CHESS #1362

The big news of the week for Indian fans was the fantastic performance of two teenaged siblings at the Xtracon Open in Denmark. Praggnanaandha won, scoring 8.5 points from 10 rounds. He played at a rating performance of 2741, going undefeated and beating several GMs rated above 2600, to add a whopping 29 Elo to his June rating of 2540. His elder sister, Vaishali (Elo 2344), also had a terrific event, scoring 7.5 to tie for 7th-20th and log her first GM norm. Her wins included a comprehensive tactical blowout of Sam Sevian, who’s rated more than 300 Elo above her at 2667.

This wasn’t the only good news. Vidit Gujrathi had a comprehensive win at the Biel GM, taking the mixed (Rapid+ Blitz + Classical) event with a round to spare. Gujrathi topped both the classical and blitz sections of the 8-player round-robin. He scored 31 points (the scoring was weighted with 3 for a classical win, 2 for a rapid win) to come out ahead of Sam Shankland (27), Peter Leko and Parham Maghsoodlu (both 24.5).

Vidit is well-known as a rock-solid positional artist but he seems to be changing style to play more sharply in recent events.

The Paris Grand Prix saw homeboy Maxime Vachier Lagrave edge the field with 21 points. It was a 10-player Rapid Round Robin coupled to a blitz double round robin, with the rapid weighted at 2 points per win. MVL scored 13 in rapids and 10 in blitz. Viswanathan Anand (20.5) came second with 10 rapids, and 10.5 blitz, just ahead of Alexander Grischuk and Ian Nepomniachtchi ( both 20).

The Diagram, WHITE TO PLAY 

(White: Vaishali Vs Black: Sevian, Xtracon 2019) is the setting for an impressive attack. Look at black’s offside queen and loose Kt-c4. How does white translate space and better coordination into an attack?

She played 26. e5! Bg7 (The mainline 26... dxe5 27. fxe5 Bxe5 28. Qh4 Rde8 29. Qxc4 is slaughter) 27. e6! Qb6+ 28. Kh2 Ne3 (28.—Be8 29. f5 uses the Qh4 double-threat again.)

29. Qh4 Rde8 30. f5! Nxf1+ 31. Rxf1 Bxb5 32. Nxb5 Be5+ 33. Kh1 f6 34. Qxh6 Rg7 35. fxg6 Qc5 36. Qd2 Qc4. White has more than enough for the exchange with two pawns and attack. Note the opposite coloured bishops. Black can’t defend the light squares.

The game continued 37. Qd3 Qh4 38. Na3 f5 39. Nc4 Bf6 40. Qxf5 Rf8 41. Qe4 Qg5 42. Nxa5 c5 43. Nc4 Be7 44. Rf7 Rb8 Stubbornness and the reluctance to lose to a girl may have induced black to carry on. The game ended 45. Qf3 Qc1+ 46. Kh2 Rf8 47. Ne3 Qb2 48. Ng4 Rgxf7 49. exf7+ Kh8 50. Qe3 Qg7 51. Qxe7 (1-0).
 

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player