CHESS#1281

Viswanathan Anand ended 2017 on a high note, winning the world rapid championship in Riyadh. It was a fantastic result since he celebrated his 48th birthday earlier this month. The King Salman World Speed Championships will be mostly remembered for the massive controversy Fide caused by choosing the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to host (the World Speed Championships have been awarded to KSA for the next two years). 

Many strong players, including the big guns of the US (Wesley So, Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana) and defending champion Anna Muzychuk boycotted, expressing their disapproval of the KSA's sharia law and poor human rights record. The Israelis were denied visas, so were the Iranians. However, women played, wearing normal clothes, at the same venue as the men. By local standards, this is a huge advance.  

The field was pretty strong despite the boycott, including Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian, Vassily Ivanchuk, Alexander Grischuk and Sergei Karjakin. Anand started as the 12th seed. He played very pragmatically, taking many short draws, and winning every time he had to. His play was tactically aware and he didn't ever seem to be in trouble. He was cold-blooded enough to take a short last-round draw because he had the best tiebreak, leaving the onus on Carlsen, Peter Svidler and the others to try and overhaul him.  

Anand scored 10.5 (6 wins, 9 draws) to tie for first-third with the young Russians, Vladimir Fedoseev and Ian Nepomniachtchi (both 10.5). Then he beat Fedoseev 1.5-0.5 in a tiebreak to clinch the title. Along the way, Anand also beat Carlsen and Alexander Grischuk, while drawing Fedoseev and Nepo. 

Carlsen (10) who was, of course, the hot favourite, lost a critical last-rounder to Grischuk (10) and shared 4th-10th. P Harikrishna (9.5) was in the next group while Vidit Gujrathi (8) started well but faded. The World Blitz follows immediately on the heels of the Rapids. 

In the women's event, Ju Wenjun (11.5) won ahead of her compatriot Lie Tienjie (11). Harika Dronavalli (9) was in the leaders’ group until the last three rounds. But she scored only 0.5/3 in the last three. Padmini Rout also scored 9. 

The diagram, WHITE TO PLAY ( White: Carlsen Vs Black: Anand, FIDE World Rapid-ch 2017) is a critical position against the world champion. White must counter the threat of a5. 

Carlsen played 28.Ne6! Nxc1 29.Rxc1 Nc8! Returns the exchange. Now 30. Nxg7? Qxb4 wins Play continued 30.Qxb5 Rxd5 31.Bxd5 Rxd5 32.Qb4 Nd6 33.Nc5? The only good move is 33. Nf4 Rb5 which is about equal. Both Anand and Carlsen initially thought the following is drawn. 33.— Rxc5! 34.Qxc5 Qe4! (0-1). Now 35. Kf1 Qh1+ 36. Ke2 Bf3+ 37. Kd2 Ne4+ 38. Kc2 Qxc1+ is a forced win.   
 

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player