The Times - UK (2022-06-11)

(Antfer) #1

the times | Saturday June 11 2022 saturday review 53


Anand had seen that 23 Bb1 allows
23...Nxf2! whereupon 24 Rxf2 e3 is
a nasty fork. Carlsen still manages
to extricate the piece in style.
23...Nf2! The same trick men-
tioned above. The knight is poi-
soned: 24 Rxf2 e3. 24 fxe4 N2xe4
25 Qd3 Qd6 26 Rf3 g6 27 Raf1
Computers love this type of posi-
tion for Black, mainly due to the
kingside pawn majority providing
extra defensive cover. In practice,
White’s position is far easier to
play. Every piece is actively placed.
27...Nh5 28 g4 Nhf6 29 Nf4 Ng5?
This only helps White to improve
the f3-rook. 30 R3f2 Nge4 31 Rg2
h6 32 h4 g5 33 hxg5 hxg5 34 Nh3
Kg7 35 Rf5 35 Qe3 is the correct
way to attack g5. 35...Rh8 36
Nxg5 Rh4? 36...Nxg5 37 Rxg5+
Kf8 leaves White in trouble along
the e- and h-files. 37 Bxd5! Anand
is peerless when it comes to small
tactics. 37...Nxg5 37...Nxd5 38
Nxe4 leaves White two pawns up.
38 Rxg5+ Kf8 39 Bf3? A small
blemish. 39 Qg3 consolidates the
extra material. 39...Qf4 40 Re5
Rxe5 41 dxe5 Qxe5 42 Kf2 Rh3
42...Rh1! gives Black counterat-
tacking chances. 43 g5 Nh5 44 g6!
Anand was visibly enjoying him-
self, while Carlsen was struggling
on both the board and clock.
44...fxg6 45 Qd8+ Qe8 46 Qxe8+
Kxe8 47 Rxg6 Nf4 48 Rxa6 The
endgame is clearly winning for
White, mainly thanks to the
a-pawn. 48...Nd3+ 49 Ke3 49 Ke2
is a better square, but Anand pro-
vokes a final blunder. 49...Ne5?
49...Nxb2 maintains a glimmer of
hope. 50 Re6+ Black resigns

Winning Move


White to play. Ohanyan-Zhigalko,
lichess.org 2022. Can you find the
crushing blow that gives a decisive
advantage? White’s winning motif
is reminiscent of the famous game
Fischer-Benko, New York 1963.

The first correct entry drawn on
Thursday will receive a copy of
Collins English Dictionary and
Thesaurus. The two runners-up
will receive a book prize. Answers
on a postcard to: The Times Win-
ning Move, PO Box 2164, Col-
chester, Essex CO2 8LJ, or email
to: [email protected].
Open to 18+, UK and ROI resi-
dents only. The answer will be
published next Saturday.

Solution to last week’s puzzle:
1 Rg8+! wins: 1...Rxg8 2 Nf7 mate

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O

b
r
n o
q u o p n
n b c
m a l t ÿ d s
t n
v a v i
o k t
w i
p e
u r
t

3W 2L 3W 2L 3W
2W 3L 3L 2W
2W 2L 2L 2W
2L 2W 2L 2W 2L
2W
3L 3L
2L 2L 2L 2L
3W 2L 3W
2L 2L 2L 2L
3L 3L 3L
2W
2L 2W 2L
2W 2L 2W
2W 3L 3L 2W
3W 2L 3W 2L 3W

E

3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
C D E F G H I J K L M N O
t w a y
t o r s a d e s
e
c l a d
k b i g
f i b

2W 2L 2L 2W
2L 2W
2W
3L 3L 3L
2L 2L 2L
2L 2L
2L 2L 2L
3L 3L 3L
2W 2W
2W 2L 2W
2W 2L 2L 2W
3L 3L 2W
2L 3W 2L

R

Peter Kougi of Melbourne won
the Australian National Scrab-
ble Championship for the sec-
ond time after a tense finish at
this year’s event in Queensland.
Kougi defeated another former
champion, Chris May, by 130
spread points (cumulative mar-
gin of victory) after both play-
ers finished on 18 wins out of 24
games.
Kougi’s win in the penultimate
game against John Spaan
was a pivotal moment: Kougi
won by a single point despite
a misruling by tournament
officials. During the game in
question, Kougi’s opponent
had accidentally overdrawn
from the bag, resulting in eight
tiles on the rack instead of the
standard seven tiles. Spaan
subsequently deployed all eight
tiles to play the bonus word
SATIATED.
The play was correctly
deemed to be an overdraw and
Kougi was able to remove one
of the tiles from his opponent’s
rack and return it to the bag.
Kougi crucially elected to
remove Spaan’s precious blank
tile from the rack. However,
according to tournament rules,
Spaan should also have lost his
turn, as the eight-tile play was
an invalid move. Instead, Spaan

was permitted another attempt
and played DATA to register
points on the same turn.
Despite this ruling, Kougi
was able to eke out a vital win
en route to becoming Australian
National Scrabble champion.
Here are two separate
positions from Kougi’s games.
Can you find Kougi’s 85-point
play using the board extract
and rack below?

