CHESS#1275

Former world champion and current #7 Vladimir Kramnik has been awarded the wild card for the Candidates, which will be played in Berlin in March 2018. This leaves two spots vacant in the eight-player event. Qualifiers include Sergey Karjakin (World Championship runner-up), Levon Aronian, Ding Liren (World Cup), Wesley So and Fabiano Caruana (highest averaged rating of 2017). 

The two open slots would be filled by the top finishers in the Grand Prix. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Alexander Grischuk, Teymour Radjabov, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave are the GP leaders. Radjabov and MVL are playing the last GP, in Palma, Spain in late November. Although Kramnik’s choice is unexceptionable, Indian fans will be disappointed that Viswanathan Anand didn’t get a look-in. However, given Fide’s murky politics, it was always likely to be a Russian. 

 The European Team Championship are on in Crete. Croatia is the surprise leader of the open section. Croatia has 9 points with four wins and a draw after five rounds. Top seed and defending champion, Russia is tied for second place with Armenia, Hungary and Poland (all 8). There are 40 teams. In the women’s section, the defending champions, Russians have a perfect score (10). Georgia, Ukraine, Poland and Turkey are tied for second (8 each). There are 32 teams in the Women’s section. 

 The Uzbek prodigy, Nodibirek Abdusattorov, has completed his GM title. He’s the second youngest GM ever, probably doing it at 12 years, 10 months edging out Parimarjan Negi (13 years, 142 days). Abdusattorov (born December 1, 2004) made his third and final GM norm at the Chigorin Memorial in October. Some sources state he was born on September 18, 2004. That still beats Negi. 

 Sergey Karjakin who logged the title at 12 years, 7 months remains the youngest. R Praggnanandhaa has until March 2018 to break Karjakin’s record. Pragga’s rating is good enough at 2503 but he needs to score three norms, which will not be easy in the time remaining. 

The Indian Premier is being played in Patna. Aravindh Chithambaram (4.5/6) leads, with Murali Karthikeyan and Sunilduth Narayanan sharing second (4 each). The only untitled player in the 14-player round-robin is a debutant, Sammed Jaykumar Shete. 

The diagram is a game that pushed “Shakh” Mamedyarov to #2 on the live rating list. White to play  ( White: Mamedyarov,Shakhriyar Vs Black : Navara,David, European Team Championship 2017). The Rd4 has been hanging for several moves. 

White played 24.Qe4 g6 25.Bc4! [Threat Qxg6] Black defended by 25...Kg7 26.Rd7 Re7 27.Bxh4 Bxh4 28.Qxg4 Bf6. The next phase of the attack begins with  29.R7d6 Rc7 30.Qf3 Bh4 31.Rd7! Rxd7 32.Rxd7 The switchback between 6th-7th rank destroys the defence. The game finished 32.--- Qb4 33.Qxf7+ Kh6 34.Qh7+ Kg5 35.f4+ Kf5 36.Qf7+ Ke4 37.Qxg6+ (1-0). 

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player