Chess - The Scotsman 21/05/2012

IT’S been a little like watching paint dry at the World Championship in Moscow, as the main event of the year, between Viswanathan Anand, the defending champion, and his challenger, Boris Gelfand, reaches halfway with nothing more to show than a series of tedious draws and the match tied at 3-3.

A lot of pundits raised concerns long before the match started that this could well be a dull affair as title bouts go – and everything so far is going to their pre-match predictions.

Both players are in their 40s - Anand 42, Gelfand 43 - and past their peak, and both have, if anything, been stricken by a chess player’s worse nightmare: fear of losing.

With so much not happening in Moscow, instead we have to turn our attentions elsewhere for some action – and it comes from one of the newer generation making a name for himself by storming up the world’s top 10, Fabiano Caruana.

Italy’s world No 8, aged 19, continued his run of non-stop tournament activity in his quest to become numero uno by winning the 20th Sigeman & Co tournament in Malmo, Sweden.

He did it in some style, with successive wins in the final two rounds to take the title with a tally of 5.5/7, a half point ahead of the former elite star Peter Leko of Hungary.

Caruana seems to have unlimited stamina. In March and April, he played more games than the rest of the world’s top 10 combined - and again he leads the pack for May with the most games played.

J Hector - F Caruana

20th Sigeman & Co., (7)

Vienna Opening

1 e4 e5 2 Nc3 Nf6 3 f4 d5 4 fxe5 Nxe4 5 Nf3 Nc6 6 Bb5 Bb4 7 0–0 0–0 8 Ne2 Bg4 9 Bxc6 bxc6 10 Kh1 Ng5 11 d3 f6 12 Bxg5 fxg5 13 c3 Be7 14 Qa4 Bd7 15 Nd2 c5 16 Rxf8+ Bxf8 17 Qb3 Bf5 18 c4 Rb8 19 Qc3 d4 20 Qc2 Qe8 21 Ng3 Bg6 22 Re1 g4! 23 h3 Qe6 24 hxg4 Qxg4 25 Ndf1 Be7 26 b3 Bh4 27 Qd1 Qxd1 28 Rxd1 Re8 29 Ne2 Bh5 30 Rd2 Bg5 0–1