CHESS#1254

Chess equipment will attract tax at the luxury rate of 28 per cent under GST

Indian chessplayers are just waking up to the realisation that chess is a “luxury” or, at least, chess sets are luxury items, according to the new Goods and Services Tax. Chess equipment along with other board games equipment like Monopoly and Scrabble will attract tax at the luxury rate of 28 per cent under GST. This is harsh, given that millions play chess for pleasure and some 20,000-odd, many from extremely low-income families, play tournaments regularly.
 
 The European individual championship is in Minsk this year.  It has attracted about 400 players and the strength is amazing. There are nine players rated over 2,700, 76 players above 2,600 and 171 GMs. The #50 seed is Edouard Romain (Elo 2,640). The prize money is excellent as always with 100,000 euros on offer. Another big draw is 22 places in the 128-player World Cup in Batumi, Georgia, later in 2017.  

 
 Top seed David Navara, #2 Dmitry Andreikin, Baadur Jobava, Ivan Cheparinov, David Anton, Daniil Dubov, Igor Kovalenko and Sergei Zhigalko are already qualified for the WC, so they’re playing for Elo, honour and prize money. Both Navarra and Andreikin were held to draws in the first round in the ferociously competitive event.
 

 The KIIT International Open 2017 in Bhubaneswar is headed for a sharp finish. S Nitin and Nguyen Duc Hoa from Vietnam share the lead with 7 each from 8 rounds. There are two rounds left at the time of writing and quite a few players could fancy their chances of catching up.

 
 The 52nd Capablanca Memorial in Cuba (where else?) is a classical double round-robin with Vassily Ivanchuk, Krishnana Sasikiran, Emilio Cordova, Samuel Shankland, Reynaldo Ortiz Suarez, Kacper Piorun. Ivanchu leads with 3.5/ 5 at the halfway stage. Sasikiran (3) is in second place.
 
 The Diagram, WHITE TO PLAY (White: Aditya Mittal Vs Black Niaz Murshed, KIIT Open, 2017) features an interesting idea. Black has just played 16.— Nb6 in a known position. Even computer engines consider this move ok for a brief while.  There is an apparent development problem — black’s queenside is still locked in and Qa5 is offside.

 
 White found 17.Bf6!! gxf6 18.Rc5! Qa3 [ Or 18...Qxa2 19. Qxf6] 19.Rh5 Re8 20.Qxf6 Re6 21.Rg5+ Kf8 22.Qg7+? [ White goes wrong here 22.Qh8+ Ke7 23.Rg8 wins easily and Qh8+ wins on move 23 as well]
 
 After 22...Ke8 23.Nd4? Rg6 24.Re5+ Be6 25.Qxh7 Qd6 [ Black has a defence by 25.-- Rc8 when he’s near-equal] 26.f4! Rf6 ? 27.Qh8+ [Finally he finds a clean win. The idea is 27.Qh8+ Ke7 28.Qh4 with Nf5+ check coming] So 1–0. Notably, White is 10-years-old, rated 2211 and he was facing a veteran GM who was a gracious loser. Aditya is yet another prodigy who’s starting to make waves.

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player