 "Chess (#1117)")
The rating lists may soon see two new players at number 1. In the women's list, Hou Yifan is on 2673, just two points behind Judit Polgar (2675), who has now retired. Yifan's next big performance could see the world champion pulling ahead of the Hungarian GM.
Yifan's record always suggested that she was being underutilised by China. In the last year or two, she's started playing mixed events of higher strength and her rating has risen from 2609 to 2673 in a year. She's still a long way from likely peak strength.
Magnus Carlsen is #1 at 2862, and Fabiano Caruana #2 at 2844. Carlsen's next event is the title match, which starts on November 8. Caruana is playing the current Baku Grand Prix and he will also play the Tashkent GP, which follows within a few days of Baku.
This will be a test of stamina. If the Italian GM retains form and fitness, he could overtake Carlsen before the world champion plays Viswanathan Anand. Caruana shares the lead at Baku with Boris Gelfand. Both have 4.5 points from 7 games. Caruana has a loss against Andreikin to go with three wins. Gelfand is unbeaten. Teimour Radjabov, Sergey Karjakin and Rustam Kasimdzhanov share third with 4 points each.
The ongoing World Junior at Pune may be the strongest-ever. The Open section has 136 players with five rated at 2600-plus and 18 GMs. The top seed, GM Vladimir Fedoseev (Russia) is 2661. The girls' section has 5 WGMs with Aleksandra Goryachkina (2420) as top seed. There's a large Indian contingent led by Vidit Gujrathi (2635) and Padmini Rout (2331).
Three rounds in, Wei Yi, Jorge Cori, Vladislav Kovalev, Lu Shanglei and Pouya Idani have perfect scores. Daria Pustovoita is the only girl with a perfect score. Aravindh Chitambaram (2484) and Murali Karthikeyan (2492) are looking to pull their respective ratings above 2500 and thus complete their GM title requirements. Nihal Sarin (rated 2076), who is fresh off winning the world U-10 at Durban is on 2 from 3 games against 2400-plus opposition.
The DIAGRAM, WHITE TO PLAY (White : Wei,Yi Vs Black Muthaiah, World Junior Pune 2014) features an amazing mate which was missed by Wei (2641), Wei (born in 2000), is the youngest player to have crossed 2600
White played 18.Qh6 Kf7 19.Qg7+? (19.Ng5+ wins)19...Ke6 20.Ng5+ fxg5 21.d4 c4 22.d5+ cxd5 23.exd5+ Kd7 Black is better but it was 1-0 in 40 moves.
The mate is 18.Rh8+! Kf7 Or 18...Kxh8 19.Qh6+ . Now it's fireworks with 19.Ng5+!! fxg5 20.Qxg5 c4 This covers e7 or else 20...Na4 21.Rh7+ Ke6 22.Rxe7+ Kd6 23.Qe5# However it's mate with 21.Rh7+ Ke6 22.dxc4! Rxf8 23.Qxg6+ Rf6 24.Qg4+ Ke5 25.f4+ Rxf4 26.Rh5+ Kf6 27.Qxf4+ Kg7 28.Rg5+ Kh7 29.Qh#
Yifan's record always suggested that she was being underutilised by China. In the last year or two, she's started playing mixed events of higher strength and her rating has risen from 2609 to 2673 in a year. She's still a long way from likely peak strength.
Magnus Carlsen is #1 at 2862, and Fabiano Caruana #2 at 2844. Carlsen's next event is the title match, which starts on November 8. Caruana is playing the current Baku Grand Prix and he will also play the Tashkent GP, which follows within a few days of Baku.
This will be a test of stamina. If the Italian GM retains form and fitness, he could overtake Carlsen before the world champion plays Viswanathan Anand. Caruana shares the lead at Baku with Boris Gelfand. Both have 4.5 points from 7 games. Caruana has a loss against Andreikin to go with three wins. Gelfand is unbeaten. Teimour Radjabov, Sergey Karjakin and Rustam Kasimdzhanov share third with 4 points each.
The ongoing World Junior at Pune may be the strongest-ever. The Open section has 136 players with five rated at 2600-plus and 18 GMs. The top seed, GM Vladimir Fedoseev (Russia) is 2661. The girls' section has 5 WGMs with Aleksandra Goryachkina (2420) as top seed. There's a large Indian contingent led by Vidit Gujrathi (2635) and Padmini Rout (2331).
Three rounds in, Wei Yi, Jorge Cori, Vladislav Kovalev, Lu Shanglei and Pouya Idani have perfect scores. Daria Pustovoita is the only girl with a perfect score. Aravindh Chitambaram (2484) and Murali Karthikeyan (2492) are looking to pull their respective ratings above 2500 and thus complete their GM title requirements. Nihal Sarin (rated 2076), who is fresh off winning the world U-10 at Durban is on 2 from 3 games against 2400-plus opposition.
The DIAGRAM, WHITE TO PLAY (White : Wei,Yi Vs Black Muthaiah, World Junior Pune 2014) features an amazing mate which was missed by Wei (2641), Wei (born in 2000), is the youngest player to have crossed 2600
White played 18.Qh6 Kf7 19.Qg7+? (19.Ng5+ wins)19...Ke6 20.Ng5+ fxg5 21.d4 c4 22.d5+ cxd5 23.exd5+ Kd7 Black is better but it was 1-0 in 40 moves.
The mate is 18.Rh8+! Kf7 Or 18...Kxh8 19.Qh6+ . Now it's fireworks with 19.Ng5+!! fxg5 20.Qxg5 c4 This covers e7 or else 20...Na4 21.Rh7+ Ke6 22.Rxe7+ Kd6 23.Qe5# However it's mate with 21.Rh7+ Ke6 22.dxc4! Rxf8 23.Qxg6+ Rf6 24.Qg4+ Ke5 25.f4+ Rxf4 26.Rh5+ Kf6 27.Qxf4+ Kg7 28.Rg5+ Kh7 29.Qh#
Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player