Legends of Chess, the $150,000 online tournament where six veterans in their 40s and 50s are meeting Magnus Carlsen and three others from the current world top, got off to a surprise start on Wednesday as Carlsen missed a simple all-checking mate in four, while Israel’s Boris Gelfand, 52, world No 3 in 1990, defeated China’s current world No 3, Ding Liren, in only 16 moves.
Gelfand, who narrowly lost a world title match in 2012, is still Israel’s best player. The veteran, who learned his skills in the old Soviet Union, defeated Ding 3-1, winning twice with Black. The highlight was the final game where Gelfand won a 16-move miniature which Ding resigned two pawns down and facing a monster black knight at e3. Such a result may sound totally one-sided, but Gelfand erred with 9…h6? (d5!) when Ding could have won by 10 Nc4! with the double threat of 11 e5 and 11 Bxf4 followed by Nd6+.
Ding has shown erratic form on the Carlsen tour, and has lost all three Legends matches so far. China’s Hou Yifan and Ju Wenjun were also below par in the women’s Grand Prix. One problem for all of them is that playing hours (3pm BST start) are geared to European and US players and audiences, so that the Chinese players may have to compete in the middle of the night.
Another issue is internet disconnections, from which Ding famously suffered against Carlsen in the Chessable Masters as did Hou in her Grand Prix final against Kateryna Lagno. It seems likely that the Great Firewall of China blocks the chess24.com server and that the Chinese players use a virtual private network (VPN), which is vulnerable to disconnections.
In another iconic moment Vasyl Ivanchuk, 51, defeated Peter Leko with the ancient King’s Gambit 1 e4 e5 2 f4, evoking “that’s awesome!” from Carlsen. Online coverage continues daily on chess24.com from 3pm, with free and live grandmaster and computer commentary.
Norway’s world No 1, who is playing his early rounds from a ship on a Mediterranean cruise, began with a comfortable 3-1 win against Anish Giri despite a strange moment at move 24 in game two where Carlsen spent 35 seconds looking at 24 Bxg7?, opted for 24 Qe5? and missed a forced all-checking mate in four.
Carlsen opened with a novelty in a well-trodden Queen’s Gambit system 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 d5 4 Nc3 Bb4 5 Bd2!? 0-0 6 g4!? The idea of an early g2-g4 in 1 d4 d5 structures is not itself new, but it had never been tried in this position.
Early advances of White’s g and h pawns have become more frequent in recent years, even with White’s king still in mid-board or castled short. AlphaZero, subject of the award-winning book Game Changer, achieved fame by its victory in an epic series against Stockfish where the advancing h pawn featured.
On Saturday Fide launches the 163‑team online Olympiad, a substitute for the 2020 over-the-board men’s and women’s Olympiads which are postponed to 2021. Teams of six will include three women, with two boards reserved for under-20 juniors.
Russia, China and the US are the top seeds, but China has internet problems and the US lacks top women players, so that Russia are the favourites. England are seeded 17th, and will aim for the top 10. Backed by private sponsors, the team fields the grandmaster quartet of Michael Adams, Luke McShane, with alternates Gawain Jones and David Howell, who won silver behind Russia at the 2019 world teams.
The women’s boards are strengthened by the return of Harriet Hunt, the 42-year-old former England No 1 and Cambridge academic. However, England are relatively weak on the junior boards.
Fide has chosen Alex Holowczak as chief arbiter, a notable honour for the 30-year-old from Birmingham who has made a name for himself in controlling major events while still a prodigy by the grizzled standards of international arbiters. The job will be no sinecure, even with 13 assistants.
In the four months since chess has become primarily an online sport, there have been several cases of alleged use of engine assistance in leagues and tournaments, leading in some cases to team withdrawals.
The problem does not affect the world top 100 players, where the notorious case of Igors Rausis was an outlier, and is rare in over-the-board chess where mobile phones are barred at the board and any suspicious behaviour is soon noticed.
Online games are far harder to police. Top events require the players to be on camera and on Zoom, while the major websites test moves for correlation with engine choices. How well that will work in the online Olympiad with many games in progress remains to be seen, so there may be tests and controversies ahead for the arbiters.
3681: (by Dragoslav Djaja) 1 Nh6! If Rxh6 2 a8Q Rxa8 3 Rxa8 draws. If Rxa7 or a3-a2 2 Rg7+! Ke6 3 Rg6+ Ke5 4 Rg5+ Ke4 5 Rg4+ Kf3 6 Rg3+ Kf2 7 Rg2+ Kf1 8 Rg1+ and so ad infinitum. The black king has no square to escape the rook checks.