Polgar - Anand 1/2 Kramnik - Timman 1-0 Bareev - Ivanchuk 1-0 Shirov - Topalov 1/2 Ponomariov - Karpov 1-0 Grischuk - Radjabov 1-0 Hello, dear chess fans! Today I, the international grandmaster Sergey Ivanov shall be with you again. We'll be worry about the events of an interesting tournament in Wijk-aan-Zee. The tournament is close to finish, remains only two rounds and the question about the winner is practically determined. Hardly somebody or something could prevent to Anand take the 1st place. Today he plays black with Judit Polgar who is on the second place and I think that we'll not watch a big fight. It's interesting to watch Van Wely, would he be able to keep himself on the 3rd place. Several exciting Derby we could expect: a champion Ponomariov-Karpov, a young - Grischuk-Radjabov and the pairs Bareev-Ivanchuk and Shirov-Topalov are speaking about themselves. The round has been started, remain with us! Polgar - Anand A calm variation of the Caro-Cann defence has been played. Polgar has not used the Panov's attack (which she plays probably when wants to win very much) and preferred 3.Nc3. It's interesting that Anand also refused from the maneuver 11...Qa5 12.Bd2 Qc7, which is considered a useful one for Black - for that throw off the white Bishop from f4, but has chosen a more rare 11...e6. On 14th move Anand didn't changed Knights on e4 followed by Nf6 and Qd5 (which the theory advice) but played 14...Qa5. After the exchange on f6 Judit replied with an unexpected 16.g4!? (has been met 16.Ne5). White sacrifice a pawn but after its capturing will open g-file and White 'll be able to arrange an attack on the King. So, perhaps my prediction about a fast draw in this game don't comes true... Anand took the sacrifice and then has followed one more excellent move - 17.Rdg1!, inviting Black to capture also on f2. But after 17...Nf2 18.Qf1! Nh1 19.Bh6 Kh7 (lose 19...Bf6 20.Bg7! Bg7 21.Qg2 or 19...Qh5 20.Bg7 Rfd8 21.Be5 Kf8 22.Rh1) 20.Bg7 Rg8 21.h6 Qf5 22.Rh1 and White has a strong attack for the sacrificed Exchange. Anand has replied 17...Qf5, and after 18.Qd2 began to think for a long time. Now threatens Nf3-h4, for example 18...Kh7 19.Nh4 Bh4 20.Rh4 Nf6 21.Be5 with a strong initiative for White. A very unexpected beginning... The events develop enchantingly. Anand recognised that today he will not have a calm life and has chosen sharp 18...g5. After 19.hg6 fg6 Judit had an excellent possibility 20.Qe2!, fixing Black with the defence of e6-pawn. After the best 20...h5 21.Ne5! Ne5 (it's bad 21...Qf4 22.Ng6 Qg5 23.Qe6 Kg7 24.Ne7) 22.Be5 Kh7 23.f4 White has a strong initiative for a pawn. But in the game also Polgar continues skillfuly to "twist" the position - 22.d5!? After 22...ed5 23.Qd4 Nf2 24.Rg6 Kf7 it is very difficult to understand who stands better: Black has a material advantage but his King walks all over the board. Well done the leaders of the tournament didn't hide behind the fortress walls and have made a real battle! In the final position the attack and the defence approximately balance each other. Black certainly are able to avoid the repeating of moves: 28...Kd8, but in case of 29.Qa5 Rc7 30.Qa7 he risks not less than White. So , the draw is an appropriate result of the excited fight. Krasenkov-Van Wely There is nothing to annotate here: after the opening (the close variation of Catalone) the opponents agreed on a draw. Mikhail plays not very successfuly but for van Wely every half point approachs to a precious prize place. Shirov-Topalov One more excited skirmish! Shirov is faithful to himself and none failure could break him. Alexei repeated the same variation in Caro-Cann defence as it was in his game vs Anand two rounds before. On the 8th move Topalov has played differently: 8...h5 (Anand played 8...Ne5), providing the position of his lightcolored Bishop (we should remind that Anand had some problems with it). Then Shirov again sacrificed a piece - 9.Nf4!? (ususally has been met 9.Nd4). On 11th move he have made a new move - 11.Qd3, in the game De Vreugt -Maksimenko (Lviv 2001) was 11.Bd3 Ne5 12.Bb5 Kf7 13.f4 de3 14.Qd8 Nf3! 