2013 Micronational World Chess Championship

This article is about the 2013 micronational world chess championship. For other instalments of the same series of championships, see Micronational World Chess Championship (disambiguation).

Micronational World Chess Championship

2013
Tournament information
Game	Chess
Date	Completed 15 December 2013
Administrator	Inter-Micronational Chess Federation
Format	Round-robin
Participants	22
2nd place	Stepan Ignatiev of Lostisland
3rd place	Kuri Kabanov of Renasia
Tournament statistics
Matches played	21
Current champion
Sovetus of Renasia
Final champion
Rigas Papadopoulos of St.Charlie

The 2013 Micronational World Chess Championship was a double round-robin micronational chess tournament organised by the Inter-Micronational Chess Federation to determine the micronational world champion in chess. It was the first such tournament organised since the Federation's reorganisation in August 2013. The winner was IMCF President Rigas Papadopoulos of St.Charlie, who won 20.5 points over twenty-one matches to beat second-place finisher Stepan Ignatiev of Lostisland. The only match he did not win outright was with Jacob Tierney, against whom he drew. Previous world champion Sovetus of Renasia did not return to defend his title.

A total of twenty-two participants entered, making it the largest recorded chess tournament recorded by MicroWiki, beating its predecessor's record of sixteen. Five of those players failed to participate in a single match, however, and were disqualified. The next largest recorded tournament known to MicroWiki is the 2023 Austenasian Decennalia Chess Tournament.

The 2013 event was the final instalment of the Micronational World Chess Championship under the IMCF, which apparently ceased activity thereafter. A proclamation issued by Papadopoulos declaring the 2014 cycle was issued, but no recorded data survives of it ever taking place beyond an announcement of the first IMCF Grand Prix. The Micronational World Chess Championship was next announced in some form by the World Micronational Chess Federation, who dispute Papadopoulos' position as world champion.

Background

Main article: 2012 Micronational Chess Championship

At the previous world chess championship event, run by the organisation as the Micronational Chess Federation, Sovetus of Renasia won all four of his matches in the contest's single-elimination format to be crowed micronational world chess champion. The 2012 event was the then-largest recorded micronational chess tournament recorded by MicroWiki.

At some point between the 2012 and 2013 events, the administrative organisation operating the tournament changed its name from the Micronational Chess Federation to the Inter-Micronational Chess Federation (IMCF).

Results

The IMCF published the results of the World Chess Championship on 15 December 2013. Participants marked with a * were disqualified for non-participation and received 0 points. Participants with a † symbol have the same score as a lower ranked participant, but had a higher tie-breaker score, which put them ahead. Filippo Lanzarini (St.Charlie) and Ben McKinlay (Eragia) had identical tie-breaker scores, and as such are listed as joint fourth.

Place	Name	Micronation	Result
1	Rigas Papadopoulos	St.Charlie	20.5/21
2	Stepan Ignatiev	Lostisland	19/21
3	Kuri Kabanov	Renasia	18/21
4=	Filippo Lanzarini	St.Charlie	15/21
4=	Ben McKinlay	Eragia	15/21
6	Quinn Bress	Cyanocitta	13/21
7	Adam Millard†	Delsh-Westlandian Republic	12.5/21
8	Andre Volfym	Volfa	12.5/21
9	Jacob Tierney	Renasia	11.5/21
10	James Frisch	Winterdown	10.5/21
11	Solomon Fyrst†	Slinnyish Empire	10/21
12	Tyler Thompson	Cyanocitta	10/21
13	Alexander Eastwood	St.Charlie	9.5/21
14	Gerald Ruze	Gerenia	8.5/21
15	Yurt Kyong-Yon	Yurtyzstan	7/21
16	Richard Cunningham	Burnham	6.5/21
17	D Sherman	Delsh-Westlandian Republic	6/21
18=	James Wilary*	Prsanea	0/21
18=	Barnaby Hands*	Senya	0/21
18=	Emmanuel Terranova*	Terranova	0/21
18=	Naci Sunam*	Nasau	0/21
18=	Giannis Nikolaidis*	St.Charlie	0/21

Identity of world champion

Papadopoulos as the winner of the championship was granted the world chess champion title. Under the rules of the IMCF, he would be required to defend that title in the 2014 instalment of the world championship. No documents exist that such a competition ever took place. As a result, it is unclear who was world champion between the end of his natural term and the present day; the World Micronational Chess Federation, which styles itself as the governing body of intermicronational chess, disputes Papadopoulos' potential claim to being current world champion, instead claiming that he ceased to be champion in December 2014 and that no champion has existed since.

