Chess
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.YESTERDAY, I discussed Viswanathan Anand's possible "Ultimate World Chess Championship" match with Garry Kasparov this October.
Easily faster than any other player I've ever analysed or had a post- mortem with - Kasparov, Karpov and Tal included - Anand to work with was once (some while ago, as you can tell from the outdated hardware analogy) likened by John Nunn to grappling with a Pentium-100 while you yourself were a 486- 33!
Like any title contender, Anand is quite singular and he has created no "Indian Chess School" in his wake. But they do have some other strong players including two grandmasters, the 32-year-old Dibyendu Barua and Praveen Thipsay, who will be 40 this year. Meanwhile much the most promising prospect is I.M. Krishnan Sashikiran, who was 18 in January.
I first met Sashikiran at the British Championships two years ago in Hove, where he impressed me both with his apparently effortless command of tactical melees and his great self-confidence; and although I had the White pieces in our game, I ended up having to take some care to make a draw. Last year in Torquay, he was less impressive against me, though we still drew; but he showed himself to great advantage with draws against Short and Sadler, both of whom he came close to defeating.
Sashikiran had a disaster at the Goodricke Open in Calcutta in February, scoring abysmally against his countrymen and women. But he recovered splendidly (in the absence, of course, of Anand but also Barua) to take first place in the Indian Championship in Nagpur - a monumental event running from 27 March to 12 April - with 13/17 (11 wins, four draws and two losses) a point ahead of Thipsay 12, another good prospect, 22-year I.M. Abhijit Kunte, and G.B. Prakash (who's 27) on 11.
This second-round win against his main rival shows another facet of Sashikiran's play: excellent technique in an advantageous middlegame and then potentially treacherous rook ending.
White: Krishnan Sashikiran
Black: Praveen Thipsay
King's Indian Defence
1 d4 Nf6
2 c4 g6
3 Nc3 Bg7
4 e4 d6
5 Nf3 0-0
6 Be2 Na6
7 0-0 e5
8 Be3 Ng4
9 Bg5 Qe8
10 dxe5 h6
11 Bd2 dxe5
12 h3 Nf6
13 Be3 Qe7
14 Nd5 Qd8
15 Qc1 Kh7
16 Rd1 Nd7
17 c5 c6
18 Bxa6 cxd5
19 Rxd5 bxa6
20 c6 Qe8
21 cxd7 Bxd7
22 Rc5 Qe6
23 Qc4 Rfc8
24 Qxe6 Bxe6
25 Ra5 Rc4
26 Rxa6 Rxe4
27 b3 Rb4
28 Rc1 Rb7
29 Rc5 Re8
30 Rca5 Rd7
31 Rxa7 Rd1+
32 Kh2 Bd5
33 Nd2 Rd8
34 Nc4 Bf6
35 R5a6 Kg7
36 Bxh6+ Kxh6
37 Rxf6 Kg7
38 Rd6 Bxc4
39 Rxd8 Rxd8
40 bxc4 Rd2
41 f3 Rc2
42 c5 Kg5
43 c5 Kg5
44 a4 f5
45 Rb5 Kf4
46 a5 e4
47 fxe4 fxe4
48 a6 e3
49 a7 Ra2
50 Rb7 e2
51 Re7 Rxa7
52 Rxe2 Rc7
53 Rc2 Rc6
54 Rc4+ Ke3
55 Kg3 g5
56 Kg4 Kd3
57 Rc1 Kd2
58 Rf1 1-0
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments