'The Nutcracker' Rd2: The Kings strike back
12/22/2014 – With the lineups favoring the 'Kings' in both experience and Elo, it was clear the 'Princes' could not be reasonably expected to hold onto their opening edge for long, and sure enough in round two, Morozevich avenged his round one loss by beating Vladimir Fedoseev in the second round. Artemiev once again emerged up material in an endgame, but could not ooutsmart Shirov. Round two report.
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"The Nutcracker" will follow the original formula: the first four days the team members will fight each other in classical time controls of 60 moves in 120 minutes plus 15 minutes for the rest of the game including a 30 second increment as of move 61; and then the last two two days will be devoted to rapid chess with two rounds per player match-up played at 15 minutes plus ten seconds increment per move. The competition will use the Zurich scoring system: two points for each classical chess win, with one for a draw, and in rapid each win will be worth one point and a draw only half.
Round two
The game between Vladislav Artemiev and Alexei Shirov was by all means a success or the younger GM, except the result. In this game he opted for a Reti, perhaps not wishing to challenge Shirov in deep theoretical waters, and led to strange opening play by both parties. Komodo is quick to criticize both players for less than optimal play, but the truth be told, it is mere quibbling and neither really missed anything staggering.
Vladislav Artemiev has managed to come out ahead material in both his games so far. All
that is missing are the points that should accompany.
A key turning point was when Artemiev and Shirov repeated the position on move 27, but the young player no doubt smelled a rat, and correctly deviated before the third as he was better. By move 37 he emerged with a clear extra pawn in a rook and bishop endgame, but the opposite colored bishops meant that converting it would be exceptionally difficult and despite a valiant effort he found no way to outplay Shirov.
Oparin (left) chose to challenge Dreev in a line the latter knew well, but failed to bring a
destabilizing novelty to justify his choice
Gregoriy Oparin faced Alexey Dreev in a topical line of the Meran in a line that Dreev was quite knowledgeable, having played it in 2008 against Moiseenko. It was an honest struggle, but neither player managed anything and they drew on move 43.
The game of the day was Alexander Morozevich's win over Vladimir Fedoseev by virtue of also being the only decisive game of the day. Fedoseev played a Classical Nimzo-Indian in which Black concedes a pawn on c7 in exchange for superior development, however the main problem is that while he may get compensation, the queens are off as a result, making it hard to properly exploit.
Peter Leko (center) analyzes the game with live commentator GM Sergey Ruyblevsky (left)
and his opponent GM Daniil Dubov (right)
Daniil Dubov chose a mainline French with 3...Bb4, but deviated early from common lines with 4.e4 c5 5.a3 Ba5. It failed to yield anything and the Hungarian held an edge throughout the game that he as unable to improve on as the pieces came off.
With Morozevich's win the 'Kings' restore balance against the 'Princes' and the match is tied up.
Photos by Vladimir Barsky
Current classical standings
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