2007/08/06

Chuky, future new number 1?

I'm back! But don't worry... I will stay at home just a few days :-) Yes, I'm going to leave for South Tyrol on Saturday, to spend eight more days of total relax. Sardinia was beautiful (with a wonderful sea), a part from the fact that the apartment where we (me and my fiancée) stayed was probably a meeting point for mosquitos of the whole planet. And they didn't let us sleep very much...
Well, now it's chess time. Many events finished during the past ten days and they are too many to tell about all of them here. So, let's see the most interesting. Vassily Ivanchuk won his third tourney in a row in Montreal, Canada: he scored 7 points out of 9 and edged out by a full point Dutch GM Sergey Tiviakov. Chuky looks still at his best and should reach the top of the Fide list by going on this way: he gained 13 points in Yalta, 14 points in Odessa and 10 points in Montreal. This means, if I don't mind, he is now at 2799: 9 points more than Anand (who lost a couple in Dortmund)! The Mexico City tournament will probably be decisive: if Anand won't win it in a very convincing way he should lose the #1 place of the Fide list... Go Chuky, go! Official site of the Montreal tourney: http://www.fqechecs.qc.ca/index.php?typ=actu&id=1760&categorie.
Norwegian wunderkind Magnus Carlsen won his first suprtournament ever in Biel, Switzerland. Magnus scored 5.5 points out of 9 and beat American GM Alexander Onischuk in a rapid-blitz playoff to take the first place. Local idol Yannick Pelletier, Hungarian GM Judit Polgar, Russian GM Alexander Grischuk and top rated Azeri GM Teimour Radjabov (who lost his last round game against the winner) were placed third on 5. Official site: http://www.bielchessfestival.ch.
Ruslan Ponomariov, Alexey Dreev and Veselin Topalov shared first place in the strong Villarobledo Rapid tournament: they all scored 7.5 points out of 9 and edged out by half a point Ivan Sokolov, Predrag Nikolic, Vassily Ivanchuk, Vadim Milov and Zvulon Gofshtein. Alexei Shirov couldn't get more than a sad 14th place on 6.5. Official site: http://www.ajedrezenvillarrobledo.com/.
And now some good news for cheaters all over the world :-) The chess program Pocket Fritz 3 made a 2481 performance in the 11th "Copa Puma Mercosur" and was placed fourth on 5.5/10; GM Andres Rodrigues (URU) won the tourney with 7.5, edging out by half a point IM Pablo Lafuente and by one IM Damian Lemos, both from Argentina. So, if you love cheating, you now have one more weapon to use; better if you do in a toilette :-) Official site of the tourney: http://www.ajedrezmartelli.org.ar/.
Last but not least, Italian baby GM Fabiano Caruana is playing the 11th HZ open in Vlissingen (Holland). He has a perfect score after 4 of 9 rounds and shares the lead with GMs Michal Krasenkow (POL), Daniel Stellwagen (NED) and Fernando Peralta (ARG) among the others; Fabiano will play German master Ilja Zaragatski (2480) in the next round. Official site: http://www.hztoernooi.nl/index_en.html. Caruana will be one of the main guests of the 2007 Trieste chess festival (September 1-8 - http://www.sst1904.com/pagine/index.html), where GMs Sergey Tiviakov (NED), Vladimir Baklan (UKR) and Dusko Pavasovic (SLO) will be the top rated players, and of the 2007 Rocca di Papa rapid tournament (October 21 - http://asd.caissa.it/index.php?cont=TORNEO&id_torneo=6), where Gata Kamsky (USA) will play his first Italian rapid competition ever.
Well, it's time to say goodnight. See you tomorrow (Tuesday) evening at the blitz tourney in Torre Boldone, near Bergamo. Don't you remember? Read the last part of my previous post, immediately!
And now here is our game of the day: the decisive win by Carlsen against Radjabov in Biel.

Carlsen,M (2710) - Radjabov,T (2746) [B07], Biel 2.8.2007
1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e5
What a strange opening choice for such an important game!
4.Nge2
The two guys are just kidding... 4.Nf3 is much more popular.
4...Nbd7 5.g3 c6 6.Bg2 b5 7.a3 Be7 8.0–0 0–0 9.h3 a5
9...Bb7 is the main alternative.
10.g4 Ba6 11.Ng3 b4 12.Nce2 bxa3
A new move according to my database. 12...d5 13.exd5 Nxd5 14.Re1 bxa3 15.bxa3 Bf6 has been played a couple of times before: Black's position looks completely comfortable.
13.Rxa3!?
13.bxa3 would lead to the position seen in the previous note: 13...d5 14.exd5 Nxd5 15.Re1 Bf6.
13...d5
A natural move.
14.Re3 dxe4 15.Re1! Qc7
The first inaccuracy. 15...Re8 16.Nxe4 Nd5 17.Rg3 Qc7 would be more precise.
16.Nf5 Bd8?
And this is a tempo loss. After 16...Rfe8 17.Nxe7+ Rxe7 18.g5 Nd5 19.Rxe4 Rae8 Black has not much to be afraid of. Now White gets - instead - a strong initiative.
17.g5 Nd5 18.Rxe4 f6 19.Neg3 g6
19...Kh8 20.g6 hxg6 21.Nh4 is not better for Black.
20.Nh6+ Kg7?
20...Kh8 21.dxe5 fxe5 22.Ng4 Be7 would put up a more stubborn resistance, although after 23.c4 Nb4 24.Bf4 Bc5 25.Qxd7 Qxd7 26.Bxe5+ Qg7 27.Bxg7+ Kxg7 28.Bf1 White retains some winning chances anyway.
21.dxe5 fxg5?!
21...fxe5 is more precise, even if 22.c4 Nb4 23.f4 is good for White anyway.
22.e6! Kxh6?!
22...Qa7 is probably the better alternative: now after 23.e7 Qxf2+ 24.Kh2 Kxh6 25.exf8Q+ Nxf8 26.h4 White is winning, but Black can hold on some more moves.
23.e7 Qb6
Black has no defence, e.g.: 23...Nxe7 24.Rxe7 Bxe7 25.Rxe7 Rae8 26.Bxg5+ Kxg5 27.Qg4+ Kf6 28.Rxd7+-
24.exf8Q+ Nxf8 25.c4 Nf4 26.Qd6 Kg7 27.Bxf4 gxf4 28.Re7+ 1–0
Black can't avoid mate in a few moves, so he resigned. A really bad defeat for Radjabov.

3 comments:

ilredeire said...

Dopo i relativamente facili tornei ungheresi, per Caruana è giunto il momento di cimentarsi in un torneo open, vi sono tanti giocatori di basso profilo ed i primi turni sembrano agevoli, ma la realtà non lascia spazio a facili entusiasmi e nel quarto turno vi è stata un ecatombe dei favoriti.
Aldila' della prestazione che con un pò di fortuna potrà essere anche sorprendente, sono curioso di osservarlo all'opera contro GM di primo piano, riuscirà a strappare qualche pareggio o addirittura riuscirà a metterli in riga?

Anonymous said...

Sorry Mida, but Rocca di Papa will not be Kamsky's first ever tournament in Italy. He has already played in the 1991 edition of the Reggio Emilia tournament. Ha has also played last year in the Turin 2006 Chess Olympiad.

Anonymous said...

Sure, sure. But was it a Rapid chess olympiad or a Rapid Chess Reggio Emeilia? :-)
Apparently Mida was talking about Rapid chess, and Rocca di Papa appears to be Kamsky's first Italian rapid Chess tourney.