The Week in Chess

1. 24th European Women's Championship 2024 - Games and Results

   The 24th European Women's Championship takes place Thu 18th Apr to Tue 30th Apr 2024 in Rhodes, Greece. Top seeds: Yuliia Osmak, Marsel Efroimski, Bella Khotenashvili, Dinara Wagner, Antoaneta Stefanova, Lela Javakhishvili etc

2. Dutch League 2023-24 - Games and Results

   The Dutch League took place 16th September 2023 to 20th April 2024. Kennemer Combinatie had already won the league before this weekend's final round.

3. 14th Asrian Memorial 2024 - Games and Results

   The 14th Karen Asrian Memorial takes place in Yerevan Wed 24th Apr to Thu 2nd May 2024. The event returns after missing last year. Top seeds Manuel Petrosyan, Zaven Andriasian, M Pranesh etc.

4. Tan Zhongyi is the clear winner of the Women's Candidates 2024 - 14

   Tan Zhongyi will challenge Ju Wenjun for the World Chess Championship in 2025. The 32 year old player was not the favourite for the event but her confident play dominated with only a round 8 loss to her closest challenger Lei Tingjie as a blemish in the event. In the final round Tan played a very sharp Sicilian against Anna Muzychuk. Tan secured a big advantage but steered the game to the draw she needed. Lei needed a win and played an amazing Queen sacrifice against Humpy Koneru. Eventually her compensation disappeared and she subsided to a loss.

5. Gukesh is the youngest ever winner of the Candidates at 17 years old - 14

   Dommaraju Gukesh won the FIDE Candidates at the age of 17 years old. He comfortably held a draw against Hikaru Nakamura in the final round of the event. Fabiano Caruana built up a winning position against double defending champion Ian Nepomaniachtchi but a blunder on the first move after first time control allowed a draw and Gukesh's victory. Gukesh should play Ding Liren later in the year for the World Title. Ding seems to have had some kind of personal crisis since taking the title and has hardly played, and when he has it's not been very good play.

6. Tan Zhongyi on the verge of winning the Women's Candidates tournament - 13

   Tan Zhongyi could not ask for a better chance to win the Women's Candidates in Toronto going into the final round. Tan hardly played the most critical continuation against Aleksandra Goryachkina but a quiet game suited her and a draw by repetition was agreed on move 29. She now leads the Lei Tingjie by a point with no-one else able to catch her. Tan faces Anna Muzychuk with the black pieces in the final round, Muzychuk hasn't won a game yet, although she generated enough chances to have been in contention.

   The key result of the day was Rameshbabu Vaishali's fourth win in a row, a streak that followed four losses in a row and which started with a game she probably should have lost also. Today she took down Lei Tingjie and practically ruined her chances of winning the event. This was a 3.Bb5+ Sicilian 12...Bf8? (12...Be7=) was too passive and white was better for some time, some inaccuracies from Vaishali meant that black was back in it by move 25 and after first time control black had equality. The game was decided by a single move blunder, 61...Kf7? (61...h6 was equal) when 62.g5! meant all king an pawn endgames were winning for white, and there really was no escaping that.

   Nurgyul Salimova had a lucky escape against Kateryna Lagno who was busy converting a huge advantage before the inaccurate 42...Rc8? (42...Qd7!) undid all her good work and a draw was soon agreed. Two of the pre-event favourites Humpy Koneru and Anna Muzychuk played out a 45 move draw but I think both will just want this to be over.

   Round 13 Standings: 1 Tan Zhongyi 8.5pts, 2 Lei Tingjie 7.5pts, 3 Koneru, Lagno, Goryachkina, Vaishali 6.5pts 7 Salimova, Muzychuk 5pts.

   Round 14 21st April at 19:30BST: Lagno-Vaishali, Lei-Koneru, Muzychuk-Tan, Goryachkina-Salimova.

7. 17 year-old Gukesh leads the Candidates alone with one round to go - 13

   Dommaraju Gukesh is on the verge of victory in the FIDE Candidates tournament in Toronto. A win in the final round with the black pieces against Hikaru Nakamura would guarantee first place. Half a point behind is his opponent Nakamura as well as Fabiano Caruana and Ian Nepomniachtchi who face each other. Gukesh could well win the event with a draw, the other players need a win. There could also be a two way tie, this will be resolved by rapid followed by blitz, if necessary.

