Independent on Saturday

CHESS BY VICTOR STRUGO

The Steinitz 45th Anniversary Festival Rapid Tournament was jointly won by Jason Davies (1st on tie-break) and Lwazi Selepe, both with 5.5/6, a full point ahead of Shabir Bhawoodien, Denise Bouah and Shaun Willenberg.

Players are now gearing up for the South African Open which starts in Goodwood next Saturday. Late registrations: https://bit.ly/SAOpen22. The Candidates tournament in Madrid ends next Thursday, identifying who will challenge Magnus Carlsen next year. Should the World Champ retire undefeated (as he has implausibly hinted) the winner and runner-up will play a match to determine his successor.

Meanwhile, Carlsen won his fourth Norway Chess tournament last month, fighting off a late challenge by Shakh Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan). Former Champ Vishy Anand made all the early running and eventually ended 3rd. Not bad for a 52-year-old veteran. The evergreen Anand had come straight from the Grand Chess Tour Superbet Rapid & Blitz event held at the Museum of Polish Jewry in Warsaw where he had tied second with Levon Aronian (USA) behind local favourite Jan-Krzysztof Duda. Vishy brutally “miniaturized” his joint runner-up in Round 5. Aronian, L Anand, V (Bishop’s Opening, Berlin Defence):

1 e4 e5 2 Bc4 Nf6 3 d3 Bc5 4 Nf3 d6 5 O-O O-O 6 c3 Bb6 7 Nbd2 c6 8 Bb3 Re8 9 Re1 Be6 10 Bc2 Nbd7 11 d4 Bg4 12 h3 Bh5 13 g4 Bg6 14 dxe5 Nxe5 15 Nxe5 (Until here this looked like tame wood-pushing by two club patzers. Yet in 10 more moves, the World No. 5 gets s blown away!) 15 … Rxe5! 16 Nc4?! (So far behind in development, this is simply too extravagant. Safest was 16 Kg2! d5 and after 17 f4 Bxe4+ 18 Nxe4 Rxe4 19 Bxe4 Nxe4 White’s defence is tricky but feasible) 16... Nxe4! 17 Nxb6 (17 Nxe5 Nxf2 18 Qe2 Bxc2 19 Be3 Nxh3+ 20 Kh2 Bxe3 21 Qxe3 [21 Qxc2 Qh4! 22 Nf3 Bf4+] 21... dxe5 22 Kxh3 e4! is virtually winning) 17... Nxf2! 18 Qd2 (There’s nothing better. 18 Kxf2 Qh4+ 19 Kf1 Qxh3+) 18... Qxb6 19 Rxe5 Nxg4+ 20 Kg2 (20 Re3 Nxe3 21 Qxe3 Bxc2 is also hopeless) 20... Nxe5 21 Bxg6 hxg6 22 Qxd6 Qb5! (Short “creeping” Queen moves are often hard to see – and are also often killers) 23 Qd1 Nd3 24 b3

THE XFILES

en-za

2022-07-02T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-07-02T07:00:00.0000000Z

http://independentonsaturday.pressreader.com/article/282187949713803

African News Agency