 |
World Cup
10th September – 5th October
Baku, Azerbaijan |
Round Five - Game One
Only eight players left, but enough to create some unexpected games:
In Svidler vs. Wei Yi they traded pieces quickly. The symmetrical structure
didn't help either side to create real chances, and an early repetition
sealed the draw. Wei Yi will have the chance to push with white against
one of Svidler's ultra-solid defenses.
Xu Jun, who helps the Chinese squad, now helps
only Wei Yi
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was held to a draw rather easily by Anish Giri's
Petroff. After a series of trades a very equal endgame was reached and the
game was swiftly drawn.
Tukmakov (Giri's second) relaxing while watching
the game
Karjakin suffered, but held
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov played with white against Sergey Karjakin and sacrificed
an exchange relatively early in the game. He had very good compensation,
but the resilient Karjakin defended tenaciously. He sacrificed a piece for
the passed d-pawn of the Azerbaijani, playing with rook against two pieces,
thus creating a situation that was certainly dangerous for Black. But it
is hard to say if White was winning at any point: the computers give Mamedyarov
a big advantage in the endgame, but there was never any clear win for White
– at least, I saw none. Endgame experts might find a winning plan
but in a practical game with the seconds ticking down it was very hard to
find.
Nakamura was surprised!
The game of the day, was, without a doubt:
[Event "FIDE World Cup 2015"] [Site "Baku AZE"] [Date
"2015.09.23"] [Round "5.4"] [White "Eljanov,
Pavel"] [Black "Nakamura, Hikaru"] [Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E06"] [Annotator "Ramirez Alvarez,Alejandro"]
[PlyCount "115"] [EventDate "2015.09.11"] [SourceDate
"2015.02.07"] 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. c4 e6 4. g3 Be7 5. Bg2
O-O 6. O-O dxc4 7. Qc2 a6 8. a4 Bd7 9. Qxc4 Bc6 10. Bg5 Bd5 11. Qc2 Be4
12. Qc1 h6 13. Bxf6 Bxf6 14. Rd1 a5 15. Nbd2 Bh7 {A novelty. Before this
Bxf3 was played universally.} (15... Bxf3 16. Bxf3 c6 17. Nc4 Nd7 {is
a typical Catalan position for this variation. White has a bit more space
and a bit more pleasant position, but Black is ultra solid. This was,
among others, Sasikirian-Svetushkin from earlier this year.}) 16. Nb3
c6 17. Qc3 Be7 18. Nc5 Qc7 19. Ne5 Na6 20. Nxb7 $5 {In my opinion the
only real try for an advantage, but it's hard to look at this and
say White will emerge with a better position. Black's two pieces are
very active.} Qxb7 21. Bxc6 Qc7 $2 (21... Qa7 $1 22. Bxa8 Bb4 23. Qc6
Qxa8 {Black's knight on a6 is awkward, but Black shouldn't have
real problems.}) 22. Bxa8 Qxc3 23. bxc3 Rxa8 24. Nc6 {Now White definitely
has some chances to push. He has a passed pawn, the a6 knight is bad and
the h7 bishop will soon be bullied out of the game by White's pawns.}
Bd8 (24... Kf8 $5 {going for active play.} 25. Nxa5 Rc8 ) 25. Nxd8 Rxd8
26. f3 Rc8 27. Ra3 Bg6 28. Kf2 Rb8 29. Rd2 f6 30. Raa2 $1 $16 { Gaining
control of the open file. The a5 pawn will be hard to defend. Nakamura
takes the c3 pawn in return, but Black's pieces simply don't coordinate
well.} Rb3 31. Rab2 Rxc3 32. Rb5 Bc2 33. Rxa5 Nc7 34. Ra7 f5 35. a5 {Look
how difficult it is to play with Black. White simply has to push his pawn,
Nakamura has to try to get his pieces to play together. That is easier
said than done.} Kh7 {That being said, it is strange to go to h7 instead
of towards the queenside.} 36. Rb7 Rc4 37. Rb6 Ba4 38. a6 Bc6 39. a7 Bd5
40. Ra2 $1 {A timely move. The threat is Ra5-c5.} Rxd4 41. Rc2 Na8 42.
Ra6 Rd1 (42... g5 43. Rb2 Kg6 44. Rb8 Kf6 45. Ra5 Kg7 $18) 43. h4 h5 44.
