Team Salimova
An inside look with IM / WGM Nurgyul Salimova at the FIDE Candidates 2024
The little surprises that inhabit the chess world are what make every moment of reporting on top level chess events worth it. To be clear, I spent way more money than I will make, but the connections made and memories are worth the cost. I will present to you a very special person that I met while waiting for the restroom outside of the press center. It was an unglamorous location but a fortuitous meeting because I believe she will mature and get a shot one day at the Women’s World Championship. Let’s hear about her first experience at the FIDE Candidates 2024:
She is from Bulgaria and has a great team behind her. A few rounds ago, I was able to get an interview with one of her coaches, Grandmaster Cem (pronounced Jim) Kaan Gokerkan. He had some insightful things to say about playing the candidates.
The strange and serendipitous part of coming to this event is that I also met the other member that Cem mentioned, Grandmaster Ivan Cheparinov. He gave a four person blindfold simultaneous exhibition sponsored by Pub Chess Toronto. They have massive Wednesday night blitz events where the likes of Carlsen and Gotham Chess have been spotted. I was absolutely exhausted when we flew in, so I decided to attend the blindfold event the next day.
I arrived at the bar where the event was held, and it seemed like a ghost town. I wasn’t even sure if the bar was open! Luckily, I found a few open doors and wandered upstairs to find 10-12 chess players. At first it seemed like they would not have the exhibition, so I settled in to play some blitz. That was also lucky because I was able to do a nice audio interview with Top Blogger on chess.com “MomOnaBreak” aka Olya Kaye. I will post the full interview once I determine the parts I want to use in my American Chess Magazine article.
After a few hours, GM Cheparinov did show up, and it was a raucous blindfold event with him scoring 2.5/4; the only loss of a point going to a 2300 rated player that was losing but legitimately swindled the Grandmaster who forgot where a pawn was and lost a bishop!
These events of the interview of Cem and the blindfold exhibition all happened BEFORE I met IM Salimova. Not to mention the fact that they all know a friend of mine that I drove around Los Angeles, GM Dejan Bojkov! The chess world can really be extremely small at times while connecting us all to a beautiful and vibrant international community.
At this point in the tournament, IM Salimova has one win, two losses and six draws, which puts her at minus one. Her chances of winning this event are quite slim with just 5 rounds to go, but I would count on seeing her at this top stage again. She finished 2nd in the Women’s World Cup, which means she went through a field of many Grandmasters and achieved her 2nd grandmaster norm. She is a strong chess talent and gives off an air of wisdom beyond her age!
PS - I have so much content from reporting at the candidates for only 3 days! Expect posts with Fabi, Team Vidit, Koneru, the ChessBrahs and plenty of fan interviews to come out this week. AND, I just posted a short interview of Hikaru for paying subscribers!