 "Chess (#1209)")
The Bilbao Masters started with a shock defeat for Magnus Carlsen. It is always against the odds when a reigning world champion and #1 loses; it is especially shocking if he has a 12-0 head-to-head score in his favour. This was Hikaru Nakamura's first ever classical win against Carlsen, and the American Grandmaster must have broken through a psychological barrier when he forced resignation, in a nervy game that featured very sharp play and unsafe kings.
Bilbao pioneered soccer scoring in chess, so Nakamura (3) has a lead over Anish Giri (1), who drew Wei Yi (1) and Sergey Karjakin (1) who drew Wesley So (1). It's a double round robin with classical controls and the mini-match between Karjakin and Carlsen will naturally attract the most attention. Incidentally there's still no clarity on the title match which is supposedly to be played in October-November in the USA.
There are three other major events running concurrently. One is the Women's Grand Prix at Chengdu where Dronavalli Harika leads with 6.5 from 10 rounds. She's followed by Koneru Humpy (6) who's sharing second spot with Antoaneta Stefanova (6). Harika beat Humpy in their individual encounter.
The world champion, Hou Yifan has opted out of this GP. She's playing the 7th Hainan Danzhou instead. She's the lowest seed there, rated at 2653, in the 10-player round robin which has an average Elo of 2727. The field includes Ding Liren, Wang Hao, Yu Yangyi, Wang Yue and Bu Xiangzhi, with the foreign invitees being Harikrishna, Vassily Ivanchuk, Peter Leko and Ian Nepomniachtchi, who leads with 4 from five rounds. Yu, Bu, and Wang Yue are all on 3, while Harikrishna is on 2.5. The top seed, Ding is trailing with 2.
Dortmund is also hosting its traditional super-GM event as the premier attraction of its chess festival. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave leads with 3 from 4 games. He's followed by Leinier Dominguez Perez (2.5) with Vladimir Kramnik and Fabiano Caruana (both 2) long with Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (2) and Ruslan Ponomariov (2), Evgeny Najer and the host entry, Rainer Buhmann (1), make up the rest of the field. This is a double round-robin. Kramnik has won Dortmund many times but despite playing good chess, he's in the middle of the pack.
The diagram, WHITE TO PLAY, (White: Harikrishna,Pentala Vs Black: Liren Ding Danzhou 2016) features a very sharp struggle. Both sides have dangerous passed pawns and it seems black has mating threats as well.
But 37.e7! Very cool - if [37...Bxe7 38.Qxd3 Rb2 39. Qd7 Qf3 40. Rf1]. White consolidates and wins Instead Black played 37...Bxe3 38.fxe3 Kf7 Now white just wins a piece with 39.e8Q+! Kxe8 40.e4 Bxe4 41.Qe3 (1-0). The ice-cool defence impresses as much as the precise calculation.
Bilbao pioneered soccer scoring in chess, so Nakamura (3) has a lead over Anish Giri (1), who drew Wei Yi (1) and Sergey Karjakin (1) who drew Wesley So (1). It's a double round robin with classical controls and the mini-match between Karjakin and Carlsen will naturally attract the most attention. Incidentally there's still no clarity on the title match which is supposedly to be played in October-November in the USA.
There are three other major events running concurrently. One is the Women's Grand Prix at Chengdu where Dronavalli Harika leads with 6.5 from 10 rounds. She's followed by Koneru Humpy (6) who's sharing second spot with Antoaneta Stefanova (6). Harika beat Humpy in their individual encounter.
The world champion, Hou Yifan has opted out of this GP. She's playing the 7th Hainan Danzhou instead. She's the lowest seed there, rated at 2653, in the 10-player round robin which has an average Elo of 2727. The field includes Ding Liren, Wang Hao, Yu Yangyi, Wang Yue and Bu Xiangzhi, with the foreign invitees being Harikrishna, Vassily Ivanchuk, Peter Leko and Ian Nepomniachtchi, who leads with 4 from five rounds. Yu, Bu, and Wang Yue are all on 3, while Harikrishna is on 2.5. The top seed, Ding is trailing with 2.
Dortmund is also hosting its traditional super-GM event as the premier attraction of its chess festival. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave leads with 3 from 4 games. He's followed by Leinier Dominguez Perez (2.5) with Vladimir Kramnik and Fabiano Caruana (both 2) long with Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (2) and Ruslan Ponomariov (2), Evgeny Najer and the host entry, Rainer Buhmann (1), make up the rest of the field. This is a double round-robin. Kramnik has won Dortmund many times but despite playing good chess, he's in the middle of the pack.
The diagram, WHITE TO PLAY, (White: Harikrishna,Pentala Vs Black: Liren Ding Danzhou 2016) features a very sharp struggle. Both sides have dangerous passed pawns and it seems black has mating threats as well.
But 37.e7! Very cool - if [37...Bxe7 38.Qxd3 Rb2 39. Qd7 Qf3 40. Rf1]. White consolidates and wins Instead Black played 37...Bxe3 38.fxe3 Kf7 Now white just wins a piece with 39.e8Q+! Kxe8 40.e4 Bxe4 41.Qe3 (1-0). The ice-cool defence impresses as much as the precise calculation.
Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player