 "Chess (#1221)")
The Tal Memorial saw Ian Nepomniachtchi take first spot. Anish Giri was an early leader but the Dutchman stumbled after suffering a loss to Levon Aronian. Nepomniachtchi scored 6/9, unbeaten. Giri (5/5) was second while Aronian and Viswanathan Anand shared third-fourth (5 each). Anand beat Boris Gelfand and Shakhriyar Mamedaryov, and lost to Vladimir Kramnik. Aronian remained unbeaten.
The Isle of Man Open has seen a continuation of the new tradition of super-strong opens, even though it has a relatively modest prize fund. It has three sections, and like Gibraltar, good prizes to encourage female participation.
The top section is led by the US Olympic trio of Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So, followed by Pavel Eljanov, Michael Adams and Wang Hao, who are all 2700-plus. Then, there's world champion Hou Yifan and another 18 players in the 2600-2699 Elo range. This includes an Indian contingent led by Vidit Gujrathi and Abhijeet Gupta. Five rounds in, the lead is shared by Eljanov, Alexey Shirov and David Howell (all 4.5) with Caruana, So, Gujrathi, Hou following on 4 each.
Incidentally, the 2017 World Women's Championship will probably be subject to controversy. Hou may not play because she doesn't like the tennis knockout format (64 players play matches) and she's more focussed on pushing past Elo 2700 now, rather than winning her umpteenth title.
However, the event is to be held in Iran. That could lead to walkouts by other players. Iran has a dress code where women must keep their hair covered and players would have to adhere to that law. This happened in the Tehran Grand Prix in February and it did not go down well. There were off-the-record murmurs from the 12 participants there.
A couple of women players have already said they will not wear a headscarf. Others will grit their teeth and play because it's a world championship with decent prize money. There is no space here to discuss the nuances. Let's just say that there are plenty of politically aware and opinionated women chess players, and you'd have to be living in a cave to be unaware that the issue is potentially controversial.
The DIAGRAM, BLACK TO PLAY (White: Nepomniachtchi Vs Black: Tomashevsky, Tal MEM, Moscow 2016) is a standard Scotch Game, reached countless times. Black's next move is one of several book alternatives 10. - Bg7 11.Qf2 Nf6 12.Ba3 d6? The engines say this natural move is wrong and black must play 12. - Ng4 .
Play continued 13.Nc3 0-0 14.0-0-0 Ne8 15.g3 Bb7 16.Bg2 f6 17.exd6 Nxd6. White wins by force with 18.c5 Nf5 19.Rhe1 Qf7 20.Bf1! Rfd8 21.Rxd8+ Rxd8 22.Bc4 Rd5 23.Qe2 (1-0). One of those games where an entire line (10 - Bg7) is bust - black lost horribly without obvious error.
The Isle of Man Open has seen a continuation of the new tradition of super-strong opens, even though it has a relatively modest prize fund. It has three sections, and like Gibraltar, good prizes to encourage female participation.
The top section is led by the US Olympic trio of Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So, followed by Pavel Eljanov, Michael Adams and Wang Hao, who are all 2700-plus. Then, there's world champion Hou Yifan and another 18 players in the 2600-2699 Elo range. This includes an Indian contingent led by Vidit Gujrathi and Abhijeet Gupta. Five rounds in, the lead is shared by Eljanov, Alexey Shirov and David Howell (all 4.5) with Caruana, So, Gujrathi, Hou following on 4 each.
Incidentally, the 2017 World Women's Championship will probably be subject to controversy. Hou may not play because she doesn't like the tennis knockout format (64 players play matches) and she's more focussed on pushing past Elo 2700 now, rather than winning her umpteenth title.
However, the event is to be held in Iran. That could lead to walkouts by other players. Iran has a dress code where women must keep their hair covered and players would have to adhere to that law. This happened in the Tehran Grand Prix in February and it did not go down well. There were off-the-record murmurs from the 12 participants there.
A couple of women players have already said they will not wear a headscarf. Others will grit their teeth and play because it's a world championship with decent prize money. There is no space here to discuss the nuances. Let's just say that there are plenty of politically aware and opinionated women chess players, and you'd have to be living in a cave to be unaware that the issue is potentially controversial.
The DIAGRAM, BLACK TO PLAY (White: Nepomniachtchi Vs Black: Tomashevsky, Tal MEM, Moscow 2016) is a standard Scotch Game, reached countless times. Black's next move is one of several book alternatives 10. - Bg7 11.Qf2 Nf6 12.Ba3 d6? The engines say this natural move is wrong and black must play 12. - Ng4 .
Play continued 13.Nc3 0-0 14.0-0-0 Ne8 15.g3 Bb7 16.Bg2 f6 17.exd6 Nxd6. White wins by force with 18.c5 Nf5 19.Rhe1 Qf7 20.Bf1! Rfd8 21.Rxd8+ Rxd8 22.Bc4 Rd5 23.Qe2 (1-0). One of those games where an entire line (10 - Bg7) is bust - black lost horribly without obvious error.
Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player