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www.chess.co.uk 3

ContentsEditorial.................................................................................................................4Malcom Pein on the latest developments in the game

60 Seconds with... Valentina Gunina .......................................................7The Russian star saw off all the male GMs at the London Classic

Sotastic! ...............................................................................................................8Wesley So triumphed at Olympia and in the Grand Chess Tour

How Good is Your Chess? ..........................................................................16Daniel King has been impressed by Vishy Anand’s play of late

Finally - to Hastings! ...................................................................................20Shaun Press shares his impressions of the famous congress

Signs of Life in London................................................................................24Attacking chess and the Sicilian were alive and well at the Classic

The Big Match..................................................................................................30Jonathan Speelman reflects on the world championship match

The First Modern Chess Trainer ..............................................................34GM Tibor Karolyi pays homage to Mark Israilovich Dvoretsky

Never Mind the Grandmasters................................................................36Carl Portman enjoyed winning his first-ever game in London

Christmas Quiz: Solutions .........................................................................38Charles Higgie with all the answers to his fiendishly hard quiz

It Was My Inner Voice Wot Won It! .......................................................40Ivor Annets recounts a most unusual happening during a game

The Pro-Biz Cup .............................................................................................41The curtain-raiser to the Classic went to Terry Chapman and Anand

Find the Winning Moves .............................................................................42Can you do as well as the grandmasters at the London Classic?

Vinyak-Inspired Ventures ..........................................................................46Carl Strugnell enjoyed playing and a certain drink in Novi Sad

Forthcoming Events .....................................................................................49All the leading weekend tournaments on this February

Overseas News ...............................................................................................50The World Rapid and Blitz Champions are Ivanchuk and Karjakin

Home News.......................................................................................................52Harrogate and Telford were but two recent successful congresses

Solutions............................................................................................................54

New Books and Software...........................................................................55Sean Marsh has been enjoying the latest releases from McFarland

Saunders on Chess ........................................................................................58John discusses Bogdan Lalic’s views on well-prepared 2100s

Photo credits: Fiona Steil-Antoni (pp.46), Brendan O’Gorman (pp.20, 22), Lennart

Ootes (pp.1, 7-8, 10-13, 15-16, 25-28,, 30-32, 34, 41, 51-52).

ChessFounding Editor: B.H. Wood, OBE. M.Sc †Executive Editor: Malcolm PeinEditors: Richard Palliser, Matt ReadAssociate Editor: John SaundersSubscriptions Manager: Paul Harrington

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03-03 Contents_Chess mag - 21_6_10 16/01/2017 21:55 Page 3

February 2017

Nowadays happy domiciled in Minnetonka,Minnesota with his adoptive family, 23-year-old Wesley So arrived at the London ChessClassic in the form of his life. So has been agrandmaster for 9 years, but his recent rapidrise has unsurprisingly not gone unnoticed byhis colleagues. As Vladimir Kramnik acknowledged duringthe Classic, “He improved enormously this year.He was already for a while a top player, but thisyear he’s playing maybe the best chess in theworld in fact.” High praise, indeed, as was theRussian’s further, “I feel that he is going to be avery serious challenger for Magnus in the yearsto come. He’s really strong now.” So knew that even if his only remainingGrand Chess Tour rival, Hikaru Nakamura, wasto triumph at Olympia, if he could finishfourth the 2016 Tour would be his. Ofcourse, he no doubt wanted to do muchbetter than a fourth-placed finish, but hisusual combination of humbleness andmodesty prevented him from saying it. The 8th London Chess Classic was playing

host to the final leg of the Grand Chess Tour(GCT) for a second time and as such hopedthat, especially in the absence of therecuperating post-New York Magnus Carlsen,the tournament would be played out to abackdrop of Nakamura and So competing forthe GCT glory. Unfortunately the Americanswere drawn to play not in the final round, butin the very opening one which fell on abirthday Hikaru Nakamura is unlikely ever toremember in a positive guise.

