Chess (#994)

The European Championships at Plovdiv sees the European Chess Union's new dress code applied for the first time. This is drafted by some very powerful minds, who have paid great attention to detail. It includes specific injunctions, apart from requesting a “pulled together, harmonious look”. For example, “clothes must show no excessive wear, no holes, and be free of body odour”. Also “only the top and second from the top button of shirts /blouses may be open”. Jewellery, handbags and jackets must be “coordinated and crisp”.

The rules apply to spectators as well. The anti-BO rule is a major relief. Chess is often played in under-ventilated, centrally air-conditioned halls and it can get intolerable. The new code will trouble players with favourite “lucky” shirts or shoes, which they wear to extinction. Ivanchuk, for example, wears a Real Madrid tracksuit under his normal suit. Sadly, the “second button” innovation may reduce the decolletage on display.

Anyhow, the prize money of €100,000 has drawn a strong field with 15 players rated over 2700. Approximately 45 of the top 100 are playing and 98 players are rated over 2600. Top seeds include Fabiano Caruana, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Dmitry Jakovenko, Anish Giri, Alexander Riazantsev, Nikita Vitiugov, Etienne Bacrot, Baadur Jobava, Boris Grachev, etc.

Anything can happen in a Swiss of such strength. Top seed Caruana, who is now the world number 7, is fresh off victory at the Reykjavik Open and likely to be the man to beat. He was somewhat lucky in Iceland as Hou Yifan, who tied for second place, nearly beat him in the last round.

Meanwhile Anand played his last couple of official games before his title defence. The world champion had two hard-fought draws, versus Giri and Eljanov, on top board for Baden Baden in the Bundesliga. The latest details from Moscow are that the Anand-Gelfand match will have a prize fund of USD 2.55 million, split 60:40. The major sponsor is Russian oligarch Andrei Filatov, who runs an infrastructure firm and has a personal fortune in excess of USD 1.1 billion. Filatov is a personal friend of Gelfand and a master level player himself.

The diagram, WHITE TO PLAY, (Yifan Vs Caruana, Reykjavik 2012) shows how very tactical endgame technique is. White's winning but she has hanging Kt and e-pawn to defend. 41.Nxf7? Kxf7 42.Rf3+ Ke6 43.Nb5 Rb8! An easy avoidance of the c7 fork. Now it burns out with 44.Rxf2 Bxe4 45.Re2 Rxb5 46.Rxe4+ Kxd6 47.Kg3 Kd5 (0.5-05.) Two possible wins were 41.Nac4 Nxe4 42.d7 Rd8 43.Na5 Bd5 44.Rd3 Nf6 45.Rxd5 Nxd5 46.Nb7 and the more complicated 41. Nd7 when 41.-- Nxe4 42 Nc5 wins.

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player