Chess #640

Dmitry Andreikin and Anna Muzychuk won the World Junior Championships in Chotova, Poland. The top-seeded Russian Andreikin, who is rated 2650 didn’t have everything his own way. His younger (1993-born) compatriot Sanan Sjugirov (2610) scored the same points (10 from 13 rounds) but Andreikin had the better tie-break. Bronze went to Darius Swiercz (Poland). India’s best placed performer, Parimarjan Negi, tied for 7th-16th.

In the girl’s section, Muzychuk (Slovenia) managed 11 from 13 while Olga Giriya (Russia) took silver with 10.5. India’s Padmini Rout took bronze on 10 points. Fifth place went to Bhakti Kulkarni. So the performance on the distaff side was definitely superior for the Indians.

The event was weaker than it could have been because several top juniors preferred to play the traditional Experience Vs Rising Stars NIH match in Amsterdam. This time around, it pits Gelfand, Svidler, Van Wely, Heine Nielsen and Ljubojevic vs Nakamura, Giri, Caruana, Howell and So. It’s a Scheveningen double-rounder, where each player meets all members of the other team twice.

First place for the best “youth” includes a spot in the 2011 Amber (there’s also money for both teams). “Ljubo” is the only semi-retired veteran on the “Experience” team. After six rounds, the Rising Stars lead 15.5 to 14.5. Gelfand (4.5) and Giri (4) are respective toppers.

The Russian China match was another Scheveningen. The Chinese won with 128-122 after 50 slow and 200 rapid games.

The PRC won the slow games 27-23 and the rapids 101-99 to keep the Yinzhou Trophy.

Meanwhile, DNA tests proved that Bobby Fischer is not the biological father of Jinky Young This leaves the late world champion’s estate (estimated $2 million) up for grabs between either his Japanese companion Miyako Watai, (if she can prove they were legally married) or his nearest surviving blood-relatives, his sister Joan Targ’s two sons.

Geeks are invited to participate in the Elo Vs Rest of the World challenge where Kaggle (a web-platform for predictive models) and statistician Jeff Sonas together challenge anybody to come with a rating system improving on Elo. Anybody can submit a new rating system to http://kaggle.com/chess. The competition lasts 16 weeks and there’s a public leaderboard at http://kaggle.com/chess?viewtype=leaderboard.

The diagram, WHITE TO PLAY, (Gelfand Vs Howell, Amsterdam 2010) is a good illustration of why experience counts. Gelfand, a notable technician, simplifies into an almost drawn position, which he realised was winning. He played 30.d5! Nxd5 31.Bxa5 bxa5. If 31...Nc7 then 32.Qxb6. 32.Rxd5 Rxd5 33.Nxd5. Although material is equal, Gelfand notes “Black's position has so many weaknesses, I believe that a pawn loss is probably forced”. Play went 33...a4 34.Ne3 Qd7 35.Qb4 Qe8 36.Nf5 Kg8 37.Qb7 Qd7 38.Qxe4 Ne6 39.Qc4 Kf8 40.Ne3 Qe7 41.Qxa4 (1-0).

Devangshu Datta is an internationally-rated chess and correspondence chess player