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GM Sergey Ivanov
annotates the games
of the 4th round:
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Vallejo - Radjabov 1/2
Anand - Kramink 1/2
Hello dear chessfriends! We continue to look after the super-tournament in Linares and today it's me GM Sergey Ivanov with you. In this round the most interesting game I think Anand - Kramnik. As far as both contenders have played different number of games so it's possible to say Kramnik(2 out of 3) and Anand(1.5 out of 2) are both the leaders at this moment. So probably today the sole leader will be determined. Very interesting and "junior duel" - Vallejo - Radjabov, the first founds showed that they are not outsiders in this event surely. And the FIDE World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov playing by White today has to play for a win against Leko who after yesterday's game with Kasparov feels not well I suppose. Today's round is promised to be interesting, so stay with us!
Anand-Kramnik 1/2
From the first moves the game has left the main opening's lines Not wishing to play Cheliabinsk variation Anand has played the lunge Bb5 and Kramnik met it by rare 4...Qc7. By 7th move White has played the sharp e5, more often met the retreat of the Bishop. This sharp way looks very logical. After forced play appeared the position where White has open lines at the centre and advantage in development, but Black has two Bishops. The only problem for Black - where to hide his King? 11...Bf5 - good move, Black hints that long castling is possible too. In case of 11...h6 12.Bf4! 0-0 13.Ne4 Bf5 14.Qh5 Bg6 15.Qh4 White gets strong pressure on K-side (Yurtaev - Ivanchuk, Frunze 1988). Although now after 12.Bf4 Black has to play 12...e5 if he does not want to castle to the K-side. But maybe it's not so dangerous?
Anand has plaeyd 12.a4 - positional way. Met 12.f4 Qd7 13.h3 h6 14.Ne4 0-0-0 15.Qf3 Rhg8 with complicated play (Nedev - Elianov, Bled 2002). After two exact, consolidated moves of Black - 12...Qc6! and 13...Bf6 White has realized, that he has no attack and due to that he passed into the ending, which looked more preferable for Black (he has more pawns at the centre), but Kramnik seems was satisfied by result of this game and agreed for a draw. Short but tense game!
Vallejo - Radjabov 1/2
Radjabov replayed his favourite French defence (he could win the game against Kasparov in this opening here!), sharp Mccutcheon variation where he could get good position in the game with Adams in Wijk aan Zee. Vallejo replyed by rare but poisonous 6.Bc1!? - White protect his Dark-colored Bishop. Deserved attention 9...Ba5!? instead of 9...Bc3 (analogically with variation 1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e5 c5 5.a3 Ba5), after 10.b4 Nc3 11.Nc3 cd4 12.Nb5 Bc7 13.f4 Nc6 14.Bd3 a6 15.Nc7 Qc7 16.0-0 Bd7 turned out the unclear position (Boriss - Huebner, Bundesliga 2000). Now Black had to give up the centre (10...cd4), because his Knight is in trouble, it was badly to play 10...Qa5? 11.f3! Nc3 12.Bd2 cd4 13.Nd4! Qc7 14.Qf4 Nd7 15.a4! with clear advantage at White. The move 13...Na4 does not look natural, it was more reliable to play 13...Ne2 14.Be2 Bd7 15.Bd3 with slightly better position at White (Hector - Pedersen, Oxford 1998). And after indifferent move 14...a6 the advantage of White becomes threatening. 15.c4! - right! He has to open the play. Black has serious problems, he has played opening very carelessly.
The position of Black is still alarming, but he could to consolidate it and transfer the Knight from a4 to d5 and even to take one more extra-pawn. On my view the last moves of White were not convincing. There constantly was the threat of the blow on e6, that's why he should not have moved the Knight from f4 (19.Nd3). Instead of that deserved attention simple 19.Bb3!?, for example 19...h5 (19...Qa3 20.Be6!) 20.Qg3 Qa3 21.Rc3! with strong initiative. One should to note, that it was bad to play 18...Qa3 (instead of 18...Nb6) due to 19.Be6! Be6 20.Ne6 fe6 21.Rc6! bc6 22.Qe6 Qe7 23.Qc6 Kf7 24.Qa4+-. After 23...h5 24.Qe4 Nc3!? it's neccesary to consider 25.Qe3 Nd4, Black wins 2nd pawn and this is serious already. Although the line "d" is open now. So the culmination is close...
