American chess, bankrolled by the billionaire Maecenas Rex Sinquefield and with help from Garry Kasparov, is limbering up for a serious struggle with the game’s other superpowers Russia, China and India. This weekend’s final rounds of the $194,000 championship at St Louis, viewable live online from 7pm, feature three of the world’s top 10 plus fast rising young talent.
Fabiano Caruana’s win over the holder, Hikaru Nakamura, shot the 23-year-old up to No2 in the daily world rankings. The former Filipino Wesley So, aged 22, is level with Caruana on 5.5/7 after three classy victories while the 21-year-old Ray Robson is half a point behind.
Just as significant is the impressive championship debut of Jeffery Xiong, already a 2600-rated grandmaster at 15. Xiong, unbeaten after seven rounds, has benefited from the Young Stars, a programme for elite talent backed by the Kasparov Foundation.
China, Russia and India also make it a priority to target and develop gifted young players. In the 1970s and 1980s England unleashed a brilliant generation led by Nigel Short and Michael Adams but since Gawain Jones, who won the strong Dubai Open this week, and David Howell emerged around 15 years ago there has not been a single new English player with the potential to reach a 2650 rating, the level of the top 100 world GMs. Yet England’s junior academy turned down a potential sponsor because he wanted to model it on the Young Stars.
One year ago So was forfeited for writing self-help messages on his score sheet during his game with Varuzhan Akobian. Revenge in chess is a dish best served hot against your opponent’s king and So launched a blitzkrieg of knight and rook sacrifices which blew Akobian off the board. The black player could blame himself for his opening choice, the passive Rubinstein French with Nd7, which has a long track record of heavy defeats.
Paradoxically, Akobian’s troubles began with the active 7...c5 when the more conservative Bd6 is safer. By move 14 White was already dominant and 14 Rhg1! b5 15 g4 was at least as strong as 14 Ne5. Two moves later, White avoided 16 f4?! when the thematic 16...Rxd4 17 Nxc6 bxc6 18 cxd4 Rb8 gives counterplay. So’s double sacriiice 20 Nxf7! and 21 Rxg7+! followed by the non-checking 22 Qxe6 rips open the black king, and 22...Re8 23 c5! Qd8 24 Bc2 fails to save Black.
Wesley So v Varuzhan Akobian
1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 dxe4 4 Nxe4 Nd7 5 Nf3 Ngf6 6 Nxf6+ Nxf6 7 c3 c5?! 8 Be3 cxd4 9 Bxd4 Be7 10 Bd3 O-O 11 Qc2 h6 12 O-O-O Qa5 13 Kb1 Rd8 14 Ne5?! Bd7 15 Qe2 Bc6 16 Rhe1 Bd5 17 c4! Bxg2 18 Bc3 Qb6 19 Rg1 Bc6 20 Nxf7! Kxf7 21 Rxg7+! Kxg7 22 Qxe6 Qxf2? 23 Qxe7+ Kg8 24 Bh7+! 1-0
Magnus Carlsen, the world champion, is also in action this weekend as the Stavanger tournament reaches halfway. Live games are online from 3pm. Carlsen had failed to win the previous three annual Stavanger events but made a statement of intent by scoring 7.5/9 in the blitz opener which decided the pairings, then taking an early 2.5/3 lead in the main event with two smooth victories.
3439 (by Andras Witt, Schwalbe 2004). 33. No clue is given from where the e4 pawn came, or which if any white man it captured, so the answer has to allow for all possibilities. The count is made up of d5xQe4+ plus the rejected alternatives Kf5-f6 or Kf5-g5 (3), d5xRe4+ plus three king moves (4), d5xNe4+ plus four king moves (5), d5xBe4+ plus five king moves (6), d5xPe4+ plus six king moves (7), and e5-e4+ or e5xd4 plus six king moves (8), total 33.
