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Weekly chess column

Hikaru Nakamura, the leading player in the United States, has been rated fourth in the world and, as a result of obtaining a silver medal on board one at the World Team Championship and defeating Vladimir Kramnik of Russia in that tournament, may have moved up
to No. 3.

Nakamura has once again shown his ability in the London Classic, a rapids tournament that does not affect his rating. The Classic is a Swiss tournament in which 16 grandmasters played matches to determine a winner. It had an all-star cast including six top English grandmasters, former world champions — Viswanathan Anand, Kramnik, and Peter Svidler. Levon Aronian, rated No. 2 in the world, was busy in the SportsAccord Mind Games tournament in China. The new world champion,
Magnus Carlsen of Norway, was invited but unable to accept. He is planning a simultaneous exhibition against 20 players in Las Vegas on Jan. 9.

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The field in the Classic was divided into four groups of four players each. Members of the group playing each other received 3 points for a win and 1 for a draw. The two winners in each group then qualified for the quarterfinal 2 game matches. In those matches, Kramnik, Michael Adams, Nakamura, and Boris Gelfand survived. Nakamura then eliminated Kramnik and Gelfand dispatched Adams.

In the final round, Nakamura faced Gelfand, the former challenger to Anand for the World Championship title. The first game was very exciting with Nakamura overcoming a dubious opening choice to defeat Gelfand in excellent fashion. In the second game, Gelfand had his chances but Nakamura managed to hold the draw and win the tournament.

The SportsAccord World Mind Games, produced by a professional sports organization, calls itself as "a multi-sport event centered on the gymnasium of the mind and highlighting the great value of the mind sports." It deals with five separate games, bridge, chess, draughts (checkers), go and xiangqi (Chinese chess).

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The chess portion of Mind Games is a curious acrobatic concoction held in Beijing in mid-December. Sixteen prominent men and women's players play in Rapid (20 minutes, plus 10 seconds per move), Blitz (3 minutes, plus 10 seconds per move) and Basque (players play two games simultaneously with opposite colors and rapids time controls against the same opponent.). The Basque round apparently got its name from a tournament played in San Sebastian, Spain, in 2011. Wang Yue of China won the rapids on tiebreak ahead of Peter Leko of Hungary. Sergey Karjakin of Russia won the Blitz ahead of Levon Aronian. Karjakin also dominated the Men's Basque section with a convincing 8.5/10 ahead of Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Russia, who beat Aronian 2-0 in the final round. In the women's event, Valentina Gunina of Russia won the Rapids ahead of women's world champ Hou Yifan of China, who proceeded to win the Blitz event.  Zhao Xue of China won the Basque section. Yifan placed second.

Brevity: A. Rubinstein v. P. P. Benko 1903 1.d4 f5 2.c4 Nf6 3.e3 e6 4.Bd3 b6 5.Ne2 Bb7 6.0–0 Be7 7.Nbc3 0–0 8.Qc2 Nc6 9.a3 Nh5 10.f4 Bf6 11.g4 fxg4 12.Bxh7+ Kh8 13.Bg6 Nxf4 14.Rxf4 e5 15.Qf5 Bg5 16.Qxf8+ Qxf8 17.Rxf8+ Rxf8 18.Be4; 1-0

Winners : Western. Mass. Chess; 4th St. Nick 1st: David Hall, 3.5-0.5. MACA's Harry Nelson Pillsbury 1st-2d: Alexander Ivanov, Mika Brattain, 3.5-0.5, 3d: Aida Sowa, 3-1.

Coming Events: Fourth Spiegel State Qualifier, Jan. 4, Buckingham,Browne & Nichols School, 80 Gerrys Landing Road, Cambridge,
info@masschess.org;  Second Boston Chess Congress Jan. 10-12, Hyatt Harborside,
101 Harborside Drive, Logan Airport, www.chesstour/bcc14.htm.

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