5/11/2017 – With a brand new sponsor, the TePe Sigeman & Co Chess tournament is back! The five-round event is being held in Malmo, Sweden. The tournament features a strong contention in the form of Nigel Short, Pavel Eljanov, Baadur Jobava, Nils Grandelius, Erik Blomqvist and Harika Dronavalli. And Short is off to a 'dream' start as he explained in his one-line tweet after the game. Report with grandmaster analysis.
new: Power Fritz 18
Fritz has fascinated the chess world for 30 years. And the success story continues. In Vienna, the most popular chess program ever was once again able to underline its premier position: the newly developed neural engine with NNUE technology won the official Chess Software World Championship!
Nigel Short takes us on an electrifying journey through a very rich chess career, which saw him beat no less than twelve world champions. His experience in tournaments and matches all over the world – Short has visited a total of 89 countries – can be seen in the narratives that precede the games which he annotates with humour and instructive insights.
Sigeman: 'One doesn't need Viagra after a finish like this,' says Nigel
Photos by Lars OA Hedlund
Nigel Short during the opening ceremony.
Short's game stood tall in a fighting day of chess in Sigeman and Co. All the three games turned out to be interesting, but while Harika and Grandelius stood solid with Black, Erik wasn’t up to the task.
Nigel Short--fully charged for the first round.
In the receiving end: Swedish GM Erik Blomqvist (2546).
Short played 13.Bg5 in a well known tabiya in the Ruy Lopez Zaitsev. I am not sure if Black was right to respond traditionally with the c6 break plan, and when he did so, he reached a position on the 18th move where he had to solve a complex problem.
After a couple of inaccuracies, it was all easy for White. Short reached climax with Qg7+!
[Event "23rd Sigeman & Co 2017"] [Site "Malmo SWE"] [Date "2017.05.10"] [Round "1"] [White "Short, N."] [Black "Blomqvist, E."] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C92"] [WhiteElo "2688"] [BlackElo "2546"] [Annotator "Srinath,Narayanan"] [PlyCount "71"] [EventDate "2017.05.10"] 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. c3 O-O 9. h3 Bb7 10. d4 Re8 11. Nbd2 Bf8 12. d5 Nb8 13. Nf1 Nbd7 14. Bg5 $5 { [%csl Gd5] A relatively rare move, but a typical idea. I suspect one of the ideas is to retain the knight on f1 to have the option of jumping to e3 when Black plays the inevitable c6 break. The d5 square is a very important strategic point in this position, so I suppose Bg5,Ne3 makes logical sense.} ( 14. Ng3 Nc5 15. Bc2 c6 {is the typical idea in these lines.} 16. b4 Ncd7 17. dxc6 Bxc6 18. Bb3 h6 19. Nh2 a5 20. a3 Bb7) (14. N3h2 Nc5 15. Bc2 c6 16. b4 Ncd7 17. dxc6 Bxc6 18. Bg5 h6 19. Bxf6 Nxf6 20. Ng4 {[%csl Gd5]}) 14... Nc5 ( 14... h6 15. Bh4 Be7 $5 {was an interesting way to react against this idea. Black didn't play c6 the whole game, taking the fight for d5 out of the equation.} 16. a4 (16. Ng3 g6 {seems to make the h4 bishop awkward.}) 16... g6 17. N3h2 Kg7 18. Ng4 Nxg4 19. Bxe7 Qxe7 20. Qxg4 Reb8 21. Ne3 Qd8 22. axb5 axb5 23. Qe2 Rxa1 24. Rxa1 Ra8 25. Rc1 Ba6 26. Qe1 Nf6 27. Bc2 Bc8 28. Ra1 Bd7 29. Rxa8 Qxa8 30. Kh2 h5 31. f3 Qa2 32. Nd1 c6 33. dxc6 Bxc6 34. Qe3 d5 35. Qb6 Qc4 36. b3 Qe2 37. Qxc6 {1/2-1/2 (37) Szymanski,R (2408)-Maver,I (2332) ICCF 2014}) 15. Bc2 c6 16. Ne3 {I think this plays into White's hands.} a5 (16... h6 17. Bxf6 Qxf6 18. b4 Nd7 19. a4 $14) 17. b4 Ncd7 18. a4 $5 {[#]} Qc7 $6 {Black faces a difficult problem.The classic rule is to maintain tension in the position as much as possible, but here it runs into a concrete refutation.} ( 18... cxd5 $142 19. Nxd5 Bxd5 20. exd5 {not an easy decision to take.} Qc7 21. axb5 axb4 22. Rxa8 Rxa8 23. cxb4 Qc4 24. Bd3 Qxb4 $11) (18... axb4 $142 19. cxb4 h6 20. Bh4 (20. Bxf6 Nxf6 21. dxc6 Bxc6 22. Nd5 (22. a5 d5 23. exd5 Bb7 $44) 22... Nxd5 23. exd5 Bd7 24. a5 f5 25. Rc1 $132) 20... cxd5 21. exd5 g5 22. Bg3 Nb6 23. h4 $36) 19. dxc6 Qxc6 20. axb5 Qxc3 21. bxa5 Rxa5 22. Rc1 $1 Qb4 23. Ng4 Qxb5 $2 {the decisive mistake.} (23... Nxg4 24. Bd2 Qxb5 $1 (24... Qa3 25. hxg4 Raa8 26. Ng5 $1 $16) (24... Nxf2 25. Bxb4 Nxd1 26. Bxa5 Nb2 27. Bb4 $18) 25. Rb1 Ngf6 26. Bxa5 (26. Rxb5 Rxb5 $44) 26... Qxa5 27. Rxb7 Nc5 28. Rb1 g6 {with some compensation on the dark squares.}) 24. Rb1 Qa6 25. Bxf6 Nxf6 26. Nxf6+ gxf6 27. Nh4 $16 {[#]} Bc8 28. Bb3 Be6 29. Qh5 Rc8 30. Nf5 Ra3 31. Re3 { game over.} Rxb3 32. Rexb3 Bxb3 33. Rxb3 Rc1+ 34. Kh2 Qf1 35. Qg4+ Kh8 36. Qg7+ {[#]} 1-0
The Georgian Tromp.