EILRSVY


Can you also find Kougi’s
72-point move using the main
board and rack below?

AADIMRS


Definitions
BENITIER a basin for holy water
NUNATAK an isolated mountain
peak projecting
through glacial ice

Collins Official Scrabble Words is the word authority used.
Word positions use the grid reference plus (a)cross or (d)own.

2L double letter square (dl) 3L triple letter
square (tl)

2Wdouble word square (dw) 3Wtriple word square (tw)

Letter
values
1 point:
aeiou
lnrst
2 points:
dg
3 points:
bcmp
4 points:
fhvwy

k = 5
jx = 8
qz = 10

SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark of J. W. Spear & Sons Ltd ©Mattel 2022

Chess David Howell


Solution to Cryptic
Jumbo 1558
The winner is
Andrew Tiplady of
Markfield, Leics

Cryptic Jumbo 1557
The winner is
Jim Fyles of
Mundford, Norfolk

times2 Jumbo 1557
The winner is
Jillian Lee of Spital,
Merseyside

P R I N C I P A L S Q U E A M I S H N E S S
R N A A A U N N N U A U
O C E A N C O N C L U D E D F I N E S S E
P Q O I C T I A R T T Z
H O U S E O F R E P R E S E N T A T I V E S
E I I T I C T S N R W
T I T M O U S E I N D O L E N T G A B L E
I A B T F E V R U R
C U B I S M H A S S L E A B U N D A N C E
L T Q L S R P C O N W
P R E V I O U S L Y H E M P T A L L Y H O
L N I I I D R U C L
A B S T A I N B A N D P O O R R E L I E F
Y P T T L C B V E V N
B E L V E D E R E A V A T A R M I N G U S
I U S P K L B T O A
L I T H E S O C R A T I C U L L A P O O L
L T X E A C N B A D A
K E E P O N E S F I N G E R S C R O S S E D
S R L T S T S O K C H D
T R I P O L I A N A L O G O U S T I A R A
U N I A V T D C E E P Y
D I G I T A L C A M E R A H E A R T L E S S

Solution to times2
Jumbo 1558
The winner is Mark
Pierzchalo of Alloa,
Clackmannanshire

Cell Blocks 4494

Suko 3513

Mindset 1. All are linked to
cricket: {ADIOS, CIAO,
FAREWELL} — synonyms
for BYE; {ANGLE, AWAKE,
BOY} — follow WIDE;
{BABY, RABBIT,
RUDOLPH} — fit between
RUN and RUN in song titles;
{CONTINUING, UNDER,
UNFINISHED} — opposite
of OVER; {TWIXT, CUP,
(and) LIP} — many a SLIP;
{FRUIT, HORSESHOE,
VAMPIRE} — species of
BAT.



  1. They’re both the same:
    26 visits are needed in both
    cases.

  2. DODO. Sequence is Do Re
    Mi Fa So La Ti Do reversed,
    rotated, concatenated and
    divided into fours.
    Word Watch: Socle (c) A
    plinth (Collins). Eatanswill
    (c) A corrupt election
    (Chambers). Benison (b) A


Polygon Roger Phillips


Using the given letters no more than
once, make as many words as possible of
four or more letters, always including
the central letter. Capitalised words,
plurals, conjugated verbs (past tense
etc), adverbs ending in LY, comparatives
and superlatives are disallowed.
How you rate: 18 words average;
24, good; 31, very good; 38, excellent.
Answers to Friday’s Polygon are to the
left. Today’s answers are printed in
MindGames on Monday

Cell Blocks 4495


Divide the grid into square
or rectangular blocks, each
containing one digit only. Every
block must contain the number
of cells indicated by the digit
inside it.
Yesterday’s solution, left

© PUZZLER MEDIA

The winner is Patrick Cooper of
Clearbrook, Devon.

The May 28 winner is Dennis Orton
of Hayling Island, Hampshire.

blessing (OED). Fosse (c) A
ditch or trench (OED).
Polygon cafe, chafe, chef,
chief, chieftain, face, facet,
fact, fain, faint, faith, fane,
fate, feat, feint, feta, fetch,
fiancé, fiat, fiche, finca, finch,
fine, finite, fitch, fitna, fitnah,
haft, heft, infect, naïf, thief.
Scrabble
SILVERY (I11d);
DIORAMAS (E8a).
Literary quiz
1 Anthony Hope.
2 Daphne du Maurier.
3 Thomas Harris.
4 Ken Kesey.
Cryptic Quintagram
1 Ride 2 Cola 3 Resit
4 Extrovert 5 Sunderland.

