
15th Unive Tournament 2011 in Hoogeveen, Netherlands
The double round robin Crown Group had four players: Vladimir Kramnik, Anish
Giri, Maxime Vachier Lagrave and Judit Polgar, with an average rating of 2732,
making this a Category 20 event. The time controls were 90 minutes for the first
40 moves, then 30 minutes to finish the game, with 30 seconds increment from
move one. There were also side tournaments: the Unive Open is a nine-round Swiss
with around 90 players with a minimum rating of 2000. It had a prize fund of
€7,500, with a first prize of €3,000. The Amateur Tournament was in
two groups: a Morning and an Afternoon Group, each with a maximum of 84 players.
The first prize for both groups was €250.
Round five
Young Dutch GM Anish Giri played an interesting novelty in a Symmetrical English
(incidentally, have you noticed that the advert below the chess board on our
JavaScript player points to context relevant products from our shop?). The strongest
female player ever to grace the planet, Judit Polgar, defended tenaciously and
seemed to have a draw in her handbag. But then she committed a terrible inaccuracy
one move before the time control and compounded it with a further mistake on
the final move of the first period. After that Anish had no trouble taking home
his first (and naturally only) full point in this event.

Note that in the JavaSript player below we have included
the evaluations provided by "Let's Check" users while the games were
in progress. Let's Check is the elephant in the living room of our new Fritz
13 program. The values, calculated by the strongest chess engines on the
most powerful machines, appear as an evaluation graph below the chess board
and give you a very nice overview of how the game progressed (you can click
on the graph to jump to the relavent position). For people who have switch off
JavaScript and cannot see the games the annotated versions are in our PGN download
at the bottom of the page.

[Event "15th Unive Crown"] [Site "Hoogeveen NED"] [Date "2011.10.21"] [Round
"5"] [White "Giri, A."] [Black "Polgar, Ju"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "A15"] [WhiteElo
"2722"] [BlackElo "2701"] [PlyCount "93"] [EventDate "2011.10.16"] {Engine/Game
Correlation: White = 61%, Black = 57%.} 1. c4 Nf6 2. g3 c5 3. Bg2 Nc6 4. Nf3
e5 5. Nc3 d6 6. O-O Be7 7. d3 O-O 8. a3 h6 {0.10/25} 9. Ne1 {0.00/26 } Rb8 {0.10/27}
10. b4 $146 {0.06/25 \/ A new and interesting move by Anish Giri.} cxb4 {0.43/22}
11. axb4 {0.16/22} Nxb4 {0.18/24} 12. Rxa7 {0.18/24} d5 { 0.39/26} 13. cxd5
{0.19/29} Bc5 {0.19/28} 14. Ra1 {0.22/26} Bd4 {0.23/24} 15. Ra3 {0.41/22} Nbxd5
{0.12/27} 16. Nxd5 {0.19/27} Nxd5 {0.19/27} 17. e3 {0.45/23 } Bc5 {0.44/21}
18. Ra1 {0.13/26} Re8 {0.18/26} 19. Bb2 {0.13/26} Nf6 {0.13/25} 20. Nf3 {0.16/24}
Bg4 {0.44/26} 21. Qb3 {0.30/27} Bd6 {0.30/26} 22. Rfc1 {0.19/ 24} Qd7 {0.30/23}
23. Ra5 {0.15/25} b5 {0.41/27} 24. Qa2 {0.00/24} Qf5 {0.07/25 } 25. Ra7 {0.00/26}
Rf8 {0.00/26} 26. Ne1 {0.00/24} Bb4 {0.27/25} 27. e4 {0.23/ 25} Qh5 {0.79/22}
28. d4 {0.00/26} Bd2 {0.84/20} 29. Ra1 {0.00/24} b4 {0.15/24} 30. dxe5 {0.00/25}
Be6 {0.00/25} 31. Qa5 {0.00/26} Bxe1 {0.30/27} 32. Rxe1 {1. 19/25} Ng4 {0.30/26}
33. h3 {1.26/24} Nxf2 {0.25/24} 34. Kxf2 {1.26/22} Rfd8 { 0.79/26} 35. Re2 {0.00/23}
Bc4 {0.50/26} 36. Bf3 {0.50/25} Qxh3 {0.50/25} 37. e6 {0.30/24} Qxe6 {0.50/25}
38. Rc2 {0.51/25 Judit has been under pressure for most of the game, but seems
to have solved all her problems and is headed for a draw.} Bb5 {1.14/24} (38...
Bb3 39. Re2 Bc4 {would have been the wisest continuation, e.g.} 40. Be5 Bxe2
41. Bxb8 Rxb8 42. Bxe2 Qxe4 {and a probable draw.}) 39. Kg2 {0.45/25} (39. Rb7
{was stronger.}) 39... g5 $4 $18 {3.63/25 Terrible.} (39... Bd3 40. Rf2 Bxe4
{would have held:} 41. Rxf7 Qxf7 42. Bxe4 Qe6 43. Be5 Rd7 {and Black has rook
and two pawns for two bishops.}) 40. Kh2 { 3.40/22} Qb3 $2 $18 {9.84/27 From
bad to worse. Black is completely lost now, two moves after the draw was clearly
in sight.} 41. Qc7 {10.69/28} Bc4 {8.77/25 } 42. Rf2 {8.95/23} Qe3 {9.69/23}
43. Kg2 {11.96/24} Re8 {#12/32} 44. Bh5 {#11/ 25} Qxe4+ {#21/18} 45. Kh2 {#10/25}
Rf8 {#10/32} 46. Ra6 Be6 47. Rxe6 (47. Rxe6 Qxe6 (47... fxe6 48. Qg7#) 48. Bxf7+
Rxf7 49. Qxb8+ Kh7 50. Qh8+ Kg6 51. Qg8+ Kh5 52. Qxf7+) ({White also had a direct
mate:} 47. Bxf7+ Bxf7 (47... Rxf7 48. Qxb8+) 48. Rxh6 Qh7 49. Rxh7 Kxh7 50.
Qe5 Kh6 51. Qg7+ Kh5 52. Qh7+ Kg4 53. Qh3#) 1-0

