Dear Antwerp, thank you for the great memories of the World University Championship Mind Sports!
Keep practicing chess and bridge♟️♥️
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See you in 2024 for the next edition in Kampala (UGA)!
The 2022 FISU World University Championship Mind Sports has come to an end and its champions are known.
In the men’s category Arash Daghli from Iran managed to keep his half-point lead over the other players, although he certainly had to fight for it. His fellow Iranian and opponent Mahdi Gholami Orimi could still win the title if he beat Arash, followed by an interesting and sharp game that saw Mahdi attacking from the beginning. However, after Dimitris Alexakis lost on board 2, Arash was certain that a draw would be sufficient to get the world title and he could play safely against his teammate. In the end Mahdi didn’t manage to force a win and Arash secured the world title with a draw against his opponent.
Where Arash was the clear favorite to win the men’s title, it was anyone’s guess who would grasp the women’s title. No less than eleven players still had a chance to end up with a (tied) first place. It is no wonder then that all of the top boards saw great attacking play from both sides. After a couple of hours, it seemed like Fiona Sieber and Katarzyna Dwilewicz had the best chances of ending up on top. When Fiona won her game, it was up to Katarzyna to tie for the first place with her. However, Katarzyna’s opponent Anastasia Avramidou proved her worth and managed to neutralize Katarzyna’s advantage. A draw was agreed, leaving one player ahead of the pack. As a result, Fiona Sieber goes home with the women’s World University Champion title.
The winners of classical chess and blitz chess competition were awarded at the Official Awarding Ceremony.
Women’s Classical Chess Champions:
Men’s Classical Chess Champions:
TEAM Classical Chess Podium:
(including 3 best players)
Women’s Blitz Chess Champions:
Men’s Blitz Chess Champions:
TEAM Blitz Chess Podium:
(including 3 best players)
During this tournament, no less than 5 players have achieved a norm needed to obtain a higher FIDE title.
The following two men achieved a norm to obtain the title of FIDE International Master:
The following three women achieved a norm to obtain the title of FIDE Women International Master
Congratulations to all winners!
There is only one round left to determine the winners of the chess competition.
In the men’s tournament, Arash Daghli (FM) from Iran had taken the lead. Thanks to the suprising defeat of Dimitrios Alexis (IM) to Igor Janik (GM) in the Round 7, Arash became the only undefeated player remaining in the men’s tournament with a stunning score of 6/7.
In the round 7 on the board 7 between Karas Marek (FM) and Gatineau Yovann (IM), both players were roughly equal in strength. Their match took longer then 5 hours and 124 moves. At the end both players were tired, and Marek made a mistake by not exchanging his bishop for a knight. In the end, Yovann checkmated his opponent with two knights against a pawn.
In the women’s tournament after Thursday’s rounds 6 and 7 on Thursday, they made it exciting for the round 8 with five of them tied with an equel number of points 5/9.
The round 8 saw draws on all of the top boards. However, this has a different effect on the women’s and the men’s tournament. In the men’s tournament Arash Daghli is still on his own in pole position with 6,5/8. Dimitris Alexis from Greece and Mahdi Orimi from Iran are still in close pursuit with only half a point less. But if Arash wins round 9, he is guaranteed to get the world title!
The situation couldn’t be different in the women’s section. No less than six players are all tied for the first place! Three of these players are Polish, but they are joined by players from Greece, Germany and Hungary. Round 9 will decide which country gets to take home the title.
On the final day of the bridge tournament the scene was set for a four-way battle for the podium spots.
The teams in realistic contention to take the gold were: both Polish teams, France and Germany.
Poland 2 faced the most demanding opposition, as they were still due to play against two of their direct competitiors, France and Germany. Unfortunately for the Poles, two losses in these crucial matches put them fourth in the final standings.
Before the last round, merely fractions of a point separated Poland 1 and France for the top position with both teams facing relatively easy opponents in their final matches.
However, the gold was effectively decided half-way through the round. The Poles played their match against Serbia 2 at a blistering pace, quickly collecting a maximum 20:0 victory along the way. This guaranteed they couldn’t be passed by France, who were also on their way to convincingly win against Thailand, and secured them the gold medals.
Germans, after last round victory in what turned out to be the bronze medal match against Poland 2, took the final podium position.
Czech Republic claimed “the best of the rest” 5th place, after two victories on the fourth day.
Find bridge results here.
Congratulations to all bridge players!
Today we reached the 5th round and with it the halfway point of the tournament. Poland is establishing itself as one of the dominant countries of the tournament. Both in the men’s and women’s category a Polish player is tied for the first place, with more players closely following. The games on the top boards are complemented by players from Germany, Singapore, Hungary and Iran. For the second half of the tournament these countries will be the ones to beat.
After five classical chess rounds, the World University Blitz Championship, was organized. While some players elected to skip the tournament to recuperate, a total of 52 players competed in this tournament. As is usual the blitz tournament provided some very exciting games. In the end it was Sliwicka Alicja from Poland, who won the women’s section with 6,5/9. The Singaporean grandmaster Jingyao Tin claimed the men’s title with a stunning score of 7,5/9!
Men’s Blitz Champions:
1 Tin Jingyao (SGP)
2 Janik Igor (POL)
3 Daghli Arash (IRI)
Women’s Blitz Champions:
1 Sliwicka Alicja (POL)
2 Kucharska Honorata (POL)
3 Alinasab Mobina (IRI)
Day 3 brought changes to the top of the standings on the bridge side of the event.
Two Polish teams now occupy the podium position on first and third, with France sandwiched between them.
New tournament leaders, Poland 2, benefitted from Thailand’s worse results, but also marked their superiority over them with a convincing direct victory.
