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Perfectionist that he is, Fabiano Caruana wasn't happy even though he shared first place with Boris Gelfand in Baku. The co-winners scored 6.5 points each. Five people tied for 3-7 with 6 points. Gelfand lost once, to Shakhriyar Mamedaryov. Caruana lost twice, to Alexander Grischuk and Dmitry Andreikin. Caruana was merciless in castigating his own play.
Baku was the first of four Grand Prix events. Each player plays three GPs and the top two qualify to the 2016 Candidates. The second GP starts in Tashkent on Monday. Caruana and Gelfand play there and it will be a real test of stamina.
Wesley So won the Vegas Millionaires Open with an $100,000 pay off and entered the Top Ten. This event, conceptualised by Maurice Ashley and funded by entrepreneur Amy Lee, borrows its format from poker. Anybody can pay $1000 and enter. About 600 players signed up across six sections.
Ashley and Lee hope that this format will help to make chess as popular as poker. Let's hope it works. Poker is a difficult game but it's easier to explain nuances because there are fewer alternatives at any given point and there is no rapid-fire blitz.
Meanwhile, the Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand camps are focussed on the title match which starts in three weeks. The players are sequestered with respective teams. This could be a more even contest than Chennai 2013 when Carlsen won 3-0. The champion, who was then the challenger, is definitely still the favourite. But Anand is in better form than a year ago and freed from the burden of defending the title.
The World Juniors in Pune will conclude only on Sunday. After 10 rounds, Chinese GMs Lu Shanglei and Wei Y share the lead with 8 each in the Open section. In the girls, Aleksandra Goryachkina leads with 8.5. With three rounds left, many things could change. Among the Indians, Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan has scored his maiden GM norm.
THE DIAGRAM, WHITE TO PLAY (White: Padmini Rout Vs Black Ioana Gelip, WChp Girls Pune 2014) is an entertaining and highly imaginative effort by a talented WGM. I wouldn't bet its sound but it will make the anthologies.
Play went 23.Nxh7!? Rxf7 Black could bail out to an inferior endgame 23...Kxh7 24.h5 Qe4+ 25.Qxe4 dxe4 26.Rxb4 Rxf7 27.Rxc4 Nd7 28.Rxe4.
Play continued 24.h5 Qxf4 25.Qxg6+ Kh8 26.Rb2! In-between the chaos, this is a superb way to get the rook into play. 26...Rg7 27.Nf6! Bd7 To avoid flash tactics with 27...Rxg6 28.hxg6+ Kg7 29.Nh5+.
Now there's a full-scale 19th century hunt with 28.Rf2 Qc1 29.Rc2 Qf4 30.Rf2 Qc1 31.Nxd7 Rxg6 32.hxg6+ Kg7 33.Rh7+ Kxg6 34.Nf8+ Kg5 35.Rg7+ Kh5 36.Be2+ Kh4 37.g3+ Kh3 38.Bf1# (1-0).
Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player