H.Nakamura-W.SoRound 1

Grünfeld Defence

1 d4 Ìf6 2 c4 g6 3 Ìc3 The Grünfeld may have come as a surpriseto Nakamura, but there is no reasonwhatsoever why Black should have to playthe QGD when he’s happy to draw. Moreover,the Grünfeld has long been part of So’srepertoire. He even wheeled it out against

Eljanov at Wijk and in the Ultimate Movescontest against Nakamura himself. There amuch sharper line was discussed and after 3 f3 d5 4 cxd5 Ìxd5 5 e4 Ìb6 6 Ìc3 Íg77 Íe3 0-0 8 Ëd2 Ìc6 9 0-0-0 Ëd6 10 Ìb5 Ëd7 11 Êb1 Îd8 12 d5 a6 13 Ìc3 Ëe8 14 Ëc1 Ìa5 15 h4 White hadalready sounded the charge, going on toprevail in Nakamura-So, St. Louis (blitz) 2016.3...d5 4 cxd5 Ìxd5 5 e4 Ìxc3 6 bxc3Íg7 7 Íe3 c5 8 Îc1 0-0 9 Ëd2 Anatoly Karpov used to like such systemsas White, keeping the central situation fullyunder control. Now Black’s main move by faris 9...Ëa5, after which the queens may wellbe traded, but So was to prefer somethingmuch less common, if a sub-variationemployed on occasion by Anand, Svidler andVachier-Lagrave.9...e5!? 10 d5 This feels critical and was played prettyquickly. Instead, 10 dxe5 Ëxd2+ 11 Êxd2Îd8+ 12 Êc2 Íd7 13 f4 Íc6 saw Blackregaining his pawn in Svidler-Vachier-

The Grand Chess Tour leader dominated the London Chess Classic

Sotastic!

8

08-15 Sotastic_Chess mag - 21_6_10 16/01/2017 21:27 Page 8

One might have imagined that after hissecond world championship defeat againstMagnus Carlsen at the end of 2014 thatViswanathan Anand might have slipped gentlyinto a comfortable retirement from elite-levelevents, perhaps playing lucrative league games,exhibition matches and holiday tournaments inattractive locations. Not a bit of it. The veteranIndian, just turned 47 years old, has once againfound his feet at the chessboard. Highlights of 2016 include second in theZurich Challenge blitz, then first in the rapid;joint second in the terrifically tight Candidatestournament; first in the Leon knock-outtournament; joint second at the Sinquefield Cup;first in the St. Louis Showdown rapid and blitzevent – ahead of Caruana, Nakamura and Topalov. The London Chess Classic – without MagnusCarlsen, but arguably one of the strongesttournaments of the year – was a severe test,but Vishy played with enterprise and experience,finishing with a respectable 5/9. It’s quite clear that Anand is still preparinghard behind the scenes.

W.So-V.AnandLondon 2016

Queen’s Gambit Declined

1 d4 Ìf6 2 c4 e6 3 Ìf3 d5 4 Ìc3 Ìbd75 Íf4 dxc4 6 e3 b5 7 Ìxb5 Íb4+ 8 Ìc3 Ìd5 9 a3 Ìxc3 10 Ëd2

Anand’s next came as a complete surpriseto Wesley So and gave the Indian superstar aneasy draw.10...Íxa3!? 11 Ëxc3 Íd6 12 Íxd6 cxd613 Íxc4 0-0 14 0-0 Íb7 15 Íe2 Ëb616 Îfc1 Îfc8 17 Ëa3 Íxf3 18 Íxf3

February 201716

HHooww GGoooodd iiss YYoouurr CChheessss??

by Grandmaster Daniel King

Born back on the 11th December 1969, Vishy Anand’s many achievements include: WorldJunior Champion 1987, FIDE World Champion 2000-2002, World Champion 2007-2013,

World Rapid Champion 2003, and being rated no.1 in the world for 21 months. We shouldn’tforget too that early in his career Vishy was a regular participant in English tournaments.

16-19 HGIYC_Chess mag - 21_6_10 16/01/2017 21:42 Page 16

February 2017

For someone whose chess career started(and continues) on the other side of theworld, the Hastings International ChessCongress was one of those special eventsthat one day I had hoped to get to. Startingwith the historic 1895 Congress, ‘Hastings’,as it simply known as, has attracted almost allof the world’s great players during its run of92 tournaments. As a comparison, Australia’slargest event, the O2C Doeberl Cup, has onlybeen running for 54 years. Seeing the event in person also confirmedhow significant it is for the English chesscommunity. While previously designed tomatch the world’s best against the UK’s best,it is now part of the British chess Christmasholiday tradition, and many players arrived tobe greeted almost like family, paying theirannual visit to ‘home’. The 2016/17 Hastings InternationalCongress attracted a strong international field,to go with the large English contingent whohoped to achieve the first home victory sinceMark Hebden’s equal first in 2013/14. IndianGM S.P. Sethuraman was the top seed and led astrong contingent of Indian players, with fellowGMs Deep Sengupta (winner in 2010/11) andMurali Karthikeyan seeded in the top five. TheEnglish challenge was headed by GMs DannyGormally and Mark Hebden.

