Tradewise Gibraltar Festival 2014

Monday 27 January - Friday 6 February 2014

Round 5 Report: 2 February by John Saunders

In round five of the Tradewise Gibraltar Masters, played on 2 February at the Caleta Hotel, the number of leaders expanded from three to eight as the overnight leaders were unable to maintain their maximum scores. The eight overnight leaders are Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France), Pentala Harikrishna (India), Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Maxim Rodshtein (Israel), (Russia), Paco Vallejo Pons (Spain), Li Chao (China) and Richard Rapport (Hungary). In the race for the top women's prize, the current leader is now on 4/5.

The top board game Li Chao-Rodshtein opened with an Exchange Slav which, as anyone who has tuned into our commentaries will know, is disapproved by Simon Williams. I tend to agree with him, even though it is rather hypocritical on my part as my own rather pitiful attempts to play chess include even more pusillanimous openings. Anyway, the game was indeed drawn, though not without a decent fight.

On board two, the game between Vachier-Lagrave and Mareco started with the Taimanov Sicilian and was an altogether more vigorous affair. The game hinged round a remarkable piece sacrifice by the Frenchman on move 15, barely out of the opening. There was no instant tactical finish but it was evident that Black's king could never find safety no matter how ingenious the defence (and Mareco did well to find most of the 'engine moves'). This game makes a great impression – would it be too effusive to describe as it a sort of post-modern and infinitely more sophisticated Morphy v D of B game? Well, I was impressed anyway. See what you think.

Gibraltar Masters 2014, Round 5 M.Vachier-Lagrave (2745) - S.Mareco (2582) 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 Qc7 6.Be2 Nf6 7.Be3 Be7 8.f4 d6 9.Ndb5 Slightly offbeat. 9.Qd2, 10.0-0-0 and 9.g4 are fairly standard moves here. 9...Qb8 10.g4 Nd7 Hamdouchi-An.Sokolov, in the 2013 French Championship, continued 10...a6 11.Nd4 e5 12.Nb3 and now Black was able to free his game with 12...d5! which works out roughly equal. Black in fact won the game. Perhaps White should improve with 12.Nf5!?. 11.h4 a6 12.Nd4 Qc7 13.g5 Na5 14.h5 At this point we're back in the book as the position converges with some games from the 1980s where the players hadn't played Ndb5/Nd4 and Qb8/c7. Back in the day, White had opted for 14.Nb3 in this position. 14...b5 Now White goes right out on a limb.

15.Nf5! exf5 16.Nd5 Qc6 Where to put the queen? Even the normally decisive silicon friend seems to be unsure, selecting each of four queen moves as its favourite depending on how long it is given to think. 16...Qb7 struck me as the most logical but I find it hard to articulate why. 17.exf5 It is not entirely obvious why White has given up a piece as there is no instant knock-out blow anywhere on the board. The clue is to look at Black's king and ask yourself where it is going to find safety. Not castled kingside, as the cluster of four white kingside pawns will be used like a tin opener to expose the king to fire from heavy pieces. Not on e8 as the e-file is open to rook/queen attack. There is no easy answer, in fact, and that is the key to White's long-lasting initiative. 17...Nc4 18.Bf3 Nxe3 19.Nxe3 Qc5 20.Qd2 Black has found a clever way to sidestep the immediate danger. If 20.Bxa8? Qxe3+ Black will fairly obviously win. 20...Rb8 21.b4 Qa7 Here the ingenious Hiarcs finds a clever way to give the piece back and gain an initiative for Black: 21...Ne5! 22.fxe5 (22.Bd5 Qa7 23.fxe5 Bxg5! is also good for Black.) 22...Qxe5, threatening the rook on a1 and the g5 pawn. Best for White seems to be 22.Bd5 Qa7 and then not capture the knight, maintaining his attack, but Black has gained from getting his knight in play. 22.0-0-0 Bb7 23.Bxb7 Rxb7 24.h6 g6 24...gxh6 25.Qc3 Rg8 26.Nd5 and the threats down the c and e-files will be decisive. 25.Nd5 Effective but again 25.Qc3 looks more lethal. 25...Nb6 26.Nxe7 Rxe7 27.Qc3 Rg8 28.Qc6+ Not the flashy 28.Qg7 as Black can play 28...Rf8 and the queen will be offside. 28...Kd8 29.Rxd6+ Nd7 30.f6! Re6 31.Rxe6 fxe6 32.Rd1! Qc7

