Valerij Popov GM Valerij Popov annotates online the game 4:


Moscow, game 4,
January, 19, 2002


And so, the match has come to it's middle - will Ivanchuk be able to use his 2nd white color for getting the equality in score? I'd like it :) - then the dreams about tie-break come true - and this is that what we expect - let them play... play! and play!!! :)

Ivanchuk - Ponomariov , game 4.

1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. e4
As in the second game - accepted queen's gambit - again variation with 3.e4 (D20).
3...Nf6 4. e5 Nd5 5. Bxc4 Nb6 6. Bb3 Ivanchuk as usually turns from the main ways by first - 6.Bb3 instead of 6.Bd3.
6...Nc6 7. Ne2 Bf5 8. Nbc3 e6 9. O-O Qd7 10. Be3 O-O-O 11. Qc1
And here he opens the door in his "home laboratory" - 11.Qc1!?N - instead of usual 11.a3, which is considered as only way, for example - 11.a3 h5 12.Qc1 f6 13.Rd1 Qf7 с with unclear struggle Van Wely - Korchnoi, Wijk aan Zee 2000 ... (0-1). Very interesting novelty - and what Ivanchuk's novelty is not interesting?! White is not going to get the square a2 for the possible retreat of b3-bishop and is not going to limit the black knights...
11...Nb4
If he is not going, then here is the possibility for Black to introduce the "bad" knight into the battle 11...Nb4!
12. Rd1 Kb8 13.Nf4 c6
After 13...c6 Black has full control over the d5-square and he is going to start the standart counter-play on K-side.
14. Qd2 h5 15. Qe2 h4
The march h7-h5-h4 - and after this the move f6 - position is unclear. Vasily as in the 2nd game continues the "misterious" queen's manoeuvres Qd1-c1-d2-e2. Then they almost helped...
16. Rac1 Be7 17. a3 N4d5 18. Nd3 f6 19.Bd2 Bxd3 20. Qxd3 f5 21. Ne2 g5 22. Bc2 g4 23. b4 Rdf8 24. Rf1 Qd8
Here I'd like to notice that I've never seen before the match of World Championship like this one(in the bad sense). Of course the mistakes in such matches always happened, but here the speed of decisions in the difficult positions verges to the limits. Looking over this game we can not hope that "everything is ok"... Something concrete and ... unreal.
The giants of chess thought play so that only they understand what happens on the board and the most important they trust each other! Today's game is the confirmation of this trust.
Young player believes that his older colleague plays very strong - simply it's NOT SEEN. :)
When Ponomariov "has come" by the all forces on K-side h5,h4,f6,f5,g5,g4,Rfd8 - Vasily pretended that everything is NORMAL.
25.f4 gxf3ep 26. gxf3 Rfg8+ 27. Kh1 h3 28. f4
And Vasily began to play on the weakest(!) side - 25.f4!? 26.gf!? - very difficult to estimate all of this...
Ivanchuk has organized the weak black h-pawn for ending. And Ruslan beleived that he has to defence. And he did it untill the end of the game... But he could to win!
How? The combination view or the simple engine can to prompt the decision.
And now the prehistory. FIDE fights for the new time control. And the two World Strongest Chess players as the violents opponents of this time control have made the Show in Moscow...
In the short classical chess games, rapid and blitz games they honoured Botvinnik, which this kinds of chess(rapid and blitz) never respected:)/
Of course they tryed, but what in result...
I was promised by my friends to make me laugh - I had only to look the 2nd blitz game of the memorial. You can say that you see nothing to laugh at this. But I laughed at once ...
For those who want to laugh with me I propose the game Popov-Loginov, St.Petersburg 2001. An idea happened in this game must be seen to everybody who has the more or less tactical view. But neither Kramnik nor Kasparov could not find this idea.
28...Rg2
By move 28...Ne3!! young ukrainian could get a huge advantage in the match - the White's position after this move became very bad (28.Qe3 Nc4 29.Qd3 Nd2 -+, may be 28.Rf3 could help, but White remained without important lightsquared bishop...)
29. Rf3 Qg8 30. Rg3 Rxg3 31. hxg3 h2 32. Rf1 Qg4 33. Rf2 Qh5 34. Bb3 Nc7 35. Qf3 Qh3 36.Rg2 Nbd5 37. Qf2 Nb5 38. Bxd5 cxd5 39. a4 Na3 40. Rxh2 Qxh2+ 41. Qxh2 Rxh2+ 42. Kxh2 Nc4 43. Bc3 Kc7 44. Kh3 b5 45. axb5 Kb6 46. Be1 Ne3 47.Bd2 Nc4 48. Be1 Ne3 49. Bd2 Nc4 50. Be1 Ne3 1/2-1/2
Further Black lost his trumps and could get bad position after 46.g4 fg 47.Kg4 Kb5 48.Kh5. White keeps an extra pawn - 48...Bb4? 49 Kg6, 48...Ne3. - and with it the chances for the victory.
So already in the second time Ivanchuk didn't use the possibility to equal the score, although to tell the truth today he played much worse than in the 2nd game and his position was bad.
It's possible never to equal... But we live with hope - stay with us!