The Tata Steel at Wijk An Zee (WAZ) is a spectacular event. Group A is a super tournament, Group B is very strong and C has an interesting mix of youngsters. WAZ has always been run on traditional lines. No Sofia Rules, no Bilbao scoring. Just a careful mix of hungry youngsters and decent conditions to encourage fighting chess. After four rounds, the lead is tied in Group A. World no:1 Carlsen has 3 points and so does world no:2 Levon Aronyan. Carlsen has however, beaten Aronyan in their individual encounter.
Caruana and Radjabov have plus scores with 2.5 each. Aronyan started with 2/2 and a third-round loss to Carlsen was followed by a bounce-back win versus Kamsky. Carlsen has beaten Gashimov and Aronyan while drawing two inferior positions against Ivanchuk and Caruana. Defending champion Nakamura has a minus score (loss to Aronyan) as does Boris Gelfand (lkoss to Anish Giri), while Topalov had four straight draws.
In Group B, Harikrishna has established a lead with 3.5 from four, while L'Ami and Motylev are on 2.5. Harika is languishing at the lower end with 1.5. In Group C, Maxim Turov leads with a perfect 4/4 while Hans Tikannen and Baskaran Adhiban are tied in second-third with 3 each. Tania Sachdev is on 1.5. Adhiban and Turov both qualified for the C by playing through a play-off last year.
Meanwhile, the Chennai Open is being followed, as usual with the Parasvnath in Delhi. The 10th edition of the Parasvnath Open has over 300 participants with 20 GMs . The Kolkata-based GM Sandipan Chanda is top seed. After two rounds, there's a log jam of multiple perfect scores.
The diagram, WHITE TO PLAY, ( Aronian Vs Nakamura, Tata Steel 2012) features a positional queen sacrifice. Instead of 25. Qc2 Rxb7 27. Rxa4, white played 25. Bxa6 Nc3 26.Bxc3 Rxb1 27.Rdxb1 g5. Only white has winning chances. The white pieces are coordinated against targets while the queen has no weak points to attack.
Play continued 28.Rb7 Ng8 29.Bxg7+ Kxg7 30.Rb5 Qg6 31.c5 dxc5 32.Rxc5 Qxe6 33.Nf3 Qd6 34.Nd4! Kh8 35.Rc6 Qd7 36.Rac1 f4 37.Bc8 Qa7 38.Ne6 Rf6 39.exf4 gxf4 40.Rc7! Qa4.
Aronyan avoids the horror of 40 Nxf4? Rxc6 41. Rxc6 Qa1+ 42. Kg2 Qa8 43. Bd7 Nf6. Play went 41.Nxf4 Rd6 42.Be6 Rd1 43.Rxd1 Qxd1+ 44.Kg2 Nf6 45.Rxe7 Qe1 46.Rf7 Qe4+ 47.f3 Qd4 48.Kh3 Qe5. In the last 10-15 moves, black has slipped over the edge from defending an inferior position to a loss.
Now white has a gorgeous mating attack with 49.Kh4! Qd4 50.Bg4! Qe5 51.Ne6! h6. Or 51...h5 52.Nf4 Kg8 53.Be6 Qxe6 54.Nxe6 Kxf7 55.Nf4 52.Rf8+ Ng8 53.f4 Qb2 54.Kh3 Qa1 55.Bh5! Kh7 56.Rf7+ Kh8 57.Bg6 Nf6 58.Rf8+ Ng8 59.Bf7 1-0.
Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player
