Chess in Trieste, Ankara and... Lugano

Do you remember Boris Spassky? Obviously you do. The former world chess champion was in Mantova, Italy, yesterday and today: he spoke about chess and cold war (his match with Bobby Fischer - what else?) and gave a simul against 20 opponents. Unfortunately I wasn't there: I had a hard week at work (too many football matches - holidays are over :-( ) and, today, I went to Lugano... not for chess, but for family reasons :-) Walking along the centre of the little and beautiful Swiss town, I took this photo...


Yes, two giant chessboards in the middle of one of the main streets. I played a couple of games last year on one of them: anybody can have fun and challenge an opponent. So, if you go to Lugano during the Summer, don't forget it!
While I was in Lugano, the 2007 Trieste international open came to an end. Elo favorites Sergei Tiviakov (NED) and Vladimir Baklan (UKR), both rated 2648, shared first place on 7/9; Tiviakov won due to a better tie break. Italian GM Fabiano Caruana, 15 y.o., took clear third on 6.5: he only lost to Tiviakov in round 5 and gained 7 rating points at last. IM Willy Hendriks (NED), IM Jure Borisek (SLO) and GM Giorgi Bagaturov (GEO) were placed fourth on 6, while surprising Croatian wIM Lara Stock (left - photo from the official site) leads the group at 5.5 (she made a 2549 performance and gained 44 rating points). Final results at http://chess-results.com/tnr7621.aspx?lan=1. Games at http://www.sst1904.com/partite/partite.html.
FM Vytautas Vaznonis from Lithuania took clear first in the 2007 Nato chess championship, which ended yesterday in Ankara (Turkey): he scored 6 points out of 7 and edged out by half a point FM Mark Helbig and Philip Mai, both from Germany. Elo favorite wGM Elisabeth Paehtz and and IM Lorenz Drabke both finished on 5; Germany (Helbig, Mai, Drabke and Paehtz) won the team competition with 21 points out of 28 (the four highest-scoring players from each country counted towards the team score). Official site: http://natochess2007.tsf.org.tr/index.php.
And now here is a convincing win by Caruana in Trieste: he showed an impressive endgame technique... (no annotations: too many moves).

Borisek,J (2506) - Caruana,F (2549) [B41], Trieste 7.9.2007
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.c4 Nf6 6.Nc3 Bb4 7.Bd3 Nc6 8.Nde2 Qc7 9.a3 Be7 10.Bf4 Ne5 11.Rc1 b6 12.0–0 Bb7 13.b4 d6 14.Bxe5 dxe5 15.Ng3 0–0 16.Qe2 a5 17.Rb1 Ba6 18.Rfc1 Rfd8 19.Qe3 h6 20.Bf1 Ne8 21.Qe1 Bg5 22.Rc2 axb4 23.axb4 Nd6 24.Na4 Bb7 25.Nc3 Ba6 26.Na4 b5 27.Nc5 Nxc4 28.Bxc4 bxc4 29.Nxa6 Rxa6 30.b5 Rad6 31.Nf1 Rd4 32.b6 Qb7 33.f3 Be7 34.Ne3 Bc5 35.Kh1 Bxb6 36.Nxc4 Qc7 37.Rbc1 Ba7 38.h3 f6 39.Kh2 Qd7 40.Na5 Rd1 41.Rxd1 Qxd1 42.Qxd1 Rxd1 43.g4 Be3 44.Nc6 Kf7 45.h4 Rd2+ 46.Rxd2 Bxd2 47.Kg2 Ke8 48.Nb8 Ke7 49.Kf1 Kd6 50.Ke2 Ba5 51.Kd3 Kc7 52.Na6+ Kb6 53.Nb8 Bb4 54.g5 Be7 55.gxh6 gxh6 56.Kc4 h5 57.Nd7+ Kc6 58.Nb8+ Kd6 59.Na6 f5 60.Kd3 Bxh4 61.Ke2 Bg3 62.Kf1 h4 63.Kg2 Be1 64.Kh3 Kc6 65.Nb8+ Kc7 66.Na6+ Kd6 67.Kg2 Ba5 68.Kh3 Bd8 69.Kg2 Kc6 70.Nb8+ Kc7 71.Na6+ Kb6 72.Nb8 Kc5 73.Nd7+ Kd4 74.Nf8 fxe4 75.fxe4 Kxe4 76.Nxe6 Be7 77.Ng7 Kf4 78.Ne6+ Kg4 79.Nc7 h3+ 80.Kh1 e4 81.Nd5 Bg5 82.Kg1 Kg3 83.Kh1 Bf4 84.Kg1 Kf3 85.Kh1 Be5 86.Kg1 h2+ 87.Kh1 Bd6 88.Nc3 e3 89.Nb5 Be5 0–1