Shubham Kumthekar

Candidates 04: Karjakin shoots into sole lead

A victory over Viswanathan Anand in the 4th round of the Candidates Tournament 2016 helped Sergey Karjakin move into sole lead after Round 4. At the moment, Karjakin is on 3/4, half a point ahead of second-placed Aronian.

Karjakin’s victory over Anand was a strategic one. The position after the opening, although equal, held dangers for Anand as he was behind the ‘hanging pawns’ structure. On move 19, Anand offered a dubious exchange of bishops, followed by a bold pawn push on move 23. However, the pawn move backfired for Anand, allowing Karjakin to simplify into an advantageous Rook and Knight endgame. Karjakin was spot on with his technique and went on to win the game without any fuss. This turned out to be Karjakin’s first ever victory over Anand in the classical format.

With this defeat, Anand has been pushed down to the No.2 spot in India after 30 long years. Pentala Harikrishna, with a live rating of 2763.3, is a mere 0.3 points ahead of Anand in the live rankings.

All the rest of the games were drawn. While Nakamura and Giri played out an exciting but home-cooked draw, Caruana failed to win an overwhelming position against Topalov. The Svidler-Aronian draw, however, was a relatively subdued one.

Women’s World Championship 09: Hou Yifan regains the title!

GM Hou Yifan’s victory in the 9th game of the Women’s World Chess Championship 2016 helped her clinch the match with a game to go. It was a dominating performance by the Chinese GM as she overcame GM Mariya Muzychuk with a 6-3 scoreline. Such was Hou Yifan’s dominance that she went unbeaten throughout the event.

Hou Yifan opened the 9th game with 1.e4. Trailing 5-3 in the match, Mariya justifiably went for the Sicilian Defence, aiming for a complicated duel. Although the opening battle ended satisfactorily for Mariya, she was unable to create enough complications later in the game. In the endgame, Hou Yifan played some immaculate chess and outplayed her opponent with ease. Mariya resigned on move 46 and Hou Yifan was crowned the new Women’s World Champion.

Candidates 03: Aronian gets off the mark

The 3rd round of the Candidates Tournament 2016 followed the trend set by the previous rounds – three games resulted in draws while one game ended decisively. This time, it was Aronian who got off the mark as he accounted for Bulgarian Veselin Topalov. The latter has had a disappointing start to the event with two losses in the three rounds played so far.

The Topalov-Aronian battle took off with the English opening. On move 12, Topalov offered an interesting pawn sacrifice, which was accepted by his Armenian opponent. However, Topalov’s obvious-looking 17th move turned out to be a big mistake, helping Aronian grab another pawn. This left Topalov two pawns down with nothing to show for it. Indeed, Aronian had no troubles converting his material advantage into a full point.

Meanwhile, Viswanathan Anand was unable to make the most out of a promising position against Fabiano Caruana. The game was agreed drawn on move 40.

Round 3 Results:

Nakamura	½-½	Svidler
Giri	½-½	Karjakin
Topalov	0-1	Aronian
Anand	½-½	Caruana

Candidates 02: Karjakin joins Anand in lead

With a victory over Hikaru Nakamura in the second round of the Candidates Tournament 2016, Sergey Karjakin moved on to 1.5/2, joining Viswanathan Anand on the top of the table. Karjakin’s victory over Nakamura was the only decisive result of the day as the rest of the games finished peacefully.

The Karjakin-Nakamura clash began in a sedate manner with Nakamura opting for the Queen’s Indian Defence in reply to Karjakin’s Queen’s Pawn opening. A manoeuvring phase ensued, wherein Karjakin’s position seemed slightly better than Nakamura’s. However, it was Nakamura’s faulty tactical sequence starting with 29…Nxg3?? that allowed Karjakin to gain a decisive advantage in the form of an extra Bishop. Nakamura resigned shortly on move 38.

Meanwhile, the Aronian-Anand encounter turned out to be a theoretical battle. Soon, an equal middlegame arose. In the latter part of the middlegame, Aronian sacrificed a pawn with the intention of simplifying into a Bishop endgame where the extra pawn didn’t account for much. With a lifeless endgame on the cards, the players agreed to a draw on move 31.

Round 2 Results:

Karjakin	1-0	Nakamura
Aronian	½-½	Anand
Svidler	½-½	Topalov
Caruana	½-½	Giri

Candidates 01: Anand takes early lead

In a repeat of Candidates 2014, Vishy Anand won his first round game to take an early lead in the tournament. While Aronian was his victim in the 2014 event, he overcame Topalov in a roller-coaster 49-move game this time round.

Just as in the first round of the Candidates 2014, Anand was White and wheeled out the Ruy Lopez on the board. The game took an interesting turn when Anand went pawn grabbing on the 18th move. The Madras Tiger, as he is often called, was unable to follow-up his 18th move in the best possible manner, thus giving Topalov a deadly chance on his 20th move. Inexplicably, Topalov chose a simplifying move instead of the brilliant resource that would have promised him an advantage. This left Anand with a wonderful position and he seemed to be running away with the game.

However, the game had another twist. From moves 35-40, Anand was unable to find the best moves and he lost a major chunk of his advantage. A serious mistake by Topalov on the 40th move helped Anand weave a deadly net around the Black king. After that, Anand gave no further chances to his opponent and went on to register a crucial victory.

