CHESS#1249

Wesley So’s long unbeaten streak ended in the first round of the Gashimov Memorial in Shamkir, Azerbaijan.  The World #2 blundered horribly in a near-equal position against Shakhriyar Mamedaryov to register his first loss after going 69 games unbeaten against high-quality opposition. In a sense, it’s a monkey off his back. 

So isn’t doing that well at the Gashimov Memorial. This is a round robin with 10 players, including So, Vladimir Kramnik, Veselin Topalov, Sergei Karjakin, Michael Adams, Pavel Eljanov, Radek Wojtaszek, Pentalya Harikrishna and local lads Teimour Radjabov and Shakhriyar Mamedaryov. The lowest rated player is Radjabov, currently at 2710 after a long slide. 

Mamedaryov leads with 3.5 points from five games while Adams and Eljanov (3 each) are tied in second. So Karjakin, Topalov and Kramnik are all tied at 2.5. Sadly, Harikrishna (1.5) is trailing in last after two losses to Kramnik and Eljanov. For what it’s worth, the Kramnik loss will go down as a classic swindle.  

The Grenke Classic Super GM ended in triumph for Levon Aronian, who had a commanding performance. Aronian scored 5.5 points in 7 games (2949 performance) with four wins and thee draws. He came close to scoring an unbelievable 6/7 missing a couple of wins in the last round versus Fabiano Caruana. Second was shared by Carlsen and Caruana (4 each). Hou Yifan started well (3.5) and ended on 50 per cent. She beat Caruana and should have beaten Carlsen who scrambled a draw. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Arkady Naiditsch were also at 3.5 each.

Reykjavik is hosting its annual open, which has major Indian participation as always. It’s a high-quality field led by Anish Giri with 14 GMs rated at above 2600. Abhijeet Gupta and Vidit Gujrathi are among the leaders with a round to go. Young guns like Nihal Sarin, R Praggnanandhaaa, and Praggu’s  akka, the 15-year-old Vaishali, are all doing well and set to gain rating points. 

The Diagram, WHITE TO PLAY (White: Kramnik Vs Black:  Harikrishna, Shamkir Chess 2017) features a bewildering swindle. Black’s better. White would lose without a fight by 25. h3 f4 26. Bh2 Bg8, et cetera. 

Kramnik did something drastic.  He played the amazing 25.Rxe5!? dxe5 26.Bxe5+ Nf6 27.Qxb5!? Nce4 28.Bd4 Rfd8 29.h3! Unhurried play, a book down. Black responded 29...Rb8 30.Qe2 Bg8?! [Best defence may be 30...Re8 31.b4 Bg6 32.Qb2 Kh7 preparing g4 with a counter-attack]. 

After 31.Bb1 Qb7 32.b4 Re8 33.c4 Qc6  suddenly white’s better after 34.Qb2! Rbd8 35.c5 Qe6 36.b5 Kf8 37.c6 g4 38.hxg4 fxg4 39.Bxe4! gxf3 [It’s mate after 39...Nxe4 40.Rxe4 Qxe4 41.Bg7+ Ke7 42.Qf6#] White finished with 40.Bxf6 Rd6 41.Bg7+ Kf7 42.Be5 (1–0). If 42.— Qxe5 43. Bg6+ Or 42.— Rdd8 43. Bxf3 is good enough.

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player