China takes the lead in Chess, Italy in Bridge

It was an exciting Day 2 at the 2020 FISU World University Championship Mind Sports (online) as hundreds of games of chess and bridge were completed, with stunning moves and combinations. In chess, with three rounds still to go, a few teams have lost their chance to qualify for the top 16 knockouts, but others are gaining momentum.

FIDE (International Chess Federation) International Arbiter Tomasz Delega was a guest during the livestream of the second day’s action.

“This competition is probably the first online team event, where countries from all over the world are playing together,” said Delega, who is from Poland, the host nation, where the organising committee is based, as well as the studios from the livestream.

FIDE IA Tomasz Delega, Chief Arbiter of the 2020 WUC Mind Sports Chess Tournament“It is a great experience and a chance for students to compete against their rivals from other parts of the world. Most chess players prefer ‘over the board tournaments’, with the possibility to meet other players in person and travel, but it is great that in these difficult times we have a chance to play online.”

The online tournament is using the chess platform Tornelo.com, which allows arbiters to be very much involved in all games and also help participants. “We are following normal, over the board rules,” added Delega. “I am very happy that the event is running smoothly, and in a fair play atmosphere.”

Chess

With a total of 444 games played so far, China tops the leaderboard in the chess tournament. It is not an easy event for them, as the Chinese players are participating during their night hours.

But they have been very successful. They won all 6 matches and took the lead with 12/12 match points; 2 points ahead of Mongolia, Belarus and Cuba. In the last game of the second day two top-seeded teams met, where China beat Armenia 3-1.

Many local supporters are keeping their fingers crossed for all four Polish teams that are in the fray. So far, they all have a chance to qualify for the play-offs. With three rounds to go it is clear, to qualify they will need to score 11-12 match points.

Highlight match: Xu (CHN) vs Eggink (POL)

Black decided to activate its bishop from d8 to c7. The Chinese player did not hesitate and sacrificed a rook for the bishop on d7. Black decided to give up the game, because after taking the rook with a queen, a very beautiful fork on f6 was coming and the queen would be lost.

Bridge

The second day saw another five rounds of qualifications in the bridge competition. Currently at the top are teams from Italy, Poland, and France:

Three teams from China are placed right behind the French team. The best individual performances of the day were from Jakub Andruszkiewicz and Edward Sucharda of Team Poland 3 as well as Gabriele Giubilo and Gianmarco Giubilo of Italy 1.

According to the experts, the most interesting board of the day was between Australia and Russia.

“One missed opportunity to shine was in the Australia versus Russia match,” explained Polish bridge player Jakub Wojcieszek, who has been a competitor at the FISU World University Bridge Championships in past years. “One of the boards was very interesting from a technical point of view.”

On Wednesday, the third day of competition, the last five rounds of qualifications will be played, after which the best eight teams will qualify for Thursday’s quarter-finals.

Action from the 2020 FISU World University Championship Mind Sports (online) is streamed daily at 2:30PM CET on:

YouTube Day 3: 

Twitch: 

FISU.TV: 

All results are available on the official website: