Midweek Look at Chess

Before taking stock of what is happening in the chess world, I was sad to see that Yugoslav chess legend Svetozar Gligoric passed away. As with many players of my generation, I grew up with the King's Indian Defence a major system in chess and part of my own repertoire, and therefore had plenty of chance to study games of Gligoric. Perhaps one of his most famous is his win against Najdorf from the 1953 Mar del Plata tournament. Of course, this game was partly responsible for the opening being called the Mar del Plata Variation!

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The Russian Championship finished with  rapid play off which was won by young (22 I think?) Andreikin. Hot on the heels of this comes the French Championship, another round robin elite event with another youngster, Maxime Vachier-Legrave one of the favourites. All this talk of young players comes in the midst of the World Junior Championships which have just one round left. Richard Rapport of Hungary and Alexander Ipatov of Turkey lead by half a point going into this final round, but they've already played so a tense finale awaits.

In Melbourne another young player, Dusan Stojic, has taken the lead from Guy West in the MCC Club Championship play off. Currently game number 3 is in progress but I would imagine this endgame of queen and opposite bishops will end in a draw. If this is the case, then Dusan needs only a draw in the final game to clinch the title.