Games & a trick from the World Rapid Championships

I was watching the coverage of the 2016 edition of the FIDE World Rapid Championships today and saw a game of some interest to the many of us in the club that play the French Defense. Anna Muzychuk playing White mated Alina Kashlinskaya in 23 moves in a French Defense Exchange Variation. Not only that, the queens came off the board on move seven! A lesson on how NOT to play the French Exchange as Black.

[Event "World Rapid Women 2016"] [Site "Doha QAT"] [Date "2016.12.27"] [Round "8.1"] [White "Muzychuk, Anna"] [Black "Kashlinskaya, Alina"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C01"] [WhiteElo "2558"] [BlackElo "2429"] [PlyCount "45"] [EventDate "2016.12.26"] 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. exd5 exd5 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. Bd3 Bd6 6. Qe2+ Qe7 7. Qxe7+ Bxe7 8. Bf4 c6 9. h3 Ne4 10. O-O O-O 11. Re1 Bf5 12. Nbd2 Nxd2 13. Rxe7 Nxf3+ 14. gxf3 Bxh3 15. Rxb7 Re8 16. Kh2 Be6 17. Re1 Rd8 18. Bc7 Rc8 19. f4 g6 20. f5 gxf5 21. Rg1+ Kf8 22. Bd6+ Ke8 23. Rg8# 1-0

Yuck! On a more amusing note, the game between Nepomniachtchi and Aronian featured a nice trick in the endgame. Here's the position:

The moves 68 Rb6-b5+ Ke5-d4 have just been played. Nepo has almost achieved his goal, which is to capture the a-pawn and bishop, securing a draw. But there's a trick! If now 69 Rxa5 Kc4 and White finds himself on the losing end of a mating attack!

Aronian is a real artist at the board, and this is just another example.

However, Nepo realized there was a rat and played 69 Rh5 instead, and eventually made the draw. I'll try to remember to post the whole game score later.

Jim wins again, and inspiration for a bitter ender.

Jim McTigue won again today. It was a very smooth victory. As an interested observer I was also much happier with his time management today. That's steadily been getting better, and I think he's now finally settled in. Unfortunately, the team lost 1.5-2.5 again, and again at one point they were poised to do a little better. C'est la vie.

Tomorrow the Virgin Island team is paired against Djibouti, and I expect them to win. Djibouti had problems with their travel arrangements (many of the African countries did), and wasn't able to play until Round Six. (Hopefully they didn't miss the Bermuda Party, too.) Djibouti only has three players on their team, so they will be starting down one point to start the match. Of their three players, only one is rated - the second board sports a 1502 FIDE. Hopefully "our" guys will crash through to a good match victory tomorrow.

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In other news, Russia smashed Czechia (don't blame me, it's what they call themselves now for marketing purposes) 3.5 to 0.5, and the US team beat the now former tournament leader India by the same score, setting up a Russia-USA match tomorrow. (That match-up will also occur in the Women's Olympiad.) The US now has sole lead of the tournament in match points, but it didn't come as easy as the score would suggest.

Shankland was flat out dead busted, stone cold lost, buried, finished, had bought the farm, and "everything that goes with it", against S. P. Sethuraman, but he played on. To lift a Shankland quote from Chess.com's report (which I recommend be read in full), "I wanted to resign, but I didn't." Perseverance paid off, even though his opponent was rated 2640, and Shankland went on to win a game in which his evals were at least as bad as -9.5. (Shankland had White.) That game is embedded in Chess.com's report, and is yet another example of why I play on until there is no possibility of my opponent letting me back in the game, and no one I play is rated anywhere close to 2640 FIDE.

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A couple of other bits. First, Nepomniachtchi is now on 7/7, and has a performance rating over 3300. (I though they couldn't calculate those for players on perfect scores, as that's what I remember people saying from Caruana's streak in St. Louis a couple years back.) He's a very bad man in Baku, and I wouldn't want to meet him anywhere - unless I was on his team, of course.

Second, you'll need to read the bit on Nigel Short. He had "fun" with the organizers again today when they tried to inspect him for cheating in the middle of the game, in time pressure. Just read about it at Chess.com. Unbelievable, and one can't help but wonder if he didn't get singled out for this because of his well-known and long-running stance against FIDE.