Chess Champ Hou Yifan in the Limelight
By GM Lubomir Kavalek
Hou was in the lead going into the last round, but was caught at the last moment
by Nigel Short. They both scored 8 points in 10 games and the English grandmaster
grabbed the title in a blitz playoff. But Hou faced much tougher opponents.
Facing six grandmasters rated above 2700 points - a barrier reserved for the
best 40 players in the world - she scored four wins and two draws, including
a historic win against Judit Polgar, the all-time best woman.
Armenian poetry
Aronian won Wijk aan Zee with a 9-4 score, a full point ahead of his rivals
Magnus Carlsen and Teimour Radjabov, and added 14 points to his rating. He now
trails the top-rated Carlsen only by 11 points. The next FIDE list will show
the top four as Carlsen 2835 points, Aronian 2824 points, Vladimir Kramnik 2801
points, and the world champion Vishy Anand 2799 points.
Carlsen seemed to be heavy-handed towards the end in Wijk aan Zee. His play
was not smooth and his games personified hard long labor: he wanted to win,
but his mind was tired. On the other hand, Aronian mixed up playfulness, lightness,
elegance - his play looked fresh and cheerful. A good example is the final combination
against the Dutch grandmaster Anish Giri, who came to Wijk aan Zee with an impressive
victory in the traditional Italian tournament in Reggio Emilia.
Note that in the replay windows below you can click on the notation to
follow the game.
Aronian was in the news recently: he will play a friendly six-game classical
chess match against Kramnik in April in Russia. He also announced that he is
not going to play in the world championship qualification, the Candidates, if
it is held in Azerbaijan. As Armenian, Aronian believes he would have a psychological
disadvantage.
A historic clash
When Hou Yifan won the women's world title in 2010 at the age of 16, she became
the youngest world champion in history, male or female. As a twelve-year-old
she dreamt of replacing Judit Polgar at the top one day. In Gibraltar, they
faced each other for the first time.
Two amazing king's hunts
Throughout the tournament, Hou played like a pirate with no fear, attacking
when the odds were against her, stealing chess pieces and points from opponents
rated far above her. She survived opening clashes and finessed the endgames.
She gambled against the Vietnamese ace, Le Quang Liem, sacrificing pawns and
it paid off. It was the second game where she took advantage of the move h7-h6.
The king's hunt resembled the last round grandmaster game between Emanuel Berg
of Sweden and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France. Both black kings were hunted
down to the square h5. Berg's game is also important for the theory of the Delayed
Poison Pawn variation in the Najdorf Sicilian.
Original
column here – Copyright
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