CHESS#1324

The Isle of Man Chess is a "Super Open", with a prize fund good enough to attract Super-GM participation. This kind of event allows young hopefuls (and rank amateurs) a shot at playing the stars. These events tend to be replete with upsets.
 
A Swiss Open requires different types of prep and mindset, compared to round robins. There's little time for specific preparation against a given opponent, and there is pressure to win every game, with both colours.
 
A hungry, talented kid with a database and a couple of engines can be a very unpleasant opponent. For that matter, a 2575 "Tourist", as Garry Kasparov once referred to working-class GMs, could be a hard nut to crack because the strength difference isn't that much. Everybody knows the repertoire of a top 2700-Elo GM, while an untitled 15-year-old, 2450 player is a surprise package.

 

The IoM has an odd provision where players can take a bye (obtain a free half-point) in the middle rounds. Early-round byes for strong players is common enough to adjust for vagaries of travel schedules but mid-round byes are unusual.
 
Plenty of upsets have happened at IoM, where over 20 Super GMs, including two former world champions are heading a 165-player field. There's a huge Indian contingent led by super GMs Viswanathan Anand and Vidit Gujrathi.
 
R Praggnanaandha took out Pavel Eljanov, while Anand and Levon Aronian survived lost positions against Raunak Sadhwani and Dennis Wagner. After five rounds, the lead is shared by Wang Hao, Arkady Naiditsch, Jeffery Xiong and Abhijeet Gupta (all 4.5). Gupta has won his last two games against Le Quang Liem and Gujrathi to jump into shared first.

 
The Annual China-India Summit match went well for the Indians. It was hosted by the Kalinga Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar. The Indians won the four-board, eight-round match very narrowly, by 9-7. India won two of the rounds, lost one, and five rounds were drawn. The Chinese actually won more games! The Indian team collected Rs 600,000, while the Chinese received Rs 400,000. The sponsors included the Department of Sports & Youth Services, Government of Odisha.
 
At the Diagram, Black to Play (White: Praggnanandhaa, R Vs Black: Eljanov, Isle of Man, 2018), black can play 28...Rxd1+ 29.Rxd1 with a pawn up and a probable win. He chose 28...Ne3? 29.Rxd7! Nxg2 30.Ne7+ Kf8 31.Nxc8 Qxh6. This is very unclear.  

Play continued 32.Rf1 Nf4 33.Nd6 g5 34.Nxf7 Qg7 35.Rd8+ Ke7 36.Ra8 Qxf7 37.Ra7+ Kf8 38.Rxf7+ Kxf7 39.b3 h5 40.c4 bxc4 41.bxc4 h4. White has an edge — the rook can hold the passers and cut off the king.  Play continued 42.c5 Ke7 43.Rd1! h3 44.c6 Nd5 45.Rg1! h2 46.Rh1 Nb4 47.c7 Kd7 48.Rxh2 Kxc7 49.Rh6 Kd7 50.Rg6 a5 51.Rxg5 (White won, 1-0, 64 moves).

 Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player