| CHESS #612 | |
| Devangshu Datta / New Delhi November 7, 2009, 0:25 IST | |
 Koneru humpy Vs DV Sundar continues to gather momentum with the Chess Players Association of India has also published an open letter supporting the world no:2 and urging “positive and open dialogue” between Humpy and the All India Chess Federation.
For latecomers, Humpy’s trainer and second is her dad, Koneru Ashok. Ashok is not a high-quality trainer. But this arrangement is not unusual. Laszlo Polgar used to chaperone his daughters while Klara Kasparovna and Suseela Anand “trained” their respective sons. Sergei Karjakin and Magnus Carlsen also tend to travel with their parents.
When the AICF refused permission for Ashok to go to the Asian Indoor Games in Vietnam, (which started this week), Humpy withdrew. In apparent retaliation, the AICF refused permission for her to play at the Gibraltar Festival in February 2010 and since then, there has been a spate of open letters.
Meanwhile, Indian WGM Soumya Swaminathan won the World Junior Girls title while French Super GM Maxime Vachier Lagrave became the World Junor Champion in the Open category. Both sections ended in tiebreaks. It was too much to hope that India would retain both titles.
The latest rating list confirms Carlsen is on a roll. The Norwegian became the fifth person to ever cross 2800, reaching 2801 and moving to no:2 behind Veselin Topalov (2810). Anand (2788) dropped to no:3 and Aronyan (2784) hit no:4.
Anand will have a chance to regain some points at the Tal Memorial in Moscow, which started with a quiet first round (five fighting draws) on Thursday. This 10-player RR is one of the strongest-ever fields, featuring Carlsen, Anand, Aronyan, Kramnik, Gelfand, Svidler, Leko, Morozevich, Ivanchuk and Ponomariov.
Anand has warmed up by beating Karpov handily 3.5-0.5 in a rapid match while Carlsen preferred to duck out of the European Team Chps to keep his powder dry. The Euro ended in a photo-finish with Gashimov winning a rook ending to order against Danny Stellwagen to ensure gold for Azerbaijan after Spain held the Russians in another high-voltage last round match .
THE DIAGRAM, BLACK TO PLAY, (Gashimov Vs Stellwagen, Azerbaijain Vs Holland, Euto Team Chps 2009) is likely to make the endgame manuals. The Dutch GM could have held the draw with 70...Rb4! 71.Kf8 Kg6 72.f7 Rf4 73.Ra6+ Kg5 74.Kg7 Rxf7+ 75.Kxf7 h4 76.Ke6 h3 77.Ke5 h2 78.Ra8 Kg4 79.Rh8 Kg3 87 Rb7+ . 0.Ke4 Kg2= . The point is that the rook has sufficient distance on the “long-side” to give checks after.Ke6 Rb6+ 72.Ke 71
Instead black tried 70.—Rf4? 71. Ke6! h4 72. f7 Kg6 73. f8=Q Rxf8 74. Rxf8 Kg5 75. Ke5 (1-0). since lines like 75.— Kg4 76.Ke4 Kg3 77.Ke3 h3 78.Rg8+ Kh2 79.Kf2 Kh1 80.Re8 Kh2 81.Re3 Kh1 82. Rxh3#
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