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Essent
Chess Tournament 2006The 10th edition of the Essent Chess Tournament is taking place from October 20 to 28, 2006 in Hoogeveen, Holland. As in the past years there are a number of competitions: a Crown Group, a strong Essent Open, an Amateur Tournament, a pub tournament and an event for youth. The games are being broadcast live on the official site and on Playchess.com. Full details on the event are available on our first Essent report.
Ivan Sokolov vs Judit Polgar was a Nimzo Indian Rubinstein, in which the strongest female player on the planet used her trademark aggressive style to produce a kingside attack from seemingly nothing, and then take her third win in four games in convincing style. Veselin Topalov won a pawn and then pressed home his advantage against Shakhryar Mamedyarov, finding a stunning way out of a perpetual trap at the end of the game.
Sokolov,Iv (2670) - Polgar,Ju (2710) [E49]
10th Essent Hoogeveen NED (4), 26.10.2006
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 0-0 5.Bd3 d5 6.a3 Bxc3+ 7.bxc3 dxc4
8.Bxc4 c5 9.Ne2 Qc7 10.Ba2 b6 11.0-0 Ba6 12.Re1 Nc6 13.Ng3 Rad8 14.Bb2 e5 15.Qc2
Rd7 16.Rad1 Rfd8 17.h3 c4 18.a4 Re8 19.Ba3 e4 20.Bb1 Rd5 21.Ne2 Rg5 22.Nf4
Bc8 23.Qe2 Qd7 24.Qxc4 Na5 25.Qb4 Nd5 26.Nxd5 Qxd5 27.h4 Rg4 28.Qb5 Qd8 29.g3
a6 30.Qb4
30...Qxh4 31.Bxe4 Rxg3+! 32.fxg3 Qxe4 33.Rd2 Qf3 34.Kh2 Qh5+. The megaherz crowd on Playchess froze: had Judit missed the killer knockout? 35.Kg1 Qf3 36.Kh2 Bf5! No she hadn't. After winding up with a move repetition she delivers the blow. Now the threat is ...Be4 and ...Qh5+ leading to mate. 37.e4 Bxe4 38.Rxe4 Qxe4. Black is already winning, but after 39.d5 Nc4 White has no defence. 0-1.
Topalov,V (2813) - Mamedyarov,S (2728) [C95]
10th Essent Hoogeveen NED (4), 26.10.2006
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3
0-0 9.h3 Nb8 10.d4 Nbd7 11.Nbd2 Bb7 12.Bc2 Re8 13.a4 Bf8 14.Bd3 c6 15.Rb1 Qc7
16.Qc2 g6 17.axb5 axb5 18.dxe5 dxe5 19.Nb3 Reb8 20.c4 bxc4 21.Bxc4 Ba6 22.Nbd2
Nc5 23.Bxa6 Rxa6 24.Nc4 Nfd7 25.Rd1 Ne6 26.Be3 Raa8 27.Qd2 Rd8 28.Qc3 c5 29.Nfxe5
Bg7 30.f4 g5 31.g3 gxf4 32.gxf4 Nxe5 33.Nxe5 Bxe5 34.fxe5 Kh8 35.Bf2 Qe7 36.Qf3
Rg8+ 37.Kh1 Rg6 38.Rd5 Rag8 39.Rg1 Rxg1+ 40.Bxg1 Rg6 41.Kh2 Kg7 42.Be3 c4 43.Rd6
Qc7 44.h4 Qa5 45.Rd5 Qe1.
46.Kh3! A fairly critical, farsighted move. It is possible that Topalov has seen the perpetual check Mamedyarov has pinned his hopes on. 46...Kf8? 46...Kh8 would have put up more resistance. 47.Rd7. Threatening of course mate in one. 47...Rg3+?! The attempt to get a perpetual. 48.Qxg3
Now try and visualise the options in your mind: the black queen checks on h1, and if White covers by playing Qh2 Black has the perpetual Qf3+ Qg3 Qh1+. The only alternative for White is to try to escape with his king via g4. But after 48...Qh1+ 49.Kg4 Black has 49...Qxe4. Now White cannot move his king to h5 because of the knight check on g7 (50.Kh5 Ng7+ 51.Kh6 Nf5+ wins the queen and in fact mates White), so he has to retreat to h3 and allow perpetual check. Unfortunately (for Shak Mamedyarov) there is a little flaw in the above logic, which is why Veselin Topalov was able to score his first point in Essent. Can you find it? The explanation is given somewhere below, but fie on you if you peek without first trying!
Hoogeveen's main street: the Hoofdstraat
The playing venue: Hoogeveen City Hall
The Open Group
The Amateur Group
The Crown Group (picture from round two)
Veselin Topalov
Shakhryar Mamedyarov
Judit Polgar
Ivan Sokolov
All photos by Frits Agterdenbos, who has many more on his Chess Vista photo site.
Solution to the Topalov-Mamedyarov puzzle
The game continued 48...Qh1+ 49.Kg4 Qxe4+ 50.Kh5 and now Mamedyarov resigned, because he saw that after the planned 50...Ng7+ White has 51.Qxg7+! Kxg7 52.Bh6+ Kg8 53.Rd8 mate! Excellently seen by former world champion Veselin Topalov.
| Date | Round Robin | Open Group | Amateurs |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 20 | opening | 1st round | 1st round |
| October 21 | 2nd round | 2nd round | |
| October 22 | 1st round | 3th round | 3th round |
| October 23 | 2nd round | 4th round | 4th round |
| October 24 | 3th round | 5th round | 5th round |
| October 25 | Rest day | 6th round | 6th round |
| October 26 | 4th round | 7th round | 7th round |
| October 27 | 5th round | 8th round | 8th round |
| October 28 | 6th round | 9th round | 9th round |
Playing hours: All rounds start at 14.00 hours daily. The final round (October 28th) starts at noon. The Amateur Groups have other starting times: Group I: 14.30 hours (October 28th at 13.00 hours); Groep II: 10.00 hours (October 28th at 9.00 hours).
