GM Vincent Keymer won the 2024 Rubinstein Memorial's ALREH GM tournament on Sunday despite finishing with two losses After starting with the superb score of six points out of seven games the 19-year-old German grandmaster had already secured the title with a round to spare on Saturday On the occasion of the 60th edition of the memorial of GM Akiba Rubinstein—one of the strongest players in history never to gain the world title—a strong 10-player round-robin was part of the annual festival at the Spa Theatre in Polanica-Zdroj in the south of Poland You could say that Keymer's tournament lasted two rounds too long whom we can call a teenager for a few more months was truly on a roll—and the live ratings were showing it occupying number 15 with a 22-point rating gain he suffered his first loss and then another one to end on (still a very decent) number 19 with 11 Elo points gained Keymer's win against GM Andrei Volokitin in round six was quite entertaining the young German must have been brimming with confidence and went for his Ukrainian opponent's king like a caveman – and it worked was a bit too eager to win it back and his monarch was just too weak after that: Again playing the white pieces, Keymer started running with his h-pawn again in round eight, but GM Sam Shankland reacted better and eventually ground down his opponent deep in a rook endgame In the final round, top seed GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda who was on a disappointing 50-percent score He moved up both his h- and g-pawns toward Keymer's kingside but decided the game on the queenside: Apart from GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek, who drew all his games (while keeping an eye on his wife winning the Tbilisi Grand Prix), the only other player who remained undefeated was GM David Navara The Czech grandmaster drew eight times and won one which helped Keymer secure tournament victory: Especially as it was played in this tournament, this game could be seen as a nice hommage to the great Rubinstein, who won a somewhat similar endgame in this variation against Carl Schlechter The games can be checked out on our dedicated 2024 ALREH Akiba Rubinstein Grandmaster Tournament events page The 2024 ALREH Akiba Rubinstein Grandmaster Tournament took place August 17 to August 25, 2024, in Polanica-Zdroj, Poland. It was a 10-player single round-robin tournament. The time control was 90 minutes for each player, with a bonus of 15 minutes after move 40 and an increment of 30 seconds starting from move one. Email: peter@chess.com FOR SUPPORT PLEASE USE chess.com/support!Phone: 1 (800) 318-2827Address: 877 E 1200 S #970397 All News FIDE News Chess News Top Top Federations Main Page / Search Tournaments Titles Transfers Calculators Download FIDE Circuit Women's Events '24-'25 Open Cycle 2025-2026 Women’s Cycle 2025-2026 Women’s Cycle 2023-2025 All Tournaments Main Events About FIDE Handbook Documents Financial Reports Officials Commissions & Committees Federations Affiliated Organizations Affiliated Members Honourable Dignitaries Chart After carefully considering the numerous applications received the special panel appointed by the FIDE Council decided that these will be the ten chess players and promoters to benefit from the second instalment of FIDE’s support to chess veterans in 2023: Nikola Padevsky (BUL)Goran Cabrilo (SRB)Yuri Meshkov (RUS)Vassilis Aristotelous (CYP)Mario Galeano (PAR)Jens Kristiansen (DEN)Živko Janevski (MKD)Ulrich Jahr (POL)Lubov Zsiltsova-Lisenko (UKR)Dang Tat Thang (VIE) A total of €25,000 will be distributed among them we would pay tribute to these illustrious veterans with a few words about each one of them summarizing their careers and achievements Photo: Anefo – Dutch National Archives Born in 1933 in Bulgaria’s second-largest city Plovdiv Nikola Padevsky quickly came to the forefront of national chess He became the Bulgarian National Champion in 1954 and repeated this success in 1955 Nikola became IM and was awarded the GM title seven years later Padevsky took part in World Student Team Championship six times (from 1954 through 1959) Nikola’s performance in his last championship (Hungary 1959) was remarkable as playing first board he helped Bulgaria to pull ahead of team USSR and win gold he represented Bulgaria in eleven Chess Olympiads (every Olympiad from 1956 to 1978 except for 1976) His solid tournament record includes the victory in the inaugural Rubinstein Memorial (Polanica Zdrój) in 1963 and shared first place in Varna (1960) From 1981-1989 Nikola Padevsky served as the coach of the Bulgarian national team Nikola Padevsky is one of the oldest living grandmasters Photo: alo.rs/ Goran Cabrilo made seven appearances in the national championship