Magnus Carlsen underlined his mental toughness to win the London Chess Classic after starting with two losses in the first three rounds, versus Luke McShane and Anand. He won three of his last four and drew a dead-lost position against Kramnik.
Bilbao scoring meant Carlsen (+4,-2,=1, for a total of 13 points) outpaced McShane and Anand (both +2,=5, for 11 points). In normal scoring, Carlsen places third on tiebreak. At 4-5, Kramnik and Nakamura scored 10 points each (Bilbao). Naka won their individual encounter. Adams hit 50 per cent (+1,-1,.=5) while Short and Howell had minus scores.
Bilbao is obviously here to stay, despite some holes. A player with a minus score of say +4,-5,=1 could outgun a plus score of +1,=9. One obvious advantage in that Bilbao prevents a leader from coasting. Worryingly, it offers major incentives for collusion late into Swiss events where a win could mean huge pay offs versus draws.
The world women's championship at Hatay has reached the semi final stage with top seed Humpy, second seed Hou Yifan and two of her PRC compatriots in Xhu Zhao and Ruan Lufei, in the fray. Lufei beat Harika in the quarters. One oddity is that Yifan and Humpy meet in the semis because defending champion Alexandra Kostenjuk was seeded at 1 despite being rated lower.
Another monstrously strong event, the Russian Superfinals, is also underway. This 11-round round-robin is well funded for a national event with 3.5 Million Rouble (about USD 115,000). Svidler and Karjakin lead with 2.5 from 3 games, followed by Grischuk, Jakovenko, Malakhov, Nepomniachtchi, in a 12-man field with 2705 average rating.
The top seed is Grischuk (2771) while the weakest player in the field is Vladimir Potkin (2646). There's decent coverage from the Moscow Central Chess Club and excellent live analysis from Crestbook (for Russian speakers).
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The diagram, WHITE TO PLAY (Kramnik Vs Carlsen, London Classic 2010) is an impromptu endgame study. Kramnik reduced to this balance by exchanging a pair of rooks and Kts. Then he realised the win wasn't simple. Play went 69.Kg3? Ke3 70.Kh4 Kf2 71.Bd5 – The alternative 71. Kh5 Kxg2 72. Kg6 Kg3 73. Kxg7 a2! is also clearly drawn.
Carlsen held on with 71. – g6 72.Kh3 g5 73.Kh2 Kf1 74.Be6 Kf2 75.Bc4 Ke3 76.Kg3 Kd4 77.Be6 Ke3 78.Kh2 Kf2 79.Bc4 Ke3 80.Kg1 Kf4 81.Be6 Ke5 82.Bb3 Kf4 83.Be6 Ke5 84.Bb3 Kf4 85.Be6 Ke5 86.Bb3 1/2-1/2 The bishop is tied to a2 and white can't activate his king without losing the g-pawn.
The win was 69.g5!! hxg5 (69...h5 70.Kf4 Kd4 71.g3 Kc5 72.Kf5 Kd6 73.Ba2 Ke7 74.Kg6 Kf8 75.Kh7+-) 70.g3 Kd4 71.Kg4 Ke3 72.Kxg5 Kf3 73.Kh4 g6 74.Bf7 g5+ 75.Kh3 Kf2 76.Kg4 Kg2 77.Ba2 Kf2 78.Bd5+- . Now black is forced to move his king away.
Devangshu Datta is an internationally-rated chess and correspondence chess player
