10 December 2017

The Pelothon and the Breakaway

Superfinals, round 6. Misha Savinov reports from St. Petersburg

Chess has very little in common with cycling, but being in the breakaway is similarly difficult in both. Neither Fedoseev, nor Dubov managed to maintain their starting speed. The duo remains on top of the standings, however, Svidler and Tomashevsky, who started the tournament with a brief visit to negative numbers, are now within the striking distance.

Still, this one point gap is actually quite big. Consider, for example, Svidler's remaining games: White against Tomashevsky, who is regaining his top form (his performance in Palma was close to 2800), Black against Sjugirov (tough opponent, especially in Superfinals – they have history!), then White against his friend and assistant Matlakov, then the all-important match-up against Fedoseev – with Black, and the resilient Malakhov in the last round. Frankly speaking, even beating Fedoseev, however unlikely it is from statistical standpoint, may not be enough!

Tomashevsky has a somewhat more promising finish, but he has to survive Svidler first. Then he will have White against Romanov and Sjugirov, and Black against Riazantsev and Inarkiev – these guys rarely shy away from sharp games with mutual chances. With some luck, Evgeny can pursue his second title.

Now let us turn to the U30 group. 

For Vitiugov, the next round may be the key. His performance had been quite, um, professional – making bloodless draws, preserving energy, picking only easy points, etc, but tomorrow against Fedoseev is time to go all out. Another quiet game will increase Nikita's chances for another third place, and he already had plenty of those. Like in poker, try playing for first place, man, it pays better!

Dubov has a rather nice looking finish. White against Matlakov, Malakhov, and Inarkiev (in the last round), Black against Fedoseev (an interesting game for sure, but they may not decide to burn the bridges with three more rounds to go), and Vitiugov, who is yet to turn to a beast.

Finally, Fedoseev. His situation, despite the loss today, still looks enviable: White against direct rivals, Svidler and Dubov, Black against Vitiugov, and then the two players who are having a rough tournament – Volkov and (in the last round) Romanov. Vladimir can employ a variety of strategies depending on the situation, he has one of the wisest trainers in the world... He just needs to keep playing good chess, and everything should be all right.

 

Round 6, men 

Fedoseev-Malakhov 0-1, Tomashevsky-Volkov 1-0, Riazantsev-Svidler ½-½, Inarkiev-Romanov ½-½, Sjugirov-Dubov ½-½, Matlakov-Vitiugov ½-½. 

Current standings: 

Fedoseev – 4.5, Dubov – 4, Tomashevsky, Vitiugov, and Svidler – 3.5, Malakhov, Sjugirov, Inarkiev, and Riazantsev – 3, Matlakov – 2.5, Romanov – 1.5, Volkov – 1.

 

Vladimir Fedoseev vs. Vladimir Malakhov 

A great performance by Vladimir Malakhov, who delivered a heavy blow to the rising star. The biggest factor was that Malakhov, who is famous for sticking to his narrow repertoire, managed to learn a new massive line of the Slav during the day off. This was a huge surprise to his opponent for sure. After some thought, Fedoseev went to the sharpest test, forcing Black to sacrifice a piece for long term dynamic compensation. But Malakhov foresaw it and remembered not only conclusions, but also the most accurate moves and strongest move orders! When he was finally out of the book, he was ahead by almost an hour on the clock and quite safe (as much as you can be when playing with three pawns for a bishop) on the board.

Fedoseev does not deserve criticism for this game. He was fighting without fear and was striving for victory. It just did not work out – cost of mistakes was very high, both players were under the heavy time pressure, and Fedoseev missed the critical moment to abandon the ambition and settle for a more or less certain draw. Perhaps this game showed that his sense of danger is not on par with Karpov's yet. In a couple more moves it was already too late. Malakhov, who initially wanted to force a draw himself, was lucky to discover a very nice tactical resource that gave him an upper hand with second on the clock. “Was lucky” is his exact words from the press-conference – the man is quite modest.

 

Evgeny Tomashevsky vs. Sergey Volkov

Tomashevsky showed a model game for a 2700-something facing a weaker grandmaster. A strategically complicate game with many possible transformations is the best way to test the opponent's flaws in chess understanding, tactical vision, and general calculation. Volkov passed a few tests, but quickly went down when he allowed Tomashevsky to win two rooks for a queen, assessing both the root and the resulting position incorrectly.

