Tradewise Gibraltar Festival 2014

Monday 27 January - Friday 6 February 2014

Round 6 Report: 3 February by John Saunders

CHUCKY THE KING-MAKER

Finally we have a sole leader – and it's Vassily Ivanchuk, the man who won the 2011 Gibraltar Masters with a record-breaking score of 9/10. Will he do it again? He's a very volatile player as we saw at the Candidates' tournament in London in the spring of 2013, where he ruined game after game because of poor clock handling, but produced his top performance in the final round when it scarcely mattered. It mattered to Magnus Carlsen, though; had Vassily not produced his best form at that moment to defeat Vladimir Kramnik, Magnus Carlsen would not be world champion now and the 2013 title match would have been contested by Vishy Anand and Vladimir Kramnik. You could call him 'Chucky the Kingmaker'.

But of course I'm getting ahead of myself as usual and there are still four rounds to go. No fewer than 12 players are breathing down Ivanchuk's neck, half a point behind. The numbers one, two and four seeds – Mickey Adams, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Nikita Vitiugov are amongst them – and the others are , Paco Vallejo Pons, Pentala Harikrishna, Richard Rapport, Maxim Rodshtein, Aleksey Dreev, Surya Ganguly, Wei Yi and Eric Hansen.

The women's leader is still Tan Zhongyi of China – she's on 4½ and behind her on 4 are her fellow countrywomen Guo Qi and Zhao Xue, plus Lela Javakhishvili and Bela Khotenashvili of Georgia, Natalia Pogonina, Victoria Cmilyte, Elisabeth Paehtz, Natalia Zhukova, Batkhuyag Munguntuul, Sarah Hoolt and Hoang Thanh Trang.

Ivanchuk's win against Li Chao involved some fancy footwork by the Ukrainian when his opponent tried some tactics to exploit his pawn grabbing but he was well up to the task.

Gibraltar Masters 2014, Round 6 V.Ivanchuk (2739) - Li Chao (2680) 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bc4 Bd7 7.0-0 e6 8.Bb3 Be7 9.f4 Nxd4 10.Qxd4 0-0 11.f5 Ng4 12.fxe6 fxe6 13.Bf4 Qc7 The computer suggests 13...Bg5!? 14.Bxg5 (Not 14.Qxd6?? Bxf4 15.Rxf4 Rxf4 16.Qxf4 Qb6+ 17.Kh1 Nf2+ 18.Kg1 Nh3+ wins the queen, or 14.Bxd6?? Be3+ 15.Qxe3 Rxf1+! 16.Rxf1 Nxe3 wins) 14...Qxg5 but now 15.Rf5! Qh6 16.h3 Ne3 is too risky for Black. 14.Rad1 Ne5 15.Bg3

15...Kh8!? This involves a pawn sac. 15...Rxf1+ 16.Rxf1 Bf6 17.Kh1 doesn't, but White has a small edge. 16.Rxf8+ Rxf8 17.Qxa7 d5 18.Kh1 Bd6 19.exd5 Ng4 Now White has to defend very carefully if he's to profit from his material grab. 20.Qd4 e5 21.Qd3 e4 22.Nxe4 Bxg3 23.Qxg3 Qf4 24.Qxf4 Rxf4 25.h3 Ne3 26.Rd4 Nf5 27.Rb4 Rxe4 28.Rxb7! Not 28.Rxe4? Ng3+ 29.Kg1 Nxe4, winning a piece, albeit for three pawns. 28...h5 28...Bc8 29.Rc7 Re8 leaves White a piece down but four connected pawns are more than enough compensation for it. 29.g4! By this stage White had less than two minutes left, while Black had less than a minute. 29.Rxd7?? is a blunder because of 29...Re1+ 30.Kh2 h4 and White has to buy off Black's attacking pieces from setting up a mating net with Ng3 and Rh1: 31.g4 hxg3+ 32.Kg2 Re2+ 33.Kf3 Rf2+ 34.Ke4 g2 wins. 29...hxg4 30.hxg4 Bc8 31.Rc7 Re1+ 32.Kh2 Re2+ 33.Kg1 Nd6 34.Rc6!

Finally winning back the piece. After the tactical complexities, Ivanchuk is now in cruise control mode, with slightly more than two minutes left, having profited from his increments. 34...Bxg4 35.Rxd6 Kh7 36.Bc4 Rd2 37.Bd3+ Kg8 38.Rg6 Bh3 39.b4 Kf7 40.b5 Rd1+ Teasing his opponent on the last move before the time control. If 40...Rxd3 41.cxd3 Kxg6 42.b6 Bc8 43.d6, one of the pawns queens. 41.Kf2 1-0

Mickey Adams played what looked like an ungainly opening against Argentinian GM Sandro Mareco, but it was pretty effective and White inexorably took over the board.

