It was a real-life Cinderella story, but the glass slipper got upstaged by a pair of blue jeans.
Russian teenage GM Volodar Murzin, seeded 59th in a world-class field, is the new FIDE rapid world champion, in one of the biggest upsets of the year. Indian GM Humpy Koneru claimed her second women’s rapid title at the splashy event staged last week in the heart of Wall Street.
But as you may have heard, the drama on the chessboard was overshadowed by a ridiculous dress-code spat between FIDE organizers and former world classical and rapid champion GM Magnus Carlsen of Norway. The world’s best player refused an order to change his jeans — deemed a violation of the event’s dress code — between Rounds 8 and 9, and proceeded to pull out of the tournament altogether when his Round 9 game was forfeited.
Carlsen, who has made no secret of his waning enthusiasm for the classical game and his rising unhappiness for the FIDE chess bureaucracy, had some harsh words for the organizers, but the two sides have patched things up enough — for now — to allow the ex-champ to defend his world blitz title this week in New York.
There was some talk that it wasn’t just the dress code that had the former champ steamed: At the time of the incident, he was 1½ points off the lead following some uncharacteristically loose play, including a stinging upset loss to young Belarusian GM Denis Lazavik in Round 5. The loss out of a placid QGD Slav Exchange line is a classic case of a higher-rated player taking unwarranted risks in the press to score the full point, and winding up with a goose egg.
Black trots out a string of provocative moves (9…Ra7 and 12…g5) in an effort to unbalance the position, while Lazavik responds with simple, strong moves that exploit Black’s rash strategy: 18. Qd1 (loading up on Carlsen’s advanced, undefendable g-pawn) Ne4 19. Bf4 Bg5 20. Bxg4 Bxf4 21. exd4 Kg7?! (banking on the open kingside files to compensate for the lost pawn, but Black’s attack along the h-file never really gets going) 22. Bxf5 exf5 23. g3, and White is just a pawn to the good with a superior pawn structure.
With White playing solid chess, Black’s attempts to complicate the play predictably backfire: 27. Qd3 Rh5? (the h-file will prove a dry hole for Black, so better here was 27…Nb4 28. Qe3 Rde8 29. Ne5 Qe6, with some hope of holding the position) 28. Rh1 Qh6 29. Qe3 Rh8 30. Rxh5 Qxh5 31. Nh4, effectively sealing the h-file and forcing Black to deal with his own positional weaknesses.
Black’s badly placed queen proves costly after 32. Rh1 (with the idea of bringing the c3-knight into the play in lines like 33. Nd1 Ne4 34. Qd3 Ne7 35. Ne3 Kg8 36. f3 Nd6 37. Qc3, with a positional clamp) Kf8?! 33. Qd3 (Ng6+ right now was also good) Ne7 34. Ng6+ fxg6 35. Rxh5 gxh5 36. Ne2 — Black has gotten insufficient material for his lost queen and has no real counterplay. The end is near.
Black’s rook and knight prove no match for the marauding White queen, which gobbles both of Black’s pawnside queens. After 49. a4 Ra1 50. Qc6 Ra2 51. Qb5, there is nothing to stop the advancing White passers and Carlsen resigned.
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The relatively unknown Murzin, 18, used both skill and luck to navigate his way to his first world title. His undefeated 10-3 result included upsets of American super-GMs Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura and Polish star GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda, as well as a back-from-the-dead win over Indian GM Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa in a critical Round 12 game.
Praggnanandhaa-Murzin after 33…Kf3-e2.
Murzin as Black had been struggling for most of the play out of a Vienna Game opening, and we pick it up at today’s diagram where Pragg is a pawn up and need only avoid getting mated on the g-file to cash in his chips for the win. Murzin has just played 33…Kf3-e2, and now the tournament would have taken a very different turn if White had found 34. f7! Rf8 35. R1b2+ Kf1 36. f4 (covering the mate threat on g1 and putting Black’s king in mortal peril as well) Rxf7 (Be1 37. Rd3 Rxf7 38. Rd1 Rxf4 39. Rbb1 Ke2 40. Rxe1+) 37. Rf2+ Ke1 38. Rb1 mate.
Instead, White plays perhaps the one plausible move that loses: 34. R1b2+?? Kf1 35. Rb1+ (f4 Rg1+ 36. Bxg1 Rxg1 mate; or 34. h4 Rg1+ 36. Kh2 R8g2+ 37. Kh3 Rh1 mate) Be1, and now White must give up the exchange just to prevent immediate mate. The Indian GM tries to set up a fortress but the Black rooks are too strong. Resurrected, Murzin ends things in style on 40. Rb4 Rg4 41. Rb7 Rf7 42. f4 h5! 43. Kg2 h4 44. Kf3 hxg3! 45. Kxg4 g2, and White resigned, the point being that 46. Rb1 loses to 46… g1=Q+! 47. Rxg1 Rg7+ 48. Kf5 Rxg1 49. Ke6 Kxd4 50. f4 Kxc5 51. f6 d4 52. f7 Rf1 53. Ke7 d3 54. f8=Q Rxf8 55. Kxf8 d2 and wins.
