Chess (#1207)
The chess world is still coming to terms with the details of alleged deals from the Panama Papers
 "Chess (#1207)")
Sam Shankland and Suryasekhar Ganguly tied for 1-2 at the Edmonton (round robin, 10 players). Both scored 8/9. Shankland won on tiebreak (he beat Ganguly). Top-seeded Alexei Shirov (6) was third, S P Sethuraman (5.5) fourth. Bitan Banerjee (Elo 2341, 4.5 points), an Edmonton-based Indian player, took his fourth IM-norm but he needs to pull his Elo over 2400 for the title.
Two young IMs, the 15-year-old Aryan Chopra (6/9) and the 16-year-old Abhimanyu Puranik (5.5/9), scored GM-Norms at the Zalakoros Open in Hungary. Ivan Ivanisevic (7) won, with Dronavalli Harika (6) taking the best women's prize. Harika was also the highest-scoring woman in the Eurasian Blitz, which is no mean feat since Hou Yifan was playing.
The chess world is still coming to terms with the details of alleged deals from the Panama Papers. investigative reports in the world press claim Fide President, Kirsan Illyumzhinov, has done many complicated deals.
Kirsan established the firm, Global Chess BV, in 2006 with a minority stake held by Bessel Kok (then CEO of banking communication major, SWIFT). Kok and Illyumzhinov fought an apparently bitterly contested Fide election prior to this in 2006 when Kirsan was re-elected president. In 2007, Kirsan bought out Kok and the Fide board granted Global Chess, the global commercial rights to all Fide events.
Kirsan apparently sold Global Chess on to David Kaplan, a Russian-Israeli who ran a modelling agency. Kaplan seems to have used his nephew, Eli Leibzon, to make a "benami" transaction through a firm, Chess Lane. Chess Lane bought Global Chess while Kaplan was appointed "Development CEO" by Fide. Anatoly Karpov contested the 2010 Fide elections (where Kirsan won again). Karpov says Kaplan's role was to raise money for Kirsan's re-election bid.
In 2012, Fide commercial rights were transferred again, to a firm, Agon, where Kirsan was alleged to hold a large undisclosed stake, which he denies. Agon's accounts are not public. It is owned by a Russian citizen, Ilya Merenzon, who is said to have paid the Agon Founder, Andrew Paulson, the token of GBP 1 to buy it. Making sense of this web of transactions is hard. But to put it mildly, if these allegations are true, there are massive conflicts of interest. The Diagram, White to play (White: Caruana Vs Black: Giri, Shamkir Chess 2016) saw a draw agreed with Qd3 + Re4, Qf1 Re5, Qf1 etc. How does white win?
He can play 39.Qf7! Qa4 (To stop Rc6] 40. Kh2!! This prevents perpetuals and threatens the cool b3 with say, 40.--a5 41. b3 Qb5 42. Qg8+ Kg6 43. Rc7 or 40.-a5 41. b3 Qxb3 42. Qg8+ Kg6 43. Rc6+ Kf5 44. Qxg7. The black king is hopelessly exposed.
Two young IMs, the 15-year-old Aryan Chopra (6/9) and the 16-year-old Abhimanyu Puranik (5.5/9), scored GM-Norms at the Zalakoros Open in Hungary. Ivan Ivanisevic (7) won, with Dronavalli Harika (6) taking the best women's prize. Harika was also the highest-scoring woman in the Eurasian Blitz, which is no mean feat since Hou Yifan was playing.
The chess world is still coming to terms with the details of alleged deals from the Panama Papers. investigative reports in the world press claim Fide President, Kirsan Illyumzhinov, has done many complicated deals.
Kirsan established the firm, Global Chess BV, in 2006 with a minority stake held by Bessel Kok (then CEO of banking communication major, SWIFT). Kok and Illyumzhinov fought an apparently bitterly contested Fide election prior to this in 2006 when Kirsan was re-elected president. In 2007, Kirsan bought out Kok and the Fide board granted Global Chess, the global commercial rights to all Fide events.
Kirsan apparently sold Global Chess on to David Kaplan, a Russian-Israeli who ran a modelling agency. Kaplan seems to have used his nephew, Eli Leibzon, to make a "benami" transaction through a firm, Chess Lane. Chess Lane bought Global Chess while Kaplan was appointed "Development CEO" by Fide. Anatoly Karpov contested the 2010 Fide elections (where Kirsan won again). Karpov says Kaplan's role was to raise money for Kirsan's re-election bid.
In 2012, Fide commercial rights were transferred again, to a firm, Agon, where Kirsan was alleged to hold a large undisclosed stake, which he denies. Agon's accounts are not public. It is owned by a Russian citizen, Ilya Merenzon, who is said to have paid the Agon Founder, Andrew Paulson, the token of GBP 1 to buy it. Making sense of this web of transactions is hard. But to put it mildly, if these allegations are true, there are massive conflicts of interest. The Diagram, White to play (White: Caruana Vs Black: Giri, Shamkir Chess 2016) saw a draw agreed with Qd3 + Re4, Qf1 Re5, Qf1 etc. How does white win?
He can play 39.Qf7! Qa4 (To stop Rc6] 40. Kh2!! This prevents perpetuals and threatens the cool b3 with say, 40.--a5 41. b3 Qb5 42. Qg8+ Kg6 43. Rc7 or 40.-a5 41. b3 Qxb3 42. Qg8+ Kg6 43. Rc6+ Kf5 44. Qxg7. The black king is hopelessly exposed.
Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player
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First Published: Jul 02 2016 | 12:01 AM IST