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The Indian national championships are a brutally, arduous series of tournaments with spots in the Olympiad team and GM, IM norms et cetera at stake. The Premier (often called the National A) is a 15-player round robin with the top six of the previous premier seeded and nine players being qualified from the National Challengers (often called the National B). The Challengers is an open, often with a strong field running to 150 plus. Every state and affiliated body is entitled to send some players (who qualify from respective state championships). Plus, any Indian citizen can make a direct entry by paying a higher entry fee.
The idea is to be inclusive and allow anybody to have a crack at the title. However, this means a long and arduous process of qualifying. The Challengers in particular is nerve-racking because there are invariably tie-breaks involved, given a Swiss system with a lot of players. What is more, ties are traditionally not decided by playoffs so calculating who is doing better is a difficult task.
This year's challengers in Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh, saw an eleven-way tie for the top spot with only nine places available. It was won (on tie-break calculations) by Vidit Gujrathi, a young GM who was top-seeded. Other GMs who qualified included Sahej Grover, Deep Sengupta, Deepan Chakkravarthy, Sethuraman, Lalith Babu, et cetera. Several GMs did not qualify.
Meanwhile, Alexander Morozevich won the Poikovsky with an uncharacteristically solid performance. He scored 6 from nine (+3,=6) to lead a strong field. Dmitry Jakovenko was clear second with 5.5 and 3-4 were shared by Étienne Bacrot and Alexei Shirov (both 5). The top four were unbeaten.
The US Championships saw an exciting reprise of last year. Gata Kamsky retained his title after winning a three-way tie-breaker edging out Varuzhan Akobian in a final after Akobian beat Leinderman.
Irina Krush retained her title, edging out Tatev Abrahamyan and Anna Zatonskih in another tie-breaker.
The DIAGRAM, WHITE TO PLAY (Vidit Gujrathi Vs V. A. V. Rajesh, National Challengers 2014) is the launch pad for a sharp combination. White is obviously better but black appears to be defending all the key points. Where is the breakthrough?
White played 1.Bxf7!! Bxe4 Black has many choices. All lose. The alternatives include 1...Rxf7 2.Rdxg6+ Kh7 3.Rh6+! Kxh6 4.Qd6+ Kh7 5.Qg6+ Kh8 6.Rh1+ Rh7 7.Rxh7#; Or 1...Qxf7 2.Qxe5+ Kh7 3.Rh1+ Kg8 4.Rh8#; Or 1...Kxf7 2.Rgxg6! Qe7 3.Qc4+ Ke8 4.Rge6 which is again convincing.
Play continued 2.Qe3! Rxf7 3.Qxe4 Rc6 4.Qxg6+ Kf8 5.Qh6+ Ke7 6.Qe6+ 1-0. The continuation could be 6.-Kf8 7. Rg8+, etc.
Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player
