Just eight days after their fateful title decider in Astana, China’s victorious Ding Liren and his vanquished Russian opponent, Ian Nepomniachtchi, are trailing in Bucharest. The Superbet Classic, which finishes in the Romanian capital on Monday, is the first leg of the St Louis-organised Grand Chess Tour with seven of the current world top 10 taking part.
Ding had considered withdrawal due to fatigue from the marathon series in Kazakhstan, and his first four games were halved before he lost to Alireza Firouzja, 19, who said: “For sure, it’s an easier world champion than Magnus.” Nepomniachtchi began well but then lost twice.
Fabiano Caruana, the US champion, who earned plaudits from online viewers for his lucid and perceptive insights into the world title games, began in style at Bucharest where successive wins in rounds three and four gave him the overall lead, half a point ahead of his nearest pursuers.
It was a reminder that, at his peak, Caruana was rated 2851, the all-time No 3 on official figures behind Magnus Carlsen and Garry Kasparov. Caruana is still only 30, so Carlsen’s abdication provides an opportunity for another tilt at the crown that he narrowly missed in 2018.
In round three Caruana anticipated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave’s favourite Grunfeld 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 d5 by launching 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 h4!?, the sharp and trendy move first popularised by England’s “Ginger GM” Simon Williams before being taken up by the elite. France’s Vachier-Lagrave elected to counter it by a version of the Benko Gambit with an early b7-b5, but after he dropped a second pawn Caruana took over. Black’s knights got in a tangle, his queen was trapped deep in the white position, and the Frenchman conceded after only 23 moves.
Caruana v Nepomniachtchi in round four seemed to be heading for a drawn ending until the Russian weakened his pawn structure and Caruana ground out a win he described as “really satisfying”. The game illustrated how Q+N often combine better in the ending than Q+B (Q+N v2Rs+B is even stronger) despite being nominally equal. It was Caruana’s first win against Nepomniachtchi in classical chess following 12 draws and a loss.
Scores after five of the nine rounds: Caruana 3.5, Firouzja (France), Wesley So (US) and Richard Rapport (Romania) 3, Vachier-Lagrave and Anish Giri (Netherlands) 2.5, Ding, Nepomniachtchi and Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Poland) 2, Bogdan-Daniel Deac (Romania) 1.5. Firouzja is now world No 2 on the live rankings. Games start at 1.30pm BST daily, and can be watched free and live with grandmaster and computer commentaries, on major chess websites.
A recent interview revealed that Rex Sinquefield, the billionaire who created and finances the Grand Chess Tour, has donated at least $50m to chess causes. The Tour’s concluding event in November-December is the Sinquefield Cup. The 78-year-old’s passion was sparked long ago by a chance aircraft encounter with Bobby Fischer en route to Tokyo for a meeting with Anatoly Karpov.
Sinquefeld’s total must be well ahead of any other individual chess donor in history, and probably ranks second overall to the former Soviet Union, where chess was heavily supported all the way from Vladimir Lenin to the 1991 breakup.
The eight-time Russian champion and popular online commentator Peter Svidler has just won the strong annual Sigeman invitation tournament at Malmö, Sweden. Svidler scored 4.5/7, but the standout result was by the world’s youngest grandmaster, Abhimanyu Mishra, now 14, who shared second with India’s Dommaraju Gukesh, 16. Fischer won the US championship at 14, but that is about the only result by an under-15 that is superior to Mishra’s in Malmö.
England teams are currently No 1 in the world in over-50 and over-65 chess, a reflection of the vintage years of the 1980s when Olympiad teams won silver medals behind the Soviets on three occasions.
Last weekend’s English senior championships at Leamington Spa were, therefore, important events for deciding who gets to play when the 2023 world championships are staged at Ohrid, North Macedonia, in September.
IM Chris Baker won the over-65 title with an unbeaten 6/7, a point ahead of the favourite, IM Paul Littlewood. The world individual over-65 champion, GM John Nunn, did not compete.
The over-50 championship was shared between two longstanding heroes of the weekend tournament circuit, GMs Keith Arkell and Mark Hebden, both with 5.5/7, and thereby hangs a tale. The ECF website simultaneously published two different sets of tiebreak regulations, one giving preference to most games with Black (which favoured Hebden) and the other prioritising a Buchholz calculation system of stronger opponents (which favoured Arkell). After discussions with the two players, the ECF decided that in the unique circumstances the title should be shared.
Chess.com Manx Liberty have won Britain’s national league, the 4NCL, for a second year running. The Isle of Man team won all its matches, with Chessable White Rose second, Cheddleton third, and Wood Green fourth. Round nine was the title decider, as Manx edged White Rose 4.5-3.5, a score made up of seven draws and a win for Alexei Shirov.
Shirov is a class act. The former Latvian, 50, who now represents Spain, was world No 2 in his prime, was often compared to Mikhail Tal, and titled his autobiography Fire on Board. He has been used sparingly by Manx for key 4NCL matches over several seasons, where his current score is played 10, won 10.
Harry Grieve, the 22-year-old British champion, and Peter Roberson, 34, both completed their second grandmaster norms (three are needed for the title plus a 2500 rating) in the 4NCL season, with unbeaten totals of 9/11 and 8/11. Both play for the Sharks team, whose captain has a pragmatic approach to helping his squad achieve their individual goals. On the final weekend, Grieve and Roberson played all their three games with the favourable white pieces as the board order was juggled for each match.
3867: 1 Ng5+! fxg5 2 Qf3+ Kg8 3 Rxe6! and Black resigned. If 3...Rxe6 4 Qf8 mate, and if 3...Qf7 4 Bf5! with the threat 5 Rxe8+ Qxe8 6 Be6+! and mate, is winning.