Gibraltar Masters 2014, Round 6 M.Adams (2754) - S.Mareco (2582) 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ Nd7 4.0-0 a6 5.Bd3 Perhaps the second most frequently seen move here: 5.Bxd7+ is the usual recipe. 5...b5 5...Ngf6 6.c3 is standard here but Black tries something new, with a view to discomfiting the bishop on d3. 6.c4 The c4, Bd3, e4 construct looks very ugly. But I suppose it doesn't matter so long as the structure doesn't remain static. The English super-GM must have satisfied himself that he could unravel in due course. 6...b4 7.a3 Bb7 After 7...bxa3, maybe 8.b3!?, Bc2 and d4 is a plan for White. 8.axb4 cxb4 9.Bc2 Ngf6 10.Re1 e5 11.d4 Be7 12.c5!?

This thrust brings about a curious stand-off. Black cannot capture either the c5 or d4 pawn but he doesn't have to do anything about it and can continue his development. 12...0-0 12...exd4? 13.cxd6 Bxd6 14.e5 costs Black a piece for two pawns; 12...dxc5? 13.dxe5 Ng4 14.Ba4! is almost as bad. 13.Nbd2 d5 Maybe 13...Qc7 was worth considering, though White ups the pressure on the pawns with 14.Nc4, etc. 14.exd5 Nxd5 15.Nxe5 Nxe5 16.Rxe5 Bf6 17.Re1 Nc7 After 17...Bxd4, Black's position looks very vulnerable after something like 18.Nb3 Bf6 19.Na5 Qc7 20.Qd3 g6 21.Nxb7 Qxb7 22.Qf3 Rfe8 23.Bh6 and it is hard to break the pin on the knight. 18.Nb3 Ne6 19.Na5 Bd5 20.Be3 Ra7 21.Bb3!

White lets the extra pawn go but he's getting a good return on his investment. 21...Bxb3 22.Qxb3 Nxd4 Probably best though it loses the exchange. 23.Bxd4 Bxd4 24.Nc6 Qf6 25.Nxa7 Bxc5 25...Bxf2+!? 26.Kh1 Bxc5 27.Qc4 Bxa7 28.Rxa6 Qd4 is also difficult for Black. 26.Re2 Qb6 27.Qc4 Qxa7 28.Rxa6 Rd8 29.h4 Rd1+ Maybe 29...Qc7 is more solid. 30.Kh2 Qb8+ 31.g3 Bf8 32.Qc6 Rd8 33.h5 h6 34.Kg2 Rc8 35.Rb6 Qa7 36.Qxc8 Qxb6 37.Re8 Qd6 38.Rd8 Qe7 39.Re8 Qd6 40.b3 Not many people escape from such positions against Mickey Adams, so no comments are needed for the final few moves. 40...Qd5+ 41.Kg1 Qd1+ 42.Kg2 Qd5+ 43.f3 Qd2+ 44.Kh3 Qd6 45.f4 g6 46.hxg6 fxg6 47.f5 1-0

Gata Kamsky ground out a win against Danyyil Dvirnyy, first winning a pawn and then... I'm not sure: the end of the game seems a little unclear. Maybe Black was simply disillusioned with his chances or he lost on time (though he still had 11 minutes left with only two moves to make in the final position).

We haven't said very much about Aleksey Dreev so far but he is of course a very formidable of the Anand/Ivanchuk generation. He moved into position for a final push on the tournament summit with a win against Krikor Sevag Mekhitarian, the Brazilian GM with the Armenian heritage. Dreev didn't seem to have secured a concrete advantage until the last few moves before the time control, when he had about 8 minutes left and his opponent only a minute.

Gibraltar Masters 2014, Round 6 A.Dreev (2673) - K.S.Mekhitarian (2566)

38...dxc4 It seems logical to open the d-file as things stand but it proves to be a mixed blessing in a few moves time. 39.bxc4 Rd2 39...Nxa2 40.e4 Nb4 41.e5 Rd2 42.Rd1! and White is on the brink of grabbing the d-file. He has full compensation for the lost pawn and he has threats of Ng6+ and to invade on d7, plus the e-pawn might even push on and promote. 40.e4 Rxa2? The final move of the time control and now the rook and knight are out of play. 41.Re3! Using the attack on the knight to switch the rook to the d-file. 41...Na4 42.Rd3 Kf6 42...Bc6 43.Ng6+ Ke8 44.Rd6! threatening the bishop and also the murderous Bd7+! followed by Rf8 mate. The position is indefensible. 43.Rd6+ Ke5 44.Re6+ Kd4 45.Rxh6 Computers find more incisive winning lines but this will do. 45...Re7 46.Rd6+ Kc3 47.h6 Bxe4 48.Bxe4 Rxe4 49.h7 Re8 50.Ng6 Kxc4 51.Rdf6 51.h8Q? Rxh8 52.Nxh8 b5 could yet be quite hard work to win, despite White's extra rook. 51...Nc3 52.Rf8 Ne2+ 53.Kh2 Re6 54.h8Q Rxg6 55.Qh5 Rg7 56.R8f7 Rg8 57.R7f6 1-0

