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Teimour
Radjabov played yet another short game with white today. This one was even
shorter than his quick draws in the previous rounds. The difference was that
this time it wasn't a draw, it was a crushing win over Arkady Naiditsch. Radjabov
played for a direct assault on the king and it paid off with a 26-move win,
bringing him back to an even score.
The big guns drew quickly and left the standings unchanged. After the games they made the usual noises about how "a draw versus X is a good result, blah, blah," but the games were not he same. Bologan-Leko ended on move 19 in a position Black should have been happy to play out.
Kramnik and Anand managed to squeeze quite a bit of interest into their 21-move affair. Anand had to find some sharp defensive moves to hold the balance. After the game Kramnik sounded a little surprised when he said, "Vishy's king capture was intriguing, but I just couldn't exploit it." Instead he swapped queens and offered the draw.
Standings after round eight
Radjabov,T (2648) - Naiditsch,A (2574) [D03]
Dortmund GER (8), 08.08.2003
1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 e6 3.Bg5 c5 4.e3 Be7 [4...Qb6 5.Nbd2] 5.Nbd2 d5 6.c3 (D1) Club hackers around the world, rejoice! This is the sort of positionally unambitious club opening that GMs rarely play and that amateurs love because they don't have to worry about the center or studying many lines. Not exactly theoretically sharp, but you can't argue with results!
I
know some English GM probably has a book on this and named it something inexplicable
like the "Gully Warbler System" or the "275 Attack." There are always customers
for an opening setup that the other side can't really avoid.
Kasparov occasionally plays it in simuls, where he dislikes entering into theoretical complications and main lines. Tarrasch and Petrosian have also played it so it can't be too bad. 6...Nbd7 8.Ne5
[8.0-0 Bb7 9.Qe2 (9.Ne5 Nxe5 10.dxe5 Nd7 11.Bxe7 Qxe7 12.f4 0-0-0 13.Nf3 f6 14.Bb5 a6 15.Bxd7+ Rxd7 16.b4 d4 17.exd4 cxb4 18.Rb1 bxc3 19.Rxb6 Rc7 20.Qb3 Bxf3 21.gxf3 Rb7 22.Qxc3+ Kb8 23.Rfb1 1-0 Hebden,M-Simpson,J/Torquay ENG 2002) 9...0-0 10.Rfd1 c4 11.Bc2 h6 12.Bh4 g5 13.Bg3 Nh5 14.e4 b5 15.e5 a5 ½-½ Gurevich,M-JUNIOR7/Korinthos GRE 2002]
8...Nxe5 9.dxe5 Nd7 10.Bxe7 Qxe7 11.f4 0-0?! It's easy to say in hindsight that this is an example of "castling into it." Of course there's no reason Black must be overwhelmed so quickly, but this definitely condemns him to a tough defensive task. It was probably better to wait as long as possible before committing the king. More flexible options were ..f6, hitting the Black center immediately, or ..Bb7 with the option of castling long.
[11...c4 12.Bc2 Nc5 13.Nf3 Bd7 14.0-0 0-0 15.b4 cxb3 16.axb3 1-0 Le,T-Armerman,M/Box Hill 2001/EXT 2003 (67); 11...f6 12.Qh5+ ½-½ Bohm,H-Sosonko,G/Amsterdam 1975/MCL (12). ; 11...Bb7 12.Qe2 f6 13.exf6 gxf6 14.e4 0-0-0 15.exd5 Bxd5 16.Be4 Qd6 17.0-0 Qc6 18.b4 1-0 Kasparov,G-De la Fuente Gonzalez,F/Galicia 1991/EXT 97 (40). (39)]
12.Nf3
f5?! (D2) Providing a static
target and leaving the e5 pawn intact. ..f6 was more dynamic. Naiditsch was
clearly not prepared for the "knock you over the head with a big stick" attack.
13.Rg1! Making his intentions crystal clear: Mate!
13...Kh8 14.g4 g6 15.h4 Bb7 16.h5! This is starting to looks like a game between two kids in the bottom section of the Wild Barbarians Open. Radjabov was obviously not happy with having his title as wunderteen besmirched by his loss to Naiditsch in the third round.
16...fxg4 17.Rxg4 g5 It's already hard to suggest improvements for Black. Inviting the knight in looks terrible but the line openings were just as bad. Now Naiditsch is also down a pawn. f5 is always hanging over Black's head and it's fitting that that move ends the game. [17...gxh5 18.Rg5]
18.Nxg5 d4 19.exd4 cxd4 20.cxd4 There goes another pawn. These pawn sacs aren't even helping his position! Now it doesn't really matter if Black gets mated or not. 20...h6 21.Ne4 Rg8 [21...Bxe4 22.Bxe4 Rac8]
22.Nd6 Monster knight. 22...Nf6 [22...Rxg4 23.Qxg4 Rg8 24.Bg6] 23.Rg6 Rxg6 24.hxg6 Nd5 (D3) [24...Bd5 25.Nf7+ Kg7 26.exf6+ Qxf6]
25.Qh5
Is chess really this easy? Now every club player who doesn't already play
c3 is going to be playing it instead of c4. What would Capablanca say? f5 wins
on the next move.
25...Kg7 [25...Qg7 26.f5 (26.Nf7+ Kg8 27.Nxh6+) 26...Nf4 27.f6 Nxh5 28.fxg7+ Kxg7 29.Nxb7]
26.f5 1-0 Crunch. Somewhere Mark Hebden is smiling.
[26.f5 exf5 (26...Qg5 27.f6+ Kg8 28.Qxg5 hxg5 29.Nxb7 (29.Nf7 Even faster.) ) 27.Nxf5+]
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