On his 21st birthday – imagine, he will now be able to order a beer in
the US! – Maxime played a mysterious exchange sacrifice on move 26, but
solved the problem after inaccuracies by Vladmir Kramnik, and seemd to be headed
for a clean birthday draw. However, after twenty minutes of good defending the
French GM cracked and Kramnik picked up a stray pawn. After that is was all
"a matter of technique" for the former World Champion.

[Event "15th Unive Crown"] [Site "Hoogeveen NED"] [Date "2011.10.21"] [Round
"5"] [White "Kramnik, V."] [Black "Vachier Lagrave, M."] [Result "1-0"] [ECO
"A15"] [WhiteElo "2791"] [BlackElo "2715"] [PlyCount "173"] [EventDate "2011.10.16"]
1. Nf3 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Qa4+ Bd7 5. Qb3 dxc4 6. Qxc4 a6 7. d4 b5 8.
Qd3 Bg7 {0.48/22} 9. g3 {0.00/24} b4 {-0.14/26} 10. Ne4 {-0.12/26} Nxe4 {0.00/
25} 11. Qxe4 {0.00/24} Bc6 {-0.14/24} 12. Qf4 {-0.33/21} O-O {0.18/21} 13. Bg2
{0.19/23} Qd6 $146 {0.20/25} 14. O-O {0.45/22} Nd7 {0.17/24} 15. Qh4 {0.20/24}
e5 {0.24/25} 16. d5 {-0.21/26} Qxd5 {-0.33/25} 17. Be3 {-0.22/25} Qb5 {0.08/26}
18. Rac1 {0.24/23} Bd5 {0.24/25} 19. Rxc7 {-0.16/25} Rac8 {-0.16/26} 20. Ng5
{ -0.06/27} h6 {0.00/24} 21. Rxc8 {0.18/23} Rxc8 {0.00/25} 22. Ne4 {0.04/27}
g5 { 0.00/25} 23. Qh3 {-0.07/19} Be6 {0.34/27} 24. Qh5 {0.34/26} Rc4 {0.41/24}
25. Rd1 {0.00/23} b3 {-0.06/25} 26. a3 {0.00/21 The first critical point in
this game. Black has equalised in the opening and is set to give White a run
for his money.} Rd4 $2 $16 {1.25/26 It is unclear what moved the French GM to
play this exchange sacrifice.} (26... Qa4 {was the move Maxime had to find.})
27. Bxd4 {1.96/24} exd4 {1.11/26} 28. h4 {1.80/29} Ne5 $2 $18 {3.15/34} 29.
hxg5 { 2.59/26} Bg4 {2.71/29} 30. Qh4 {3.35/33} Qxe2 {2.86/27} 31. Rxd4 {3.09/25}
Nf3+ {2.60/23} 32. Bxf3 {3.13/20} Bxf3 {2.66/25} 33. Rd8+ {3.17/25} Kh7 {3.55/30}
34. Nd2 {3.55/32} Bc6 {3.67/35} 35. gxh6 $2 $18 {1.80/24 Makes everything much
harder for Big Vlad.} ({After e.g.} 35. Nf1 {White protects the b2-pawn with
the mate-in-one threat on h6.}) 35... Bxb2 {1.60/27} 36. Qg5 $2 $11 {0.00/28
Now the position is back to a draw expectation.} ({After} 36. Qh3 Qd1+ 37. Qf1
