CHESS#1277

There are now two Norwegian world champions. Aryan Tari tied for first — third in the World Juniors. Tari, Manuel Petrosian (silver) and Aravindh Chithambaram (bronze) all scored 8.5 from 11 rounds but Tari had, by far, the best tiebreak. Aravindh started with a first-round loss and logged a three win finish.
 
The bittersweet performance came from R Praggnanandhaa who finished fourth (8/11) unbeaten. Pragga was in contention for first place all through. That would have been an incredible feat for the 12-year-old, and it would have meant a direct GM title.
 
Pragga took draws, in a very good position against Kirill Alekseenko and in a won position against Semen Lomasov. He was down to zero on the clock. His time-management was, in one word, horrible. In most games, he was relying on the 30 seconds move increment by move 30. This is one habit he absolutely has to break. Murali Karthikeyan (8) was seventh. The talented Sunilduth Narayanan (7) started reasonably but faded after a loss to Pragga.

 

In the Women’s, Zhansaya Abdumalik of Kazakhstan (9.5/11) took gold — she had won silver in 2016. Anastasya Paramzina of Russia (8.5) won silver and Jennifer Wu of the US (8 pts) took bronze.  Aakanksha Hagawane (7) and R Vaishali (6.5) had lacklustre finishes after starting well.
 
The big talking point at the Palma Grand Prix was the possibility that either (or both) Teimour Radjabov or Maxime Vachier-Lagrave would qualify for the Candidates. Both were in with a chance if they managed a last round win. Neither did. MVL took huge risks against  Dmitry Jakovenko and lost, while Radjabov never looked like getting on top of Richard Rapport. Jakovenko shared first-second with Levon Aronian (both 5.5) while Radjabov (5) shared third with several others including Harikrishna.

 
So, Alexander Grischuk and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov take those two slots. The complete list is Sergey Karjakin, Levon Aronian, Ding Liren, Mamedaryov, Grischuk, Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So and Vladimir Kramnik.
 
At the DIAGRAM, WHITE TO PLAY (White: Praggnanandhaa Vs Black: Lomasov, World Juniors 2017), White can win by 49.Qd6+ Kf7 50.Qc7+ Kg6 51.Rb7 Qxb7 52.Qxb7 c2 53.Qxc6+ Kh7 54.Qb7+ Kg6 55.Qb2 Rc4 56.Qc1 Rxc5 57.h3 Rc4 58.Kf1 Kf5 59.Ke1 h5 60.Kd2 Rd4+ 61.Ke3 Rc4 62.Kd3 Ke5 63.Qxc2 — black must give the queen to stop mate. Then white blocks c-pawn and counter-sacrifices for a won pawn ending.
 
In massive time trouble, White played the pragmatic 49.Qxc3 Qe8 50.e3? [50. Rb7! Qg8 51. Qc2+ Re4 52. f3 wins easily] It’s still winning after 50.- Rc4 51.Qa5 Qe4 52.Ra1 Qe7 53.Qa8 Rxc5 54.h3! Qe6 55.Qf8 Qf6 56.Qg8+ Qg7 57.Qe6+ Qf6 58.Qg8+ Qg7 59.Qe6+ Qf6 60.Qg8+ (½–½)  Instead of repeating, 59. Qa8 with 60. Ra7 still wins easily.  Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player