CARLSEN SCORES! /LAPU-LAPU TEAM TOURNAMENT TOMMOROW

World #1 Magnus Carlsen before the start of Game 5 at the ongoing World Chess Championship

The World Chess Championship is nearly halfway over, with the World's number one chess player snatching a full point in Game 5 from Vishy Anand, the reigning World Champion. 

UP-FRONT NOTICE: For the sake of necessary accuracy, I will be a little technical in the words I use today to give a complete and unbiased review of Game 5 of the World Chess Championship. Don't worry, this will be very quick.

In what seemed to be a drawish rook ending, the World Champion, Vishy Anand made a seemingly innocent and subtle error on move 45. In the actual game, Anand (Black), opted for 45...Rc1, giving Carlsen (White) the chance to play the easy 46 Kb2!, which forces Black to obey White's King and play 46...Rg1 instead. 

After 46...Rg1, the position was still drawable, but not anymore easy! Let's just say that a dead drawn game is easier to play than a drawish game with a slight advantage on one side. 

After the move 46...Rg1, Anand must have started to feel that frustrating and sinking feeling when it seemed to him that his position was slowly crumbling. I'm not saying that Anand was losing outright after that move, I'm just saying that it's already hard to play such position after such move. 

Looking back on move 45, in light of Black's difficulties, Black's "only" response was to play the "wais" 45... Ra1. This has the merit of making White's tempo gainer, 46 Kb2 impossible to play owing to 46...Ra2+, skewering the White king and his important g-pawn. When I checked the computer to make sure that 45...Ra1 was really a draw, a staggering eval of =0.00 was screaming throughout my monitor.

Anyways, a good game for Carlsen and good luck to Anand on the next game! 

LAPU-LAPU FIESTA TEAM TOURNAMENT
Good news for the locals of my club in Lapu Lapu! The annual Chess festival in Lapu-Lapu will kick off tomorrow! :) It will be a team tournament, with members of each team from Lapu-Lapu City only. The event starts at 10am, at the newly opened Gaisano Opon. The tournament is sponsored by the Lapu-Lapu City Government and Hon. Harry Radaza. Special thanks to one of our local chess patrons, Galileo Roma for the efforts! :)