Chess (#1063)

Magnus Carlsen registered another impressive victory in his last tournament before settling down for title-match preparation. In the double-round-robin Sinquefield Cup, the challenger scored 4.5 from six games (+3,=3), beating Levon Aronian once and Gata Kamsky twice, and drawing twice with Hikaru Nakamura. Nakamura came second with 3.5 /6 (+2,-1,=3) by trading wins with Aronian (+1,-2,=3) while Kamsky (-3,=3) had a poor outing.

The world numer one will be satisfied. He gave away nothing much about his opening repertoire and held the inferior positions while winning superior ones. In fact, he turned a minus position around against Aronian in the final round to win. He should go into the title match brimming with confidence.

Meanwhile, the Women's World Championship is becoming a mismatch. Hou Yifan leads 3-0 after six games and she could coast through the ten-game match with two draws. Oddly, the Ukrainian has lost all three of her whites, while drawing with black.

In the World Junior Championships in Turkey, Yu Yangyi and P Sethuraman share the lead with 4.5 after five rounds. Vidit Gujrathi, Sahej Grover and Debashis Das are tied for third spot along with with several others. In the girl's section, Medina Aulia of Indonesia leads, along with Irina Bulmaga of Roumania and Alina Kashlinskaya of Russia.

In Riga, Latvia, Alexander Grischuk won a very strong rapid KO at a time control of 25 minutes plus 10 seconds increment. Grischuk beat Ian Nepomniatchi in a final, which ended in an armageddon after they split a blitz tiebreak. He was lucky since Nepomniatchi blew a totally winning position in Game 1. This should give Grischuk confidence heading into the Paris Grand Prix, which he needs to win in order to qualify for the Candidates. Grischuk eliminated Peter Svidler while Nepomniatchi eliminated Ruslan Ponomariov. in the semis.

The Diagram, BLACK TO PLAY (Ushenina Vs Hou Yifan Women World Chps 2013, Game 3) features a sharp novelty that brings swift reward. Yifan played 16.-- dxc4 Earlier black has played 16...Nac3 17.cxd5 Ba4 18.Qxb7 Rc7 19.Qa6 Qxd5 20.Be3 Qxe5 - presumably Ushenina was prepared for that. On reflection, the position is better for black anyway. There are too many hanging white pieces and the black knights dominate.

17.Bxc4? The engines suggest 17.Qxb7 Nac5 18.Qb2 Nd3 19.Bxd3 cxd3 is playable. 17...Nac3! Now black's on top after 18.Bxf7+ Rxf7 19.e6 Bxe6 20.Nxe6 Qf6 but white's next leads to a forced loss.

18.a4 Bxa4! 19. Rxa4 Nxa4 20.Nf5 Or 20.Qxa4 Nc3! 21.Qb4 Qxd4 22.Bxf7+ Rxf7 23.Qxd4 Ne2+ 20...Nac3 21.e6?! Rxc4! The follow-up to this is the difficult move to find.

22.Qxc4 b5! 23.Qb3 Black wins easily after 23.e7 bxc4 24.exd8Q Ne2+ 25.Kh1 Rxd8 when the c-pawn rolls. 23...Qd3 24.exf7+ Rxf7 (0-1). The threat of Ne2+ is final.

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player