Chess (#1076)

The London Classic ended with Hikaru Nakamura taking the title. The Quarters saw Vladimir Kramnik beat Viswanathan Anand, Naka beat Nigel Short, Boris Gelfand beat Fabiano Caruana and Michael Adams beat Svidler. The semis saw Nakamura beating Kramnik while Gelfand beat Adams. Finally Nakamura took out Gelfand in the finals.

The exuberant American GM triumphantly tweeted a picture of the Hulk roaring to celebrate. The key to the finals was a wild game where Gelfand developed a huge attack and failed to hack through. Anand's form seemed strong in the qualifier but he lost the thread at one critical point in his match with Kramnik and there was no way to comeback.

Meanwhile in Beijing, Levon Aronian and Sergei Karjakin tied for the blitz title in the Mindgames. Karjakin's personal match win against Aronian counted as the tie-break. In the women's section, Hou Yifan won ahead of Valentina Gunina and Anna Muzychuk.

Earlier, Wang Yue had tied Leko in the Rapids and the Chinese GM took the title on tiebreak because he won their individual encounter. This was a real photo-finish since Wang beat Peter Leko in the last round. Gunina took the women's rapid title ahead of Hou.

In the most unusual Beijing event, the basque, nobody knew what to expect. Each round consists of a mini-match of two games - but they are played at the same time with the clock running on both boards. Karjakin won again, ahead of Shakhriyar Mamedaryov.

Back home in India, the Kolkata GM concluded with Armenian GM Ter Sahakyan winning on tiebreak in a five way tie (all 7.5 from 9). The 16-year-old Russian IM Mikhail Mozharov scored his third GM norm in succession. The Indian national A (the 51st edition) has started in Jalgaon. Parimarjan Negi is top-seeded in the 14 player round robin (6 GMs, 1 GM-elect, 7 Ims) with Krishnan Sasikiran ranked no:2.

The Diagram, WHITE TO PLAY (Nakamura Vs Gelfand London 2013) is the lead-in to some sharp tactics. White went 11.Nxf7?! Rxf7 12.e6 Nxd4 13.exf7+ Kf8

Black has huge compensation.

Play went 14.Qd1 Nc5 15.Be3 Bf5 16.Rc1! Qd6 17.b4 Crisis point. Now black has three tries - remember this is rapid.

a) 17.--Rd8!! 18. bxc5 Qe5 19. Be2 Nc2+ 20. Qxc2 Bxc2 21. Rxc2 b4 22.Nd1 Qe4 23.Rc4 Qxg2 24. Rf1 a5! Black is materially down but with attack.

b) 17. - Nce6! 18. a3? Rd8 or 18. Bd3 Qxb4 19. O-O. Or 18. g4? Qc6! This is pragmatic and good as well.

Gelfand played the third, which is just ok - 17--- Ne4 18.Nxe4 Bxe4 19.f3 Bf5 20.Qd2 Rd8 21.Kf2 Kxf7 22.Be2 Qf6? 23.Rxc7 Ne6 24.Rd7 Rc8 25.Bd3. By now, white is winning and the game finished (1-0, 36 moves).

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player