Papadopoulos v Tierney

The final board position of the Papadopoulos v Tierney match from 2013

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Giuoco Piano. The list of authors can be seen in the page history.

Papadopoulos v Tierney was a correspondence chess match between eventual winner Rigas Papadopoulos and 9th place finisher Jacob Tierney. Papadopoulos had the white pieces and Tierney had the black pieces. It is notable for being the only match played by Papadopoulos during the tournament that he did not win outright; after move 36, the game was drawn by threefold repetition of moves.

According to Stockfish, a powerful computer chess engine, Papadopoulos played at 89% accuracy to Tierney's 90%; accuracy is a function of "how much [players] deviated from best moves, i.e. how much [their] winning chances decreased with each move [they] made".

The players used the Giuoco Piano Game: Giuoco Pianissimo, Italian Four Knights Variation, played over 1,400 times by users of Chess.com. According to its Wikipedia article:

The Giuoco Piano was popular through the 19th century, but modern refinements in defensive play have led most chess masters towards openings like the Ruy Lopez that offer White greater chances for long-term initiative.

— Wikipedia, Giuoco Piano

The Giuoco Piano, where play commences 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5, is described as a "popular... opening from the beginner levels all the way up to grandmaster", with it being particularly cited for enabling white to control the centre of the board, development of kingside pieces to active squares, and enabling white to castle kingside.

Moves

White: Rigas Papadopoulos Black: Jacob Tierney Opening: Giuoco Piano Game: Giuoco Pianissimo, Italian Four Knights Variation

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. d3 Nf6 5. Nc3 d6

This is the Giuoco Pianissimo, Italian Four Knights Variation of the Giuoco Piano Game. Stockfish depth 11 suggests the position is broadly equal.

6. a3 O-O 7. Bg5 h6 8. Bh4 Be6 9. Bxe6 fxe6 10. Na4 Bb6 11. O-O Kh8 12. Re1 g5 13. Bg3 Qe7 14. Nxb6 axb6 15. d4 g4 16. dxe5 gxf3 17. exf6 Qxf6 18. c3 fxg2 19. Kxg2 e5 20. Re3 Qe6 21. Qh5 Na5 22. Rf3 Nb3 23. Rd1 Nc5 24. Re1 Kh7 25. Ree3 Qc4 26. Qh4 Rxf3 27. Rxf3 Rg8 28. Re3 Nd3 29. Qe7+ Rg7 30. Qf6 Nf4+ 31. Kg1 Qa2??

Stockfish 14 far preferred Rf7 here, but black is still almost a pawn up.

32. Qf5+ Rg6 33. Qd7+ Rg7 34. Qf5+ Rg6 35. Qd7+ Rg7 36. Qf5+ {Draw by repetition.} 1/2-1/2

Aftermath

Main articles: 2014 Micronational World Chess Championship and 2023 Micronational World Chess Championship

After the conclusion of the event, IMCF President and newly crowned micronational world chess champion Rigas Papadopoulos announced a 2014 follow-up to the tournament. The IMCF proposed that the tournament be conducted over the course of four smaller tournaments: the IMCF Grand Prix series, the IMCF Cup, the Candidates, similar to its macronational counterpart, and finally the Championship itself between the winner of the Candidates and the existing champion. Stepan Ignatiev, as the runner-up in the 2013 championship, would have been entitled to an automatic place in the Candidates tournament.

There is no documentary evidence that championship took place outside of a Facebook post announcing the opening of the first IMCF Grand Prix series. At some point over the course of 2014 and 2015 the IMCF ceased to operate and its website became unavailable.

On 27 October 2023, the World Micronational Chess Federation (WMCF), styling itself as the governing body of intermicronational chess, announced there would be a 2023 instalment of the same world championship series, the details of which the organisation announced in an ordnance on its website. The WMCF claimed that because the 2013 championship was the last formal championship event, that no world champion currently exists. The organisation also issued Papadopoulos (as well as his predecessor Sovetus of Renasia) with the title of "Former Micronational World Champion".