CHESS #1383

The King Salman World Blitz and Rapids in Moscow turned into yet another unqualified success for Magnus Carlsen. The classical world champion won the rapid title with 11.5/15 and a comfortable 1-point cushion. He defended his 2018 blitz title by winning a tiebreaker against Hikaru Nakamura after they tied at 16.5/21 (The prize money was split 50:50.)

So Carlsen is the triple champion. He was also the triple champion in 2014. Carlsen played his usual fast-game mix of somewhat shady, complicated openings, sharp tactics and impeccable endgames. He must have been lost, or nearly lost, in several games, but his opponents could not grab their chances since he pushed them into wild scrambles. 

Other notable performances came from Alireza Firouzja who took silver in the rapids and Nakamura who took bronze in the rapids and silver in blitz. Alireza lost a heartbreaker to Carlsen when he ran out of time in a position where he had a material edge and a probable win. He followed up by complaining he had been disturbed when Carlsen cursed himself (in Norwegian) after blundering but the appeal really had no chance.  Vladimir Kramnik came third in the blitz — not bad for a retiree! We’ll look at the specifics of the Indian performances in the next instalment.  

In the women’s version, Koneru Humpy scored a terrific success, winning the rapid title with an Armageddon tiebreaker against Lei Tingjie. Ekaterina Atalik came third. Despite years near the top of the rankings, India’s #1 had never won a world title and she wasn’t fancied at short time controls after a two-year layoff. She’s won a Grand Prix, tied for first in another Grand Prix and won the rapids in her first three events post her return. Kateryna Lagno won the blitz handily to retain her 2018 title. Anna Muzychuk and Tan Zhongyi came second and third respectively in blitz.

The women’s world title match starts this weekend and it is split between Shanghai and Vladivostok. Defending champion, Ju Wenjun, has more experience and a great record in the past three years, and she’s the marginal rating favourite with 2584 versus the 20-year-old challenger, Aleksandra Goryachkina’s rating of 2578. The young Russian certainly cannot be counted out. She’s jumped several levels in the last six months. 

The Diagram, White to play (White: Eltaj Safarli Vs Black: Maxim Rodshtein (Fide grand Swiss 2019) is one of the candidates for combination of the year. White played 22. Qh6+! Kg8 23. f5!! [This is the first really tough move since 22.—Kxh6 23. Nxf7 is easy to find] Play continued 23. – ef5 24. Rxf5 Rf8 and now 25. Ne6!! (1-0). It’s an epaulette mate with 25.—fxe6 26. Rxe6 Qd8 27. Rxg6+ hg6 28. Qxg6#. The side variations are one-movers. 

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player