CHESS#1328

Since the Open World Championship has been covered in detail in the main story, one should look at the rather exciting Women’s World Championships that’s been played out in Ugra, Russia concurrently. 

This is a 64-player knockout with mini-matches. After many vicissitudes, Kateryna Lagno reached the finals. Lagno beat Mariya Muzychuk in the semi-finals in a match that went into tiebreakers, which she won handily with 2-0. 

On the other side of the Wimbledon-type draw, reigning world champion, Ju Wenjun won every  one of her matches without getting involved in tiebreaks. She took out Alexandra Kosteniuk in the semi-finals by winning the first game with black and nearly winning the second game as well. 

Rating-wise, there isn’t much to choose with Lagno at 2556 (#4 on the Women’s list) just a little below Ju, who’s #2 with 2568. Lagno started the finals well, forging ahead in game 2 when she converted a slightly better endgame. She sat down to play the fourth and last classical game with a 1-0 lead. The position was equal until move 28, when Lagno blundered, out of sheer nervousness, since she had 22 minutes on the clock. Ju sacrificed a rook to force checkmate. 

That’s tied the match and it goes into tiebreaks, where nerves count for as much as skill. Neither has a track record at rapids. Lagno (2574) slightly outranks Ju (2558) at blitz. For what it’s worth, Lagno has already played rapid tiebreaks at Ugra so Ju’s smooth passage so far could be a disadvantage. 

The diagram is already in every endgame coach’s database. It could have been a composed study. BLACK TO PLAY (White: Carlsen vs Black: Caruana, World Championship, Game 6, London 2018). Black wins if he “persuades” White to play h6, captures that pawn and then captures f5. He also wins if he boxes in the white king by playing Kg8/Kf7- if he can “persuade” White to release the a2-g8 diagonal. 

In practice play went 68.—Nf3? 69. Kh7 Ne5 70. Bb3 Ng4 71. Bc4 Ne3 72. Bd3 Ng4 73. Bc4 Nh6 74. Kg6 Ke7 75. Bb3 Kd6 76. Bc2 Ke5 77. Bd3 Kf4 78. Bc2 Ng4 79. Bb3 Ne3 80. h6 Bxh6 1/2-1/2. 

The mainline win is 68.— Bh4!! 69. Bd5 Ne2 [The threat is Nf4+] 70. Bf3 Ng1!! 71. Bg4 Kg8 72. Kh6 Bf2 73. Kg6 Bd4 74. Kh6 Be3+ 75. Kg6 Bg5 76. h6 Kh8 77. Kf7 Kh7. Another variation is 68. Bh4 69. h6 Nc6 70. h7 Ne5+ 71. Kh5 Kg7. 

The real beauty occurs if white refuses to play h6. Play goes 68.— Bh4!! 69. Bd5 Ne2 70. Bf3 Ng1!! 71. Bd5 Bg5 72. Kh7 Ne2!  73. Bf3 Ng3 74. Bg4 Kf7 75. Kh8 Be3 76. Kh7 Bc5! 77. Kh8 Bf8 78. Kh7 Ne4! and black delivers mate with Bg7/Ng5 in appropriate order.   
 

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player