CHESS#1304

Ju Wenjun is the new world champion. The 27-year old Chinese GM hung onto her early lead to win the title match 5.5-4.5 (three wins, two losses) against Tan Zhongyi. Ju was clearly the superior player technically, but in the last three games she showed clear signs of nerves as the title grew closer. She could, in fact, have won all three of those games but she was intent on shutting things down and sitting on her lead and ended up with three draws. 

Sam Shankland won the Capablanca Memorial in Havana to break into the Top 30 and firmly push his rating over 2700. The US Champion will be the fourth American GM in the super GM category in June (no prizes for guessing the other three). But Awonder Liang (2561, 15-year-old) and Jeffery Xiong (2661, 17-year-old) will get there soon. Shankland scored 7.5/ 10 (five wins, five draws) for a rating performance of 2830. He was followed by Alexey Dreev (6) and David Antón Guijarro (5.5). 

Srinath Narayanan won the Kolkata Open, with a score of 7.5/ 9 fully capitalising on a couple of massive slices of luck. Deepan Chakkravarthy scored exactly the same but landed second on tie-breaks. Nigel Short, Shyam Sundar, Erigaisi Arjun and Harsha Bharathakoti tied for 3rd-6th (all 7). The 15-year-old Arjun scored his maiden GM norm with a last-round draw against Short and he’s also pushed his rating above 2500 while the 17-year-old Bharathakoti gained some rating. The 13-year-old Nihal Sarin (6.5) and the 12-year D Gukesh (6) both did well without quite cracking the norm barrier. 

Srinath started as the 14th seed in a field with 28 GMs. His luck kicked in the seventh and eighth rounds. In #7, he was dead-lost against Murali Karthikeyan who blundered. In #8, Deep Sengupta dropped a piece on move 10 to a miscalculation. Sengupta also lost a blinder in the last round to Deepan Chakkravarthy who produced a fantastic attack. It might just have all been preparation but it was actually Sengupta who produced an early novelty. 

The DIAGRAM, WHITE TO PLAY (White: Deepan Chakkravarthy Vs Black: Deep Sengupta, Kolkata Open 2018). Black played a novelty on move 8. At the diagram, white can play 11. Bb2 Qb6 12. c5! Qxc5 13. Nb3 and white’s edge in development could count. 

Instead, White played 11.Nc6!! bxc6 12.d4 Bc7 13.Bxc6 Rb8 14.Ba3 Bb7. White has massive compensation for the piece — the black king is exposed, and it’s hard to see how he can develop. Play continued 15.Nc3 h5 16.Re1 h4 17.Qd3 Rh6 18.Qf5! Brutal, now d5 is coming if black defends Rxe6. Black tried the desperate 18. Ng4 19.Qxg4 hxg3 20.hxg3 g5 21.Nd5 Bxc6 22.bxc6 Nf8 23.Be7 Qc8 24.Qxg5 Rg6 25.Nf6+ (1-0).

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Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player