Dreev and Shankland lead at Capablanca Memorial

by Johannes Fischer
5/14/2018 – The 53. Capablanca Memorial in Havanna is a six-player double-round-robin and after the first five rounds Alexey Dreev from Russia and US Champion Sam Shankland (Photo) share the lead with 3½/5 each. In round 5 both won convincingly. | Photo: Lennart Ootes
He was a child prodigy and he is surrounded by legends. In his best times he was considered to be unbeatable and by many he was reckoned to be the greatest chess talent of all time: Jose Raul Capablanca, born 1888 in Havana.

Capablanca Memorial 2018

Results of round 5

  Title Name Country Elo Result Title Name Country Elo
1 GM Samuel L Shankland
 
 2701 1 - 0 GM Yusnel Bacallao Alonso
 
 2594
2 GM Alexey Dreev
 
 2653 1 - 0 GM David Anton Guijarro
 
 2646
3 GM Alexander Rakhmanov
 
 2635 ½ - ½ GM Lazaro Bruzon Batista
 
 2664

Alexey Dreev was born in 1969 and had a long and successful career. 1983 and 1984 he was World Under-16 Champion and in 1988 he became European Junior Champion. Dreev was a student of the renowned coach Mark Dvoretsky and in 1990 he qualified for the Candidates. In 2016 Dreev shared first place with Baskaran Adhiban and Eltaj Safarli at the Tata Steel Challengers Tournament which Adhiban won on tie-break.

In round 5 of the Capablanca Memorial Dreev played against David Anton Guijarro and outplayed the young Spaniard right from the opening:

A. Dreev - D. Guijarro

 
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1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.c4 e6 4.Bg5 h6 5.Bxf6 Qxf6 6.Nbd2 Qd8 7.g3 g6 A new move. However, in this game the idea to put the bishop to g7 backfired. Black's black-squared bishop never managed to enter the game and remained passive throughout. 8.Bg2 Bg7 9.0-0 0-0 10.Qc2 Nd7 11.Rac1 c6 12.e4 Qb6 13.Rfd1 Rd8 14.e5 a5 The engines see only a slight advantage for White but the position is difficult to play for Black - it is cramped and almost all of his pieces are passive. 15.h4 Nf8 16.Nf1 Bd7 17.Ne3 Be8 18.a3 Rac8 19.Qd2 h5 20.Bh3 Bh6 21.Ng5 Ra8 22.Rc3 Nh7 23.f4 dxc4?! This invites the white knight to come to d6. Maybe it was better to continue suffering stoically, e.g. with 23...Nxg5 24.fxg5 Bf8 and Black remains passive but White still has to find a way to make progress. 24.Nxc4 Qa7 25.Ne4 c5 26.Ncd6 cxd4 27.Rc7 d3+ 28.Qf2! After the exchange of queens Black's position quickly collapses. Qxf2+ 29.Kxf2 Ra6 30.Nxe8 Rxe8 31.Nd6 Rb8 32.Nxf7 Bf8 33.Rxd3 Rb6 34.Nd8! Black resigned. He can take on b2 with check but after 34... Rxb2+ 35.Kf3 he cannot defend against the many threats by White. 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Dreev,A2653Anton Guijarro,D26461–02018D3053rd Capablanca Memorial 20185

Sam Shankland was born in 1991 in California, USA, and is currently in the form of his life. In April he won the strong US Championship 2018 with 8½/11 (+6–0=5), ahead of players such as Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, and Hikaru Nakamura. With this success Shankland for the first time in his life passed the Elo 2700 mark. At the Capablanca Memorial he is top seed and in round 5 he won an energetic game against Yusnel Bacallao Alonso.

