The VIII IBCA World Team Chess Championship 2018 - second part overview

    
by GM Alexandar Delchev

Saturday was the rest day of the VIII IBCA World Team Chess Championship 2018. All participants enjoyed the excursion to the Vitosha mountain, situated only 20 minutes by car from the city center. They were warmly welcomed by Snezana Petrova - the director of the national park Vitosha.

The special route was an alley in the Dendrarium area, with descriptions of more than 450 different plants, typical for the natural park, written on Braile alphabet.

 The other entertainment was a chess play in the heart of the forest on six tactile marble chess boards for visualy impaired people on a special wooden tables. The forest chess play continued 2,5 hours and finished with 4 wins and 2 draws in favor of the Bulgarian GM Delchev.

The beautiful nature of the park helped to the players to recover their energy for the decisive last rounds.
 After the first stage - the winner of group B - and the only team with the full score was Poland with an amazing first board - GM Tazbir scoring 6/6.   Will they manage to continue their winning serie in the semifinal against Germany?
The German team with the vice world champion Oliver Mueler on the first board scoring so far 4,5 /7 and Rene Adyaman the best performing German player - 5/6 on board 3 confidently got second place in the group. The captain Wilfer Bode is optimist about the chance to reach the top table which will be the historical success for the team.
The only interference in the group stage for the Russian team happened in the match against Serbia. On board 1 Smirnov and board 3 Meshkov somehow slipped away from the lost positions they got against Pavle Dimic and Peter Jandric bailing out to 2-2. The Russian players, current World team and Olimpic champions, are undefeated from the last 28 games - with board 3 Evgenyi Suslov scoring 6/6 Alexej Smirnov on board 1 with 5,5 out of 6 and board 2 Babarukin - 5,5 out of 6 - are the  favorite in the second semifinal match against Ukraine.
For the distribution of 5-8 places - Venezuela will meet India - and Serbia - Romania. Venezuela had an extremely unfortunate start - missing the first round, then followed by defeats against Germany and Russia. But they manage to win all the remaining matches and to share 3rd and 4th place in the group with Serbia. The match against India will be a very tense clash as the Indian players are very well prepared and confident. Their best performance represeted Kishan Gangolli and Aryan Joshy both with 4,5 /7.
In group B Romania got the 4th place thanks to the important wins over Spain and Bulgaria and already beat its best achievement (15 at the Olympiad in Skopie and 10 at the last WCC 2013).
Serbia also has very good achievements here. Though they missed two golden chances to qualify 4th for the final four against Russia and Germany. Their best achievement - the 4th place at the Olympiad in Skopie and 6th place in 2013 World team gives hopes that they will be favorites in their last match.

Explore the detailed results on http://chess-results.com/tnr364856.aspx?lan=24

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Watch the games of the VIII IBCA World Team Chess Championship 2018 with computer analysis LIVE on ChessBomb. 

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Watch live the commentary studio of GM's Alexander Delchev at the VIII World Chess Championship for Visually Impaired People 2018.

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 Interesting reviews and comentaries are offered from of our guests from ChessBase India.

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The VIII IBCA World Team Chess Championship 2018 - first part overview

    
by GM Alexandar Delchev

 If you hear "Damme bella 1 und Leufer Gustav 5" you may think its a line in a story in some fairytale. Yes, it is a story, but a chess one. Its the 6th day of the World Team Chess Championship for Blind and Visually Impaired and the air is full of chess. The talk in the hall is allowed only with the special code for announcement of every move. The crossing point of all different people from 16 different countries collected here is chess and its a meeting of minds and intellects. The battles are spectacular and legendary. The air is full of tension as the end of the competition is coming nearer.
In Group B the most interesting was the race between the two superb teams - Poland and Ukrajne. In the first 5 rounds they both reached the full score of 10 match points. The leader of the Polish team - GM Tazbir and the board 3 IM Dukaczewski both led with 4/4. 
The Bulgarian team in group A made a pleasant surprise taking the third place with 6 mp.

