Musical chairs | 17 May 2018

Chess, the musical by Sir Tim Rice and the male half of ABBA, Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, runs at the London Coliseum until 2 June. I cannot recommend it more highly, especially for chess enthusiasts who recall the defections, alcoholism, protests, match terminations and paranormal interventions of the age of Tal, Spassky, Fischer, Korchnoi, Karpov and Kasparov.
 
The current generation of championship aspirants seems remarkably free of such controversy. In November, clean-living Fabiano Caruana challenges equally clean-living Magnus Carlsen in London for the world title.
 
Their recent exploits in Shamkir and St Louis indicate that after the next round of musical chairs, Carlsen will retain the sole seat at the chess Olympus.
 
Caruana-Izoria: US Championship, St Louis 2018
(See diagram 1)
 
Caruana suffered the following reverse in St Louis. Having just played his king to d7 he was doubtless expecting to pick up the black d-pawn when a draw would be the natural result. However, he was in for a shock.