GM Joel’s Chess Week Recap - Episode 151

Opening: D16, A18, A11, B22, C54, B52:

Player(s): Ju Wenjun, Goryachkina, Zimina, Bykova, Van Foreest, Yu, So, Anand, Xiong

Women's World Championship Match. After six games the match is tied at 3-3. The reigning champion struck first, winning by degrees as the endgame progressively simplified. The Russian challenger evened the score immediately as she won an exchange and ultimately converted that advantage. The Sharjah Women's Cup resulted in a four-way tie for first between Irina Bulmaga, Irine Sukander, Monika Socko, and Olga Zimina, with 7/9. I want to take a look at a fascinating endgame, Zimina played in the third round. Dublin, Ireland hosted three international tournaments at the beginning of the year. The grandmaster tournament was won by English GM Matthew Turner with 6.5/9. But the IM events were rather more interesting. The second IM event was won by Trisha Kanyamarala with 6.5/9, tying with the veteran grandmaster Alexander Baburin. Trisha, an immigrant from India, is the highest-rated female in Ireland. Already a WFM, she has now qualified for the WIM title, an unprecedented accomplishment for her country. And she is only 14 years old! But the story gets better - Trisha's big brother, 15-year-old Tarun Kanayamarala won the other IM event, also with 6.5 points. I don't know if either made an IM norm, but Tarun will push his Elo to about 2350 and seems a lock for the national team. That is an impressive brother/sister act! Tata Steel is underway. There were two first-round winners in the A-group. Alireza Firouzja, one of the hottest commodities in the chess world today, won his first game over Vladislav Kovalev. Showing some first-round jitters, Kovalev forgot the opening and "sacrificed" a pawn, which turned out to be just giving away a pawn and found his position immediately in tatters. The second round brought good news for Americans. Wesley So defeated Anand when Vishy's piece sacrifice didn't quite work out. Dubov also scored in round two, defeating Kovalev, who is off to a rough start. Round three brought another win for Firouzja, who is playing under the FIDE flag, over Artemiev, while van Foreest continues to avoid draws, defeating Dubov. Caruana also got his first win of the event, over Yu Yangyi. And Magnus? Three draws, not much to speak of so far. In the third round, he played most of the game a pawn down against Xiong before holding the draw.

Download Joel's annotated games HERE!