
The first-ever international match at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center
of Saint Louis, is taking place from May 17-25, 2011. The marquis match-up features
GM Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine against GM Hikaru Nakamura of Saint Louis. The
Chess Club’s Resident GM Ben Finegold is also taking on 16-year-old GM
Ray Robson, of Florida. Each match consists of six games played with a classical
time control and four rapid games.
Rounds two to four reports
Round two: In both games, White played e4; in both games White
refused to trade queens to remove Black’s castling privilege; and both
games ended in a draw. “I had a pleasant position – two bishops,”
said GM Ruslan Ponomariov about his game against GM Hikaru Nakamura. “This
game requires a lot of analysis. Somehow Hikaru found a way.” In the other
game, resident GM Ben Finegold played the Philidor defense and drew by repetition
on move 29 against young GM Ray Robson. Finegold said he may have played Philidor’s
defense “maybe 20 years ago” and saw Robson had played against it
only two times.

The setup of two matches in Saint Louis

Ray Robson pondering his 17th move in his second game against Ben Feingold
Round three: Hikaru Nakamura evened the score at 1.5 against
GM Ruslan Ponomariov, while Ben Finegold and Ray Robson drew their second straight
game. Nakamura won but was the first to say it was not because of his opening
play with the King’s Indian. His position had doubled a and c pawns at
one point, and his decision to play Na6 on move seven was a deviation from his
preparation. “I spent all day preparing a line…but at the last minute
decided to play Na6,” he said after the game. The Finegold/Robson match
ended in a draw after Finegold forced perpetual check. Instead he could have
played Bd2, which he said was “a way to try to win or lose.”
Ken West
Round four
In spite of having drawn his second round game, Hikaru Nakamura was obviously
not anxious to repeat the opening difficulties he had experienced against Ruslan’s
Berlin. Instead of trying to completely revamp his preparation in it, he chose
1.d4 and a Semi-Slav was the result. This time neither player expereinced any
major issues with the opening or middlegame, and though a few problems arose
for both to solve, the position quickly simplified into a dead equal rook endgame
with little to say about. Note how cleverly we have inserted the pictures in
the exact place they were taken during the games. The lengths to which we will
go!
Nakamura,Hi (2774) - Ponomariov,R (2754) [D31]
Nakamura-Ponomariov Classical Match Saint Louis USA (4), 20.05.2011
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Be7 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bf4 c6 6.e3 Bf5 7.Bd3 Bxd3 8.Qxd3
Nf6 9.Nge2 Nh5 10.Bxb8 Rxb8 11.f3 0-0 12.0-0 f5 13.a3 a6 14.b4 Qd7 15.Rae1 Rbe8
16.Nc1 a5 17.bxa5 Bxa3 18.Nxd5 Bxc1 19.Nb6 Qe6 20.Rxc1 Qxe3+ 21.Qxe3 Rxe3 22.d5
cxd5 23.Nxd5 Re5 24.Rfd1 Nf6 25.Nxf6+ gxf6 26.Rd7

26...Rf7 27.Rcc7 Rxd7 28.Rxd7 Rxa5 29.Rxb7 Ra1+ 30.Kf2 Ra2+ 31.Kg3
f4+ 32.Kxf4 Rxg2 33.h4 Rh2 34.Kg4 Rh1 35.f4 Rh2 36.Rc7 Rh1 37.Ra7 Rh2 38.Ra1
Kg7 39.Ra5 Rh1

40.Ra2 Kg6 41.f5+ Kh6 42.Ra6 Rg1+ 43.Kf4 Rf1+ 44.Kg4 Rg1+ 45.Kh3 Kg7
46.Ra7+ Kg8 47.Ra8+ Kf7 48.Ra7+ Kg8 49.Ra8+ Kg7 50.Ra7+ Kg8 51.Ra8+ ½-½.
The trend for unpredictability in the openings continued into the fourth round
in both games. After essaying a rather offbeat, and less theoretical Philidor
in the second game, Finegold instead went for the ultra theoretical and very
sharp Sicilian Dragon, with the players going for a less common sideline of
the Yugoslav attack. They followed theory for sixteen moves and after a tense,
though not insane, middlegame, which often characterizes this opening, the major
pieces came off and a drawn endgame was the result.
Robson,R (2545) - Finegold,B (2494) [B35]
Robson-Finegold Classical Match Saint Louis USA (4), 20.05.2011
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6 5.Nc3 Bg7 6.Be3 Nf6 7.Bc4 0-0
8.Bb3 d6 9.f3 Bd7 10.Qd2 Nxd4 11.Bxd4 b5 12.a4 b4 13.Nd5 Nxd5 14.Bxg7 Kxg7 15.exd5
Qa5 16.h4 h5 17.g4 Rh8 18.Qd4+ f6 19.Kf2 Qb6 20.Qxb6 axb6 21.Kg3 hxg4 22.fxg4
f5

23.Rae1 Rhe8 24.Rhf1 fxg4 25.Rf4 Bxa4 26.Rxg4 Bxb3 27.cxb3 Ra5 28.Rg5
e5 29.dxe6 Rxg5+ 30.hxg5 Kf8

and draw agreed. Score: 2.5:1.5 for the younger, skinnier player.
Albert Silver
Scoreboard
|
Nat. |
Rtg |
G1 |
G2 |
G3 |
G4 |
G5 |
G6 |
R1 |
R2 |
Tot. |
Perf |
Hikaru Nakamura |
USA |
2774 |
0 |
½ |
1 |
½ |
|
|
|
|
2.0 |
2754 |
Ruslan Ponomariov |
UKR |
2754 |
1 |
½ |
0 |
½ |
|
|
|
|
2.0 |
2774 |
|
Nat. |
Rtg |
G1 |
G2 |
G3 |
G4 |
R1 |
R2 |
R3 |
R4 |
Tot. |
Perf |
Ray Robson |
USA |
2582 |
1 |
½ |
½ |
½ |
|
|
|
|
2.5 |
2582 |
Ben Feingold |
USA |
2494 |
0 |
½ |
½ |
½ |
|
|
|
|
1.5 |
2457 |
|

You can watch extensive commentary of the round in the player on the tournament
page – hours and hours of archived video. Live commentary by IM John
Donaldson and WGM Jennifer Shahade for the next rounds can be found here.
Rounds and commentary are open to club members, and memberships start at just
$5/month for students or $12/month for adults.
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