FIDE Grand Prix in Elista 2008

The Third FIDE Grand Prix tournament is taking place in Elista from December 13 to 29, 2008. Despite the recent withdrawals (Carlsen, Adams) and the absence of players like Anand, Kramnik and Topalov the tournament is very strong (category 19). The venue, originally to be Doha, is now "City Chess" in Elista, Kalmykia.

Results

The game of the day was Etienne Bacrot vs Peter Leko. The Hungarian tried a classical Caro-Kann against the top French grandmaster, and was looking quite good around move 20. But the position was a tactical minefield with hideous complications looming at every move.

Bacrot,E (2705) - Leko,P (2747) [B19]
FIDE Grand Prix Elista RUS (4), 17.12.2008
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.h4 h6 7.Nf3 Nd7 8.h5 Bh7 9.Bd3 Bxd3 10.Qxd3 e6 11.Bf4 Qa5+ 12.Bd2 Bb4 13.c3 Be7 14.c4 Qc7 15.0-0-0 Ngf6 16.Ne4 0-0 17.g4 Nxg4 18.Qe2 f5 19.Rdg1 Rae8 20.Ne1 e5 21.Ng3 exd4

Black certainly stands better (he is two pawns up), and White is forced to take drastic steps: 22.Nxf5 Rxf5 23.Qxg4 Rf7. 23...Rg5 24.Bxg5 Bxg5+ 25.Kb1 Ne5 26.Qf5 Nxc4 was an alternative to consider. 24.Bxh6 Bf6 25.Bd2 Ne5 26.Qe2 d3 27.Qe4 Qb6 28.b3 Qc5 29.h6 Qa3+ 30.Kd1. The tides have turned and White's position is now better. Black's next move is a blunder: 30...Qxa2??

We leave it to you to find the move Bacrot played to force Leko's immediate resignation. You can find the solution elsewhere in this report.

A beautiful and tactically very exciting game between the top French GM Etienne Bacrot...

... and the former World Championship challenger Peter Leko of Hungary

Evgeny Alekseev won an interesting game with black against Rustam Kasimdzhanov...

... and Wang Yue demonstrated how to win a light-piece endgame (knight + four pawns
vs bishop and three) against Pavel Eljanov. The marathon game lasted 75 moves.

Standings after four rounds

Andrey Zontakh: "I believe Sanan will be a World Champion"

Yesterday we mentioned Sanan Sjugirov, a 15-year-old player from Elista, who has just received his GM title. His coach, GM Andrey Zontakh, 38, is from Ukraine and was interviewed on the FIDE Grand Prix web site. Here are some excerpts:

Zontakh: For ten years already. Because of this, I very seldom play in tournaments.

15-year-old chess prodigy Sanan with his trainer GM Andrey Zontakh

It is difficult to say, he is only 15. Rarely can one succeed to become a GM at this age. Sanan has a talent and I have no doubt that he will keep doing well. Now every year is very important for him. It depends on his willingness to work hard and other factors. I believe that Sanan can manage to break into the elite world of chess and get the highest title.

Sanan playing an informal game against Boris Spassky

Between Sanan's tournaments we have meetings of 10-12 days or two weeks. During this time I come to his place every day and we spend plenty of time analyzing opening theory, the games we have played, some concrete or typical positions. While preparing for the next tournaments we are training with a computer and learning chess literature. Sometimes Sanan goes to Samara or Tolyati where the famous coach and GM, Yury Yakovich’s games are taking place.

Soon this lad will be playing in the highest classes of chess

No, unfortunately, it doesn’t work any more. Of the grandmasters mentioned, I know that Karjakin lives in Simferopol, Crimea; Lahno moved to Chelyabinsk, Russia. In Ukraine the chess cities are Foros and Odessa, where every year the traditional international tournaments are taking place with participation of the leading world grandmasters. The capital of the country Kiev, unfortunately, could not boast of such chess traditions, although, men and women teams of Ukraine show good result at the Olympiads. The women’s team even won the gold in Turin, 2006. Our country , as is known, gave many brilliant chess players to the world – Vasily Ivanchuk, Ruslan Ponomaryev, Sergey Karjakin and etc.

It would be wonderful if such a tournament will be in the capital of Ukraine.

Did you find the beautiful move in the Bacrot-Leko game?

Here White played the spectacular queen sacrifice 31.Qh7+!! Leko resigned, as this is mate in four: 31...Kxh7 32.hxg7+ Bh4 33.Rxh4+ Kg8 34.Rh8 mate; or 31...Kf8 32.Bb4+ c5 33.Bxc5+ Rfe7 34.hxg7+ Kf7 35.g8Q mate.

FIDE Grand Prix Elista 2008 – Schedule and results

Links Tournament web site All games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use it to read, replay and analyse the PGN games. Download free PGN reader ChessBase Light