Chess (#1140)

The women's world championship has started in Sochi. There was some confusion about the format and sponsorship and the rumour mill says that the Russian federation had to step in. It's a knockout with 64 players and mini matches of two games until the finals which is a scheduled 4-gamer. As always, tie breaks will be at accelerated pace.

Hou Yifan, the reigning champion, has decided to skip - she has the right to play the winner since she won the Grand Prix. So there will be a new world champion (or a former champ will regain her title) regardless, followed by a title match versus Hou.  

Hou is the undisputed women's world no1 with an Elo rating that is more than 100 points higher than #2 Koneru Humpy's. In the last rating list, Hou overtook Judit Polgar and at 2686, the 21-year-old could well go on to emulate the great Hungarian and crack the Top Ten.

Knockouts are lotteries. But Humpy is top-seeded and she must be hoping to go the distance. The world #14 Dronavalli Harika will also be looking for a strong outing. Other highly favoured players include Alexandra Kosteniuk, Anna Ushenina, Antoaneta Stefanova, Valentina Gunina, Jun Wenjun and the Kosintseva and Muzychuk sisters, Anna and Mariya.

Meanwhile Erwin L'Ami won the Reykjavik Open with 8.5 from 10 rounds despite a last round loss to Pavel Eljanov (8) who shared second with Fabien Libiszewski (8). Abhijeet Gupta (7.5) was part of a big tie for third place. The Dutch GM performed well above expectations, given that he was seeded 11th behind players of the calibre of Shakhriyar Mamedaryov, Eljanov and David Navara. Meanwhile, In Kolkata, the International Open is into Round 3 and Nigel Short, Suryasekhar Ganguly, N. Srinath and Petr Kostenko lead with 3 each.

The DIAGRAM, (L'Ami VS Mamedyarov, Reykjavik Open 2015)  WHITE TO PLAY, looks mildly pleasant for white, who has a little more space and better coordination. In fact, white wins inside five moves!

The game went 17.Qxd4 Bxd4 The problems are obvious if 17...Nxd4 18.Nxe4 Rxe4 19.Rd2! when Nf4 hitting e4, h3 is a threat. 18.Rxd4!  Nxd4 19.Nf4!?  Excellent exchange sacrifice and now - e4,d4,h3 hang. The engines say 19. Nd5 is stronger and of course, they're right.

Black missed his only chance, with 19...Ng5? The defence is 19...Nxc3 20.Bxc3 g5! The tactical trick of 21. Nxh3? Nxe2+ forces 21.Bxd4 gxf4 22.Bxb7.  White is better but a 2750 player of Shakh's class might hold.  

The game ended abruptly with 20.Nxh3 Nxh3+ 21.Kf1 1-0. Early resignation at first glance but Bb7, Ne4 are deadly threats. Say, 21.- c6 22. Ne4! hitting f6,d6,d4. Or 21. - Nc6 22. Nd5 Rec8 23. f4 traps the Kt-h3.

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player