5th FIDE World Championship for People with Disabilities: Tazbir and Egeman win titles

The 5th FIDE World Championship for People with Disabilities is in the books. GM Marcin Tazbir from Poland became the champion, and second place went to IM Daniel Pulvett from Spain. 20-year-old Pawel Piekielny of Poland sprang a surprise by winning bronze. All three players scored 7/9 games, but Tazbir claimed gold thanks to 1.5/2 points scored in the direct encounters, while Pulvett, who netted 1/2 in those games, took silver. FM Marcin Molenda (Poland), IM Duilio Collutiis (Italy) and FM Nikolay Mukha (Ukraine) finished just a half-point behind the top trio and tied for fourth place. 

17-year-old Emilia Egeman from Poland undisputedly won the women’s ranking, scoring 5/9. The second-best woman was WFM Aleksandra Aleksandrova from Izrael (4.5/9). 19-year-old Malwina Szewczyk, also from Poland, earned bronze with 4/9.  

The women’s champion Emilia Egeman and vice-champion WFM Aleksandra Aleksandrova

Organized by the Polish Chess Federation, the championship was financially supported by the Ministry of Sports and Tourism of Poland. The event took place in the Hotel Arche Lublin and brought together 46 players from various parts of the world. The Tournament Director Pawel Zaskalski, the Chief Arbiter IA Sabrina de San Vincente (pictured below), and their teams made enormous efforts to provide excellent conditions to all players during the event. Additionally, a group of volunteers was hired to assist players with different disabilities.

The event was wide open until the very end. Everything depended on the top board game between Pawel Piekielny and Daniel Pulvett, who came to the final round as join leaders, a half-point ahead of Marcin Tazbir and Krzysztof Madrawski. 

The leaders‘ clash ended in a draw after a long and mostly equal battle in an endgame. This result allowed Tazbir to catch up with the duo, as he beat Vladimir Kovalenko from Ukraine with the white pieces after reaching a winning position in just 13 moves. 

 Tazbir, Marcin – Kovalenko, Vladimir

Black had many problems in the opening, but he could have solved most of them with 13…Bxe4 entering an inferior endgame after 14.dxe4 (14.exf7+?! Kxf7 15.dxe4 Qxd1 16.Rxd1 Nxe4 and Black is only slightly worse) Qxd1 15.Rxd1 Nxe4 16.Nf4! Bd6 17.Nd5 fxe6 18.Nb6 Rd8 19.Re1± 

The activity of White pieces is visible, but Black keeps the chances for a draw. 13…Nxe4?? played in the game was a serious mistake. 

14.exf7 Ke7 15.dxe4 Qxd1 16.Bg5+! Ke6 17.Nf4+ Kf7 18.Raxd1 Bxe4

After the series of exchanges, Black maintained the material equilibrium, but White was totally winning due to an enormous activity of his pieces, attacking the vulnerable Black’s king. 19.Rd7+ Ke8 20.Rd2 h6 21.Re1?! (21.Ne6 was winning immediately, as there is no way to prevent Nc7) hxg5 22.Rxe4+ Kf7 23.Ne6 Kg6? (the line 23…Kg8 24.Nxg5 Rh6 does not look encouraging, but it was Black’s best option.) 24.Rd5 Rh5 25.g4 Rh4 26.Rxg5+ Kh7 27.Kg2 Be7? 28.Rxg7+ 1-0

This game was crucial for the final standings, but certainly, it was not the only one worth seeing. Many interesting and exciting encounters can be found on the official championship webpage, together with full results, photo gallery and other helpful information about the event.

Final standings (top 10):

Photos: official website 

Official website wccpd2023.pl/