CHESS#1347

The April rating lists have a few interesting shifts though Magnus Carlsen tops all three categories. Among Indians, Divya Deshmukh has made the most fantastic gains. The 13-year-old has gained 305 Elo in the past two months, rising to 2432, which puts her at #5 on the World under-20 girls’ list. Her career graph, so far, indicates that she’s going to be really strong. 

Vladislav Artemiev (8.5) won the European Championships with a better tiebreak over Nils Grandelius (8.5). Only 22 players make the World Cup and there’s a tie from 12th to 35th position with 24 players sitting on 7.5. 

Ernesto Inarkiev won the Sharjah Masters with the best tiebreak in a seven-way tie that included Wang Hao, Yuriy Kryvoruchko, Alireza Firouzeh, Maxim Matlakov, Nodirbek Yakubboev and Sandro Mareco (all 7). Nihal Sarin(6.5) was the highest-placed Indian. 

Hikaru Nakamura became US Champion for the fifth time. Naka (8/11) won his last round against Jeffery Xiong (5) to pip Fabiano Caruana (7.5) and Leinier Perez-Dominguez (7.5), who drew their respective last round games. All three had 2800 performances. 

In the women’s championship, Jennifer Yu scored an amazing 10/11 dropping just two draws for a 2678 performance. The 

17-year-old who went in with Elo 2273 has clearly jumped levels in strength. Anna Zatonskih and Tatev Abrahamyan (both 7.5) shared second place. 

The Gashimov Memorial at Shamkir always has committed participation from the world’s best, because Vugar Gashimov (1986-2014) was among the best-liked people in the chess world. The sixth edition has a prize fund of Euro 100,000 for the 10-player round robin, which features Carlsen, Ding Liren, Anish Giri, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Viswanathan Anand, Alexander Grischuk, Teimour Radjabov, Sergey Karjakin, Veselin Topalov and David Navara.

Five rounds in, Carlsen leads with 3.5 and he’s followed by Karjakin and Anand (both 3). Anand has had a peculiar tournament, so far. He was completely winning in Round 1 versus Navara when he missed a tactical shot that forced perpetual check. He lost a difficult endgame against Carlsen (this has become an unfortunate habit). Then he won a dead-lost position against Mamedyarov and steam-rollered Giri with an impressive attack. 

At the Diagram, White to play (White: AnandVs Black: Mamedyarov, Shamkir 2019) black’s last move (Nf6-e4?) has just given white defensive chances. White played 36. Bxe4 de4 37. Ne5 Nd3 38. Qh8+! Kxh8 39. Nxf7+ Kh7 40. Nxd6 Bd7? [Black makes a second error at the time-control. Instead 40. - Nxb4 41. Nxb5 Nc6 is about equal] 

Play continued 41. Nxe4 Bf5? [If 41.-Nxb4 42. Nf6+ Kg7 43. Nxd7 Nxd3 44. b4, white is two pawns up though black has serious counterplay] 42.Ng5+ Kh6 43. Nxd3 Bxd3 44. Rg3 and white won by pushing his d-pawn(1-0, 63 moves).

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player