16 August 2015
Hold me, straw, hold me!
Round Six of the Superfinal in the review of Eteri Kublashvili.
On August 14 the rapid chess tournament Chita Open started in Megapolis. The total number of players participating in the event is 122; the youngest participant is only 7 years old, while the oldest one is over 80. The rating favorite, grandmaster Anton Shomoev, arrived from the neighboring republic.
Three rounds were played during the first day of the event. So far as many as 13 participants have tasted no defeat, including Shomoev and the FIDE Master Zhamsaran Tsydypov.
The tournament organizers have not deprived the fair sex of attention this time either: the top finisher among women will receive a special prize from the aesthetic health clinic Asia-Spa.
The Deputy Executive Director of the Russian Chess Federation, Alexander Tkachev, who had arrived in Chita in the morning of the same day, held a seminar for chess fans in the premises of the Palace of Youth. Judging by the numerous accolades, a lecture went off with a bang, not to mention multiple tweets to which some phrases of Alexander Vasilyevich have come to belong now.
As for the Superfinal, the events unfolded in a pretty exciting manner. In the men's race Nikita Vitiugov caught up with Evgeny Tomashevsky and Vladislav Artemiev to become the third leader. In round six he defeated Denis Khismatullin, having skillfully outplayed him in the endgame. Nikita managed to convert an extra pawn in the endgame with rooks and opposite-colored bishops.
A wonderful save happened in the game Dubov – Jakovenko. Daniil was almost winning, but Dmitry, known as a tenacious defender, managed to start grasping at straws and not to get drowned in the depths of subsequent complications. Then and there, White's advantage evaporated in some strange manner.
Dubov – Jakovenko
The cold-blooded engine shows that White should have shielded against the main threat posed by Black, i.e. the mate on h1, by moving forward his pawn 39. f3.
Finally, a couple of moves prior to the control, Daniil made up his mind in favor of a more creative approach: 39. Qc4+ Kg6 40. Qd3+ Kf7 41. Re4
It was again not too late to opt for 41.f3, shutting the central light-squared diagonal reliably.
41…Bxf6 42. Bxf6
42.Qf3 was stronger. At the press conference Dmitry Jakovenko and Sergei Rublevsky came to an agreement that it was the most principled continuation, after which Black is literally devoid of any moves. As 42...Qc6 runs into 43. Rde1, it still remains unclear how Black is supposed to defend.
42…Kxf6 43. Qf3+ Kg7 44. Qf5 Rh5
Dmitry suggested that it was this move that escaped Daniil’s attention while he was calculating lines.
45. Rde1? Re8!
Getting the e4-rook pinned in a criss-cross pattern.
46. Kg2 d3 47. Qf3?
47.f3, which White has so stubbornly striven to back out of, would have allowed him to bail out. Now, however, his situation becomes hopeless.
47...d2 48. Qc3+ Kg8 White resigns.
Peter Svidler scored his first victory over Igor Lysyj. The seven-time champion of Russia, playing White, handled the King’s Indian Attack in a very original fashion: he refrained from probing into the opponent’s kingside structure – an approach that has gained popularity recently, but was rather consistently undermining the opponent's defensive formations on the opposite side of the board. Black was quickly left with a weak pawn on a6, which fell an easy victim to White after the exchange of queens. The game ended unexpectedly soon: Black could have put up a hard resistance still, but committed a fatal blunder.
The games Khairullin – Karjakin, Motylev – Tomashevsky, and Artemiev – Bukavshin ended in a draw at different times upon having passed through different plot twists.
In the women’s tournament a quick victory was celebrated by Valentina Gunina, this time against one of her main opponents, Kateryna Lagno, at that. As if losing to Alexandra Kosteniuk only put Valentina on her mettle, she literally started throwing slings and arrows here and there in round six. Kateryna allowed White to have the f5-breakthrough carried out, after which the kingside and the center was taken over by the white pieces. It should be noted that Valentina knows no equal in such type of positions. Firstly, she won a pawn, and then she followed it up by winning the exchanged sacrifice, when Lagno, being in a hopeless position, acknowledged her defeat.
The will to win was demonstrated by Alexandra Kosteniuk, whose position in the game against Alina Kashlinskaya had been instilling fear for long enough time. When the seemingly worst part of the game was over, Alexandra rushed into attack, the fact which she could have regretted in the final run.
Kashlinskaya – Kosteniuk
46...Qd1?! could have run into 47. Qc3! This move is difficult to find, but it would have afforded White a sizeable amount of advantage. For example, 47…Rd5 could be met by 48. Qc8 with extremely unpleasant threats Qe8+ or Qg8, coupled with the subsequent idea of Bf8.
As for the game, Alina opted for 47.Bf8?, opening the way for the black rook.
47…Rb1 48. Bxg7 Qg1+ 49. Kg3 Rf1! 50. f5+ Kh5 White resigns.
Anastasia Bodnaruk came up with a nice way of transition into the endgame:
Guseva – Bodnaruk
27…Nxe4! 28. Bxb5
28.Qxe4 is decisively met by 28...Qd1+ 29.Ka2 Rc1.
28...Nd2+ 29. Ka1 Rxc2 30. Bxd7 Nb3+ 31. Ka2 Nd4, and Black gradually pressed his advantage home.
Evgenija Ovod, who employed the Hedgehog formation and sacrificed a pawn against Alexandra Goryachkina, went on skillfully developing the initiative. However, a blunder that she committed on the control move 40 resulted in her losing the game.
The games of Natalija Pogonina against Ekaterina Kovalevskaya and Anastasia Savina against Olga Girya ended in a draw.
Half of the tournament distance is over, and after round six the day-off came in very handy. The tours of the city will be organized for the tournament participants in the afternoon and in the evening time, while they can also take the advantage of visiting the health clinic Akademija Zdorovja to go through a variety of useful treatment procedures.
In addition to that, the traditional program for children will be conducted. As many as 50 young chess players of the Zabaykalsky Krai will take place in the simuls against the grandmasters Sergei Rublevsky and Evgenij Miroshnichenko. The simul venues are located in the Officer’s club inside the recreation park as well as in the Chess Park.
Let us remind you that that Evgeny Tomashevsky, Nikita Vitiugov and Vladislav Artemiev go on retaining the lead in the men’s tournament, sharing 4 points. Dmitry Jakovenko and Sergey Karjakin are half a point behind them.
The lead in the women’s tournament is upheld by two Alexandras, i.e. Kosteniuk and Goryachkina, who have scored 4.5 points. 4 points is under the belt of Valentina Gunina.