There was also a large group of strongDanish players, with GM Allan Stig Rasmussenat the head, and a couple of young AustralianIMs looking for a chance at a GM norm.

Rounds 1-3

Normally the first three rounds are wherethe leading players establish themselves, afew hopefuls score the odd upset, and therest try and get their expected losses out ofthe way. In Hastings almost none of thishappened as expected. As Hastings uses Accelerated Pairings (BakuSystem), the top seeds found they were facingstronger opponents than usual. As a result thetop four boards saw plenty of hard chess, and inthe end two and a half upsets. Top seed S.P. Sethuraman lost to Danish FMJasper Thybo in a game that was later judgedthe best of the tournament. Third seed BenjaminGledura of Hungary lost to IM Richard Batesafter pushing too hard for a win, while secondseed GM Alexandr Fier drew with Serbian FMJovica Radovanovic. It was only GM DeepSengupta of the top four who scored a full point,beating FM Kristoffer Dyrgaard. There were acouple of other upsets wins further down, whilea number of lower-rated players took halfpoints off their higher-rated opponents.

S.Sethuraman-J.ThyboRound 1

Jobava-Prié Attack

1 d4 Ìf6 2 Íf4 The London System is less of a surprise thesedays, and it is now common at the top level.2...g6 3 Ìc3 d5 4 e3 Íg7 5 h4 An aggressive choice by the tournament’stop seed.5...c6 6 Íe2 h5 This stops the action down the h-file, butdoes surrender the g5-square to White. Blackis now effectively playing a Gurgenidze Caro-Kann against White’s set-up.7 Ìf3 Íg4 8 Ìg5 Íxe2 9 Ëxe2 0-0 100-0-0 b5 11 e4 Moving the queen was White’s other choicehere, allowing the knight to retreat to e2.11...b4 12 Ìb1 dxe4 13 Ìxe4 Ìbd7 14 Ìbd2 Ìd5 15 Íh2 Ëb6 15...Íxd4 was on offer here: 16 g4 hxg417 h5 gxh5 18 Íg3 with a similar position towhat was played in the game.16 g4 White decides to smash open the kingsidebefore the queenside attack gets going.16...hxg4 17 h5 gxh5 18 Íg3 Ëb5

19 Ëe1? White should have taken advantage ofBlack’s desire to swap queens. 19 Ëxb5 cxb520 Îxh5 f5 21 Îg5! is dynamically equal, iftactically messy, and Black is the only playerwith worries about his king safety.19...Ì5f6 20 f3 Ëd5! Centralising the queen is a powerful idea,allowing it to both attack and defend at thesame time.21 fxg4 Ìxg4 22 Ìb3 a5 White’s attack has stalled, and theinitiative has shifted to Black.23 Êb1 f5 24 Ìg5 24 Ìec5 f4 25 Ìxd7 Ëxd7 26 Ìc5Ëd5 is also bad for White.24...f4 25 Íh4 Ìe3 26 Îd3 a4 27 Ìd2Ìf6 28 Îg1 Ìfg4 29 Ìgf3 b3 (seediagram at top of the next column) Having sufficiently covered the open files onthe kingside, Black now continues his attack.

Ì Ì Ì Ì Ì Ì Ì Ì Ì Ì

Australian arbiter Shaun Press shares his impressionson his first visit to the famous Hastings Congress

Finally - toHastings!

20

The Hornyte Park Sports Com.plex played host to the 92nd edition of the Hastings Congress.

20-23 & 53-53 Hastings_Chess mag - 21_6_10 16/01/2017 21:47 Page 20

February 2017

The 2014 London Chess Classic, won byVishy Anand, featured just five decisivegames from its 15 encounters, which alsoincluded some five Berlins. Fast forward ayear to when the Classic first became thefinal event in the Grand Chess Tour and wefind that 10 games from 45 were decisive,while there were a staggering 13 Berlins(incidentally, in which on some sevenoccasions White went in for the main line – 1 e4 e5 2 Ìf3 Ìc6 3 Íb5 Ìf6 4 0-0 Ìxe45 d4 Ìd6 6 Íxc6 dxc6 7 dxe5 Ìf5 8 Ëxd8+ Êxd8). Meanwhile of those eightdecisive games in 2015, three arose from thesix Open Sicilians (an opening seeminglyunknown a year earlier) which were seen. Not such exciting statistics you might bethinking and then we could mention the recentworld championship match... However, whetherit was a reaction to events between Magnusand Sergey or because only two players beganthe 2016 Classic with a chance of Tour success,the tournament was pretty bloodthirsty to thedelight of the crowd. Round 1 saw threedecisive games and while Giri against Vachier-Lagrave was a draw, it was Giri, not theFrenchman, who was on the black side of aNajdorf. The very next day saw a secondNajdorf and one in which Vishy Anand arrivedwell prepared with an unusual idea.

