CHESS #1372

There are two rounds to go at the World Youth Championships in Mumbai and it’s impossible to call the winners in any section. In the U-18 Open, R Praggnanandhaa (7.5/9) has a narrow lead over Shant Sargsyan (7), with Aryan Gholami, Aditya Mittal and Mitrabha Guha (all 6.5) in striking distance. In the Under-16 Opens, Aronyak Ghosh, Hans Niemann and Rudik Madaryan (7 points each) are tied. Aydin Suleymanli (7.5) is the sole leader in the U-14 Open. He’s half-a-point ahead of R Abhinandan and L Srihari (both 7).

Polina Shuvalova (7) leads the U-18 Girls with a group of four, including Vantika Agrawal, on 6.5. Eline Roebers (7.5) leads the U-14 Girls, followed by Bat-Erdene Mungunzul and Ayan Allahverdiyeva (7 each). There are two co-leaders in U-16 Girls in Nurgali Nazerke and Leya Garifullina (7.5 each). 

From the Indian perspective, it would be terrific if Pragg carries on to bag the U-18. He would be among the youngest to have ever taken that title. Ghosh has a good chance, too. Abinandan is absurdly under-rated at below 2,000ElO — he's been performing at 2,600. 

The Grand Fide Swiss Open has just kicked off at the Isle of Man. The total price fund for the 11 Round Swiss is USD $432,500 equivalent. The winner gets $70,000 with prizes till 30th, plus special awards for women. However, the big deal is that there is at least one Candidates place for the highest-placed player, who isn't already qualified for the cycle. Teimour Radjabov, of course, has already sealed one Candidates spot by beating Ding Liren in the World Cup finals in a blitz tiebreak. Ding also qualified for the Candidates. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave took the third spot, beating Yu Yangyi. 

Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana are playing at the IoM and both are already in the title cycle. So that Candidates spot could go to the third seed, Wesley So, or any of the other 20-odd competitors in the 2,700-plus range. There's a huge Indian contingent, including Viswanathan Anand, Pentala Harikrishna, Vidit Gujrathi, Krishnan Sasikiran and others, including prodigy, Nihal Sarin, who opted for this rather than the World Youth. 

The Diagram, White to Play (White: Abinandan Vs Black: Andrey Tsvetkov, U-14 World Championship, 2019) is the set up for an unusual attack. White played 21. Bd7! Rd8 22. Nh3! Ndf5! [The Nh3-g5 path is cleared by the Bishop-sac. Black hits Qh6 and Rf6 in return] 
 

White continued 23. R6xf5 gxf5? [23.-Qg7! Defends] 24. ef5! f6 [forced to stop white playing f6] 25. Be6+ Kh8 26. Nf4! Rg8 27. Nh5 Qe5 28. Nxf6 Rg7 29. Nh5 Rf8 30.f6 Rgf7 31. Bxf7 Rxf7 32. Qg7+! Rxg7 33. fxg7+ Qxg7 34. Nxg7 Kxg7 and white won (1-0, 61 moves).

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player