   Gukesh beat 20-year-old Alireza Firouzja whose entire campaign has been undone by his highly emotional approach to chess. Unless Firouzja learns to calm down I don't see how he can move forward. This was a double edged Berlin Defence where Firouzja was at least equal, 32...g5 was a misguided attempt to play for a win I guess but it rebounded and left Firouzja on the defensive. 43...Kh8?! (43.Qg6+!=) was a step in the wrong direction 44...Rg8? (44...Qg6 again) 45.Qg5?! (45.Qh6!) 45...Qg6? ( 45...Ne6! last chance to fight really) after which white didn't make any mistake in converting. Gukesh probably will play solidly against Nakamura and see where that takes him.

   Hikaru Nakamura surprised Ian Nepomniachtchi with 4...Bc5 in the Ruy Lopez and was clearly well prepared. It does seem like he mixed up that preparation as 14...d5?! (14...d6 is fine) gave white chances if he'd found 17.d5! As it was 17.Bc2 roughly equal and they drew by repetition on move 27. Nepomniachtchi was really the one who could play on and given the size of his task in the final round perhaps he should have.

   Fabiano Caruana continued to be in must-win territory in this round and he delivered beating Praggnanandhaa with the black pieces in a gruelling grind. In such a long game it's hard to pick things out but 15.Qh3?! (15.Rb1!) handed Caruana a nice initiative and he was quite soon hugely better. 25...Nxe1 grabbing the exchange was entirely natural but it left Caruana with a difficult task of breaking through but perhaps he thought he was fine with that. 40.f3 was forced opening the position a bit but the position was still about equal there. Once Queen's came off Caruana could slowly activate his Queenside pawn majority and although the engines quibble about his choices 67.c3? was the start of collapse from Praggnanandhaa and after 69.Ba1? the game was soon over.

   Santosh Vidit tried a little bit against Nijat Abasov's Petroff but after great preparation and equality both players had no real motivation to continue and drew.

   Round 13 Standings: 1st Gukesh 8.5pts, 2nd= Nepomniachtchi, Nakamura, Caruana 8pts, 5th Praggnanandhaa 6pts, 6th Vidit 5.5pts, 7th Firouzja 4.5pts, 8th Abasov 3.5pts,

   Round 14 21st April at 19:30BST: Nakamura-Gukesh, Firouzja-Vidit, Abasov-Praggnanandhaa, Caruana-Nepomniachtchi.

8. Tan Zhongyi and Lei Tingjie both draw in Round 12 of the Women's Candidates - 12

   Tan Zhongyi continues to lead Lei Tingjie by half a point going into the final rest day of the Women's Candidates tournament in Toronto. They are too far clear of the rest of the field, one of these two players will win the event.

   Tan Zhongyi was losing against Nurgyul Salimova. By move 25 Tan was in a very uncomfortable position and tried to break out tactically with 25...b6? but this made things worse. Salimova's 43.f6?! (43.g6!) was a step in the wrong direction but she restored her winning position only to play 50.Bxf7? (50.Nxb4, 50.Rh4+ or 50.Bc6) which basically threw away the entire advantage and the game was drawn.

   Whilst Tan was losing Lei Tingjie seemed poised to overtake her with a win against Kateryna Lagno. Lei defended the French Defence Advanced variation and after 13.Bg3? was better and seemingly within sight of the winning line played 26.Nf3? (26.Qb6! was the only winner) when the position became equal again and drawn on move 40.

   Aleksandra Goryachkina got nothing in the Catalan against Humpy Koneru, pieces came off and a draw was agreed on move 25. The only decisive game was a resurgent Rameshbabu Vaishali who beat Anna Muzychuk. Things started to go wrong for Muzychuk after 24.e6 and by move 40 Vaishali had traded into a completely winning endgame which she converted.

   Round 12 Standings: 1st Tan Zhongyi 8pts, 2nd Lei Tingjie 7.5pts, 3rd= Lagno, Koneru, Goryachkina 6pts, 6th Vaishali 5.5pts, 7th= Salimova, Muzychuk 4.5pts.

   Rest Day 19th April 2024

   Round 13 20th April at 19:30BST: Salimova-Lagno, Tan-Goryachkina, Koneru-Muzychuk, Vaishali-Lei.

   Round 14 21st April at 19:30BST: Lagno-Vaishali, Lei-Koneru, Muzychuk-Tan, Goryachkina-Salimova.