V.Anand-M.Vachier LagraveRound 2

Sicilian Najdorf

1 e4 c5 2 Ìf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Ìxd4 Ìf65 Ìc3 a6 6 h3 Vladimir Kramnik might have tried 6 Íg5to down no less an adversary than BorisGelfand at the Tal Memorial, but in London hepreferred a move more in keeping with hisstyle, 6 g3. After 6...e5 7 Ìde2 Íe6 8 Íg2h5!? 9 Íg5 Ìbd7 10 Ëd2 Íe7 11 a4 Îc812 0-0 Ìf8 13 Íxf6 Íxf6 14 Îfd1 Íe715 Ìd5 h4 16 Ìec3 White’s grip on the everimportant d5-square gave him a pleasant pullin Kramnik-Giri.

6...e5 Later in the tournament Anand too had toface Giri and quite a stiff challenge here in theshape of 6...e6 7 g4 Íe7 8 g5 Ìfd7 9 h4 b510 a3 Íb7 11 Íe3 Ìc6. One’s gut feeling isthat Black cannot be doing badly with suchstraightforward development, although 12 Ëd2 0-0 13 0-0-0 Ìc5?! did feel a littlestrange, blocking the c-file. However, thatwas not all that was strange about Anand-Giriwhere after 14 f3 Îb8 15 Îg1 (as ever, 15 Êb1 can hardly be a bad move and adecent case might be made too for 15 Ìxc6!?Íxc6 16 h5) 15...Ëc7 16 b4?! (extremelyambitious; if White did want to stab forwardsso on the queenside, 16 Ìxc6 Íxc6 17 h5a5 18 b4 was likely a better way of doingthings) 16...Ìd7...

...17 Ìdxb5?! (the point of Anand’s play,but three pawns won’t compensate for apiece with the white king so exposed)17...axb5 18 Ìxb5 Ëc8 19 Ìxd6 Íxd6 20 Ëxd6 Îd8 21 b5?! Ìde5 White reallyshouldn’t have survived.7 Ìb3 This idea has generally been associatedwith a Íe3 follow-up, but Anand has a smalltwist in mind. The trendy alternative is 7Ìde2 h5 when 8 g3 Íe6 9 Íg2 b5 10 0-0Ìbd7 11 Íe3 Íe7 12 Ìd5 Ìxd5 13 exd5Íf5 14 f4 Îc8 15 c3 Íh7 saw MVL on thewrong side for once of his favourite opening

in Vachier-Lagrave-Giri, Anish quipping afterthe game that “Maxime is the big Najdorfguy, so I thought let’s try and steal that titlefrom him!”.7...Íe6 8 f4 Ìbd7 One of Anand’s seconds was to show theway as Black in the later game, Lu Shangelei-Wojtaszek, World Rapid Championship, Doha2016, where 8...g6!? 9 Ëf3 Ìc6 10 f5Íxb3 11 axb3 Ìd4 12 Ëf2 gxf5 13 exf5d5 generated decent counterplay.9 g4!?

Highly ambitious, but also rather criticalplay.9...Îc8 Vachier-Lagrave gets in the first officialnovelty, but it was to be only Anand whocontinued blitzing out the moves. Perhapsunknown to the French Najdorf guru, 9...b510 Íg2 (10 f5 was likely the improvementup Anand’s sleeve) 10...Ìb6 11 g5 Ìfd7 12 f5 Íc4 13 Ìa5 Îc8! had been rathermurky in Khismatullin-Duda, Yerevan 2014. Ialso wondered about 9...exf4!? 10 g5 (10 Íxf4? runs into the sneaky 10...Ìh5!)10...Ìxe4, but Black shouldn’t have quiteenough for a piece after 11 Ìxe4 d5 12 Ìc3Ëxg5 13 Ëd4.10 f5 Íxb3 11 axb3 d5?! The principled Najdorf break, but it justdoesn’t quite cut the mustard here. As such, itseems that Black should prefer 11...Îxc3!

Unlike in the recent world championship match, attacking chess and the OpenSicilian were very much alive and well at the London Chess Classic

Signs of Life in London

24

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