Qxf1+ 38. Kxf1 {White has winning chances.}) 36... Qd1+ {0.00/30} 37. Nf1 {0.
00/30} Qf3 {0.00/28} 38. Qg8+ {0.00/29} Kxh6 {0.00/20} 39. Rd6+ {0.00/21} Bf6
{ 0.00/37} 40. Qh8+ {0.00/22} Kg5 {0.00/38} 41. Qg8+ {0.00/27} Kh6 {0.00/37}
42. Rxc6 {0.00/26} Qxc6 {0.00/25} 43. Ne3 {0.00/27} Qf3 {0.12/29} 44. Ng4+ {0.00/25
} Kh5 {0.00/24} 45. Nh2 {0.00/24} Qd1+ {0.23/25} 46. Kg2 {0.00/23} Qd5+ {0.00/
22} 47. Kh3 {0.00/23} Qe6+ {0.00/29} 48. Ng4 {0.40/25} Bg5 {0.00/26} 49. f3
{ 0.41/28} Qf5 {0.41/28} 50. Qh8+ {0.41/30} Kg6 {0.46/27} 51. Qg8+ {0.00/26}
Kh5 {0.41/28} 52. Qg7 {0.41/28} Be3 {0.77/28} 53. Qc3 {0.00/24} Qe6 {0.41/29}
54. Qg7 {0.50/30} Bh6 {0.41/26} 55. Qh8 {1.02/21 From move 36 until now the
powerful Let's Check machines have given the game a 0.00 evaluation - apart
from a few blips. According to them it was a clean draw.} f5 $2 {1.25/22} (
55... a5 {was the way to continue. The text move unpins the knight and allows:}
) 56. Nxh6 $1 {0.50/29} Qxh6 {1.58/21} 57. Qg8 {0.65/30} Qd6 {1.05/25} 58. Qxb3
{0.65/30 and White is simply a pawn up. Everyone knows how good Kramnik is in
positions like this.} Kg6 {1.49/24} 59. Qg8+ {0.79/19} Kf6 {1.63/21} 60. Qh8+
{ 0.47/31} (60. f4 Qxa3 61. Qg5+ Ke6 62. Qg6+ Ke7 63. Qxf5 {was a better option.}
) 60... Kg6 {0.66/32} 61. Qg8+ {0.79/19} Kf6 {1.63/21} 62. f4 {0.69/31} Qd3
{ 0.83/30} 63. Qf8+ {1.23/20} Kg6 {0.69/32} 64. Kh4 {0.35/32} Qd5 {0.75/23}
65. Qe8+ {0.29/29} Kf6 {0.69/26} 66. Qh8+ {0.69/23} Kg6 {0.75/22} 67. Qh5+ {0.27/30
} Kg7 $2 $18 {2.55/27} 68. g4 {2.83/29} Qh1+ {3.76/22} 69. Kg5 {5.77/19} Qc6
{ 9.94/20} 70. gxf5 {5.49/27} Qg2+ {10.79/29} 71. Qg4 {10.25/25} Qb2 {10.36/29}
72. Qf3 {4.52/26} Qf6+ {4.90/19} 73. Kg4 {10.73/23} Qb6 {16.12/21} 74. Qc3+
{ 10.75/23} Kf7 {6.57/21} 75. Qe1 {9.50/26} Qd4 {8.92/22} 76. Qe6+ {4.96/29}
Kf8 {12.35/27} 77. Qc8+ {6.26/20} Kf7 {6.29/19} 78. Qe6+ {4.96/29} Kf8 {12.35/27}
79. f6 {13.33/25} Qg1+ {12.35/27} 80. Kf5 {10.99/28} Qc5+ {10.99/29} 81. Qe5
{ 7.14/24} Qc2+ {10.94/26} 82. Kg5 {#31/25} Qg2+ {8.27/23} 83. Kh6 {14.78/28}
Qh2+ {11.47/26} 84. Kg6 {8.08/23} Qc2+ {8.76/27} 85. Qf5 {8.91/23} Qc3 {#23/24}
86. Qd5 Qc2+ 87. f5 {and mate to follow.} 1-0
On the final day both games were drawn, which produced the following table:

