Chess (#1219)

Chess players have cause to complain about misrepresentation in pop culture. Common errors include the board being set up wrong in ads and movies, with either a black square on the right (h1, a8 are light squares) or queens and kings initially reversed (the queens sit black on black and white on white).

But artists rarely get things wrong. This could be because artists paint real positions, or pay more attention to detail, or play. Marcel Duchamp was an international player and Henri Matisse did a portrait of his family kibitzing a chess game. Admittedly, chessboards are never set up wrong in Kubrick and Bergman movies - both played good chess. However, the deranged but omniscient HAL9000 is totally lost in his game against David Bowman in 2001 A Space Odyssey, even though the computer eventually wins.

The upcoming edition of the Tal Memorial in Moscow will be hosted by the Museum of Russian Impressionism, which is part of the Chess in Museums initiative. This event is sponsored by the Russian Highways Authority.

The average rating is 2760 in this 10-player round robin.This has classical controls and it starts with a blitz tournament in lieu of drawing lots. The lineup is, in order of rating, Vladimir Kramnik, Levon Aronian,Viswanathan Anand, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Anish Giri, Li Chao, Peter Svidler, Boris Gelfand, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Evgeny Tomashevsky. Everybody has the capacity to beat anybody on a given day.

Kramnik was in great form at the Olympiad. He scored 6.5 from 8 (performance rating of 2903). This takes him to to #2 and a lifetime high live rating of 2817 (ahead of Fabiano Caruana 2813, who also overtakes Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2811). Anand, Aronian, Gelfand and Svidler did not play the Olympiad. Given that they are all older players, freshness and energy may count for more than form.

The Diagram, White to play (White: Kramnik,Vladimir Vs Black: Vocaturo,Daniele 42nd Olympiad Baku 2016) is from a crunch last round game. Kramnik had to win.

White played the amazing 17.Be7!! Rxd4 [ If 17.- Rxe7 18. Nxc6 Rxd2 19. Nxe7+ Kf8 20. Nxc8 wins]. 18.Rxd4 Rxe7 19.Rd8+ Ne8 20.Nxe4 Be6 21.Ra8 Be5 22.Rdd8 Kf8 23.Rxa7 Bc7?

[Black misses 23...Bf5! 24.Ng5 Bc7 25.Rda8 Bb6 26.Rxa6 bxa6 27.Rxa6 Bd8 28.Bxc6 Bc8! 29.Ra8 Rc7 30.Bxe8 Kxe8 31.Ne4 Ke7 32.Nc3 Bb7 33.Nd5+ Bxd5 34.cxd5 Rc5 35.Ra7+ Ke8 36.e4 Bb6 with drawing chances. No human can calculate this deep. The key difference is, Nf6 is not on.]

Play continued 24.Rda8 Bb6 25.Rxa6 bxa6 26.Nf6! Bd7 27.b4! c5 28.Nd5 Bc6 29.Rxa6 Bxd5 30.Bxd5 Bd8 31.b5 Rd7 The pawns roll. The game finished with 32.b6 Ke7 33.b7 Bc7 34.Ra8 Nf6 35.Rc8 Bd6 36.Bc6 Rd8 37.a4 Nd7 38.a5 Bb8 39.a6 Ne5 40.Rxb8! Rxb8 41.Bd5 (1-0).

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Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player