No Country For Young Men

John B. Henderson • Sep 11, 2023

With the top teenage talents being overshadowed in the Tata Steel Chess India Rapid in Kolkata by a dominant performance from seasoned veteran Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, there were hopes of a homeland comeback in the follow-on Blitz tournament - and one looked to be on the cards, only for another “old guy”, this time Alexander Grischuk, crashing the teenage party by capturing the second, even faster speed title.

Early doors, all eyes were firmly on Rameshbabu “Pragg” Praggnanandhaa, with his flying start of a perfect 5/5 on the opening day of the two-day double-round contest. But that was as good as it got for the 18-year-old Candidate-qualifier, who could only finish the day on 6.5/9, and despite being the sole leader, he held what looked a very slender half-point lead over nearest rivals Santosh Vidit and Grischuk, ominously the only unbeaten player.

The Russian speed maven, playing under the neutral FIDE flag due to the Ukraine invasion, then went on to reinforce his blitz credentials and reputation with a powerhouse performance on day two, as he went on to win the title with a final tally of 12/19, edging out Nodirbek Abdusattorov and overnight leader Pragg, who finished in second and third place respectively, a point behind on 11 points each.

In victory, in his typical "thug life" persona, Grischuk said it was about time that he “won something”, as it was four years since his last tournament win! He also warmly praised the fighting performance shown by today’s young players: “It is great that all these youngsters, they have amazing fighting spirit. When I was young, we used to be afraid of Garry [Kasparov], Vishy [Anand], Vladimir [Kramnik]... They are not afraid of anyone. Maybe, they are just slightly afraid of Magnus [Carlsen]!"

Tata Steel Chess India Blitz:

1. A. Grischuk (FIDE) 12/18; 2-3. N. Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan), R. Praggnanandhaa (India) 11; 4. A. Erigaisi (India) 10½; 5. M. Vachier-Lagrave (France) 9½; 6. P. Harikrishna (India) 8½; 7. S. Vidit (India) 8; 8. Gukesh D (India) 7½; 9. V. Keymer (Germany) 6½; 10. T. Radjabov (Azerbaijan) 5½.

GM Alexander Grischuk - GM Gukesh D

Tata Steel India Chess Blitz, (12)

 D53: QGD, 4.Bg5 Be7 5.e3 O-O

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Bg5 d5 4.e3 Be7 5.Nc3 O-O 6.Qc2 h6 7.Bh4 Nbd7 8.cxd5 exd5 9.Bd3 c6 10.Nf3 Re8 11.O-O Ne4 12.Bxe4 Bxh4 13.Bh7+! A subtle little move - and we will soon see why in a few moves. 13...Kh8 14.Bd3 Be7 15.Rae1 We've reached a QGD Exchange Variation, which is not always all about the Minority Attack with the b4-b5 pawn push to break up the queenside - sometimes, it can also come with a direct kingside assault, as happens in this game. 15...Nf6 16.Ne5 Kg8 Now we see the importance of Bh7+, as Grischuk gains a vital move to crank up an imaginative kingside attack. 17.a3 Bd6 18.f4 a5 19.h3 c5 Also, an alternative option is 19...Be6 followed by ...Qc7 and trying to keep the queenside pawns solid. 20.Qf2 Be6 21.g4 Rf8 It's blitz, and facing a potential pawn storm on the kingside, Gukesh D panics somewhat by moving the rook back to where it came from, rather than "getting on with it" by playing ...Rc8 - and the hesitation is enough for Grischuk to seize his big chance.

22.Kh1 Rc8 23.Rg1 cxd4?! You know things are getting a bit "iffy" when Mr. Engine wants to try the desperate defence of 23...g5. 24.exd4 Ne4 Gukesh is hoping that, by sacrificing a pawn, he can clear the board with a mass of exchanges to find a holdable endgame - but Grischuk just has the telling advantage in all the resulting lines. If anything, with Grischuk's notorious bad habit of being a compulsive time-trouble freak, it might have been wiser to keep all the pieces on the board to keep the position complex for now rather than any simplifications. 25.Nxe4 dxe4 26.Bxe4 Bxe5 27.dxe5 Bd5 28.Qg2 Bxe4 29.Qxe4 Qb6 30.g5! Grischuk carries on with his kingside attack; an attack that now forces Gukesh's hand into trading the queens. 30...hxg5 31.Rxg5 Qc6 Anything else is going to end with utter carnage on the g-file. 32.Qxc6 Rxc6 33.Reg1 g6 34.f5 Kh7 35.e6! And with this accurate pawn push, Black is consigned to a losing R+P ending. 35...fxe6 36.fxg6+ Kg7 37.Rh5 Rh8 38.Rxh8 Kxh8 39.Kh2 Kg7 Black is losing the R+P ending, and no better was 39...Rc2+ as 40.Rg2! Rxg2+ 41.Kxg2 Kg7 42.a4! and the transition to the K+P ending also lost despite the equal number of pawns, as 42...Kxg6 43.Kf3 Kf5 44.h4 e5 45.h5 and the outside passed h-pawn is used as a decoy as the white king captures the e-pawn and then scoots over to hoover up the b- and a-pawns. 40.h4 Rc5 Once again, if 40...Rc2+ 41.Rg2 and any transition to the K+P ending, as in the note above, is losing for Black. 41.Kh3 We can't always be pin-point accurate as Mr.Engine in a R+P endgame when it comes to blitz and the clock flags metaphorically hanging - but more accurate was 41.Rg4! 41...b5? (see diagram) The only possible try to hold this, and the reason for why Rg4 was the more accurate previous move, is that with 41...a4! 42.Rg4 Ra5 Black just makes it all difficult, as White still has to put a shift in to win this ending. 42.Rg5! One of those "oft!" moments, when you suddenly realise that you are stone-cold losing the endgame, whether that by of the R+P or K+P variety - but kudos to Grischuk for being alert to this possibility. 42...Rxg5 43.hxg5 Kxg6 44.Kg4 It's much the same as the note given to move 39 - the Black king is going to be too far away from the queenside to save the game. 44...e5 45.b3 a4 46.b4 e4 47.Kf4 e3 48.Kxe3 1-0 And Gukesh resigns with 48…Kxg5 49.Kd4 and both the b- and a-pawns fall in rapid succession.

