Beating the Rossolimo
In the latest instalment of his weekly show, Daniel King looked at what he dubbed as the “raging Rossolimo”, where he analysed a game from the Sitges tournament, in which Aditya Samant managed to upset Adhiban from the white side of the Sicilian system. A few days later, Karthikeyan Murali opted to use the same opening with black in the all-important encounter against co-leader Kirill Alekseenko. The Russian prevailed to keep his perfect score and go into the rest day as the sole leader.
Before Friday’s round, the co-leaders had five players standing a half point behind. Only one of them managed to score a full point, though, and is now in sole second place — Armenian grandmaster Karen Grigoryan, who defeated 2021 European champion Anton Demchenko with the white pieces.
With four rounds to go, set to take place between Monday and Thursday, nine players are sharing third place on 5 out of 6, including the top two seeds in Sitges, Yu Yangyi from China and Hans Niemann from the United States.
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 e6 4.Bxc6 bxc6 5.d3 Qc7 6.0-0 Ne7 7.Re1 e5 8.c3 d6 9.d4 Ng6 10.dxc5 dxc5 11.Nbd2 Be7 12.Nc4 0-0 13.Be3 Be6 14.Qa4 a5 15.Nfd2 Qb7 16.b3 Rfd8 17.Nb2 Qc8 18.f3 h5 19.Rad1 Nh4 20.Nbc4 20...Bh3! 20...Qc7 21.Re2 21.gxh3 Qxh3 22.Re2 Nxf3+ 23.Kh1 Nxd2 24.Rdxd2 Qf3+ 25.Kg1 Rxd2 26.Rxd2 Qg4+ 27.Kf1 Qxe4 21...Bxg2 21...Be6 22.Rxg2 Nxg2 23.Kxg2 23...Qe6 23...Rd3 24.Re1 Qd8 25.Nf1 Rxc3 24.Nb2 Rd6 25.Qc4 Qg6+ 26.Kh1 Bg5 27.Qxc5?! 27.f4! Bxf4 28.Bxf4 exf4 29.Rg1 Qe6 30.Qe2 Rad8 31.Nf3± 27.Rg1?! Bxe3! 28.Rxg6 Rxg6 27...Rad8 28.Rg1 28...Bxe3? 28...Rxd2! 29.Bxd2 Rxd2 30.Qxe5 Qf6 31.Qxf6 Bxf6 32.Rg2 Rxg2 33.Kxg2 Bxc3= 29.Qxe3 Qxg1+ 29...Qf6 30.Ndc4+- 30.Qxg1 Rxd2 31.Qb6 R8d7 32.Qxc6 Rd8 33.Qc7 R8d7 34.Qxe5 Rd8 35.Qe7 1–0
Pavel Eljanov explains in depth what Gyula Breyer already saw in 1911 and what became an opening choice of the likes of Kasparov, Kramnik, Anand or Carlsen. The Breyer Variation, which is characterised by the knight retreat to b8.
A game from the fifth round illustrated how important it is to calculate precisely in pawn endgames. Our in-house expert, GM Karsten Müller, looked at a position with only kings and pawns on the board which saw a 2400+ rated player faltering and losing the game.
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.d3 d6 7.c4 Bg4 8.Be3 Nd7 9.Nbd2 0-0 10.h3 Bxf3 11.Nxf3 Bf6 12.Bxc6 bxc6 13.b4 Qb8 14.Qa4 Qb7 15.Nd2 Nb6 16.Qc2 Nc8 17.Rab1 Ne7 18.a4 Qc8 19.b5 Qd7 20.Rb3 axb5 21.axb5 Rfb8 22.Rfb1 h6 23.Qd1 Qe6 24.bxc6 Nxc6 25.Rxb8+ Rxb8 26.Rxb8+ Nxb8 27.Qa4 Kh7 28.Qa8 Nd7 29.Qc6 Bd8 30.c5 dxc5 31.Qxe6 fxe6 32.Nb3 Be7 33.Kf1 Kg6 34.Ke2 Kf7 35.Kd2 c4 36.dxc4 Bb4+ 37.Kc2 Nb6 38.Kd3 Na4 39.Kc2 Nb6 40.Nd2 Bxd2 41.Bxb6 cxb6 42.Kxd2 Ke7 43.Kc3 Kd6 44.Kb4 44...Kc6? 44...g5‼ 45.Kb5 45.g4 Kc6= 45...Kc7 46.g3 46.g4 Kb7 47.c5 bxc5 48.Kxc5 Kc7 49.f3 Kd7 50.Kb6 Kd6= 46...h5 47.c5 bxc5 48.Kxc5 g4 49.h4 Kd7 50.Kb6 Kd6= 45.h4! g6 45...g5 46.hxg5 hxg5 47.f3 Kc7 48.Kb5 Kb7 49.c5 bxc5 50.Kxc5 Kc7 51.g3 Kd7 52.Kb6 Kd6 53.g4 Kd7 54.Kb7 Kd6 55.Kc8 Kc5 55...Ke7 56.Kc7 Kf8 57.Kd6 Kf7 58.Kd7 Kf6 59.Ke8 Kg6 60.Ke7+- 56.Kd7 Kd4 57.Kxe6 Ke3 58.Kxe5 Kxf3 59.Kf5+- 46.f3! 46...g5 46...g5 47.h5 Kc7 48.Kb5 Kb7 49.c5 bxc5 50.Kxc5 Kc7 51.g3 Kd7 52.Kb6 Kd6 53.g4+- 1–0