The most unbelievable turnover happened in round 5 in the match Bulgaria - vs India. Scoring quick victory on board 4 and leading with a big figure advantage on board 2 and board 3 the Indian team was already feeling the win. Then all of a sudden - Soundarya and Aryan both made crusial blunders, so Rasim Nizam on board 1 made a draw and took the important victory for the Bulgarian team.
India and Slovenia are sharing 4th and 5th place with 4 mp.

In group A, after 4 rounds, the current Olympic and World team champion - Russia was leading with the impressive score 15,5 ot of 16 games.

The best players of the group A - Russia were on board 4 Evgeniy Suslov  4/4 and on board 2 Stanislav Babarykin 4.5 /5.

In round 5  was the most exiting match in this group Russia vs. Serbia. It started with a quick draw on board 4 in only 9 moves, followed by another draw on board 2. But on board 1 - Alexey Smirnov  in a very complicated position decided to sacrifice a piece for an attack which soon appeared to be incorrect. Yuri  Meshkov  was in big trouble dealing with the  awkward positions of his rooks. Only by a miracle Russia managed to save the day when Pavle Dimic with a piece up missed a  simple winning plan and Stefan Janic -greed  to a  draw in much better position.

The main pretenders for the second place in A group were Germany with 8 match points and Serbia with 6 mp, so 6th round was the decisive match.

5 match points for Turkey; 4 points for - Great Britain, Venezuela and Macedonia.

Explore the detailed results on http://chess-results.com/tnr364856.aspx?lan=24

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Watch the games of the VIII IBCA World Team Chess Championship 2018 with computer analysis LIVE on ChessBomb. 

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Watch live the commentary studio of GM's Alexander Delchev at the VIII World Chess Championship for Visually Impaired People 2018.

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 Interesting reviews and comentaries are offered from of our guests from ChessBase India.

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Satu Mare Open 2018

The international festival Satu Mare Open 2018 is held between 24 and 31 July 2018 is held in Romania.

Official site

Schedule: (UTC)
Round 1    2018/07/24    13.30
Round 2    2018/07/25    06.00
Round 3    2018/07/25    13.30
Round 4    2018/07/26    13.00
Round 5    2018/07/27    13.00
Round 6    2018/07/28    06.00
Round 7    2018/07/28    13.00
Round 8    2018/07/29    13.30
Round 9    2018/07/30    06.00

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Watch the games of the Satu Mare Open 2018 with computer analysis LIVE on ChessBomb.

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Condigne Dutch Open 2018

The Condigne Dutch Open is a 9-round Swiss open tournament taking place from 24 July – 2 August 2018 in Dieren, Netherlands. The first prize is €3,000. Players receive 90 minutes for 40 moves, then 30 minutes for the rest of the game plus 30 seconds per move starting from move 1

Official site

Schedule: (UTC)
Round 1    Jul 24, 2018    11:00 
Round 2    Jul 25, 2018    11:00 
Round 3    Jul 26, 2018    11:00 
Round 4    Jul 27, 2018    11:00 
Round 5    Jul 28, 2018    11:00 
Round 6    Jul 30, 2018    11:00 
Round 7    Jul 31, 2018    11:00 
Round 8    Aug 1, 2018    11:00 
Round 9    Aug 2, 2018    10:00

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Watch the games of the Condigne Dutch Open 2018 with computer analysis LIVE on ChessBomb.

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U.S. Junior Championships - Round 9 Recap

