CHESS

THESE days top chess players seem to be busier than ever before, with one online tournament starting right after another.

Just a week ago Magnus Carlsen won the FIDE Online Steinitz Memorial, scoring 12 points in 18 rounds, ahead of Daniil Dubov (10pts) and Peter Svidler (9.5pts). In the women’s tournament, Kateryna Lagno and Lei Tingjie tied for first with 12/18, while Zhansaya Abdumalik finished third on 11.5 pts.

Last week, 12 players started in the Lindores Abbey Rapid online tournament. Hikaru Nakamura won the preliminary stage with 7.5 points out 11. Carlsen looked out of form and he was lucky to have qualified to the knockout stage with six points. The other qualifiers are Sergey Karjakin, Yu Yangyi, Wesley So, Ding Liren, Daniil Dubov and Levon Aronian.

Yet the world champion won a nice game against the latter in round two.

Carlsen – Aronian

1.e4 e5 3.Nxe5 d6 5.Nc3 Nxc3 7.Be3 0–0 9.0–0–0 c6 11.Bd3 Re8 13.Ng5 c5 15.cxd5 (D)

2.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 6.dxc3 Be7 8.Qd2 Nd7 10.h4 d5 12.Rde1 Nf6 14.c4 h6

This is the critical moment in the game. Had Black played 15...Qxd5 16.c4 Qc6 17.Qc2 Bd7, chances would be equal. But Aronian clearly had his eyes set on the g5–knight, which prompted him to make a rather greedy move, which quickly led to disaster:

15...c4?? 17.hxg5 Ne4 19.Qh5 Bxe3+ 21.d6+ Be6

16.Bxc4 hxg5 18.Qd1 Bxg5 20.Rxe3 f5 22.Qh7+ 1–0