CHESS#1265

Egyptian GM Bassem Amin started the Abu Dhabi Open with a draw against D Gukesh

Egyptian GM Bassem Amin started the Abu Dhabi Open with a draw against 11-year-old D Gukesh, who has a respectable Elo 2365. Then Amin picked up speed. Top seed Nigel Short had started with two draws in what he called the “Indian Children’s Chess championship” against Arjun Kalyan and Raunak Sadhwani. Short and Amin met in the last round in a mad time scramble where both had winning chances at some stage. Amin accepted a draw offer to clinch first (he scored 7.5/9) when he was winning. Short (7) finished second. 

Aryan Chopra, another teenaged Indian GM, was among a bunch of seven who tied for third place.  Abhimanya Puranik completed his GM title at Abu Dhabi and Puranik is India’s 49th GM. Ten Indians have fulfilled GM title requirements in the last 20 months. At least three, Swayams Mishra, M S Thejkumar and P Karthikeyan all have the requisite norms but haven’t yet managed to stay above the required Elo 2500-mark. 

The National Challengers saw hard fights. Deepan Chakkravarthy (10.5) won, beating Swapnil Dhopade (10), who came second, in a dramatic last round encounter. Himanshu Sharma, Debashis Das, Lailith Babu, Abhijit Kunte, Suniduth L Narayanan, S Nitin and R R Laxman also qualified for Premiers (all 9.5). Nitin will be the only non-GM in the 14-player Premier. 

The second edition of the Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy’s online tournament is scheduled for  August 10. That’s open to all and hosted on the Chessbase Playchess arena. There will be plenty of GM participation given the prize money of Rs 50,000. If you want to play high-quality chess from the comfort of your own home, check out details at dbcaonline.chessbase.in.

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave’s biggest-ever victory to date would be the 2017 Sinquefield. The Frenchman played solid yet sharp chess and was rarely in trouble. But he was under some pressure against Viswanathan Anand and just seemed lost against Magnus Carlsen. That game swung his way after a blunder in a very sharp position.

The Diagram, White to Play (White:  Carlsen Vs Black: Vachier Lagrave, Sinquefield Cup 2017) features the winning 45.Bg5! Bxg3 (Anyhow 45.— Bf6 46. Bc6 wins) Now white has 46. Rd2 which wins easily after 46.— Rf8 47 Rg1 f4 47. Rxd3 Rxd3 48. Ne5+ 
 

Instead white played 46.Rg2 ? Bh3 47.Rxg3 Bxf1 (Now white can hold with 48. Bxd8 Rxd8 49 Rf3 Be2 50. Rxf5+ ) Carlsen played 48. Rf3 ? Be2 (and then noticed 49. Re3 f4! 50.Rxe2 Nc1+)

So he was forced into 49.Bxd8 Bxf3 50.Bxb6 axb6 51.Bc6 Be4 52.a7 Rd8 53.Nd6+ Rxd6 54.Bxe4 Rd8 55.a8Q Rxa8+ 56.Bxa8 Ne5 and (0-1, 71 moves). 
 

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player