Chess (#1132)

The Tata Steel event has been hard-fought but the world champion asserted himself after a shaky start. After 10 rounds, Magnus Carlsen leads with 7.5 - he was on 1/3 before he won six straight matches and then drew with Vassily Ivanchuk. Wesley So and Maxime Vachier Lagrave share second place with 6.5 each while Fabiano Caruana, Ivanchuk, Aneesh Giri and Ding Liren share 4-7 with 6 points each. So is the only unbeaten player.

Carlsen has been fantastic with a sequence of aggressive games, rather than his trademark slow grinds. He won the"derby" against Caruana. The world #2 has been a little patchy and in severe time trouble. But he is performing more or less according to his rating.

Vachier-Lagrave has played high-quality chess - even his loss to Ivanchuk was a lovely game. So has been rock-solid and seized his chances. However,he must have been surprised to win a theoretical miniature against Ivanchuk. Apart from that amazing aberration, Ivanchuk has played good chess. Giri has played at a level that confirmed his rating gains through last year were not random.

The Challengers has been even bloodier in terms of high decision ratios. The 15-year-old Wei Yi and David Navarra share the lead with 8/10. Robin Van Kampen is on 6.5 and Sam Shankland is on 6. Nobody has a realistic chance of catching the leaders. Wei (2675) is the youngest member of the top 100 at present and he is edging close to 2700. The individual encounter was a draw, so the two leaders must try to outscore each other in their remaining games.

GM Andrey Baryshpolets came first in a three-way tie at the Parsvnath Open in Delhi. Ivan Popov and Alberto David finished second and third respectively with all three scoring 8/10. Five IM norms were scored with CRG. Krishna completing his IM title.

The diagram, BLACK TO PLAY (White: Ivanchuk Vs Black: So; Wijk aan Zee 2015) is well-known. Viswanathan Anand playing white beat Levon Aronian in the first round of the 2014 Candidates after 13.-Nf6. Immediately afterwards, a new idea was found. A year later, one of the best prepared players in the world fell for it.

Play continued 13.- Nf4 14.Nf3 Nxg2! This move was suggested in Jan 2014 and it has been played at least twice in GM games. 15.Kxg2 a5! 16.Rxe7 Qxe7 Or 16.a4 Ra6 17.Qe2 Rg6+ 18.Kh2 Bd6 19.Nh4 Bxe5+ 20.Qxe5 Re8 Gulyiev-Gustafsson, 2014.

So won efficiently with 17.c3 Ra6 18.d4 Rf6 19.d5 a4 20.Bc2 Rd8 21.Qe1 Qd7 22.Ng5 h6 23.Ne4 Rg6+ 24.Kh2 f5 25.Ng3 Qxd5 26.Qg1 Qf3 (0-1) The threats are Rxg3, Qe2 or 27.Be3 Qxe3! 28.fxe3 Rd2+. One intriguing point: What if Aronian had found Nf4xg2? Would Anand still have won the Candidates?

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player