M I S S W O R L D M A D C O W D I S E A S E
E E H U E I U B O T N A
N A C R E S I C K N O T E S U S E D C A R
A O E H A D Y E B R I L
G E N T L E M E N P R E F E R B L O N D E S
E D O T E R V E U N L
R O S E M A R Y S A F E S E A T M O T T O
I I E E P D E A R A
E I G H T H B O R E A S S A N G F R O I D
H O L O R H E D O M S
N O T I F I A B L E L O O T H A R V E S T
O F D S B P P O M A
T I P S I L Y I B E X N O N S T A R T E R
A I C C D N C I E T R
H O R S E S H O E D A R I N G A T R I U M
O O A S A T D E A A
P L U M P T E N S I O N S R E A D O N L Y
E E R T I N E G M G A
I T N E V E R R A I N S B U T I T P O U R S
U T V R V S B N U I L W
T R I V I A L A T T A I N D E R L E A V E
A N E E N E L O G O T L
H I G H W A Y P A T R O L G R E A T S E A L

Scrabble® Paul Gallen


A A C D D D E E

E E E I I L L N

N O O R R R R R

S S T T T U V X

1 Travel using free energy (4)


2 Piece of chocolate for pop (4)


3 One among others repeated test (5)


4 Outgoing person, rambler, entering
races no more? (9)


5 Last of Mohicans below ground in
city (10)


Solve all five cryptic clues using
each letter underneath once only












Cryptic Quintagram ® Word Watch


David Parfitt


Socle
a. A salmon species
b. Land ownership
c. A plinth

Eatanswill
a. A feeding trough
b. A legal document
c. A corrupt election

Benison
a. A small hill
b. A blessing
c. A meat substitute

Fosse
a. A Madagascan mammal
b. To turn to stone
c. A ditch or trench

Solve Cryptic Quintagram every weekday online


Go to thetimes.co.uk


Answers below Answers below


A summer of politics

Campaigning has started ahead of
the world chess federation (Fide)
elections in August. The president
of Fide, Arkady Dvorkovich, has
announced his plans to stand for a
second term in office. Dvorkovich
has earned plaudits for his work
since 2018, guiding Fide through a
difficult period while successfully
organising a broad range of events.
Dvorkovich’s regime is support-
ed by a number of prominent
grandmasters, including Emil Sut-
ovsky and Nigel Short. Despite the
star power, his candidacy presents
a moral dilemma for the chess
world. Dvorkovich was deputy
prime minister of Russia from 2012
to 2018. During this time Russia
annexed Crimea.
Dvorkovich’s opponents face an
uphill battle. The voting system of
one vote per federation greatly fa-
vours the incumbent. Controver-
sially, smaller federations with a
handful of members have the
same sway as countries such as
Germany, which represents al-
most 100,000 members.
If Dvorkovich is re-elected at
the Chess Olympiad in India, Vis-
wanathan Anand will be part of his
team. The 52-year-old former
world champion continues to en-
joy a fine run of form. Last week
Anand defeated Magnus Carlsen
in a dramatic armageddon tie-
breaker.

White: Viswanathan Anand
Black: Magnus Carlsen
Norway Chess, Stavanger 2022
Italian Game
As a quirk of armageddon chess,
White gets more time on the clock
but must win. A draw counts as a
win for Black. Anand had 10 min-
utes to Carlsen’s 7 minutes. 1 e4 e5
2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Nf6 4 d3 Bc5 5
Bg5 Be7 6 Nc3 d6 7 a4 0-0 8 a5 A
typical space-gaining operation.
Note the importance of this pawn
in the endgame. 8...Bg4 9 h3 Bxf3
10 Qxf3 Nd4 11 Qd1 c6 12 0-0 b5 13
Ba2 Capturing en passant with 13
axb6 gives a long-term advantage
due to White’s bishop pair:
13...axb6 14 Rxa8 Qxa8 15 Ne2.
Perhaps Anand wanted more ten-
sion in a must-win situation.
13...Ne6 14 Be3 a6 15 Qf3 Qd7 16
Ne2 d5 17 c3 Bc5 18 exd5 When
first emerging on the scene, Anand
was known as a quick and instinc-
tive player. His recent resurgence
has also been marked by swift and
forceful decision-making. 18 Bxc5
Nxc5 19 Qe3 is another testing op-
tion. 18...cxd5 19 Bxc5 Nxc5 20 d4
e4 21 Qe3 Nd3 Black’s knight
lands on a potentially strong
square — if it can survive there. 22
Qd2 Rae8 Carlsen sets a cunning
trap. 23 f3

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