The Sparkassen Chess Trophy 2021
Come July, and Dortmund in Germany will swing back to its mood, getting ready for the Sparkassen Chess Trophy or the “Dortmunder Schachtage” as it is originally referred to. A decades-old tradition of the City, the annual chess festival bounces back from the pandemic slump with an added flavour: It will be chess sans Castling!
The tournament that is scheduled from 13th July to the 18th 2021, at the Westfalenhallen Congress Center, will have Russia’s Vladimir Kramnik and India’s Vishy Anand lock horns in the new chess variant. They both will have a series of four games at the No-Castling World Masters. For Anand, this is his first over-the-board event since February 2020.
While the grandmaster tournament will be devoid of castling, all other rules remain the same. Chess sans castling could get livelier with fewer draws and a more flexible pattern than the traditional ones.
THE CAST-AWAY: When Chess goes No-Castling!
It was in 2019 that Vladimir Kramnik came up with the idea of a new chess variant where the rules remain the same except that the players cannot castle! Kramnik had worked on the concept with DeepMind’s AlphaZero and confirmed that such a game would bring in dynamic play and help deviate from theoretical chess. When you play the traditional chess backed by theories, in the no-castling framework, you could hit a dead wall after just 15 moves. Kramnik found this to be new and exciting.
Last year the “new chess” was tested out at the Microsense Kramnik Gelfand Training camp in Chennai, in January 2020 with 13 of the young Indian chess talents (average Elo:2457) participating in the first-ever chess tournament sans Castling.
Castling is a significant goal in the opening, as it has two fundamental purposes: In Castling one can safeguard the king by moving it farther from the center of the board. Also, one can bring the rook to a more strategically active position by moving it towards the center.
The castling move is derived from the ancient "king's leap" in the medieval games of chess when the king could move two squares on either side and leap over anyone in the way. The rook moves alongside, securing him.
Medieval chess permitted such safe adventures, provided the queen and the bishop were weak. The queen was allowed to move only one square diagonally and the weaker bishop, only two (thus using a maximum of only 8 squares out of the total 64).
A Few Facts on Castling
The only time two pieces in a game of chess can move simultaneously is in Castling.
It is also the only time when another piece can move over another piece, akin to the Knight.
Also, Castling permits the king to move by more than one square.
One must ensure that the Rook or the King are not moved. If they do, Castling is not possible.
The King cannot castle if he has to move over a square that is under threat by an enemy piece.
The longest duration for a Castling move in the history of chess took place in the match between Borislav Irkov and Milko G Bobotsor in 1966: 46. 0-0
The Four Principles of Castling in chess
The king and the rook must remain on their initial squares.
Between the king and the rook, there shall not be any other piece.
The king must not be in check.
When the king passes over the squares or lands on one, they must not be under threat.
In the 'no-castling' version, the fact that the king remains exposed into the middle game – often gets stuck in the center with nowhere to move - makes it an exciting adventure with more options and scintillating plays.
THE DORTMUNDER SCHACHTAGE
This is the 48th edition of the Dortmund Chess (Schachtage), one of the most prestigious Chess events in Germany. This year, besides launching the No-Castling variant, the tournament has also been renamed the Sparkassen Chess Trophy, with a new corporate design.
The Dortmunder Schachtage has been a national event since 1973, bringing in the international elite to the German playgrounds. The previous Sparkassen Chess Meeting was in the year before the global lock-down. In the 2019 event, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Leinier Dominguez headed the eight-player round-robin field.
In 2020, there had been an attempt to resume the traditional chess event with an elaborate plan for a huge international open. Though the pandemic drowned the plans, 2021 will see the chess festival back in all its glory. The Open tournament has given way to a GM tournament with some of the leading master players. The show-stopper, however, will be the face-off between India's Viswanathan Anand, the 14th world champion and Vladimir Kramnik, the 15th world champion.
The event will have three open tournaments and nine rounds respectively for the different Elo categories with a prize fund of €50,000.
The tournament will have fair participation from both the male and female chess teams from Germany as well as some of the top-most up-and-coming players of the nation.
Conclusion
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