Goran Čabrilo delivered a good performance in the Zonal Tournament (Nea Makri 1989) and qualified for the Interzonal Tournament (Manila 1990) where he shared 40-47th place Goran served as the coach of the Serbian national team at the Chess Olympiad in Elista (1998) He also worked with both junior national teams in 2000 he took part in numerous tournaments sharing first place in Trnava (1981) Goran Cabrilo still participates in chess competitions  IM Yuri Meshkov became visually impaired at seven and was introduced to chess five years later Inspired by Mikhail Botvinnik’s three-volume book (a gift from his father) and the positional style of the fifth World Champion Yuri progressed rapidly and soon became a CM His real breakthrough came in 1980 when Meshkov qualified for the final stage of the RSFSR Championship and was awarded the master title Graduated from the Smolensk Pedagogical Institute for many years worked as a chess coach and instructor FIDE masters Artyom Benza and Ekaterina Prudnikova he organized a chess school under the guidance of grandmasters Alexander Belyavsky and Adrian Mikhalchishin the school existed under the patronage of Anatoly Karpov Most of the training sessions took place in his home Smolensk region Yuri Meshkov has been participating in chess competitions among the visually impaired He is the winner of the IBCA World Chess Olympiad (2008 the World Team Championship among chess players with disabilities (2013 five-time champion of Russia in individual competitions or as a member of the national team among visually impaired chess players (2008 From 2010-2018 Yuri participated in five Chess Olympiads playing for a team of visually impaired players Yuri Meshkov held multiple competitions in his home Smolensk region and AIM Vassilis Aristotelous enormously contributed to chess in his home Cyprus he represented Cyprus at six Chess Olympiads and multiple international competitions For many years Vassilis made bulletins for the Cyprus Chess Championship Vassilis Aristotelous has been giving chess lectures and simultaneous exhibitions at schools popularizing chess and attracting new talents A gifted author Vassilis has been writing articles for one of the leading Cyprus newspapers and penned four chess books he also served as a Public Relations Officer on the Cyprus Chess Federation’s managing board Mario Galeano Vergara became an iconic figure in his home country Mario made a name for himself as an efficient organizer of numerous chess competitions across Paraguay Jens Kristiansen won his first Danish championship in 1979 and became IM in the same year he represented Denmark at Chess Olympiads four times between 1978 and 1990 He also delivered the best result playing second board in the 1983 European Team Championship Jens can be called a late bloomer as he earned the title of GM aged 60 after winning the 2012 World Senior Championship he shared first place with Anatoly Vaisser at the same event but had to settle for silver due to an inferior tiebreak Kristiansen was very close to another World Senior Championship title (65+) in 2022 but lost an opposite-colour bishop endgame (in which he had a draw) and tied for second place FIDE Grandmaster for Chess Composition (1996) Živko Janevski is one of the most prominent chess problemists of our era Živko Janevski stands third on the list of the FIDE Album points 1914-2021 behind Petko Petkov (Bulgaria) and Mikhail Marandyuk (Ukraine) He was a double World champion in composing helpmates (1989-91 & 1998- 2000) and the Olympic champion in the same genre in 1990 his composing results and the huge work of around 4.000 published problems were only a small part of the enormous contribution to chess composition he officiated and commented on over 100 tourneys in chess composition FIDE World Cup and World Championship in Composing for Individuals (WCCI) During the World Chess Composing Tournament (WCCT) 2003-04 he performed the most challenging role of the WCCT director To perform his arbiter duties in the best possible way entering tens of thousands of chess compositions with the help of his sons for the benefit of the community always ready to help others in their check of originality Živko Janevski worked as an engineer and computer expert devoting the rest of his time to chess composition A big part of it was devoted to publishing expert articles and one of the themes in chess composition holds his name He was the General Editor of the famous Orbit a unique magazine (in English) devoted to helpmates and selfmates that went out for 16 years (1999-2014) edited and printed a series of books on chess composition: Anthology of Macedonian Problem Chess (1987) Vukota Nikoletić: Selected Problems (2002) The cycles