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Round 4: Sunday, May 14, 2006 |
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Etienne Bacrot |
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Veselin Topalov |
Vishy Anand |
Ruslan Ponomariov | |
Gata Kamsky |
Peter Svidler | |
Standings
First of all, I wish to thank to all the readers who have pointed out some analytical mistakes from the game Kamsky-Bacrot, played in the third round. My general assessment of the line starting with 44.Rd6 seems to be correct, but the Nalimov table bases proved several of my moves after 50.g3 to be wrong. As pointed out by Robert Offinger from Magdeburg, the correct winning plan involves the transfer of the rook to e8, in order to support the e4-pawn and harass the enemy king from the back rank.
My conceptual mistake consisted of the fact that I tried to keep White’s pieces grouped together. This is to a certain similar to the “strategy” employed by the football team Steaua Bucharest after having won the first UEFA semi-final match with 1-0 and taken the lead by 2-0 in the return match against Middlesbrough: play with seven defenders in front of the own goal-keeper. They simply stepped onto each other feet and deservedly got eliminated.
Oh, and I actually remembered that I have the table bases at home and that I had used them before. In the meanwhile I had to reinstall Windows and apparently installed only some of the Nalimov-disks.
But back to the tournament. Kamsky maintained his lead with an unexpectedly easy win against Svidler, who allowed a simple tactical trick in a more or less normal position. Anand-Ponomariov lasted much longer, but the game did not pose too many technical problems for the Indian player either; Ponomariov managed to activate his knight only when his queen side was in ruins already. Bacrot surprisingly forced a draw against Topalov in what looked like a better ending for him.
Kamsky,G (2671) - Svidler,P (2743) [B83]
Mtel Masters Sofia BUL (4), 14.05.2006 [Mihail Marin]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nc6 5.Nc3 d6 6.Be2 Nf6 7.0-0 Be7 8.Be3 0-0 9.f4 e5
15...Nd7? A terrible blunder. Svidler's desire to transfer the knight to e5 is understandable, but he obviously missed White's simple tactical blow. 16.Nd5! cxd5 17.exd5 Bg4 18.Qxe7 Bxf3 19.Rxf3 Nf6 20.Be3 Qa5 21.Rxf6! Black's king is helpless now. 21...gxf6 22.Qxf6 Re8 23.Qg5+ Kf8 24.Bd2. 24.Bd2 The only way to prevent Qf6 followed by Bh6+ consists of 24...Qd8 but then 25.Qh6+ Kg8 26.Bc3 ensures White a decisive advantage. 1-0.
Bacrot,E (2708) - Topalov,V (2804) [E20]
Mtel Masters Sofia BUL (4), 14.05.2006 [Mihail Marin]
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Nf3 c5 5.g3. An interesting psychological moment. Both players are specialists of this system with White. See for instance their interesting games against Aronian played at Linares in 2006. 5...Bxc3+ 6.bxc3 Qa5 A relatively rare variation, brought into the attention of theoreticians by Viktor Kortschnoj. 7.Bd2 The most common answer. Caught by surprise, Polugajevsky did not react too accurately with 7.Qd3 and allowed his opponent obtain a nice position after 7...Ne4 8.Bd2 f5 9.Bg2 Nc6 10.d5 Nd8 11.0-0 Nf7 12.Rfd1 0-0 13.a4 d6 , Polugaevsky-Kortschnoj, Linares 1985; The newest try consists of ignoring the threat with 7.Bg2 . In the only game where this was played so far, Black declined the sacrifice, but failed to equalize completely: 7...cxd4 (7...Qxc3+ 8.Bd2 Qxc4 9.dxc5 offers White obvious compensation, but has to be checked concretely.) 8.Qxd4 Nc6 9.Qd3 d5 10.cxd5 exd5 11.0-0 0-0 12.c4 Qa6 13.Bb2 Qxc4 14.Qxc4 dxc4 15.Rfc1 Re8 16.e3 Be6 17.Nd2 Nb4 18.Bxf6 gxf6 19.Nxc4 Rac8 20.Nd6 with a small but persistent advantage for White in Moiseenko-Epishin, Albox 2005. 7...0-0 Topalov deviates from 7...b6 where both players had some experience with White. 8.Bg2 Bb7 9.0-0 0-0 10.d5 (The most active continuation. Black had no problems after 10.Qb3 Qa6 11.Bg5 Ne4 12.d5 d6 13.Rad1 Re8 Topalov-Kramnik, Monte Carlo 2003) 10...Qa6 11.Re1!? Ne4 12.Qc2 f5 13.Ng5 exd5 14.cxd5 Bxd5 15.Nxe4 Bxe4 16.Bxe4 fxe4 17.Qxe4 Nc6 18.Qd5+ Rf7 19.Bf4 Re8 20.e4 Na5 and the control of the c4-square counter-balanced White's superiority on the other wing in Bacrot-Ponomariov, Cap d'Agde 2003. 8.Bg2 Nc6 9.0-0 Qa6 10.Ne5.
