Chess (#1134)

Irish GM Danny Gormally is one of many players wondering if a certain 15-year-old will be the next world champion - a speculation that may seem insane at first glance. Magnus Carlsen is only 24; he has by far, the highest rating ever and he appears dominant in his age-cohort even if he is hotly pursued by by Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Aneesh Giri, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Hikaru Nakamura.

There are fair chances Carlsen will only be beaten in a title match by a challenger who is significantly younger. Chinese prodigy Wei Yi fits the bill. Wei is four months short of his 16th birthday. He has just pushed his Elo above the magical 2700 mark with a splendid win at the Tata Steel challengers and a solid shared third at the Gibraltar Masters. Wei won the TataSteel B with 10.5 points from 13 games and tied for 3-11 with 7.5 from 10 at Gibraltar.

Carlsen was four months short of his 17th birthday when he first crossed 2700. Beating that record by 12 months as Wei has done, is truly impressive. Incidentally his compatriot, Hou Yifan, pushed past the retired Judit Polgar and became number 1 on the women's list. Hou also scored 7.5 at Gibraltar. Nakamura won with a commanding 8.5, and David Howell was second with 8. Nikita Vituigov, Vaselin Topalov, P Harikrishna, Baskaran Adhiban, Maxim Matlakov and Axel Bachmann also scored 7.5. Padmini Rout came second among the women and won a GM norm.

Meanwhile, unexpected things happened at the Grenke Classic in Baden-Baden. Carlsen played uncharacteristically aggressively against Arkady Naiditsch, who logged a second successive head-to-head victory against the world champion (the last time was at the Olympiad). Carlsen tweeted a #funfact "That's my fourth third-round loss in a row". Naiditsch and Caruana lead with 2/3 each. Carlsen, Anand, Michael Adams, Etienne Bacrot are all on 1.5. Levon Aronian shares last place with David Baramidze (both 1).

THE DIAGRAM, WHITE TO PLAY, (White: Wei Yi Vs Black: Erwin L'Ami, Tata Steel B, Wijk aan Zee 2015) is an illuminating example of Wei's strength.

White played 16.g3! g6 Obviously 16...Nxh3+ 17.Kg2 traps the Kt but 16...Bxf5 17.exf5 Nxh3+ 18.Kg2 Nxf2 19.Qh5! Qf6 20.Bxg5 Qxf5 21.Rh1 Nxh1 22.Rxh1 Qe4+ 23.Kf1 Qb1+ 24.Ke2 Qxh1 25.Qxh1 is one line Wei demonstrated.

Play continued 17.gxf4 gxf4. Another deadly line is 17.- gxf5 18. Qh5 Qf6 19. fxe5 dxe5 20. Bxg5 Qg7 21 Kh1. Now white just wins on material after breaking the "attack" 18.dxe5 Qg5+ 19.Kh1 Bxf5 20.exf5 Bxf2 21.Rf1 Bg3 22.exd6 Qxf5 23.Qg4! Qxg4 24.hxg4 g5 25.dxc7 Rac8 26.Bd2 Kg7 27.Kg2 Rfe8 28.Bd1 Rxc7 29.Bf3 Rce7 30.Rad1 Kg6 31.c4 f5 32.Bc3 Re2+ 33.Kg1! (1-0). The young man doesn't lack either courage or self-confidence.

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player