There are several traditional tournaments overlapping Christmas–New Year. Hastings is the oldest — Harry Nelson Pillsbury won the 1895 edition ahead of two world champions. Reggio Emilia in Italy is another such event. Anand won the 1990-1991 edition ahead of Kasparov, Karpov and Gelfand.
This year, the top group in Reggio Emilia includes Ivanchuk, Morozevich, Nakamura, Nikita Vituigov, Fabiano Caruana and Anish Giri for an all-2700 field. The “joker” in the pack is the 24-year-old Russian GM, Vituigov who has garnered a 2729 rating with solid, consistent performances without much exposure outside the boundaries of the former USSR.
After three rounds, Moro leads the double round robin with soccer scoring. The Russian GM has 7 (+2.=1) with wins against Caruana and Giri. Naka and Ivanchuk are in joint second with 5 each. Moro roared back this year with a string of fabulous results and he could propel himself into the top five if he wins.
Meanwhile the fairy-tale run of the Indian women's team at the world team’s championship short circuited. The Indians held second place behind the Chinese until they lost in the last two rounds.
The first Indian loss, to Georgia, in the eighth round made medal placings uncertain, since Russia leapfrogged to second with a win against South Africa, and the Georgians caught up. The PRC also lost in that penultimate round, to the Ukraine, but they were assured the Gold anyway since they had seven straight match wins.
In the last round, India lost to PRC while Russia drew with Armenia and Georgia beat Turkey. That left the Indians in fourth, behind PRC, Russia and Georgia. The Indians were desperately close to a medal since the only decisive result came when Tania Sachdeva miscalculated a drawing combination against Zhao Xue in the only decisive game. A 2-2 result would have meant the bronze. It was however, a decent result and underlined the Indian women’s medal potential at the next Olympiad.
The Diagram, BLACK TO PLAY, (Giri Vs Morozevich, Reggio Emilia 2011-12) is a good illustration of “Weird Al’s” style. Both kings are unsafe but black gets there first.
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22 --- e5! 23.fxe5 fxe5 24.Rg5 exd4! 25.Rxa5? Giri tweeted “committed suicide :(”. White should recapture on d4 though lines like 25. exd4 Nd5 26. Bxd5 cd5 or 25. cxd4 Bxd2 are nice for black.
25.-- Rhe8! 26.Bg2 dxe3 27.Bc1 Qd3+ 28.Ke1 e2 More accurate was 28.--Nc4 though this wins comfortably of course. 29.Bf4+ Ka8 30.Kf2 Rf8 31.Qb4 Nc4 32.Rxa7+ Kxa7 33.Qa4+ Kb6 34.Qb4+ Ka6 35.Qa4+ Na5 36.Bf3 b5 (0–1).
A very happy 2012 to all readers and chessmaniacs. Incidentally, check out chessbase.com for the popular (and diabolical) set of year-end puzzles and problems.
Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player