CHESS#1247

Unbeaten streaks are one of the multitude of stats chessplayers track. It is odd but true that the most dynamic, high-risk stylist of them all has the two longest streaks. The late Mikhail Tal (1936-1992) often set fire to the board with his sacrificial attacks. Between 1972 and 1974, the eighth world champion notched two unbeaten streaks of  95 games and 86 games.  The opposition was mixed though it included many strong players. 

In the modern era, with its superior standards, it's hard to notch such long streaks. Vladimir Kramnik stretched 82 games in 1999-2000 at the highest levels. Wang Yue had a more mixed stretch of 82 games unbeaten in 2008. 

The 23-year-old Filipino American Wesley Barbusa So has now logged 69 games. So has done it all at the very highest level. During the streak, he's won the Olympiad (individual gold and team gold), The Sinquefield, The London Classic, the Tata Steel, and the strongest-ever US championship. 

Alexander Onischuk, Wesley So and Varuzhan Akobian were tied going into the last round of the US. 

So took a cold-blooded draw against Daniel Naroditsky. Onischuk drew Gata Kamsky and Akobian lost to Hikaru Nakamura.  So and Onischuk (both 7 points from 11 games) went into a rapid play-off which So won, after some nervous moments. Third was shared by Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana and Akobian (all 6.5/11). 

So like Tal is  very dynamic although less inclined to insane sacrifices. Interestingly, peers like  Magnus Carlsen (who was the last person to beat him) and Anish Giri, say that he has an odd style that makes him hard to prepare for and to play. Apart from getting objectively stronger in terms of making fewer errors,  the World #2 has also very deliberately tightened up.  The streak will be a monkey on his back until it breaks, one way or another. So's next event is the Gashimov  Memorial starting next week. 

The Zurich Chess Classis is underway this weekend. This is now labelled the Korchnoi memorial. It features Viswanathan Anand, Kramnik, Nakamura, Boris Gelfand, Petre Svidler, Ian Nepomniachtchi Yannick Pelletier and Grigory Oparin.

The diagram, BLACK TO PLAY (White: Oleg Skvortsov Vs Black: Anand, Zurich Exhibition 2017)  is from an exhibition rapid game versus the major Zurich sponsor. It's a mismatch but worth a look for unusual ideas. 

Black's a piece down. But Ra1, Nb1 effectively don't exist. Black played 16.---  Qxg3+! 17.hxg3 Rxg3+ 18.Kh2 Rxf3 [White's only drawing line is 19. Qg7! Rh3+ 20. Kg2 Bd4 21. Qg5 h6 22. Qxd8+ Kxd8 23. Ra2 Rh5 - black's pawns compensate for the rook ]

The game continued 19.Bg5? Bd4! 20.Qd2 Rg8 White tried 21.Ra3 h6 22.Rg1 Rh3+ 23.Kg2 Rxg5+ 24.Kf1 Rxg1+ 25.Kxg1 Bd5! (0-1)  A geometric finish — white's Ra3, Nb1 stay irrelevant.
 

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player