Ke3 $18 {The king marches in since Black can't do anything.} Rg1 45.
Kf4 Rg2 46. Rd6 Rg1 47. Rc8 Ra1 48. Kg5 $1 Rxa7 49. Rdd8 g6 50. Rh8+ {The
only blemish in Eljanov's otherwise perfect play.} (50. Kf6 Kh6 51.
Rh8+ Rh7 52. Rcg8 {would have finished the game off in fewer moves.})
50... Kg7 51. Rcg8+ Kf7 52. Rxg6 Ra6 53. Rh7+ Kf8 54. Kxh5 Nb6 55. Kg5
{White is simply and obviously winning. Black's pieces aren't
playing and the h-pawn is unstoppable.} Nc4 56. h5 Nd6 57. Rf6+ Kg8 58.
Rd7 1-0
Eljanov is half a point away from knocking out Nakamura. So far, he has
won 33 rating points in the World Cup and now is number 15 on Live
Chess Ratings – all this while having the two chess weeks of his
life. We remind our readers that Pavel has recorded a very interesting DVD
on the Breyer:
Pavel
Eljanov:
The Ruy Lopez Breyer Variation
The Spanish or Ruy Lopez is often called the "Queen of Openings".
If you master it you understand a lot about chess.
One of the most popular systems in the Ruy Lopez is the Breyer Variation
in which Black retreats his already developed knight from c6 to b8
to relocate it via d7 to better squares. The Hungarian chess master
Gyula Breyer recommended this move in 1911, but was far ahead of his
time with this idea. It took decades before the power of this move
was understood, but now the Breyer variation, which begins with 9...Nb8,
is part of the repertoire of many top players, among them the last
four World Champions Kasparov, Kramnik, Anand, and Carlsen.
On this DVD, Pavel Eljanov, one of the greatest experts of the Breyer
Variation, shows all important lines of this system. In 14 video lectures
he gives an overview of the current state of theory. Eljanov shows
the moves and explains the ideas behind them while evaluating the
arising positions from a black perspective and with a view to the
coming middlegame.
- Video running time: 5 hours 13 min (English)
- With interactive training including video feedback
- Training database with 50 essential games and analyses
- ISBN 978-3-86681-493-6
- Delivery: download, post
- Price: €29.90; €25.13 without VAT (for customers outside
the EU); $28.41
|
All Round 5.1 Games
Round five pairings
| Player |
Rtg |
G1 |
G2 |
G3 |
G4 |
G5 |
G6 |
G7 |
G8 |
G9 |
Pts |
| Peter Svidler (RUS) |
2727 |
½ |
- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Wei Yi (CHN) |
2734 |
½ |
- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Player |
Rtg |
G1 |
G2 |
G3 |
G4 |
G5 |
G6 |
G7 |
G8 |
G9 |
Pts |
| Anish Giri (NED) |
2793 |
½ |
- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| M. Vachier-Lagrave |
2744 |
½ |
- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Player |
Rtg |
G1 |
G2 |
G3 |
G4 |
G5 |
G6 |
G7 |
G8 |
G9 |
Pts |
| Hikaru Nakamura (USA) |
2814 |
0 |
- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Pavel Eljanov (UKR) |
2717 |
1 |
- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Player |
Rtg |
G1 |
G2 |
G3 |
G4 |
G5 |
G6 |
G7 |
G8 |
G9 |
Pts |
| S. Mamedyarov (AZE) |
2736 |
½ |
- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Sergey Karjakin (RUS) |
2762 |
½ |
- |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
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