are scored by match points, with 2 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, and 0 points for a loss. The team with the most match points will become the champion.

Participants

More than 300 players are participating, including Fabiano Caruana, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Richard Rapport, Viswanathan Anand, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Wesley So, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Praggnanandhaa R, Gukesh D, Arjun Erigaisi, Hou Yifan, and many more. You can check the complete line-up here

Schedule

• 26 August
  • Round 1: 11:30 UTC
  • Round 2: 13:30 UTC
  • Round 3: 15:30 UTC
  • Round 4: 17:30 UTC
• 27 August
  • Round 5: 11:30 UTC
  • Round 6: 13:30 UTC
  • Round 7: 15:30 UTC
  • Round 8: 17:30 UTC
• 28 August
  • Round 9: 11:30 UTC
  • Round 10: 13:30 UTC
  • Round 11: 15:30 UTC
  • Round 12: 17:30 UTC

Links

• Official site
• Lichess
• chess.com
• chess 24
• YouTube live stream

Chess?
Completed it

Source

⚠ My FIDE rating is ~1300. Take everything I say w/ a grain of salt 😂

I watched Carlsen's games for the first time back in 2016 during his match w/ Karjakin.

I have been following his performance ever since and I've never been able to shake off the feeling, even for a second, that he is to modern chess what Dr. Lasker used to be to chess during his long chess career: "never losing his head" as Tartakower once said.

Match after match, Carlsen has proven to be a head and shoulder above his contemporaries and irrespective of the style of his opponent (aggressive, defensive, slow, fast, tactical, ...) he's always been able to pull it off no matter how tense the position/match got.

Just like Dr. Lasker, he seems to have developed an understanding of the game and style which is not well understood by his opponents.

IMO the chess world is not going to see a new "best" player, until either he loses interest in the game (like Dr. Lasker did) or a new generation of players arise and are able to challenge him beyond what he's been through.

Perhaps Pragg or Firouzja in a decade or so w/ more experience and stronger nerves can do that?

I want to start playing against people in lichess but I don't know what is the best option for me. I've been playing for years solving puzzles and against the computer, but I don't know what is the best option to start online games. Do I just use the quick pairing options to get matched against someone around the same skill level?
Since I don't have any real game, what kind of ELO should I expect? Thanks