There are two major events running concurrently, both supported by superb web coverage. The Women's World championship in Hatay, Turkey is in a 64-player mini-match KO format. Koneru Humpy, who is the top seed, has made it till Rd 3 (Round of 16) and so has second-seeded Hou Yifan. So has Harika. Big names like Tatiana Kosintseva, Pia Cramling and former champion Maia Chiburdanidze are already out.
The premier of the London Classic is being played to Sofia Rules, with Bilbao scoring and a prize fund of Euro 150,000. It's a short event — an 8-player round robin with a “split field”. Anand, Carlsen and Kramnik are rated above 2790. Howell, McShane and Short are rated below 2700 with Adams and Nakamura in the mid-2700s.
It may be expected that the high-rated trio will go for broke against the bottom trio. This implies a high decision rate, especially given Bilbao (3 for a win, 1 for a draw). Indeed, there is a 75 per cent decision rate after two rounds. But the leaderboard after two rounds looks very surprising. Luke McShane leads with two wins while Nakamura is in sole second place.
In Round I, Kramnik beat Short, Adams beat Howell and McShane (2645) demolished Carlsen (2802) in an astonishing upset. In Rd2, MCShane followed up with a win against Short. Meanwhile Carlsen beat Adams, and Kramnik lost after dropping a piece on move 12 to Nakamura. Anand is incidentally the first reigning champion to play an UK tournament since Karpov in 1984. He started with two draws where he had the better of long grinds against Nakamura and Howell.
The diagram, WHITE TO PLAY, McShane Vs Carlsen (London 2010) will make the textbooks.
White plays creative, energetic and tactically flawless chess to convert an edge in space and development with 18.Nc6! Re8. The alternative 18...bxc6!? 19.bxc6 Qa5 20.cxd7 Bxd7 21.c5!? Bg4 22.Rdc1 is also unpleasant. 19.Nb4 f5 20.Nc3 Qc5 21.Nxa4! Qa7 22.Na6 Obviously white must see this before the a-pawn grab.
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Play continued 22.-- bxa6 23.b6 Nxb6 Now 23-- .Qb8 24.Qb3! Bb7 25.c5+ Kh8 26.c6 is horrible but this is also lost 24.Rxb6 Rb8 25.c5! Be6 Captures like 25...Rxb6? 26.cxb6 Qd7 27.b7 Bxb7 28.Nc5 and 25...dxc5 26.Qb3+! c4 27.Qxc4+ Kh8 28.Qf7! Rf8 29.Rxb8 Rxf7 30.Rxc8+ Bf8 31.Nc5 are convincing wins for white.
26.Rdb1 dxc5 27.Rb7 Rxb7 28.Rxb7 Qa8 29.Nxc5! Qc8 30.Qxa6 Bf7 31.Bc6 Rd8 32.Nd7! A KO punch with a threat of Qb6, Rb8. Now Carlsen effectively conceded with 32...Rxd7 33.Bxd7 Qc1+ 34.Qf1 Qxf1+ 35.Kxf1 Bc4+ 36.Kg1 Bxa2 37.Ba4 e5 38.f3 Bh6 39.Bb3+ (1-0). The endgame is hopeless after 38.--Bxb3 40. Rxb3 Kf7 41. e4 for example. White can round up the h7 pawn and penetrate with his king as well.
Devangshu Datta is an internationally-rated chess and correspondence chess player