Jobava took the game out of well known theoretical lines and seemed to have a slight edge after 13.Qxb6 instead of 13.Ke2, which was a typical human move. After that point, Black achieved equality and held the game solidly, without a trace of chance.
Harika, who has made it a habit to win the 'Best Woman' prize in Opens around the world can rest assured about her 'title' in this tournament.
Harika’s game was slightly more eventful. In a Reti double fianchetto, Harika handled the opening in a strange way and it seemed better for White after 10 moves.
Pavel Eljanov with white could have done better?
I believe that White should have used a different approach to play against b5 and also should have kept the option to castle more flexible. The approach played in the text allowed Black adequate counter-play and Harika didn’t commit another inaccuracy.
[Event "23rd Sigeman & Co 2017"] [Site "Malmo SWE"] [Date "2017.05.10"] [Round "1"] [White "Eljanov, P."] [Black "Harika, D."] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "A05"] [WhiteElo "2755"] [BlackElo "2531"] [Annotator "Srinath,Narayanan"] [PlyCount "81"] [EventDate "2017.05.10"] 1. Nf3 Nf6 2. b3 d6 3. d4 g6 4. Bb2 Bg7 5. g3 Bd7 $5 {A strange move, not played much in this position so far.} (5... c5 6. Bg2 (6. dxc5 Qa5+ 7. Nbd2 Qxc5 $11 {[%csl Rb2,Rf2][%cal Gf6g4]}) 6... cxd4 7. Nxd4 d5 8. O-O O-O { is normal.}) 6. Bg2 Qc8 7. h4 O-O 8. c4 c5 9. Nc3 Nc6 $2 10. d5 Ne5 11. Nxe5 dxe5 {White should be better here.} 12. Qd2 Rb8 {[#]} 13. a4 $6 {Black's idea is b5 alright, but I don't think a4-a5 effectively prevents this. With the centre closed, it was also idea for White to delay castling/keep the king and rook's role more flexible.} (13. Nd1 $142 Qc7 14. Rc1 a6 15. e4 {[%cal Gg2f3, Gh4h5] was probably better, preparing against b5, which looks like Black's only counterplay.}) 13... a6 14. O-O Ne8 15. a5 Nd6 {I don't think this approach fights effectively against Black's counter-play in this position.} 16. Qc2 Qc7 {I think here Black has already enough counte-play which comes very fast.} 17. e4 b5 18. axb6 Qxb6 19. Ra3 Nxc4 20. bxc4 Qxb2 21. Qxb2 Rxb2 22. Na4 Bxa4 23. Rxa4 Bh6 24. Rxa6 Rb4 25. Ra7 Re8 26. Rc7 Rxc4 27. Ra1 Rc1+ 28. Rxc1 Bxc1 29. Bf1 Kf8 30. Bc4 Rd8 31. g4 Bb2 32. Kg2 h6 33. Rb7 Bc3 34. Kg3 Bd2 35. Rc7 Bc1 36. Kf3 Bd2 37. Ke2 Bc1 38. Kd3 Bb2 39. Rb7 Bd4 40. Ke2 Bc3 41. Rc7 1/2-1/2
Srinath NarayananSrinath is a 23-year-old Indian Grandmaster. A former World Under 12 champion, at the age of fourteen he became an IM and had shown surprising and unswerving loyalty to the title ever since, until March 2017, when he crossed the 2500 mark and completed the requirements to become a grandmaster. He loves chess and likes to play in tournaments all around the globe.
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