33.Qxa6! 33.Qxe6? is considerably worse as it lets the black rook into play with 33...Re8 when the 'clever' 34.f7 loses to 34...Qxf4+ and 35...Rxe6. 33...Qxf4+ 34.Rd2 Qf1+ Black had made the best of his defence until here but now he should play 34...Qc7, although 35.Qxb5 Re8 36.c4 and White will win fairly easily. 35.Kb2 Qc4 36.Qd6 Qc7 37.f7 1-0

Vassily Ivanchuk beat Sergei Movsesian on board three but it was a case of 'Lucky Chucky' as he seemed to have much the worst of things at move 37 when Movsesian should have pursued his attack on the king rather than stopped to defend a queenside pawn with 38.Rd3. Ivanchuk didn't need a second invitation: he grabbed the initiative and exploited it with full vigour. This took him into a share of the lead.

Nikita Vitiugov is clearly not going to surrender his Gibraltar Masters title without a fight. Last year commentator Simon Williams dubbed him 'the iceman' for his ability to conduct long grinds with an air of imperturbability, and this year we are seeing more of the same. In round five he came up against Kevin Spraggett after the latter had despatched in round four.

An aside: I spoke to Kevin about the Short game yesterday as I was interested in his remarkable 10.e5 move (quick recap of the moves: 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 d6 5.0–0 Bd7 6.d4 b5 7.Bb3 exd4 8.c3 dxc3 9.Nxc3 Na5 – for a full annotation, see my round four report) and whether it was all prepared. Kevin said that he had prepared it on the morning of the game but that he had not looked any further than 10.e5 as he had not expected Nigel to play it.

Back to Vitiugov-Spraggett: White gradually outplayed his opponent until they reached this position:

Gibraltar Masters 2014, Round 5 Vitiugov - Spraggett

Black to play

Material is level – so what did Black do? He resigned. He can't defend the d6-pawn. If he exchanges queens with 45...Qxb6 46.Bxb6 and grovels in the corner with 46...Na8, White simply plays 47.Ba5 and then captures the b5-pawn next move and the a4-pawn not long after. Everything flows in White's favour and Black's position falls apart. So resignation was by no means premature.

I wrote that "Black can't defend the d6-pawn." That's not strictly correct as he can play 45...Ke7 but there's a very powerful answer to that. Can you see it? I'll set it as a puzzle and put the answer at the end of the article.

One remarkable thing about round five was the number of decisive games between the leading players. If you run your eye down the results, you'll notice that, of the top twenty games, only three ended in draws. I do wonder whether the influence of that young fellow who is currently playing in a tournament in Zurich has had an effect on chess style. He pushes for a win in every game, even in apparent dry and dusty endgames where you can't imagine anyone losing. I was reminded of this by Paco Vallejo Pons's game against Adhiban of India. White's winning chances seemed minimal when it came down to a level queen endgame but the Spanish GM kept plugging away until his opponent cracked. I'm not going to conduct an autopsy on this game but if I did, I would expect to find traces of Carlsenic poisoning.

There was another Spain-India clash on the next board but this one went in favour of the Indian GM Pentala Harikrishna, who refuted Ivan Salgado's imaginative but apparently unsound piece sacrifice in the Scotch.

Richard Rapport of Hungary caught the eye in Wijk aan Zee with some adventurous chess in the top group, although he subsided towards the end and shared last place with Naiditsch (a cruel thought crossed my mind that they might have had to share the wooden spoon when eating the traditional post-Wijk pea soup). He is clearly going to be popular with organisers who want their players to perform and entertain the spectators. In round five here he played what my software calls the 'Anglo-Dutch Defence' against the very strong French GM Romain Edouard.

