CHESS BY VICTOR STRUGO

Three recent and current events have grabbed my attention. First was the Sinquefield Cup in St Louis, arguably the strongest annual event alongside Wijk aan Zee. Scoring his third win here in ten years, Fabiano Caruana became the event’s all-time top performer. He finished unbeaten, ahead of former winners Aronian, Vachier-Lagrave and Firouzja. In the process his rating returned north of 2800, closer to Magnus Carlsen’s than anyone has been for a long time.

Around the same time, another American, Hans Niemann (he of last year’s alleged cheating scandal) carved up a fairly strong field in the Tournament Of Peace in Zagreb, Croatia. His dominant 8/9 score was three points clear of joint runners-up Brkic, Korobov and Ivanchuk. Not inclined to modesty, Niemann immediately compared his result with Fisher’s 1970 win at the same venue with 13/17, two points ahead of Korchnoi, Smyslov, Gligoric and Hort. Sorry Hans, but you’ve still got a helluva long way to go before justifying comparison with Bobby!

More exciting than both of these is the hotly disputed London Chess Classic which ends tomorrow. The first 3 rounds saw more wins scored (9 of 15) than in all 9 rounds of the Sinquefield Cup (8 of 36 games)! Four further wins were clocked in the fourth round, including this upset of the top-seeded Indian prodigy by France’s No 3. Moussard brilliantly seized upon a solitary error by the overnight leader, jeopardising his chance (he needs to win outright in London) of claiming the final spot in the 2024 Candidates.

Dommaraju Gukesh (2746) – Jules Moussard (2639): 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nf6 3 Nxe5 d6 4 Nf3 Nxe4 5 Nc3 Nxc3 6 dxc3 Be7 7 Be3 O-O 8 Qd2 Nd7 9 O-O-O Nf6 10 Bd3 Re8

11 a3!? d5 (The “drawish” Petroff Defence seems headed toward Pawn storming on

opposite flanks) 12 Rhe1 Bg4 13 h3 Bxf3 14 gxf3 Qd7 15 Rg1 Qxh3 (Better 15 ... Qd6) 16 Bd4 (Threatening Rxg7+! so …) 16 ... g6 17 Qf4 Nh5 18 Qxc7 Qxf3 19 Bb5 Rac8 20 Qxb7 Rb8 21 Qa6 Red8 22 Be2 (Not 22 Qxa7? Bxa3!) 22 ... Qf4+ 23 Be3! Qe5 24 Qxa7 Nf4 25 Bf3 Bd6 26 Rd2? (Throws it all away! 26 Qd4! was fine) 26 … Bxa3! 27 Rd4 (Or 27 Qxa3 Ra8) 27 ... Bxb2+ 28 Kd2 Ne6 29 Rd3 Bxc3+! 30 Rxc3 d4 31 Rd3 dxe3+ 32 Qxe3 Rxd3+ 33 cxd3 Nd4! and White resigned.

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Diarise the Cape Town Masters Chess Challenge, a 9-round Swiss happening in Sea Point from 3-7 January 2024. For details visit https://bit.ly/CTMCCREG. Entries close soon!

White to move and win: