ROMGAZ
and the Chess Club Society "Elisabeta Polihroniade” of Bucharest
are staging a double round robin tournament with six of the world's top GMs:
the young Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaidjan, Elo 2756, ranking 5th in the world),
the experienced Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine, Elo 2746, 12th in the world), Alexei
Shirov (Spain, Elo 2745, 13th), Boris Gelfand (Israel, Elo 2733, 15th), Gata
Kamsky (USA, Elo 2720, 24th), as well as the best ever rated Romanian chess
player Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (Elo 2675, 55th in the world), 2005 European Champion.
The competition is taking place from June 14th to 25th 2009 in Bazna, Romania.
Round ten commentary
By GM Dorian Rogozenco
Round 10: Thursday, June 25, 2009 |
Teimour Radjabov |
½-½ |
Vassily Ivanchuk |
Alexei Shirov |
1-0 |
Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu |
Gata Kamsky |
½-½ |
Boris Gelfand |
|
In order to secure the overall tournament victory Ivanchuk
needed a draw with the black pieces against Radjabov. And the
Ukrainian achieved it without any problems. Ivanchuk chose the sharp Najdorf
Variation of the Sicilian Defense, then went for a little-known line and equalized.
Radjabov realized that White has no shadow of advantage and exchanged almost
all pieces, after which the draw was agreed on move 28 due to the repetition.
The tournament winner Vassily Ivanchuk in a typical working pose
With the white pieces Kamsky got nothing out of the opening
against Gelfand. Moreover, it was Black who looked slightly
better after move 13. Then the US GM succeeded to bring his knights close to
opponent’s king and create some threats. With the move 22 Kamsky prepared
a nice trap, which Gelfand spotted in time and avoided. After the exchange of
queens White kept some initiative, but the position was always double-edged.
In a sharp endgame the draw was agreed on move 32.
Gata Kamsky vs Boris Gelfand in the final round of this tournament
Shirov-Nisipeanu was a great achievement for the Spanish GM.
Nisipeanu prepared a novelty in a slightly unusual variation of the Sicilian,
but Shirov refuted it with a very strong strategical play. On move 20 White
made a positional exchange sacrifice and Black was left with a lot of weak squares
in his camp. In spite of Nisipeanu’s efforts, Black failed to create any
counterplay and White won smoothly.
Alexei Shirov at the start of a game that would give him a +1 score
Alexei Shirov vs Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu in round ten
Final standings
Radjabov,Teimour - Ivanchuk,Vassily [B94]
Kings' Tournament Bazna ROM (10), 25.06.2009
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6. The Sicilian Najdorf,
one of the most complex variations in the entire opening theory. Black is usually
searching for a complicated battle and such an opening choice might have been
a surprise for Radjabov. 6.Bg5 Nbd7 7.f4 Qc7. For a high level practice
this is a very rare variation. No wonder that Radjabov spent a lot of time before
his next move. 8.Qe2 e5 9.Nf5 h6
10.Bxf6. After 10.Bh4 Black just takes the pawn 10...exf4.
10...Nxf6
11.Ne3. A new move.
The previously played 11.0-0-0 led to an equal
position after 11...Bxf5 12.exf5 0-0-0 13.Qc4 exf4.
11...exf4 12.Ned5 Nxd5
13.Nxd5 Qa5+
White has a powerful knight on d5, but Black can exchange it later with Be6. Both
sides have one weak pawn each – White on e4, Black on d6. Other factors
are similar, therefore the position is equal.
14.Qd2. 14.b4 would weaken
too much the pawn structure. Black simply retreats the queen to d8 and in the
future White might have problems with his queenside.; In case of 14.c3 both 14...Be6
and 14...Be7 lead to reasonable positions for Black.
14...Qxd2+ 15.Kxd2 Rb8
16.Nxf4 Be7 17.Bc4 Bg5 18.Raf1 Be6. Now it becomes clear that all the minor
pieces will be exchanged and the draw is inevitable.
19.Bxe6 fxe6 20.Kd3 Bxf4
21.Rxf4
21...Rf8 22.Rxf8+ Kxf8 23.Rf1+ Ke7 24.Rf3 Rc8 25.Rg3 Kf7 26.Rf3+ Ke7 27.Rg3
Kf7 28.Rf3+ draw. [Click
to replay]
Kamsky,Gata - Gelfand,Boris [C24]
Kings' Tournament Bazna ROM (10), 25.06.2009
1.e4 e5 2.Bc4. By such move order White avoids the Petrov Defense.
2...Nf6 3.d3 c6 4.Nf3 d5 5.Bb3 Bd6 6.exd5 cxd5 7.0-0 Nc6 8.Bg5 Be6 9.Nc3
Bc7 10.Nb5 Bb6 11.Re1 a6 12.Nc3 Qd6 13.Bh4 0-0
Black got a great position out of the opening.
