CHESS #649

The Bilbao Masters was slightly unsatisfying despite high quality play. Kudos to Kramnik for winning with a +2, =4 score, ahead of Anand +1,=5, Carlsen +1,-2, =3 and Shirov =4,- 2. The lingering unhappiness is because Bilbao was too short.

When you have quality players, you’d like them to settle down for a real extended slugfest. Between 1950 and 1962, every candidates tournament had eight of the world’s best, playing what amounted to four-game matches with each other. Each mega-tournaments therefore, had 28 games, with a rest day after every two rounds. (Adjourned games were cleared on rest days.) Even Interzonals were round-robins with 20-odd players. Title matches were best of 24 games (first to score 12.5).

 

Those monster events produced multi-course gourmet banquets in contrast to the Bilbao snack. One major problem nowadays is attenuated attention spans. Another is money. No sponsor wants to host so many players and their entourages for that length of time.

The best one sees in terms of extended events is something like the Corus (from 2011 it will be the Tata Steel) which is a 14 player round-robin. Linares is a 6-player Round-Robin and the Chinese Super tournament at Nanjing has adopted that model.

Nanjing has an awesome “split” field. It consists of three 2800-players and 3 from the lower 2700s in Anand, Carlsen, Topalov, Wang Yue, Gashimov and Bacrot. The prize fund is Euro 250,000 with 80K for the winner. I’d guess that one of the 2800s will win and that “someone” will be the man who squeezes the lower rated trio most efficiently.

Two rounds in, Carlsen has won the only decisive game, versus Bacrot. The number one has serious mojo on the line after two terrible results in succession at the Olympiad and Bilbao. He could slide below Anand in the rankings if he doesn’t win Nanjing with something to spare.

The diagram, WHITE TO PLAY (Carlsen vs Vs Bacrot, Nanjing 2010) is one of those imbalanced situations that cannot be assessed in static terms. Both players have dreadful structures, black has the bishop pair, both kings are unsafe. The key is that white is mobilised while Ra8 is off-centre.

Carlsen proved that's enough though black didn’t make a discernible mistake in what followed. White played 21.Bxe6! Rxe6 22.Rxe6 fxe6 23.Rd3 Kh8 24.Rg3 Qh7 25.Qd2 Bc5 26.Ne4 Be7 27.Rh3 Kg7. Maybe black can bail into a lost ending with 27-Rd8 28.Rxh6 Rxd2 29.Rxh7+ Kxh7 30.Kxd2 though the h-pawn makes it relatively easy.

Play continued 28.Qd7 Kf7 29.Ng5+! The engines suggest that 29.Nxf6! Kxf6 30.Rf3+ is cleaner but this is much easier to calculate. 29...fxg5 30.Rf3+ Kg8 31.Qxe6+ Kh8 32.Rf7 Bd6 33.Rxh7+ Kxh7 34.Qf7+ Kh8 35.g3 Ra6 36.Kb1 Bb4 37.f4 gxf4 38.gxf4 (1-0).

(Devangshu Datta is an internationally-rated chess and correspondence chess player)