by Vanessa West Awonder Liang and Carissa Yip entered the day only needing a draws to clinch their respective championships. Conversely, Advait Patel and Jennifer Yu, the only players within a point of the leaders, faced must-win games with everything on the line.  Read the full recap > U.S. Junior Championship Awonder Liang gained a comfortable advantage from the opening against Akshat Chandra, which he used to gain a pawn and trade into an ending. The players agreed to a draw on move 30, giving Liang his second U.S. Junior Championship title in a row.  In his post-game interview, Awonder said that after this event he’ll be taking some time to reflect on his play, “I think it’s part of every chess player, after every time you play, you improve yourself.” Despite now being out of the running for 1st, Advait Patel continued to play for a win in a double-edged Sicilian Dragon against Ruifeng Li. He soon won, securing clear 2nd place. This is an incredible result for Advait Patel, who entered the tournament ranked in the lower half of the field and performed at a U.S. Chess rating of 2675, over 100 points above his rating entering the championship. There was a three-way tie for 3rd between John Burke, Akshat Chandra, and Alex Bian.  Bian won an attacking miniature against Praveen Balakrishnan. The players castled their kings to opposite sides, and the game quickly turned into a race to attack with Bian having a head start due to his half open g-file. After he broke through with 18. Rxg7+!, Bian quickly checkmated.  Burke drew against Annie Wang. After a dynamic middlegame, the players agreed to a draw in an equal endgame.  Andrew Tang won his second game in a row against Mika Brattain in an advantageous rook and bishop vs. rook and knight endgame. U.S. Girls’ Junior Championship Carissa Yip drew against Jennifer Yu as the first game to finish, sealing clear 1st. Although Yu attempted to create checkmate threats against Yip’s king, Yip defended calmly and traded queens into a slightly better ending. This gave the new U.S. Girls’ Junior Champion an impressive 7 point score and a 2481 U.S. Chess performance rating. In Emily Nguyen vs. Nastassja Matus, Nguyen broke through on the queenside on the 33rd move and soon gained significant material. This victory ties Nguyen with Yu for 2nd place, each with 6 points out of 9.  Maggie Feng played a back-and-forth battle against Thalia Cervantes. Feng eventually held the upper hand when she advanced her passed e-pawn up the board and then trapped Cervantes’s rook with her knight, gaining the exchange.  Sophie Morris-Suzuki won yet another game. She stormed her pawns up the center against Sanjana Vittal. Her protected passed e-pawn significantly cramped Vittal’s position, and she won the endgame convincingly. Morris-Suzuki had a stunning second half of the tournament, scoring 3 points out of 4 rounds.  In Martha Samadashvili vs. Rochelle Wu, both players had an edge at different points but didn’t quite convert. They drew in 82 moves. Photos courtesy of Saint Louis Chess Club, Austin Fuller.

Saint Louis Chess Club  |  Building Champions 4657 Maryland Avenue, Saint Louis, MO 63108 | (314) 361.CHESS (2437) The Saint Louis Chess Club acknowledges Dr. Jeanne and Rex Sinquefield, whose generous support makes our tournaments possible. The STLCC and WCHOF admit students of any race, color, national and ethnic origin to all the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national and ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs. Copyright © 2018 Saint Louis Chess Campus, All rights reserved. Update Subscription Preferences | Unsubscribe

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It was a great start of the VIII IBCA World Team Chess Championship 2018

    
   On July 21st 2018 started the 8th IBCA World Team Chess Championship for Blind and Visually Impaired people in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. The opening ceremony was in the hostile and chess styled atmosphere of the Efe hall of hotel Marinela in the capital of Bulgaria.  The organizers are the International Braille Chess Association (IBCA) and the Bulgarian Federation “Sports for Visually Impaired”.

The Chairman of the Bulgarian Sports Federation Sport for the Visually Impaired People, Ivan Yanev  greeted the guests and expressed his satisfaction with the fulfillment of the federation idea to host the World Team Chess Championship for Blind and Visually Impaired.

   
   This is the first world chess championship for people with visual disabilities in the history of Bulgarian sport and one of the biggest sport events for visually disabled people since 1983 when Bulgaria hosted the European athletics championship for visually impaired people. The efforts to provide resources and support for the organization of the large chess forum started in 2015. The federation got the cooperation of the Union of the Blind in Bulgaria, the Sofia Municipality and the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

Мany popular persons stand behind the championship`s organization - the minister of Bulgarian sports Krasen Kralev, the major of Sofia - Yordanka Fadakova, Angelina Angelova, PR director of Victoria group and administrative director of Marinela group as well as many world famous Bulgarian champions - Rumyana Neykova, Maria Grozdeva, Mirela Demireva, Teresa Marinova, Plamen Markov and Dinko Agelov, paraolympic medalist as well as many others gave their support to the event which is part of the calendar of  Sofia as an European capital of sports in 2018.