14.Bxf6. Kamsky breaks opponent
structure, hoping to use its drawbacks in the future.
14...gxf6 15.Qd2 Kg7
[15...Kh8 runs into unpleasant answer 16.Qh6]
16.Ne2 Qb4. The exchange
of queens will clearly favour Black, who won't have to worry about his weakened
pawn structure any longer.
16...Rg8 was a good alternative.]
17.c3
[17.Qxb4 Nxb4 offers Black advantage in endgame.
17...Qg4 18.d4 Rad8 19.h3
Qg6 20.Ng3 e4. Provoking this advance is an achievement for White.
21.Nh4
Qg5
22.Nhf5+. Kamsky sets a trap!
22...Kh8! Avoiding the trap.
After 22...Kg6 White plays 23.f4! exf3 24.Qf2! and the bishop comes to c2, with
an attack for White.; 22...Bxf5 23.Qxg5+ fxg5 24.Nxf5+ Kg6 25.g4 is obviously
in White's favour.
23.Qxg5 fxg5 24.f3! Now thanks to the strong knight
on f5 White's chances are not worse.
24...exf3 25.gxf3 Na5 26.Kf2 Nxb3 27.axb3
Bc7 28.h4 Rg8. Deserved attention 28...gxh4 29.Nxh4 Rg8.
29.h5 g4 30.Nh6
Rg7 31.fxg4 Bxg4 32.Re7 Bxg3+
Gelfand made this move and offered a draw, which Kamsky being short on time
rightly accepted. After 32...Bxg3+ 33.Kxg3 Bxh5+ 34.Kh4 Bg6 35.Rxb7 f6
36.Rb6 Re8 the position is completely unclear. Draw. [Click
to replay]
Shirov,Alexei - Nisipeanu,Liviu Dieter [B48]
Kings' Tournament Bazna ROM (10), 25.06.2009
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 Qc7 6.Be3 a6 7.Qd2 Nf6 8.0-0-0
Bb4 9.f3 Ne7 10.Nde2 b5 11.Bf4 e5 12.Bg5
This variation was played by Nisipeanu before. In the present game the Romanian
GM comes with a novelty.
12...Qb6. A new attempt to improve Black's play.
12...Bb7 13.Kb1 Ba5 is strongly answered by 14.Bxf6 (in Akopian-Nisipeanu,
Gothenburg 2005 White played weaker 14.Qd6) 14...gxf6 15.Qh6; 12...h5 13.Kb1 Ba5
was met in Karjakin,S (2732)-Nisipeanu,L (2684)/Foros 2008.
13.a3 Bc5 14.b4!
Very concrete and strong.
14...Bf2 15.Qd6 Qxd6 16.Rxd6 Neg8 17.Ng3 h6 18.Nd1!
Most likely Liviu Dieter underestimated this strong move. It is important
for White to exchange opponent's dark-squared bishop.
18.Bd2 should also
be some advantage for White, but the move made by Shirov is considerably stronger.
18...Ba7 19.Be3 Bb8
20.Bc5! A great positional exchange sacrifice, which underlines the drawbacks
of Black's pawn formation.
20...Ne7 21.Ne3 Bxd6 22.Bxd6 Bb7. In all cases
White has wonderful compensation for the exchange, e.g: 22...Nc6 23.c4 Kd8 24.Kb2
Ne8 25.Bc5 Rb8 26.Nd5.
23.c4 Bc6 24.Kb2! Great play by Shirov, who doesn't
even want to take pawn e5 (which wouldn't be bad either). The bishop is very strong
on d6, not allowing Black to connect his rooks.
24...Ng6 25.Ngf5. White
has a large advantage.
25...Kd8 26.Nxg7 Ne8 27.Nxe8 Rxe8 28.Nf5. Black
exchanged one pair of knights, but he lost a pawn on the way and the second white
knight came to f5 anyway.
28...Re6 29.h4 h5 30.c5 Re8
31.g4! The start of decisive actions.
31...hxg4 32.h5 Nf4. 32...gxf3
33.hxg6 fxg6 34.Nh6 Bxe4 35.Nf7+ Kc8 36.Nxe5 Kb7 37.Rh7 is also hopeless for Black.
33.Nh6 gxf3 34.Nxf7+ Kc8 35.Bxe5. White is completely winning. On top of
that Nisipeanu was in severe time trouble, having only one minute left on the
clock.
35...Rxe5 [35...Ne6 36.h6 changes nothing, of course]
36.Nxe5
Kc7 37.h6 Rh8 38.h7 Bxe4 39.Rh4! Rxh7 40.Rxf4 Rh2+ 41.Kc3
1-0. [Click
to replay]
