Lilliputians and… "Short" losses

Lilliput is an island inhabited by tiny people in the world famous book “Gulliver’s travel” by Jonathan Swift. Lilliput is also the name of a fair for children and families in my home town, Bergamo, where chess are among the many activities proposed to the attention of the visitors. The interest for this event (which ends tomorrow) hasn’t been as high as usual this year, but we had a good number of visitors at the chess stand this afternoon. Here follow some photos (click to enlarge).

The chess stand at Lilliput
Ivan Bassis, president of the Excelsior chess club
(official site: http://www.excelsior-scacchi.it/),
explains secrets of chess strategy
Giru, Mida's girlfriend, proves her chess skill
(personal non chess web page: www.strababos.it)
Mida teaches chess to children... and parents
No wonder if I had met the next Italian chess prodigy at “Lilliput” :-)
All games were drawn in the ninth round of the 2007 Mtel Masters. This way Krishnan Sasikiran retains a half point lead over Kamsky, Mamedyarov, Nisipeanu and Topalov, who will play the Indian GM tomorrow in the tenth and last round. Official site: http://www.mtelmasters.com. Updated news in Italian, games and on-line viewer on my Italian site www.messaggeroscacchi.it (direct link to the Mtel section: http://www.messaggeroscacchi.it/mondo/mtel07.html).
The traditional 37th Bosna tournament has started today in Sarajevo. Russian Alexander Morozevich beat English Nigel Short in the first round, crushing him in only 31 moves with Black pieces; Predojevic-Sokolov and Timofeev-Movsesian both ended in a draw. Official site: http://www.skbosna.ba.
The first round of the 2007 Capo d’Orso chess festival was played today in Palau (Sardinia – Italy). Italian FM Denis Rombaldoni, 17 y.o., drew with Black pieces against Elo favourite Scottish GM Jonathan Rowson; Fabiano Caruana beat Swedish IM Ari Ziegler. Dutch IM Herman Grooten and Italian IM Pierluigi Piscopo lost to Claudio Pantaleoni and Isacco Ibba respectively: these were the main surprising results of the round. No games available yet. Official site: http://asd.caissa.it/portomannu/vega/index.html.
And now here is the “short” loss… for Nigel Short.

Short,N (2691) - Morozevich,A (2762) [A28], Sarajevo 19.5.2007
1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Nf6 3.Nf3 Nc6 4.e3 Bb4 5.Qc2 Bxc3 6.Qxc3 Qe7 7.Be2 d5 8.0–0?!
Not the best continuation if White doesn't want Black to take a lasting initiative... 8.d3 0–0 9.0–0 is a more precise moves order.
8...d4!
Simple and effective.
9.exd4 exd4 10.Qb3 0–0 11.Re1
11.d3!? was played in Maurer-Doderer, corr. 1998; after 11...Re8 (11...Qxe2 12.Re1) 12.Bd2 b6 13.Rae1 Bb7 14.Ng5 Qd7 15.Bf3 h6 16.Ne4 Nxe4 17.Bxe4 a6 18.Qa4 Re7 19.f4 Rae8= the position was about equal, but Black could have probably played even better.
11...Bg4 12.Bd1 Qd6
White is simply doomed: he has four pieces on the first rank!
13.d3
After 13.Qxb7 Nb4 14.Qb5 c5µ Black is dominating.
13...Nd7 14.Bd2 a5 15.Nh4 Nc5 16.Qa3 Bd7 17.Be2 b6 18.Rad1 h6 19.b3?!
19.g3 was the only chance to survive.
19...Qf6 20.Nf3 Rae8 21.Qb2 Bg4 22.Qc2 Rxe2!
A natural sacrifice after which White is completely without hope.
23.Rxe2 Bxf3 24.gxf3 Qxf3 25.Bc1
What else?
25...f5 26.h3
The only move again.
26...Rf6 27.Kh2 Rg6 28.Rg1 Rxg1 29.Kxg1 Nxd3 30.Be3
The best continuation was 30.Qd1 , but after 30...Qxh3 31.f4 Qg4+ 32.Kf1 Ncb4–+ White would have lost anyway.
30...Nce5 31.Bxd4
The awful 31.Kh2 was the only way to avoid mate.
31...Nf4 0–1
White has no defence, so he resigns.