Chess

H Nakamura v A Karpov, San Sebastián 2009. The US champion (White, to move) ground down the all-time No3 by 1 Qd2 Ra1 2 Nxf4. Can you find a faster route?

The chess battle of the moment is Magnus Carlsen's fight to equal and surpass the established trio of Vishy Anand, Vlad Kramnik and Veselin Topalov who have held the world crown since 2005 but are all 15-20 years older than the 18-year-old Norwegian.

Carlsen is consistently in the top five in the rankings and is virtually sure of a place in the next world title candidates event in 2010 or 2011. This year, too, he scored significant individual victories against Anand at Linares and against Topalov on the Bulgarian's home patch.

Kramnik has proved tougher and has a large overall plus against the teenager. So last week, when Carlsen led Kramnik by half a point with three rounds left at Dortmund, it seemed a pivotal moment was near. But then the often pacific Muscovite rose to the occasion and scored with the brilliant attack below, and Kramnik rubbed it in with his post-match comments which criticised Carlsen's fast play at the decisive moment. Black's 25...Qc7? (Rd8) foresaw a rook sac at e6 but missed the subtle prelude 30 b4! which made White's threats decisive. At the end 36...Qb6 37 Be6+ Bd7 38 Qf8+ Qd8 39 Qc5+ Kb8 40 Bxd7 Qxd7 41 Qf8+ Qc8 42 Qd6+ and mates. Kramnik won Dortmund with 6.5/10, a point ahead of Carlsen

V Kramnik v M Carlsen
1 d4 d5 2 c4 e6 3 Nf3 Nf6 4 Nc3 Be7 5 Bf4 O-O 6 e3 c5 7 dxc5 Bxc5 8 a3 Nc6 9 Qc2 Qa5 10 Rd1 Be7 11 Be2 dxc4 12 Bxc4 Nh5 13 O-O Nxf4 14 exf4 g6 15 g3 Rd8 16 Rxd8+ Qxd8 17 Rd1 Bd7 18 f5 gxf5 19 Qd2 Qb6 20 Qh6 Be8 21 Ng5 Bxg5 22 Qxg5+ Kf8 23 Qh6+ Kg8 24 Qg5+ Kf8 25 Rd6 Qc7? 26 Qh6+ Ke7 27 Qh4+ Kf8 28 Qh6+ Ke7 29 Nb5 Qa5 30 b4! Nxb4 31 Rxe6+! fxe6 32 Qxe6+ Kd8 33 Qf6+ Kc8 34 Qxf5+ Kd8 35 Qf6+ Kc8 36 axb4 1-0

3096* 1 Qc8+ Kh7 2 Nf8+ Kg8 3 Ng6+ Kh7 (if Kf7 4 Qxf5+ wins quickly) 4 Ne7! h5 5 Qg8+ Kh6 6 Qh8+ Kg5 7 Qxg7+ Kh4 8 Nxf5 mate.