Standings after round 6
1 |
8 |
|
GM |
Alekseenko Kirill |
|
|
2672 |
6 |
20,5 |
22,5 |
22,50 |
2 |
15 |
|
GM |
Grigoryan Karen H. |
|
|
2619 |
5,5 |
21 |
23,5 |
21,00 |
3 |
2 |
|
GM |
Niemann Hans Moke |
|
|
2698 |
5 |
23 |
25,5 |
20,25 |
4 |
14 |
|
GM |
Karthikeyan Murali |
|
|
2620 |
5 |
22,5 |
25,5 |
19,50 |
5 |
23 |
|
GM |
Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. |
|
|
2607 |
5 |
22 |
24,5 |
20,00 |
6 |
1 |
|
GM |
Yu Yangyi |
|
|
2728 |
5 |
21,5 |
24,5 |
19,75 |
7 |
13 |
|
GM |
Petrosyan Manuel |
|
|
2621 |
5 |
20,5 |
23 |
19,00 |
8 |
6 |
|
GM |
Esipenko Andrey |
|
|
2678 |
5 |
19,5 |
22 |
17,75 |
9 |
24 |
|
GM |
Dardha Daniel |
|
|
2606 |
5 |
19 |
22 |
18,25 |
10 |
29 |
|
GM |
Tin Jingyao |
|
|
2562 |
5 |
18,5 |
21 |
17,50 |
11 |
10 |
|
GM |
Tabatabaei Mohammad Amin |
|
|
2660 |
5 |
18 |
21 |
17,50 |
12 |
18 |
|
GM |
Puranik Abhimanyu |
|
|
2616 |
4,5 |
23 |
27 |
18,75 |
13 |
19 |
|
GM |
Safarli Eltaj |
|
|
2616 |
4,5 |
22 |
24 |
16,75 |
14 |
40 |
|
IM |
Samant Aditya S |
|
|
2470 |
4,5 |
21,5 |
23,5 |
16,25 |
15 |
11 |
|
GM |
Demchenko Anton |
|
|
2632 |
4,5 |
21,5 |
23 |
15,25 |
16 |
22 |
|
GM |
Kollars Dmitrij |
|
|
2610 |
4,5 |
21 |
24 |
17,25 |
17 |
31 |
|
GM |
Sumets Andrey |
|
|
2506 |
4,5 |
21 |
23,5 |
15,75 |
18 |
104 |
|
IM |
Sidhant Mohapatra |
|
|
2337 |
4,5 |
21 |
23 |
16,00 |
19 |
21 |
|
GM |
Adhiban B. |
|
|
2611 |
4,5 |
20,5 |
23,5 |
16,75 |
20 |
28 |
|
GM |
Svane Frederik |
|
|
2568 |
4,5 |
20,5 |
23 |
16,25 |
21 |
20 |
|
GM |
Durarbayli Vasif |
|
|
2612 |
4,5 |
20 |
23 |
16,50 |
22 |
27 |
|
GM |
Kraemer Martin |
|
|
2583 |
4,5 |
20 |
22,5 |
16,25 |
23 |
16 |
|
GM |
Aryan Chopra |
|
|
2618 |
4,5 |
20 |
22 |
15,50 |
24 |
4 |
|
GM |
Cheparinov Ivan |
|
|
2688 |
4,5 |
19,5 |
22,5 |
16,50 |
25 |
12 |
|
GM |
Jones Gawain C B |
|
|
2630 |
4,5 |
19,5 |
22,5 |
16,25 |
26 |
25 |
|
GM |
Sanal Vahap |
|
|
2597 |
4,5 |
19,5 |
22 |
14,75 |
|
50 |
|
GM |
Raja Rithvik R |
|
|
2453 |
4,5 |
19,5 |
22 |
14,75 |
28 |
75 |
|
IM |
Tahay Alexis |
|
|
2400 |
4,5 |
19,5 |
21 |
14,25 |
29 |
63 |
|
IM |
Prraneeth Vuppala |
|
|
2427 |
4,5 |
19 |
22 |
15,75 |
30 |
9 |
|
GM |
Korobov Anton |
|
|
2662 |
4,5 |
19 |
21 |
15,25 |
...326 players
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The repertoire against the Giuoco Pianissimo examined on this video course, provides Black with methods of evading this slightly one-sided pattern, yielding sound play in double-edged positions.
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