 

Alexander Riazantsev vs. Peter Svidler

Interestingly, pretty much everyone had a wrong idea about this game. Both commentators, who are strong grandmasters, and all my colleagues of a candidate master level thought Svidler is basically playing a pawn down, his position is cramped and rather hard to navigate. Peter, on the other hand, was playing a variation that someone suggested to name after him (although Peter prefers to call it the Vitiugov-Matlakov Variation), and had the utmost confidence in his position. He was right, of course – soon Riazantsev started to repeat the moves, and Svidler even thought for a while whether he should accept it or keep playing. Black's compensation was surely good for a draw, but probably not more.

After the game he told us the story of the variation. It happened during the Candidates Tournament in London. Half an hour before the game against Boris Gelfand, Svidler, who had White, asked his assistants what should he do against the Gruenfeld. Vitiugov looked at him with a frisky smile and suggested to opt for 5. Bd2 Nb6 6. e3 and 7. f4. “Haha, very funny. Now, seriously...”, reacted Peter, but Nikita just asked him to give it a shot. Unable to refute the idea in five minutes and having no other options, Peter tried it in the game and was completely winning by the move 15. Currently this is the main line after 5.Bd2.

The exact line Riazantsev played had been reviewed in one of Svidler's chess24 videos. Naturally, Peter did not remember the best moves, but it did not really matter – the instincts sufficed. 

 

Ernesto Inarkiev vs Evgeny Romanov

Inarkiev had a birthday, but got no gift from the opponent. Romanov defended stubbornly, and in the end even had a fluke study-like chance to snatch a victory. Trying to calculate the key move on 30 seconds, Evgeny nearly lost on time, barely made a safer move with less than a second left, and decided to call it a day – a draw as Black is a good result, right?

 

Sanan Sjugirov vs. Daniil Dubov

Dubov spent slightly more than half an hour on this game, which quite obviously hints excellent homework. “I don't think Black had any problems whatsoever”, he said to the opponent after the game. Despite White's extra pawn, this was not a bold statement – it is almost impossible to make any use of this pawn in this line of the Gruenfeld. Black's compensation lies in White's two weaknesses – his backward c3-pawn and his rather insecure king. The very best White can hope for if Black is careless is a rook ending with a passed pawn on d6, which is also quite challenging to win.

“The best thing about White's position is that it is extremely safe”, said Sanan, trying to be positive. I got a feeling he was not as confident about the evaluation as his opponent was and will look for an improvement for White in the future. 


Maxim Matlakov vs. Nikita Vitiugov

Ivanchuk-So from this year's blitz tournament in Belguim served as a source game for this dullest of draws. 


Round 6, women

Bodnaruk-Galliamova 1-0, Girya-Gunina ½-½, Goryachkina-Gritsayeva 1-0, Ovod-Kashlinskaya ½-½, Pogonina-Kovalevskaya ½-½, Shivalova-Nechaeva ½-½.

Current standings:

Gunina and Girya – 4, Goryachkina, Kashlinskaya, and Bodnaruk – 3.5, Pogonina and Nechaeva – 3, Kovalevskaya, Shuvalova, and Ovod – 2.5, Galliamova and Gritsayeva – 2.


A bad tournament for Galliamova continues – she has hard time handing this climate indeed. Since the two leaders are originating from even colder areas, Murmansk and Langepas, this seems like a valid point. Their individual encounter today was developing very creatively, but White's creativity nearly cost her a game. Luckily for Girya, Gunina uncharacteristically missed a couple of forced wins and then allowed White to deliver a perpetual. Nerves, nerves... 

The most exciting game of the round was played by Anastasia Bodnaruk and Alisa Galliamova. Bodnaruk succeeded in a large-scale strategic battle, completely outplaying her experienced opponent twice – first in the middlegame, then, after blundering away most of her advantage, in a difficult ending with 4 pawns against 3 on the same flank. Well done!


Photos by Eteri Kublashvili and Dmitry Oleinikov (from Aurora)