The World Cup starts next Sunday in Tbilisi, Georgia. The elite and quite a few “tourists” in Kasparov-speak will scrap for a first prize of $120,000 (total fund of $1.6 million) and two places in the 2018 Candidates. Since Magnus Carlsen is playing, and may be a finalist, there could be a important third place playoff. The top 16 players and 40 players rated above 2,700 will have a go.
The first six rounds are two-game classical mini-matches, with rapid/blitz tiebreaks if necessary on day three. The final will be a four-game classical mini-match followed by tiebreaks as required. Last final between Sergei Karjakin-Peter Svidler turned into an epic. India has seven players in contention — that’s the fourth-largest contingent, behind China (9), USA (9) and Russia (20).
The first-round draw for the Indians features Vishwanathan Anand—Yeoh Li Tian, Pentalya Harikrishna—Gonzalez Yuri Vidal, Vidit Gujrathi—Neuris Ramirez Delgado, Adhiban Baskaran—Nguyen Ngoc Truongson, Sethuraman S P—Ruslan Ponomariov, Deep Sengupta—Wang Hao and Karthikeyan Murali—Francesco Vallejo Pons.
Sethuraman, Sengupta and Karthikeyan are underdogs on rating but this is among the most upset-prone of formats. In fact, even for Carlsen with his sublime combination of rapid, blitz and classical skills, it would be difficult to be sanguine about winning though he is of course, the favourite.
Anand (Current Elo 2794 on the live list) has won this event twice back in the 1990s and 2000 when it was a direct world championship. Assuming matches go by rating, his path to a third victory would involve beating in order, Varuzhan Akobian (2662) , Michael Adams (2738), Hikaru Nakamura (2782), Wesley So (2792), Fabiano Caruana (2799) and Magnus Carlsen (2827). That’s a very tough ask.
The DIAGRAM, White to Play A small problem, courtesy GM Karsten Müller (taken from White: Pia Cramling Vs Black: Irina Krush, 2012 ). How does white win this double rook endgame. The material balance suggests a draw.
White must play 1. f4+!! Kxf4 2. g3+ Kg5 ( Or 2.— Kf3 3. Rxf5#) 3. Rg6+ Kh5 4. Re5! Rg6 (Or 4.— Rf6 5. g4# ) and now either 5. Rxf5+ Rg5 6. g4 # (1-0) or even 5. g4+ Rxg4 6. Rxg4 Ra3 7. Rg3 works.
Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player
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