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| Chess (#638) |
| Devangshu Datta / New Delhi Sep 04, 2010, 00:47 IST |
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 The action last week included wo rapids and a blitz. Carlsen beat Anand in the Arctic Securities Finals in Kristiansund, Norway. Anand's reputation as the best rapid-blitz player around is now under threat if one goes by this result.
Carlsen struggled through the qualifiers with a loss against Jon Ludwig Hammer while Anand sailed through. In the finals, Carlsen won 1.5 -0.5, taking the first game with an impressive attack and easily drawing the second.
Carlsen next takes on the world in the online RAW World Challenge on September 10. The sponsor is G-Star, the apparel giant which is promoting its RAW brand. Anybody can sign up to "play". The format is a vote on alternatives suggested by Judit Polgar, Vachier-Lagrave and Nakamura. Carlsen is also modelling RAW gear, and thus emulating world women's champion Alexandra Kosteniuk, whose day-job is modelling.
In Miskolc, Gelfand won 2:1 (with five draws) against Peter Leko in a hard fought 8-game rapid match. Gelfand had a won position in the eighth which he repeated to seal the match. In Moscow, world no:37 (!), Alexander Morozevic won the 64th Moscow Blitz championship. "Weird Al"'s ranking has swung between 3 and his current low in the past three years. It was his fifth Moscow Blitz title - the record is Mikhail Tal's 12 wins. This is a 20-player Round-Robin with qualifiers and a stunningly powerful field so the 14/19 score was excellent.
The new ratings list suggests Indian chess is stagnating at the top, though there are now 23 Gms, with Adhiban having completed the title, and 6 players at 2600+. Carlsen is no:1 with 2826, a rating only ever exceeded by Kasparov .Anand is no:3 with 2800 while Topalov retains no:2 with 2803.
Apart from Anand, Sasikiran (57) and Surya Ganguly (91) are the top 100 but Parimarjan Negi, Harikishna and Sandipan Chanda have dropped out. More worrying, Negi (who's preparing for board exams) has slid below 2600 and is out of the Top-20 Juniors' list.
The diagram, WHITE TO PLAY, Carlsen Vs Anand, Game 1, Arctic Securities Final, 2010, is the point where pressure converts to a win with 41.Bxh5! The mainline isn't easy to calculate (at rapid especially) but it's a forced loss after 41...gxh5 42.Qh7+ Kf6 (or 42...Ke8 43.Qxh5+ Kf8 44.Rxa5) 43.Rg5 Rxg5 44.hxg5+ Kxg5 45.Qg7+ Kf5 46.Qf7+ Kg5 47.Rc5+ when it's either mate or a hanging queen.
In what follows, king exposure remains the major issue 41...Rxe5 42.dxe5 Qd5+ 43.Bf3 Qxe5 44.Re4 Qd6 45.h5! Rf8 46.Qb2 b5 47.axb5 cxb5 48.Qxb5 Nf5 49.Qb7+ Kf6 50.Qh7 gxh5 51.Bxh5 Qd5 52.Bf3 Qd2 53.g4 Ng7 54. g5+ (1-0). Either 54. --Qxg5+ 55. Rg4, or 54. - Kf7 55.Rf4+ loses the knight minimum.
Devangshu Datta is an internationally-rated chess and correspondence chess player
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