Chess - The Scotsman 01/10/12

IT was unheard of not that long ago, but nowadays there are so many top-class players that it’s possible to have two world-class tournaments running simultaneously.

That’s the scenario we have right now, with the 1st Grand Prix in London and 6000 miles away the first leg of the Grand Slam Final in Sao Paulo. At the first rest-day in Sao Paulo, tournament leader Fabiano Caruana – after getting off to off to flyer by beating Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin – came close to achieving a remarkable treble, as he he nearly beatworld champion Vishy Anand in round 3. Despite the world champion holding on to draw, Caruana still retains the sole lead as the other two games were also drawn. The Grand Slam uses the football scoring system of 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw: 1. Caruana, 7/9; 2. Aronian, 5; 3. Carlsen, 4; 4. Anand, 3; 5. Vallejo, 2; 6. Karjakin, 1. Caruana, though, overtook Hikaru Nakamura on the unofficial live rating list, as he moved to No 5 after the American No 1 and London Grand Prix top seed was outplayed by the Chinese No 1, Wang Hao. Boris Gelfand remains in the GP sole lead on 4/6, a half point ahead of the chasing pack of Veselin Topalov, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Alexander Grischuk on 3.5 points.

H Nakamura - Wang,Hao 1st FIDE GP, (6)

Reti’s Opening 1 Nf3 d5 2 g3 Nf6 3 Bg2 g6 4 b3 Bg7 5 Bb2 c5 6 c4 d4 7 b4 0–0 8 d3 Nc6 9 b5 Nb8 10 0–0 Ne8 11 Nbd2 Nd6 12 Nb3 Nd7 13 Qc2 a5 14 Rae1 e5 15 e3 dxe3 16 fxe3 Qc7 17 Nfd2 Re8 18 Bc3 a4 19 Nc1 Nb6 20 a3 Be6 21 e4 Red8 22 Rf2 Qd7 23 Nf3 f6 24 Bf1 Ne8 25 Bd2 Nc7 26 Be3 Qd6 27 Na2 Bf7 28 Nc3 Ne6 29 Nd2 Nd4 30 Qd1 Be6 31 Nd5 Rf8 32 Bg2 Rf7 33 Ref1 Nd7 34 Nb1 Bxd5 35 exd5 f5 36 g4 Raf8 37 Bc1 e4 38 dxe4 f4 39 g5 f3 40 Bxf3 Be5 41 Kh1 Bxh2 42 Rxh2 Nxf3 43 Rh3 Nde5 44 Nc3 Ng4! 45 Nxa4 Nfh2 46 Rxf7 Rxf7 47 Qe2 Rf2 0–1