15.Ke2 Rd8 16.Kf3 hg4 17.Ke3 Bc5 18.Ke2 Nf6,and Black gradually won. Now it was dangerous to play 11...de3 12.Qg6 Ke7 13.fe3 Rh6 14.Qe4 with a strong White's initiative. Since Black preferred to defence g6-pawn with the King - the piece can't get away. But on the next move Black has had a choice: to take the Knight or the Bishop. Probably Topalov didn't like 12...de3 13.Qe3 Qc7 14.Qf4 Ke8 15.Nb5! with initiative, since he removed the Knight. In my opinion Shirov plays too boldly taking no into consideration the material (14.Bc4, 17.g5), desired the attention 14.f4, keeping the pawn on e5, which constrains Black. The nearest moves will show does White has a real compensation for the piece. Today Shirov acted much more resourcefully than in the similar situation against Anand. White has played without a piece as nothing happened all the time creating different threats. Black failed to develop his kingside, at that his Queen dragged out a miserable existence. So, on the 19th move Black wanted to return the Queen in his camp but alas: on 19...Qf4 20.Re3 Nd4 21.Rd4 Qc7 follow 22.Be6! Re6 23.Re6 Ke6 24.Re4, and the King may not find a refuge. Black had a possibility to play 21...Be7!? (instead of 21...Kg8) to develop somehow. The move in the game admitted an interesting lunge 22.Qa4! with the geometrical motives - it is threaten both as 23.Be6 and 24.Qh4, as well as 23.Bf6 and 24.Qe8. After the best 22...Nf7 23.Bf6 gf6 24.Qe8 Qc4 25.Re6 the Black's position looks very dangerous. White went past this move but he managed to arrest in fact the black Queen. Amusingly looked the variation 25...Ne4 (instead of 25...e5) 26.Qe3 Ng5? 27.hg5+-. With the move 26.Bd3 Shirov hurried up to win back the material. Not bad looked also 26.Be5 Ne4 27.Qe3 Nc5 28.f4 with a very strong position. By the way Topalov could give no away the Queen. For example by way of 26...e4 27.Bb5 Nc6. The game quite appropriately overed in a draw by the perpetual check. Bareev-Ivanchuk One more "Titan's battle". In his favorite system 4.Qc2 in Nimzo defence Bareev used again an ancient move 8.bc3, which has been met in the match-revenge Alekhin-Ewve. Just Bareev tries to revive this variation in the contemporary practice. In the 4th round in the game Bareev-Topalov this position has been met already, now the opponents went in an original way. Earlier White played 10.c4, now he decided first complete the development of the kingside. Ivanchuk slightly delayed with the castle (11...Rc8), and this encouraged Bareev to an idea of a pawn sacrifice - 14.d5. Note that dubiously would be 15...Nd5? 16.Bf5 Qh5 17.Qe4 Kd8 18.Rfd1 with a very strong attack on the King who got stuck in the center. Lose also 16...Ne4? 17.Rae1 f5 18.Ng5+-. Playing 19.Rae1 White in my opinion slighly delayed, deserved the attention 19.Bf5!?, allowing no Black to castle. The White's threats looks nevertheless dangerous. There are a lot of rocks on each move. For example it's bad 22...fe6 23.Re6 Kf7? (better 23...Kd8) since 24.Bg6! hg6 25.Qd7 with an advantage. On the next move Ivanchuk hurried up to castle since the Bishop's retreat lose, for example 23...Bc6 24.ef7 Kf7 25.Re5 Qh6 26.Bc4 Kf8 27.Qd4+-. But this natural move turned out to be a serious inaccuracy for allowed White gained an advantage practically forcibly. Instead of it a cool 23...Bd5! (keeping under control the diagonal a2-g8 and the c-file), seems permitted Black to repulse the threats and keep an