Chess (#1197)

Two big tournaments are running concurrently. One is the Norway Altibox Super GM, which features 20 players with an average rating of 2770. The other is the US Championships, which is weaker only in comparison, with a 2656 average.

However, Norway is more even with only Nils Grandelius (2637) rated lower than 2700 in a field led by the world champion, Magnus Carlsen. The US championships features three top 10 players in Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So, but the rest of the 12-player field is rated under 2700.

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Actually there's a question mark over the Norway rating average. Ukrainian GM Pavel Eljanov was last rated 2760 but he suddenly had his name pulled off the rating list. The Ukrainian Federation is locked in a dispute with Fide over the payment of fees for the recently concluded women's title match in Lviv.

Fide decided to "suspend" ratings of Ukrainian players. The currently "unlisted" players include luminaries such as Eljanov, Ruslan Ponomariov, Vassily Ivanchuk, Mariya Muzychuk, Anna Muzychuk, Anton Korobov, et cetera. But the Muzychuk sisters are playing in the official Fide Grand Prix at Batumi (Georgia) where they are being rated as per their last ratings so Eljanov will probably be given that consideration.

Norway has seen Carlsen, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Vladimir Kramnik sharing the lead with 1.5 points after 2 rounds. Carlsen beat Pendyala Harikirishna in the first round, Kramnik beat Grandelius, and Vachier-Lagrave beat Anish Giri in Round 2. Giri had earlier beaten Eljanov. All the decisive games have been sparkling efforts. The US Championships has Caruana and So sharing the lead with 4 points each after 5 rounds. Ray Robson is 3.5 and Nakamura is one of several players on 3. Caruana beat Nakamura and So-Caruana was drawn.

Meanwhile, Surya Sekhar Ganguly has won the Bangkok Open. Loek Van Wely started with 5/5 but Ganguly beat Van Wely in the final round to tie for first with Francisco Vallejo Pons (both 7.5/9). The Kolkata-based GM had the better tiebreak. The Indian representatives at the Asian Youth Championships in Ulaan Bataar bagged eight medals. Divya Deshmukh, Praggnanandhaa R, and Anwesha Mishra won golds. Harshita Guddanti and Iniyan got silvers, while Khushi Khandelwal, Aditya Mittal and Vaishali R scored bronzes.

The diagram, White to Play, ( White: Wesley So Vs Black: Akobian, Varuzhan, US Chps 2016) was the set up for an unusual combination. White can try 20. Qd2 (threat Qxh6) Kf8 21. Rxg7. Instead, So played 20.Nxf7!! Kxf7 21.Rxg7+! Kxg7 22.Qxe6 and there's no defence. If 22.-- Re8 23. Qf5 Kf8 24. Bxf6 or 22.--Rd7 23. Rg1+ . Black gave up with 22...Qxf2 23.Qxe7+ Kg8 24.Bh7+ (1-0). Either its mate on g7 or 24.-- Kh8 25. Bxf6+ Qxf6 26 Qxf6 Kxh7 27. Rxd8.
Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player