The IV. György Marx Memorial took place from 28 July to 7 August 2006
in Paks, Hungary, in commemoration of the famous physicist György Marx.
The event is intended to give the most talented young local grandmasters an
opportunity to gain experience. The main patron of the tournament is József
Kovács, the director-general of Nuclear Power Plant Ltd. Paks. The venue
was College of Paks, Dózsa György str. 95, Paks. Time controls
were 2 hours for 40 moves, then 1 hour till the end.
The venue in Paks, Hungary
Participants
Average rating: 2622, Category 15
Final report
Top seed Pentala Harikrishna, India, won the event, a clear point ahead of
the second placed Zahar Efimenko of Ukraine. Wang Yue of China and Zoltan Almasi
of Hungary shared 3-4. The other two Hungarian players, Ferenc Berkes and Peter
Acs landed at the bottom of the table.
The winner: India's second strongest GM Harikrishna
Harikrishna did not lose any games and won three, with a 2717 performance.
Efimenko drew all his games except for one, against Acs, which he won. His
performance was 2655, 23 points more than his nominal 2632 FIDE rating.
We have been informed that the tiebreak system used to generate the above
table, Sonneborn-Berger, was not used in the official
final table, which however does not give the tiebreak ranking. It looks
like this:
| |
Name |
Rtng |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
Pts |
| 1 |
Wang, Yue |
2626 |
|
½ ½ |
½ 1 |
½ ½ |
½ 0 |
½ ½ |
5 |
| 2 |
Berkes, Ferenc |
2601 |
½ ½ |
|
½ ½ |
½ ½ |
½ 0 |
½ ½ |
4½ |
| 3 |
Ács, Péter |
2520 |
½ 0 |
½ ½ |
|
½ 0 |
½ ½ |
½ 0 |
3½ |
| 4 |
Harikrishna, Pentala |
2682 |
½ ½ |
½ ½ |
½ 1 |
|
1 1 |
½ ½ |
6½ |
| 5 |
Almási, Zoltán |
2672 |
½ 1 |
½ 1 |
½ ½ |
0 0 |
|
½ ½ |
5 |
| 6 |
Efimenko, Zahar |
2632 |
½ ½ |
½ ½ |
½ 1 |
½ ½ |
½ ½ |
|
5½ |
The drawing rate in this tournament was high, with 76% of the games ending
without result. Interestingly only two of the seven decided games were won
by White; five went to Black.
In the last six rounds there was only one decided game (Almasi vs Harikrishna,
0-1, in round eight). The other seventeen were all drawn. The average length
of all games was 39 moves, the shortest was a ten-mover between Harikrishna
and Wan Yue in round eight. Three games were drawn in less than 20 moves. The
two longest games were hard-fought draws with Wang Yue on the white side: 85
moves against Almasi and 101 moves against Acs. In that game the Chinese player
had the upper hand in the whole game, but finally Acs liquidated to a Rook
vs Rook + Bishop endgame, which again takes us to the silicon oracle of our
endgame database.
The start of a fateful game
Wang Yue (2626) - Acs,P (2520) [E81]
4th Marx György Mem Paks HUN (8), 05.08.2006
Position after 83.Bd3xPf5
The position, say our five-piece tablebases, is a theoretical draw, with almost
any legal move by Black holding. Acs starts off well: 83...Rd1 84.Rg6+
Kf7 85.Ra6 Ke7 86.Ke5 Re1+ 87.Be4 Kd7 88.Ra7+
Black has three legal moves of which only one loses: 88...Kd8?
Now the position is no longer drawn, it is mate in 25 moves. Unfortunately
the youthful Wang Yue hasn't a clue how to win it. 89.Kd6 Ke8 90.Bd5
Kf8 91.Rf7+ Ke8 92.Rf3 Kd8 93.Rf2 Re7 94.Rf8+ Re8 95.Rf7 Re1 96.Rd7+ Ke8.
The positions is still winning for White, with mate in 22 moves. 97.Rg7?
This move turns it into a theoretical draw. The correct continuation was 97.Rf7
(mate in 22), or 97.Rc7, Rb7 or Ra7, with the mate coming in 24 moves. 97...Kd8?
Oops, 97.Rf1! was the only defence. Now the endgame tablebases announce mate
in 18. 98.Rb7 Rc1 99.Ra7 Rc2 100.Rd7+ Kc8 101.Rh7. The game
is still won, with mate to follow in 21 moves, and the computer continuation,
with "perfect play" on both sides, looks like this: 101...Kb8 102.Rf7
Rc1 103.Rb7+ Kc8 104.Ra7 Kd8 105.Rf7 Re1 106.Bf3 Re3 107.Bc6 Rd3+ 108.Bd5 Re3
109.Rd7+ Ke8 110.Rb7 Kf8 111.Rf7+ Ke8 112.Rf4 Rd3 113.Rg4 and Black must give
up the rook for the bishop or be mated in a few moves. [Click
to replay]
We have been informed that due to technical difficulties the game relay stopped
at move 101, in the above position. The players continued for another 20 to
30 moves, which nobody registered. In the final position Acs's king was no
longer on the eighth rank and Wang was just giving a lot of checks, apparently
trying to win on time. Acs claimed a draw, with both players having just minutes
on their clocks. The arbiter, IM Janos Tompa, decided that White no longer
had winning chances, since his king had escaped from the "danger zone".
He pronounced the game a draw. This did not happen in the above board position,
as we previously reported.
If you are nervous about an encounter with this kind of endgame, here are
some remedial options:
Picture gallery
Efimenko, Wang Yue, Harikrishna, Berkes and Acs pose in front of the
FIDE obelisk
India vs China, after move eight. Two moves later the game ended in a draw.
The playing venue in the auditorium of the college
The winner, Pentala Harikrishna, recieves his trophy
Celebrating with some fine Hungarian champagne
The winner with all his teasures
Links
Official
web site
