Spanish Team Championship, Round 4: Solvay grabs the lead

Beniaján Duochess and Magic Extremadura win

No team has managed to get a clear lead so far in the “División de Honor” of the Spanish Team Championships. Andreu Paterna was leading by a match point after three rounds, but a 3½:2½ loss against Beniaján Duochess means they are now sharing second place. Two of the three former chasers — Solvay and Silla Bosch Serinsys — won on Saturday and are now sharing the lead, while Gros Xake Taldea lost against Magic Extremadura to fall down in the standings.

Nevertheless, Beniaján Duochess and Gros Xake Taldea, currently two points behind the leaders, still have chances to get the title, given how hard-fought the tournament has been so far. This optimistic perspective might change drastically after round 5 though, when they will face Solvay and Andreu Paterna respectively — a loss for either team is out of the question if they want to remain in the fight for first place.

Silla Bosch Serinsys 4:2 Jaime Casas

Victories on boards 4 and 5 gave Silla Bosch Serinsys two match points in their encounter against Jaime Casas. Álvar Alonso beat former U14 world champion Pedro Ginés with the black pieces. After Ginés faltered on move 15, Alonso was ruthless in the conversion of his advantage while handling a complex tactical position:

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Alonso calculated correctly that he could play 19...bxc3 here, as after 20.e7+ Rd7 21.Bf3 he has 21...Nd3+ 22.Rxd3 cxd3 and the passed pawn on the d-file is too strong. White resigned six moves later.

Silla Bosch Serinsys has fielded the same six players in all rounds so far, and none of their representatives has scored more than 2½ points — although it is also true that none of them has collected less than 2 points by now!

Solvay 5:1 Collado Villalba

The other co-leaders were merciless against Collado Villalba in a matchup that saw decisive results on all six boards. Three of the players from Solvay that won on Saturday are showing great performances in the tournament: Polish couple Bartosz and Monicka Socko, each with 3/4 scores so far, and FM Alberto Martín, who has a perfect 3/3, with two of his victories coming over higher-rated players than him.

Solvay v Collado Villalba | Photo: FEDA

Magic Extremadura 4:2 Gros Xake Taldea

While board 3 of the Gros Xake Taldea, Arkadij Naiditsch, continued to impress by obtaining his fourth consecutive win on Saturday, this time against Igor Kovalenko, his team was not as lucky in the match against Magic Extremadura.  

Much like the Sockos for Solvay, a chess couple was key for Magic Extremadura in their victory from round 4, as Ivan Cheparinov and Antoaneta Stefanova both won their games with the white pieces. Cheparinov saw his opponent, Etienne Bacrot, miscalculating early in the game:

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Black spent almost 20 minutes considering the imprecise 16...Bxc3. After 17.Qxc3 Bacrot probably had evaluated that 17...Nxe4 was good for him, but then came 18.Qc2 Qe5 19.Bd2 f5 20.f3:

White is already in the driver’s seat, but now it was time to cut the losses and try to defend an inferior queenless position with 20...Qc5+ 21.Qxc5 Nxc5 22.Bxf5. Bacrot opted for 20...Rad8 instead, and found himself forced to resign after 21.fxe4 Qd4+ 22.Re3 (the only move that keeps the advantage) fxe4 23.Bxe4 and White “has the material and the compensation”.

Magic Extremadura will try to continue its ascent in the standings in round 5, when they will face Jaime Casas.

Beniaján Duochess 3½:2½ Andreu Paterna

The favourites by rating from Beniaján scored their second win of the event after suffering back-to-back losses in rounds 2 and 3. Nils Grandelius and Spanish women’s champion Sabrina Vega got the full points against Andreu Paterna. 

Beniaján Duochess will be the rating favourite on all boards in their coming matchup against the over-performing Solvay on Sunday.

David Antón (Beniaján Duochess) | Photo: FEDA

Standings after Round 4

Pairings - Round 5

Beating the Berlin Defence

Ever since the Kasparov-Kramnik WCh match (London 2000) players with the white pieces have been breaking their teeth biting on the Berlin Wall in the Ruy Lopez. The situation from White’s point of view has become precarious – ducking it is equivalent to capitulation, because in all alternative variations to the Berlin endgame White gives up from the start on the struggle for an opening advantage. White has to find ways to crack open Black’s defence. There is hardly any other grandmaster of his class who is as well known for his uncompromising and creative play as the Latvian Alexei Shirov.

All games

Links

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