Chess (#1122)

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The World Championship match is tied 2-2 at the time of writing. That's exactly the same score as it was in Chennai. The difference is, Viswanathan Anand seems to be more aggressively inclined in Sochi. In Chennai, the match went Magnus Carlsen's way after a start that featured four cautious draws. The Norwegian, who was then the challenger, broke through by winning two equal rook endgames.

In Sochi, the players have traded a win each and played actively in the two drawn encounters. Anand 's opening preparation seems sharper and more focused. Carlsen admitted that he is somewhat unhappy with his form in the past two games. If this opening pattern continues, Anand will continue trying to complicate, while Carlsen will look to generate stable positions.

The world champion remains the favourite because he is much the younger man, and should therefore, have greater energy. But there is every indication that this will be a hard-fought match. If it stays close, nerves could come into play.

The Tashir Tigran Petrosian Memorial concluded with a big win for "Sanya" Alexander Grischuk, time-trouble specialist and poker player. He started with three straight wins and won the eight-player round robin with 5.5 points from seven rounds (+4,=3). His rating rises to 2810 making him the new world no.3, ahead of Levon Aronian. He is also only the eighth person in history to have crossed 2800. Grischuk was followed by Vladimir Kramnik who scored 4.5, with Aronian and Boris Gelfand (both 4) also logging plus scores.  

In an ancillary event, the players from the Petrosian Memorial (which was held in Moscow) and many other top-class GMs are headed to Sochi. They will play the Tal Memorial, an annual blitz event which is a 22-round  double RR with 12 players.

That could provide some light entertainment in between Game 5-6 of the world title match. But of course it's dead serious for the participants. Carlsen is the world blitz champion with a rating of 2948, Anand is rated #8 with 2811. Neither is playing the Sochi blitz (though Carlsen and Anand both hinted that they might drop into watch on their rest day).

THE DIAGRAM, WHITE TO PLAY,  (White : Alexander Grischuk Vs Black : Peter Leko, Petrosian Memorial Moscow 2014 ) is the prelude to interesting endgame tactics.

Play went 20.f4! Nxd2 21.fxe5 Nf3+ 22.Kf2 Nxe5 23.Rag1 Bh5?! The engines say 23...Rd8 is necessary 24.Rxg4 Rd2+ 25.Kf1 25.Nxg4 26.Rxg4 Rxb2 will eliminate pawns and draw.

Play continued 24.Rxg7+ Kh8 25.R7g2 Rd8 26.e4 c4 27.Nd5! Bf3 28.Rg7 Bh5 29.Nf6 - now mate on g8/h7 can't be stopped. Black tried 29.- Rd2+ 30.Ke3 Rd3+ 31.Kf4 Ng6+ 32.R1xg6 Rf3+ 33.Ke5 (1-0).

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player