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The Alekhine Memorial and the Zug Grand Prix were of equal strength but with different end-results. At Zug, Veselin Topalov produced a great 2900-plus performance scoring 8 (+5,=6) from 11 rounds. He was followed by Hikaru Nakamura 6.5, with Ruslan Ponomariov and Fabiano Caruana tied for third-fourth on 6. This is the Bulgarian GM's best result since he lost the title match in 2010.
The Alekhine Memorial (Paris-St. Petersburg) was much tighter. Levon Aronian and Boris Gelfand shared first, each scoring 5.5 out of 9. Aronian took the title on tiebreak due to more decisive games. Gelfand was the only unbeaten player. Third spot went to Viswanathan Anand who scored 5.
Maxim Vachier Lagrave led until the seventh round but consecutive losses to Nikita Vitiugov and Aronian ruined his efforts. Gelfand led into the last round. Anand, Michael Adams, Vachier-Lagrave and Aronian all had chances to overtake him. Anand drew Gelfand, Adams lost to Vladimir Kramnik and of course, Aronian beat Vachier-Lagrave. It was a great comeback from the Armenian who started with a spectacular loss. Anand also started with a loss and eased back to a reasonable result.
Kramnik, Gelfand, Aronian and Peter Svidler came to the Alekhine from the Candidates, while Teimour Radjabov and Sergey Karjakin went to Zug. Four players from Zug and three from the Alekhine go to a super tournament in Norway, starting May 7. The field is Magnus Carlsen, Aronian, Radjabov, Karjakin, Anand, Topalov, Nakamura, Svidler and Wang Hao. No prizes for guessing who the locals will back, and of course, he's the hot favourite.
The Maharashtra Chess League (MCL) has adopted the IPL formula, albeit with a fraction of the funding. The six teams in the MCL bid for players at an auction, capped at Rs 3 lakh. Sponsors backed each of the teams, Ahmednagar Checkers, Jalgaon Battlers, Mumbai Movers , Nagpur Royals, Pune Attackers and Thane Combatants. The format was also IPL-style, with a round-robin series of matches, followed by semi-finals and finals. The home team, Pune attackers won, beating Jalgaon Battlers in the finals.
It is rare for Kramnik to be brutalised tactically as he was from the DIAGRAM, BLACK TO PLAY (Kramnik Vs Laurent Fressinet, Alekhine Memorial 2013). The French GM had played daringly, sacrificing an early pawn and then a piece for the initiative. By this stage, he has obvious compensation. In fact, black's winning.
The cleanest kill is - Bxf2+!! This second piece sac wins. 26.Kxf2 Bxf1! The pawns roll after 27.Bxf1 g3+ 28.Kxg3 Qf5! and now Rcg8+ is deadly. Alternatively, the pawns roll as in the game with 27.Kxf1 g3! 28.Bf3 gxh2. Now 29. Bxd5 Qf5+ 30. Ke2 h1=Q, or 29. Qxd5 Qxd5 30. Bxd5 Rcg8 are both very convincing. The game concluded 29.Ke2 Rhg8 30.Bc5 a6 31.Bh1 Rg2+ 32.Bxg2 (0-1).
Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player