   Greeting speeches gave: Vasil Dolapchiev - the chairman of the Bulgarian union of the blind; the chairman of the International Braille Chess Association (IBCA) Charudatta, Jadhav from India; Kristiyan Vigenin the chair of the Committee on European Affairs and Oversight of the European Funds. 
    The first moves in the tournament were made by Krasen Kralev, the Bulgarian minister of the youth and sports and IM Nizam Rasim.
    The promising visually impaired singers - Katrin Vitali and Virginiya Sabeva gave all the guests and participants the expected rest from the official part.
   In the championship take part the top 16 teams from the 15th IBCA Olympics, held in Macedonia in 2017. The teams come from 16 countries all over the world - Russia, Poland, Ukraine, Germany, Spain, Azerbaijan, India, Venezuela, Italy, Bulgaria, Great Britain, Macedonia, Slovenia,  Romania and Turkey. 2 groups consisting of 8 teams each contest in a 7 rounds league. Each team has 4 players.
 The media partner of the event ChessBomb is streaming the championship live and offers computer analyses of each move. A live streaming and a commentary studio is represented from the famous Bulgarian chess player and coach - Gm Alexander Delchev.

The rules in blind chess are same as those in normal chess. There are only a few modifications to the equipment aiding blind and visually impaired players. A special tactile boards and speaking chess clocks are used.

The squares on the tactile chessboard are a little raised above the white squares on the chessboard. By touching the squares, the player is able to determine whether the square is black or a white one. Each of the squares on the board has a hole in the center so that the chess pieces can be fixed in these holes with a downward projection (nail). It fits into the hole in the squares on the board. The black pieces are marked on their heads helping the player distinguish between a white and a piece.

After making every move, each player is required to announce their move to their opponent. Instead of writing the moves on a chess score sheet, the visually impaired player writes the moves in Braille or records the moves on a tape recorder. The online streaming on electronic chessboards is additionally assisted.
   On the first day 4 pairs of teams competed their chess strength -  Macedonia and Germany; Great Britain and Serbia; Bulgaria and Russia and Turkey and Venezuela.

   
   The pride and hope of the host team is the Bulgarian chess star Rasim Nizam. He is the first Bulgarian International Master of Sports with visual disability, holder of many Republican and Balkan chess titles. In 2015 he earned bronze medal at the World Team Chess Championship for Blind and Visually-Impaired in Seoul. In 2017 Nizam ranked 6th at the World Chess Championship for Disabled People in Dresden.

The results of group A after the first rounds in the first day of the competition.