All the rest of the games viz. Karjakin-Svidler, Nakamura-Caruana and Giri-Aronian resulted in draws. While the Russian derby between Karjakin and Svidler turned out to be a pretty dull affair, the other two draws were fairly interesting.

Women’s World Championship 05 & 06: Hou Yifan goes up 4-2

GM Hou Yifan’s crucial victory in the 6th game of the Women’s World Championship 2016 has helped her take a two-point lead over reigning Women’s World Champion GM Mariya Muzychuk. With only four more games to go, the Chinese GM seems pretty much on the course to regain the title of the Women’s World Champion.

Game 5:

The 5th game took off with Hou Yifan opting for the Reti opening. While Hou Yifan’s intention may have been to obtain a meaty middlegame, nothing of that sort happened – a lot of pieces were exchanged and the game fizzled out to a draw on move 33.

Game 6

Everything seemed to be going well for Mariya Muzychuk as an easy draw in Game 5 was followed by an opening success in Game 6. By move 20, the Ukrainian indeed had the more comfortable position. However, she suddenly went astray and lost her advantage. From that point on, everything went downhill for Mariya as Hou Yifan started outplaying her move by move. The Challenger’s advantage soon became overwhelming and Mariya decided to call it a day on move 38.

Women’s World Championship 03 & 04: Hou Yifan maintains her lead

The 3rd and 4th round games of the Women’s World Championship 2016 witnessed interesting draws. While the 3rd game was more of a positional battle, the 4th game turned out to be a short but exciting tactical skirmish. Thanks to the draws, GM Hou Yifan goes into the second rest day with a point’s lead over the defending Women’s World Champion GM Mariya Muzychuk.

A detailed game-by-game explanation follows:

Game 3

After being unable to obtain any advantage from the opening in Game 1, Mariya wheeled-in 1.d4 in Game 3, subsequently opting for the Catalan opening. In reply, Hou Yifan chose a solid continuation. Almost immediately after the opening, a queen trade took place, leaving White with the more comfortable position. However, a few precise moves by Hou Yifan enabled her to neutralize White’s play. The game was agreed drawn on move 36.

Game 4

The 4th game saw a repeat of the opening from Game 2 – once again Mariya opted for the Open Ruy Lopez. Hou Yifan was the first to deviate as she chose the line starting with 9.c3 instead of 9.Be3 (as seen in game 2). However, Mariya seemed extremely well prepared. What ensued was a tactical bloodbath where both the players played the ‘only’ moves. The game was drawn on move 21 when Mariya forced a picturesque repetition.

Women’s World Championship 02: Hou Yifan draws first blood

A crisp 32-move victory over reigning Women’s World Champion GM Mariya Muzychuk helped GM Hou Yifan grab an early lead in this 10-game match for the title of the Women’s World Champion.

The second round game, just like the first one, took off with the opening moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6. However, Hou Yifan chose to wheel in the ever-popular Ruy Lopez as opposed to Mariya’s Closed Guico in the first game. In reply, Mariya opted for the trendy Open Ruy Lopez. The opening battle ended pretty much in equality.

Immediately after the opening, Hou Yifan willingly accepted a doubling of her f-pawns, thus creating some interesting chances on the King-side. However, Mariya’s passive play allowed the Chinese GM to breakthrough favourably on all parts of the board. On the ensuing moves, Mariya made one mistake after another and her position crumbled. As such, she decided to call it a day on move 32, resulting in Hou Yifan going 1.5-0.5 up in the match.

The 3rd game of the match will be played on 5th March. Today is a rest day.

Women’s World Championship 01: A peaceful beginning

The FIDE Women’s World Chess Championship 2016 took off yesterday in the Ukrainian city of Lviv. Reigning Women’s World Champion GM Mariya Muzychuk is taking on the highest-rated active female player GM Hou Yifan in a match of 10 games. Being the winner of the last Grand Prix cycle, Hou Yifan has gained the right to challenge Mariya for the top laurel in Women’s Chess.

The first game turned out to be a peaceful one. Playing the white side of the Closed Guico Piano opening, Mariya was unable to challenge Hou Yifan’s solid position by any means. With lots of pieces exchanged and a lifeless Queen endgame on board, the players decided to shake hands on move 31.

The second game, to be played today, will witness the two players facing each other with colours reversed.

Graz Open Final: Li Chao triumphs

The Graz International Chess Open 2016 was held from 12th February to 19th February. The field of this 9-round event consisted of a total of 15 Grandmasters, spearheaded by Chinese Super-GM Li Chao (2751). Maintaining his top position throughout the event, Li Chao emerged victorious in this strong event.

Li Chao’s performance was nothing but dominant. The Chinese GM aced the field by scoring a total of 8 points and remaining unbeaten throughout the course of the event. The only draws that he conceded were against 2600+ GMs Ragger and Banusz. With this result, Li Chao has climbed up to the World No. 13 spot in the live ratings.

Meanwhile, GM Tamas Banusz’s excellent performance helped him finish as the runner-up. Banusz notched up a total of 7.5 points, gaining an impressive 18 rating points on the way. GM Ragger Markus finished third with 7 points.

Final Standings