The Biel Young GM ended in a three-way tie resolved through a slightly unusual process. Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Fabiano Caruana all scored 5.5 from nine games. Son had the best tiebreak score and was seeded through. Vachier-Lagrave and Caruana played a blitz match, which the latter won 2-1. Caruana then beat Son in a second final playoff to win.
The tournament was a bit of a damp squib. It saw cautious drawish play from a group of 10, who are reckoned the best of their generation. There were far too many short draws. For the Indian representative Negi, it must have been a nightmare since he was in terrible form. More worrying, Negi’s rating has more or less stagnated for quite a while, which is not a good sign in a teenager.
This weekend the Mainz Chess Classic will get underway with the usual Rapid Open World Championships, and some simultaneous displays. Sadly, the financial crisis has led to cutbacks. Still, Aronyan, Anand and Mamedaryov will be in action as well as other lesser lights.
Meanwhile the Fide electoral imbroglio continues with Karpov and Ilyumzhinov both actively campaigning. Apparently Fide is also unhappy with the state of preparedness for the October Olympiad at Khanty-Mansiysk Delhi-ites who are unhappy with the state of preparedness for the CWG will certainly empathise.
The seventh edition of the now-traditional Russia VS China match is being played out in Yinzhou, Ningbo, China. This is a Scheveningen system match tournament with every member of one five-member team playing every member of the other team.
The Russian teams have an average rating of 2692 (Men with Malakhov, Vitiugov, Timofeev, Rublevsky and Potkin) and 2453 (Women: Nadezhda Kosintseva, Natalija Pogonina, Valentina Gunina, Anastasia Bodnaruk, Alina Kashlinskaya) while the Chinese are at 2685 (Wang Hao, Wang Yue, Bu Xiangzhi, Zhou Jiangchao, Ni Hua) and 2432 (Ju Wenjun, Tan Zhongyi,Huang Qian, Ding Yixin, Wang Yu) respectively. The Russians lead 5.5 to 4.5 after the first round. Previous editions have seen very tight finishes and this could also be a humdinger.
The diagram, WHITE TO PLAY, (Rodshtein Vs Giri, Biel 2010) is an interesting “linear” position. White played 27.Qxc5 Bxc5 28.Rxc5 Qb8 29.Nd4 Nc7 30.Rcc1 Qb4 31.Rcb1 Qc5 32.Rb7 Nd5 33.Bxd5 Qxd5 34.Rc1 Rc8 35.Rcb1 g6 36.Rb8 Qd8 37.Rxc8 Qxc8 38.Rc1 Kg7 39.c7 (1-0). The queen will be rounded up with Nb5-d6 (or Nb5 and Rd1-d8).
The remarkable thing is that there are almost no deviations possible. White plans to put Kt on d4, exchange Bxd5, swap one rook and then queen. It can't be stopped by tries like 30.-- e5 31. Rab1 Qa8 32. Nb5, which just turns the Bg2 into a dominant monster.
Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player
