Tomorrow’s important national Under-16 Chess Championship Tournament at the Marian Academy follows the inaugural tournament of the Global Chess League (GCL) in Dubai and the 50th Dortmund Chess Festival in Germany. High level chess is being played worldwide as Guyana prepares its finest entrants for the Under-16 championship.
Can the 2022 champs, Queen’s College student Kyle Couchman and St Stanislaus’s Italy Ton Chung retain their titles? This championship, organised by the Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) comes at a time when chess players are beginning to blossom into seriously mature contenders. It is possible that national champions could emerge from this group.
On the international scene, three former world champions – Vladimir Kramnik, Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen – competed in Dortmund and the GCL. It is worth noting that at 16 years old, all three were robust chess players and had begun to demonstrate huge promise in their quests to capture the coveted world championship crown. There is that famous quote by Bobby Fischer: “At 16s, I just got good”.
Anand and Kramnik materialised to compete in the GCL and at Dortmund respectively. In fact Kramnik had retired from chess, but the 50th anniversary of the Dortmund Festival brought him back. Readers would recall that it was Kramnik who dethroned the mighty Garry Kasparov. Anand in turn dethroned Kramnik and Carlsen dethroned Anand. In the meantime, Anand is still highly ranked, being the only Indian grandmaster to be FIDE rated among the top ten chess players worldwide. Carlsen remains the Number one chess player according to the FIDE Elo June 2023 rating statistics.
Chess game
White: Viswanathan Anand
Black: Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
Event: 2023 Global Chess League, Dubai, UAE, June 24
Type of Game: Russian Game: Millenium Attack
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. Bd3 d5 6. O-O Be7 7. Re1 O-O 8. Bxe4 dxe4 9. Rxe4 c5 10. Nc3 Nc6 11. d3 b6 12. Bf4 Bb7 13. Re1 Nd4 14. Nxd4 cxd4 15. Ne4 Rc8 16. F3 Qd7 17. Qd2 Rc6 18. Qf2 f5 19. Ng3 Bh4 20. Qd2 h6 21. Qb4 Rc5 22. Re2 g5 23. Be5 f4
24. Bxd4 a5 25. Qb3+ Bd5 26. c4 Bxc4 27. Qc3 Rd5 28. Bf6 fxg3 29. Re7 Qd6 30. Rg7+ Kh8 31. Rf7+ Kg8 32. Rg7+ Kh8 33. Rf7+ Kg8 34. Be7 gxh2+ 35. Kh1 Rxf7 36. Bxd6 Rxd6 37. Qxc4 Bg3 38. Qg4 Bf4 39. g3 Be5 40. Re1 Bxb2 41. Re6 Rxd3 42. Rxh6 Rdxf3 43. Qxg5+ Bg7 44. Rxb6 Rf2 45. Rb8+ Kh7 46. Qh4+ Kg6 47. Qe4+ R7f5 48. Rb6+. 1-0. Black resigns.
