6 March 2019

A Birthday Boy Bringing Success

Eteri Kublashvili reports on the World Team Championships’ round one

Round one had the Russians paired against young and ambitious teams of Iran and Kazakhstan. 

As for our opponents, both Iran and Kazakhstan are experiencing a real chess boom, with new great names coming to the forefront as a result. Team Iran is effectively made up of new generation players, its most senior player Pouya Idani born in the year 1995 only. Board one is an 18-year-old Parham Maghsoodloo, ex-world junior champion; board three is Amin Tabatabaei who came into the spotlight during the last year’s edition of Aeroflot Open, whereas board four is a rising star Alireza Firouzja, whose bright future in chess is predicted by quite a number of people with a deep insight into the trade.

No less potent is a women’s team of Kazakhstan listing junior ex-world champions Zhansaya Abdumalik and Dinara Saduakassova. Coaching the team at this championship is the Armenian GM Arman Pashikyan. 

I can also add that chess development in Kazakhstan is visible with a naked eye, one instance of it being that the morning blitz tournament held at the AIFC had trainees of Dinara Saduakassova. The presence of many children testified to no lack of Academy students. In general, running parallel to the World Championships will be various side events that have recently become integral to tournaments under the auspices of FIDE. 



FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich, President of the Asian Chess Federation Sheikh Sultan Bin Khalifa Al Nahyan and President of the Kazakhstan Chess Federation Galimzhan Yessenov were awarding the winners. They also took part in making ceremonial first moves in Lagno – Abdumalik, Ding Liren – Mamedov and Saduakassova – Kosteniuk.

What can we say about the play hall? From the photographer's point of view, it is well-lit, which is not less important for everybody else as well, but it felt stuffy when the round began. At the participants’ request the heating was lowered, which, hopefully, made life easier for everyone playing. However, let us now turn our attention to chess itself.

A narrow victory over Iran was brought by our team's first-timer Vladislav Artemiev. I take this opportunity to congratulate Vladislav on his birthday and wish him many success and achievements. I used to hear that players would usually underperform on their birthdays, but, luckily for the Russian fans, Vladislav is not the one to be affected by any such nonsense.

After the game, Vladislav Artemiev told me about his victory over Alireza Federation and about the Iran – Russia matchup in general: 

“It was a complex match. It was a level and viscous struggle at all boards. My opponent is a very gifted player, but his young age gave me certain hopes of success going into the game. 


Artemiev – Firouzja



The first key moment arose after my opponent’s 14…c6. The alternative was 14…Ng8 to carry out f5 and leading to a totally different scenario.

The g4 knight transfer seems a proper plan to me: 15. dxc6 Rxc6 16. Ng4 Qe6. 

I believer 16…Qe6 to be a risky move. My opponent could have opted for 16…h5, which I was going to meet with 17 Bg5. I think White is only slightly better here.

17. Bxh6 Nxg4 18. Bxg7 Kxg7 19. hxg4 Qxg4 20. Nb5



 

White has pocketed a pawn with no visible compensation for it. 

20…Nf6 21. Nxd6 Ba6 22. Rad1 Rh8 23. b3 Rc7

The alternative is 23…b5 to stop c4, which gives me an option to play b4 in response. On the one hand, the d6-knight's placement seems risky, but on the other hand it is hard to exploit. 

24. c4 Rd7 25. Qc3 Qe6 26. f4!



 

26. f4 seems a good plan to me, which was confirmed by my opponent's starting to burn clock time and gradually going down after this pawn lever. He might have fared better by transposing into the endgame after 26…Rxd6 27. fxe5 Rxd1 28. exf6+ since my pawn structure is compromised. 

Meanwhile, 26…Ng4 27.fxe5 Bb7 enabled me with a nice 28. Ne8!+. I am objectively winning here. 

 


 

All in all, my opponent had it coming himself, but that was also due to his having to sort out certain problems over the board. This victory of mine cannot be classified as entirely casual for that reason. My performance was quite satisfactory in this game."

Maghsoodloo-Karjakin saw a fashionable hybrid of the Catalan, QID and the Bogo-Indian defenses. In general, the game was a tranquil one with neither side ever standing on the brink of a precipice.

Sergey Karjakin: “The game was unfolding smoothly for me, especially taking into account that I was a second player. I got an equal position in the opening, and there came a moment when I even tried to seize the initiative, but my opponent never erred. All in all, a draw is a logic outcome of the game, which is also quite acceptable taking into account that I was playing Black."    