and strategy in selfmates (2009) Živko Janevski – Selected Helpmates (2009) Ulrich Jahr has played chess since he was fourteen he won the title of vice-champion of Bydgoszcz and was awarded the 1st chess category for this result In 1970 he was elected to the Board of the Regional Chess Association in Bydgoszcz he co-organized and officiated many national events including the Rapid and Blitz Polish Championships and the final of the Polish Championship (Bydgoszcz the Team Polish Championships and Women’s Zonal Tournament (Bydgoszcz In 1969 he obtained the 1st arbiter class and five years later got the highest national category in 1978 became the fifteenth Pole in history to receive the title of FIDE international arbiter Since 1976 he has been active in the Polish Chess Association serving as a member of the Arbiters’ Committee and from 1992-1995 held the position of PZSzach Vice-President In 1986 he was the chief of the Polish delegation at the Chess Olympiad in Dubai From 1999–2003 Ulrih was the first president of the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Chess Association and until 2006 – also the chairman of the Committee of Arbiters of the KPZSzach he was re-elected to the Management Board of KPZSzach (assuming the position of vice-president for organizational matters) and to the composition of the Arbiters’ Council of the Polish Chess Federation he has been a member of the Ethics Committee of PZSzach In recognition of his merits and achievements Ulrich Jagr was awarded the Silver Cross (1983) and the Golden Cross of Merit (1997) Since 1997 he has been an Honorary Member of the Polish Chess Federation Ulrich Jagr is the winner of “Hetman 2018” in the Lifetime Achievement category Lubov Zsiltzova-Lisenko is one of the leading female chess players in the International Braille Chess Association (IBCA) Lubov stamped herself as a very strong player after winning the Ukrainian Women’s Chess Championship (1978) she is a six-time IBCA World Women’s Chess Champion winning this event in 1989 Lubov Zsiltzova-Lisenko participated in IBCA World Open Chess Championships In 1996 Lubov was awarded the title of Woman International Master she played first board for the IBCA team in nine Women’s Chess Olympiads winning individual gold in 1994 (Moscow) and Turin (2006) Zsiltzova-Lisenko played for Ukraine in six Chess Olympiads for blind people (1992-2008 2017) and helped her team to take three silver (1996 Dang Tat Thang learned to play chess in the USSR when he was a student there and tied his life to the game For many years he has been serving as Chairman and Vice-Chairman of Vietnam’s Chess Federation and FIDE Executive Board member for Asia International Organizer since 2011 и International Arbiter since 2000 Dang Tat Thang officiated many important events the latest of which are the 2021 Vietnam Open and Women’s Championships © 2025 FIDE International Chess Federation stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way or by any means (including photocopying recording or storing it in any medium by electronic means) without the written permission of FIDE International Chess Federation Leonid Dvoretsky handed it over to the CFR President Andrey Filatov The Rubinstein Memorial was basically a brainchild of Max Euwe The former World Champion supported the idea of a Rubinstein Memorial in Poland where Rubinstein was born will be proud to receive an invitation to a tournament dedicated to the memory of Akiba Rubinstein!” said Euwe 1963 during a meeting with officials from the Polish Chess Federation in 1963 A few months later the First Rubinstein International Chess Festival began It was won by IM Nikolay Padevski from Bulgaria In the years to come the tournament became stronger and stronger In 1966 former World Champion Vassily Smyslov came to Polanica Zdrój and outclassed all opponents Every time Smysłow played in Polanica Zdrój he won in convincing style In the 1990s the Akiba Rubinstein International Chess Festival reached its peak and had established itself as one of the strongest tournaments in the chess calendar One of the greatest Rubinstein admirers is Boris Gelfand The former World Champion challenger again and again stresses how much he learned from the games of Rubinstein and how much Rubinstein influenced his play Thus Gelfand will be pleased to have won two of the strongest editions of the Rubinstein Memorial (in 1998 and 2000) The 1998 tournament had an average rating of 2654 (category 17) which at that time was really impressive It was a tournament full of tense and exciting games but the duel between Gelfand and Shirov was a real highlight The Rubinstein Memorial 2000 even reached an average rating of 2674 after that the tournament declined