Harikrishna Rampaging in Shenzhen

After starting the Du Te Cup in Shenzhen China with a draw (with Dmitry Jakovenko) and a loss (to Anish Giri), Pentala Harikrishna has caught fire, winning three games in a row. He defeated Richard Rapport in round 3, the generally bulletproof Ding Liren in round 4, and the other Chinese super-GM participating in this event, Yu Yangyi, in round 5. He has thus "won" the first cycle with 3.5/5, half a point ahead of Giri, a point ahead of Ding, and a point and a half clear of the other three. The players have a rest day on Monday, and then they'll do it all again with colors reversed.

Grenke Chess Classic, Round 2: Carlsen Wins Again, Keymer Loses Again, and Svidler Breaks the Pattern

Today's round of the Grenke Chess Classic had much more blood than yesterday's. Magnus Carlsen led the way once again, and won his second straight game in the tournament and fifth overall, grinding out a victory over Francisco Vallejo Pons. He didn't have much to work with and the ending should have been drawn, objectively speaking. But as Carlsen has shown time and time again, "should" doesn't matter. The opponent has to prove the draw, and Vallejo didn't manage it. It's a great start for Carlsen, who achieved his 2-0 score with the black pieces. Tomorrow he'll finally get White, against Viswanathan Anand.

Speaking of Anand, he also won, defeating local prodigy Vincent Keymer. It was a smooth win with White for the former champ, and now the tournament will not only put Keymer's strength to the test, but his resilience as well.

The third winner on the day was Peter Svidler, who outplayed Arkadij Naiditsch with Black with what looked like surprising ease.

The other two games were drawn. Fabiano Caruana played an unusual anti-Sicilian against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave obtaining an interesting and perhaps slightly advantageous position in the queenless middlegame that quickly ensued. Caruana had what fun there was to be had before the game was eventually drawn. Meanwhile, Georg Meier had the more comfortable position on the white side of a short draw against Levon Aronian.

The games are here (without notes - it's Easter!), and these are the pairings for round 3, tomorrow:

• Aronian (1) - Vallejo Pons (.5)
• Svidler (1.5) - Meier (1)
• Vachier-Lagrave (1) - Naiditsch (.5)
• Keymer (0) - Caruana (1)
• Carlsen (2) - Anand (1.5)

Grenke Chess Classic, Round 1: Carlsen Wins, Leads

Round 1 of the Grenke Chess Classic is in the books, and the most important game was a memorable one. With Black against German prodigy Vincent Keymer, Magnus Carlsen felt compelled to take some extra risks to guarantee that he could play for a win. He succeeded, but it took a very long time - 81 moves - and he was probably losing (and at least in very big trouble) early on. A Keymer miscalculation or two let Carlsen escape his early woes and start grinding with an extra pawn, and it was bearing fruit until a very big error on move 56.

This allowed Keymer to reach an objectively equal position, if one where he still had to work hard to prove the draw. At first he handled the situation properly, but on move 67 committed a fatal error. A drawing line was available, and it's likely that he calculated it, too. My guess is that he assumed the position would be lost and didn't bother to check; had he done so, he would have discovered that it draws pretty easily. Missing - or rejecting - this opportunity, he found himself in a lost position, and Carlsen took home the full point without giving Keymer another chance to survive.

The other four games were drawn, and without anything especially interesting taking place. Levon Aronian had a nice edge early on against Arkadij Naiditsch, but quickly let it slip.

The other three games were less eventful, with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave's "game" with Viswanathan Anand being rather pitiful. (It was drawn in 20 moves, by repetition, following numerous predecessors.) Unless MVL was sick or only reached the tournament at the last minute due to some logistics problems, it's a pretty lame performance. (If something was wrong, then never mind!)

Peter Svidler decided to test Fabiano Caruana's Sveshnikov (Caruana has been playing this quite a bit lately; if you can't beat 'em, join 'em), and at least as a practical matter failed to achieve anything. Caruana enjoyed the easier play and could have pressed with 31...Kf7 instead of liquidating to a dead drawn ending with opposite-colored bishops.

Finally, the game between Georg Meier and Francisco Vallejo featured an unusual opening, and while Meier obtained an advantage early on the slow 17.Bf1 let it slip. (17.Nb3 was better.) A repetition soon followed, and the game was drawn on move 25.

The games, with my notes to Keymer-Carlsen, are here. Here are the round 2 pairings:

• Vallejo (.5) - Carlsen (1)
• Anand (.5) - Keymer (0)
• Caruana (.5) - Vachier-Lagrave (.5)
• Naiditsch (.5) - Svidler (.5)
• Meier (.5) - Aronian (.5)

Trivia Time: Who is Caruana's Most Unpleasant Opponent?

Let's restrict the scope of possible answers to players Fabiano Caruana has faced since becoming a grandmaster, and has played at least four times. (No doubt there's some club player who has a 1-0 or 2-0 score against him from when he was a kid, and maybe there's some professional with similar results.)

There's a sense in which the answer should be Magnus Carlsen, as Carlsen is the world champion and long-time world #1. The question is referring to actual results, and while Carlsen's overall score against Caruana is good, of course, there's a better answer.

Tal on TV, with Subtitles

I'm not sure if I posted this before; if I did, I wasn't able to find it. So here you go - enjoy!

