CHESS#1271

The proliferation of big, high prize money Opens in the last couple of years has led to “democratisation”. Earlier, there was a caste divide. The elite played round robins where they got appearance fees and the certainty of meeting high-rated opposition, and hence did not risk much Elo on a poor result. The lower-rated had a hard time meeting the elite and getting invites to round robins. So they played Opens.

In the past two years, higher prize money and decent conditions have led to the elite playing Opens too. Gibraltar, the events in the Gulf and the Isle of Man (which is sponsored by the website Chess.com), the European Individual, et cetera, have all seen strong top-20 participation.

Magnus Carlsen zipped through this Isle of Man Open, scoring 7.5 from nine games for a 2900-plus performance. He was in superb form and demolished co-leader Pavel Eljanov in a key game and then blew Fabiano Caruana away. However, the world champion dropped draws to Vidit Gujrathi and Rustam Kasimdzhanov and allowed a “book draw” in the final round versus Hikaru Nakamura (7) to ensure that he couldn’t be caught.  

Nakamura was also unbeaten and tied for second-third with Viswanathan Anand (7). Gujrathi (6.5) and Swapnil Dhopade (6.5) were in the group that tied for 4th-10th. The 16-year-old IM Harsha Bharatakoti (5) played nine GMs in a row and may have made a GM norm. 

Anand dropped an early draw to IM Jonas Lampert, but wins in the last two rounds, against Laurent Fressinet and Hou Yifan, guaranteed a high spot. Gujrathi beat lower-rated players while drawing with Eljanov and Carlsen. 

Vladimir Kramnik finished tied for fourth but he started horribly with losses against Caruana and James Tarjan. This effectively knocks him out of the Candidates. Caruana and Wesley So now have far higher average ratings across 2017 with few events to come. 

In THE DIAGRAM, BLACK TO PLAY (White Caruana Vs Black: Carlsen, Isle of Man Open, 2017)  white looks slightly better with more space. Black’s Knights and Ba7 seem off-side. In reality, black’s about to unleash a strong attack. It’s instructive watching the pieces uncoil. 
 

Play went 26.— d5! 27.Re1 Bb8 28.exd5 Bxd5 29.Bf5 Rc6 30.Qa3 Nb7. Amazingly black’s winning. White’s kingside is full of holes and the Rc6, Bb8 and Nh7 are set to launch. White’s queen is off-side and hard to pull back into action. 

The game continued 31.Rad1 exd4 32.Bxd4 Ng5! 33.c4 Rxe1+ 34.Rxe1 Be6. The best defence may be 35. Bxe6 Rxe6 36. Rxe6 Nxe6 37. Be3 Bxg3 38. fxg3 Qc7 which loses anyhow. But white fell for a fantastic finish 35.Qe3? Bf4!! (0-1) Work out the forks with Nxh3/ Nxf3 and Bxd2 — it’s a good exercise. 
 

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player