Will I be following the Candidates Tournaments? You bet!! The next 3 weeks will be full on. The Candidates events will dominate the chess scene until April 23rd and on the 25th April, a 9-round tournament starts in Hobart that I'd like to play. That runs through until 28th April, which means the whole month in pretty much worked out.
April is officially chess month!!
Although the Candidates will dominate the chess news, it is not the only event on, and as I know none of the Candidates personally, following events with people I know can be just as interesting. I'm of the opinion that the most important event for anyone should be the one they are personally involved in, either as a player, a helper, or a friend of a participant/helper. Currently, the Melbourne International Chess Open is being held at my old club, the Melbourne Chess Club. There are a lot of players that I know personally in this event, as there were in last week's annual Doeberl Cup in Canberra. In that event, there were a bunch of very talented primary school kids playing: Ashwath Kaushik of Singapore who became the youngest player in history to beat a Grand Master late last year; Reyaansh Chakrabarty, who also beat a Grand Master earlier this year at Victoria's annual Ballarat tournament in March; and Rheyansh Annapureddy, who I am glad to say I have beaten when he was probably 7 or 8 years old, and already a tough competitor. This is a scalp that I will have when he becomes a great player in the next few years.
Rheyansh put up an incredible fight in round 1 against top Australian IM James Morris. Both players had to play a difficult rook and bishop vs rook ending with very little time on their clocks.
As Black, Rheyansh had made 41 of the 50 moves necessary for a draw when the position above was reached. It is a difficult defence, and the youngster had played heroically to last this long, but he finally committed an error that the experienced IM pounced on. 138..Ra7? allowed White to force a win with 139.Bb3+ Ka2 140.Rh1 [142.Rh2 was quicker, but let's not quibble] 140..Rc7+ 141.Bc4, and Black has to give up their rook to avoid immediate mate.
From the position, it was better for Black to keep their rook active, pinning White's bishop so 138..Rc8 was a drawing move, when White has to make their position worse. For example, 139.Rh1 Ka5 140.Rh6 Ra8
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