Cis 2007: three teams fight for the crown

Italian team championship (Cis – “Campionato italiano a squadre”) is coming to an end and the last round (to be played tomorrow) will be decisive for many reasons: three teams are still fighting for the first place, five teams need a victory to avoid moving down to the inferior series. Top seed Vimar Marostica (GMs Hubner, Godena, Ortega and IMs Manca, Borgo) lead with 7 points out of 8, Il Massimo Palermo (GM Vallejo) is a point behind and last year winner Obiettivo Risarcimento Padova (GM Dervishi, IMs Bellini, D’Amore, Vocaturo, Arlandi) is third with 5 points. The astonishing result of the fourth round was the draw between Vimar and La Zisa Palermo: the young sicilian team, with two FMs and two masters, was able to slow down Vimar’s pace to vicory and will play “Il Massimo” in the last round derby. Official site has been updated the whole day with live results, bur organisers forgot to put in the last four until 12p.m. :-( ; organisation is quite good anyway, even if there has been some complaints about food (not for the quality, but for the quantity and the poor choice). I don’t think anybody will write an open letter on this matter, anyway, as GM Erik Van den Doel did for his Dresden meals :-) The first two rounds games are finally available (only one still missing) and I hope tomorrow all the others will be too. Check my Italian site for more details: www.messaggeroscacchi.it/italia/cis07.html.
Magnus Carlsen is the sole leader after round 4 in the Gausdal Chess Classics; after a draw in the first round, he won three games in a row and now has a half point lead over American WGM Irina Krush and Polish GM Michal Krasenkow. In the open group German IM Stefan Bromberger has the same points as Carlsen; nine players are at short distance from him. Official site: http://www.bergensjakk.no/gausdal/classics2007/.
Bulgarian GM Ivan Cheparinov and Swedish GMs Tiger Hillarp Persson and Emanuel Berg share the lead in the 15th Sigeman & Co. Tourney: they all have 3 points out of 4. Official site: http://www.sigeman-chess.com/.
I’ve been quite busy during the last days, so I couldn’t write anything really interesting on this Blog. Don’t worry and pe prepared for… my “immortal” game :-) one of the next few days…
And now here is an interesting game from the Italian team championship. Spanish GM Vallejo could manage to win an opposite colored bishop endgame against German veteran Hubner: very interesting and instructive indeed.

Vallejo Pons, F (2676)-Huebner,R (2608) [D12], Palermo 20.04.2007
1. Nf3 Nf6 2. d4 d5 3. c4 c6 4. e3 Bf5 5. Nc3 e6 6. Nh4 Bg6 7. a3 Nbd7 8. g3 Be7 9. Nxg6 hxg6 10. f4 Ne4 11. Nxe4 dxe4 12. c5 g5 13. fxg5 Bxg5 14. Bg2 Qe7 15. Bxe4 e5 16. O-O O-O-O 17. Qf3 Qf6 18. d5 Qxf3 19. Bxf3 Nxc5 20. e4!
And not 20.dxc6 Nb3 and Black gets the initiative.
20…Bf6 21. Be3 Nb3 22. Rad1 Nd4 23. Bg4+ Kb8 24. dxc6 bxc6 25. h4 Rhf8 26. Rc1 Be7 27. Rc4 c5 28. Kg2 f6 29. h5 Rh8 30. Rfc1 Bd6 31. b4 cxb4 32. axb4 Rhe8 33. Kh3 Kb7 34. Bxd4 exd4 35. Rxd4 Be5 36. Rd5 Rxd5 37. exd5 Bd6 38. b5 Re3 39. Bc8+ Ka8 40. Ba6!
The alternative 40.Rg1 would have held the pawn, but Black could have easily equalize thanks to the good activity of his pieces.
40… Rxg3+ 41. Kh4 Rd3 42. Rc8+ Bb8 43. Rd8 Rd4+ 44. Kh3 f5 45. Rd7 Be5 46. Rd8+ Bb8 47. Rd7
47.Rg8 looked even stronger (47…Rg4 48.d6 +-; 47…Rxd5 48.Rxg7 Be5 49.Rg8+ Bb8 50.Rh8 +-).
47…Be5 48. Re7 Re4
After 48…Rh4+ 49.Kxh4 Bf6+ 50.Kg3 Bxe7 51.Kf4 and 52.Kxf5 Black is lost anyway.
49. Re8+ Bb8 50. Rf8 f4 51. Rf7 Be5 52. Kg4 Re3 53. Rd7 1-0