TWO WORLD records in quick succession. First, Hou Yifan (born Feb 1994) became the youngest winner of a senior world title when she beat her compatriot Lufei Ruan to become women's world champion. The match went to tiebreaks which Hou won 3-1.
The teenager is rated 2591 and her career rating graph compares to Judit Polgar and (dare I say it!) Magnus Carlsen at the same age. Unfortunately she hasn't competed often enough against men to make meaningful strength assessments. But she clearly has Top Ten potential.
The other world record was set on the GMDC Ground in Ahmedabad, which featured a mammoth simultaneous display with 20,480 players facing off against 1024 "masters" led by Viswanathan Anand. That easily beats Mexico's prior record of 13,446 (2006). The simul was sponsored by NIIT and the Gujarat government helped with venue and logistics.
The only competitive event of note was the European Blitz/ Rapid championships. After 13 Rapid rounds, Ivanchuk, Shirov, Gashimov, Almasi, Naiditsch and Korobov were tied on 10.5/13. A playoff saw Almasi emerge champion, with Gashimov second, and Ivanchuk third. The Blitz championship was a "double-13" Swiss where each player played 13 mini-matches. Vachier-Lagrave won with 22/26 followed by Ivanchuk (20/26) and Ponomariov (19.5/26).
The live list says the January ratings will be Carlsen (2813), Anand (2810) and Aronyan (2805). All three will be in action at the Tata Steel Chess (aka Corus), Wijk-an-Zee from Jan 14. Before that, Delhi hosts the Parasvnath GM open from January 7.
Looking back, Anand retained the world title with a dramatic last game win against Topalov in a thriller at Sofia. The Ukraine took gold at the Olympiad. Kirsan thumbed his nose at what seemed a credible challenge from Karpov in the Fide elections.
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The Diagram, BLACK TO PLAY, (Halkias Vs Judit Polgar, Euro Rapid Chps, Warsaw 2010) is an interesting example of a top player forgetting her way. This position has occurred several times. The only defence is 13...Nxe5! 14.Bxf6 (14.dxe5? Qxd3 15.exf6 gxf6-) 14...Nxd3 15.Bxe7 Qc7 16.Bxf8 Rxf8 with compensation for the exchange (weak pawns on b2,d4). The alternative 13...h6? loses to 14.Bxf6 Bxf6 15.Qe4! g6 16.Nxc6 Qd6 17.Qf3! and 18. Be4 keeps the extra piece.
Polgar tried the apparently solid 13. --g6? This leads to instant collapse after 14. Ba6! h6 15. Bxh6 Nxe5 16. Bxb7 Nfg4 17. Qh3 Qxd4 18. Bxa8 Rxa8 19. Rad1 Qb4 20. Bc1 and white converted without trouble (1-0, 47 moves).
Devangshu Datta is an internationally-rated chess and correspondence chess player