CHESS#1292

The Aeroflot Open concluded with Vladislav Kovalev of Bulgaria taking clear first with 7 points from 9 rounds. GM Kovalev wins a slot in the Dortmund Super-GM round robin. S P Sethuraman and Dmitry Gordievsky shared second-third spot with 6.5 each.

This is “Sethu’s” best result and it propels him to #4 in India’s national rankings.

Sadly, R Praggnanaandhaa (4) did not make a GM norm in Moscow and he’s not going to break Sergey Karjakin’s record. Vidit Gujrathi, Krishnan Sasikiran, Murali Karthikeyan and Aravindh Chithambaram all ended on 5, though they came to that score from different directions.

Gujrathi started with an incredible seven draws before he won in the eighth. By then, there were bets on whether he could run nine straight draws. That eighth-round win sparked an ironic comment from his boss, Anish Giri: “Willpower, stability and perseverance! The qualities @viditchess is yet to develop. And it started all so well in Moscow!” Giri is, of course, famous for having slogged through a Candidates with 14 straight draws, which earned him the nickname “Drawnish” .

The Candidates is the next big tournament, starting March 10 in Berlin. Apart from winning the right to challenge for the title, the winner gets €95,000. The total prize fund is €420,000, with €88,000 to second place, €75,000 to third, down to €17,000 for eighth.

There are several excellent previews. Chess24 has done a profile of each hopeful. GM Danny King has done a two-part preview as well, on YouTube in his popular Power Play channel. The consensus is that it would be very difficult to pick a winner in such a strong field.

Instead of enumerating the strengths of respective players, let me list their weaknesses! It’s Ding Liren’s first attempt and he’s not quite there in terms of stability. Shakhriyar Mamedaryov is also an unstable tactician with a shady opening repertoire. Wesley So is also on debut like Ding and his recent form has been a little unsteady. Ditto for Fabiano Caruana when it comes to unreliable form.    

There are question marks over Levon Aronian’s temperament. He has choked during previous Candidates. Alexander Grischuk has all that’s required, except an ability to control the clock. Sergey Karjakin has been in terrible form. Former world champion Vladimir Kramnik might lack motivation.  

The diagram, White to play, (White: Kovalev Vs Black: Artemiev,Vladislav, Aeroflot 2018) is when Kovalev took the lead.

White played 39.e6 ! Rd3+ 40.Kf2 f6 [Black is busted. He makes things worse by allowing a monster passer] White finished with 41.Bxc6 bxc6 42.Nf3 Bg4 43.Nd4 Rh8 44.Re3 Rd1 45.e7 Bd7 46.Nxc6 g5 47.Nd4 gxh4 48.Rd5 Ba4 49.Nf5+ Kg6 50.Rxd1 Kxf5 51.Rd8 Be8 52.b5 h3 53.bxa6 h2 54.Re1 h1Q 55.Rxh1 Rxh1 56.Rxe8 (1–0).

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player