January, 23, 2002 The 7th game has begun in very critical situation when the match's favourite and eminent grandmaster Vasily Ivanchuk was turn out on the verge of loss of the match and therefore loss of the hopes for the title of World champion. And his rival just giving hopes 18 years old grandmaster Ruslan Ponomariov seems even didn't make especial efforts for winning this title... Will Ivanchuk be able to fracture the course of the match? Alas, the opening has showed that the psychological factor will be determined in this game. Although Ivanchuk tryed to confuse the rival by using of different openings (after French, Sicilian and Spain now met Alekhine defence), but he could not get real profit from this... Ponomariov played the opening as always quickly, convincingly, on the sensible positional base, and today he caught the initiative by the pawn sacrifice. There were not and 20 moves when Ponomariov took back the pawn and destroyed the K-side of the contender. Having exchanged the queens he passed the game into the complex ending where only miracle could help for Ivanchuk. 1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.Nf3 Nc6 5.c4 Nb6 6.e6 fxe6 7.Nc3 g6 8.Be3 Bg7 9.h4 O-O 10.h5 e5 11.d5 Nd4 12.Nxd4 exd4 13.Bxd4 g5 14.Bxg7 Kxg7 15.h6+ Kg8 16.Qd2 e5 17.Rh5 g4 18.Qg5+ Qxg5 19.Rxg5+ Kh8 20.Rg7 Rf6 21.Rxc7 Rxh6 22.b4 1/2-1/2 And the miracle has come to pass! And not during the further battle, and suddenly, at the will of both partners. The drawn game for Ponomariov was equivalent to a victory, and Ivanchuk had not any objective reasons to evade from it... With the new Champion, Chess World! |
