Chess - The Scotsman 25/04/2012

CHESS is coming home to Moscow, with the Russian capital set for a summer of elite action with two prestigious events running through May and June. There’s the Anand-Gelfand World Championship match, 10-31 May, in the State Tretyakov Gallery, followed by the 7th Mikhail Tal Memorial, 7-19 June.

The Tal Memorial was hit by a scheduling conflict with Fide’s original Candidates’ dates in October/November, so the Russians rescheduled to June, only for the Candidates to be moved to March 2013. There was no time to switch back, so the Tal Memorial is in the summer… and what a line-up!

The field includes: Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik, Levon Aronian, Radjabov Teimour, Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Alexander Morozevich, Alexander Grischuk and Evgeny Tomashevsky – with the novelty of a wildcard spot for the final place determined by chess fans in an online poll. Surprisingly, “the world’s best amateur”, England’s Luke McShane topped the poll with an astonishing 13,800 votes.

This came as a surprise for McShane, and it was unclear whether he would be granted time off from his demanding City job to go to Moscow. He has now confirmed he can play – and not only that, but after his performance at the final weekend of the German Bundesliga recently, the England No 2’s world ranking jumped 19 places to No39, his highest ever.

L McShane - B Socko

German Bundesliga, (15)

French Defence, Tarrasch variation

1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nd2 c5 4 Ngf3 cxd4 5 Nxd4 Nc6 6 Bb5 Bd7 7 Nxc6 Bxc6 8 Bxc6+ bxc6 9 c4 dxe4 10 Nxe4 Qxd1+ 11 Kxd1 Nf6 12 Nxf6+ gxf6 13 Be3 Rg8 14 g3 c5 15 Kc2 Kd7 16 a3 Be7 17 Rhd1+ Kc7 18 b4 cxb4 19 axb4 Bxb4 20 Ra6! Be7 21 Rda1 Rgc8 22 Rxa7+ Rxa7 23 Rxa7+ Kd8 24 Kd3 Ke8 25 Ra5 f5 26 c5 h5 27 Kc4 Kd7 28 Rb5 Bd8 29 Rb7+ Rc7 30 Rb1 Bf6 31 Rb6 Ra7 32 Bf4 Kc8 33 Rb8+ Kd7 34 Rb6 Kc8 35 Rb8+ Kd7 36 Kb5 e5 37 Be3 Kc7 38 Rf8 Rb7+ 39 Kc4 Kc6 40 Ra8 Kc7 41 Rf8 Kc6 42 Ra8 Kc7 43 c6 Rb2 44 Ra7+ 1–0