1. MACEDONIA (ACO: 1980 / TB1: 2 / TB2: 3.5) Captain: Nedev, Trajko
Table		Name	Rtg	FED	FideID	T.	Parties
1		Atanasov Sande	1829	MKD	15001539	0.5	2.0
2		Trkaljanov Vladimir	2127	MKD	15000451	1.5	2.0
3		Selkovski Zarko	1900	MKD	15001490	0.5	2.0
4		Kostadinovski Zoran	1848	MKD	15002373	0.0	1.0
5		Bajrami Zejno	2044	MKD	15003132	1.0	1.0
2. GREAT BRITAIN (Air: 1957 / TB1: 0 / TB2: 2.5) Captain: Armstrong, W
Table		Name	Rtg	FED	FideID	T.	Parties
1	CM	Ross Chris N	2214	ENG	410411	1.5	2.0
2		Hilton Stephen H	1874	SCO	415030	0.5	2.0
3		Benson Paul J	1928	ENG	406678	0.5	2.0
4		Armstrong William G	1812	ENG	413712	0.0	1.0
5		Pennington Graham	1701	ENG	460001	0.0	1.0
3. BULGARIA - 2 (Average: 1217 / TB1: 0 / TB2: 0.5) Captain: Patev, Petko
Table		Name	Rtg	FED	FideID	T.	Parties
1		Patev Petko	1869	FID	2922061	0.0	2.0
2		Atanassov Venko G.	0	BUL	2938928	0.0	2.0
3		Stoykov Stoyan	0	FID	2923920	0.0	2.0
4		Ganev Boyan P.	0	BUL	2938910	0.5	2.0
4. TURKEY (Caption: 1735 / TB1: 2 / TB2: 4) Captain: Yilmaz, Fatma
Table		Name	Rtg	FED	FideID	T.	Parties
1		Donmez Unal	1871	TUR	6368077	1.0	2.0
2		Deniz Ugur	1820	TUR	6305598	1.0	2.0
3		Solak Yusuf	1627	TUR	6350232	1.0	2.0
4		He gave Ibrahim	1621	TUR	6352120	1.0	2.0
5		Ev Emre	1549	TUR	34501312	0.0	0.0
5. VENEZUELA (Captain: 2029 / TB1: 0 / TB2: 1) Captain: Gamboa, Anibal
Table		Name	Rtg	FED	FideID	T.	Parties
1	IM	Gamboa Gonzalez Anibal	2005	VEN	3900185	0.0	0.0
2		Otero Munelo Harlen Jose	2124	VEN	3902005	0.0	2.0
3		Rivas Cabrera Edgar	2041	VEN	3906329	0.5	2.0
4		Abiad Parra Victor	1945	VEN	3909468	0.0	2.0
5		Munoz Gonzalez Aaron Adonai	1687	VEN	3909557	0.5	2.0
6. RUSSIA (AE: 2359 / TB1: 4 / TB2: 7,5) Captain: Meshkov, Yuri
Table		Name	Rtg	FED	FideID	T.	Parties
1		Smirnov Alexey	2440	RUS	4168437	2.0	2.0
2	FM	Babarykin Stanislav	2379	RUS	4101898	2.0	2.0
3	IM	Meshkov Yuri A.	2322	RUS	4107101	0.0	0.0
4	FM	Suslov Evgeniy	2294	RUS	24149411	2.0	2.0
5	FM	Draganov Ruslan	2149	RUS	4108736	1.5	2.0
7. SERBIA (Ar: 2202 / CB1: 4 / CB2: 7) Captain: Ivanovic, Nikola
Mass		Name	Rtg	FED	FideID	T.	Parties
1	FM	Dimic Pavle	2358	SRB	937428	1.5	2.0
2	CM	Jandric Damjan	2197	SRB	921475	1.5	2.0
3		Janjic Stefan	2125	SRB	923265	2.0	2.0
4		Markov Ziva	2094	SRB	918253	2.0	2.0
5	FM	Avram Sretko	2126	SRB	925314	0.0	0.0
8. GERMANY (Cap: 2156 / TB1: 4 / TB2: 6) Captain: Bode, Wilfried
Table		Name	Rtg	FED	FideID	T.	Parties
1	IM	Mueller Oliver	2291	GER	4633385	1.5	2.0
2	CM	Eichstaedt Mirko	2190	GER	24692310	1.0	2.0
3		Adiyaman Rene	2097	GER	12910414	1.0	1.0
4	CM	Schellmann Frank	2046	GER	4669916	1.5	2.0
5		Schulz Gert	2005	GER	4622391	1.0	1.0

The results of group B after the first rounds in the first day of the competition.

