Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival 2013
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival 2013 Monday 21 January - Thursday 31 January 2013 MASTERS ROUND 3: 25 JANUARY 2013 THE MAGNIFICENT EIGHT RIDE AGAIN John Saunders reports: Everyone remembers those classic movies The Magnificent Eight and Eight Samurai, don’t they? And those with a classical education might recall Eight Against Thebes by the Greek tragedian Aeschylus. No? Neither do I. The two films and the Greek play had ‘seven’ (and not ‘eight’) in the title, presumably because seven is some sort of magic number. ‘Eight’ appears to have no magical properties or fictional resonances. I’m not sure why that is – perhaps someone can enlighten me. When I saw that this year’s Gibraltar Masters had precisely seven 2700+ players in the line-up, I was pleased because it meant I would be able to deploy all manner of analogies on this theme. It was a bit disappointing to hear that an eighth 2700+ man had been added at the last minute. My options were either (a) to bin the planned analogy or (b) doggedly stick to my schtick. Guess which option I chose... The Magnificent Eight are Ivanchuk, Kamsky, Adams, Wojtaszek, Vachier-Lagrave, Navara, Shirov, Le Quang Liem, perhaps with an honorary ninth member, Nigel Short, as a former world championship runner-up and three-times winner of the Gibraltar Masters. After three rounds, only three of the Magnificent Eight remain on 100%. There are a total of 15 players on 3/3, including two women competitors, and representing twelve countries. Leaders after three rounds: Michael Adams (England), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France), Le Quang Liem (Vietnam), Nikita Vitiugov (Russia), Yu Yangyi (China), Eduardo Iturrizaga (Venezuela), Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria), Vladislav Tkachiev (France), Gawain Jones (England), Jaan Ehlvest (USA), Dariusz Swiercz (Poland), Ivan Salgado Lopez (Spain), Kaido Kulaots (Estonia), Nana Dzagnidze (Georgia) and Artur Jakubiec (Poland) 3/3. ANTOANETA CLAIMS A MAJOR SCALP The big story of the third round was Polish super-GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek , ranked fourth in the Gibraltar line- up, being gunned down by former women’s world champion Antoaneta Stefanova. Antoaneta has proved herself to be one of the toughest women contestants who puts in a regular appearance at Gibraltar. One year she came close to overall victory in the tournament, and last year she nearly regained her world title. Her game yesterday was a classic of its type, and I would characterise it as a long squeeze (only in the purely chess sense, I hasten to add). It was a positional game which was underpinned by a recurring tactical trick, which might have accounted for many lesser mortals. Radoslaw coped well enough with the tactics but his various attempts to free his game only made things worse. It is difficult to identify exactly where he went wrong – the sign of very fine play by the opponent. Gibraltar Masters 2013, Round 3 A.Stefanova (2516) - R.Wojtaszek (2723) 1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 g3 Bg7 4 Bg2 d5 5 Nf3 0-0 6 0-0 dxc4 7 Na3 Nc6 8 Nxc4 Be6 9 b3 Bd5 10 Bb2 a5 11 a4 Nb4 12 e3 e6 13 Qe2 Be4 14 Ne1 Bxg2 15 Nxg2 Qe7 16 Rfd1 Rfd8 17 Rac1 Nd7 18 Nf4 c6 19 Ba3 Bf8 20 Bb2 Rdb8 21 e4 Re8 A slightly odd choice of square for the rook since it looks unlikely to be supporting an e6-e5 push anytime soon. 22 Qf3 Bg7 23 e5 Red8 Perhaps Black was trying to provoke White into playing e4-e5 before switching the rook to the more logical d8 square. 24 Nd3 Bf8 25 Nc5! A strong positional idea, backed up by a deadly tactic. 25...Nxc5 26 dxc5 Rxd1+ 27 Rxd1 27...Nd5 Not falling for the gorgeous trap which White set up when playing 25 Nc5. If 27...Qxc5?? 28 Rd7!! and now if Black plays 28...Be7 or 28...f5 to deal with the threat of 29 Qxf7+, White plays 29 Bd4!, winning the queen. 28 Bd4 Bg7 29 h4 h5 30 Kg2 Although Black has established his knight on d5, White seems to have a solid positional plus, with better dark square control and tying the black rook to the defence of the a5 pawn, etc. 30...Qc7 31 Qe4 Rd8 32 Rd3 Bh6 33 Rf3 Continuing to squeeze, with the idea of playing Nd6, to attack the f7 pawn, and then Qe1 to win the a-pawn. 33...Ne7 Black decides to jettison a pawn. Perhaps 33...Rf8 34 Qe1 Ra8 35 Nd6 Rf8 was still solid, though White has the alternative of roughing up the kingside with a g3-g4 push. 34 Bc3 Rd5 35 Bxa5 Qb8 36 Bc3 Nf5 36...Rxc5? allows 37 Bb4, winning the exchange. 