7/5/2008 – On the second day Nigel Short, desperate to break his opponent's clean 2-0 score, played the – Alekhine's Defence. He hung on bravely for 35 moves but then collapsed under the pressure from his young opponent Sergey Karjakin. In the fourth game, with moral support from organiser Bessel Kok, Nigel at last struck back. Pictorial report by Anastasiya Karlovich on chess in the Puppet Theatre.
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From 3rd to 7th of July, 2008 British Grandmaster Nigel Short, former World
Championship challenger, and Sergey Karyakin, who at twelve became the youngest
grandmaster in history, are playing a ten-game rapid chess match in Kiev (Kyiv).
The venue is the Kyiv Academic Puppet Theatre, Grushevskogo Str., 1a, Kyiv.
It is the oldest puppet theatre in Ukraine, established in 1927, and today pays
host to puppet theatres from all over the world.
Second day report
In the first game, desperate to break his opponent's clean 2-0 score, Nigel
Short with the black pices decided to play – Alekhine's Defence! He hung
on for 35 moves but then was battered into submission by his young opponent.
35...Nd5? 36.Rb7 Qxc3 37.a7 Rxb7 38.Qxb7 Qe1+ and Black simultaneously
resigned. 1-0. [Click to replay]
Things were looking very bleak – 0:3, that bleak – for
Nigel Short. But then Bessel Kok (see report below) arrived, with his wife Martina.
The two are great friends with Nigel and gave him a pep talk that cheered him
up. This was the result:
Queen takes pawn on a2 – wasn't that the knockout
blow delivered by Jan Gustafsson to Loek van Wely, almost exactly at the
same time in Dortmund, Germany? Yes, but Nigel has an attack prepared: 23.Nh5
Qa5 24.Ng7 (how often do you see a knight do this?) 24...Rf8? (24...Red8
or even sacrificing the exchange was better) 25.Qd2 Rc4 26.Qh6 Rxd4
27.Nxe6 fxe6 28.Rxg6+ Kf7 (28...hxg6 29.Qxg6+ Kh8 30.Rg1 leads to mate)
29.Rg7+ Ke8 30.Qxe6 Kd8 31.Qxe7+ Kc7 32.Qxf8 1-0. [Click
to replay]
Kiev – also spelled Kyiv, Ukrainian: Київ, Russian:
Ки́ев or Kiyev – is the capital and largest
city of Ukraine, with over three million inhabitants. It was the birthplace
of Kievan Rus, the Russian mother-state of a thousand years ago. It is an administrative,
economic, scientific, cultural and educational center.
A view of Independence Square in the center of the city
The match between Nigel Short and Sergey Karjakin was planned two years ago,
as a six-games classical chess match. At that time there was a rating difference
of around 100 points – in favour of Short! Then the plan was changed and
it became rapid chess, which is more spectacular, and also a novelty for the
organizers.
The organiser LIFE – actually life:) – is a GSM operator
set up by the Astelit company in Ukraine in January 2005.. By the 31st of March
2008 the number of life subscribers had reached 9.4 million. It is not a accident
that life:) became the sponsor of the match, since the chairman of the Supervisory
Board is none other than Bessel Kok.
Responsible for this event: telecommunications tycoon Bessel Kok
Bessel is a Dutch businessman and chess organiser who many years ago set up
the Belgian-based Banking communications company SWIFT and then went on to set
up the telecommunications systems in Belgium and the Czech Republic. Now he
is doing the same in Ukraine – and with the usual degree of success.
Independence Square near the main street Kreschatik in the center of Kiev
In the hot summer weather people enjoy walking on the "water steps"
The Kiev Academic Puppet Theatre has become the center of chess activity
in Ukraine for five days
Pinocchio invites visitors to the chess match
Sergey Karjakin with his girlfriend, WIM Katerina Dolzhikova
Former FIDE World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov with his sister Ludmilla, who wants
to become a professional violinist
The girls from a Ukrainian pop band
Remember Tina Karol from our last
report? Well, here are two videos with her:
Here Tina is a contestant of Eurovision 2007
Nochenka has been watched 280,000 times on YouTube
Tansu Yegen, General Manager of "life:)", Nigel Short, Sergey
Karjakin and Katerina Dolzhikova
"Pono", as he does not like to be called, with his sister
in the audience. The headphones are for infra-red commentary by GM Vladimir
Tukamkov and GM Gennadi Sosonko.
Chess on the stage of the Puppet Theatre
The official names: Naidjel Short from Belikobritania and Sergij Karjakin from
Ukraine
Ukrainian GM Alexandr Areshenko who has come to support his friend Sergey
Karjakin
Opening videos: Daniel King presents new ideas against Caro-Kann with 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nf6 5.Nxf6+. ‘Mikhalchishin's Miniatures’: Najdorf, Petroff and Scotch. ‘Move by Move’ with Robert Ris. ‘Lucky bag’ with 37 analyses by Ganguly, Illingworth et al.
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