CHESS#1308
Wesley So won the Leuven leg of the Grand Chess Tour. Sergey Karjakin produced a splendid burst in the blitz section. So lost in the last round and needed in his own words, a “minor miracle”. So scored 22 points — 14/18 in the rapids, which he won easily (he scored 7/9 but the rapids had double-weight). In the blitz, So scored only 8/18 and Karjakin, who scored 11.5 in the blitz and 10 in rapids, almost caught up. Maxime VachierLagrave (also 21.5 — with 11 in rapids) tied with Karjakin for second-third.
So lost to Hikaru Nakamura (21) in the last round. Both players were warned for hitting the clock too hard. But Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (17) beat Karjakin and Viswanathan Anand (14.5) beat MVL to give So the title. The same field plays the Paris GCT. After six rapid rounds, So leads again with 4.5 points. Levon Aronian and Karjakin (4 each) follow. Nakamura and Anand (3.5 each) share fourth place.
Meanwhile, Pentala Harikrishna won a rapid match versus David Navara in Prague. Hari was a last-minute replacement for the injured Ding Liren. Navara was ranked #25 on the World Rapid list. Hari was #39. Hari won game 1, Navara equalised in game 4 and Navara took the lead in game 7. Hari won the last three games however, to take the match 7-5. This takes Hari to #21 on the World Rapid list. ChessBase published an interesting piece on the “Indian” nomenclature of hypermodern openings. John Cochrane of Cochrane Gambit fame played (and recorded) a lot of games against Mohesh Chunder Bonnerjee in Calcutta as it then was, in the 1850s. Bonnerjee, who had learnt chess Indian-style, used fianchetto formations.
Indian rules were popular until the 1970s in Calcutta. Since few know the rules nowadays, it’s interesting to state the differences. Pawns can only move one square forward. There is no castling, no en passant obviously. In some versions, the king can make a knight’s move once in a game, if it isn’t in check. In many versions, the game starts with both sides making two moves on their first turn (1.e3,Bc4
1. g6 Bg7 for example). Pawns promote to the piece initially on the landing square — for example, a white pawn promotes to a Knight on g8. The differences makes for slow buildups, and locked pawn chains.
THE DIAGRAM, BLACK TO PLAY (White: Nakamura Vs Black: So, GCT Leuven Blitz 2018 Rd 18) is move 6. Black looks to recapture the pawn immediately with 6.— Qa5+ ? 7. c3 Qxc5? 8 Ba3 Qc7 9. Bxe7 Re8 [Another crazy idea is 9.— Ne4? 10. Bxf8 Bxc3+ 11. Nxc3 Qxc3+ 12. Nd2 Nxd2 13. Rc1] After
10. Bxf6 Bxf6 11. Nd4 white just kept the pawn. (1-0, 64 moves)
Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player