All photos by Albert Silver
Running from February 6 – 14, 2017, the 83rd Brazilian Championship is underway in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It brings twelve players including four grandmasters, who will fight a round robin at the rate of 90 minutes for the game plus a 30-second increment.
Players
Once more, the Brazilian Championship is held in the venerable Guanabara Chess Club in Rio de Janeiro. The Tournament director, opening the event, is GM Darcy Lima, president of the Brazilian Federation. On the right is IA Marcelo Einhorn, the chief arbiter.
A small clock issue between IM Maximo Macedo and GM Krikor Mekhitarian is soon resolved by FA Rafael Jerdy
It is a pleasure seeing top-seed GM Alexandr Fier participating. For years he has been living abroad, and now lives in Georgia with his wife.
The first moves against one of Brazil's top players
FM Ivan Nogueira was faced with the task, and though he got an excellent position, he cracked and lost to Fier
Last year's champion, GM Krikor Mekhitarian, also had to suffer his fair share of tribulations before winning
GM Felipe El Debs is the third seed
The ever-friendly GM Everaldo Matsuura is the final grandmaster in the group
Note that Matsuura may be the fourth grandmaster, but his rating is just behind IM Renato Quintiliano (2491 FIDE), who is on the rise, closing in on the GM title, and enjoying a great 2.0/2 start.
Annotating the game of the day is FM Ricardo Teixeira, a multiple finalist of the Brazilian Championship, and one-time vice-champion.
Renato Quintiliano vs Carlos Pinto (annotated by FM Ricardo Teixeira)
[Event "LXXXIII Brazilian Championship"] [Site "Clube Xadrez Guanabara - Rio d"] [Date "2017.02.06"] [Round "1.6"] [White "Quintiliano Pinto, Renato R"] [Black "Pinto, Carlos Henrique Lope"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "E94"] [WhiteElo "2491"] [BlackElo "2121"] [Annotator "Teixeira, Ricardo"] [PlyCount "93"] [EventDate "2017.02.06"] [EventRounds "11"] [EventCountry "BRA"] 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. d4 g6 3. c4 Bg7 4. Nc3 O-O 5. e4 d6 6. Be2 Na6 7. O-O e5 8. Be3 { White opts for a more flexible pawn formation, without immediately defining the central situation on the board. This inhibits, at least for the moment, the typical black counter-attack based on the eventual ...f5} Ng4 9. Bg5 Qe8 { This game really drew my attention because first it enters one of the great modern "tabiyas" of the King's Indian, and second, because what had seemed at first to be a decisive mistake by Black, had in fact been played a number of times with quite varied results.} 10. c5 {Quintiliano's choice enters a very sharp position, which seems to favor White in principle as it improves his piece coordination. However, as will be very clear, Black has no shortage of tactical resources at his disposal.} exd4 11. Nd5 Qxe4 $6 {From here on, despite so few moves, positional considerations take a back seat to a series of tactical shots. Even though the game will now become quite exciting, it should be noted that the move 11...Qe4 doesn't convince.} (11... Be6 $5 { seemed much more interesting.} 12. Be7 Bxd5 13. Bxf8 Qxf8 14. exd5 dxc5 { as in the game Nakamura, Hikaru vs McShane, Luke J, 0-1, London Classic 2009. Other moves have also been tried here with less success, such as 11...dxc5, 11. .. Nc5, 11...h6, 11...f6, 11...c6 and 11...Qd7}) 12. Ne7+ Kh8 13. cxd6 cxd6 14. Nxc8 Raxc8 15. Nd2 Qe5 16. Bxg4 Qxg5 17. Bxc8 Rxc8 18. Rc1 Rf8 19. Nc4 $5 { Novelty. Until now, this odd position had also appeared previously in the game Bogner, Sebastian vs Mandel, Andras, Oberliga Baden 0708 (Neuhausen - Viernheim) 2007 - 0-1 in 60 moves - where White played Nf3 instead.} Rd8 20. Qf3 Qe7 21. Na5 $1 {Little by little, the idea behind White's novelty 19.Nc4 begins to take shape. Thanks to the weak b7 pawn, Black is forced to play ... d5, creating yet another target for White's pieces.} d5 ({Due to the added back rank weaknesses,} 21... Rd7 {would be pointless. For example,} 22. Rc8+ Bf8 23. Qg4) 22. Rfe1 Qd7 23. h3 Nb4 24. a3 d3 $2 {In a pretty precarious position, Black tries to complicate matters, but it backfires and instead just helps White win a few pawns.} 25. Red1 Nc2 (25... Bxb2 26. axb4 Bxc1 27. Rxc1) 26. Qxd3 Nd4 27. Nb3 Nxb3 28. Qxb3 d4 29. Rd3 Bf6 30. Qc4 Kg7 31. Qc5 b6 32. Qc6 Qe7 33. Qf3 Re8 34. g3 h5 35. h4 $1 {Gradually, White consolidates his position and advantage and prepares the final invasion on the light squares.} Qd7 36. Rc6 Re1+ 37. Kg2 Qe7 38. Qf4 Be5 39. Qd2 Bf6 40. Rf3 Re2 $2 {The final mistake in a difficult position.} ({More resilient, albeit with few genuine long-term prospects, might have been} 40... Re6 41. Qc1 Be5 42. Qc4 Rxc6 43. Qxc6 f5 44. Rd3) 41. Qxe2 $1 Qxe2 42. Rcxf6 d3 43. Rxf7+ Kh6 44. Rd7 Qxb2 45. Rff7 Qh8 46. Rxa7 d2 47. Rfd7 1-0
CM Vitor Carneiro (2426 FIDE) is another ambitious young gun to watch out for
Standings after two rounds
Follow the games live
