CHESS#1313

CHESS #1313

Yu Yangyi won the Danzhou Super GM scoring 4/5 from seven rounds in the eight player round-robin. The Chinese GM retains his position as world #14. Yu started with an early loss against Bu Xiangzhi (3.5) but he recovered nicely. Lê Quang Liêm (4) came clear second, with Wei Yi, Vladimir Fedoseev, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Bu (all 3.5) tied on 50 per cent and Sam Shankland (3), Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (2.5) trailing. 

The event was so strong that Gujrathi (Elo 2718) will only lose about 9 rating points despite his minus 2 scoreline. There were several lovely games and interesting tactical fragments in this hard-fought event. Indeed, the high-draw percentage is misleading since everybody had decisive games, and there were multiple hard fights. 

Incidentally, there may have been a certain amount of extra needle in the crucial encounter between Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Magnus Carlsen at Biel.  Mamedyarov won a good game to ensure that he scored his biggest-ever tournament victory.

It was the first encounter between the two since the Norway Altibox, where Carlsen publicly accused Karjakin and Mamedyarov of playing a pre-arranged draw. That game between two friends and sometime collaborators ended in a violent perpetual check. It was so exciting that Viswanathan Anand said he was rather annoyed when his opponent (Ding Liren) made a move because he had to stop watching the game and go back to focussing on his own board. Carlsen said he felt the draw was too perfect, although of course, he had no proof of wrongdoing.

Sergey Karjakin blitzed through a complicated line of the Guioco Piano while Mamedyarov took somewhat longer. It ended in perpetual check around move 28. This means little except that obviously both players had studied the line in depth. Pre-arranged draws are outlawed (except in team events) but also absolutely impossible to prove without recourse to wiretaps and surveillance, if super GMs are involved, and both Mamedyarov and Karjakin denied it happened, in this instance. 

The Abu Dhabi Open has just got going. V S Ratnavel (Elo 2348) upset top seed, Lê (2728) in round one. Although there are over 100 titled players from 25-odd nations in this big prize money event, it's dominated by Indians, with over 90 Indians playing. 

The diagram, WHITE TO PLAY (White: Lê Vs Black: Shankland, Danzhou 2018) features a wonderful tactical sequence. White has sacrificed pawns to get at the king. He found the spectacular 33.Ng4!! fxg4 [ The idea is 33.— Rxe2 34. Nh6+ ] 

Play continued 34.Rxe8 Rf7 35.Qe6 c4 ?! [ Black can struggle on with 35.-- Qa4 36. Re1 Qd4 or 36. Rf1 Ba6 37. Re1 BB5] This pawn move blocks the a6-f1 diagonal and now white can finish brutally with 36.Rf1! c3 37.f5 Kg7 38.f6+ Kg8 39.Qe7! (1-0).

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player