Chess - The Scotsman 04/10/12

IT’S a particularly hectic schedule on the chess scene, with three world-class events overlapping: the Grand Slam Masters Final, the London Grand Prix and the Women’s Grand Prix in Ankara, Turkey.

The Women’s Grand Prix is the sixth tournament in the 2011-12 series. The tournament in Ankara wrapped up on Saturday and was the last in a series of events to select a challenger to play Hou Yifan of China, reigning champion, defending of her world title.

The Grand Prix’s top player was supposed to claim that honour. But as Hou herself won three tournaments in the series, she will now face the runner-up, her previous title challenger Humpy Koneru of India, who, with two last round wins in Ankara, snatched victory from Anna Muzychuk of Russia.

Meanwhile, in the London Grand Prix, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov retains his half point lead going into the final round. He leads on 6.5/10 ahead of Alexander Grischuk, Veselin Topalov and Boris Gelfand on six points. In a penultimate round dominated by draws, the only decisive game involved Hikaru Nakamura, as the US No 1 avoided the dreaded “London Olympic rings” of five straight losses by beating Anish Giri – and with a bit of panache. From today’s diagram, Nakamura found the breakthrough with 47 g5!! hxg5 48 h6 gxh6 49 Rxe5! fxe5 50 f6 Bd7 51 f7+ Ke7 52 Bxd7 Kxd7 53 Bxc5 and white soon won.

H Koneru - M Socko

FIDE Women’s GP, (11)

Queen’s Indian Defence

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 b6 4 g3 Bb7 5 Bg2 c5 6 d5 exd5 7 Ng5 h6 8 Nh3 Qc7 9 cxd5 d6 10 0–0 g6 11 e4 Nbd7 12 Nc3 a6 13 f4 Bg7 14 Re1 0–0 15 e5 Nh7 16 e6 Ndf6 17 g4 fxe6 18 Rxe6 Rae8 19 f5 g5 20 Nf2 b5 21 Be3 b4 22 Ne2 Nd7 23 Ne4 Ne5 24 N2g3 Nc4 25 Bf2 Nxb2 26 Qc2 Nd3 27 Qxd3 Bxa1 28 Rg6+ Kh8 29 Nxd6 Re5 30 Nxb7 Qxb7 31 Bxc5 Rf6 32 d6 Qd7 33 Ne4 Rxg6 34 fxg6 Nf8 35 Qf1 Nxg6 36 Qxa1 Qg7 37 Bd4 Kh7 38 d7 Qe7 39 Bxe5 Nxe5 40 Qxe5 1–0