Chess - The Scotsman 21/09/12

Published on 21/09/2012 03:35

WORLD Championship chess returns to the game’s “home” in London today for the first time in more than a centurym aa Simpson’s-in-the-Strand hosts Fide-sanctioned Grand Prix tournaments, the first step on the road to the next World Championship cycle.

The venue, known as Simpson’s Grand Divan Tavern in the 19th century, was to chess what Lord’s is to cricket. In its heyday, it was the centre of the chess universe and frequented by many of the world’s leading masters of the day, and where Adolf Aderssen beat Lionel Kieseritsky in the famous “Immortal Game”.

The 12 modern-day masters, all looking for their own little bit of immortality at the London Grand Prix, by possibly getting a shot at the world title, will be: Hikaru Nakamura, Vassily Ivanchuk, Alexander Grischuk, Veselin Topalov, Wang Hao, Boris Gelfand, Peter Leko, Anish Giri, Leinier Dominguez, Michael Adams, and Rustam Kasimdzhanov.

The remaining players who will participate in later events in Tashkent, Lisbon, Madrid, Berlin and Paris, are: Sergey Karjakin, Teimour Radjabov, Ruslan Ponomariov, Fabiano Caruana, Alexander Morozevich and Vugar Gashimov.

There’s also a Women’s Grand Prix series in Ankara, Turkey where China’s Lufei Ruan got off to a flyer with three successive wins to take the sole lead, but she’s now sharing the top spot on 3.5/4 with India’s Humpy Koneru.

A Stefanova - H Koneru

FIDE Women’s GP, (3)

Queen’s Gambit Declined

1 d4 d5 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 Nc3 Bb4 5 cxd5 exd5 6 Bg5 Nbd7 7 e3 c5 8 dxc5 0–0 9 Rc1 Nxc5 10 Qd4 Bxc3+ 11 Qxc3 Nce4 12 Bxf6 Nxf6 13 Qc7 Bg4 14 Qxd8 Rfxd8 15 Nd4 Rac8 16 Rb1 Ne8 17 f3 Bd7 18 Bd3 Nc7 19 Kd2 Ne6 20 g4 Nxd4 21 exd4 Rc6 22 g5 f6 23 h4 Rf8 24 Rbe1 fxg5 25 Re7 Bf5 26 Bxf5 Rxf5 27 Rxb7 Rh6! 28 Rxa7 Rxh4 29 Rc1 Rxf3 30 Rc8+ Rf8 31 Rxf8+ Kxf8 32 b4 Rxd4+ 33 Kc3 Rc4+ 34 Kb3 g4 35 Ra8+ Kf7 36 Ra7+ Kf6 37 Ra6+ Kf5 38 Rd6 Ke4 39 Rd7 g3 40 Rxg7 Kf3 41 Rg5 g2 42 Rxd5 Rg4 0–1