Grandmaster Battle: Mamedyarov vs. Sanal

by ChessBase
7/7/2020 – The Turkish Chess Federation is organizing online matches in which the best players from the country face international stars. Starting July 7, Turkey’s number four Vahap Sanal will face Shakhriyar Mamedyarov on the PlayChess platform. They will play sixteen 15-minute games (with 10-second increments) over the course of four days. | Photo: Turkish Chess Federation
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Mamedyarov vs. Sanal

Starting Tuesday, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Vahap Sanal will play a 16-game match on the PlayChess platform, specifically in the “Kemal Mustafa Ataturk” room. This is part of an initiative by the Turkish Chess Federation to confront their best players with strong international grandmasters. A little over a week ago, Mustafa Yilmaz defeated Germany’s number one Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu 8½:7½ in a closely-contested match.

The games will be broadcast live in our server, with live commentary, in Turkish, on the Federation’s YouTube channel. IM Can Arduman will be in charge of providing expert analysis for the Turkish-speaking audience.

Despite the rating difference — Mamedyarov has a 2761 rapid rating to Sanal’s 2536 — the match is not expected to be a one-sided affair. Sanal showed he is capable of performing way above his rating at the 2018 European Rapid Championship, where he finished in third place on tiebreaks, scoring 10½ out of 13 points with a 2712 rating performance. He scored 6½ points in the last seven rounds, beating the likes of Anton Demchenko and Viktor Laznicka. In round 4, he took down Markus Ragger in a sharp endgame, here analyzed by Iva Videnova:

 
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In a double-edged endgame, both players have dangerous passed pawns: 56...c4! 57.f7 c3+ 58.Kc1 Bxf7 59.Rxf7 But now Ragger commits a decisive mistake: Kc5?? Instead, he could have held a unique positional draw with: 59...Ke5‼ not allowing 60.Rf4. 60.Rh7 or 60.Ra7 Kd4 61.Rd7+ 61.Rxa4+?? Kd3-+ with an inevitable mate b3-b2#. 61...Ke4 62.Re7+= with a positional draw, since White cannot improve his position. 60...Kd4 61.Rxh5 Kd3 62.Rh3+=
Black king floats between d3- and d4-squares, while white king can not move at all! 60.Rf4 Now black king is cut off along the fourth rank and he can not reach d3-square any more. Kb5 61.Rh4 Ka5 62.Rb4 Black is in zugzwang, so he resigned. 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Sanal,V2476Ragger,M26321–02018European Rapid Championship4.5

The player ‘on the other corner’ needs no introduction. Mamedyarov has been a constant fixture in the elite of the chess world, having participated in three Candidates Tournament — he shared second place in the 2018 edition. ‘Shakh’ had a peak rating of 2820 and was the second highest-rated player in the world in 2018. Not only that, he was also the last player to defeat world champion Magnus Carlsen in a classical game — the game was played in Biel and is here annotated by Mikhail Golubev:

