 "Chess (#1162)")
Russia possesses a large number of 2650-plus GMs and strong women GMs, many of whom are actually under-rated and virtually unknown internationally. The Superfinal is a chance for them to make a mark. It has decent prize money and brutal qualifiers.
The format is a 12-player round robin. The open event (cat: 18, Elo average 2694) was won by Evgeny Tomashevsky. with 7.5 from 11 games. Sergey Karjakin and Nikita Vitiugov followed with 7 and 6.5 respectively. In the women's event, the 16-year-old prodigy, Alexandra Goryachkina pulled off a splendid victory, with 8/11. She was followed by Anastasia Bodnaruk and Alexandra Kosteniuk (both 7).
The Sinquefield Cup starts in St. Louis on Sunday. The field is Magnus Carlsen (World#1), Viswanathan Anand (#2-3), Veselin Topalov (#2-3), Hikaru Nakamura (#4), Fabiano Caruana (#5), Anish Giri (#6), Wesley So (#8), Alexander Grischuk (#9), Levon Aronian (#11) and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (#16).
This is the second of the Grand Tour trio. Each event has the same nine, plus one wild-card. Wesley So (#8) is the wild card here, replacing Jon-Ludvig Hammer who played in Norway. Each standalone prize fund offers $75,000 for first place and $15,000 for last. The tour's best performer gets another $75,000.
The top five players and Aronian have all demonstrated the ability to win in such fields though Aronian is in bad form. Topalov won Norway, with Anand and Nakamura tied for 2-3. The "old men", Topalov (40) and Anand (45), could score again. They are playing powerful chess.
The big question is centred on Carlsen. Can the world champion bounce back after his seventh place in Norway? There are three Americans playing at "home" and all three could make their fans happy. Caruana, who represented Italy in 2014, is the defending champion. "Fab" scored an unforgettable seven straight wins in 2014. He recently managed five straight wins at Dortmund so he's in touch. Nakamura has played consistently good chess through 2015 and So also played well at Shamkir.
The DIAGRAM, WHITE TO PLAY (White: Denis Khismatullin Vs Black: Daniil Dubov, Superfinal Russian 2015) has an imaginative queen sac. White played 17.dxe6 Nxe4 18.exf7+ Kxf7 19.Bc4+ Re6 !? Instead 19-Kf8 20.Nxe4 Bf6 21. O-O Kg7 22. f4 gives dynamic compensation for white.
Play continued 20.Nxe4 Rc8 21.Bxe6+ Kxe6 22.0-0 Qd3 23.Ng5+ Kf5 24.h4 Qe2 25.e4+ Kg4 26.Bc1 Rc3 27.Be3 Kxh4 28.Nf3+ Kh5 29.Rad1 Qc2? Either 29.-Rxe3 or 29.- Bh6 was better. Both seem about equal.
30.Rfe1? Instead 30.Rc1! Qb2 31.Rxc3 Qxc3 32.Rc1 Qb3 33.Rc7 wins. Since Rxh7 mates, 30-Qg8 31. Rxb7 is forced and the b-pawn runs. Now black has stabilised and he won after 30...g5! 31.Nh2 Rd3 32.Rc1 Qxa4 (0-1, 64 moves). An interesting "might have been".
The format is a 12-player round robin. The open event (cat: 18, Elo average 2694) was won by Evgeny Tomashevsky. with 7.5 from 11 games. Sergey Karjakin and Nikita Vitiugov followed with 7 and 6.5 respectively. In the women's event, the 16-year-old prodigy, Alexandra Goryachkina pulled off a splendid victory, with 8/11. She was followed by Anastasia Bodnaruk and Alexandra Kosteniuk (both 7).
The Sinquefield Cup starts in St. Louis on Sunday. The field is Magnus Carlsen (World#1), Viswanathan Anand (#2-3), Veselin Topalov (#2-3), Hikaru Nakamura (#4), Fabiano Caruana (#5), Anish Giri (#6), Wesley So (#8), Alexander Grischuk (#9), Levon Aronian (#11) and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (#16).
This is the second of the Grand Tour trio. Each event has the same nine, plus one wild-card. Wesley So (#8) is the wild card here, replacing Jon-Ludvig Hammer who played in Norway. Each standalone prize fund offers $75,000 for first place and $15,000 for last. The tour's best performer gets another $75,000.
The top five players and Aronian have all demonstrated the ability to win in such fields though Aronian is in bad form. Topalov won Norway, with Anand and Nakamura tied for 2-3. The "old men", Topalov (40) and Anand (45), could score again. They are playing powerful chess.
The big question is centred on Carlsen. Can the world champion bounce back after his seventh place in Norway? There are three Americans playing at "home" and all three could make their fans happy. Caruana, who represented Italy in 2014, is the defending champion. "Fab" scored an unforgettable seven straight wins in 2014. He recently managed five straight wins at Dortmund so he's in touch. Nakamura has played consistently good chess through 2015 and So also played well at Shamkir.
The DIAGRAM, WHITE TO PLAY (White: Denis Khismatullin Vs Black: Daniil Dubov, Superfinal Russian 2015) has an imaginative queen sac. White played 17.dxe6 Nxe4 18.exf7+ Kxf7 19.Bc4+ Re6 !? Instead 19-Kf8 20.Nxe4 Bf6 21. O-O Kg7 22. f4 gives dynamic compensation for white.
Play continued 20.Nxe4 Rc8 21.Bxe6+ Kxe6 22.0-0 Qd3 23.Ng5+ Kf5 24.h4 Qe2 25.e4+ Kg4 26.Bc1 Rc3 27.Be3 Kxh4 28.Nf3+ Kh5 29.Rad1 Qc2? Either 29.-Rxe3 or 29.- Bh6 was better. Both seem about equal.
30.Rfe1? Instead 30.Rc1! Qb2 31.Rxc3 Qxc3 32.Rc1 Qb3 33.Rc7 wins. Since Rxh7 mates, 30-Qg8 31. Rxb7 is forced and the b-pawn runs. Now black has stabilised and he won after 30...g5! 31.Nh2 Rd3 32.Rc1 Qxa4 (0-1, 64 moves). An interesting "might have been".
Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player