Todos Por Valencia: Carlsen, Caruana, Rey Enigma, Fausti & Others Fundraise With Chess

In response to the tragic flood that has devastated the region in Valencia, Spain, Chess.com's Spanish team organized a fundraiser to bring food, clothing, and other essential resources to those who need it. Many prominent players and personalities joined the effort "Todos Por Valencia," or "Everyone for Valencia," including super-GMs Magnus Carlsen, GM Fabiano Caruana, GM Anish Giri, and many others that will be listed below.

The team has raised more than €15,000, the initial goal, but it's not too late to donate now. You can reach the GoFundMe page by clicking on the button below.

Click Here To Donate Now

The event lasted almost seven hours. In exchange for donations, grandmasters and other titled players faced off against viewers of the stream. Hand and brain was played in pairs, as well as short one-vs.-one games. Guests included Spanish number-one GM David Anton, Spanish number-two GM Alan Pichot, GM Miguel Illescas (eight-time Spanish champion), GM Francisco Vallejo Pons (five-time Spanish champion) GM Pepe Cuenca, GM Bassem Amin, IM Faustino Oro, Rey Enigma, IM Olga Alexandrova (two-time women's Spanish champion), IM Sabrina Vega (eight-time women's Spanish champion), Luison (popular Spanish streamer), and Quantum Fracture (popular creator on YouTube). 

"Fausti," the youngest player to become an international master, was the first to take on challengers. After defeating a club-level opponent in his first game, he won from a worse position after his IM opponent, Vega, blundered a checkmate on f8. It was a friendly game, of course, with both players conversing while playing—and laughing off the conclusion of this game.

Fausti also played against Cuenca and won on time with a sole king (and pawns) against an army of black pieces. Next, we saw Rey Enigma and Luison, appearing as his alter ego 'El Deplorable' (in sunglasses), join the show to play more friendly games.

The super-grandmasters showed up around the two-hour mark. First, Giri played against Cuenca, then a donor, and finally against Caruana. World number-one Carlsen joined just in time to watch the four-time U.S. champion win the game, after starting with a dubious Stonewall-type of position.

Carlsen defeated FM Jose Miguel Ortega Ruiz, who played with a donation, before beginning a game of hand and brain. Carlsen and Cuenca played against Caruana and Giri. In the position you can see below, Giri said "queen," which surprised Caruana as he said the e6-break was flat-out winning.

Giri: "I'm getting some kind of Vishy-Carlsen vibes, from the match, you know. I was thinking to go Qh6 and then we'll lose there."

Caruana: "But Vishy lost that game"

Giri: "Yeah, I know, I was trying to re-enact that."

In a sub-30-second time scramble, where both Carlsen and Caruana played without their partners, Carlsen won the game. He then played one more challenger before leaving the stream. Later, guests included the popular YouTube content creator Quantum Fracture, who joined for hand and brain.

Chess journalist Leontxo Garcia then joined the broadcast and spoke about several topics, not just the unfortunate events in Valencia. About the upcoming 2024 FIDE World Championship, he said that he is concerned about GM Ding Liren both as a chess player and as a person. He shared that at the Olympiad, he was watching Ding exhibit physical problems, possibly stemming from medication. Ding drew seven games and lost one in that event—and he hasn't won a game since January.

GM Miguel Santos Ruiz, a second for Caruana who was on the call, however, also pointed out that the Challenger GM Gukesh Dommaraju recently lost rating—11 points on the last FIDE rating list—and that this is one of the first times we have seen Gukesh lose Elo in the last few years. There are just three weeks left before the match begins, and it ends in mid-December.

Other grandmaster guests included Bassem, Spanish number-one Anton, and Spanish number-two Pichot. From the English-speaking world, GM Hikaru Nakamura gifted a raid from his channel, and WFM Anna Cramling publicized the donation link on her stream.

Chess.com extends a wholehearted thank you to all those in the community who have helped and will continue to assist the people in Valencia during this crisis. IM David Martinez (El Divis), one of the principal organizers of the event and Chess.com's international partnerships manager, expressed his gratitude as well:

I'm so happy we reached our goal and could help the people going through such hard times in Valencia. I want to give huge thanks to everyone who made this possible and pitched in. It’s not just about the money—seeing the whole community come together with Magnus, Fabiano, Anish, and the top Spanish players like Faustino and Rey Enigma shows incredible support.