World Senior Championships 2024, Porto Santo

[Tim Harding]

The FIDE World Senior Championships 2024 start tomorrow afternoon, Sunday 17 November, on the Portuguese island of Porto Santo (part of the Madeira archipelago).

I have posted a preview page at https://www.chessmail.com/seniors/World ... -2024.html and hope to do daily reports (from home).

British interest is somewhat reduced because neither of the 2023 defending champions, Michael Adams (50+) nor John Nunn (65+) are competing.
John had entered but after finishing out of the medals in the recent Europeans he is either not going or is just having a holiday.
His wife Petra is still listed as an entrant, but as usual she is down for the 50+ open rather than the women's championship.

Steven Dishman is the highest ranked English player in the 50+, Terry Chapman in the 65+ and Ingrid Lauterbach is in the women's tournament (combined 50+ and 65+).

The World 50+ and the women's tournament are, as one would expect, much stronger than the Europeans but the 65+ (which was very strong in Italy) is only about the same strength and has a much smaller field than usual.

[Roger de Coverly]

The World 50+ and the women's tournament are, as one would expect, much stronger than the Europeans but the 65+ (which was very strong in Italy) is only about the same strength and has a much smaller field than usual.

The concensus amongst many players at the English and British Seniors was that it was a difficult place to reach. It either needed a ferry, possibly infrequent, a domestic flight or a special charter arranged by FIDE or the Portugese federation.

[Tim Harding]

That was all well documented on my website throughout the summer. It took the organisers too long to accept that the assurances they claimed to have been given about scheduled flights would not materialise.
However these shenanigans have not greatly affected the entries for the 50+ (only slightly down) but the 65+ has greatly reduced numbers and is no stronger than the European Seniors last month.

[Mick Norris]

FIDE Report with photos

In the 50+ category, featuring 15 GMs, there were also a few unexpected outcomes. Second seed GM Gregory Kaidanov (USA, 2534) drew with Portuguese FM Fernando Ribeiro (2125) from Casa do Povo de Mangualde, while Germany’s Klaus Bischoff (2445) was unable to overcome the resistance of Scotland’s Alan Minnican (2071).

[NickFaulks]

https://lichess.org/broadcast/world-sen ... u/7czeAVEY

Are the last 25 moves of this game real?

[LawrenceCooper]

https://lichess.org/broadcast/world-sen ... u/7czeAVEY

Are the last 25 moves of this game real?

Has it been tidied up since? I just clicked on it and the game ends in 36 moves.

[NickFaulks]

Has it been tidied up since? I just clicked on it and the game ends in 36 moves.

Yes, it was 96 moves of mostly repetitious gibberish!

Can that happen if the players are doing a bit of post-mortem at the board?

[LawrenceCooper]

Has it been tidied up since? I just clicked on it and the game ends in 36 moves.

Yes, it was 96 moves of mostly repetitious gibberish!

Can that happen if the players are doing a bit of post-mortem at the board?

They have been known to do strange things. When I first clicked on the link I thought I saw some long repetition line but then it seemed to disappear!

[Tim Harding]

This event ended yesterday. My final report is at:
https://www.chessmail.com/seniors/World ... -2024.html

There was no strong British challenge after Terry Chapman lost two games in a row in the 65+ after a good start.
He still scored 7/11 and finished two places above his initial ranking.

Brian Hewson made a slight rating gain with 50% in the 65+.
The outstanding performance was by WFM Petra Fink-Nunn who, as usual, preferred to play the 50+ Open rather than the women's championship.
She gained nearly 50 rating points with a 5.5/11 result and drew with three IMs.