S. Shankland - A. Bacallao

 
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1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5 4.dxc5 e6 5.Nf3 Bxc5 6.a3 Ne7 7.b4 Bb6 8.Bd3 a5 9.b5 Nd7 10.0-0 Ng6 11.Bb2 Qc7 12.Re1 a4 13.Nbd2 Nc5 14.Bxg6 fxg6!? Black violates the rule to capture towards the center because he hopes to get play along the half-open f-file. 15.Qe2 0-0 16.Bd4 Ba5 17.Rec1 b6 18.c4 Qe7 19.Qe3 Bb7 20.cxd5 Bxd5 21.Bxc5 bxc5 22.Rab1! Shankland does not take the pawn but prefers to play actively. After 22.Qxc5 Qb7 Black has good compensation for his pawn. 22...Qb7 23.Nc4! A fine move. White realised that his active pieces more than compensate the shattered pawn structure on the kingside. Bxf3 24.gxf3 Rxf3 25.Qxc5 Qe4 The black pieces might look threatening but Black has no concrete threats. But if Black cannot achieve anything on the kingside White's b-pawn will decide. 26.Nxa5 Rf4 27.h3 Qf5 28.Rb4! Qg5+ 29.Kh2 Rf3 30.Rc3 Rxc3 31.Qxc3 Rxa5 32.b6 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Shankland,S2701Bacallao Alonso,Y25941–02018B1253rd Capablanca Memorial 20185

Games

 
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1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.e4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.Bc4 c5 8.Ne2 Nc6 9.Be3 0-0 10.0-0 Na5 11.Bb5 D87: Exchange Grünfeld: Classical Line: Variations without ...cxd4 b6 LiveBook: 4 Games. The position is equal. 12.Qd2N Predecessor: 12.Rc1 Bd7 13.Bd3 Rc8 14.Qd2 e5 15.dxe5 Bxe5 16.f4 Bg7 17.f5 Re8 18.Bh6 Be5 1-0 (68) Sjugirov,S (2649)-Ponkratov,P (2603) Sochi 2017 12...Bb7 13.f3 Rc8 14.d5 a6 15.Bd3 e6 16.dxe6 fxe6 17.Rfd1 Rf7 18.Bc2 Qxd2 19.Bxd2 Bc6 20.Kf2 Rd7 ½–½
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Anton Guijarro,D2646Bruzon Batista,L2664½–½2018D8753rd Capablanca Memorial 20181
Rakhmanov,A2635Shankland,S2701½–½2018E1453rd Capablanca Memorial 20181
Bacallao Alonso,Y2594Dreev,A2653½–½2018B1353rd Capablanca Memorial 20181
Bruzon Batista,L2664Shankland,S27010–12018C0753rd Capablanca Memorial 20182
Dreev,A2653Rakhmanov,A26351–02018D2753rd Capablanca Memorial 20182
Anton Guijarro,D2646Bacallao Alonso,Y2594½–½2018D5153rd Capablanca Memorial 20182
Shankland,S2701Dreev,A2653½–½2018D4553rd Capablanca Memorial 20183
Rakhmanov,A2635Anton Guijarro,D26461–02018A2853rd Capablanca Memorial 20183
Bacallao Alonso,Y2594Bruzon Batista,L2664½–½2018D3253rd Capablanca Memorial 20183
Bruzon Batista,L2664Dreev,A2653½–½2018B1253rd Capablanca Memorial 20184
Anton Guijarro,D2646Shankland,S2701½–½2018A3453rd Capablanca Memorial 20184
Bacallao Alonso,Y2594Rakhmanov,A2635½–½2018D3753rd Capablanca Memorial 20184
Shankland,S2701Bacallao Alonso,Y25941–02018B1253rd Capablanca Memorial 20185
Dreev,A2653Anton Guijarro,D26461–02018D3053rd Capablanca Memorial 20185
Rakhmanov,A2635Bruzon Batista,L2664½–½2018A4953rd Capablanca Memorial 20185

Standings after round 5

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Johannes Fischer was born in 1963 in Hamburg and studied English and German literature in Frankfurt. He now lives as a writer and translator in Nürnberg. He is a FIDE-Master and regularly writes for KARL, a German chess magazine focusing on the links between culture and chess. On his own blog he regularly publishes notes on "Film, Literature and Chess".

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