Chess: How does Black win?

AS chess losers go, they don’t come more spectacular than the gallant Colonel Moreau, who made the record books for all the wrong reasons by losing all 26 of his games at the Monte Carlo International of 1903.

While not as epic a meltdown as Moreau’s, Vassily Ivanchuk is in the middle of the biggest slump of the modern era with a fourth successive defeat at the Reggio Emilia tournament in Italy. The last two losses have been so bad, even the Colonel would have fancied his chances.

After dropping a piece in round 7, to tail-ender Nikita Vitugov, Ivanchuk attempted to steady the ship by playing for a draw with the über-solid London system against Fabiano Caruana. The plan backfired spectacularly, as the Italian quickly steam-rolled Ivanchuk off the board, but not before he gave away all his pieces before resigning.

In chess parlance, our hapless hero has castled short (00), long (000), and now the Audi (0000) - and will be hoping to avoid the total humiliation of the Olympic rings!

Meanwhile, at the opposite end of the table, tournament leader Hikaru Nakamura lost his first game of the tournament to Alexander Morozevich – a result that throws the tournament wide open as his closest rival is within one point of the leader going into the penultimate round.

Standings: 1. H Nakamura, 15/24; 2. A Morozevich, 14; 3. A Giri, 12; 4. F Caruana, 11; 5. V Ivanchuk, 8; 6. N Vitugov, 5.

V Ivanchuk - F Caruana

54th Reggio Emilia, (8)

London System/KID

1 d4 Nf6 2 Nf3 g6 3 Bf4 Bg7 4 e3 d6 5 h3 0–0 6 Be2 b6 7 0–0 Bb7 8 c3 Nbd7 9 Bh2 Qe8 10 a4 a6 11 Na3 e5 12 Nc4 Ne4 13 Nfd2 Nxd2 14 Nxd2 Kh8 15 Qc2 f5 16 Rfe1 g5 17 Bd3 Qg6 18 f3 Rae8 19 Rf1 d5 20 a5 c5 21 g4 e4 22 fxe4 dxe4 23 Be2 f4 24 axb6 Qxb6 25 Qb3 Qa7 26 Bb5 cxd4! 27 Bxd7 dxe3 28 Nc4 Rd8 29 Ba4 Rd2 30 Qxb7 Qxb7 31 Rxf4 gxf4 32 Nxd2 exd2 33 Bxf4 Rxf4 34 Bc6 Qb6+ 0–1