Nobody else has yet managed a win in the 10-player round robin, which is billed as the strongest event of the year. Given a field of Carlsen, Caruana, Aronian, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Ding Liren, Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So, Maxime Vachier Lagrave and Viswanathan Anand, that is likely to be true.
Carlsen leads with 2 from 3 games, followed by a whole crowd of players on 1.5, with only Aronian and Caruana on minus scores. It’s not that the chess has been dull, just that this is a pretty strong field with guys who, by and large, are playing error-free chess. There’s a terrific draw from Mamedyarov and Karjakin, for example.
The annual 19th Karpov tournament at Poikovsky Russia also has a pretty strong, if less stellar, field. This 10-player round robin features Ian Nepomniachtchi, Dmitry Jakovenko, Vidit Gujrathi, Boris Gelfand, Vladimir Fedoseev, Anton Korobov, Vladislav Artemiev, Emil Sutovsky, Viktor Bologan. Nepo leads with 3.5 points from 4 games, with Jakovenko on three. Vidit shares third spot with Gelfand and Fedoseev (all on 2.5). He started with a very nice win against Bologan.
The 11th China-Russia match tournament is on at Qinhuangdao. The teams consist of five men and five women, who each play their counterparts in classical and blitz. Russia leads by 27.5-22.5 with two rounds to go.
The Diagram, WHITE TO PLAY, (White: Mamedyarov vs Black: Karjakin, Norway 2018) illustrates how well super GMs prepare. This is an obscure position -- there have been just three games till move 15, when black found a novelty.
White played 19.Qf5+ g6! [White’s probably winning after 19.-- Kg8 20. Bxh6! One trick here is 20. Qxf6!? Be7 21. Qxe5 Bxh4 and it’s chaotic equality] 20.Nxg6 fxg6 21.Qxf6 Rf8! Even the engines take a little time to figure out that this position is a draw with best play.
White continued 22.Qh4! g5! [The obvious 22...Bxf2+ 23.Kh2 wins for white. So does 22.-- Rxf2 directly. The g5 intermezzo works for reasons, which will become obvious] 23.Bxg5! Rxf2 24.Qxh6+ Kg8 25.Qg6+ Kh8 [forced - 25.-- Kf8 26. Bh6+ Ke7 27. Rxe5+ Kd7 is horrific. The key point of 22.--g5 is that black now threatens Rf6+ hitting Qh6. The draw is forced] 26.Qh6+ Kg8 27.Qg6+ Kh8 28.Qh6+ (1/2-1/2). Only a draw but as Anand commented, “The kind of position no chessplayer can drag themselves away from.”
Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player
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