Chess alive by the Dead Sea

by Yochanan Afek

Dear Members,
 
The summer is in full swing and our work has intensified in the last period. Here we are giving you an overview of our activities.
 
The Poikovsky tournament, in its 19th year, saw another very successful edition. Full of fighting chess and exciting games we have our Premium Dmitry Jakovenko as a winner. The ACP wild card was Vladislav Kovalev, the winner of this year’s Aeroflot Open, who had a solid showing finishing on 50%.
 

ACP Board wishes to congratulate the European Chess Union and Georgian Chess Federation on the excellent organization of the European Individual Chess Championship held in Batumi 16-29 March 2018.

In the opinion of many Grandmasters it was one of the best European Championships ever in terms of organization. As ACP, we would like to single out the excellent playing venue and the anti-cheating regulations applied in this event.

The European ACP Women’s Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship 2018 took place from 29 March to 1 April in Tbilisi, Georgia. In total there were 78 players from 16 federations.

The total prize fund of 20.500 EUR was shared between the rapid (14.500 EUR) and the blitz (6.000 EUR).

The ACP contributed with 5000 EUR to the prize fund, courtesy of the company Archibaldchess, and managed to secure conditions for 8 ACP Premiums.

The ACP Board is concerned about the conflict between GM Alexei Shirov and the Latvian Chess Federation. 

As a consequence of this conflict, the top player of the country is not allowed to represent his Federation, and at the same time is not allowed to join another Federation without a very substantial transfer fee. 

Dear Members,
 
We would like to update you on our recent activities that went as planned.

Our cooperation with the Tata Steel tournament in Wijk aan Zee saw three of our Premiums obtain wild cards. GM Matlakov played in the Masters, GM Gordievsky in the Challengers and GM Krasenkow got the veteran’s spot in the Challengers.

ACP Board received a request from Premium member GM Alexei Shirov to publish the letter he sent to FIDE.
We are concerned about the situation. However, before issuing any statement on the matter, we wish to ask the Latvian Chess Federation to express its position. We will be publishing their reply as well.

Dear Sirs,

Our Tournament of the Year 2017 poll, which this year has been anticipated to the earliest part of the year in order to make it even more relevant, saw quite a few tight races for the best tournament in several categories.

According to our members the best Round-Robin in 2017 was the Tata Steel Chees Tournament in Wijk aan Zee, winning by a single vote over the Sinquefield Cup in Saint Louis! Third, with some distance, came the London Classic and farther away was the Norway Chess in Stavanger.

Dear Members,
 

The General Assembly of the ACP took place from December 21, 2017 to January 4, 2018. All Premium and Standard Members who were registered had the right to vote for approval of the the financial and presidential annual reports. The presidental report was approved by 56% and the financial report by 83%.