CHESS#1245

The Shenzhen Masters is a very strong, very even-rated, six-player double round robin. Top seed Anish Giri is rated at 2769, while Peter Svidler is the lowest-rated at 2741. Ding Liren leads with 4.5 from seven games. Giri is in second place with 4. Peter Svidler and P Harikrishna share 3rd-4th with 3.5 each, while Michael Adams (2.5) and Yu Yangyi (3) are trailing.  

In the Sharjah Masters, Wang Hao and Martin Kravtsiv share the lead with 6 each after seven rounds. There are 12 players sharing third spot on 5.5 — that list includes Baskaran Adhiban and S P Sethuraman. Slightly lower down, 24-year-old Srinath Narayanan (5) has just clinched his GM-title. Srinath had five (!) GM norms  going into Sharjah but he had to pull his rating above 2500 to complete rating requirements. He is India’s 46th GM.  With two rounds to go, it’s very much wide-open. 

The US Championships have just started and it’s incredibly strong. The 12-player round robin includes World #2 Wesley So (2822), #3 Fabiano Caruana (2817) and #6 Hikaru Nakamura (2793). The fourth seed is Jeffery Xiong who’s hacked his way to 2674 at the age of 16. He’s followed by Sam Shankland, Aklex Onsichuk, Ray Robson, Gata Kamsky, et cetera. They’re all naturally combative and there’s decent money at stake. 

There’s a lot of gossip about a possible coup in Fide. On March 26, 2017, after a board meeting in Athens, the Fide website said, “Kirsan Ilyumzhinov announced his resignation from the position of FIDE President.” But there was an instant denial from Ilyumzhinov. “They wanted to oust me, but they could not pull it off.”  

Illyumzhinov has been under pressure to step down ever since he was sanctioned by the USA in 2015 for his links to a bank alleged to have helped Bashar al-Assad of Syria to launder money. Georgios Makropoulos, the deputy president of FIDE, has been effectively managing most executive duties. “Makro” is a long-time Illyumzhinov loyalist and has been his deputy for 20-odd years. But he’s just written an open letter alleging that Illyumzhinov threatened to resign multiple times.   

The Diagram, White to Play, White: Sargissian Vs Black: Narayanan, Srinath, Sharjah 2017, a key game for Srinath. White played 11.e4 Nxe4 12.Bxe7 Qxe7 13.Nxe4 dxe4 14.Bxe4 f6?  White now plays 15.Ng6! hxg6 16.Bxg6 Qe6 17.Qh5 Rd8 [A vital defensive idea is 18. Qh7+ Kf8 19. Qh8 Qg8 — the black Queen is tied to g8]  

Black had missed 18.d5! [ This exploits the g8 tie- if 18. — Qxd5 19. Qh7+ Kf8 20. Rad1!]  After the forced 18. — Rxd5 19.Qh7+ Kf8 20.Rae1 Re5 21.Rxe5 fxe5,  White has a winning attack with 22. f4!. But he played 22.Rd1? Nd7. Now black’s winning but with both players short of time, black offered a draw. (½-½)
 

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player