Pleasure blind

Alisa Gallyamova and Xu Yuhua will play in the final of the Women's World Chess Championship in Yekaterinburg. The Russian-Chinese final did not come as a surprise to most experts in the women's game. This is a reflection of both the class of rivals and the laws of the knockout system - if you don’t realize your whites, prepare for the worst. Both first games of the semi-final ended in a draw, and Victoria Chmilite, who attacked Galliamova, at the decisive moment allowed her to “escape” to a draw with a perpetual check, and Svetlana Matveeva received nothing against Xu Yuhua. But their opponents used their whites to the fullest, although to do this they had to demonstrate persistence in winning endgames that looked like draws. The match for the world champion title between Gallyamov and Xu Yuhua will be played in four games from March 23 to 26.

While the women are determining the new champion, the strongest men are fighting in Monaco, where the famous Dutch chess patron van Ooster is holding the 15th Melody Amber. The tournament is named after his eldest daughter, and in it the strongest grandmasters in the world can not only play for fun, but also replenish their budget (a prize fund of 216 thousand euros is up for grabs). It’s a pleasure because you can play two short games a day blindly and in rapid chess without the risk of losing your rating (in such a game it is not calculated), there’s no other way to call it. The composition is stable from year to year, except that Vladimir Kramnik is not playing for the first time, but the rest of the top of the FIDE rating list is obvious: world champion Veselin Topalov (No. 2), Viswanathan Anand (3), Petr Svidler (4), Levon Aronian (5) , Peter Leko (7), Vasily Ivanchuk (8), Boris Gelfand (9), Alexander Morozevich (11), Alexander Grischuk (12). Among the 12 participants, a place is reserved for the best of the Dutch chess players (in recent years it has been Luc van Wely) and the most promising representative of Western youth (in recent years van Ooster has invited the Spaniard Francisco Vallejo). As for the invitation of the experienced Dane Peter Heine Nielsen, this is the personal sympathy of the patron.

Four rounds have already been played. There were no big surprises: ahead, as last year, were the specialists in this “dual event” Anand and Morozevich, who scored five points in eight games. Topalov, Leko and Aronian are half a point behind. It should be noted that in the meeting of the favorites, which took place in the first round, Morozevich won, winning blindly after a draw in a quick game. Unfortunately, he was unable to maintain his lead on the fourth match day, losing after a blindside win over Vallejo in rapid chess. This allowed Anand, who beat Gelfand (1.5:0.5), to catch up with the Russian. Levon Aronian also got off to a great start, and in the second and third rounds he managed to beat Topalov and Leko 1.5:0.5 each, but then he unexpectedly lost to Nielsen, and Topalov, “rising from the ashes,” got to him.

Oleg STETSKO