Second Screen

Ernesto Kazbekovich Inarkiev – 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán)
Grand Prix 2017; second stage; Moscow, May 21, 2017
Giuoco Piano C54

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. 0-0 Nf6 5. d3 d6 6. c3 a6 7. Re1 0-0 8. Bb3 h6 9. Nbd2 Ng4 10. Re2 Kh8. Intending ... f7-f5. 11. h3!? f5! This is probably not improvisation. The unbalanced outcome that will emerge from the following skirmishes is quite an unclear game. 12. exf5. Not 12. hxg4 fxg4 13. Nh2 g3 with a very dangerous initiative for Black. 12. ... Nxf2 13. Rxf2 Bxf2+ 14. Kxf2 Bxf5 15. Qe2 d5 16. Kg1 Qd6 17. Bc2 Rf7 18. b4 a5 19. Bb2 axb4 20. cxb4 Nxb4 21. Nxe5 Re7 22. Ndf3 Kg8 23. Qd2 Nxc2 24. Qxc2 c5 25. Qb3 Kh7 26. Kh1? As it will be soon clear, this is a bad mistake. Best was 26. d4 which would have probably been answered by 26. ... c4 eventually followed by ... b7-b5 with roughly equal chances. 26. ... d4 27. Bc1 Rxe5! 28. Bf4. Inarkiev stubbornly pursues his fatal Fata Morgana, but also after 28. Nxe5 Qxe5 29. Qxb7 Rf8 White’s position – in spite of the temporary material balance – is indefensible.

28. ... Qd5! Inarkiev apparently overlooked this pseudo-zwischenzug. 29. Rb1 Qxb3 30. Rxb3 Rd5 31. Ne5 Rxa2 32. Rxb7 Re2 33. g4 Be6 34. Nc4 Rd8 0 : 1.

“I’m happy with my play in Moscow as I did better than at Grand Prix’s first stage in Sharjah”, 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) told R-Sport. “Although I was defeated twice with White, I may notice that my overall results against men improved. I’m finally playing more steadily”. Photo © Vladimir Fedorenko/RIA Novosti.

侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) (left) posing with Viktoria Korol (right), President of the charity fund “Наше наследие” (“Our Heritage”). Photo: chess-in-schools.org.

Mayflies and Stoneflies

侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) – 丁立人 (Dīng Lìrén)
Grand Prix 2017; 2nd stage; Moscow, May 14, 2017
Giuoco Piano C54

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Nf6 4. d3 Bc5 5. 0-0 0-0 6. a4 d6 7. c3 a5 8. Bg5 h6. For 8. ... Ne7!? 9. Nh4 d5! 10. Bb3? (sounder was 10. exd5 followed by Nb1-d2) 10. ... dxe4 11. Bxf6 gxf6 12. Nd2 Ng6 13. Nxe4 Be7 14. Nxg6 hxg6 see 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) – Ivanchuk, “尚街杯” (“MEWE Cup”) 2017 World Champion Summit Chess Match, 深圳 (Shēnzhèn) 2017, match game 4. 9. Bh4 g5 10. Bg3 Kg7!? 丁立人 (Dīng Lìrén) goes on his own track. In Nijboer – Janssen, Dutch Championship Qualifier Chess Tournament, Delft 2017 was seen 10. ... g4 11. Nh4 Nh5 12. Na3 Qg5 13. Nb5 Bb6 14. d4 exd4 15. cxd4 Qg7 16. Nf5 Bxf5 17. exf5 Nxd4 18. f6 Qxf6 19. Qxg4+ Qg5 20. Qe4 Rae8 21. Qxb7 Nf5 22. Ra3 Nhxg3 23. hxg3 Ne3 24. fxe3 Rxe3 25. Rxe3 Bxe3+ 26. Rf2 Bxf2+ 0 : 1. 11. Re1 g4 12. Bh4!? White offers a very interesting Knight sacrifice which, if accepted, would provide her enough play to achieve at least a draw, so 丁立人 (Dīng Lìrén) goes for more. 12. ... Ne7 13. Bxf6+ Kxf6 14. d4 Bb6 15. Nh4 Kg7 16. Na3 exd4 17. cxd4 Nc6 18. Nf5+ Bxf5 19. exf5 h5 20. Nc2 Qf6. White must cede a Pawn, but luckily for her, she’s gonna get something for it. 21. Re4 Qxf5 22. Bd3 Qg5. With the deadly threat of ... d6-d5. White, however, finds an ingenious way – maybe the only one – to put her Rook in a limb. 23. g3 f5 24. Rf4. Curiously enough, White’s Rook ended up stalemated, but 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán), through the sacrifice of a second Pawn, will succeed in finding interesting counterchances. 24. ... Rae8. If Black could bring his Knight to d5 (... Nc6-e7-d5) the game would be over, but unluckily for him 24. ... Ne7 would be met by 25. Ne3. 25. h4 gxh3 26. Qf3 d5. Already having the positional Exchange sacrifice in mind. 27. Rd1. Not 27. Qxd5? because of 27. ... Ne5! (28. dxe5?? Qxg3+), but 27. Rh4 might have been better (27. ... Re4 28. Rxh5 Qg6∞).

