CHESS #1383

Ju Wenjun drew first blood in game 4 of the World Title match, winning a scrappy endgame against Aleksandra Goryachkina. The first three games were drawn with the Russian Challenger unable to convert pressure when she had the white pieces. In Game 4, Ju kept some pressure in a queen endgame that was objectively drawn. She converted to a favourable king and pawn endgame after Goryachkina cracked under the strain of defending.

The title match will now compete for attention with the Tata Steel Chess Festival In Wijk Aan Zee. That starts this weekend. It has the usual stellar fields. The Masters group (14 players) is led by Magnus Carlsen backed up by Fabiano Caruana and Anish Giri among Top 10 players. Plus, there’s Wesley So, Viswanathan Anand and Nikita Vitiugov who are all Top 20. The average rating is 2741.

The Challengers has an average rating of 2602. The top seed is David Antón Guijarro. The Indian contingent consists of Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Nihal Sarin. Other exciting youngsters include Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Vincent Keymer, Dinara Saduakassova, Anton Smirnov and Lucas van Foreest. The winner gets a slot in the 2021 event (apart from prize money ). These two events run concurrently with the Open, which has 2000-odd entries. This Is about as much as the Delhi Open, which has similar participation across graded sections.  

The January rating list shows Carlsen’s triple crown wasn’t enough to take him to the top in all categories. While Carlsen is #1 by wide margins in Classical and Rapid, Hikaru Nakamura holds the top position in blitz. The American GM did tie Carlsen at the World Blitz, although he lost the tie break. Alireza Firouzja might soon be France’s #2 and he’s now #27 and tops the Under-20 list at age 16. There are four Indians in the Top 100 and as many as 11 in the Top 100 Juniors, including four in the Top 20. Most of these young hopefuls and a few more are participating in an intensive  coaching session in Chennai with Vladimir Kramnik. That’s sponsored by Microsense.

The Diagram, Black to Play (White: Yu Yangyi Vs Black: SS Ganguly, World Teams 2019) features one of the more interesting combinations of last year. Black played 23. — Rxe3!! 24. Rc6 Bh2+ [This Bishop will repeatedly feature. Black was coping with time trouble. Obviously 24. fe3 Bh2 25. Kh1 Qf1# is one key variation] 
 

Play continued 25. Kf1 Bg3! 26. Kg1 Bh2+ 27. Kf1 Bg3 28. Kg1 Qxd4 29. Nc2 Bh2+ 30. Kh1 Bf4+ 31. Kg1 Bh2+ 32. Kh1 Bf4+ 33. Kg1 Qxd3 34. Nxe3 Bh2+ 35. Kh1 Be5+ 36. Kg1 Bh2+ 37. Kh1 Qxb5 38. Rac1 Bg3+ 39. Kg1 Bh2+ 40. Kh1 Ne7! 41. g3 Nxc6 and (0-1, 66 moves).

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player