CHESS #1385

The Women’s Title match went down to the wire and it was consistently exciting. Defending champion Ju Wenjun took the lead in Game 4, Aleksandra Goryachkina broke back by winning game 5 and took the lead when she won game 8. Ju promptly generated back-to-back wins in game 9 and game 10 to grab the lead back again. Goryachkina won on demand in Game 12 to drag the match into extra time with a 3-3 score.

The Rapids were a heartbreaker for the 21-year-old challenger. She achieved easily won positions in Game 1 and Game 2 but she couldn’t finish off. Ju grabbed her chances in Game 3 and held the draw from an inferior position in Game 4 to retain the title. Nerves, lack of experience, poor endgame technique — these denied the young Russian the title. But she’s clearly an enormous talent and her time will surely come.

Meanwhile, an even younger s set the Tata Steel Masters on fire. The 16-year-old led a stellar field till Round 8. In Round 9, Magnus Carlsen beat him in a positional masterpiece and world no#2 Fabiano Caruana beat Alireza again in Rd10. Caruana’s taken the lead with 7 points from ten rounds, with a mixture of good play and luck. His fortunes turned in his game against Viswanathan Anand when he won from a totally lost position.

Caruana is followed by Carlsen (6.5) — the world champion started with seven draws and he’s followed with three successive wins. Wesley So and Jorden Van Foreest share third (6 each). There are three rounds left and Carlsen clearly has chances to chase down Caruana, while So and Van Foreest also have mathematical chances. There’s likely to be plenty of surprises still in store.

In the Challengers, David Anton Guijarro (7) with Erwin L’Ami (6.5) in second place,  followed by Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Pavel Eljanov (6 each). Again, there are mathematical chances that the Spanish GM will be chased down by one of this trio. The competition will be really fierce since the first place means an automatic promotion to the 2021 Masters. Closer to home, Pavel Ponkratov and Ivan Rosum (7.5 each) lead the Chennai Open with one round to go.

The Diagram, Black to Play (White: Ju Wenjun vs Black : Goryachkina, Game 1, Tiebreaks, World Championships 2020) was a situation where Ju had to hope for several miracles! Black can win with 41. — Bxg5!! 42. Rxe8+ Rxe8 43. fg5 Qd6 with Re3 to come. She played 41. — Bd6 42. Rxe8+ Rxe8 43. Qxd5 cxd5 44. Nb6 and now 44. — Re3 is still winning. But after 44. — Bxf4 45. Nxd5 Bxg5 Nxb4 and several more errors it was (1/2 -1/2, 67 moves).

Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player