Fabiano Caruana won the AAI despite a late hiccup, when he lost to Viktor Laznicka. The 1992-born Italian-American GM scored 7 points from 10 rounds, and amply deserved the $8000 he received. He is now the highest-rated player under 20, with 2725, on the live list.
Sasikiran ($6000) who started with 0/2, ended second with 6. Laznicka was third ($4000) on 5.5 while Wesley So ($3000) hit 5. Parimarjan Negi ($2000) and world champion Hou Yifan ($1,500) were both in dreadful form, scoring 3.5 and 3 respectively. There were just 12 draws in 30 games.
Meanwhile Anish Giri (born 1994, 2701 on the official list) pushed his live rating to 2717 with a runaway victory in the Dutch championship. Giri scored 7.5 from 9 games, well ahead of Ivan Sokolov (5.5) in a category 14, 10 player, round robin.
At the same time, Gawain Jones edged Nigel Short to take the Commonwealth Title, in a strong Swiss, hosted by South Africa for the first time. Both English GMs (Jones could opt to play for Wales going by the name) scored 9.5 from 11 but Jones had the better tiebreaker.
David Smerdon of Australia was third ahead of Abhijit Kunte (both 9) on tiebreak. As usual with the CW, it was “an event inside an event” with participants from Germany, Argentina, etc, but also specific prizes for CW citizens. Eesha Karavade won the CW ladies ahead of Harika and Swati Ghate, second and third respectively.
The latest Fide ratings list doesn’t account for Delhi, the CW and Dutch Championships. Carlsen returns to number one with 2821, ahead of Anand (2817). The world champion was inactive. Aronyan retained number three slot with 2805 and Karjakin surged to number four with 2788.
The Diagram (White to play, Caruana Vs Negiwes32e42--, AAI Delhi 2011) is the prelude to fireworks that illustrate Caruana's fearless yet safety-first style. This opposite castled Sicilian is likely to be decided by whose attack lands first. White had 5 minutes left while black had over 30.
White went 30.f4! Qc4 31.Qd2 Ne4? Black had a better defence in 31.-- Ng4 32. Qg3 Nxe5. Now white is faster with 32.Qg2 Qc6 33.Rd5! Nf6 34.fxg5 hxg5 35.Qxg5+ Kh7. The cold-blooded 36. R5d2 is the next engine recommendation.
Caruana played the steadier 36.Bxf6!? Qxc2+ 37.Ka2 Rg8 White's next move is also practical and it wins. But 38. Rc1! Rxg5 39. Rxc2 Rxc2 40. Bxe7 is simpler and the crazy 38. Qg6+! also works.
After the forcing 38.Qxg8+!? Rxg8 39.Bxe7 Rg3 40.Na5 Rg2 41.Ba3 Rf2 42.Nb3 Rf3 43.Nc5 Qc4+ 44.Kb1 Rf1 45.R5d4 Qe2 46.Rxf1 Qxf1+ 47.Ka2 Qxf5, an epic struggle resulted. White is better on material and king safety. But it took 98 moves to win (1-0).
Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player