Meanwhile, the first Polish team and France were able to catch up by confidently beating both teams from Uganda, even despite the French loss to the Czech Republic.
German team is not far away from podium and these teams are expected to fight for the medals tomorrow, on the final day of the tournament.
To conclude an eventful day, the customary speedball pairs tournament took place. Berat Unver from Turkey and Mihailo Simic from Serbia came out on top, followed by Yu-Chih Lin from Taipei with Muhammed Furkan Eker from Turkey and an all-French pair of Wilhelmine Schlumberger and Romeric Guth.
Day 2 Chess Competition
Now that the third and fourth round have been played we are nearing the second half of the tournament. As more matches are being played the group of frontrunners is getting smaller.
There were some amazing games on the boards today. In round 4 on board 8 there was a draw between Jun Hao Tan (CM) from Singapore and Theo Stijve (FM) from Switzerland. It was the longest game of that round. Theo Stijve, playing with black pieces, first offered his knight. Then Jun Hao Tan, who had 600 elo less than his opponent, sacrificed his rook to obtain stalemate.
Three men are currently tied for first place, while Fiona Sieber (WIM) from Germany is leading the women’s category with 3,5/4 points.
Tomorrow we will bring only one new round, since the players will be competing against each other in a blitz tournament in the afternoon.
Day 2 Bridge Competition
In bridge competition, the unexpected Day 1 leaders from Thailand are still holding strong.
After three victories over teams from Uganda and Czech Republic and a bye round, they’re leading the field with Poland 2 closely behind.
France and Germany are in third and fourth, both after a setback against Poland 1 who were the only other undefeated team in the tournament, but suffered a loss to the Czechs in the final round of the day. The Poles are thus trailing in sixth, with Serbia 1 also separating them from a podium position, but should face relatively easier opposition later on.
Still all to play for in Days 3 and 4, as most of the top teams are yet to face each other in this single round-robin event.
Competitions of the 2022 FISU World University Championship Mind Sports kicked off this morning.
The symbolic first move of the 1st round of the Women’s chess competition was played by the Vice-president of FISU Uganda Peninnah Aligawesa Kabenge. The symbolic first move in Men’s Chess was made by the Championship President, Koenraad Keignaert at the beginning of the 2nd Round.
All accreditated players were present at the chess competition on time. The competition started without any problems and went smoothly.
There was quiet exceptional game of the first round, in which player Anna Christina Du Plessis from South Africa with much lower rating (1586) playing black pieces won against stronger with rating 2196.
The second round proved to be just as exciting as the first. As the tournament progresses the level gap between the players becomes smaller. Even so we still saw some great draws by players with several hundreds of elos less than their opponents, with the Ugandian player Mark Nyola (1680) even beating his much higher rated opponent.
Considering that many players participating in the Championship have titles, the level of games is quite high.
As the last games are being finished, only five women and eight men are left with a perfect score after the first day of competition. Today showed that not even a grandmaster is certain to win every game, so tomorrow may bring even more surprises!
The bridge competition kicked off with Taipei 1 and Taipei 2 on the BBO livestream. Taipei 2 took a very good start but Taipei 1 fought themselves back into the game. It was exciting till the end but an aggresive opening decided the game.
The last round of the first day was played by Belgian Youngster (Sam Verstuyft and Kobe Wees) against Thailand (Thanathat Dechakulkamjorn – Akaraphon Jantaraphum) in the closed room. All were very kind and still in good spirits. Thailand was (and still is) in the lead. The Belgians try to climb up in the ranking, but it was not easy against this good team!
Fair play and a good atmosphere were present during the games as always as youngsters are competing each other.
Find selection of photos here.
Competitions of the 2022 Anwerp FISU World University Championship Mind Sports kicked off this morning.
The symbolic first move of the 1st round of the chess competition was played by the Vice-president of FISU Uganda Peninnah Aligawesa Kabenge.
Follow competitions online:
Live Women’s Chess: https://www.chess.com/de/events/2022-fisu-world-university-womens-chess-championship/games
Live Men’s Chess: https://www.chess.com/de/events/2022-fisu-world-university-chess-championship
LIVE Bridge: https://www.bridgebase.com/v3/?vugraph=yhttps://www.bridgebase.com/v3/?vugraph=y
The Official Opening Ceremony of the 2022 FISU World University Championship Mind Sports took place at the biggest Auditorium of the University of Antwerp in the City Campus “Aula Rector Dhanis”.
It was attended by the Aldeman of Sports Peter Wouters, rector of the University of Antwerp Herman Van Goethem, vice-president of FISU Uganda Peninnah Aligawesa Kabenge, team delegates and student-athletes. Almost 250 accreditated persons were presented.
The Opening Ceremony started with the march pass of the athletes from 20 countries participating in the Championship.
At the Ceremony, the choir sang the national anthem of Belgium, FISU Anthem and other songs, including a song in Flemish accompanied by a little surprising performance.
Traditionally, the oath of athletes and the oath of technical officials were taken by Bjarne Van Dijck, chess player of team Belgium and student of the University of Antwerp, and Michal Klichowicz, one of the technical officials during the bridge competition.
After the Opening Ceremony, all participants moved to the Antwerp City Hall for a Welcome Reception, where Professor Koenraad Keignaert, President of the Championship Organizing Committee made a speech.
During the reception, the FISU Healthy Campus label has been awarded to the University of Antwerp by the FISU vice-president Peninnah Aligawesa Kabenge. The University of Antwerp is one of the eighteen universities in the world received the “Platinum” label, the highest level of certification. Launched by FISU in May 2020, the Healthy Campus program is a certification process for universities in the field of health and well-being in all its aspects.
All participants were impressed by the historical building and its Renaissance façade, magnificent halls and numerous works of art.
Partners 2022 FISU Championship Mind Sports
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