Chess (#1146)

Magnus Calrsen was fantastic at the Gashimov Memorial in Shamkir, winning it for the second time. He scored 7 (+5,=4) from 9 for a tournament performance rating (TPR) of 2981. Viswanathan Anand took clear second with 6 (+3,=6)  and a TPR of 2892. The Indian GM will rise to #2 in the next world rating list.

Carlsen won by a clear margin and he needed a little luck only in Game 1 when he held an inferior position against Anand. Anand found a sequence of creative sacrifices. He beat Wesley So with a knight offer, Michael Adams with an exchange sacrifice and Shakhriyar Mamedaryov with another exchange sacrifice. Fabiano Caruana and So both scored plus one (5 each).

Vladimir Kramnik, Aneesh Giri, Adams, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Mamedaryov and Rauf Mamedov all had minus scores.

The Kasparov-Short exhibition match in St Louis turned into butchery. The former world champion led 3.5-1.5 on day one. He converted it into 8.5-1.5 with a 5-0 slaughter on day two (Nigel Short drew one rapid and won one blitz game). Short is ranked #64 (Elo 2678) and is, two years younger than Garry Kasparov, who retired 10 years ago.

Incremental controls are common nowadays and a fast player can accumulate time surpluses by playing fast in an increment. But the Kasparov-Short match used a "delay control" where the clock started with a preset delay (3 seconds) after each move. Here accumulation was impossible.

There was also the announcement of a new "Grand Chess Tour" circuit with three super tournaments in Norway, St. Louis and London. Nine top GMs - Carlsen, Anand, Caruana, Alexander Grischuk, Veselin Topalov, Levon Aronian, Giri, Hikaru Nakamura, Vachier-Lagrave - and one wild card will play each event. Each event has an individual fund of $300,000, with points tallied for an overall fund of $150,000. The overall champion will receive an additional $75,000.

The DIAGRAM, WHITE TO PLAY (White: Anand Vs Black: So, Gashimov Mem 2015) was the set up for a surprise. 14.f4!? hxg5 If 14...exf4 15. Nf3 is King's Gambit style or maybe 15. Nxf7. After So takes the piece, play is more or less forced. White gets back material with an initiative after 15.fxg5 Ng4 16.g6 Bg5!? 17.h3! Bxc1 18.Raxc1 Nh6 19.Qh5! Be6 20.Bxe6 fxe6 21.g4 c6 Anand said 21. - Rf4 is better.

White continued 22.Rxf8+ Qxf8 23.Rf1 Qe7 24.g5 Rf8 25.gxh6 Rxf1+ 26.Kxf1 Qf8+ 27.Ke2! gxh6 28.Qg4 Qf6 29.h4 d5 30.h5 d4 31.b4! Kg7  This is clearly winning. White will walk in and exchange queens. He played 32.Qf3 Qe7 33.Kd1 Kg8 34.Qf2 Kg7 35.c3 dxc3 36.Kc2 Qc7 37.Qc5 Kg8 38.Qe3 a5 39.Qh3 axb4 40.Qxe6+ Kf8 41.axb4 Qa7 42.Kxc3 Qa3+ 43.Kc2 Qa4+ 44.Qb3 Qa7 45.d4 (1-0). White can force a winning ending with 45.- cxd4 46. Kd3 Qc7 47. Qf7+

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player