CHESS#1246

The Sharjah Masters ended with a six-way tie for first place. Wang Hao, Baskaran Adhiban, Martyn Kravtsiv, Yuriy Kryvoruchko, S P Sethuraman and Salem Saleh all scored seven points from nine games. The tiebreaks came out in exactly this order. Harika Dronavalli was the top woman player with 6/9 — there were no enforced hijab-related dress codes in evidence at the event by the way. Several Indian youngsters improved their ratings. One example was the WFM, Srija Seshadri, who is rated 2166 and who scored 5.5/9 with a 2428 rating performance. 

The Shenzhen Masters ended with Ding Liren taking first, scoring 6.5/10. Anish Giri and Peter Svidler tied for second-third with 5.5. Pentala Harikrishna had a minus score of 4.5/10 tying for 4th-5th with Yu Yangyi (4.5). Michael Adams trailed on 3.5.   

There’s another large Indian contingent at the ongoing Dubai Open, including several of those who played in Sharjah. Sadly, an Indian has been caught cheating. Jeel Shah from Surat is a low-rated 1765 players who has apparently come under suspicion before. Shah was playing Dushyant Sharma in the third round when he was asked to submit to a body search and a live mobile was found. 

The controversy involving the rumoured resignation of Fide President, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, continued to bubble. It appears that the Russian Federation will back the Kalmyk oligarch. Ilyumzhinov is under sanctions in  the USA, but he’s just set up a chess trust fund in America with a reported corpus of $30 million.  

This “Kirsan Fund” will support chess in many ways. One stated goal is to get 1 billion people to play regularly. The money supposedly comes from the Russian Federation, or at least, from wealthy patrons of the Russian Federation. Kirsan has a habit of making extravagant financial commitments that don’t necessarily come through. He has done so this during his election campaigns, for instance. 

The US Championship is reaching the half-way stage. Wesley So is the sole leader. The World #2 has now gone 62 games without a loss. After six rounds, So leads with 4/6. He’s followed by a group of five players, including world #3 Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Varuzhan Akobian, Daniel Naroditsky  and Yaroslav Zherebukh (all 3.5). 

The Diagram, BLACK TO PLAY ( White: Xiong,Jeffery  Vs  Black: Kamsky, US Chps 2017) features a red-hot young prodigy against a former prodigy.  Black has material. White has a fortress.  How does Kamsky break through? 

He played 62.-- Ne6! [The relocation to f4 is deadly.  the e5 pawn is irrelevant] Play continued  63.Qxe5 Nf4 64.Qf5 Rd1! [The threat is 65.--Ne2+  66. Rxe2 Rxf1+ 67.Kxf1 Rd1+] There is no defence but Xiong tried 65.Ne3 R1d3 66.Nd5 Rxf3! 67.Qg4 Rxf2 68.Rxf2 Qxg4 69.hxg4 Nxd5 70.exd5 Rxd5 71.Kh2 Rd4 72.Kh3 Rd3+ (0–1). The rook ending is very easy now.   
 

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player