Chess (#1213)

The World Juniors at Bhubaneswar features some promising youngsters, although the three strongest eligible players (Richard Rapport, Wei Yi and Jan-Krzysztof Duda) have opted to stay away. The top seed in the open section is 18-year-old Vladislav Artemiev from Russia, who's currently rated 2665. The second seed is 15-year-old Jeffery Xiong (Elo 2633) who is already reckoned one of America's best prospects.

The Indian contingent includes several young GMs, including the current national champion (senior) Murali Karthikeyan, Aravindh Chithambaram, Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan and Shardul Gagare. Plus, there are the two "next-next-gen" talents of 12-year-old Nihal Sarin and 11-year-old Praggnanandhaa.

Three rounds into a 13-round Swiss, Artemiev and Sunilduth have perfect scores. In the Girls event, there's a four-way tie for first with 3/3. Dinara Saduakassova (Elo 2423) of Kazakhstan is the top seed. India's best hopes rest with third-seeded Pratyusha Bodda and #10 R Vaishali.

Veselin Topalov leads the Sinquefield Cup with 3.5 from 5 games. Welsey So, Levon Aronian and Viswanathan Anand share 2nd-4th with 3 points each. Topalov could have had an even more impressive score had he drawn against Fabiano Caruana.

World #2 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave has been a little off the boil. He came into Sinquefield having played 66 classical games without loss. He promptly "gifted" Anand a point when he miscalculated a long tactical sequence.

Details about the Carlsen-Karjakin title match are finally emerging. It starts November 11 in the Fulton Market building, at the South Street Seaport, New York. The organiser, Agon, will spend an estimated $6 million, including a prize fund of over $1 million. The combined age of the two participants is the lowest ever. Carlsen (born Nov 30, 1990) is a few months younger than Sergei Karjakin (Jan 12, 1990).

Details of sponsors are not yet known. Nor do we know if Agon will try to prevent other websites from broadcasting moves, as it tried to do, unsuccessfully, in the Candidates.

The DIAGRAM, White to play, (White: Vachier Lagrave Vs Black: Anand, Sinquefield Cup Saint Louis 2016) is the start of a long tactical sequence. White has a pretty strong line with 30.Bxd5 exd5 31.Qh3! Qg7 Rg6 33.g3 a6 34.Nc2.

But he blundered with 30.Nxe6? Bxe6 31.Bxd5 e3! This intermediate move wins because exf2 is check. Play continued 32.Bxe3 Bxd5 33.Bxa7+ Kxa7 34.Qf2+ Bc5! Dead accurate. 35.Qxc5+Qxc5+ 36.bxc5 Rd7.

Black's piece is a powerhouse and the white pawns fall after 37.Rfe1 h6 38.Kf2 Kb8 39.c4 Bc6 40.Rxd7 Bxd7 41.Rb1 Ra6 42.Rb6 Rxa5 43.Rxh6 Rxc5 44.h4 Rxc4 45.g3 Kc7 46.h5 b5 (0-1).

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player