The last 10 days have been near-overkill for fans inundated with excellent games. There were several really good events running in tandem, not to mention Wimbledon and the Vuvuzela Cup.
In chronological order, Viktor Bologan and Sergei Karjakin shared the title at the 11th Poikovsky Karpov Memorial scoring 7 points each from 11 games. After that, Jan Smeets won the Dutch championship ahead of Anish Giri. Smeets managed 6.5 from 9 games while Giri scored 6.
Then, Ivanchuk won the 45th Capablanca Memorial in Havana scoring an unbeaten 7 points from 10 games. This is Ivanchuk’s fourth victory in the premier Cuban event. Ian Nepomniachtchi scored 6 points to lock in second ahead of Short, Alekseev, Dominguiz Perez and Bruzon.
All this was topped by Carlsen’s performance at the Tournament of Kings, in Medias, Romania. He started with three draws before reeling off four wins in a row. Carlsen leads with 6 points from 8 games. Boris Gelfand is in second with 5 and Radjabov has 4. The other participants, Nisipeanu, Ponomariov and Wang Yue are all below 50 per cent in the double-rounder. It's the umpteenth outstanding performance by the Norwegian GM since he achieved number one status in late 2009.
Apart from excellent technique and preparation, and an all-round style, part of Carlsen’s mystique comes from his aggression. He always pushes hard to win, even when that is objectively very unlikely. That often induces errors, even from 2700+ opposition and he gets quite a few “extra” half-points due to this admirable quality.
The diagram, BLACK TO PLAY (Ponomariov Vs Carlsen, Medias 2010) is a case where Carlsen managed a full-point swing. White must have felt confident. He could continue here with 20.Bxd7 Nf6 21.Qxh4 Qxd7 22.f5 Rxb2 23.Bg5 or the simple 20. Bc6.
Instead Pono plunged into 20.Bxa6 Rxb2 21.Rab1 Rxd2!? Against anything else, white can consolidate and win technically so this is a good practical chance. 22.Bxd2 Bd4+. Now the cold-blooded 23. Kh1! Ndf6 24. Qf3 seems to win because 24. – Nxe4 25. Qxe4 Ng3+ 26. hxg3 hxg3 27. f5! Is conclusive and so is 24. – Ng3+ 25. hxg3 hxg3 26. Be1! Nxe4 27. Bxg3.
But White started seeing ghosts here and played 23.Rf2? Bxf2+ 24.Kxf2 Ndf6 25.Qf3 Qe8! - apparently he missed the double-attack on e4, a4. Now after 26.e5 Qxa4 27.exf6 Qxa6 28.Bc3 Qc8. 29.Kg1 Qf5 30.Rf1 Re8 31.Ba1 Ra8 32.Qe3 Kh7 33.Bb2 Rb8 34.Bc1 Rb1 the evaluation has turned 180 degrees..
The game concluded 35.Qe8 Qxd5 36.f5 gxf5 37.Qe3 Qd4 38.Qxd4 cxd4 39.Bg5 Rxf1+ 40.Kxf1 h3! 41.gxh3 Kg6 42.Bh4 Nf4 43.Bg3 Kg5 44.Bf2 Ne6 45.Ke2 f4 46.Kf3 d3 47.h4+ Kf5 48.Bb6 Nc5 49.h5 d2 50.Ke2 Ne4 (0-1).
Devangshu Datta is an internationally-rated chess and correspondence chess player
