 "Chess (#1062)")
The Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis is Magnus Carlsen's last event before the title match. This double round robin features Carlsen, Levon Aronian, Hikaru Nakamura and Gata Kamsky. After the first three rounds, Nakamura leads with 2.5. Carlsen has 2 while Aronian is on 1 and Kamsky has 0.5. Carlsen and Nakamura both benefited in round one from blunders from Aronian and Kamsky respectively, while Nakamura outplayed Kamsky in a second round time scramble.
It's unlikely Carlsen will play very revealing openings since he's likely to treat this as an extended training session. He opened queen's pawn in both his whites. But Kamsky and Nakamura both chose defences that Viswanathan Anand is extremely unlikely to consider.
In his black game against Aronian, Carlsen played the Leningrad Dutch, which he may just contemplate adopting. Nakamura is the only top-notch Leningrad regular and it would force Anand to widen preparations. Carlsen got an excellent position before Aronian found a way to hold.
The Women's title match is on in Taizhou, China. Hou Yifan started with a somewhat fortunate win in round 1 when Anna Ushenina self-destructed from an excellent position in time trouble. The Ukrainian dissipated strong pressure and she finally ended up on the receiving end of a sharp mating attack. The second game was drawn without much ado.
The Chinese prodigy is the heavy favourite. She has a rating advantage of of over 100 Elo. She's a world champion with much more experience and she's also playing in her home-town. There's a fair chance that the best of 10-game match will not go the distance. Ushenina was a surprise winner of the Women's World Cup and her subsequent performances suggests that she was somewhat the beneficiary of "knock-out luck".
The diagram, BLACK TO PLAY, (Kramnik vs Vachier-Lagrave World Cup 2013), is destined to make the textbooks. Black's obviously struggling but reduced material is in his favour.
White has a problem win and Vladimir Kramnik's technical skills are legendary. But he only drew with 62.Ke4? Re1+ 63.Kf3 Rf1+ 64.Kg3 Rg1+ 65.Kf4 Rf1+ 66.Ke3 Re1+ 67.Kf3 Rf1+ 68.Kg2 Rf5 69.Nh7 Kg6 70.Rb7 Rf4 71.Kg3 Ra4 72.Re7 Rg4+! 73.Kf3 (73.Kxg4 is stalemate) 73...Ra4 74.Rb7 Rh4 75.Nf6 Kxg5 (1/2- 1/2, 125 moves).
The win is the amazing 62.Nd7! Rf5. On other rook moves, white consolidates with lines like 62.--Re1+ 63. Kf2 Re4 64. Kf3 Re1 65. Nc5 and Ne4. Now white must play. 63.Rf8+ Kg6 64.Rg8+ Kf7.
Kramnik got this far in his analysis but he missed 65.Ke4!! Ra5 - The rook is dominated. The alternative 65. - Rb5 is similar while 65.--Rf1 ?? 66. Rf8+! The finish may be 66.Rf8+! Kg6 67.Ne5+! Kxg5 68.Rf5+ Kh6 (or 68...Kh4 69.Nf3+) 69.Nf7+ Kg6 70.Rxa5 winning the rook.
Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player
It's unlikely Carlsen will play very revealing openings since he's likely to treat this as an extended training session. He opened queen's pawn in both his whites. But Kamsky and Nakamura both chose defences that Viswanathan Anand is extremely unlikely to consider.
In his black game against Aronian, Carlsen played the Leningrad Dutch, which he may just contemplate adopting. Nakamura is the only top-notch Leningrad regular and it would force Anand to widen preparations. Carlsen got an excellent position before Aronian found a way to hold.
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The Chinese prodigy is the heavy favourite. She has a rating advantage of of over 100 Elo. She's a world champion with much more experience and she's also playing in her home-town. There's a fair chance that the best of 10-game match will not go the distance. Ushenina was a surprise winner of the Women's World Cup and her subsequent performances suggests that she was somewhat the beneficiary of "knock-out luck".
The diagram, BLACK TO PLAY, (Kramnik vs Vachier-Lagrave World Cup 2013), is destined to make the textbooks. Black's obviously struggling but reduced material is in his favour.
White has a problem win and Vladimir Kramnik's technical skills are legendary. But he only drew with 62.Ke4? Re1+ 63.Kf3 Rf1+ 64.Kg3 Rg1+ 65.Kf4 Rf1+ 66.Ke3 Re1+ 67.Kf3 Rf1+ 68.Kg2 Rf5 69.Nh7 Kg6 70.Rb7 Rf4 71.Kg3 Ra4 72.Re7 Rg4+! 73.Kf3 (73.Kxg4 is stalemate) 73...Ra4 74.Rb7 Rh4 75.Nf6 Kxg5 (1/2- 1/2, 125 moves).
The win is the amazing 62.Nd7! Rf5. On other rook moves, white consolidates with lines like 62.--Re1+ 63. Kf2 Re4 64. Kf3 Re1 65. Nc5 and Ne4. Now white must play. 63.Rf8+ Kg6 64.Rg8+ Kf7.
Kramnik got this far in his analysis but he missed 65.Ke4!! Ra5 - The rook is dominated. The alternative 65. - Rb5 is similar while 65.--Rf1 ?? 66. Rf8+! The finish may be 66.Rf8+! Kg6 67.Ne5+! Kxg5 68.Rf5+ Kh6 (or 68...Kh4 69.Nf3+) 69.Nf7+ Kg6 70.Rxa5 winning the rook.
Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player