CHESS#1263

2 yrs ago, Hou Yifan decided to quit defending world title and focus on playing strongest opposition

Two years ago, Hou Yifan decided that she would quit defending her world title and focus on playing the strongest available opposition. The 23-year-old Chinese GM has had up-and-down results but she’s stuck to it, despite opposition from the Chinese Federation. 

Her victory at Biel must be a terrific validation. Hou finished with 6.5 points from 9 games and a performance Elo of 2810. She won five games, lost to Pentala Harikrishna and she won in the last round when she had to. Hou’s victims included David Navara and Alexander Morozevich and the legendary 65-year-old Rafael Vaganian who’s still no pushover with an Elo of 2562. Harikrishna was in with a shot at first when he blundered in the last round versus Etienne Bacrot. Bacrot (6) was second while Harikrishna (5.5) slid to third place. 

The Sinquefield is underway. First round wins for Levon Aronian, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Sergey Karjakin versus Ian Nepomniachtchi, Wesley So and Peter Svidler respectively. Aronian pulled off a very creative manoeuvre that Garry Kasparov complimented as “Must appreciate Aronian’s new method for developing rooks”. Oddly, “Crtl V”, as Nepomniachtchi is known for reasons obvious to geeks, had seen the idea and played fast and offered a pawn sacrifice that was a lot less convincing than he thought. Fabiano Caruana and Magnus Carlsen played out a hard-fought draw while Viswanathan Anand- Hikaru Nakamura was a quieter affair with the same result. 

The Sinquefield is part of the grand Chess Tour. It’s followed by the St Louis Rapid-Blitz which is also part of the GCT. The last GCT event is the London Chess Classic in November. After the first two GCT events, Carlsen leads with 25 combined points and MVL is second. The return of Kasparov as a wild card 12 years after he retired at Linares in 2005 is intriguing. The former world champion is self-confessedly a sore loser and on the basis of his exhibitions he may still be a deadly competitor. 

The Diagram, White to Play (White: Aronian Vs Black: Nepomniachtchi, Sinquefield Cup 2017) illustrates Aronian’s creative attitude. The Ba3 hangs and white has been known to try 10. hxg6 when 10.— Qxa3 11. gxf7+ leaves an unclear position with an attack for the piece. 

Aronian played the stunning 10.Rh4!? Bd7 [Since 10...Qxa3 11.Ra4 Qb2 12.Rb1 wins the queen] 11.Qb3 0–0 12.hxg6 hxg6 13.Qxb7 Rfd8 14.Qa6 What does black have for the pawn?

Play continued 14...Bxc3 15.Qxa5 Bxa5 16.Bxc5 Be6? [Black is desperately looking for a swindle] 17.Bb5 Ne5 Now even [18. Nxe5 Bxd2+ 19. Kf1 Bc3] is good for white but Aronian found the clinical 18.Nd4! Rd5 19.Bxe7 Kg7 20.f4 Nd7 21.f5 Bxf5 22.Bc6 Re5 23.Nxf5+ gxf5 24.Bg5 Kg6 25.Bf4 Rd8 26.Bxd7 Rc5 27.Rh6+ Kg7 28.Rd6 Bc7 29.Rc6 (1–0). 

---

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player