Internet Chess Club

PLAY is under way in the FIDE Grand Swiss and FIDE Women’s Grand Swiss at the Villa Marina, Douglas.
Fresh from his success in the US Championship, Fabiano Caruana is top seed ahead of compatriot Hikaru Nakamura.
The mouth-watering line-up of Alireza Firouzja, Anish Giri, Dommaraju Gukesh, Richard Rapport, Levon Aronian, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, Alexander Grischuk and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave completes the top-10 seeds.
The Women’s Grand Swiss is also very strong, with top seeds the Russian Aleksandra Goryachkina, playing under the FIDE flag, and former compatriot Alexandra Kosteniuk, who has changed federation to Switzerland.
The last time that the Grand Swiss was held on the Isle of Man, in 2019, David Howell was close to qualifying for the Candidates.
David also did very well at the 2021 Grand Swiss in Riga, but this time around will be commentating alongside Jovanka Houska.
British interest will lie in the new English number one, Nikita Vitiugov, who, at 2711, is the 18th seed, and 14-year-old Shreyas Royal.
The recently concluded Qatar Masters Open featured a surprising number of miniatures.

S Saydaliev - P Iniyan
Sicilian Defence

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Bd3 Nc6 6.Be3 e5 7.Nxc6 bxc6 8.c4 Ng4!?
(Fighting for the initiative, and now 9.Bd2 must be critical, and if 9...d5 10.h3)
9.Bc1? d5! 10.Be2?! (10.h3? runs into 10...dxc4, intending 11.Bxc4? Qxd1+ 12.Kxd1 Nxf2+)
10...Qh4!? (10...Bc5 is also good and 10...Nxf2!? 11.Kxf2 Bc5+ 12.Ke1 Qh4+ 13.g3 Qxe4 was also tempting)
11.g3 Qh3 12.Bf1 Qh5 13.h3 Bb4+ (Or just 13...Bc5! 14.Be2 f5!)
14.Bd2 Bc5! 15.Be2 f5!

16.Kf1 (16.cxd5 Bxf2+ 17.Kf1 0-0 18.Kg2 Qg6 19.hxg4 fxg4 gives Black a dangerous attack for the piece)
16...0-0 17.exd5 (17.Kg2 fxe4 18.Be1 Ne3+! 19.fxe3 Qh6 also leaves White under huge pressure)
17...cxd5? (17...Bxf2 18.Kg2 Qg6 was still the way to go)
18.cxd5?? (Missing 18.Nc3! which is just very unclear after 18...Qf7 19.hxg4 fxg4 20.Be1 Bxf2 21.Nxd5!)

Now 18...Bxf2 was strong, but Black found an even stronger bishop move. What was it?