CHESS

Alexander Baburin

THE World Junior chess championships concluded two days ago in New Delhi. In the open section, Ukrainian GM Evgeny Shtembuliak finished first with 9 points out of 11, ahead of Armenian GMs Shant Sargsyan and Aram Hakobyan, who took silver and bronze with 8.5 and 8 points respectively.

Russian WIM Polina Shuvalova won the girls’ championship with 9.5 points out of 11, while Mobina Alinasab (Iran) and Elizaveta Solozhenkina (Russia) finished second and third. The Irish participant Diana Mirza did well in that section, but stumbled in the last three rounds and finished on 4 points.

A chess player must not lose objectivity, as that leads to incorrect decisions. The following game from the open section of the World Juniors is a good example of that.

Pogosyan — Sargsyan 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.e3 a6 6.Bxc4 b5 7.Be2 Bb7 8.0–0 Nbd7 9.a3 Bd6 10.b4 0–0 11.Bb2 Qe7 12.Qc2 e5 13.Nd2 exd4 14.exd4 Nb6 15.Nb3 Nbd5 16.Bf3 Rae8 17.Nc5 Ba8 18.Nxd5 Bxd5 19.Bxd5 Nxd5 20.Qb3 Qg5 (D)

White should have played 21.Rae1, keeping Black’s advantage to a minimum, but he overestimated his position and went after the f8-rook: 21.Nd7?? Re6?

Missing 21...Bxh2+! 22.Kxh2 Nf4 23.Qf3 Qh4+ 24.Kg1 Ne2+, with an easy win.

22.Nxf8??

Consistent, but wrong. White had to play 22.Ne5!, with roughly equal chances. 22...Bxh2+! 23.Kxh2 Rh6+ 24.Qh3 Nf4 0–1