Moscow Candidates

In Moscow the Candidates Tournament to decide who challenges Magnus Carlsen for the next World Championship has reached the half-way stage and it is fair to say that highlights have been few. It is perhaps not surprising that with eight of the world’s best players fighting it out in a 14-round tournament with so much at stake there will not be many decisive results, especially in the first half. However, seven wins out of 28 matches is disappointing for the spectator with the result that the table looks a little congested apart from the unfortunate Veselin Topalov. Having lost three of his seven matches, he looks to be out of contention barring a miraculous recovery in the second half of the tournament,

Current standings

1= Sergey Karjakin 4½/7 4. Anish Giri    3½/7
Lev Aronian 4½/7 6= Hikaru Nakamura 3/7
3. Viswanathan Anand 4/7 Peter Svidler 3/7
4. Fabiano Caruana 3½/7 8. Veselin Topalov  2/7

Spectators looking for entertainment could do worse than watch games involving Vishy Anand.  He has won two and lost one of his seven games hitherto and his swift victory over Peter Svidler is a good example of how a slight miscalculation at the highest level can result in the roof falling in very quickly.

White:  Viswanathan Anad (2762)          Black: Peter Svidler (2757)

Round 6 Moscow Candidates 2016  

Black resigns

 

Hou Yifan regains world title

women's world championshipHou Yifan, trumpeted by me in January during her performance in the Tata Steel Tournament, has regained her world title after defeating her Ukrainian opponent,  Mariya Muzychuk (pictured with Hou on the right) 6-3. Hou won three games and drew the others, finally winning the match after Mariya pushed too hard for a win in Game 9 in order to force the match into a tenth game. Hou is now both the world champion and number one female player in the world.  Although the winning game was Game 9, the crucial victory for Hou was Game 6, one where Mariya had good chances but where defeat left her two points behind with only four games to go.

White:  Mariya Muzychuk (2563)          Black: Hou Yifan (2667)

Women’s World Chess Championship (Lviv) 2016  Game 6

White resigns

Millar Cup v Ramsgate (h)

Broadstairs     4½                Ramsgate   2½

1 David Faldon (175) ½-½         Brian Westover (153)
2 Bob Page (145) 1-0         default
3 Paul Carfrae (131) 0-1         Steve Guy (138)
4 John Couzens (118) ½-½        Malcolm Snashall (122)
5 Bob Cronin (112) ½-½         Brian Williamson (96)
6 Andy Flood (111) 1-0         Bob Wallace (90)
7 Michael Doyle (89) 1-0          Joshua Vaughan (77)

David Faldon writes:

The match got off to a promising start with us 2-0 up after 32 minutes. Bob P’s opponent failed to show within the 30 minute default time and Mike’s opponent, Josh, mislaid his queen and resigned only a couple of minutes later. Most of the other games were very hard fought, with only one other decided (Bob C’s well-played draw on board 5) before everybody started to run out of time. As time ran down my attention was naturally fixed on my own game on board 1 as I was in danger of being mated but then I managed to swap queens to relieve the pressure. At this point my opponent, Brian, offered me a draw, so I went to assess the other games to see how the team stood. I mentally chalked Paul and Andy up as possible losses but John was clearly winning, so I went back and accepted Brian’s draw offer as I’d calculated that this should give us a 4-3 win. Mere seconds later the other three results came in, and I’d got two of them wrong. So much for my “board 1” calculation skills! To be fair, though, John really was winning at the end but he allowed his opponent a draw once Andy had pulled off his miracle turn-around, converting a tough rooks plus pawns endgame into a winning rook versus pawn one. Congratulations to us on a narrow but pleasing victory. Never give up, never surrender!

Hargreaves Shield v Bridge (h)

Broadstairs  3     Bridge   1

1. Paul Carfrae   (131) ½-½    Chris Stampe (139)
2. John Couzens (118) 1-0    Shahid Sahi (115)
3. Bob Cronin (112) ½-½    Ray Rennells (86)
4. Andy Flood   (111) 1-0     Graeme Boxall (85)

Andy Flood writes:

After last week’s great result at the unfamiliar Phoenix Club, Broadstairs were in the more familiar setting of their Hilderstone home and hoping to maintain their title challenge.

In what was a close match on all four boards, following last week’s quick win Paul was again the first to finish on Board 1 but this time to secure a draw and to share the points. Bob was an early pawn up in a match in which he had the edge from start until the drawn end, so with two games finished honours were even with the other two games also looking like draws. Thinking we needed a win from my Board 4 game, having got into a pickle from grabbing an early pawn, I managed to salvage a win from what should have been a draw, by aggressively attacking and advancing a pawn to queen.

Once again it was left for John ‘Gullbuster’ Couzens to be the last match to finish. It was apparent that I had misread his drawn game as he ‘busted’ through the centre with his pawns to promote to queen and attack his opponent’s very exposed king. In the end it was an inevitable resignation from the Bridge Board 2 player who resigned just one move away from mate.

So the Broadstairs team go into their final Hargreaves game in April knowing that a draw against Woodnesborough will secure them the Shield.

Game of the Week 8

This week’s game features a typical swashbuckling performance from Paul Carfrae, a win that set the Broadstairs team on the way to a crucial victory in the Hargreaves Shield against a Woodnesborough side that had won all its previous matches.  Hold on to your seats!

White: Paul Carfrae (131)            Black: Robin Bellion (e138)

Hargreaves Shield: Broadstairs v Woodnesboough