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Upsets were in the air in New York, perhaps a reflection of the pressures of the faster time controls. In addition to a painful loss to Murzin, Caruana saw his comeback hopes crushed by a second upset at the hands of another Russian GM, Andrey Esipenko, in Round 8. White scores a small positional victory in this Rossolimo Sicilian with 13. Qd2 d6 14. Bh6, forcing a trade of Caruana’s fianchettoed bishop and leaving the dark squares around the Black king a source of perpetual concern.
Black appears to underestimate the danger — better would have been 20…h5 to block the advance of White’s h-pawn — and by 25. R1 e3 a5 26. a4, Caruana is running out of useful moves and can only brace himself for the coming White breakthrough.
That breakthrough comes on 28. h6 Kg8?! (tougher was battening down with 28…R6b7) 29. Qf2 Qd8 30. f5! exf5? (this was clearly not Caruana’s day; bad also was 30…gxf5?? 31. Qg3+ Kf8 32. Qg7+ Ke7 33. Nxf5+ Ke8 34. Qg8 mate, but Black can at least keep fighting after 30… Qf6 31. fxe6 Qxf2+ 32. Kxf2 fxe6 33. g4 Kf7 34. g5 Rf8) 31. Rxd5, with the threat of 32. Nxf5! gxf5 33. Rxd7! Qxd7 34. Qg3+ Rg6 (Kf8 35. Qg7 mate) 35. Qxb8+ Qd8 36. Qxd8 mate.
White’s dark-square dominance tells in the stylish finale: 34. Qe5 Kf8 (Qf8 35. Rxb7 Rxb7 36. Rd8! f6 37. Qxe6+ Rf7 38. Nc6 Qxd8 39. Nxd8 Kh8 40. Qxf7 f4 41. Qg7 mate) 35. Ne6+! Kxe7 36. Ng5+ Kf8 37. Nxh7+, and Black resigned just ahead of 37…Kg8 38. Qg7 mate.
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Congratulations to GM Praveen Balakrishnan, the pride of Centreville, Virginia, who took sole first in the 79-player Premier section of the 2024 Eastern Open. The DMV’s traditional year-end chess extravaganza wound up Sunday at the Hyatt Regency Crystal City in Arlington. We’ll have a full round-up of section winners and some action from the tournament in columns to come.
Happy New Year and a wish for a prosperous and chess-filled 2025 to all our loyal readers!
(Click on the image above for a larger view of the chessboard.)
Lazavik-Carlsen, FIDE World Rapid Championship, New York, December 2024
1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. cxd5 cxd5 4. Nc3 Nf6 5. Bf4 Nc6 6. e3 a6 7. Rc1 Bf5 8. Nf3 e6 9. Qb3 Ra7 10. Be2 Be7 11. O-O Nd7 12. Na4 g5 13. Be5 O-O 14. Bg3 h5 15. h3 g4 16. hxg4 hxg4 17. Nh2 Nf6 18. Qd1 Ne4 19. Bf4 Bg5 20. Bxg4 Bxf4 21. exf4 Kg7 22. Bxf5 exf5 23. g3 Rh8 24. Nf3 Ra8 25. Kg2 Qf6 26. Nc3 Rad8 27. Qd3 Rh5 28. Rh1 Qh6 29. Qe3 Rh8 30. Rxh5 Qxh5 31. Nh4 Nf6 32. Rh1 Kf8 33. Qd3 Ne7 34. Ng6+ fxg6 35. Rxh5 gxh5 36. Ne2 Kf7 37. Ng1 h4 38. gxh4 Rxh4 39. Nh3 Kg6 40. Qb3 Nc6 41. Qxb7 Nxd4 42. Qxa6 Rg4+ 43. Kf1 Rh4 44. Qd3 Ne6 45. Qg3+ Rg4 46. Qe3 Rh4 47. Qxe6 Rxh3 48. Ke2 Rh1 49. a4 Ra1 50. Qc6 Ra2 51. Qb5 Black resigns.
Esipenko-Caruana, FIDE World Rapid Championship, New York, December 2024
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. Nc3 g6 5. O-O Bg7 6. Re1 O-O 7. Bxc6 bxc6 8. e5 Nd5 9. Nxd5 cxd5 10. d4 Qb6 11. dxc5 Qxc5 12. Be3 Qc6 13. Qd2 d6 14. Bh6 dxe5 15. Bxg7 Kxg7 16. Rxe5 e6 17. Rae1 Qc7 18. Nd4 Rb8 19. b3 Rb6 20. h4 Qd8 21. h5 Re8 22. f4 Bd7 23. Qf2 Qf6 24. Qg3 Rc8 25. R1e3 a5 26. a4 Kf8 27. c3 Rcb8 28. h6 Kg8 29. Qf2 Qd8 30. f5 exf5 31. Rxd5 Qc8 32. Qf4 R6b7 33. Re7 Be6 34. Qe5 Kf8 35. Nxe6+ Kxe7 36. Ng5+ Kf8 37. Nxh7+ Black resigns.
• David R. Sands can be reached at 202/636-3178 or by email at dsands@washingtontimes.com.
• David R. Sands can be reached at dsands@washingtontimes.com.
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