10/28/2006 – Instead of going for a draw and a sure tournament victory Judit Polgar remained true to character and went for the jugular. However a pugnacious Shakhryar Mamedyarov fought back and delivered her first defeat in Essent. Veselin Topalov outplayed Ivan Sokolov for his second win in a row. Report with video by Peter Doggers.
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The 10th edition of the Essent Chess Tournament is taking place from October
20 to 28, 2006 in Hoogeveen, Holland. As in the past years there are a number
of competitions: a Crown Group, a strong Essent Open, an Amateur Tournament,
a pub tournament and an event for youth. The games are being broadcast live
on the official site and on Playchess.com.
Full details on the event are available on our first
Essent report.
Round five
Anyone would have expected Judit Polgar to go for a rock-solid draw with the
white pieces, to ensure at least joint victory in this category 20 tournament.
But then of course they would be ignoring the driving characteristic of this
incredible player. Judit once again went all out on the attack – and
suffered defeat at the hands of a cunningly operating Shakhryar Mamedyarov.
This position has occurred at least twice, in 2005, with White getting just
half a point (there are other examples in the PAL/CSS Freestyle tournaments
on Playchess.com). In both cases the
continuation was 23.Nh5, a move that Fritz fervently pleads for: 23.Nh5 Be7
24.Bxf6 Bxf6 25.Qd3 Bxd4 26.Qh7+ Kf8 27.Qh6+ Ke8 28.Re1+ Ne7 29.Qh7 a) 29.Ng7+
Kd7 30.Rxe7+ Kxe7 31.Nf5+ Kd7 32.Nxd4 c5 and black is doing fine; b) 29.Qg5
Kf8 30.Bh7 (or 30.Qh6+ with repetition) 30...Bc3 31.h4 Qd6 (31...Bxe1?? allows
32.Qh6+ Ke8 33.Nf6#) 32.Rxe7 Re8 and the rook is untouchable due to the mate
on g8, and White has an advantage. All this is very complicated, and Judit
spent considerable time mulling over the position. In the end she came up with
23.Nf5N?! which leaves Fritz cringing, and which the analysts
will have to evaluate after deeper study. Mamedyarov went on to win the game,
after Judit Polgar lost her struggle to keep up the pressure on the black king.
Video of game and analysis Polgar-Mamedyarov,
posted on YouTube by Peter
Doggers
With the appearance of his manager Silvio Danailov in round four in Essent
Veselin Topalov is transformed, playing with confidence and courage and winning
both games since then. In round five he outplayed Ivan Sokolov seemingly effortlessly
to come within striking range for top place (theoretically: if Topalov beats
Judit Polgar in round six with white, and Mamedyarov loses his white game to
Ivan Sokolov, then Veselin Topalov would share first with the other two, with
Mamedyarov winning out on tiebreak points: 10.25 to Topalov's 9.25 and Judit's
8.25. Saturday's the day.
Veselin Topalov with a young fan [photo Fred Lucas]
Playing hours: All rounds start at 14.00 hours daily. The
final round (October 28th) starts at noon. The Amateur Groups have other starting
times: Group I: 14.30 hours (October 28th at 13.00 hours); Groep II: 10.00
hours (October 28th at 9.00 hours).
In almost every chess game there comes a moment when you just can’t go on without tactics. You must strike to not giving away the advantage you have worked for the whole game.
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Essent
Chess Tournament 2006
