CHESS BY VICTOR STRUGO
Sensational as Uzbekistan winning the 44th Chess Olympiad was, it was the Bronze medallists who hogged most of the attention. India’s second team (host nation’s privilege) lined up four young prodigies: Gukesh (16), Sarin (18), Pragganandhaa (17), Sadhwani (16) and the token old geezer Adhiban (29). Not only did they upstage India’s first team, pushing them out of the medals, but Gukesh and Sarin top-scored on their individual boards. Before his draw against Armenia and loss against Uzbekistan (from a won position against Abdusattorov), Gukesh had scored an unbelievable 8/8 after outplaying the World No 5 thus:
Fabiano Caruana (USA, Elo 2783) – Dommaraju Gukesh (India 2, Elo 2684) [Sicilian, Rossolimo variation]: 1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 g6 4 O-O Bg7 5 Bxc6 bxc6 6 Re1 Qc7 7 h3 d6 8 e5 dxe5 9 d3 c4 10 Nc3 cxd3 11 cxd3 Nh6 12 Nxe5 Nf5 13 Bf4 Qb7 (Assuming this is a book line, White has a healthy position here) 14 Na4 f6 15 Nf3 O-O 16 d4 g5
17 Bh2 (17 Nc5 Qxb2?! 18 Bc7 looks healthy for White) 17 … h5 18 Re4 Qd7 19 Qc2 Rf7 20 Rae1 Bf8 21 Qe2 Qd5 22 Nc3 Qd7 23 Qc4 Qb7 24 b4 e6 25 Rb1 Qd7 26 Rbe1 Qb7 27 Rb1 Qd7 (After 7 straight wins, Gukesh is happy to accept the draw by repetition, but Caruana feels obliged to try for more) 28 a3?! a5! 29 Na4 Qd8 (Black’s Queen has made 11 moves: d8-c7-b7-d7-d5-d7-b7-d7-b7-d7-b7-d8
… to get nowhere! Yet White has no advantage!)
30 bxa5 Rxa5 31 Nc5? Qd5! (This wins a Pawn because leaving the Re4 undefended would invite … Rxc5!) 32 Qe2 Rxa3 33 Rd1 Rfa7 (Out of thin air, Black is suddenly winning. Trying to win back the Pawn with 34 Nxe6 loses to … Ra1 35 Nxf8 Qxe4! 36 Qxe4 Rxd1+ 37 Ne1 Raa1. In desperation, White tries to mix things up, but Gukesh won’t be swindled) 34 g4? hxg4 35 hxg4 Nh6 36 Bg3 e5 37 Nxe5 fxe5 38
Rxe5 Bxg4 39 Qd2 Qf3 40 Rxg5+ Rg7 41 Re1 Bh3 42 Bd6 Bxd6 43 Rxg7+ Kxg7 44 Qg5+ Kh7 45 Ne4 Qxe4 and White resigned. An odd game, more of a cat-and-mouse operetta than an epic drama. White had bits of plans that kept evaporating while until move 31, Black (to quote WS Gilbert) “did nothing in particular, and did it very well!”
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In this position from Reykjavik 2021, France’s “second Maxime” (Lagarde, not Vachier-lagrave) found a killer.