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Drayton victorious at Burnham Memorial tournament

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The World Chess Federa-tion’s Candidate Master Anthony Drayton emerged victorious in the fierce Forbes Burnham Memorial Chess Tournament last Sunday following a defeat of Plaisance’s Alexander Duncan in his final game. Drayton finished with 5½ points from the seven games he contested (a win – 1 point; a draw – ½ point; a loss – 0 point), losing to Clement Corlette and drawing with Taffin Khan. Khan ended the tournament also with 5½ points, but Drayton squeezed past the tape with a superior tie-break.

Regrettably, tournament leader after five rounds, Corlette failed to show on Sunday for his final two games and therefore presented his two opponents with two spectacular walkovers. Corlette is not known as a tournament dropout even when he is losing. The tournament organizer called, but Corlette’s cellular phone went to voice mail. An emergency situation may have prevented Corlette from participating in Sunday’s final games. The absence of Corlette resulted in an anti-climax for the outcome of the tournament, since he was the leader and had amassed the most points. According to the tournament organizer, Irshad Mohammed, Pre-sident David Granger would have presented prizes for the tournament during last week.

What is the white queen and rook doing on black’s eighth rank? Executing a fatal checkmate of course! That was the final position in the Burnham Memorial Chess Tournament between Clement Corlette (left), playing the white pieces, and Anthony Drayton, Candidate Master. It is instructive to determine what paths the white queen and rook took to seize the deadly mating squares on the eighth rank.

Internationally, elite Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian took top honours in the Sinquefield Cup Tournament held in St Louis, Missouri, USA, ahead of world chess champion Magnus Carlsen and some other top ten players. Aronian played unbeaten and scored victories over grandmasters Wesley So, Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura, thereby preventing the American contingent from moving ahead in a resolute way. Aronian beat the ten-man field by a full one point margin which is almost unmanageable among top ten players, and in so doing bounced back from over a year of mediocre to bad results.

The winner of the elegant Sinquefield Chess Tournament, Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian (right), during his game with Wesley So of the US. World Champion Magnus Carlsen finished in third place. It was an Aronian comeback tournament victory, him not having one in a while. Following his excellent win over So, Aronian said he played in the style of Lenoid Stein, a three-time Russian champion. At one time, Aronian was the number 2 chess player in the world.

Meanwhile, President of FIDE Kirsan Ilyumzhinov has received a proposal to run for the FIFA (football) presidency. The proposal was made by the President of the Russian Chess Federation and FIDE Vice President Andrei Filatov at a recent World Chess Federation executive board meeting in Abu Dhabi. Ilyumzhinov said he would think about the proposal and noted that when he entered FIDE, he was relatively unknown. Since he became President of FIDE, the federation had become united, financially sound and runs smoothly, according to a press release issued by FIDE. FIDE is one of the largest sports organizations worldwide which comprises 186 countries.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chess Games

The following games were played at the 2015 World Junior Cham-pionship in Khanty Mansysk, Russia. The tournament ends on Tuesday.

White: Linus Johansson
Black: Benjamin Bok

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 c6 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. Bg5 h6 6. Bh4 dxc4 7. e4 g5 8. Bg3 b5 9. Be2 Bb7 10. h4 g4 11. Ne5 Nbd7 12. O-O Nxe5 13. Bxe5 Rg8 14. Qc2 Nh5 15. g3 f6 16. Bxg4 Rxg4 17. Qe2 f5 18. exf5 exf5 19. a4 Kf7 20. Nd1 Qxh4 21. Ne3 Rg5 22. Qf3 Qe4 0-1.

White: Jan-Krzysztof Duda
Black: Daniil Yuffa

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Bf5 5. Ng3 Bg6 6. Nh3 Nf6 7. Nf4 e5 8. dxe5 Qa5+ 9. c3 Qxe5+ 10. Qe2 Nbd7 11. Nxg6 hxg6 12. Bf4 Qxe2+ 13. Bxe2 O-O-O 14. Rd1 Nd5 15. Bc1 N7f6 16. Bf3 Bd6 17. Ne2 Nb6 18. g3 Nc4 19. O-O Bc5 20. Bg2 Ng4 21. Rxd8+ Rxd8 22. Bh3 f5 23. Kg2 Nxf2 24. Rxf2 Bxf2 25. Kxf2 Ne5 26. Be3 Nd3+ 27. Kf3 Ne1+ 28. Kf2 Nd3+ 29. Kf1 Rh8 30. Bg2 Nxb2 31. h4 Rd8 32. Bd4 c5 33. Bxg7 Rd2 34. Nf4 Nc4 35. Ke1 Rxa2 36. Bd5 b5 37. Nxg6 Rh2 38. Bxc4 bxc4 39. Ne5 Kc7 40. Nxc4 Kc6 41. Ne5+ Kd5 42. Kf1 f4 43. c4+ Ke4 44. Ng4 Rc2 45. gxf4 Kxf4 46. Ne5 Rh2 47. Ke1 Rg2 48. Bh8 Rh2 1/2-1/2.

White: Alexandra Makarenko
Black: Thi Thuy Trien Nguyen

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Qxd5 3. Nc3 Qa5 4. d4 Nf6 5. Nf3 c6 6. Bc4 Bg4 7. h3 Bh5 8. g4 Bg6 9. Ne5 e6 10. h4 Be4 11. Rh3 Bd5 12. Bf4 Nbd7 13. Nxd7 Nxd7 14. Bf1 h6 15. a3 Be7 16. Qd2 a6 17. O-O-O Rc8 18. Kb1 Qb6 19. Na4 Qa7 20. c4 Be4+ 21. Ka1 b5 22. Nc3 Bh7 23. d5 cxd5 24. cxd5 e5 25. d6 Bd8 26. Be3 Qb8 27. f4 exf4 28. Bxf4 O-O 29. Bd3 Bxd3 30. Qxd3 b4 31. Nd5 bxa3 32. Qxa3 Rc5 33. Kb1 Qb7 34. Ne7+ Kh8 35. Qe3 Rb5 36. Rh2 Bb6 37. Qd3 Nc5 38. Qd5 Qd7 39. Qf5 Ne6 40. Qe4 Rb8 41. g5 Bd8 42. Nd5 Nc5 43. Qe5 h5 44. Rc2 Na4 45. Bc1 Kg8 46. Qe4 Nc5
47. Qe2 Ra5 48. Qc4 Nb3 49. Rf2 Ra1+ 50. Kc2 Rc8 51. Nc7 Bxc7 52. Kxb3 Bd8 53. Qxc8 Qxc8 54. d7 Qb7+ 55. Kc2 Qc6+ 56. Kb3 Qa4+ 57. Kc3 Qxd1 0-1.
 
White: Jovana Milosevic
Black: Nino Khomeriki

1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 Nf6 3. c4 e6 4. e3 c5 5. dxc5 Bxc5 6. a3 O-O 7. b4 Be7 8. Bb2 a5 9. Qb3 axb4 10. axb4 Rxa1 11. Bxa1 Qb6 12. b5 Ne4 13. Nbd2 Qa5 14. Bb2 Rd8 15. Qc2 Bb4 16. Bc1 e5 17. cxd5 Bf5 18. Qd1 Qa1 19. Ng1 0-1.

 

CHESS PUZZLE

Jan-Krzysztof Duda vs Caique Melo Reda, Caldas Novas, 2011.

 

 

 

 

 

 

White to play and win

Chess puzzle solution
        for last week

Bc4 if Qf6 Nxf5 w/ Be6+

 

 

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