Chess (#1181)

The last big event of 2015, the Qatar Masters ended in a triumph for Magnus Carlsen. Carlsen had to beat the 2014 champion, Yu Yangyi , in a tie-breaker. He did so without sweating much. Yu may have been tired after winning a long endgame in the last round against Wesley So whereas Carlsen had a quick, ,mildly disappointing draw against Vladimir Kramnik.

Carlsen and Yu scored 7 points (Carlsen won the tiebreak 2-0). Kramnik, Sanan Sjugirov, Sergey Karjakin, Vassily Ivanchuk and Ni Hua tied for 3-7 with 6.5 each. The next tie was for 8-17 with 6 each. This included Surya Ganguly, Pendyala Harikrishna and S P Sethuraman. Of the large Indian contingent, IMs Shardul Gagare and N R Vignesh will be very happy since they both scored GM norms as did the Chinese prodigy, Xu Yinglun.

In hindsight, Carlsen's inexhaustible energy and will to win are ideal attributes for an "open" player. The old taboo against top players playing opens has broken in the recent past. Practically all the big guns are playing or committed to play Opens soon. Obviously if the money is reasonable, super GMs will play.

Delhi host the 14th edition of the International Open from January 09, with a total fund of Euro 48,000 on offer including sectional prizes. The entry count is over 700 already.

In 2016, there could be key changes in the organisation of the chess world. US sanctions against Kirsan Ilyumzhinov may loosen his grip on Fide. Fide has handed over marketing for the title cycle, to Agon, which did a good job with the World Blitz and Rapids in Berlin. But Kirsan might in general, be less visible through the next cycle.

Finally, it is a question of somebody coming up with the funding and that sponsorship could be hard to come by, given global conditions. There is talk of the next title match being in the US (perhaps with Rex Sinquefield as a key sponsor) and that would mean Kirsan taking a backseat unless his problems with the US Treasury Dept are sorted out. However, the location of the title match may well depend on the nationality of the challenger. If it's not either of the Americans, Fabiano Caruana or Hikaru Nakamura, the location could be very much up for grabs. These are all imponderables really so let me wish readers a happy 2016 and here's to lots of great chess!

The diagram, BLACK TO PLAY, leads to a nice finish from one of India's most entertaining tacticians (White: K Praneeth Surya Vs Black: Rathnakaran K, National Premier 2015)

Black breaks in with 27.- hxg3 28.fxg3 Be3+! 29.Nf2 Nf5 30.h4 Nxg3! 31.Nxe3 Qxh4 32.Nexg4 Ne4 33.Kf1 Qh1+! (0-1). Nice geometric patterns.

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player