Chess (#1078)

Krishnan Sasikiran won the 51st edition of the Indian national championships, which was held in Jalgaon. The 14-player round robin was Category 10, with an Elo average of 2493 and featured 7 GMs and 7 IMs. Sasi scored 10.5 (+9, =3, -1) with his one loss coming to Baskaran Adhiban, who was runner-up with 10. Lalith Babu was third with 9.5.

The top seed, Parimarjan Negi, had a terrible time, scoring just 5 points with five losses. The top five of Sasi, Adhiban, Lalith Babu, MS Thejkumar and Ashwin Jayaram join Pentala Harikrishna in the Indian Olympiad squad. Sasikiran also wins a slot in the 2015 World Cup. In other news, Viswanathan Anand says he's considering pulling out of the Candidates and may take a final decision in late January.

The Youth Championships in Al Ain, UAE , saw a good performance by India. The Indians won three golds and eight medals in all. China also claimed three golds but only seven medals in aggregate. Iranian IM, Pouya Idani provided a shock upset by winning the U-18 Open, after starting as 14th seed. Interestingly, the 15-member Israeli contingent opted to play "flagless" for security reasons.

The Indian golds included Saina Salonika (Girls U-10), Praggnanandhaa R (U-8 Open) and Murali Karthikheyan (U-16 Open). India always does well in younger groups but that doesn't necessarily translate into great performances in U-16 and U-18. But this time Karthikeyan and Girish Koushik took gold and silver respectively in the U-16 and Vaibhav Suri had a bronze in the U-18. Abhijeet Gupta won the concurrent Open Swiss. Gupta was lucky since top seed and leader, Baadur Jobava, defaulted the last round due to illness, giving Gupta an easy bonus point.

The Groningen festival saw a nostalgia-filled match between legends, Jan Timman and Anatoly Karpov. Karpov won 2.5-1.5. The match was tied after three games but then Timman suffered an accident and that proved to be too much of a distraction.

The DIAGRAM, BLACK TO PLAY (White: Akshat Khamparia Vs Black: Lalith Babu 51st National, Jalgoan 2013) is the set up for a creative idea. Black played 24...Re5 and now normal would be either 25. Nf4 Rc4 or 25. Rxa6 Rxh5 (since 25.--Nxa6 26. Qc8+ wins for white) and 26. Rxa5 when black has play for the material.

Instead white played the incredible 25.Qxe5!? dxe5 26.R1xc5 Bb7 27.Rc7 Qd8 28.Bh3 g6 29.Rd7?! Qb6? White had a better shot in 29. Bc8 Bxd5 30. Rd7 Qb6 31. Rxd5 gxh5 which looks unclear. And on 29. Rd7 Qf8! 30. Nf6+ Kg7, black seems clearly better.

After Qb6 white has deadly mating threats with 30.Rcc7 gxh5 31.Be6! Rb1+ 32.Kg2 e3 33.Rd8+ Kg7 34.Rxf7+ Kh6 35.Rf6+ Kg7 36.Rf7+ Kh6 37.Bf5! (1-0). Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and a correspondence chess player