Grenke Chess Classic, Round 1 Pairings

The Grenke Chess Classic starts tomorrow (Saturday) at 3 p.m. local time (9 a.m. ET) in Baden-Baden, Germany. This is a big one, with Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Viswanathan Anand, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Levon Aronian headlining the event. Peter Svidler and Arkadij Naiditsch aren't chopped liver either, as they say, and the field is rounded off with Francisco Vallejo Pons, Georg Meier, and young German star Vincent Keymer. Here are the round 1 pairings:

• Keymer - Carlsen (Keymer's chance to really put himself on the map!)
• Svidler - Caruana
• Vachier-Lagrave - Anand
• Aronian - Naiditsch
• Meier - Vallejo

Almost all of these players produce exciting and fighting chess, and if the players weren't already strongly motivated the rating spread will give them a further impetus to go into battle each day. It should be a good event, with the Carlsen vs. Caruana subplot the most notable storyline. (Their head-to-head matchup takes place in round 4, with Caruana getting the white pieces. Will he have anything special ready for Carlsen's Sveshnikov?)

Who do you think should be favored, Magnus Carlsen or the rest of the field?

Du Te Cup (Shenzhen)

It slipped under my radar that there's a strong tournament afoot in Shenzhen, China. It's a small one, with only six players, but all are over 2700 and one - Ding Liren - is over 2800. After three rounds of the Du Te Cup, a ten-round double round-robin, Anish Giri is in first with 2 points, Richard Rapport is in last with 1, and the other four players - Yu Yangyi, Dmitry Jakovenko, Ding Liren, and Pentala Harikrishna - are on 50%.

You might guess that Giri beat Rapport and all the other games were drawn. There have been a lot of draws, but there have been two decisive games, not one. Giri beat Harikrishna in round 2, and Harikrishan turned around and defeated Rapport in round 3. (For those who would like to see a six-way tie for first through last, Rapport can "fix" everything by defeating Giri in round 5.)

English language coverage here and here.

In the Interim (Updated)

Just a quick note to say what's coming up. From April 20-29 the massively strong Grenke Chess Classic will take place, with Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Viswanathan Anand and other mega-stars, plus one of the top prodigies these days, 14-year-old Vincent Keymer. I'm also hoping to write up 1-3 book reviews in the near future as well. Stay tuned.

[Note: I've corrected the dates for the tournament.]

Gashimov Memorial, Final Round: Carlsen Wins Again

In the end, the 2019 Vugar Gashimov Memorial was a complete triumph for Magnus Carlsen. While everyone else was getting the tournament over with, Carlsen played for keeps against Alexander Grischuk, and won his third consecutive game and fifth overall to finish the tournament with an undefeated 7-2 score. As a result he won the tournament by two points, achieved a ridiculous 2988 TPR, gained 15.8 rating points* and now enjoys a 44.4 point rating lead over Fabiano Caruana. Order in the chess world has been re-established.

His victory over Grischuk was a masterpiece. It was hard to even figure out where Grischuk lost the game, both for Grischuk and this commentator. Carlsen's play was brilliant, most especially the pawn sacrifice set up by his 29th move. If you've ever wondered why GMs harp on the value of the bishop pair, this game offers a powerful demonstration of that theme. Have a look, learn, and especially enjoy - the game is here, with my comments. (The other games are there too, but without notes.)

Here are the final standings:

• 1. Carlsen 7 (of 9)
• 2-3. Ding, Karjakin 5
• 4-6. Radjabov, Grischuk, Anand 4.5
• 7-8. Topalov, Navara 4
• 9. Mamedyarov 3.5
• 10. Giri 3

* I'd say 16 points, but he's playing in the Grenke Chess Classic later this month, so it won't necessarily be rounded up.

Gashimov Memorial, Round 8: Carlsen Crushes Karjakin, Clinches First

It wasn't all that long ago that Magnus Carlsen's championship reign and his spot atop the rating list were in jeopardy. It wasn't that long ago according to the calendar, but the current reality is that he is the dominant #1 player in the world. After a sluggish start to Wijk aan Zee in January, he has turned on the afterburners, and with his fourth win in this event he has clinched clear first place in the 2019 Gashimov Memorial with a round to spare.

His victim in this round was Sergey Karjakin, who entered the round just half a point behind Carlsen. Karajkin had White, too, making the matchup all the more interesting. He decided to join the crowd testing Carlsen's world championship prep in the Sveshnikov Sicilian, continuing the recent trend with 7.Nd5. Carlsen sacrificed the h-pawn for compensation, and absolutely hammered Karjakin to death with powerful play on the kingside and in the center. Some of what happened to Karjakin had to do with Carlsen's preparation, I think, but not all of it, and Carlsen's play was very convincing.

Congrats to the champion, who leads Karjakin, Alexander Grischuk, and Ding Liren by a point and a half. He has picked up a dozen rating points so far, and has achieved a 2963 TPR thus far. I don't know if it'll hit 3000 if he defeats Grischuk in the last round, but it will be close.

About Grischuk and Ding, they also won in round 8. In Grischuk's case, he won convincingly with White against David Navara; as for Ding, his win over Veselin Topalov was remarkable. Topalov was a pawn down in a rook ending, with all the pawns on the same side of the board, and his somewhat shaky play was still good enough to reach an ending of knight vs. rook, with no pawns on either side. It's generally drawn when the king isn't in the corner and the knight isn't cut off, but it was an in-between situation where the draw was precarious, not trivial. Ding did a great job of making Topalov's task difficult, and he eventually cracked.

The other two games were drawn. In the case of Teimour Radjabov and Viswanathan Anand, it was a short, correct draw, but the battle between Anish Giri and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov was anything but correct. Giri was winning practically out of the opening (18.e5 would have kept a decisive advantage), but let the advantage drip away, and near the end he was even in some trouble. Fortunately for him Mamedyarov's inaccurate 39th move let Giri off the hook.

(The games are here, with my notes to Carlsen's and Ding's wins.) One round remains, and here are the pairings:

• Anand (4) - Topalov (3.5)
• Navara (3.5) - Radjabov (4)
• Carlsen (6) - Grischuk (4.5)
• Mamedyarov (3) - Karjakin (4.5)
• Ding Liren (4.5) - Giri (2.5)