Chess (#1053)

The Susan Polgar Foundation (SPF) Girls Invitational is an interesting initiative. Every US state federation can nominate one girl (aged under 19) to play this six-round event. Prizes include three scholarships to Webster University, Missouri. The eldest Polgar sister runs her Institute of Chess Excellence out of Webster and coaches the strong Webster Uni chess team, which includes seven GMs, including Wesley So, Georg Meier, Fidel Corrales, Jimenez Ray Robson, Manuel Leon Hoyos, etc. This year, Luisa Mercado Mendoca won first place in the SPF.

The Dortmund Sparkassen is starting this weekend. The premier field is Fabiano Caruana, Vladimir Kramnik, Wang Hao, Michael Adams, Peter Leko, Dmitry Andreikin, Arkadij Naiditsch, Rafael Fridman, Georg Meier and Igor Khenkin. It's a single-round robin. Caruana (2796) would be favourite on rating but Kramnik (2784) has a great Dortmund record.

The Biel festival has moved into round four. The six player double-round robin features Vachier Lagrave, Etienne Bacrot, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Ding Liren, Alexander Moiseenko and Richard Rapport. It's a very even field with VL top-seeded at 2719 and Hungarian prodigy Rapport, sixth at 2693. Bacrot and Moiseenko lead with 2.5 each.

K Jennitha Anto of Tamil Nadu has won the World Disabled Championship in Velke Losiny, Czech Republic. Also, Sethuraman won the Leiden Open (75 players), ahead of Deep Sengupta. Sethuraman and Sengupta both scored 7.5 from 9 rounds. Sethuraman won their individual encounter.

Rapport has got lots of attention. But Chinese GM Ding Liren has been under-exposed until recently. He's still only 20 and he has a penchant for pulling off great demolitions.

The Diagram WHITE TO PLAY (Ding, Liren Vs Vachier-Lagrave, Biel 2013) shows Ding's creative powers. After an unusual opening where white pushed his h-pawn early, he played 11.b4!? This isn't a move computers recommend. But it opens the long diagonal with tempo.

Black replied 11.-- cxb4 12.Bb2 0-0 13.Rc1 Bd7 14.Nc5 Rc8 15.0-0 b6 16.Nxd7 Qxd7. Now white has the bishop pair and a big centre. He continued 17.e4 Nf6 18.Qe2 Ng4?

The knight move is an outright error. The engines rate this equal but it's unpleasant to play the black side. Normal would be 18. --Rfd8 19. d4 when black might suffer to hold the draw. The engines suggest 18.--Na5 19. Ne5 Qa4 20. Qa6 Rxc1 21.Rxc1 Qxa2 22. Nd3 with an unclear mess.

Ding unleashed tactical punishment with 19.Bh3! Nxh6 20.Qe3 g5 21.Nxg5 f5. Alternatively 21.--Bc5 22. Rxc5 bxc5 23. Nf3 (or 23. Bf6). The game ended abruptly with 22.exf5 Nxf5 23.Qxe6+ Qxe6 24.Nxe6 Bc5. White picks up a piece - if 24.--Rf7 25. Bg2 also wins. The finish was 25.Rc4 h5 26.d4 Nfxd4 27.Nxd4 Ne5 28.Bxc8 (1-0). If 28.--Nxc4 29. Be6+. Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player