Even without two pawns White had strong initiative. Black had to weaken his position by 30...f5, otherwise White could play Bf2-h4-f6. The problem of Black was the Q-side, due to that he sacrificed the pawn for development. The further moves were made in mutual zeitnot. And till the certain moment both contenders acted right, but later the miracles happened. On 39th move White without any reason has given the e5-pawn, of course Balck has taken it. But in his turn he has given back the pawn on 40th move. Better was 40...Qf6! And now it's not so easily to estimate the position. The King of Black has not good position and because of that White has some compenstaion for a pawn.
But seems an extra-pawn of White is more important, because White cannot create any sufficient threats. Radjabov underlined this by move 42...f4! Vallejo had to trade on d4 because if for example 43.Kh2 then 43...Rf3! 44.Bd4 Rg3!! 45.Bg7 Rg5, andBlack wins. Besides looks strong 44...Rd6!. Now it's obviously that only Balck can play for a win. Deserved attention 45...Qf6!?, manoeuvre 45...Rd5 46.Qh4 Qf8 looks not natural. White could to put into game the Knight (48.Nc5), although in case of 48...Rd2! Balck has certain advantage. There is only one question - if it's enough for a win?
Alas, instead of 48...Rd2! folowed 48...Rdf5, and the game was drawn. I think they are just tired - a lot of events happened in this game. Bravo youth, you are worth of Linares!
Ponomariov - Leko
The contenders have played variation 3.Bb5 in Sicialian, this variation due to Peter Leko became very popular since last year. Kramnik played this position by other way (for example in the 2nd round against Ponomariov): he led the manoeuvre Nf6-d7-f8-e6, and move h7-h6 (without castling) prevented the exchange of the dark-colored Bishops. Leko considers it as not so dangerous and he supposes that the counter-play on Q-side will be sufficient.
Ponomariov has used the new plan, instead of castling to the Q-side (for example: 11.0-0-0 a5 12.Bg7 Kg7 13.g4 a4 etc., as it was in well-known game Shirov - Leko, Dortmund 2002) he has played 11.g4, soon after he transfered the Knight from c3 to g3, and castled to the K-side. Further he has played f2-f4. But the preparation for that took a lot of time and Black could set up his pieces at the centre and to tell the truth he has no any problems. After Queen's trading, Black by 21...c4! has reminded that White has weaknesses too. Now the position is equal but I would prefer to play by Black, all his moves look more natural and White has to invent something.
The further moves proved our estimation. Leko could make the weakness at White on d3 and he became to press on it. White had no any counter-play and all his hopes were connected with few number of the pieces on the board. Probably Black should not have traded on 25th move, deserved attention 25...Ng5!? 26.Re3 Rfe8, with attack on e4-pawn. As result White could get the position with an extra pawn at Black, but all the pawns are on the same side so it will be almost impossible for Black to win. Although who knows, Leko could win and not such positions before...
Leko is still trying to win this ending and he could get some successes... He fixed the white h3-pawn and he forced white rook to move back to defence. So it's not so clear if this ending really drawn...
Incredible! Really with the heroical efforts Leko obtained almost winning position. But the time, time... he has only about 1.5 minutes. Will he be in time?
What a pity!, Leko has not time. Instead of 107...f5, when with 108.Ng7! White gained a draw, winning probably 107...Rd3! 108.Kh2 (108.Nf6? Rg3 109.Kf1 Rf3) Rf3 followed by Rf2 and Rg2, and White has not the move 109.Re2 since 109...Rf1 winning. BUt Ponomariov defenced firmnessly and has been rewarded for the persistence. And Leko once more showed his excellent endgame technics.