Note that with his plus three score Kramnik has gained eight points in this
event. On the Live Chess Ratings, calculated
by Artiom Tsepotan and Dr. Christopher Wright on 23 October 2011, 00:31 GMT,
he has reached a significant mark:
# |
Name |
Rating |
+/- |
Games |
FIDE |
Age |
1 |
Carlsen |
2825.8 |
+2.8 |
10 |
|
20 (30.11.1990) |
2 |
Anand |
2811.0 |
-6.0 |
10 |
|
41 (11.12.1969) |
3 |
Aronian |
2805.9 |
-1.1 |
11 |
|
29 (06.10.1982) |
4 |
Kramnik |
2799.6 |
+8.6 |
6 |
|
36 (25.06.1975) |
5 |
Radjabov |
2781.0 |
+29.0 |
15 |
|
24 (12.03.1987) |
6 |
Ivanchuk |
2775.0 |
+10.0 |
26 |
|
42 (18.03.1969) |
7 |
Topalov |
2768.0 |
0.0 |
0 |
|
36 (15.03.1975) |
8 |
Karjakin |
2763.2 |
-8.8 |
15 |
|
21 (12.01.1990) |
9 |
Morozevich |
2762.4 |
+25.4 |
17 |
|
34 (18.07.1977) |
10 |
Nakamura |
2757.8 |
+4.8 |
10 |
|
23 (09.12.1987)
|
Naturally these are not the official FIDE ratings, but they indicate that Kramnik
has once again joined the 2800 club (2799.6 is rounded up to 2800). So now there
are four players in that stratospheric group – and all four are playing
in the London
Chess Classic in just over a month from now!
All results
Round 1 – Sunday, October
16, 2011, 14:00h |
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime |
½-½ |
Polgar, Judit |
Kramnik, Vladimir |
1-0 |
Giri, Anish |
Round 2 – Monday, October
17, 2011, 14:00h |
Giri, Anish |
½-½ |
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime |
Kramnik, Vladimir |
1-0 |
Polgar, Judit |
Round 3 – Tuesday, October
18, 2011, 14:00h |
Polgar, Judit |
½-½ |
Giri, Anish |
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime |
½-½ |
Kramnik, Vladimir |
Round 4 – Thursday, October
20, 2011, 14:00h |
Polgar, Judit |
½-½ |
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime |
Giri, Anish |
½-½ |
Kramnik, Vladimir |
Round 5 – Friday, October
21, 2011, 14:00h |
Kramnik, Vladimir |
1-0 |
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime |
Giri, Anish |
1-0 |
Polgar, Judit |
Round 6 – Saturday, October
22, 2011, 14:00h |
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime |
½-½ |
Giri, Anish |
Polgar, Judit |
½-½ |
Kramnik, Vladimir |
The Unive Open Tournament
This was won by veteran Sergey Tiviakov and the two young Dutch talents Robin
van Kampen and Sipke Ernst.
No. |
Player |
Ti. |
Nat. |
Rtng |
Pts |
TB1 |
TB2 |
Perf |
1 |
Tiviakov, Sergei |
GM |
NED |
2647 |
7.0 |
52.0 |
38.75 |
2652 |
2 |
Van Kampen, Robin |
IM |
NED |
2529 |
7.0 |
50.5 |
38.25 |
2628 |
3 |
Ernst, Sipke |
GM |
NED |
2581 |
7.0 |
48.5 |
37.25 |
2561 |
4 |
Lenderman, Aleksandr |
GM |
USA |
2562 |
6.5 |
53.5 |
36.5 |
2623 |
5 |
Grover, Sahaj |
IM |
IND |
2514 |
6.5 |
52.0 |
36.0 |
2574 |
6 |
Nyzhnyk, Illya |
GM |
UKR |
2561 |
6.5 |
51.5 |
35.0 |
2615 |
7 |
Zherebukh, Yaroslav |
GM |
UKR |
2580 |
6.5 |
50.5 |
34.25 |
2594 |
8 |
Baklan, Vladimir |
GM |
UKR |
2617 |
6.0 |
51.5 |
32.5 |
2566 |
9 |
Haslinger, Stewart G |
GM |
ENG |
2542 |
6.0 |
50.5 |
31.0 |
2520 |
10 |
Schoorl, Rob |
FM |
NED |
2276 |
6.0 |
48.0 |
29.5 |
2496 |
11 |
Svane, Rasmus |
|
GER |
2351 |
6.0 |
47.0 |
28.5 |
2425 |
12 |
Brandenburg, Daan |
GM |
NED |
2522 |
6.0 |
46.5 |
30.75 |
2455 |
13 |
Willemze, Thomas |
IM |
NED |
2370 |
6.0 |
45.5 |
29.0 |
2362 |
14 |
Voekler, Bernd |
FM |
GER |
2374 |
6.0 |
44.5 |
28.75 |
2398 |
15 |
Van Delft, Merijn |
IM |
NED |
2413 |
6.0 |
41.0 |
26.25 |
2377 |
16 |
Peelen, Piet |
IM |
NED |
2354 |
6.0 |
39.5 |
25.5 |
2397 |

