CHESS #1346

The European Championships are nicely poised after nine rounds. Seven players share the lead with seven points each. This group includes Kacper Piorun, Maxim Rodshtein, Vladislav Artemiev, Nils Grandelius, Andrey Esipenko, Grigoriy Oparin and David Antón Guijarro. There’s another tie from 8th-23rd on 6.5 points. The top 22 qualify for the 2019 World Cup, apart from the prize fund of 100,000 euros. 

In the US Championships, Hikaru Nakamura (5) is leading after seven rounds. He’s closely followed by Fabiano Caruana, Leinier Domínguez (the Cuban-born GM debuted as an US citizen) and Samuel Sevian. This trio is on 4.5. The play has been somewhat cautious with a lot of draws in the open section.  The Women’s championship has Jennifer Yu (6.5) in the lead with Anna Zatonskih (6) in second place. Yu started with a terrific 4/4 before she dropped her first draw. There are four rounds left in both these twelve-player round-robins. 

The Sharjah Open is also a high-tension affair. Ernesto Inarkiev (6) has a slender lead over Wang Hao, Parham Maghsoodloo, Yuriy Kryvoruchko, Alireza Firouzja, Aditya Mittal, Shamsiddin Vokhidov, and Maxim Matlakov (all 5.5). The next group on 5 points includes Nihal Sarin, Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Abhijeet Gupta, Chakkravarthy Deepan, Sandipan Chanda, Raunak Sadhwani. With two rounds left, anything could happen. The 14-year-old Sadhwani and 12-year-old Mittal must both be looking at GM norms. 

The change of guard at Fide is leading to concrete changes on the ground. The first Women’s Candidates Tournament in living memory (the last was over 20 years ago) is to be played in Kazan from May 29. This will be the strongest female event ever held, and it features a record prize fund of 200,000 euros. 

It will be a double-rounder with Kateryna Lagno, Mariya Muzychuk, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Anna Muzychuk, Valentina Gunina, Nana Dzagnidze, Tan Zhongyi and Alexandra Goryachkina. Goryachkina comes in as substitute for former world champion, Hou Yifan, who declined to participate. Fide president Arkady Dvorkovich has also committed to a 500,000 euros fund for the world title match, whoever Ju Wenjun’s challenger may be. 

A wild dogfight started from the diagram, White to Play, (White: Eduardo Iturrizaga Vs Black: Aditya Mittal, Sharjah Masters 2019) White has good compensation for the exchange with 22. g3 Qe7 23. Bg2. But he played 22. Bxg6!? fxg6 23. Qa2+ Kh7 24. Qxa1 Ne5. Now after 25. Qa2 Rf8 26. f3? Black found the strong 26... Ng4! If 27. fg4 Rxf1+ 28. Kxf1 Rf8+ 29. Kg1 Qe1+ 30. Kh2 Rf1 Black has a winning attack. Instead, White tried the desperate 27. g3 Qxg3+ 28. Qg2 Rxf3! 29. Rxf3 Rd1+ 30. Rf1 Rxf1+ 31. Kxf1 Nh2+ (0-1). It’s mate or loss or queen. 

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player