extra-piece. For example: 24.Re5 Qh6 25.Bb5 Ke7 26.Qb4 Rc5. Meanwhile 25...Nd5? is probably the decisive mistake. One ought to play 25...Qh6 26.Qf3 (или 26.Qh6 gh6 27.gf3 Rc5 28.Rfe1 Nd5 with an unclear endgame) 26...Qd2 27.Bb5 Qa2, although after 28.Re2 White nevertheless has the upper hand due to the strong e7-pawn. After the simple 26.Qg3! Black was forced to give away the Queen since 26...Qh6 27.Qf3 Ne7 28.Bb5 lose at once. In the arose position Black had quite a sufficient material equivalent but his pieces were badly coordinated. With several excellent moves - 30.Bc4!, 33.f4! White forced the opponent to an immediate resign under the threat of huge material losses. A very battle game! Thanks to his working victory Bareev obtained the 3rd place. Kramnik - Timman In this tournament Kramnik looks far from the best form but he should defeat the outsider there more with white pieces. On the board the Paulsen variation of the Sicilian defence. Instead of the standard 7...d5 Black has chosen a preliminary 7...Qc7. Kramnik replyed with tricky 8.Qe2!?, embarrassing the opponent the movement d7-d5. Timman answered not very successfuly - 8...Bd6?!, better the met continuation 8...e5. After 9.Qg4! Black didn't want to weak his kingside and decided simply to sacrifice it. Such idea quite often used to be met in French defence but Black there usually gets a counterplay on the opposite site of the board. Here we don't see this. White didn't "cling" to the g2-pawn (12.Qh3 d5 13.Qf3 c5 and so on), with a strong maneuver 13.Ne2! following by 14.f4 he pushed off the black Bishop. черного It couldn't keep the big diagonal: 14...Bg7 15.Qf3 Rg6 16.ed5 ed5 17.Bg6+-. After that White castled he had an extra-pawn and his position was also better. If instead of 18...d4 Black would retreat with Bishop - 18...Bc7 this allowed White to develop a winning attack: 19.Rhg1 Rg1 (19...d4 20.Rg2 dc3 21.Qh8 Kd7 22.Bb5X!) 20.Rg1 d4 21.Rg7! Bd8 22.Qf7 Kd7 23.f5! dc3 24.Nc3 Qb2 25.Kd2 ef5 26.Qf5 Kc7 27.Qf6+-. In case of 22...f6 (instead of 22...Kd7) White take away the Queen with a tempo: 23.Qh5 Kd8 24.b3. Instead of 25.Rhf1 more accuracy was in my opinion 25.Be4, for example 25...Qd6 26.Qd6 Kd6 27.c4 Ke5 28.cd5 Ke4 29.Nc3 Kf5 30.Rhf1 Kg6 31.de6+-. With 28...Rg4 (instead of 28...Rg2?) 29.Nf4 c4 Black could protract the resistance. After his decisive mistake Timman has lost the Knight and resigned immediately. Ponomariov-Karpov One more Russian game. Till the 16th move the opponents repeated the meeting from the 1st round Topalov-Anand, where after 16...h6 White provided an interesting Exchange's sacrifice 17.Re6!? Karpov prevents this possibility in principle - 16...Bd5. Nevertheless the place for the Bishop is not on d5 and several moves later when the threat of the sacrifice passed Karpov takes away the Bishop in order that the Knight could take his "legal" place. Some time the sides maneuvered seeking the best squares for their pieces and then Karpov suddenly played very sharp - 23...g5. Although it was possible to simply go away from the bunch, for example 23...Qb6. A couple of moves later became clear that drawing up a battery along the b1-h7 diagonal and in addition utilizing an opened f-file White arrange a strong attack (for example in case of 26...Bd5 27.Bb1 Bg7 28.Qd3). Karpov has taken on d5 with Bishop but Ponomariov continued to compress the pressure: 28.Ng4, 29.Bf5!? However nothing deadly was for Black if he would not make a mistake 29...h5? Instead of this move he should continue 29...Rc4, and after 30.Be6 Re6 31.Re6 fe6 32.Re6 (32.Rd1 Rd4!, 32.Ne5 Bb4) 32...Qd4 33.Qd4 Rd4 34.Nh6 Bh6 35.Rh6 Rd2 in the Rooks endgame Black has a good counterplay. Probably Karpov overlooked the blow 30.Re6! - and in case of 30...fe6 31.Re6 hg4 32.Rg6 Rc7 