CHESS#1303

The Women's title match is excitingly poised. There's one classical game left to play at the time of writing and Ju Wen leads with 5-4 (three wins, two losses). Tan Zhongyi is in a must-win situation with black, if she's going to retain her title. If she does win, she will force a tiebreak. 

More than technical skills, this match situation is all about mastering tension and Tan has terrific nerves and an excellent record in such situations. She took the title, courtesy several hair-raising tiebreak escapades, and she's fought back in this match after being 2-0 down from the first three games. For that matter, Ju has exhibited some nerves in that she failed to convert two good positions in Game 8 and Game 9. A win in either game would have effectively sealed the match. 

The Kolkata Open has 200-odd participants, led by 31 GMs, and a prize fund of Rs 1.5 million. The top seed is England's Nigel Short, who has decided to stand for Fide President at this year's elections. That would be a three-way ballot, since Kirsan Ilyumzhinov is running for re-election, and he is being challenged by his erstwhile deputy, Giorgios Makropoulos.  

Short's campaign could be unorthodox and hard-hitting — he doesn't pull any punches. He's released an open letter addressed to the Fide Treasurer, asking awkward questions about the Federation's finances. Sadly, Kirsan is likely to be elected again, since the powerful and influential Russian Federation is supporting his candidature. Since Kirsan is under personal sanction from the US, his re-election would mean a continuation of the mess where Fide's bank account has been shut down and reputable multinationals are wary of involvement. 

Anyhow, the Kolkata Open is led by Deep Sengupta and Ivan Rozum (both 4/4) with perfect scores. This duo is followed by a pack of 11 players with 3.5 each. D Gukesh (3.5) and Nihal Sarin (3) are two of the many hopefuls gunning for norms. There have been quite a few upsets.

The Capablanca Memorial in Havana has the newly-minted US champion, Sam Shankland, carrying on with his good form. This is a six-player double round-robin. After 8 rounds, Shankland and Alexey Dreev  (5.5 each) share the lead. 

Bronze Rider (Miedny Vsadnik) from St Petersburg won the Russian Team tournament. "Bronze", led by Peter Svidler, scored 17 match points (eight match wins, one draw ) to edge out Legacy Square Moscow (16). Molodezhka (14) was third. 

The Diagram, BLACK TO PLAY (White: Murali Karthikeyan Vs Black: Vantika Agarwal, Kolkata 2018)  features a nice combination from the 16-year-old WIM (Elo 2296) who pulled off a huge upset against her 17-year-old opponent (2617). She played 38. — Rxf2+ 39. Kxf2 Nd3+ 40. Kg2 Qe2+ 41. Kh1 Qxf3+ 42. Kh2 Qe2+ (0-1).

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player