21-year-old GM Eric Hansen was born in the USA but grew up in Calgary, Alberta, and holds dual Canadian- American citizenship, though he represents Canada at chess. He has been doing pretty well in Gibraltar so far and today scalped his first GM here, Simen Agdestein. It started with the French MacCutcheon, or more precisely the Dr Olland variation, where the bishop on g5 wanders all the way back to c1 after being given a prod by Black's h6 pawn. Judging from the clock times, the Norwegian GM wasn't up to speed with the theory around move 15 and his time shortage contributed to his difficulties on the board.

An aside: I enjoy being able to quote clock times of games as they so often constitute vital data to understand what is happening in a game. The DGT electronic boards used in Gibraltar (and nearly everywhere else these days) pass this data on to the generated PGN file and you can find it in the website downloads but, annoyingly, some software, such as ChessBase, subsequently seems to discard it or garble it in some way. But thankfully the Hiarcs Chess Explorer software, which I prefer to use, reads the clock data from DGT-generated PGNs and displays it on the screen. I would urge other software developers to follow their lead.

Gibraltar Masters 2014, Round 6 E.Hansen (2559) - S.Agdestein (2627) 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Bg5 Bb4 In the ancient time when I first started moving pieces around a chessboard, 4...Be7 was regarded as the pukkah move here, though we were aware of the existence of 4...Bb4, the MacCutcheon. My database now tells me that the spineless 4...dxe4 is the most played move these days, the MacCutcheon second and 4...Be7 third. Back in my day, anyone caught playing 4...dxe4 would have been handed the club revolver, told 'Smithers - you know what you have to do', and we would have waited for them to leave the room and listened for the shot. 5.e5 h6 6.Bc1 In my know-nothing youth, I would have plonked down 6.Bd2, and not been aware of Dr Olland's recipe, which is to move the bishop one square further back. I wish I had known that as I had quite a penchant for putting my pieces back on their original squares. 6...Ne4 7.Qg4 g6 8.Nge2 c5 9.a3 Ba5 10.dxc5 10.b4 looks a bit Winawer-ish and indeed it has been played here: 10...Nxc3 11.Nxc3 cxb4 12.Nb5 b3+ 13.c3 a6 14.Nd6+ I always assumed that, if you got your knight on d6 in this opening and the other chap couldn't take it, the point was virtually in the bag. However, here he can take it... 14...Qxd6!? 15.exd6 Bxc3+ 16.Bd2 Bxa1 and this is not yet game over. 10...Nc6 This might be a bit too routine though it has been played a few times: 10...Qc7 11.Qf4 Nxc3 12.Nxc3 Bxc3+ 13.bxc3 Qxc5 14.Bd2 Nd7 seems a bit safer. 11.b4 Nxe5 12.Qh3 Bc7 13.Nxe4 dxe4 14.Nc3 a5 15.Bb2 axb4 16.Rd1

16...Qe7 Black used up about 28 minutes on this move, leaving himself only about 15 minutes plus increments until move 40. Perhaps he was investigating something like 16...bxc3!? which seems to be a possibility: 17.Rxd8+ Bxd8 18.Bb5+ Bd7 19.Bxd7+ Nxd7 20.Bc1 Nxc5, though this probably favours White. 17.axb4 Nc6 Not 17...f5, as 18.Nb5, threatening 19.Nd6+, is very hard to meet. 18.Nxe4 e5 19.Qf3 Kf8 19...0-0 20.Nf6+ Kg7 21.Nd5 Qd8 22.Nb6 Bxb6 wins material. 20.Bc4 Be6 21.Bxe6 Qxe6 22.b5 Ra2 23.bxc6 Rxb2 24.Qc3 Rb5 24...Qxc6!? 25.Qxb2 Qxe4+ 26.Kf1 Kg7 gives Black some compensation for the exchange. 25.cxb7 Qc6 26.Qc4 Rxb7 Black had no more than a minute plus increments to the time control now. 26...Kg7 27.0-0 Rb8 looks a bit better as it activates both rooks. 27.0-0 Kg7 28.f4 White still had 8 minutes left and was presumably determined to keep some complexity in the game. 28...Rd8? Almost inevitably, the blunder comes. 28...Rhb8 is best, though of course things are very difficult for Black. 29.fxe5 Rxd1 30.Qxf7+ Kh8 31.Qf8+ Kh7 32.Nf6+ Qxf6 33.Qxf6 1-0

______John Saunders Press Reporter, Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Congress - Twitter @GibraltarChess Official website: www.gibraltarchesscongress.com Personal Twitter Account @johnchess