Aerosvit 2008: Ukrainians win on all boards

Aerosvit-2008 Tournament in Foros, Ukraine

The "Aerosvit-2008" tournament is taking place in the sanatorium complex “Foros” in the settlement Foros of AR Crimea, Ukraine, from June 7th (day of arrival), to June 20th, 2008 (day of departure). The event is a 12-player round robin with invited participants. The average rating of the players is 2711.7, time controls are 90 minutes for the first 40 moves and 30 minutes to the end of the game, with an addition of 30 sec. after every move. In case of equal points at the end of the tournament the tiebreak is based on the (1) the result of the direct encounter; (2) the Sonneborn-Berger system; (3) the number of won games. The rounds are from Sunday, June 8th until Thursday, June 19th, always starting at 15:00h local time, which is currently CEST +1 (14:00h Berlin/Paris, 13:00h London, 08:00 a.m. New York). Here is a chart for your local time.

Round two report

Results of round two

• Click to download and replay

Peter Svidler and Magnus Carlsen played a 22-move draw. Magnus is walking around in the same NTG T-shirt he was wearing at the opening ceremony, and in round one. The reason for that is that his bags had not arrived in Yalta – or at least not the correct ones. Two pieces were located at Simferopol airport and then at last delivered to the hotel on Monday, during the round.

Stuck without bags in Foros: top seed Magnus Carlsen

Vassily Ivanchuk comprehsively outplayed Evgeny Alekseev, who is just 29 points lower than him on the rating list. Similarly 18-year-old Sergey Karjakin went on the attack very quickly against Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu and never relented until the full point was in the bag, after 40 moves. Andrei Volokitin, who turns 22 next week, made short work of US grandmaster Alexander Onischuk.

Volokitin,And (2684) - Onischuk,Al (2664) [E06]
Aerosvit Foros UKR (2), 09.06.2008
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Nf3 Be7 5.Bg2 0-0 6.0-0 dxc4 7.Qc2 a6 8.Qxc4 b5 9.Qc2 Bb7 10.Bd2 Bd6 11.Re1 Be4 12.Qc1 Nbd7 13.Ba5 Qe7 14.Nbd2 Bxf3 15.Nxf3 Rac8 16.e4 e5 17.Nh4 g6 18.f4 exf4 19.e5 Nxe5 20.dxe5 Bc5+ 21.Kf1 Ng4 22.Qxf4 Nxh2+ 23.Ke2 f6 24.Bd5+ Kg7 25.Bc3 b4 26.Bd2 Qxe5+ 27.Qxe5 fxe5 28.Rac1

28...Bd6 (28...Rf2 has to be considered, or even 28...Bf2) 29.Rh1 Ng4 30.Be6 (forking the knight and rook) 30...Nf2 31.Nf5+. Very nice problem-like interference. 1-0. [Click to replay]

1.d4 and what you gonna do? Alexei Shirov with a second win in round two.

Shirov,A (2740) - Jakovenko,D (2711) [E15]
Aerosvit Foros UKR (2), 09.06.2008
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Ba6 5.Qc2 c5 6.d5 exd5 7.cxd5 Bb7 8.Bg2 Nxd5 9.0-0 Be7 10.Qe4 Bc6 11.Ne5 Nc7 12.Nxc6 dxc6 13.Nc3 0-0 14.Rd1 Qe8 15.Bf4 Ne6 16.Nb5 Qc8 17.Bxb8 Qxb8 18.Qxc6 Qe5 19.Qd7 Rae8 20.Nc3 Qb8 21.Nd5 Bd8 22.e3 Nc7 23.Rd2 Nxd5 24.Bxd5 Bf6 25.Rad1 g6 26.Bc4 Kg7 27.b3 Re7 28.Qb5 h5 29.a4 h4 30.Qc6 hxg3 31.hxg3 Rc8 32.Qf3 Qe5 33.Rd5 Qc7 34.g4 Rh8 35.g5 Bb2 36.Kf1 Qb7 37.Ke2 Qc7 38.Qg4

Jakovenko has been under pressure from the relentless Shirov. Now he falls apart. 38...Bd4? 39.Kd3 [39.R5xd4 was also possible: 39...cxd4 40.Qxd4+ Qe5 41.Qxe5+ Rxe5 42.Rd7 and White is better] 39...Be5 40.f4 Bd6 41.Qg2 a6? 42.Qb2+ Kg8 43.Kc2 Rh2+ 44.R5d2 Rxd2+ 45.Rxd2 b5? 46.Qf6 1-0. [Click to replay]

Standings after two rounds

Links Official tournament web site All games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse the PGN games.