The cream of the world’s chess players come to Hammersmith next week, for the World Rapid and Blitz championships, with an opportunity for London amateurs to watch them in action. Play is from 1.30pm to 8.30pm daily on Wednesday June 11 to Saturday June 15.
Alas, tickets for the event at the Novotel Hotel are scarce, and priced accordingly.
There are likely to be 56 teams, many of them English, with such well-known names as Hikaru Nakamura and Ian Nepomniachtchi, playing 12 rounds of rapid and a mixed format of blitz chess. Among the strongest teams are national squads from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and the strongest of all are the top seeds WR, which is short for Wadim Rosenstein, a German millionaire who has hired the elite including Nakamura and Nepomniachtchi, and other stars to play for him, with himself as the captain. The WR squad also includes two of the best women players, Hou Yifan and Alexandria Kosteniuk.
Other familiar names are Alireza Firouzja, Nigel Short, Vishy Anand and Arjun Erigaisi, but there will be no Magnus Carlsen, as the No 1 has fallen out with the world body Fide. Several of the English teams will be composed predominantly of young players who will be looking eagerly for the chance of a giant-killing, so some sharp attacking games will be likely. A new name to look out for is Russia’ s Roman Shogdzhiev, who has become the youngest ever international master at the age of 10.
Last week’s strong Cambridge tournament was won for the third year running by the eight-time British champion Michael Adams, who tied with the former New Zealand champion Brandon Clarke on 7.5/.9. Clarke’s final round win, achieved with the sharp Hungarian Sicilian Defence, is an opening that could be useful to readers. The game is an offbeat line, which Black knew better than White. The engine assesses White’s 16th as the decisive error, and much prefers 16 Bxd6+ to the move chosen.
The standout result of the moment has been in Stavanger, where Carlsen lost last night from a winning position to Gukesh Dommaraju, India’s 19-year-old world champion. Gukesh was under pressure for much of the game but capitalized on a rare Carlsen blunder for his first classical victory over the Norwegian. The world no 1 punched the table in frustration, toppling the pieces from the board, before shaking Gukesh’s hand and apologising.
The reaction shocked many in the game and the result jeopardises Carlsen’s chances to win the Norway elite tournament including the world’s top five players. There are still four rounds to go, however.
Puzzle 2626
A Guseynov v Taha Ozkan, Ankara 2022. White to move and win.
Click here for solution
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