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The 42 Paradox

By John B. Henderson • 02 Oct, 2023

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We'll Meet Again

By John B. Henderson • 29 Sep, 2023

The self-proclaimed “final boss of chess” does what the final boss of chess does best of all: Magnus Carlsen beat Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the final of the AI Cup winners’ bracket, the sixth and final leg of the 2023 Champions Chess Tour regular season, to reach yet another Grand Final in the novel double-elimination contest. But it wasn’t without an epic bare-knuckle street fight from both players, as MVL proved to be a worthy opponent for what looked to be an unstoppable Carlsen, who narrowly prevailed in the Armageddon to take the match 3-2. "This is the sort of thing that happens when you play Sicilians in every game," said a magnanimous Carlsen in victory after four fighting Sicilians left the match tied at 2-2.

Tiers For Fears

By John B. Henderson • 27 Sep, 2023

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By John B. Henderson • 25 Sep, 2023

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By John B. Henderson • 22 Sep, 2023

With a smorgasbord of online chess events out there now, the granddaddy of them all is surely the Chess.com Speed Chess Championship , with a $150,000 prize fund that determines just who is the best blitz and bullet players. It has become the perennial fan-favourite with arguably the best viewing experience - and the fans are set for yet another spectacular finale later today, as the two rivals who dominate the roll of honour, Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura, get set for another explosive showdown in the 2023 final. Friday’s final and commentary, free to view, starts at 14:00 ET (11:00 PT; 20:00 CEST; 23:30 IST) on Chess.com. Carlsen and Nakamura have won each edition since the inaugural Speed Chess Championship event in 2016 - Carlsen won the first two speed titles before taking a hiatus, only for Nakamura to rule the roost, winning four more times.

A Messi Kid

By John B. Henderson • 19 Sep, 2023

India today is a land of amazing young talents and prospects in chess, with the country seemingly having a never-ending production line of prodigies rolling off the factory conveyor belt. But for some countries, such as Argentina, prodigies only seem to come around with all the regularity of Halley’s Comet . One of the first notable post-war chess prodigies was Oscar Panno from Buenos Aires, who became the first world-class player born in South America. In 1953, at the age of 17, he became only the second World Junior Champion , having won the coveted youth title ahead of a strong cadre of future elite-level Grandmasters such as Boris Ivkov (who in 1951 was crowned the first World Junior Ch), Bent Larsen, and Fredrik Olafsson.

The Great Rook 'n' Roll Swindle

By John B. Henderson • 14 Sep, 2023

“Chess is a cruel game. We all know that feeling when your position has gone awry and everything seems hopeless. You feel like resigning. But don’t give up! This is precisely the moment to switch to swindle mode. Master the art of provoking errors and you will be able to turn the tables and escape with a draw or sometimes even steal the full point!” So wrote David Smerdon, an Australian chess grandmaster and one of his country’s leading behavioural economists, on the back cover of his witty and wickedly entertaining, not to mention the much-lauded and deserving 2020 ECF Book of the Year winner, The Complete Chess Swindler (New in Chess).

My Indian Summer

By John B. Henderson • 08 Sep, 2023

The past couple of years have proved to be a major one for India - not only a global player with world leaders descending this week in New Delhi for the G20 Summit and recently successfully landing a spacecraft on the moon but now also a fully-fledged chess superpower, with many exciting young talents set to make the country a dominant force for the foreseeable future. Many would even speculate that Indian Chess could well turn into a hegemony, in much the same way as the Soviets dominated the chess scene in the 1945 post-war period until its collapse and ultimate dissolution in 1991. The latest big chess tournament to be held in India coincides with the G20, with the fifth Tata Steel Chess India Rapid & Blitz - a spinoff from the larger Dutch super-tournament, the Tata Steel Chess Masters in Wijk aan Zee - taking place 5-9 September in Kolkata.

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By John B. Henderson • 04 Sep, 2023

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By John B. Henderson • 29 Aug, 2023

The game’s world governing body, FIDE, has launched yet another World Championship event, the inaugural World Team Championship , that was held over the past weekend in Dusseldorf, Germany - but this one is mildly controversial, as the clue can be found in the eventual final result, as it took on the air of a vanity project dominated by the event sponsor’s own powerhouse WR Chess team. It had its attractions though, with forty-two sponsored teams registered to take part in the tournament and a unique blend of professional players, top women, and amateurs on each team. The novel format, faster time control (15 minutes per player, with a 10-second increment per move), and inclusion of amateur players alongside professionals aimed to make the event accessible to a wider audience (and that part failed, apparently).