Chess off the table, too

Yekaterinburg, March 26

The Candidates 2020 tournament to decide the challenger for chess world champion Magnus Carlsen has been finally halted at the halfway stage with the remaining rounds to be played at a later late, chess’s world body FIDE has announced.

The tournament came to an abrupt and sudden halt today morning after the Russian government announced that air traffic with other countries would cease indefinitely tomorrow. 

“FIDE cannot continue the tournament without guarantees for the players’ and officials’ safe and timely return home,” a FIDE statement said. “It will be continued later, with the exact dates to be announced as soon, as the global situation related to the Covid-19 pandemic will allow.”

Joint lead

In the seventh round played yesterday, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave defeated local hope Ian Nepomniachtchi to hold the joint lead together with 4.5 points.

Though the tournament was going on in a sanitised environment, players were worried about the prevailing conditions across the globe and Fabiano Caruana had even wondered about how he would get back home after the tournament.

One competitor, Ding Liren, had a tough time before starting the competition as he was in lockdown in China and had to spend 14 days in quarantine near Moscow before travelling to Yekaterinburg. — Agencies