54th Reggio Emilia: Ivanchuk has a meltdown

by ChessBase
1/4/2012 – Normally, the news would be that Morozevich beat Nakamura (which he did) and is now right behind (which he is), followed by Giri in third, but Ivanchuk stole their thunder. In round seven, visibly haunted by his loss to Giri, he dropped a piece against Vitiugov in such a way that spectators were left gaping. In round eight, against Caruana, he just flipped and literally tried to give away all his pieces!

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The 54th Reggio Emilia is underway at Reggio Emilia, Italy, and runs from December 27, 2011 to January 6, 2012. The tournament is a six-player, double round-robin with ten rounds played at 50 moves for 100 minutes plus a 30-second increment per move. January 1st is a rest day. Games start at 3 PM Paris time (9 AM NY time).

54th Reggio Emilia

Round seven

By Martha Fierro, Augusto Caruso (accademia internazionale di scacchi) et al. (bert)

The seventh round was the beginning of high drama, but not the typical one readers are used to. The top players Nakamura and Morozevich drew their games against their junior opponents with barely a struggle, but Ivanchuk's famed fragile nerves finally betrayed him as his poor loss against Giri in round six still haunted him.


Ivanchuk already looked very unhappy, and he hadn't even started his game

Ivanchuk was doing fine against Vitiugov inasmuch as the game was quite equal and nothing much was going on, then on move 30...

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1.e41,174,61854%2421---
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1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Nf3 c5 5.g3 Nc6 6.Bg2 Ne4 7.Bd2 Nxd2 8.Qxd2 cxd4 9.Nxd4 0-0 10.a3 Be7 11.0-0 Ne5 12.b3 a6 13.Rfd1 Qc7 14.Ne4 f5 15.Nc3 Rb8 16.e4 fxe4 17.Nxe4 b6 18.Qe2 Bb7 19.f4 Nc6 20.Nf3 Na5 21.Rd3 Bxe4 22.Qxe4 Nb7 23.b4 Nd6 24.Qe2 Nf7 25.Qd2 Rfd8 26.Re1 a5 27.Qc3 axb4 28.axb4 Rbc8 29.Nd2 Nd6 30.Rc1 And here, a 'chucky' was played. Nxc4 31.Nxc4 After 31.Nxc4 Black was probably expecting to win back the knight with b5 However White has 32.Ne3! the move that Ivanchuk probably overlooked. It blocks the anticipated queen check on b6: 32.Ne5? Qb6+ 33.Kf1 Rxc3-+ 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Vitiugov,N2729Ivanchuk,V27751–02012E2154th7

Players following the game online could barely believe their eyes. What was the explanation for such an absurd aberration? A prominent player following the action, summed up the reason behind the blunder in one word, "Ivanchuk!"

In fact, if the name of this great player is included in future chess glossaries for this reason, at least he can rest assured he is not alone. In Brazil, there is a football term, a 'domingada', ('a Domingos play'), that can only be understood by an outsider via an explanation.

In the 1940s, one of the greatest defenders on the planet was the legendary Domingos da Guia (pronounced Domeengoes da Guee-ah), whose play was to become textbook material for generations to come. Unfortunately, on more than one occasion, he also committed such absurd mistakes, with no rational explanation possible, that could lead to the team's loss, and did so more than once. This stark contrast led to the term, a 'domingada', to mean an uncharacteristically disastrous play from an otherwise world-class performer.

Move thirty was clearly a 'chucky'.

Round eight

By Martha Fierro, Augusto Caruso (accademia internazionale di scacchi) et al. (bert)


The audience watches a player self-combust

The blunder in round seven led to the high drama of round eight. Ivanchuk is not only recognizable, he is blatantly suicidal (chesswise). After losses to Nakamura, Giri, and then the horror story against Vitiugov, his will to win is ashes. The last moves of his game against Caruana, in which he tried to give away all his pieces in a fit, say it all.


Vassily Ivanchuk is in nuclear meltdown mode, however Krogius warns, in his famous
book
on chess psychology, of players who seemed depressed, beaten, who suddenly
came back swinging, mustering strength from unsuspected sources. So Nakamura beware.

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1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.Bf4 Bg7 4.e3 d6 5.h3 0-0 6.Be2 b6 7.0-0 Bb7 8.c3 Nbd7 9.Bh2 Qe8 10.a4 a6 11.Na3 e5 12.Nc4 Ne4 13.Nfd2 Nxd2 14.Nxd2 Kh8 15.Qc2 f5 16.Rfe1 g5 17.Bd3 Qg6 18.f3 Rae8 19.Rf1 d5 20.a5 c5 The position warrants a diagram, with five black pawns all in a row, but it lost its appeal after the eye-boggling finale. 21.g4 e4 22.fxe4 dxe4 23.Be2 f4 24.axb6 Qxb6 25.Qb3 Qa7 26.Bb5 cxd4 27.Bxd7 dxe3 28.Nc4 Rd8 29.Ba4 Rd2 Here Ivanchuk just loses it. 30.Qxb7 There are no exclamation marks or other for such an obviously deliberate suicide. Qxb7 31.Rxf4 Nimzowitsch is recorded as having once screamed in outrage after a loss to an opponent, but Ivanchuk has his own sense of drama. gxf4 32.Nxd2 exd2 33.Bxf4 Nope, there are still pieces left on the board. Rxf4 34.Bc6 Grim. Qb6+ 0–1
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Ivanchuk,V2775Caruana,F27270–12012A4854th Reggio Emilia8

Here is commentary by IM Andrew Martin.


The match between the leaders only served to foment the excitement to the end

The faceoff between Nakamura and Morozevich was as tense as hoped for, and the fans are ensured a race to the end between the two players. Against Morozevich's Classical French, Nakamura played the same pawn sac that Kamsky used against Akobian in last year's US championship, but the result was not as fortunate, and shortly after he lost a central pawn and then the game.


Sometimes being a top player can be painful

In his Twitter, Nakamura later wrote, "Just one of those days where everything went wrong and my opponent played well. Fortunately, I still have the lead and can sleep it off."


After a slow start, Anish Giri has now moved up to sole third

Anish Giri also followed strong and beat Vitiugov in a strong Sicilian Kan in which he sacirficed pawns and the exchange to strand the Russian's king in the center. The pressure never let up, even though Vitiugov avoided being mated, and the Dutchman converted the endgame. With this win, he moves into clear third, right behind Morozevich, who is second, and Nakamura who is still clear first.


Sopiko Guramishvili was lucky to survive her game against Marianna Chierici

In the women's tournament Maria De Rosa blundered against Videnova and had to give up immediately, while Marianna Chierici once again showed her strength and built a significant edge against the leader, Sopiko Guramishvili, after very creative middle-game play. Unfortunately, time trouble caused her to lose the chance, and she had to content herself with half a point.

Marina Brunello was in a critical position, which at one point was in danger of losing in a single move, but clawed her way back to a draw, and can still fight for a top place in the tournament.

Pictures by Martha Fierro

Men's standings after eight rounds

Men's standings after eight rounds (traditional scoring)

Women's standings after eight rounds

Women's standings after eight rounds (traditional scoring)

Links

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