Spanish Team Championship, Round 5: Silla Bosch Serinsys tops the standings

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
9/28/2020 – With two rounds to go, Silla Bosch Serinsys has grabbed a one-point lead at the Spanish Team Championship taking place in Linares. Magic Extremadura defeated Jaime Casas in round five to climb to sole second place, while Beniaján Duochess, Solvay and Andreu Paterna still have chances to fight for the title as they stand two points behind the leading squad. | Pictured: Pia Cramling v Raquel Pablos | Photo: Spanish Chess Federation
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An all-around strong team

Silla Bosch Serinsys is the only team not to have a single player below the fifty percent mark after five rounds at the Spanish Team Championship in Linares. Led by Anton Korobov and Alexei Shirov, the Valencian squad has scored 19½ out of 30 board points so far and goes into the last two rounds of the event in the sole lead.

Nonetheless, a massive tie for first might be seen after round 6 if Beniaján Duochess beats the leading team on Monday. Beniaján is currently two points behind Silla Bosch Serinsys, much like Solvay and Andreu Paterna. Andreu Paterna will be playing second-placed Magic Extremadura while Solvay will face Gros Xake Taldea. 

Magic Extremadura beat Jaime Casas on Sunday to climb to second place in the standings.

Irina Bulmaga, Antoaneta Stefanova

Irina Bulmaga (Jaime Casas) v Antoaneta Stefanova (Magic Extremadura)

Silla Bosch Serinsys 6:0 Collado Villalba

Getting wins on all six boards against the tailenders from Collado Villalba might be of great relevance for Silla Bosch Serinsys if a tie for first place in match points means board points end up deciding the winner of the event.

In his second straight win, Álvar Alonso defeated Liudmila Kolotilina in attacking style with the white pieces:

 

18.f5 Qe7 19.Ng4 Ne5 20.Qh6 followed, and White has his queen, two knights and potentially the rooks ready to attack. Kolotilina quickly cracked under pressure and Alonso ended up getting the full point after 32 moves. 

 

Beniaján Duochess 4:2 Solvay

After surprisingly losing two matches in a row in rounds 2 and 3, the rating favourites from Beniaján Duochess have bounced back with back-to-back victories over Andreu Paterna and now Solvay. 

David Navara’s first win of the event was a fine effort against Niclas Huschenbeth’s Petroff Defence. The Czech star opened up the position for his bishop pair on move 24:

 

White correctly assessed it was time to go for it with his better-developed army — 24.g4 hxg4 25.fxg4 Be4 (25...Qxg4 was better) and Navara continued the onslaught making use of Black’s weakness along the h1-a8 diagonal:

 

After 26.Bxb6 capturing the bishop would be disastrous, so Huschenbeth opted for 26...Rxh2, but Navara had foreseen 27.Rxe4 Qxe4 28.Bg1 Qxg4, attacking the d1-rook. There followed 29.Bxh2 Qxd1 Bg2+ and then came Black’s decisive mistake:

 

30...Kb8 would have kept the game going, although Black will have trouble defending with his awfully-placed rook and knight. Instead, 30...c6 was punished by 31.Bf3 Qf1 32.Bxd6 Qf2 33.Qe5 Rc8 34.Qe7+ Kb6, with mate-in-four on the board:

 

35.c5+ Kxb5 36.Be2+ and Black resigned.

 

Spanish Team Championship 2020

Solvay v Beniaján Duochess

Gros Xake Taldea 3:3 Andreu Paterna

Andreu Paterna could be sharing second place had Julen Arizmendi not faltered in a sharp position against Gros Xake Taldea’s Santiago González

 

Black is two pawns up, but White controls the dark-squared long diagonal and has just played 21.Kh1, planning to place his rook on the g-file. At this point, Black needed to be extremely precise in defence and play 21...h6, giving his king a square to escape the attacks. Arizmendi’s 21...Rfe8, on the other hand, lost quickly to 22.Rg1 Kf8 23.Qb4+ gaining the light-squared bishop. Black resigned.

Daniil Yuffa tied the score for Andreu Paterna, as he beat Alejandro Franco on board 4. Yuffa has yet to draw a game in Linares — he has won three and lost two so far in the event.

 

Magic Extremadura 4:2 Jaime Casas

Much like the current leaders, Magic Extremadura has used the same six players in all five rounds of the event. Unlike the Valencians, however, one of their representatives is having a tough time, which means his teammates need to step up to score match victories. Igor Kovalenko lost his third game of the championship on Sunday, but wins on all three bottom boards gave Magic the win that left them in sole second place with two rounds to go.

