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After two victories, Luke McShane's run ended abruptly, as he suffered losses in rounds three and five, against Tamir Nabaty and Evgeny Postny. In the third round, the Israeli grandmaster rejected the invitation to the King's Indian Defence and responded with a system that had rarely been played. The Englishman got on the wrong track surprisingly quickly, found no antidote to White's initiative and was forced to resign on just move 25.
Black literally stands with his back to the wall. After the brutal 25.♕f6 it was all over.
Nabaty turn at the top was short-lived, as he was immediately dealt a loss in round four at the hands of Leinier Dominguez. The Elo favourite coming in at 2760 to the Netanya Chess Festival won a rook ending and moved to plus two and into the tournament lead.
Chess Endgames 8 - Practical Rook Endgames
Rook endings are amongst the most frequently encountered endgames there are, and so your training effort will be quickly repaid in the form of half and full points. Knowing even a few rules of thumb and key methods makes life a great deal easier and provides a guiding light even in complex positions. This DVD focuses on the important themes which are to be found in common rook endings.
Dominguez was the only player with 3 out of 4. But Daniil Dubov also picked up a victory over Evgeny Postny.
Black put the question to the white rook here but Dubov's answer was 21.♘xd4 ♛xe5 22.♘c6 ♞xc6 23.♖xd5 ♜xd6 24.♖xd6 ♛xb5 Dubov snatched the exchange.
Daniil Dubov
Maxim Rodshtein celebrated the third victory on the day against Peter Svidler, with the black pieces. Svidler was a bit unsuccessful in the opening and had an edge for most of the game.
Here came the decisive blow with 37...♞xc5 38.♕xc5 ♝d6 and White gave up.
Dominguez played a short draw in the fifth round against Ilya Smirin and maintained the lead with his 3½ points, but had to watch as Daniil Dubov drew even with him; Dubov bested Maxim Rodshtein and scored a whole point in a sideline of the Tarrasch Defence.
Are you looking for an active defence against 1.d4? Look no further! The Tarrasch Defence (1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 c5) is one of Black's most ambitious ways to meet 1.d4.
Rodshtein simply has no satisfactory way to defend his bishop, given the weakness of his king. Black's pieces all pile on: 39.♗f2 (or 39.Qc5 Qf3 40.Bf2 Bd5) 39...♜e2 40.♕c5 ♛f3 0-1
Postny celebrated the second win of the day over McShane, after the latter blundered in a minor piece endgame on move 63.
63...♞b6? didn't offer the stiffest resistance as White's king was able to rapidly penetrate the black position. 64.♔d3 ♞c4 65.♔c3 ♚d7 66.♔b4 ♞d6 67.♔a5 ♚c7 68.♔a6 ♚b8 69.♔b6 etc.
The sixth round on Friday took place already this morning, so as to be over in time for Shabbat. Saturday, the Sabbath, is the tournament's rest day.
Dominguez picked up the pace again and scored another full point with a mating attack against Postny.
With 36.♖xg6 Dominguez launched his final assault. 36...♜xg6 37.♖xg6 ♝xf5 38.exf5 ♛d7 39.f6 1-0 (with a very pretty mate: 39...Rf7 40.Rg8+ Kxg8 41.Qg7#).
Dominguez is now in the driver's seat | Photos: Yoav Nisenbaum / imt.chess.org.il
Dubov had to settle for a draw against McShane and fell half a point back in the fight for the lead.
Boris Gelfand celebrated his first full point after five draws. The 2012 World Championship challenger defeated Ilya Smirin.
Gelfand had fought Smirin's treasured King's India Defence in the Classic Main Line with the unusual move 9.♗g5 and gained an advantage heading into the middlegame. Here Gelfand was able to win with 30.♗h7+ ♚h8 31.♘f7+ ♚xh7 32.♕g6+ ♔g8 33.♘e5#. But the prosaic 30.♘f3, is also of course quite enough. (30...♛f6 31.♕g6). Black gave up.
After a few setbacks, Maxim Rodshtein was again back to his winning ways, and scored a point against Pavel Eljanov.
In the Open, the Elo favourite Anton Korobov lost a wild game against Dmitry Svetushkin in round three and the Moldavian has won 2½/3 since. His latest victim was David Gorodetzky, when Svetushkin uncorked a brutal rook sacrifice:
33.♖xf7!! ♜xf7 34.♕xe6 and both black rooks are under attack. 34...♜cc7 35.♕g4 was not the most precise (that would be 35.Qd6!) but good enough.
Translation from German and additional reporting: Macauley Peterson
