CHESS#1262

There’s a surprising development in the World Cup (WC) that starts in Tbilisi, Georgia on September 2. As always, the WC is a 128-player knockout with mini-matches. The two finalists qualify for the Candidates (last time Sergey Karjakin beat Peter Svidler in an epic). However, this time Magnus Carlsen has decided to play.

Knockouts are always more uncertain than round robins and upsets are guaranteed. But if Carlsen does make the final, the Candidates spot would be occupied by the third-placed player in the Grand Prix (where the first two qualify under original stipulations). 

Carlsen is known to be a fan of the knockout format, and he’s never won the WC. Since the 18 top-rated players in the world are automatic WC qualifiers, he can claim a slot by right, and anyway, who would refuse the world champion a spot if he wants it? 

India has a fairly large contingent for the WC. Viswanathan Anand and P Harikrishna are automatic qualifiers. Other India qualifiers include S Sethuraman, Deep Sengupta, Murali Karthikeyan, Vidit Gujrathi and Baskaran Adhiban. 

Meanwhile, Dortmund ended with Radek Wojtaszek winning with 4.5 points from 7 games. Vladimir Fedoseev and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave tied for second with 4 each. Top seed Vladimir Kramnik (3.5) scored a last-round win to move to 50 per cent after starting with a loss against Fedoseev. The other four, Matthias Bluebaum, Dmitry Andreikin, Dieter Nisipeanu, Wang Yue, all scored 3.

The Biel Festival is on and the trio of Ruslan Ponomariov, Hou Yifan and Etienne Bacrot share first spot with 2 points each after three rounds. The Sinquefield Cup begins next week and fans are eagerly awaiting the return of Garry Kasparov. The 54-year-old former champion did well last year in an exhibition event but he’s playing this time in the competitive rapid and blitz events. The field for the classical event is formidable, including Carlsen, Wesley So, Hikaru Nakamura, Anand, Vachier Lagrave, Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian and Peter Svidler. The rapid is graced by Caruana, Sergey Karjakin, Nakamura, Anand, Aronian, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Lenier Dominguez, David Navara and Le Quang Liem.  

The Diagram, BLACK TO PLAY (White: Oparin Vs Black: Matlakov, Russian Higher League 2017) illustrates a very creative attacking idea. The engines suggest 12. — h4 or Be6 but Matlakov played 12.— g3!?  13.Nxg3 Bg4 14.Qc2 h4 15.Nf1 Rg8. Now White needs to go 16. Be3 though black has clear compensation.

White played 16.Ne3 ? Bf3! 17.Kf1 Bxe3 18.gxf3 Bxc1 19.Nxc1 Nh5. The Kt is now an octopus. The game continued 20.Ke2 Qf6 21.Kd1 Rg2 22.h3 Qxf3+ 23.Qe2 Rxf2 24.Qxf3 Rxf3 25.Ne2 Na5 26.Bd5 Rxd3+ 27.Kc2 Rxh3 Black played inaccurately after this but he did enough to win (0–1, 45 moves). 
 

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player