11 December 2017

Nikita the Assassin

Superfinals, round 7. Misha Savinov reports from St. Petersburg

This is getting really complicated! “Stay calm and make draws” does not seem to work for Vladimir Fedoseev – he is just not that kind of guy. The breakaway has finally been reeled in, and nearly half the players participating in the championship can hope to win the title. A tie-break is extremely likely now, too.

As both tournaments are approaching the end, I will start shifting my attention to games that are more important from the sporting point of view, paying less attention to tailenders and middlemen. And the last round will be delivered in essentially play-by-play fashion.

Round 7, men

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

Current standings:

Fedoseev, Dubov, and Vitiugov – 4.5

Tomashevsky and Svidler – 4

Riazantsev, Inarkiev, and Malakhov – 3.5

Sjugirov and Matlakov – 3

Volkov and Romanov – 2

 

Nikita Vitiugov vs. Vladimir Fedoseev

Yesterday I had advocated the all-or-nothing approach by Vitiugov, but it was Fedoseev who actually went berserk in this game.

“Such as Vladimir's style”, said grandmaster Natalia Pogonina, “he always draws fire upon himself and fears nothing. My husband likes inventing various stats of chess players, and recently he told me that Fedoseev places his pieces under attack more often than any other player in the Superfinal.” 

In the Chebanenko Slav with ...Bf5, Fedoseev played two moves with a bishop, two moves with the d-pawn, two moves with the c-pawn, and put his rook on a7. He played with fire, opening the files and neglecting the center. Black's position looked very thin. During the first coffee break Evgeny Miroshnichenko expressed his horror: “I think Fedoseev will be just swept away from the board! One simply cannot play like this!”

All Vitiugov had to do is play a calm assassin. His moves were logical and strong – he prepared a deadly attack, and Black only observe it helplessly. White's recapture on d5 on the 18th move was very accurate – during the game neither Sergey Shipov nor his co-commentator Alexander Morozevich particularly liked that move on general grounds, however, Vitiugov quickly proved his point – in two more moves Black was already dead lost. 

During the press-conference Nikita stressed that the game had been decided in the opening. He dismissed any large scale psychological speculations like his opponent losing touch with chess reality after winning four games in a row. “It is a very pleasant feeling to play a game where you outprepare your opponent, and vise versa. Black clearly did not expect this variation, and in my opinion did not handle it the right way. In his shoes I'd try to play safer. If your opponent leads in development, just keep the position closed for a while. Stuff like that.”

Another conclusion that can be drawn from this game – the participants are getting tired, and the first thing that suffers when you're tired is resilience. More and more often people who get poor positions proceed to quick losses almost immediately. In our time of paying maximum attention to the opening, the art of defense must not be neglected, too.

Fedoseev's next opponent is Dubov, and I am very intrigued by how will each player approach the duel.

Vitiugov's first game as a co-leader of the championship will be Black against Malakhov.

 

Peter Svidler vs. Evgeny Tomashevsky

When I saw the players discussing their game in a narrow hallway with a low ceiling, it once again occurred to me how tall they are. Somehow Evgeny never looked that tall to me, but he is actually on the same level with Svidler.

I asked him about his height.

“Usually I am about 190 cm. However, when it was measured again this year, I got 189 cm. And during this game it probably was down to 186 cm”, replied Evgeny, as the three of us walked to the analysis room in the basement of the museum, where the players keep their indoor shoes, and the organizers store water bottles.

“You thought you were worse?”, Svidler raised an eyebrow. “I was actually worried you'd start playing on the kingside and crush me.”

“Haven't even looked that way. I thought you want to carry out b3-b4 and then triple of the a-file, and was busy defending against it on every move”, reacted Tomashevsky.

“Oh, b3-b4... This wasn't the plan, but it actually seems quite strong as I think of it. Damn! Should have studied more games of Anatoly Evgenyevich”, sighed Peter.

“I believe you won more games in the Ruy Lopez during your career than Anatoly Evgenyevich...” 

Throughout the analysis, which took at least 20 minutes, the players expressed a lot of respect to each other's game and examined many subtleties and interesting ideas, including a piece sacrifice for White, which could work in some lines.

Actually, Black could equalize slash annihilate right out of the gate – instead of 16...Qc7, take on d4 twice and play the thematic ...d6-d5 with complete equality. Svidler noticed it after playing his 16th move, and the same can be said about Tomashevsky. After this chance went by, the game turned to quite a deep closed Ruy Lopez, the one more fitting to 70s or 80s, if it wasn't for the anti-Marshall move order. A draw was a fair result, and now both players are half a point behind the leading trio.

Another decisive game of the round was played between Volkov and Sjugirov. This is also an example of the aforementioned lack of resilience – I have never seen Sanan going down in such style. Such a dormant play against Volkov's pet 4.f3 Nimzo-Indian was punished hard – White sacrificed a pawn, developed a deadly attack and won easily – the game was decided by the move 22.

Draws in three other games were hard-fought, but neither player can complain about missing a victory. It is worth noting that Ernesto Inarkiev remains undefeated, like Vitiugov, and winless, like Romanov and Matlakov...

 

Round 7, women

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

Current standings:

Gunina – 5

Goryachkina and Girya – 4.5

Pogonina and Kashlinskaya – 4

Bodnaruk – 3.5

Nechaeva, Kovalevskaya, Shuvalova, and Ovod – 3

Gritsayeva – 2.5

Galliamova – 2

Valentina Gunina finally broke off to become a sole leader. After her habitual loss in the starting round, she scored 5 out of 6, and missed a win in one of the drawn games – but was saved by a miracle in another one. Today she faced Anastasia Bodnaruk. Valentina had lost to her in the previous Superfinal, and had not forgotten about it, so today she was out for blood. Don't laugh, but Gunina's play actually reminded me of Alpha Zero – a splendid mix of romantic chess (she wasn't counting pawns) and domination strategy (playing against Black's bad knight on b8 was the main theme of the middlegame), plus great efficiency in converting her advantage by pendulum-like maneuvers. Bodnaruk is a strong player, but never had a say in this game. 

With four rounds to go, Gunina's chances to win her fourth title look good, but women's chess is very unpredictable. For example, tomorrow Valentina is due to play against Galliamova, who, despite performing horribly here, is a great player and, in theory, is capable of pulling herself together for one game. And if Alisa plays the way she can, this may well become the toughest test for Gunina in this championship.

After that, Valentina will have White against Pogonina in the round 9, and conclude the tournament by White against Gritsayeva and Black against Nechaeva. I would definitely bet on Gunina winning the title, even money. But I am a fan.


Photos by Eteri Kublashvili