Chess #1391

The Aeroflot Open in Moscow ended with a surprise winner. There was a four-way tie at 6.5 points from 9 rounds. A 14-year-old IM, Aydin Suleymanli of Azerbaijan, had the best tiebreak score, edging out Rinat Jumabayev, Rauf Mamedov, and Aravindh Chithambaram. Suleymanli won the title, and first prize worth Euro 13,875 (approx Rs 11 Lakh) as well as a GM norm. 

Among the Indians, Aravindh had the best result of course. The 14-year-old M Pranesh (5.5) scored his final IM norm, while 12-year-old Bharath Subramaniyam (5.5) scored his first GM norm, with a round to spare. In the B section, two 14-year-olds, Rucha Pujari and Pranav Anand made WGM and IM norms respectively. 

" The Candidates will launch on March 15. Teimour Radjabov has dropped out for personal reasons and will be replaced by Maxime Vachier Lagrave.  Alexander Grischuk (36) is the oldest player, in a field with an average age of 28. Fabiano Caruana and Ding Liren are favourites, but coronavirus may have derailed Ding’s prep (and Wang Hao’s prep as well), at least to some extent. Ding's reached Yekaterinburg this week to undergo quarantine prior to the event. " 

The Third Grand Prix tournament for women is in play at Lausanne, Switzerland. The top seeds are World Champion Ju Wenjun and the last challenger, Aleksandra Goryachkina. The overall winner and runner-up will qualify for the Women’s Candidates Tournament, in early 2021. Koneru Humpy leads the series with a win in the first GP in Skolkovo, and joint first with Alexandra Kosteniuk in the second GP in Monaco. 

Humpy’s not playing Lausanne and Goryachkina or Kosteniuk could overtake her if either of them wins Lausanne. Zhao Xue had to be replaced by Zhansaya Abdumalik due to quarantine. After Round 3, five players share the lead. This group includes Dronavalli Harika (2) who upset Ju Wenjun (1) in the third round.  

The Diagram, White to Play (White: Parham Maghsoodloo Vs  Black: Aydin Suleymanli, Aeroflot 2020) leads into an interesting illustration of Aydin’s talent. Normal is 13. a3 but White played the new and inferior 13. f3?!  Nxc3 14. bxc3 g5! 15. Bg3 a5!! Very deep positional sense. White is returning material to free his position via 15.—Nxa2 16. Ra1 Nxc3 17. Ba6! With Ne2/ Kf2 to come. But black’s 15th move causes a traffic jam by stopping Ba6.  He doesn’t want to recover material. 

Play continued 16. a4 Na2 17. Ra1 Nxc3 18. Ne2 Bb4 19. Kf2 Bc2 20. Nxc3 Bxc3 21. Ra2 Bb1! 22. Re2 Rc4 23. Rc2!?  Be1+!  Black avoids a cute trap. [If 23.—Bxc2 24. Bxc4 dxc4 25. Rc1 Bxa4 26. Rxc3 Bb3  27. Bd6 and it’s a draw after Ba3]. Now it’s an easy win after 24. Kxe1 Rxc2 25. h4 Rac8 26. Bd6 R8c3 27. hxg5 Rb2 (0-1). 

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Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player