Isle of Man: Kramnik's Candidates crisis

The return of Tarjan

James Tarjan scored a stunning upset in round three, defeating Vladimir Kramnik in a game that could have far-reaching consequences, due to the rating race for the two qualification spots in the Candidates 2018 tournament.

Tarjan is an experienced grandmaster, but one that readers born after 1980 may well not have heard of. Tarjan was born in 1952 and became a GM in 1976. In the 1970s and 1980s, he played five times for the USA in the Chess Olympiad. In 1979, he qualified for the Interzonal Tournament in Riga, where he finished 11th. He retired from professional chess in 1984 and became a librarian.

James Tarjan in the 70's. US Championship? A photo from my archives. #IoMChess pic.twitter.com/sfX45zhkys

— Lars Grahn (@larsgrahn) September 25, 2017

Tarjan's experience came in handy against Kramnik. The American defended well contenting himself with parrying Black's threats. A successful strategy: after the opening, Kramnik took the initiative and stood better until he lost patience on move 30 and forced tactical sequence that left White with an edge.

Here is Tarjan's take on the game for the official live webcast:

GM James Tarjan with Fiona Steil-Antoni

This loss deals a nearly fatal blow to Kramnik's chances to qualify for the Candidates tournament by rating. The gap has widened between Kramnik and Wesley So, to the extent that it's hard to see Kramnik being able to recover, despite potential action in the forthcoming European Club Cup and European Team Championships.

Race to FIDE candidates after Kramnik lost 9 rating points today:
Caruana 2808.41, So 2806.41, Kramnik 2803.08https://t.co/MyzHaQu7uo

— Martin Bennedik (@bennedik) September 25, 2017

Carlsen in the driver's seat

Magnus Carlsen showed off his attacking skills against the young American grandmaster and World Junior champion Jeffery Xiong. Grandmaster Tiger Hillarp-Persson takes a look:

Master Class Vol.8: Magnus Carlsen

Scarcely any world champion has managed to captivate chess lovers to the extent Carlsen has. The enormously talented Norwegian hasn't been systematically trained within the structures of a major chess-playing nation such as Russia, the Ukraine or China.

World Junior Champion Jeffery Xiong got his first crack at Magnus Carlsen | Photo: Alina l'Ami

This leaves the World Champion with a perfect score tied with Pavel Eljanov, Rustam Kasimdzhanov and Aleksandr Lenderman.

A computer's defense

Eljanov ground out a win against German GM Falko Bindrich in one of the longest games of the round. Bindrich, who was previously disqualified from a tournament on suspicion of cheating and banned (later overturned) by the German Chess Federation, missed a curious opportunity to draw the game just after time control.

Here Bindrich played the human-looking 42...Re7 to exchange off White's active rook. However, the lunge 42...Nb6 is actually the way to go, enticing White to play 43.Rxg7+! Kxg7 44.Qa7+ Rf7 45.Qxb6. [You can play these moves on the diagram above!]

At first glance this looks crushing for White, whose queen and knight coordinate to massive effect, with the immediate threat of Qxh6. But black has a hidden resource in 45...Rxf2!! when after the forced 46.Kxf2 Rf8 47.Kg2 (or Ke2) there's an incredible draw by perpetual check: 47...Qf1+ Kh2 48.Rf2! Nxf2 49.Qxf2 followed by Qxe3 and one side or another will give the perpetual.

Instead Eljanov went on to slowly increase his advantage until Bindrich could no longer avoid resignation on move 64.

Eljanov will have black against Lenderman next | Photo: Alina l'Ami

Hou's curious predicament

Last January, Hou Yifan was the subject of a curious scandal at the Gibraltar Chess Festival, when she deliberately lost her final round game to protest what she felt were suspicious pairings that saw her face an unusuually high percentage of women for a large open tournament. Now she finds herself paired in round four with her fourth consecutive female player. A remarkable coincidence!

Gibraltar 2017 (7 out of 10 female opponents)

Isle of Man 2017 (4 out of 4 female opponents)

Yifan discussed the Gibraltar incident, among other topics, at some length with me on my podcast, The Full English Breakfast earlier this year:

In round three, Hou lost to Georgian IM Nino Batsiashvili who, it's worth noting, she also faced in Gibraltar! Batsiashvili developed an initiative out of the opening and capitalized on consecutive errors from the world's best woman, in a game that she will not soon forget. GM Tiger Hillarp-Persson breaks it down:

Nino Batsiashvili | Photo: Alina l'Ami

Hou's first loss of the tournament leaves her on a 50% score, where there are a significantly higher proporation of female players, yet the coincidence of hitting a fourth consecutive women must nontheless be incredibly disheartening for her.

One hopes she will confirm to her satisfaction that the computer-generated pairings have been done correctly, shake off this bit of "bad luck" — evoking her prior experience in Gibraltar — and play the game.

Standings after Round 3 (Top 30)

All games rounds 1-3

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly put the number of female opponents for Hou Yifan in Gibraltar 2017 at 8. In fact it was only 7 out of 10.

Links

• Official site
• Complete results (Chess-Results)