Magnus Carlsen, the world No 1, was an early front runner in the $375,000 second leg of the Freestyle Grand Slam in Paris. The 34 year-old tied for first with Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi in the 12-player round robin which decided Thursday’s quarter-finalists, and which proved a disaster for India.
Three of their four contenders were eliminated, headed by the 18-year-old world champion, Gukesh Dommaraju, who also failed in the first Grand Slam leg in Germany.
Friday’s round one semi-final games, Fabiano Caruana (US) v Carlsen (Norway) and Hikaru Nakamura (US) v Vincent Keymer (Germany), were both drawn. Round two games, with speed tie-breaks and Armageddon if 1-1, take place on Saturday, followed by the two-day final on Sunday and Monday (1pm BST start).
Gukesh could have qualified by beating Nepomniachtchi in the final round, but instead was brutally defeated in only 21 moves.
The basic rule for Freestyle is that the positions of the back row pieces are randomised, and this makes the opening, which in mainstream chess usually means remembering and playing conventional book moves, into a minefield for the unwary.
Gukesh’s fatal error came as early as move five, when his 5…N8d7? (correct is 5…h5! to dislodge White’s g3 knight) allowed 6 cxd5 exd5 7 Nf5! after which the white queen could jump from its handy starting square c1 to g5, with already a near-decisive attack on Gukesh’s king. White followed up by 13 b4! and 15 e4! to open more lines for his pieces, and although the Russian missed the fastest win 16 Qh3! gxf4 17 Qxh6+, Black’s position still collapsed after 21 Bxf6+.
Earlier, France’s top player, Alireza Firouzja, and the controversial US grandmaster Hans Niemann both withdrew at short notice. In Firouzja’s case, it was due to obscure contractual issues which the organiser, Jan Henric Buettner, tried in vain to resolve over several days.
Niemann, who received a wildcard entry, seemed all set to compete. He enlisted the former world champion Vladimir Kramnik as his aide and planned to stream all his games. Then he withdrew late, and at the time of writing had provided no explanation beyond “personal reasons”.
The Freestyle Grand Slam continues with events in New York in July, Delhi in September and Cape Town in December.
Ju Wenjun has taken a 4-2 lead against her Women’s World Championship challenger, Tan Zhongyi, in their $500,000 12-game title match in Shanghai. Ju lost game two but recovered strongly to win games three, five and six. The second half of the match will be played in Chongqing, where game seven starts on Sunday.
England’s over-50s and over-65s are dominating the European Senior Team Championships in Swidnica, Poland. After six of the nine rounds England 1 had won every match in both competitions without the loss of a game. However, there are only 20 participating teams, and it seems that the event came too soon after the recent World 50+ and 65+ in Prague, where England won 65+ gold and entries were at a record high.
Former British champion Jonathan Mestel won a 16-move miniature with a queen sacrifice and a mate by a knight.
Reykjavik’s annual open had been planned as a celebration of Fridrik Ólafsson’s 90th birthday, but it has sadly turned into a memorial tournament as the former Fide president and secretary to the Icelandic parliament died on 4 April. Ólafsson, who defeated several world champions in a long career, was the last survivor of the 1959 Candidates. One of his best wins was against Bobby Fischer in the 1958 interzonal.
Britain’s Four Nations Chess League (4NCL) staged its penultimate weekend on 5-6 April, and its results confirmed that the title race is between Manx Liberty and Wood Green, who meet in next month’s final round. Isle of Man have the edge, as they have won all eight matches with 16 match points and 49.5 game points, against 14(44) for their rivals.
BBC Two’s Chess Masters: The Endgame reached its fifth episode (of eight) this week. Viewing numbers, as supplied by Broadcast, have stabilised at 606,000, 5% of the total audience. Reactions remain split, as experts dislike it while social players, novices and children enjoy the show. In next Monday’s episode (BBC Two, 8pm) the second group of contestants try their skills on the Carlsen memory test.
3967: 1…Rxf3+! 2 Bxf3 Bc8! and White resigned. If 3 Bg2 Bh3! 4 Bxh3 Qh1 mate.
