CHESS#1318

Karthik Venkatraman and Abhimanyu Puranik have medal chances, if they can win their last two games in the World Juniors in Gebze

The World Juniors in Gebze, Turkey is turning into a triumph for Parham Maghsoodloo. The 18-year-old Iranian GM has scored 8.5 from 9, dropping only a draw to his younger colleague, Alireza Firouzja. With two rounds to go, he is 1.5 points ahead of his nearest rivals — a pack of five players on 7. Parham could coast to victory with a couple of draws. He’s a fighter however, and may well decide to give no quarter. The Indian contingent hasn’t done as well as expected. Karthik Venkatraman and Abhimanyu Puranik have medal chances, if they can win their last two games. 

Maghsoodloo (who’s rated around 2650) and the 15-year-old Firouzja (2582) along with Amin Tabatabaei (16 - 2576) occupy the top three boards for Iran at the upcoming Olympiad. This is partly a tribute to their talent and partly a pointer to the difficulties of playing chess in the Islamic Republic, which has had a love-hate relationship with chess. While most Iranians love the game, it required a fatwa from Imam Khomeini to allow it to be played. Plus, given sanctions, and the difficulties of obtaining visas, these teenagers have had to overcome many barriers.  

Meanwhile the 960 challenge continues at the St Louis Chess & Scholastic Center. The “Champions Showdown” consists of 20 game matches (14 blitz, 6 rapid) with random choices of start positions, released an hour before the start of play. Players can consult their seconds, etc, but they cannot use programs or leave the playing arena once the positions are announced. Each match has a $50,000 prize fund with the winner receiving $30,000.

Veselin Topalov leads against Garry Kasparov, Wesley So leads against Anish Giri, Hikaru Nakamura leads against Peter Svidler, Levon Aronian leads against Lenier Dominguez and Maxime Vachier Lagrave leads against Sam Shankland. Kasparov has been rusty, as one would expect, and this is a format that can lead to incredible howlers. 

India is likely to host a Super GM round-robin event soon featuring Viswanathan Anand, Pentala Harikrishna, Surya Shekhar Ganguly, along with the two youngsters Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Nihal Sarin. More details are expected soon. 

The Diagram, WHITE TO PLAY, (White: Maghsoodloo Vs Black: Awonder Liang, World Junior 2018) is a nice example of Parham’s skill. White cashes in with a long series of exchanges.

He played 36.Bxe6 Rxe6 37.Qd3 Kg8 38.Qxd5 Rd8 39.Qf3 Bf8 40.Ra8 Qc7 The first key point is to note the absolute control of a-file and long diagonal. The next set of exchanges follows with 41.Rxd8 Qxd8 42.Ra8 Qd7 43.Ba3! Re8 44.Rxe8 Qxe8. 

So how does white finish this ? He played 45.Qc6! Qd8 46.Bd6 Kg7 47.Kg2 h5 48.Kh3 Kg8 49.Kg2 Kg7 50.Kf3 Kg8 51.Ke4 Kg7 52.Kd5 Kg8 53.Qb7 (1-0). A crushing positional win, just walking up the board to take b6 if necessary.

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player