India dominated the Parsvnath Commonwealth Chess Championships which concluded on Monday with a sweep of 44 of the 45 medals which were available in the various age-group categories. Grandmaster Gawain Jones of England prevented the clean sweep by winning a bronze medal in the Under-20 category.
Grandmaster RB Ramesh was crowned the new Commonwealth Chess Champion. During the championships also, India crowned its 17th grandmaster, Abhijeet Gupta, who secured his final grandmaster norm and placed third in the tournament, thereby winning the Commonwealth bronze medal for his country. India won the Commonwealth gold, silver and bronze medals in both the male and female categories of the championships.
Earlier, the World Blitz Cup took place in Moscow with the Ukranian Grandmaster Vasily Ivanchuk taking first place ahead of World Champion Viswanathan Anand. Ivanchuk scored 19 wins to Anand’s 18, and Russia’s Alexander Grischuk was far away behind in third place with 14 points. Ivanchuk defeated Anand in the final round of the tournament to take clear first.
At home, the Steering Committee for the Development of Chess in Guyana will host a reception on Tuesday at the King’s Plaza hotel for the presentation of prizes from the National Championships. Dr Frank Anthony, Minister of Culture, Youth and Sport will present the prizes. Berbician Kriskal Persaud is the new National Champion and Ronald Roberts, the new Junior Chess Champion of Guyana.
The Mikhail Tal Memorial Chess Tournament produced some exciting games and quite a few theoretical novelties. Former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik won the tournament which was an impressive Category XX with an average rating of 2741. Here Kramnik completely outplays his opponent.
Kramnik, V (2785) – Mamedyarov, S (2752) Tal Mem Moscow RUS November 2007
1.d4 g6 2.c4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.e4 e5 5.Nge2 exd4 6.Nxd4 Nc6 7.Be3 Nge7 8.h4! f5 9.h5 fxe4 10.hxg6 hxg6 11.Rxh8+ Bxh8 12.Nxe4 d5 13.Nxc6 bxc6 14.Bd4!
14…Bg4 15.Qxg4 Bxd4 16.cxd5 Bxb2 17.Rd1 cxd5 18.Bb5+ Kf8 19.Qe6! Kg7 20.Bc6 Nxc6 21.Qxc6 d4 22.Kf1! Rb8 23.Ng5 Qd6 24.Qc4 Qd7 25.Kg1 c6 26.Ne6+ Kf6 27.Nc5 Qe7 28.Rb1 Rb6 29.Nd3 Qe4! 30.Re1! Qd5 31.Qa4 Bc3 32.Qxa7 Bxe1 33.Qxb6 Bc3 34.a4 Qe4 35.Qd8+ Kf7 36.Qc7+ Kf6 37.Qd6+ Qe6 38.Qf8+ Qf7 39.Qh8+ Ke7 40.a5! [Stretching Black’s defences to breaking point because if Bxa5 40.Qe5+ Kf8 41.Qa5] 40…Qa2 41.Qg7+ Kd8 42.Ne5 Black Resigns!! 1-0