1. INDIA (Cap: 1799 / TB1: 2 / TB2: 4.5) Captain: Sagar Shah
Mass		Name	Rtg	FED	FideID	T.	Parties
1		Gangolli Kishan	1973	IND	5049350	1.0	2.0
2		Soundarya Kumar Pradhan	1808	IND	25051822	0.5	2.0
3		Aryan B Joshi	1623	IND	35055933	2.0	2.0
4		Patra Subhendu Kumar	1666	IND	46604634	0.0	0.0
5		Makwana Ashvin K	1749	IND	5081912	1.0	2.0
2. ROMANIA (2001: TB1: 1 / TB2: 2.5) Captain: Pribeani Dacian
Mass		Name	Rtg	FED	FideID	T.	Parties
1	AIM	Widow Emil-Peter	1940	ROU	1218069	0.0	2.0
2	FM	Pribean Mihail-Dacian	2141	ROU	1209094	1.5	2.0
3		Marchidan Costica	1805	ROU	1222481	0.0	1.0
4		Dima Mihai	1966	ROU	1217399	0.0	1.0
5		Pirosca Alexandru	1956	ROU	1211110	1.0	2.0
3. SPAIN (HELP: 2150 / TB1: 3 / TB2: 5,5) Captain: Kogan, Artur
Mass		Name	Rtg	FED	FideID	T.	Parties
1		Palacios Perez Manuel	2196	ESP	2205505	1.5	2.0
2		Clemente Llamero Roberto	2140	ESP	2257696	1.0	2.0
3		Fernandez Manrique Agustin	2160	ESP	2231000	1.5	2.0
4		Aguilar Sevilla Diego	2102	ESP	2217945	1.0	1.0
5		Draghici Flutur Gavril	1989	ESP	1206508	0.5	1.0
4. POLAND (Captain: 2309 / TB1: 4 / TB2: 8) Captain: Tazbir, M
Mass		Name	Rtg	FED	FideID	T.	Parties
1	GM	Tazbir Marcin	2525	POL	1122452	1.0	1.0
2		Czajkowski Adam	2232	POL	1151932	2.0	2.0
3	IM	Dukaczewski Piotr	2254	POL	1103520	2.0	2.0
4	IM	Stachanczyk Jacek	2223	POL	1116657	2.0	2.0
5		Suder Ryszard	2054	POL	1102699	1.0	1.0
5. BULGARIA - I (1965 / TB1: 0 / TB2: 1) Captain: Razim, Nizam
Mass		Name	Rtg	FED	FideID	T.	Parties
1	IM	Nizam Rasim	2172	FID	2906708	1.0	2.0
2		Todorov Aleksandar	1945	FID	2901870	0.0	2.0
3		Ivanov Ljubomir	1796	FID	2903776	0.0	2.0
4		Stoyanov Stojan Slavov	1946	FID	2910918	0.0	2.0
6. ITALY (Score: 1818 / TB1: 0 / TB2: 0.5) Captain: Gori, Andrea
Mass		Name	Rtg	FED	FideID	T.	Parties
1		Vrioni Bersan	1933	ITA	805351	0.5	2.0
2		Casadei Marco	1881	ITA	847542	0.0	2.0
3		Gasperoni Claudio	1789	ITA	825450	0.0	2.0
4		Murgia Stefano	1667	ITA	876011	0.0	2.0
5		Laura Laura	1515	ITA	2840770	0.0	0.0
7. SLOVENIA (1972 / CB1: 2 / CB2: 4) Captain: Kasmac, Blaz
Mass		Name	Rtg	FED	FideID	T.	Parties
1		Mlacnik Franc	2035	SLO	14601923	1.0	2.0
2		Matej was astonished	1918	SLO	14604337	1.0	2.0
3		Turicnik Vlado	2001	SLO	14604930	1.5	2.0
4		Muri Emil	1836	SLO	14601354	0.5	1.0
5		Ursic Aleksander	1932	SLO	14605635	0.0	1.0
8. UKRAINE (AE: 2276 / TB1: 4 / TB2: 6) Captain: Zsiltzova, L
Mass		Name	Rtg	FED	FideID	T.	Parties
1	IM	Tuka Oleg	2386	UKR	14114453	1.0	2.0
2	CM	Grigorchuk Sergey	2292	UKR	14114879	2.0	2.0
3		Kolpakov Vladyslav	2121	UKR	14136996	0.0	1.0
4	FM	Wassin Sergej	2303	UKR	14103494	1.0	1.0
5		Shepelev Igor	2102	UKR	14114909	2.0	2.0

The championship arbiter's team is headed by Dr Radislav Atanasov, chess lecturer at the National Sports Academy. Among arbiters are the famous GM Emilia Djingirova and GM Rujka Geova. 
Explore the detailed results on http://chess-results.com/tnr364856.aspx?lan=24

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Watch the games of the VIII IBCA World Team Chess Championship 2018 with computer analysis LIVE on ChessBomb. 

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Watch live the commentary studio of GM's Alexander Delchev at the VIII World Chess Championship for Visually Impaired People 2018.

---

 Interesting reviews and comentaries are offered from of our guests from ChessBase India - Round 1 commentary.

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