Chess (#974)

Peter Svidler beat Alexander Grischuk to snaffle first place in the World Cup. Svidler took one game and three were drawn. Both players qualify for the Candidates, however. That one decisive game in the final match was a superb example of preparation. Svidler played a provocative line of the Sicilian Paulsen where Grischuk produced a strong novelty. The chess engines assessed it as nearly winning for Grischuk.

But Svidler responded quickly and demonstrated this was one of those rare cases, where the engines misjudge dynamic positions. Svidler had not only anticipated the novelty, he had looked deep enough to assess the position as ok. Eventually Grischuk collapsed when the attack went nowhere.

The other match, for third place, was more important since only one out of Ivanchuk- Ponomariov would qualify for the Candidates. As it turned out, Ivanchuk went through. Again, there was only one decisive game. Ponomariov cracked up having trouble defending an inferior position. In the other three games, Ivanchuk was realistically never in serious trouble.

Meanwhile Hou Yifan won the Shenzhen Women’s GP, with 8 points from 11 rounds, ahead of Anna Muzychuk who scored 7. The Chinese world champion must play more against her male peers — Caruana, So, Giri, Negi, etc. Beating up the women's circuit is frankly so easy for her, that it is stunting the full realisation of her awesome talent.

Ju Wenjun and Tan Zhongyi landed third-fourth with 6.5 while Xue Zhao and Ruan Lufei were 5-6 with 6 each. Elina Danielan (5) and Viktorija Cmilyte (4.5) were both out of form and performed well below expectations.

Garry Kasparov stole some of the thunder from the above events in an exhibition match against French GM Maxim Vachier-Lagrave in Clichy. Kasparov beat Vachier-Largave, who is 27 years younger and rated 2715 , in a blitz match at 5 minutes plus 3 seconds increment per move.

The diagram, BLACK TO PLAY, (Grischuk Vs Svidler, World Cup 2011 finals) is just post-novelty. Svidler quickly responded 10...Bc7!. Taking the pawn with 10...Nxe5 11.Nxe5 Bxe5 12.Rxe5! Qxe5 13.Qf3 d5 14.Bf4 Qf6 15.Qg3 h5 16. Nxd5! is a winning white attack with variations like 16...exd5 17.Re1+ Kd7 18.Be5 Qd8 19. c4! bxc4 20. Bxc4!

Play continued 11.Bf4 Nge7 12.Qe2 Ng6 13.Bg3 Bb7 14.Rad1 Nce7 15.Be4 Bxe4 16.Nxe4 0–0! 17.Rxd7 Nd5 18.Nd6? Grischuk lost his way here. Dynamically there’s compensation for the piece. The engines suggest either 18.Nfg5!? Or 18.Qd3 Qc8 19. Rxd5.

The game continued 18...Nb6! 19.Rxf7!? Rxf7 20.Nxf7 Kxf7 21.Ng5+ Kg8 22.Nxe6 Qc8 23.Qg4 Ra7 24.Rd1 Best is 24.h3! protecting the queen to free the Kt. 25...Nxb2 26.Rd5??. A blunder 26...Bb6! 27.Rd6 Nc4 28.Qf5 Rf7 29.Qe4 Nxd6 30.exd6 Nf8 (0–1).

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player