Chess (#1141)

Round three has just concluded in the women's world championship and there are only eight players left in the running. Two of them are Indians. Top seed Koneru Humpy has won all six of her games. Dronavalli Harika had to graft a third round win against former world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk in a tiebreaker after they had split wins under the normal control.

The other players left in contention include the Muzychuk sisters, Anna and Mariya, Natalia Pogonina, Meri Arabidze, Zhao Xue and Pia Cramling. The winner will claim the title of world champion but the current world champion, Hou Yifan, has the right to a title match. Hou would be hot favourite against any possible winner of this event.

Meanwhile the Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy, or DCBA, concluded its second international open in Kolkata. The DBCA open saw local hero Surya Sekhar Ganguly winning with 7.5 from 9 games, ahead of a pack of Nigel Short, Lu Shanglei, Deep Sengupta and Sandipan Chanda (all 7 ). There was a decent prize fund with first prize being worth Rs 2 lakh.

Meanwhile, there are strong rumours, sparked by an article from former The New York Times correspondent Dylan Loeb McClain that the US Federation is trying to persuade world #2 Fabiano Caruana of Italy to return to his birth-country. The US has two top ten players in world #3 Hikaru Nakamura (who is America-born), while the erstwhile Filipino star, #7 Wesley So, has transferred allegiance.

Millionaire Rex Sinquefield is said to be bankrolling the ghar wapsi efforts to bring Caruana back. But Azerbaijan's oil company, Socar, made a competing offer to tempt him to move to the Caspian republic. Caruana sticks with Italy and he holds dual citizenship of the US and Italy. Under Fide's rules, however, he could still play for Azerbaijan with a transfer fee to accelerate change of federation.

The DIAGRAM, WHITE TO PLAY, (Gunina Vs Girya, WCh Women Rd 2.1 2015 Sochi) indicates how a sharp sacrificial attack can turn the tables. Black is a bit better, and White decides to blow things up.

28.Nxg6!? fxg6 29.Rd6! Bxd6? Best defence is 29...Qc7! 30.Qxe6+ Kf8 31.Rxa6 Re5 32.Qxc8 Qxc8 33. Ra8 Qxa8 34. Bxa8 b4 and black's piece may be worth more than the three pawns.  

30.Qxe6+ Kh7 31.Rxd6 Rc1+?

White has an edge with queens on because of the exposed king after 31...Qc7 32.Qxf6 Qg7 33.Qe6 Rc1+ 34.Kh2 R1c7 35.Rxa6. But the rook check loses outright.  

32.Kh2 Qc7 33.Qxf6 Rc2 if 33. --Qg7 34. Qh4 + Kg8 35. Bd5+ or 33.--Rg8 34. Bd5. White has material plus attack. The game finished 34.Qxg6+ Kh8 35.Qh5+ Kg8 36.Bd5+ Kg7 37.Qh6#

1-0.

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player