24.Bxd5?! Quite surprising. White had no need to force a draw so soon. He could have parried the threat ...Nc3xa2 with 24.Bd6 and then centralise his king and prepare the pawn break h3 and g4. In spite of Black's stability in the centre and of his queen side majority, White's pair of bishops would have offered him the better chances. 24...exd5 25.Bd6 Kf7 26.Bb8 a6 27.Bc7 b5 28.a3 g5 29.f4 g4 1/2-1/2.
Anand,V (2803) - Ponomariov,R (2738) [B19]
Mtel Masters Sofia BUL (4), 14.05.2006 [Mihail Marin]
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Bf5 5.Ng3 Bg6 6.Nf3 Nd7 7.h4 h6 8.h5 Bh7 9.Bd3 Bxd3 10.Qxd3
After the radical activation of White's rooks, Black was reduced to complete passivity in Kramnik-Bareev, Wijk aan Zee 2003. In case of 29...Nd5, the knight would stand "nicely" but would fail to counter White's simple plan: Bd2, followed by the transfer of the king to e4 and the opening of the king side by means of g5, hxg5 Bxg5 followed by h6, which would win the f7-pawn. At the same time, Black has no time to expell the enemy rook from d6 with 29...Nc8 because of 30.Rd4 followed by Rdf4.
19.Ne5 Bd6. A new move, putting the e5-knight under pressure and thus preparing the thematic break ...c5. The more natural 19...Rfd8 , completing the development, does not promisse complete equality either, for instance 20.g4 c5 21.f3 cxd4 22.Rxd4 Rxd4 23.Bxd4 Ng5 24.Rf1 Re8 25.b3 and White managed to gradually amplify his advantage of space in Strikovic-Kortschnoj, Val Maubuee 1990. 20.f3 Ng3. A questionable decision. It is hard to refrain from "winning" several tempi by jumping around with the knight, but the more restrained 20...Nf6 , more or less transposing to Kasparov-Anand, seems a safer choice. In the game, the knight will soon land on a very passive square. 21.Rh3 Nf5 22.Bf2 Rad8. By taking the d7-square under control, Black intends to play ...c5 with all the comfort. One natural question is why didn't Black place the other rook on d8 with 22...Rfd8 After the game continuation 23.g4 Ne7 24.Nd3 b5 25.b3 he could try to open a new file on the queen side with 25...a5 . However after the accurate 26.a4! Black would be simply left with an additional weakness on a5, while his counterplay along the b-file is not too realistic, for instance 26...bxa4 27.bxa4 Rab8 28.Kc2 followed by Rhh1 and Rb1. One can feel the perfect placement of the white knight.; With hindsight, it is easy to recommend the immediate opening of the position with 22...c5 . Even though White seems to be able to maintain an advantage, the situation would have been less one-sided than in the game. Here is a possible continuation. 23.Nd7 Rfd8 24.dxc5! (In case of 24.Nxc5 Bf4+ 25.Kb1 Be3 26.Bxe3 Nxe3 White's central pawns are suddenly vulnerable.) 24...Bf4+ 25.Kb1 Be3 26.Bxe3 Nxe3 27.Rd4 . Black can now win his pawn back, but the control of the d-file would leave White on top, for instance 27...Nxg2 (Ledaing to a more unbalanced situation than after the capture on c4) 28.Rh2 Ne3 29.Rhd2. 23.g4 Ne7 24.Nd3!
43.Ba5! Nf5 44.Bb6! It is all over now. White's advantage of space is decisive. 44...Ne3+ 45.Kc3 Ke6 46.Rc8 Kf5 47.Rxc6 Nd1+ 48.Kb4 Rd2 49.Bxa7 I suppose that Ponomariov played the following sequence of moves by mere inertia. He could have safely resigned already. 49...Rb2+ 50.Ka3 Rb1 51.Rb6 Ra1+ 52.Kb3 e4 53.fxe4+ Kxe4 54.c6 This was precisely the moment when I incidentally connected to playchess.com through my mobile phone. I first thought that the position was filipped, not believing that the game was still on with such advanced white pawns. The detail that made me understand my mistake was that Black's next move is legal.
54...Kd3. Indeed, with the position flipped, the king would be in check here. 55.c7 Rb1+ 56.Ka3 1-0.
Replay games online, download PGN
Mihail
Marin, 41, Romanian Grandmaster, three times national champion
(1988, 1994, 1999), nine times member of the Olympic team, participant
in two Interzonals (Szirak 1987 and Manila 1990). In 2005 Marin was
the second of Judit Polgar at the FIDE world championship in San Luis.
Highest rating: 2604. Author of the ChessBase opening CDs English
1.c4 e5 and The Catalan Opening and the books: Secrets
of Chess Defense, Secrets of Attacking Chess and Learn from
the Legends. Graduate from the Polytechnic Institute Bucharest
(Specialty Electrotechnic) in 1989. |
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