
Universal Event Promotion (UEP), the company that staged major events like
Kramnik
vs Deep Fritz and the World
Championship Anand vs Kramnik, is now continuing their series of the first-class
matches with an encounter between former World Championship candidate Nigel
Short and the very promising Ukraining GM Zahar Efimenko. The event is taking
place in the West-Ukrainian town of Mukachevo. It is a classical match over
six games, with time controls of 90 minutes for 40 moves, plus 30 minutes for
the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting with
the first move. Efimenko is seconded by GM Alexander Beliavsky, Short is playing
without a second.
Game five
Commentary by GM Klaus Bischoff
Short,Nigel (2706) - Efimenko,Zahar (2654) [B90]
Match Mukachevo (5), 25.09.2009 [Klaus Bischoff]
So we have four games played and White could not win a single game
yet. Today we will see Nigel's last try with the white pieces.
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.a4
Zahar goes for a Najdorf once again and Nigel is trying a sideline this time.
6...Nc6 7.Be2 e5 8.Nxc6!? bxc6 9.f4 Be7. I would have gone for 9...Nd7
immediately, but my engines are not too impressed. 10.a5!?
This is really becoming strange now. Combining f4 and a4-a5 does not look
great. But Nigel creates space all over the board. 10...0-0 11.0-0 exf4 12.Bxf4
Be6 13.Kh1. Black has two plans now. He can either go for Nd7-e5 or he can
try to prepare d5. Zahar tries to play it as flexibly as possible. But if he
wants to chose the first plan he could have played Qb8 to speed it up. 13...Qc7
14.Qd2 Rfd8 15.h3!
Amazing! Nigel seems to think that he has plenty of time. Anyway, if he can
afford such a move, his position cannot be so bad. 15...Qb7. Black is
now ready for d5. 16.Qe3 d5 17.Be5
17...Nxe4. 17...dxe4?! is by no means a transposition. After 18.Qg3!
Kh8 19.Nxe4 Ne8 20.Rae1 White is in the driving seat. 18.Nxe4 dxe4 19.Qxe4
Bd5 20.Qg4 g6 21.Qf4 c5
22.Bf3. 22.Kg1!? is interesting. Black has to do something against
Rad1 and Rxd5. After 22...Qb4?! 23.c4 Be6 24.Bc3 Qb8 25.Qh6 Black could be lost.
22...f5 23.Bc3 Bd6 24.Qh4 Bxf3 25.Rxf3. 25.Qf6?! is too optimistic.
After 25...Bxg2+ 26.Kg1 Be4! there is no mate. 25...Qf7 26.Re1 Re8 27.Rfe3
Rxe3 28.Rxe3 Bf8 29.b3 Rc8 30.Qe1. Nigel still has annoying pressure. I
have to admit, that the a5-pawn is a strong trump now. 30...c4 31.b4 f4?
Did he overlook 36.Rf6? Now everything is forced. 32.Re6! f3 33.Qe5 Bg7
34.Qxg7+ Qxg7 35.Bxg7 f2 36.Rf6 Kxg7 37.Rxf2 c3 38.Rf4 Rd8. The best chance
– sStarting with 38...g5? is even worse after 39.Rd4! 39.Rc4 Rd1+ 40.Kh2
Rb1 41.Kg3 Rb2 42.Rxc3 Rxb4 43.Rc6 g5 44.Kf3 Rb5 45.Rxa6 Rc5
46.c4! It is important for White to protect his passed pawn from the
side. Nigel could not keep both queenside-pawns anyway. So he makes sure that
he gets Rb6 and a6 in. 46...Rxc4 47.Rb6 h5 48.a6 Ra4 49.Ke3 Ra2 50.Rb7+ Kf6
51.a7 Kf5 52.g3 Ra4 53.Kd3 Ra1 54.Kd4 h4 55.gxh4 gxh4 56.Kc5. On his way
to b8. After Kf4 there is always Rg7. 56...Kf4 57.Rg7 Kf3 58.Kb6
Black resigned. A great game by Nigel! 1-0. [Click
to replay]
Results and standings
|
Nat. |
Rtng. |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
Tot. |
Perf |
Nigel Short |
ENG |
2706 |
0 |
1 |
½ |
½ |
1 |
|
3.0 |
2724 |
Zahar Efimenko |
UKR |
2654 |
1 |
0 |
½ |
½ |
0 |
|
2.0 |
2636 |
Remaining schedule of the Short-Efimenko match
Saturday |
26 September |
16.30h |
Game six: Efimenko-Short |
Links
The games are being broadcast live on the official
web site and on the chess server Playchess.com.
If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase
Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program
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