Chess (#1101)

Fast time controls have several things in their favour. A fast event takes less time, which means lower expenses for hosts. Spectators also like quick games. Rapid play, with no dull periods and multiple breaks in between rounds, is nicely suited to kibitzing.

Rapid makes for great viewing especially on the Internet, where engines can pinpoint errors. But this is also a major downside. Rapid and blitz are always riddled with errors. Another downside is that a large quick-control event is hard to track. Most of the action occurs concurrently on multiple boards, in the last seconds of play. It requires good broadband connections and excellent multi-tasking to follow such an event.

There's a fair amount of money at stake in the World Rapids & Blitz Championships in Dubai. Each event has a fund of $200,000, with each title worth $40,000. The world's top 120 players are playing. But Magnus Carlsen's agenda isn't really about the money. He wants the triple crown of the Overall, Rapids and Blitz titles.

As of now, Carlsen is on course for the treble. He won the Rapid with 11 points from 15 games. Fabiano Caruana, Viswanathan Anand, Levon Aronian and Alexander Morozevich all scored 10.5 points. Caruana took silver and Anand, the only undefeated player, took bronze. Anand beat Carlsen in their individual encounter after the world champion blundered a piece. At the time of writing, Carlsen also leads the Blitz with a superb 9 from 11. Hikaru Nakamura and Georg Meier are on 8.5 and many players are on 8. There are 21 rounds.

Sergey Karjakin won the Classical Norway Super GM for the second year in a row. He scored 6 points from 9 games (+4,-1,=5), finishing with wins over Vladimir Kramnik and Caruana in the last two rounds. Karjakin's wins all came from long, unbalanced endgames, as did his loss to Aronian. Karjakin won thrice from inferior positions, against Caruana, Alexander Grischuk and Anish Giri. Carlsen was second, unbeaten on 5.5. Grischuk was third with 5. Early leader Caruana ended on 50 per cent along with Veselin Topalov.

At the diagram, WHITE TO PLAY (Caruana Vs Karjakin Norway 2014), white is better. Caruana could keep a bind with 32. Ne4 Qe7 35. Bxd7 Rxd7 36. Rc6 Rb7 37. d5 exd5 38. Nf6+ or 37. Qc2. He would be close to winning in this case.

Instead 32.Na4? Bxc6 33.Rxc6 Qb4 34.Nc3 a4 - the a-passer is now dominant. Karjakin exploited this perfectly, pushing the pawn while denying counter-play on the kingside.

Play continued 35.Qc2 a3 36.Rxb6 Rc8 37.Rc6 Rxc6 38.bxc6 Qc4 39.c7 Qxc7 40.Qb3 Qa5 41.Qc2 Qb4 42.Na4 Qe1 43.Nc5 Qxe3 44.Nd7 Qxd4 45.Qc8 Qb4 46.Nf6+ Kg7 47.Ne8+ Kh8 48.Qc7 Qe7 49.Qe5+ f6 50.Nxf6 Bg7 51.Qb8+ Qf8. (0-1).

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player