CHESS #1377

Alexander Grischuk beat Jan-Krzysztof Duda in the finals of the Hamburg Grand Prix, winning 2.5-1.5 in Rapid tiebreaks. The Russian GM started with a loss in the Rapids and scored two wins to come from behind and he had an overwhelming position in game 4 when he agreed to draw.

Grischuk earned €24,000 and is almost certain to take one of the two Candidates spots available from the GP series. He leads the GP with 20 points. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (13), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (10) and Ian Nepomniachtchi (9) are playing the fourth GP in Jerusalem. One of them is likely to bag the other Candidates spot. The winner gets 8 GP points while the runner up gets 5. One mathematical possibility — two of the above three could edge out Grischuk if both qualified for the finals and both won matches without tiebreaks to score bonuses (1 bonus point per match).

The Euro Club Championships had surprise winners. The fourth seeds, Obiettivo Risarcimento Padova won the Open and the third seeds, Nona, took the Women’s tournament. Obiettivo Risarcimento (Literally “Objective compensation”, which is chess nerdspeak for a good sacrifice) of Padua includes Richard Rapport, Michael Adams, Peter Leko, “Paco” Francisco Vallejo Pons, Gawain Jones, Ivan Šaric and Daniele Vocaturo. Team Nový Bor with Harikrishna, Vidit Gujrathi, David Navara, Markus Ragger, Krishnan Sasikiran, Mateusz Bartel, etc., won second place.

Kolkata is gearing up for the Grand Chess Tour event, the Tata Steel Chess, at the historic National Library. Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand, Ding Liren, Anish Giri, Levon Aronian, Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So, Ian Nepomniachtchi, P Harikrishna and Vidit Gujrathi is an impressive lineup. This has the usual format of nine rapid games and 18 blitz games, with the rapids carrying double the weight. The prize fund is $150,000 and the four players with the highest GCT cumulative score qualify for the finals in London in December 2019.

The Diagram, Black to Play (White: Šaric Vs Black: Suleymanli, Euro Club Chps 2019) is insane, what with passed pawns and material imbalance. Black played 47. — Ra2 (47.—Rxh7 is safer) 48. Bxg4 Rc2 49. Bxe6 b2 50. Rxb2 Rxb2 51. Bg8 Rc2. So white is down a rook with“objective compensation”.

Play continued 52. Nd5+ Ka5 53. e6 Bc6 54. e7 Ka4 55. Nb6+ Kb3 56. d5 Bb5 57. d6  Rd2 58. Nxc4 Rd1+ 59. Kf2 Kxc3 60. Na3 Be8 61. e5 Kd4 62. e6 Ke5 63. Nc4+ Kf6 64. g4 Rd5 65. d7 Rxd7? [This is an error since 65.—Kxe7 66. e8=Q Kxe8 is a draw]. Now white won with 66. ed7 Bxd7 67. Nb6 Kxe7 68. Nxd7 Kxd7 69. Kg3 Ke7 70. Kh4 Kf6 71. Kh5 (1-0). Zugzwang! White wins after 71.-  Kg7 72. Kg5 Kf8 73. Kh6.
 

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player