27. ... Re4! Perhaps the exclamation mark shouldn’t appear on your screen, because such a sacrifice was very easy to play and did not require any particular calculation, and nevertheless such things are never obvious. 28. Bxe4 fxe4 29. Qe3 Rxf4 30. Qxf4 Qxf4 31. gxf4 Ne7 32. Kh2 Ng6 33. f5. 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) is tremendously short of time and now cannot but rely upon little more than her own intuition. The alternative 33. f3 Nxf4 34. fxe4 dxe4 35. Re1 Nd3 36. Rxe4 Nxb2 also would have given Black exuberant compensation and good winning chances, but not necessarily a win. 33. ... Nf4 34. f3? Stockfish’s emergency line 34. b4 axb4 35. Nxb4 Kf6 36. Nc2 Kxf5 was probably White’s last chance to reach time control without having to contemplate a disaster. 34. ... c6! 35. fxe4 dxe4 36. Re1? With no more time to think about what to do, White goes down following a chimera (the e-Pawn), even though it’s not easy to suggest how to spend better the lost time – 36. Rg1+ Kf7 saves time, but probably not the game. 36. ... Bc7! 37. Rg1+. Not 37. Rxe4?? Nd3+ followed by a double check to King and Rook. 37. ... Kf7 38. Rf1 Kf6 39. Kg3 Kxf5 40. Ne3+ Kg5 41. Nc4 h4+ 42. Kf2 Nd3+ 43. Ke2 Bf4 44. Nxa5 h2 45. Nxb7 Nc1+. 45. ... Nxb2?? 46. Nc5 was too unreal to happen. 46. Kf2 e3+ 47. Kg2 e2 48. Re1 Bd2 49. Rh1 Nb3 50. Kxh2 e1=Q 51. Rxe1 Bxe1 0 : 1.

侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán). Photo © Valery Sharifulin/TASS.

侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) and 丁立人 (Dīng Lìrén). Photo: Mikhail Vasin.

The Bitter Drink

Jon Ludvig Nilssen Hammer – Ian Aleksandrovich Nepomniachtchi
Grand Prix 2017; second stage; Moscow, May 13, 2017
Pirc Defence B07

1. e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 g6 4. Be3 c6 5. Qd2 b5 6. e5 Ng4 7. exd6 Nxe3 8. Qxe3 Qxd6 9. 0-0-0? A grave error of judgment. Here opposite-side castling simply favours Black’s initiative. White should have looked for improvement between the lines of 9. a4 Bg7 10. Nf3 bxa4 11. Rxa4 0-0 12. Ne4 Qc7 13. Qa3 Bf5 14. Bd3 Nd7 15. 0-0 Nb6 16. Ra6 Rfd8 (which gave Black an excellent play), van der Wiel – J. Piket, Leiden 1986, match game 3, or, alternatively, settling out for a dry balance with 9. Nf3 Bg7 10. Be2 0-0 11. 0-0 Bf5 as occurred in Levitt – Akhsharumova, World Chess Festival, Saint John 1988. 9. ... Bg7! 10. g3 Nd7 11. Bg2 Nb6 12. Qf3 Bd7 13. Ne4 Qc7 14. Nc5 Rc8 15. h4. White’s conceptful but convoluted attacking “work in progress” is suddenly overcome by his opponent’s hits. 15. ... Na4! 16. Nxd7 Qxd7 17. h5 0-0 18. hxg6 hxg6 19. Ne2 Qd6 20. c3? This sounds a bit too for Black to decline, but also after 20. Kb1 c5 Black’s initiative spreads itself easily and powerfully.

