Chess (#1079)

The second Gurgaon International chess tournament saw GM Tornike Sanikidze win on tiebreak after a four-way tie. Raset Ziatdinov was second, IM Swayams Mishra third and V. Karthik, fourth.

Gurgaon was followed by the 12th Parsvnath International which started on Wednesday in Delhi. That has over 1,300 players in 3 sections . The A group has 130 players, with 24 GMs and 24 IMs. The B section is restricted to players rated under 2000 Elo, and the C section is for below 1600 Elo.

The Tata Steel starts in Wijk An Zee this weekend. The A group has an Elo average of 2743. The field is Levon Aronian, Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Boris Gelfand, Sergey Karjakin, Leinier Dominguez, Anish Giri, Wesley So, Arkadij Naiditsch, Pendyala Harikrishna, Richárd Rapport and Loek van Wely. The B group (average 2579) is led by Radoslaw Baadur Wojtaszek and Jobava.
 

Chessbase carried an interesting statistical analysis by Matthew Wilson. Wilson sliced and diced lots of data to discern if 1.e4 was better than 1. d4. Along the way, he found other things. First, white plays 1.e4 more often when black is higher-rated and conversely, white plays 1.d4 more often when black is lower-rated.

Second, white's score varies from between 52-56 per cent. Third, when there is little rating difference between the players, white's plus score rises with higher average ratings. That is, if white and black are both 2200+, white outperforms expectancy by 38 Elo. When both are over 2600+, white outperforms by 46 Elo. This correlation breaks down when both are above 2700.

Wilson conjectures this may be because random errors diminish when both players are stronger, leaving just first mover advantage. Again, 2700+ players may be so strong that draws become more likely above that level and outperformance reduces.

Ceteris paribus, 1.e4 scores slightly more - about 2 extra points per 1000 games. Another interesting result - white's score has been dropping by about 0.01 per cent per year. This may be due to gradual accretion of theory.

The DIAGRAM, WHITE TO PLAY (Aravindh Chithambaram Vs Diazis Chennai GM 2013) is from one of the prodigy, Aravindh Chithambaram's games. White's position looks optically strong with great development and central control. But how does he convert?

He played 20.Bf4! Nfe6. Or 20.-Ne4 21. Nxe4 Bxe4 22. Ng5 f5 and now 23. f3 or 23. c5! Play continued 21.Bd6 Qf6 22.Be5 Qe7 23.g4 Bxe5 24.Rxe5 Be4 25.Nxe4 f6. There is a brilliant win here with 26. Rex6 Nxe6 27. Rd7! Qf8 28. Qc3 but white's next is more than good enough. He played 26.Nxc5?! fxe5 27.Nxe6 Qxe6 28.Ng5 Qe7 29.c5! Kh8 30.Rd6 Qg7 31.Qd2 Re7 32.Rd8+ Re8 33.Rxa8 Rxa8 34.Bc4 Qe7 35.Nf7+ Kg8 36.Qh6 Qf6 37.Ng5+ (1-0). A clinical finish.

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player