Chess (#1075)

Two great speed events are running concurrently in London and Beijing. The London Chess Classic started with a double robin qualifier, with 16 players split into four groups. Eight qualify from there for a knockout sequence. The lineup includes Viswanathan Anand, Michael Adams, Vladimir Kramnik, Peter Svidler, Hikaru Nakamura, Boris Gelfand, Judit Polgar and Fabiano Caruana. Scoring is Bilbao.

Anand (10 pts from 4 games) and Adams (8/4) seem to be guaranteed qualification in Group A, while B looks wide open with Svidler and Kramnik on 7 each and Sadler on 5. Gelfand and Nakamura (both 8) are on top in C and Caruana (10) is likely to win D with Short (7) in second.

The MindGames at Beijing is also very strong. It has an combination of events. There's a standard rapid, a standard blitz and a basque. The basque involves mini-matches played simultaneously at a rapid control with colours reversed.

Beijing features Sergey Karjakin, Alexander Grischuk, Levon Aronian, Shakriyar Mamedyarov, Ruslan Ponomariov, Teimour Radjabov, Le Quang Liem, Wang Hao, Wang Yue, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Gata Kamsky, Peter Leko, Vassily Ivanchuk and Anish Giri, as well as many of the top women including Humpy Koneru, Hou Yifan, Anna Muzychuk, et cetra. Leko leads in the Men's Rapid with 4.5 from 5 games while Valentina Gunina had a perfect score of 4/4. Meanwhile the Kolkata Open is coming to a close. Levon Pantsulaia of Georgia leads with 6.5 points from eight rounds. He's closely followed by 7 players who are tied on 6 points.

The diagram, WHITE TO PLAY, (Karjakin Vs Kamsky Rapid Men 2013 Beijing MindGames) is the lead-in to a very unusual material balance. Karjakin played the sharp 11.Nxe7! axb5 12.Nxc8 Qxc8 13.Bxb5 Nge7 14.Bxd6 0-0. 15.Bxc6 Nxc6 16.Bxf8 Qxf8.

Most of this is forced. There's an unusual material equation - three minors can outplay two rooks especially in middlegame attacks. But white's extra pawns should also count.

Play continued 17.Qd6 Qa8 18.Kb1 b5 19.f4 Bc8 20.Qa3 Qb7 21.Rd5 h5 22.Rhd1 Bg4 23.R1d2 b4 24.Qe3 Qa6 25.R2d3? Be6? Double error. White should play 25. R5d3. After 25. R2d3? Black can try b3! which generates serious play with for example, 26.cxb3 Nb4 27. Rd8+ Kh7 28. a3 Nxd3 29. Qxd3 Qf6.

The game continued with multiple errors as both players ran out of time. Play went 26.Qc5 Kh7 27.b3? Bxd5 28.exd5 Qa3! 29.c3 Qa6 30.Qc4 Qb6 31.dxc6 Qg1+ 32.Kc2 bxc3 33.Rxc3? Qxg2+ 34.Kb1 Qg1+ 35.Rc1 Qf2! 36.Rc2 Qe1+ 37.Rc1 Qd2 38.Qc2 Qd4 39.Qe2 Qa1+ 40.Kc2 Qxa2+ 41.Kd1 Qxb3+ 42.Rc2 Qb1+??

Instead 42...Qd5+! is perpetual check with Qh1+ being key in many variations. White saved with 43.Kd2 Bh6?! 44.Qc4 Qb8 45.c7 Qc8 46.Qxf7+ Bg7 47.Rc6 (1-0).

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player