Gibraltar Masters 2014, Round 5 R.Edouard (2658) - R.Rapport (2691) 1.Nf3 e6 2.c4 f5 Richard Rapport explained that he had prepared this line for his girlfriend Jovana Vojinovic to play against Sandro Mareco, so this bit of homework came in handy. 3.g3 Nf6 4.Bg2 Be7 5.0-0 0-0 6.d3 d5 7.Qc2 Knight moves or 7.b3 are usually the order of the day here but this has been played a few times. 7...Nc6 8.a3 a5 9.cxd5 exd5 10.Nc3 Kh8 11.Nb5 Bd7 12.Bf4 The commentary team favoured 12.b3 here. 12...Rc8 13.Rab1?! Rapport wondered whether his opponent should have played 13.Qb3 instead, to discourage 13...Nh5 because the d5-pawn would be en prise. 13...Nh5 14.Bd2 f4! A typical Dutch Defence counterattack begins. 15.b4 axb4 16.axb4 fxg3 17.hxg3 Bg4 18.Bc3 Qd7 19.Nbd4 Nxd4 20.Bxd4 Bd6 21.Bc5 Bh3 22.Bxd6 cxd6 23.Qd1?! An odd choice of square. 23.Qd2 or 23.Qb3 look more natural.

23...Rf6 24.Nh2 Had White played his queen to d2, and not d1, on move 23, White could have defended against 24.Nh4 Bxg2 25.Nxg2 Qh3 with 26.Qg5, or perhaps 26.Rbc1, but unfortunately for him that is not an option here. 24...Bxg2 25.Kxg2 Nf4+! Simon Williams saw this coming some time before - as a counterattacking Dutch Defence player, he probably has extra insight into Rapport's play. 26.gxf4 Rh6 27.f5 27.f3 Qh3+ 28.Kf2 Qh4+ 29.Ke3 Re8+ 30.Kd2 Qxf4+ 31.Kc3 d4+ wins a different way but it definitely still wins. 27...Qxf5 28.f4 Qg6+ 29.Kf2 Rxh2+ 30.Ke1 Qg3+ 31.Kd2 d4 32.Qe1 Qe3+ 33.Kd1 Re8 The commentators were expecting 33...Rc2, which also wins. 34.Rb2 Ra8 35.Rb1 Ra2 36.Rc1 Qe8 0-1

White's back rank pieces make a sorry spectacle. White has no defence to the threats of mate by Qa4+ or capturing on e2.

The frontrunner for the top women's prize is now Tan Zhongyi of China who pulled off a surprising but well- deserved win against of Israel in round five. Emil was pressing for a win but he fell into a diabolical trap just after the time control.