33.Rg7 Rg7 34.Qa5 with a loss of the d5-pawn the Black's position is hopeless. As a result Black remained without two pawns and with terribly weakened white squares. But before the first time control Ponomariov maneuvered not very good and the counter-blow 44...b5! he perhaps missed. Black activated his Rook and one pawn White was forced to give away. True the position's estimate didn't changed after that. Karpov resisted heroically but when the white d-pawn obtained the 7th rank he was forced to humble with the inavitability. An excellent Ponomariov's final spurt: 3 out of 3 and he is in "nil"! Grischuk-Radjabov The variation with 3.e5 in French defence has been played which now is in the fashion again. And one of the legislator of this fashion is just Alexander Grischuk. Till the 15th move the opponents repeated the game Grischuk-Kruppa (Elista 2000), where Grischuk in the first time faced an interesting idea 11...Na5!? and has got a dubious position. Now he use the strengthening - 15.g5 (in that game White has played 15.h5). The reply 15...h6 looks naturally- one needs somehow fight with White's pawn expansion on the kingside but on the other side this gives to White a possibility to activate there his pieces. Deserved the attention 15...Nc4 16.Bc4 dc4 17.Nce4 c3!? with the unclear play. Nevertheless the Black's position looks rather stable. 20...Nc4 - a standard maneuver, White couldn't now to play 22.Bc4 since 22...Bb4!, and the initiative pass to Black. The position has sharped. Grischuk gave away his lightcolored Bishop but prepared the movement of central pawns. Black from the other side use the a-file as a spring-board for pieces' penetration in the rival's camp. It seems that White succeeded more. Instead of an amorphous 29.Rh3 looks strong 29.e6! fe6 30.Bg7 Bg7 31.Qg7 e5 32.Qe5 with an obvious advantage. Two moves later White nevertheless has played 31.e6, but Black already got the counterchances. However White was afraid of phantoms in vain: instead of 33.Rh3 one could take the Bishop - 33.ed7, since on 33...f3 there is 34.Qg5 f6 35.Re8! Kd7 36.Qf5 Ke8 37.Qc8 Ke7 38.Re4 winning. But Black also make a mistake - 36...Ra6?, one shouldn't afraid the checks on the 8th rank: 36...Qd4! 37.Ra8 Kd7 38.Qg4 Ke7,and Black's chances not worse. Instead of immediate 38.Rf3 White could "eat" f7-pawn in the way: 38.Qg8 Kd7 39.Qf7 Kd8 40.Qg8 Kc7 41.Qg7 Kb8 42.Rf3, and to play the same position as in the game but without black f7-pawn. 41...c3? - is the last mistake in the time trouble, Black was able simply to repeat the moves: 41...Qd1 42.Kg2 Qd5, since in case of White avoid it he risks to get a bad position: 43.Rf3?! Bd4 44.Qf8 c3. After the exchange black c-pawn on white h-pawn arose a position where White's chances on the win approximately equal to Black's chances on a draw. Both Kings are opened and it is unclear does White has a victory in case of the Queens exchange. Grischuk managed to find a plan of strengthening the position. He has began the King's movement, as a result the Queens exchange happened in an unprofitable for Black edition when he was forced to move the f-pawn and the King turned out to be pushed off. Inavitably has been arose the zugzvang position and one of the black pawns lost. Didn't saved also 91...Ka8 (instead of 91...b5) 92.Rb7! (King must be closed in the corner) 92...Bc5 93.Kc7 Be3 94.Kc8 Bc5 95.Rc7 Be3 96.Rc2 b5 97.Ra2 Ba7 98.Kc7 b4 99.Ra4 b3 100.Rb4 winning. When Black remained only with one f4-pawn, White win passing in the pawn endgame in the necessary time. In case of 98...Kf8 99.Rd7 Ba5 100.Ke6 Kg8 101.Rd4 Bc7 102.Rc4 the f4-pawn lose and after 98...Kd8 99.Re4 Black resigned: White plays Kf5, takes on f4 and takes up the opposition. So, it was a titanical fight of two young talents! |
