Chess: How does Black win?

WITH Vishy Anand reigning as world champion, chess continues to boom in popularity in India – so much so that, remarkably, Anand is often voted sportsman of the year ahead of cricketing superstar Sachin Tendulkar.

There's regular television coverage of chess on all the sport round-up shows, not to mention lots of column inches devoted to the game in the sports' sections of all the newspapers there. Yet there have been relatively few major chess events organised in India, in contrast to China, where several have emerged.

There are, though, promising signs India could be paving the way for super-tournaments – helped by the recent relocation last year of Anand from Spain back to his homeland. Also promising was a new tournament in New Delhi sponsored by the Airports Authority of India. This was the first Category 17 tournament to be held in India, and it featured: Fabiano Caruana (Italy), Viktor Laznicka (Czech Rep), Krishnan Sasikiran (India), Wesley So (Philippines), Parimarjan Negi (India) and Women's World Champion Hou Yifan (China).

Caruana dominated from the start, his lead being such that he was able to absorb a loss and a draw in the final two rounds yet still win by a full point on 7/11, ahead of Sasikiran. It was a great result for the American-Italian teenager, whose 2800 performance will help push him closer to super-tournament status that he also so wishes to aspire to.

H Yifan - F Caruana

AAI International., (3)

Ruy Lopez

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bb5 a6 4 Ba4 Nf6 5 0–0 b5 6 Bb3 Bc5 7 c3 d6 8 d4 Bb6 9 a4 Rb8 10 axb5 axb5 11 Na3 0–0 12 Nxb5 Bg4 13 Re1 Bxf3 14 gxf3 Nh5 15 Kh1 Qf6 16 Rg1 Nf4 17 Bxf4 Qxf4 18 Ba4 Ra8 19 Na3 Nd8 20 Nc4 Ne6 21 d5 Ng5 22 Rg4 Qf6 23 Nxb6 cxb6 24 Rg3 Qf4 25 Rg4 Nh3! 26 Kg2 Qh6 27 Bd7 Nf4+ 28 Kh1 Nd3 29 Kg2 Rxa1 30 Qxa1 Qd2 31 Qf1 h5 32 Rg3 Ra8 33 Bb5 Nf4+ 34 Kh1 Qxb2 35 Rg1 Qxc3 36 Be2 Ra2 37 Bd1 Qd4 0–1