slowly due to a number of unfortunate events and no longer was a top event Members of the Polish Chess Federation in 1979 ( Photo: Andrzej Filipowicz) A picture of 1991: Do you recognize familiar faces 1996: FM Jerzy Konikowski comments (Photo http://www.blog.konikowski.net) Even though the Rubinstein Memorial is not as strong as it once was the organisers do their best to make the tournament attractive for amateurs and grandmasters This year GM Mikhail Brodsky from Ukraine is the top seed in the GM tournament GM Rafał Antoniewski (2531) is the top seed in the B-tournament (Photo: Olga Zajkowska) The entrance to the playing venue (Photo from the official site of the city) The river Bystrzyca-Dusznicka flows right through the city Summer sledge track ( Photo from the official site of the city) Tournament site of the 51. Rubinstein Memorial The 2020 women's world championship match between the reigning champion Ju Wenjun (China) and the challenger Aleksandra Goryachkina (Russia) started with three draws before Ju won with the white pieces in game four The match started with two fighting draws, and game three was no different.  Goryachkina once again put pressure on the Chinese world champion like in game one Goryachkina repeated the same opening from game one but Ju was the first one to deviate and as early as move four She chose a topical line in the queen's gambit declined—The San Sebastian variation a line that has been played frequently at the top level in recent years The players seemed to be following a top game 2013) until Ju chose a different move with 17...Rfd8. This move was last seen in Moranda-Kveinys Then Goryachkina made the first new move in the position with 18.Rab1 Goryachkina erred slightly in the middlegame but Ju couldn't capitalize and soon found herself under some pressure Goryachkina's perseverance paid off as she ended up in the driver's seat when she won the weakened b6 pawn and then got a passed pawn in the center of the board With the first time control approaching at move 40 She played on for 85 moves before they shook hands Ju's decision of switching was justified as she couldn't break her challenger's Berlin wall in game two The players went down a relatively lesser-known line in the Slav defense an opening which is Goryachkina's main weapon against the queen's pawn opening She had employed the standard Slav with 5...Bf5 in three games with plus-two in 2019 But she deviated to a setup that she only employed once against Maxim Matlakov in 2018 Ju came prepared with an idea and played 10.d5, which encourages mass exchanges and gives an open center The players blitzed out their moves until move 16 but it was Ju who once again knew more in the opening than her counterpart.  The players were following the game of the former world champion Veselin Topalov 2013) saw 13...Bf6 instead of the Russian's Bf5 Until Goryachkina played the "new move" 20...Kf8, Ju had the same time as she started with and had her first real long think on move 21 20...Rf8 was seen in an GM open in Al Yaghshi-Kuybokarov (Dubai This was the first game where Ju got an initiative and tried putting the young Russian under pressure The latter seemed to hold her own and defend well as she was quite close to equality Ju tried pressing in the queen ending again by pushing her pawns on the queenside Goryachkina could have held the draw with precise counterplay on the kingside She had about 33 minutes on the clock but played fast and miscalculated the resulting king-and-pawn endgame Ju missed her chance once but grabbed it at the second attempt to score an all-important win on home soil to take the lead The winner will earn 60 percent of the prize fund and 40 percent will go to the runner-up. If the match ends in a tie after 12 games and a tiebreak decides matters, the winner will receive 55 percent and the runner-up 45 percent The match is played over 12 standard games and The time control for each game is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move one A draw offer before move 40 is not allowed Watch the women's world championship game four coverage with WFM Anna Cramling-Bellon and GM Pia Cramling below: Rakesh Kulkarni is the Director of Indian Social Media for Chess.com and a correspondent on chess in India Rakesh has earned the International Master title and is a former Commonwealth Blitz Champion and a Commonwealth Bronze medallist in the junior category. Rakesh has a Masters of Commerce degree in Management & Business administration. He now is a professional chess player and trains young talents across the globe on chess.com Company Contact and News Accreditation:• Email: rakesh@chess.com• Phone: 1 (800) 318-2827• Twitter: itherocky• Address: PO Box 60400 Palo Alto