AeroSvit R7: Rublevsky leads by a full point

The Aerosvit International GM tournament is taking place in from June 16 to 29, 2006, in Foros/Yalta, the southern-most part of the Crimean peninsula of Ukraine. It is a category 18 event with 12 GMs rated 2600 or higher. Time controls are 120 minutes for the entire game, with an increment of 30 sec. per move. In case of a tie the final places are determined by the result of the direct encounter; then Sonneborn-Berger; and finally the number of won games.

On the rest day (Friday) a boat trip on the Black Sea

Sergey Karjakin, Pentala Harikrishna and Sergei Rublevsky on the trip

Refreshments below deck

Round seven report by GM Mikhail Golubev

Ivanchuk – Nisipeanu 1-0
The Queen's Indian. Ivanchuk's move 11.Nxe4 appears to be new. (Instead, 11.Bxe4 Bxe4 12.Qxe4 Qxg5 13.Qxa8 Nc6 14.Qb7 Nxd4 would have led to a position, which was tested in the Euwe-Capablanca, Amsterdam 1931 match). White obtained a slim advantage. Ivanchuk occupied the square c6 (thereby fixing the black pawn on c7) and, slowly, developed a serious pressure. A good technical victory by Ivanchuk. In the Nisipeanu's opinion, 26...h6 could have been not the most stubborn method of defense.

Areshchenko – Volokitin 1-0
The Najdorf transposed into the Scheveningen. The struggle is complicated; White's chances are, possibly, a bit better. After 21...b4 22.axb4 d5! Black had sufficient counterplay. But the inaccurate 24...Nxe4?! (correct was 24...Be7) led Volokitin into trouble. On the 49th move Black has blundered checkmate in two, but his position was objectively lost anyway.

Shirov – Bologan ½:½
The Caro-Kann, Advanced Variation. On the 9th move Shirov deviated from the game Rublevsky-Bologan, Sochi 2005 by 9.dex5 (instead 9.Nxe5). By his 12th move Bologan sacrificed the knight for an initiative. At the first glance after the piece sacrifice Black is at least not force. Shirov's 18.cxb4? was wrong (necessary was 18.Nf1!). He certainly missed or underestimated 19...Nd3+!. Later Bologan played 21...Qe5+? (instead of the winning 21...Rxh2!) and the position became unclear again, even if Shirov had not so much time in reserve. After the long fight in the ending, everything has ended in a draw.

Rublevsky – Harikrishna 1-0
The Sicilian with 3.Bb5+ is one of the Rublevsky's specialities. 3...Nd7 4.0-0 Ngf6 5.Re1 and now 5...e5 is a rare line for Black. It hardly can promise him a full equality. Black's 16...Bf8 17.Bxf8 Qxf8? was not a good idea. As it seems, Harikrishna overlooked a queen sacrifice 21.Rxb7! after what White's advantage became decisive.

Grischuk – Ponomariov ½:½
In the Sicilian Rauzer, Ponomariov made an extremely rare move 14...Bc5!? (instead of the well-researched 14...Nd7). This continuation recently was tried by Black in the game Bologan-Kotronias, Turin Olympiad 2006. Grischuk saw the Kotronias game, but he did not analyze this line deeply. Instead of the principled 15.Qh4 (how Bologan played), Grischuk opted for 15.Qf4 Nd7 16.Ne4 Qa4 17.Nc3, urging Black to repeat the position by 17...Qa5.

Mamedyarov – Karjakin ½:½
The rare variation 6.h3 in the "Najdorf" led to a position, where White is more active, but almost all his pawns are weak. In such situation, all three results are possible. After some interesting, acute fight the game has ended in a draw by repetition of moves. The game of the quite high quality.

Current standings

• Official web site: this is functionally well designed and has live games (with a special viewer that has to be installed), comments, partially captioned photos and other useful services.
• All ChessBase reports so far
• All games so far (in PGN)

Schedule and results