20. ... b4! 21. c4 c5 22. b3 Nc3 23. Nxc3 bxc3 24. Qxc3 Bxd4 25. Qd2 Qa6 26. Kb1 Rb8 27. g4 Bg7! Threatening ... Qa6-f6. 28. g5 Qxc4 29. Bd5 Qg4 30. Rhe1 e6 31. Be4 c4! 32. Qe3 cxb3 33. axb3 Rb4 34. Rd3 Rfb8. White’s position is disastrous. The water-loving mammal (© Hammer), however, decides to drink the bitter drink to the very end. 35. f3 Qg2 36. Re2 Qh1+ 37. Re1 Qh2 38. Re2 Qe5 39. Ra2 a5 40. Kc2 a4 41. Rxa4 Rxa4 42. bxa4 Qa1 43. Rd2 Qb1 mate.

Ian Aleksandrovich Nepomniachtchi. Photo © Valery Sharifulin/TASS.

A Norwegian Erasmus

• Artem Kuznetsov, Хоу Ифань не хочет быть “туристом” в Гран-при, где соревнуется с мужчинами | 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) doesn’t want to be a “tourist” at the Grand Prix, where she competes with men on equal terms, sport.mail.ru, May 11, 2017

Four-time Women’s World Chess Champion 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) told TASS she is firmly determined to give a fight in the Grand Prix series to enter the Candidates Tournament next year and eventually challenge 16th World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen in the first unisex World Chess Championship ever. The task seems arduous, but the memory of the game she played with Magnus last month in Karlsruhe, gives her reason for confidence: “I had a great opportunity to win, but I missed the chance. However, a draw was also a good result for me, because I had lost the three previous games”. She said that competing with men on equal terms gives her more motivation to improve her play, and that’s the reason why she decided to jump the gender border. Only time will tell if her challenger adventure will be lucky or not, but, if nothing else, it has given an impulse to contemplate women’s presence in the “For Men Only” chess field, such as the case of Indian Grandmaster Dronavalli Harika, who is playing the invitational élite TePe Sigeman & Co. Chess Tournament in Malmö, Sweden.

Азбука Морзе

• Ян Непо́мнящий: “Китаянка Хоу Ифань – сильный шахматист, скидывать ее со счетов Московского ‘Гран-при́’ я бы не стал” | Ian Aleksandrovich Nepomniachtchi: “China’s 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) is a strong player – should she have been excluded from the Moscow Grand Prix? No, I would not have done that”, sport-express.ru, May 10, 2017

Interviewed by Izvestia, Russian Grandmaster Ian Aleksandrovich Nepomniachtchi said: “China’s 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) is a very strong player. Previously it was easier to play against her, but I was only able to win one of my last three games with her, drawing the other two. Should she have been excluded from the Moscow Grand Prix? No, I would not have done that”. The second stage of chess Grand Prix 2017 will be held at the Central Telegraph building in Moscow, Russia from 12 to 21 May 2017. For further details, see https://worldchess.com/gp2017/.

Central Telegraph building in Moscow, Russia; architect: Ivan Ivanovich Rerberg, 1926. Photo: Wikipedia.

The Alamo

At today’s press conference presenting the second stage of chess Grand Prix 2017 to be held in Moscow from 12 to 21 May 2017, Agon Limited CEO Ilya Lvovich Merenzon announced that the venue will be the Central Telegraph building in Tverskaya Street, in his own words “a place emblematic of what chess today stands for”. A limited number of tickets will been made available. Kaspersky Lab CEO Yevgeny Valentinovich Kaspersky, who is also the main sponsor of the Grand Prix series, granted that the protocol of protection of on-line broadcasting from unspecified cyberattacks will be raised at the highest level.

In addition to Ilya Lvovich Merenzon (first from right) and Yevgeny Valentinovich Kaspersky (second from right), the board of conferencers also included chess Grandmaster Ian Aleksandrovich Nepomniachtchi (first from left). Photo: Alina Bivol.