Ian Nepomniachtchi, playing White with Pouya Idani, achieved some edge out of the opening (which was a mix of the English Opening and the queen's gambit), but his opponent not only managed to neutralize White’s threats, but create his own at that. White’s position started raising slight concerns at a certain moment, but the Iranian player preferred simplifications that transposed into an equal rook ending.  

Tabatabaei – Andreikin was opened to Catalan via a different order of moves. Black got a slight edge following a maneuvering struggle, which was never enough to convert, though. The game ended in a minor-pieces endgame on move 40. 

No major upsets happened in other matchups of the men's sections as favorite teams were claiming their victories. The Chinese confidently defeated the Azerbaijanis 3.5: 0.5, India defeated Sweden with the same score, the Kazakhs went down to the British 1.5: 2.5 (however, on table one Rinat Jumabayev did outplay Michael Adams), and the USA team ended up outperforming Egypt 3:1.  

Pairings of round two:

Sweden - Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan - England, USA - China, Russia - Egypt, India - Iran

 

The Russian women's team managed to upset the host team with a 3:1 score. The first to strike was Aleksandra Goryachkina, playing on board four against Guliskhan Nakhbayeva. 

The Russian player scored confidently as Black in the Nimzo-Indian Defence. The players were battling it out in the Rubinstein system, in which the Russian achieved a comfortable play and then lifted the position with the c5 lever to create unpleasant threats along the dark squares. It was the pin along the a7-g1 diagonal that had a crucial say in the game.


Nakhbayeva – Goryachkina



 

White has just come up with 19 Rfd1?, underestimating the opponent’s sharp and principled rejoinder:

19…g5! 20. Qg3 Bg4! 21. Nxd5 Nxd5 22. Be4 Nxe3 23. Bxe3 Bxe3+ 24. Nxe3 Qxe3+



   

After 24. Qf2 Qxf2+ 25. Kxf2 Rac8 26. fxg4 Rxc1 27. Rxc1 Nxg4+ 28. Kf3 Nxh2+ 29. Kg3 Rxe4 Black had no problems converting her up two pawns in the endgame. 

On board one Kateryna Lagno outplayed Zhansaya Abdumalik. The game was opened to Ruy Lopez 6.d3, characterized by a lengthy maneuvering play.  Missing the opponent’s rejoinder in the middlegame, Ekaterina’s position worsened. White offered going for a position featuring material imbalance (two minors for a rook), which Black did not mind accepting. However, the engine’s cursory evaluation is against this decision of Abdumalik’s as it showed her edge as substantial without opting for similar trades.  It looks like Zhansaya failed to find her way in the arising position, gradually parting with as many as four pawns. 

The followup trades left White with a pair of knights and six pawns vs opponent's rook and two pawns. Despite having won back two pawns, there was no saving the Kazakh player’s position. Four potent passers at the kingside, supported by both knights, sealed the fate of the game in Lagno's favor. 

Dinara Saduakassova vs Alexandra Kosteniuk ended in a draw. The 12th world champion admitted having been taken by surprise by her opponent in the opening.  

Alexandra Kosteniuk: “I am not confident about maneuvers I came up with over the board. On the other hand, I saw not concrete plan for White and was willing to find out my opponent’s intentions. However, it fizzled out via trades. White allowed c5-c4, and the c-pawn seemed a compelling factor to me in terms of having to fight for equality afterwards. Meanwhile, I erred in time trouble, and them my opponent returned the favor... All in all, the game never deviated far from equality. It was, perhaps, worth agreeing to a draw earlier, but the outcome is quite logical.”  

Gunina – Assaubayeva was the longest game channeled to Modern Benoni after having seemingly started as KID. Valentina won an exchange for a pawn in the middlegame and significantly improved her position as a result of lengthy maneuvering. However, White's overly aggressive approach in an attempt to break down Black's fortress resulted in weakening own king and giving counter chances to Assaubayeva. A line involving a trade of rooks for a queen turned out for Gunina, followed by White essaying to confuse and outplay the opponent until move 109, but a queen versus a rook and a knight had a solid margin of safety throughout. The game ended in a draw.  

Team China defeated team Hungary 3.5:0.5, whereas Armenia whitewashed Egypt 4:0. India - Georgia and USA - Ukraine ended in a draw. The latter was on a brink of a major upset as Nataliya Buksa was an inch away from going down to Rochelle Wu. The American missed on best continuations more than once, accepting a draw in a position giving her decent chances of success in case of making the right move.   

Pairings of round two:

Egypt - Ukraine, Hungary - USA, Georgia - China, Kazakhstan - India, Armenia - Russia