As talked about in our introductory weblog, the Uralsk Open (second occasion of the Kazakhstan Cup) determined to grant an invite to 4 gamers, chosen by a sequence of occasions held on Lichess. The primary stage was divided into twelve blitz arenas which passed off in per week, with beginning occasions staggered over 24 hours, to permit for participation internationally. Greater than 175k video games had been performed on this stage, a lot of which had been already of a really excessive degree: a number of sturdy titled gamers joined the occasion, together with over 35,000 whole gamers! The struggle for the highest 20 was intense, and several other sturdy titled gamers had been pressured to play a couple of match to qualify for the second stage.

@Aqua_Blazing (Valery Sviridov, presumably the strongest non-FIDE titled participant on this planet) convincingly gained, undefeated, the Swiss portion with 9/11, half some extent forward of a gaggle of 6 tied gamers. 

(By the best way, from the 704 video games performed we extracted 9 instructive positions of assorted ranges and conditions: have enjoyable with Howard!)

The conflict for the invitations passed off in a round-robin format: 7 sturdy fast gamers, led by the aforementioned Sviridov (untitled however with 2550 Fide Normal) and by GMs Ponkratov and Moroni, confronted the Tremendous GM Dmitry Andreikin: World Junior Champion in 2010, two-times Russian nationwide champion, and the winner of a match in opposition to present World Champion Ding Liren in 2019.

Not one of the gamers managed to finish the stage undefeated, and the final tone of the match was properly represented by the spherical 5 sport Volkan – Andreikin: a hand-to-hand fight with each kings uncovered! This sport didn’t forestall Andreikin from successful solo, whereas it was most likely decisive in granting Volkan the qualification.

The group of this match was extra formidable than the earlier version, however we’re completely satisfied to name it an entire success! Because of the Kazakhstan Chess Federation for his or her cooperation and beneficiant patronage, and to all people within the Lichess crew who was concerned!

In case you are an organizer and wish to do one thing related, don’t hesitate to contact us!