Of great interest was the result of GM Illya Nyzhnyk, who scored 6.5/9 points
with
a performance of 2615. Illya, you should know, turned 15 less than a month ago.

Another super talent, IM Sahaj Grover from New Delhi, India, also scored 6.5/9
points
with a 2574 performance. Sahraj is sixteen. His current rating is 2514.
The "beauty award" went to Geon Knol (above) for his seventh round
game against Thomas Beerdsen. You should play through the moves, especially
starting from move 34. The evaluations were generated by Fritz 13.

[Event "Hoogeveen open"] [Site "Hoogeveen, "] [Date "2011.10.20"] [Round "7"]
[White "Knol, Geon"] [Black "Beerdsen, Thomas"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B23"] [WhiteElo
"2137"] [BlackElo "2019"] [Annotator "Fritz 13"] [PlyCount "83"] [EventDate "2011.??.??"]
[SourceDate "2008.12.06"] 1. e4 {0.04/19} c5 {0.63/20} 2. Nc3 {0.70/19} a6 {0.66/18}
3. g3 {0.08/18} d6 { 0.30/18} 4. Bg2 {0.08/19} Nc6 {0.08/18} 5. d3 {-0.04/20}
g6 {-0.05/18} 6. f4 { -0.36/19} Bg7 {-0.30/17} 7. Be3 {-0.46/17} Nf6 {-0.27/18}
8. h3 {-0.36/15} Rb8 {-0.05/18} 9. Nge2 {-0.06/18} Qc7 {0.01/19} 10. O-O {0.01/19}
O-O {0.01/18} 11. Qd2 {0.01/16} b5 {0.08/16} 12. Rae1 {-0.38/17} b4 {-0.39/16}
13. Nd1 {-0.55/16} Bb7 {-0.51/15} 14. g4 {-0.76/14} Nd7 {-0.70/17} 15. c3 {-0.74/14}
bxc3 {-0.42/ 16} 16. bxc3 {-0.75/16} Nb6 {-0.36/19} 17. h4 {-0.84/16} Qd7 {-0.28/18}
18. Nf2 {-0.25/16} Ba8 {-0.20/16} 19. g5 {-0.40/16} Na4 {-0.13/17} 20. Bh3 {-0.91/18}
Qc7 {-0.72/19} 21. Nd1 {-0.69/16} f5 {0.02/19} 22. exf5 {0.14/17} gxf5 {0.22/18
} 23. d4 {-0.67/18} Na5 {-0.15/19} 24. d5 {-0.27/17} Nc4 {0.00/20} 25. Qc2 {-0.
11/18} Nab2 {0.00/21} 26. Bxf5 {-0.15/20} Nxd1 {-0.05/21} 27. Bxh7+ {-0.15/21}
Kh8 {-0.20/21} 28. Qg6 {0.11/19} Ndxe3 {1.02/18} 29. Qh5 {1.10/20} Rf6 {3.54/16
} 30. gxf6 {4.41/21} exf6 {4.44/21} 31. Bf5+ {4.46/23} Kg8 {4.42/20} 32. Be6+
{ 4.42/22} Kf8 {4.37/21} 33. Qh7 {4.25/19} Bxd5 {#9/9} 34. Qg8+ {#8/9} Ke7 {#8/8}
35. Qxg7+ {#7/8} Kxe6 {#7/7} 36. Nd4+ {#6/7} cxd4 {#6/7} 37. f5+ {#5/7} Ke5 {
#5/7} 38. Qg3+ {#4/7} Ke4 {#4/7} 39. Qf4+ {#3/7} Kd3 {#3/7} 40. Qxd4+ {#2/7} Kc2
{#2/7} 41. Re2+ {#1/7} Nd2 {#1/7} 42. Qxd2# 1-0

For her "convincing win against Sipke Ernst and an interesting attack
against Bram Klapwijk" the organisers awarded Arlette van Weersel an "honorary
Beauty Prize". We, on the other hand, think she beat Geon Knol hands down.
Pictures by the official web site.
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