37 Nb6 Rd1 White continues to find tactical tricks which indirectly defend her c5 pawn. 37...Rxc5? loses to 38 Nd7, of course. 38 Rd3 White has consolidated her material advantage though there could still be a considerable technical exercise involved in winning. 38...Rc1 39 Bd2 It looks as if White could trap the black rook by playing 39 Nc4, etc, but White prefers to liquidate some material. 39...Bxd2 40 Rxd2 Now that Black’s rook has moved off the d- file, he’s in big trouble because the white rook has taken over control of the file and is helping the queen and knight to launch an invasion on Black’s weak kingside dark squares. At this level Black is just plain lost. 40...Kg7 41 Qf4 Rb1 42 Nc4! Antoaneta is no longer interested in defending her pawns as she has calculated through to the end. 42...Rxb3 42...Qe8 43 Qg5 Qe7 was Black’s last chance to challenge the queen invasion, but then 44 Qxe7 Nxe7 45 Rd7 wins a second pawn on b7 and Black’s counterplay is non-existent. 43 Qg5 Qf8 44 Qf6+ Kh7 45 Rd7! 45 Rd8? Qg7 is not so conclusive, though White can still win eventually. 45...Nh6 46 Nd2 46 Nd2 The knight is coming round to g5 to join in the kill: 46...Rb4 47 Nf3 Rb2 48 Ng5+ Kg8 49 Rd8 when the trick 49...Rxf2+!? 50 Kxf2 Ng4+ 51 Ke2 Nxf6 52 Rxf8+ Kxf8 53 exf6 is still hopeless for Black. 1-0 THERE’LL ALWAYS BE AN ENGLAND England’s three leading competitors in the field, Mickey Adams, Nigel Short and Gawain Jones, were very patriotic. They all played 1 c4 – the English Opening – and all three of them won. Mickey was a tad lucky as his opponent, Estonian grandmaster Meelis Kanep, missed at least one easy chance to wrap up a draw. Gibraltar Masters 2013, Round 3 M.Adams (2725) - M.Kanep (2512) 35...Nxf3? Black surprisingly overlooks a way to close out the game for a draw: 35...Rxf3! 36 exf3 Nc6 37 Qc5 Nxd4 38 Qxd4 Qxc4 eliminates the c4 pawn and assures Black of a relatively simple draw. 36 exf3 and, though the position is not much better for White, Mickey eventually ground out a win in 80 moves. KNOWING ME, KNOWING YU Yu Yangyi, from China, is only 18 years old and already has a rating of 2688. He is not yet as well known as other top Chinese players such as Wang Hao and Bu Xiangzhi as he has been playing mainly in Asia and in various opens but it is already clear that he is a prodigious talent. Former US women’s champion Anna Zatonskih found him too tough to handle in this brisk encounter. Gibraltar Masters 2013, Round 3 Yu Yangyi (2688) - A.Zatonskih (2491) 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 e5 c5 4 c3 Qb6 5 Nf3 Bd7 6 Bd3 cxd4 The usual intention when Black plays 4...Qb6 is to be able to play 6...Bb5 here. 7 Nxd4 7 cxd4 is often seen in analogous positions but it is insipid here. The text move is quite useful here, where the e5 pawn is not en prise to a knight on c6. 7...Nc6 8 Nxc6 bxc6 9 0-0 c5 10 c4 White has a lead in development and is slightly better here. 10...dxc4 11 Be4 Rd8 12 Nd2 Qa6 13 b3! White is playing sharp moves, looking for open lines in order to capitalise on his lead in development. 13...Bb5 If 13...cxb3 14 Qxb3 Bb5 15 Rb1!, White’s attack is gathering momentum. If Black continues with 15...Bxf1 16 Bb7 Qb5 17 Nxf1 Qxb3 18 Bc6+ and White has some compensation for the sacrificed material. 14 a4! c3 Perhaps Black should back off with 14...Bc6 though White looks in good shape after 15 Qe2 Ne7 16 Rb1, etc. 15 axb5! Qxa1 16 Bc6+ Ke7 Black’s pieces are now in a terrible tangle. 17 Qc2 Qa5 18 Nc4 Qc7 19 Qxc3 f6 20 Bf4 Kf7 21 g3 f5 22 Ra1 Kg6 23 Nd6 Rxd6? After this the game comes to a sudden end. But it is pretty hopeless: if 23...Bxd6 24 exd6 Qf7 25 Qxc5 Nf6 26 Rxa7, Black cannot survive the pressure for long. 24 Be8+ 1-0 NIGEL’S TEST You’ll remember that I left you with this position to solve, with White to play. Note that Nigel didn’t give any indication as to what result we have to aim for. In real-life chess nobody tells you which result you are playing for the simple reason that it is cheating. Nigel gave the impression of preferring studies to problems because they are more relevant or educational than problems, which tend to be rather artificial.