The FIDE Steinitz Memorial was another strong online tournament in the year’s second quarter.
The double round-robin speed chess internet competition had 10 participants, including world champion Magnus Carlsen, world No. 6 Alexander Grischuk, No.11 Shakriyar Mamedyarov, No. 24 Peter Svidler and a sprinkling of rising stars.
Standings after six rounds read Carlsen (Norway), 4.0/6.0, Bu Xiangzhi (China), Daniil Dubov (Russia) and Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan), 3.5; Svidler (Russia) and Jeffrey Xiong (USA), 3.0; Anton Korobov (Ukraine), Le Quang Liem (Vietnam) and Grischuk (Russia), 2.5; and David Guijarro Anton (Spain), 2.0.
The tourney is being held to honor the birth date of Austrian-American first world champion Wilhelm Steinitz (May 14, 1886-Aug. 12, 1900). All games can be watched move-by-move, with live commentaries at chess24, chess.com and various websites.
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Meanwhile, Team China held off a resurgent Team USA, 2-2, in the final playoff, then relied on superior tie-break, to capture the FIDE Nations Cup online team championship.
Yu Yangi clinched the tournament title for the top-seeded Chinese with a victory over Wesley So, after the Americans took the lead on Fabiano Caruana’s win over Wei Yi and draws by Hikaru Nakamura and Irina Krush against Ding Liren and Hou Yifan respectively.
The table below relates to individual board winners. China snared three of the four gold medals. The best performance and premiere honor, however, went to USA’s Caruana.
Nations Cup Board Medalists Bd. 1 Ding Liren (China), 6.0/9.0 Bd. 2. Fabiano Caruana (USA), 7.5/9.0 Bd. 3. Yu Yangi (China), 7.5/10.0 Bd..4. Hou Yifan (China), 4.5/6.0