 
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1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 0-0 5.Nc3 d6 6.Nf3 c5 6...Nc6 7.0-0 e5 was played by Navara against Georgiadis in Round 2. 7.0-0 Nc6! 8.e3 Surely, not a critical move. The Yugoslav system of the King's Indian has been only rarely seen in practice of both opponents and in these games were tested the main lines with 8.d5 Na5! 9.Nd2 and 8.dxc5 dxc5 8...d5!? A curious idea, which has been tried only a few times in the past: Black claims that White's extra move e2-e3 is not useful at all! 'Unless there's some concrete refutation, d5 is just a very nice move' - Carlsen. In Botvinnik-Najdorf, Amsterdam 1954, Black opted for a probably playable 8...Bf5!? Black's important options include a forcing 8...Bg4 9.h3 Bxf3 10.Bxf3 Nd7 and if 11.d5 Na5! (first occurred in Moiseev-Vasiukov, Erevan 1954) and 8...cxd4 9.Nxd4 9.exd4 d5! 10.c5 Ne4= 9...Bg4!? . In other words, Black has a really wide choice. 9.cxd5 After 9.dxc5!? dxc4 10.Qa4 (as in Behrensen-Shocron, ARG-ch Buenos Aires 1955) Black can play Be6 11.Ng5 Qc8!? maybe. 9...Nxd5 10.Nxd5 Qxd5 11.Ne5 Qd6 Probably sufficient for equality is 11...Qd8!? 12.Nxc6 bxc6 13.Bxc6 or 13.dxc5 Ba6 14.Re1 Qxd1 15.Rxd1 Rfd8 13...Bh3 14.Re1 Rb8 15.d5 Bxb2 16.Bxb2 Rxb2= 12.Nc4!N Qc7! 13.d5 Rd8 14.Bd2 Black is OK after 14.Qe2 Ne5 15.e4 Bg4 ∆16.f3 Nxc4! 17.fxg4 Bd4+ 18.Kh1 Ne5 19.Bf4 c4!?= 14...Nb4? Overpushing. White would have had at best a marginal advantage after 14...Ne5 15.Nxe5 Bxe5 or 14...b5!? 15.dxc6 15.Na3 Ba6! 15...bxc4 16.Qe1 a5 17.Bc3 15.Bxb4? Quite unpleasant for Black would have been 15.e4! b5 16.Bf4! Qb7 if 16...e5 17.d6! Qc6 18.Nxe5 Qxd6 19.Qxd6 Rxd6 20.Nxf7!± 17.Ne5! and if 17.Na5? Qb6 18.Nb3 c4 19.Be3 Qc7 17...g5?! a blow, which is easy to underestimate: 18.Nxf7! rather than 18.Qh5?! gxf4 19.Qxf7+ Kh8 where Black is OK 18...Kxf7 19.Bxg5± with the idea of 20.a3!, 21. e5. It seems that both opponents have missed this. 15...cxb4 Now Black has sufficient counterchances in the double edged fight. 16.Rc1 a5 17.a3!? bxa3 18.bxa3 a4! 19.Qd3 An alternative was 19.Qd2!? Qc5! not 19...Rb8? 20.Qb4 19...Bf5 "A massive oversight" - Carlsen. But this move is hardly too bad in fact. Instead, 19...Rb8! with the idea of ...b5 was quite a good option. Indeed, an immediate 19...b5? is wrong due to 20.d6 After the game Magnus mentioned another idea, 19...Bd7 (?!) 20.d6 exd6 21.Ne5! . Let's continue: Qa5 22.Nxd7 Rxd7 23.Bd5 and White has an initiative for the pawn, Black's position is unsafe. Bb2 24.Rc4!? Bxa3 25.Rb1 ∆b5 26.Rg4 b4 27.h4 Re8! 28.h5! One more option was 19...Ra6!? (Carlsen) 20.Qb1! 20.Rb1? Rc6! 21.Rfc1 Rc5 20.e4! Bd7 21.Qe3! Missed by Magnus. Ra6! 22.e5 b5 23.d6 Qb8! 24.dxe7 Re8 25.Rfd1 More dangerous than 25.Nd6 Rxe7 25...Rxe7 26.Qc5! Qf8? A serious mistake. Correct was 26...Bf8! where White does not have much after 27.Nd6 27.Ne3! A move, missed by the world champion. Black is in trouble. Be6 27...Bxe5? loses to 28.Rxd7+- And 27...Qe8 28.Bb7 28.f4!?± 28...Rae6 29.Nd5 Rxe5 30.Nxe7+ Rxe7 is obviously difficult or possibly just bad for Black. 28.Qxb5 So, White grabbed a pawn, but Black is able to resist. Raa7 29.Nd5 Bxd5 30.Rxd5 Reb7 31.Qd3 Rb8 32.h4 Qe8?! 33.Qd4?! Qe7?! 34.f4?! Bf8 35.Kh2 Rab7?! 36.Qxa4?! Qxa3 37.Qxa3 Bxa3 After the imprecise play from both sides, in a kind of position where it's hard to find the 'computer moves', Mamedyarov has allowed Black to enter the endgame with a fair chances for a draw. But at the same time White avoided any practical risks. 38.Rcd1 Be7 39.Kh3 Rc7 40.h5 gxh5!? 41.f5 f6 42.e6 Rb3 43.Rd7 Rbc3 44.Ra1 Kg7 45.Ra8 Kh6 46.Re8 Bb4 47.Rb8 Be7 48.Be4 R3c4 49.Bd5 R4c5 50.Be4 Rc4 51.Bd5 R4c5 52.Rb7 Rxd7 53.Rxd7 Ra5? Instead, 53...Bf8! would have been correct. 54.Bc6? After 54.Bc4 Ra4 54...Ba3? 55.e7 Re5 56.Be6+- 55.Rxe7 Rxc4 56.Re8! a rook endgame is probably wining for White in the long run. After Re4 , 57.Rg8! should be played, preventing ...Kg5 and preparing g3-g4. 54...Ba3 55.Rf7 Here 55.e7? is answered by Re5= 55...Re5 After the game opponents discussed 55...Rxf5 56.e7 Bxe7 57.Rxe7 Rc5 followed by. ..f5. And were unsure about the assessment. Yes, chess is complex. 56.Kh4 Carlsen had anticipated 56.Rxf6+ . White can't win there after Kg5 57.Rf7 Bc5 or 57...Bd6 56...Bc1?? A terrible blunder. Correct was to forget about the f6 pawn and wait: 56...Bc5 57.Rxf6+ Kg7 58.Rf7+ Kh6 . Then, for example, 59.g4 Bf2+! 60.Kh3 Re3+ 61.Kg2 Bh4 62.gxh5 Kxh5! and all what White can achieve here is the ending R + B vs R. 57.e7+- Not 57.Rxf6+? Kg7 58.Rf7+ Kh6 ∆59.e7 Bg5+ 1–0
  • Start an analysis engine:
  • Try maximizing the board:
  • Use the four cursor keys to replay the game. Make moves to analyse yourself.
  • Press Ctrl-B to rotate the board.
  • Drag the split bars between window panes.
  • Download&Clip PGN/GIF/FEN/QR Codes. Share the game.
  • Games viewed here will automatically be stored in your cloud clipboard (if you are logged in). Use the cloud clipboard also in ChessBase.
  • Create an account to access the games cloud.
WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Mamedyarov,S2801Carlsen,M28421–02018ACCENTUS Biel GMT9

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