Gibraltar Masters 2014, Round 5 E.Sutovsky (2663) - Tan Zhongyi (2483) 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 g6 4.f4 Bg7 5.Nf3 c5 6.Bb5+ Bd7 7.e5 Ng4 8.Bxd7+ 8.e6!? fxe6 9.Ng5 Bxb5 10.Nxe6 Bxd4 11.Nxb5 Qa5+ 12.c3 Bf2+ 13.Kd2 Be3+ 14.Kc2 Qa4+ 15.Kb1 Qxd1 16.Rxd1 is a long and slightly bewildering line which seems to lead to equality. Sutovsky was probably wanting to avoid too much simplification against a lower-rated opponent. He might also have feared an innovation from the Chinese squad, for whom Xu Jun is acting as player-coach. 8...Qxd7 9.h3 9.d5 dxe5 10.h3 e4 11.Nxe4 Nf6 12.Nxf6+ Bxf6 13.0-0 0-0 is a frequently-seen line here. 9...cxd4 10.Qxd4 Nc6 Black varies from 10...Nh6 11.Qf2 Nc6, which was what she played against Grandelius at the 2013 . 11.Qd3 Nh6 12.Be3 Nf5 13.0-0-0 Nb4 13...0-0-0 has been played in a couple of GM games but now we are out of the book. 14.Qe4 Nxe3 15.Qxe3 Qe6 16.Kb1 dxe5 17.a3 17.Rhe1 0-0 18.Nxe5 also looks quite respectable. 17...Nc6 18.Nd5 Rc8 19.Rhe1 0-0 20.fxe5 Rfd8 21.Qe4 Qf5 22.Qxf5 A bit insipid. Given that White's coming plan doesn't amount to much, one wonders whether White might have tried keeping the queens on with 22.Qh4!? and then develop the rook to d3. 22...gxf5 23.e6 h6 24.c4 Kf8 25.b4 Rd6 Black's queenside advance is not very menacing and it is liable to become a liability in the endgame. 26.exf7 Kxf7 27.c5 Rd7 28.Ne3 Rxd1+ 29.Rxd1 Ke6 29...f4 might be better. 30.Nc4 30.Nh4!? might reboot White's initiative: 30...f4?! 31.Nd5 Be5 32.Ng6 is bad for Black so she probably has to jettison the f-pawn, though she might get compensation for it. 30...Rd8 31.Re1+ Kf7 32.b5 Nd4 33.Nfe5+ Bxe5 34.Nxe5+ Kf6 35.a4 Nb3 36.c6 bxc6 37.Nxc6 Rd7 Perhaps this was the moment for White to refocus on a draw but Sutovsky keeps striving. 38.Kb2 Nc5 39.Ka3 Nd3 40.Rd1

White only had seconds left (to Black's 2 minutes or so) as he played this. He is winning a pawn by force because of the pin but, fortuitously or otherwise, Black's forced defence to stop her losing a pawn gives her very useful positional compensation. 40...e5! The e-pawn rushes to the defence of the pinned knight to stop it dropping off. 41.Nxa7 e4 42.b6 e3 43.a5? Though he had made the time control, Sutovsky spent less than a minute on this move. 43.Nc6! e2 44.Rh1 e1Q 45.Rxe1 Nxe1 46.a5 is very hard to evaluate but White may even be winning. However, the text move order has a flaw (albeit not yet fatal), which Simon Williams in the commentary room spotted - and so evidently did Tan Zhongyi. 43...e2

44.Rh1?? Now 44.Rg1! is the only move to save White's skin (or at least give him a sporting chance of saving the game), though it is desperately difficult to see why. If then 44...Nb4!? 45.Nb5! Rd1 46.Nc3!! Rxg1 47.Nxe2 and the attack on the rook gives White the vital tempo which makes the difference between winning and losing, e.g. 47...Rb1 48.Nc3! Nc2+ 49.Ka2 and Black can do nothing about the far-advanced queenside pawns. 44...Nb4!! With the rook on h1, this move is an absolute humdinger. Black wins by force. A great spot by Tan Zhongyi and also Simon Williams in the commentary room (working without analysis engines, please note). 45.Nc6 One key point is that 45.Kxb4 loses to 45...Rd1 46.b7 Rxh1 47.b8Q Rb1+, skewering the new queen. 45...Nxc6 As it happens, 45...Rd1 46.Nd4 Rxh1 47.Nxe2 Nc6 also wins. 46.Re1 Rd5 47.Rxe2 Rxa5+ 48.Kb3 Rb5+ 0-1

______Vitiugov-Spraggett puzzle: if Black plays 45...Ke7, White plays the attractive queen sacrifice 46.Qxd6+!! as 46...Kxd6 is answered by 47.Bc5 mate. Black doesn't have to capture but his position would be hopelessly compromised anyway (e.g. 46...Ke8 47.Bc5 and mate follows, or 46...Kf7 47.Qxd7+, etc). ______John Saunders Press Reporter, Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Congress - Twitter @GibraltarChess Official website: www.gibraltarchesscongress.com Personal Twitter Account @johnchess