CHESS#1305

Magnus Carlsen has started the Altibox Norway Super GM in good form with two wins in the first three rounds. He won in the first round, against his next challenger, Fabiano Caruana and he beat Levon Aronian in round 3. Both wins came in his trademark style, building pressure miraculously from apparently equal positions until the opponent cracked. 

Nobody else has yet managed a win in the 10-player round robin, which is billed as the strongest event of the year. Given a field of Carlsen, Caruana, Aronian, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Ding Liren, Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So, Maxime Vachier Lagrave and Viswanathan Anand, that is likely to be true.  

Carlsen leads with 2 from 3 games, followed by a whole crowd of players on 1.5, with only Aronian and Caruana on minus scores. It’s not that the chess has been dull, just that this is a pretty strong field with guys who, by and large, are playing error-free chess. There’s a terrific draw from Mamedyarov and Karjakin, for example. 

The annual 19th Karpov tournament at Poikovsky Russia also has a pretty strong, if less stellar, field. This 10-player round robin features Ian Nepomniachtchi, Dmitry Jakovenko, Vidit Gujrathi, Boris Gelfand, Vladimir Fedoseev, Anton Korobov, Vladislav Artemiev, Emil Sutovsky, Viktor Bologan. Nepo leads with 3.5 points from 4 games, with Jakovenko on three. Vidit shares third spot with Gelfand and Fedoseev (all on 2.5). He started with a very nice win against Bologan. 

The 11th China-Russia match tournament is on at Qinhuangdao. The teams consist of five men and five women, who each play their counterparts in classical and blitz.   Russia leads by 27.5-22.5 with two rounds to go.

The Diagram, WHITE TO PLAY, (White: Mamedyarov vs Black: Karjakin, Norway 2018) illustrates how well super GMs prepare. This is an obscure position -- there have been just three games till move 15, when black found a novelty.

White played 19.Qf5+ g6! [White’s probably winning after 19.-- Kg8 20. Bxh6! One trick here is 20. Qxf6!? Be7 21. Qxe5 Bxh4 and it’s chaotic equality] 20.Nxg6 fxg6 21.Qxf6 Rf8! Even the engines take a little time to figure out that this position is a draw with best play. 

White continued 22.Qh4! g5! [The obvious 22...Bxf2+ 23.Kh2 wins for white. So does 22.-- Rxf2 directly. The g5 intermezzo works for reasons, which will become obvious] 23.Bxg5! Rxf2 24.Qxh6+ Kg8 25.Qg6+ Kh8 [forced - 25.-- Kf8 26. Bh6+ Ke7 27. Rxe5+ Kd7 is horrific. The key point of 22.--g5 is that black now threatens Rf6+ hitting Qh6. The draw is forced] 26.Qh6+ Kg8 27.Qg6+ Kh8 28.Qh6+ (1/2-1/2). Only a draw but as Anand commented, “The kind of position no chessplayer can drag themselves away from.”

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player