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Fide and the All India Chess Federation have signed a Memorandum of Understanding for the World Title match between Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen to be held in Chennai in November. Carlsen has called this "unfortunate". He would obviously prefer to play elsewhere. Given Fide's history of flip-flopping, matters are not completely clear yet.
Meanwhile Team Anand is breaking up. Wherever it takes place, Peter Heine Nielsen will stay out of match preparations. The Danish GM is officially assisting Carlsen but he agreed to stay out of preparations if a title match was involved. Uzbek GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov may also be moving out of Anand's team according to recent reports.
There are two big events on. The Grand Prix at Zug, Switzerland, has Morozevich, Ruslan Ponomariov and Veselin Topalov sharing the lead with 4 points from six rounds. Karjakin and Caruana follow on 3.5 each with Nakamura at 3. Laggards with minus scores include Mamedaryov, Giri, Leko, Kamsky, Radjabov and Kasimdzhanov. There are no weak players who could be possible "targets" here.
In the Alekhine Memorial in Paris, Gelfand, Adams, Aronian and local super GM, Vachier-Lagrave, share the lead with 2,5 each after 4 round. Kramnik is on 50 per cent while Anand has a minus score with a loss to Adams. Peter Svidler, who tied for 3-4 in the Candidates, is in last place!
The Alekhine began sensationally with Aronian, Anand and Kramnik all suffering early losses. The super tournament is sponsored by Andrei Filatov, Gelfand's billionaire pal from Minsk, who also sponsored the last title match. It features potential "weakies" such as Laurent Fressinet (2706 rating), the relatively underexposed Ding Liren (2707) who won the Chinese championship thrice in succession and the hard-nosed Nikita Vituigov (2712). None of them are doing very badly.
The diagram features one of those rare combinations which puzzles even engines. WHITE TO PLAY (Ding Liren Vs Aronian Paris 2013) - both players have headed for this. Black is in an unpleasant bind but he's winning an exchange after 32.Nd5! Nxf1 33.Nb6 Qa7 34.Rxf1 Nf6 Bailout by 34-- Rb8 35.Nxd7 Qxd7 36.bxa5 Ra8 37.Bd2 just leaves white winning.
Aronian hadn't seen the coming sacrifice 35.Be5 Nd5. Alternatively 35.-Ne8 36. Nxd7 Qxd7 37. d5! exd5 (37.--cxd5 38. c6!) 38.bxa5 Ra8 39. Re1 Rxa5 40. Bd4 creates the crushing threat of Re7. Play continued 36.Nxd5! exd5 Or 36...cxd5 37.c6 Rxd6 38.Qg3.
Ding played 37.Bxg7!! wins outright. The white rook can participate while black's pieces are absurd. 37...Kxg7. Not taking by 37.--f5 38. Be5 is as painful. 38.Qg5+ Kf8 39.Qf6 Kg8 40.Re1! axb4 41.Re5 (Not 41. Re3 Qxa3!) h6 42.Rh5 Qxa3 43.Qxh6! (Again, 43. Rxh6? Qc1+! 44. Kh2 Qxh6 would be an error). f6 44.Qxf6 (1-0).
Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player