Emilio Moreno took advantage of Joaquín Antolí’s weakened kingside to win with white on board 6:

 

24.Nh2 opened up the d1-h5 diagonal and after 24...Kg7 25.Qh5 c6 26.Ng4 Rh8 27.Nxf6 Kxf6 White decisively opened up the position against Black’s uncoordinated army:

 

28.f4, of course. Black’s resignation came shortly after — 28...Kg7 29.fxg5 Qg8 30.gxh6+ Kf8 31.Qxe5 dxe4 32.Qb8+ 1-0

 

Spanish Team Championship 2020

Jaime Casas v Magic Extremadura

Standings after Round 5

# Team MP BP City
1 C.A. SILLA - BOSCH SERINSYS 8 19.5 Silla (Valencia)
2 C.A. MAGIC EXTREMADURA 7 17 Mérida (Badajoz)
3 C.A.C. BENIAJÁN - DUOCHESS 6 17 Beniaján (Murcia)
4 C.A. SOLVAY 6 17 Torrelavega (Cantabria)
5 C.A. ANDREU PATERNA 6 16.5 Paterna (Valencia)
6 GROS XAKE TALDEA 5 14 San Sebastián (Guipúzcoa)
7 C.A. JAIME CASAS 2 13 Monzón (Huesca)
8 C.A. COLLADO VILLALBA 0 6 Collado Villalba (Madrid)

Pairings - Round 6

1 C.A. MAGIC EXTREMADURA 2572 ESP - C.A. ANDREU PATERNA 2582 ESP
1 GM Cheparinov, Ivan 2686 GEO - GM Van Foreest, Jorden 2682 NED
2 GM Kovalenko, Igor 2645 LAT - GM Vallejo Pons, Francisco 2710 ESP
3 GM Santos Latasa, Jaime 2588 ESP - GM Howell, David W L 2663 ENG
4 GM Perez Candelario, Manuel 2604 ESP - GM Yuffa, Daniil 2583 RUS
5 GM Stefanova, Antoaneta 2462 BUL - GM Arizmendi Martinez, Julen Luis 2491 ESP
6 IM Moreno Tejera, Emilio 2446 ESP - IM Garcia Martin, Marta 2328 ESP
2 C.A. SOLVAY 2516 ESP - GROS XAKE TALDEA 2480 ESP
1 GM Huschenbeth, Niclas 2612 GER - GM Bacrot, Etienne 2673 FRA
2 GM Socko, Bartosz 2601 POL - GM Naiditsch, Arkadij 2624 AZE
3 GM Korneev, Oleg 2517 ESP - IM Paehtz, Elisabeth 2472 GER
4 GM Ubilava, Elizbar 2461 ESP - IM Franco Alonso, Alejandro 2409 ESP
5 GM Socko, Monika 2404 POL - IM Gonzalez De La Torre, Santiago 2421 ESP
6 FM Martin Fuentes, Alberto 2397 ESP - IM Argandona Riveiro, Inigo 2424 ESP
3 C.A. SILLA - BOSCH SERINSYS 2608 ESP - C.A.C. BENIAJÁN - DUOCHESS 2623 ESP
1 GM Korobov, Anton 2688 UKR - GM Navara, David 2707 CZE
2 GM Shirov, Alexei 2647 ESP - GM Anton Guijarro, David 2688 ESP
3 GM Abasov, Nijat 2664 AZE - GM Grandelius, Nils 2662 SWE
4 GM Alonso Rosell, Alvar 2554 ESP - GM Ibarra Jerez, Jose Carlos 2561 ESP
5 GM Cuenca Jimenez, Jose Fernando 2535 ESP - GM Asis Gargatagli, Hipolito 2479 ESP
6 GM Cramling, Pia 2464 SWE - IM Vega Gutierrez, Sabrina 2380 ESP
4 C.A. JAIME CASAS 2532 ESP - C.A. COLLADO VILLALBA 2404 ESP
1 GM Kryvoruchko, Yuriy 2682 UKR - GM Vazquez Igarza, Renier 2551 ESP
2 GM Kuzubov, Yuriy 2643 UKR - IM Martin Duque, Jesus 2402 ESP
3 GM Forcen Esteban, Daniel 2556 ESP - IM Suarez Uriel, Adrian 2341 ESP
4 IM Bulmaga, Irina 2434 ROU - WFM Kolotilina, Liudmila 2226 ESP
5 IM Antoli Royo, Joaquin Miguel 2429 ESP - Cao Armillas, Jesus 2060 ESP
6 IM Del Rey, Diego 2381 ESP - Pablos Tenrero, Raquel 2043 ESP

All games

 

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Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.

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