10 September 2015
Not one of Slutsky’s Days
Round Five review of the Junior World Chess Championship by Vladimir Barsky.
Although the Russian nation team coach is of course not to blame in what has happened, on Sunday the Russian juniors were kicked altogether away from the top tables. We start with the review of the open section leaders’ fight.
Grigoryan – Antipov
This sharp Sicilian position has emerged out of the Dragon variation and it’s Black on move. The first impression is that White is ahead with his attack. Although the analysis confirms this feeling, Black’s threats are not to be underestimated.
17…Qa5!
In the case of the straightforward 17...Qxb2 18.Nd5! Nxd5 19.exd5 g5 (the only move) 20.Qxg5+ Kh8 21.Kf2! the situation would have stabilized: the white king hides in a safe shelter, the d4-knight keeps the entire position together, whereas the d7-bishop has no sensible moves whatsoever. White has an overwhelming advantage. However, after the move in the game the fight escalates.
18.hxg6 fxg6 19.g5 Rxb2 20.Nde2
Still better is playing according to Steinitz, who claimed that king was a strong piece, capable of taking care of himself: 20.Kd2!, and now, for example: 20…Nh5 21.Rxh5 Rf7 (losing is 21...gxh5 in view of 22.g6 hxg6 23.Qxg6+ Kh8, and now 24.Rg1 is enough, whereas 24.Ne6 would be even more accurate) 22.Rh2 – White is a piece up, while Black’s counterplay is almost nonexistent.
20...Nh5 21.Rxh5 Rf7
Now, the white rook cannot be taken in view of g5-g6. Black has defended himself against the mating threat, and taking on h5 becomes a threat now that the rook guards the 7th rank.
22.Rh3
White is so worried about the fate of his king that he is willing to bail out with the exchange sacrifice just to ward off the opponent’s attack. Meanwhile, extremely strong is 22.Rh2 Rxc2 23.Rb1!, reminding Black that his own king is still very vulnerable. After 23…Bc8 (23...Rxc3? 24.Rb8+) 24.Rb8 Black is forced to dispatch his strongest piece to perform defensive assignments – 24…Qc7, which is then answered by 25.Rb5, covering the а5-square and retaining his extra material.
22...Rxc2 23.f4
This is the point of White’s play as he uses his rook to defend his position along the 3rd rank.
23…Bg4
This is a showcase moment: although Black is down a piece, he is playing for a win! Otherwise 23...Bxh3 24.Qxh3 Rxf4! 25.Nxf4 Rxc3 could have followed, providing Black with enough counterplay to make a draw. For example, 26.Qc8+ Kf7 27.Qe6+ Kf8 28.Qd5 Qa3, etc.
24.Rd2 Rxd2 25.Kxd2 Qb4 26.Qh4 Bxe2
It appears that this move has to do with some sort of miscalculation. It was high time that the exchange sacrifice be taken: 26...Bxh3 27.Qxh3 Kg7, for example,
1) 28.Kc2 Qc5 29.Nd5 Qa5 30.Nec3 Qc5,
2) 28.Qc8 Qb2+ 29.Ke3 Qb6+ or 29.Kd1 Rxf4 30.Nxf4 Qxc3 31.Ne6+ Kf7 32.Nd8+ Kg7 33.Ne6+.
The game would have very likely ended in a draw by the perpetual check; the only question is whether it would have been initiated by White or by Black.
27.Kxe2 Qb2+ 28.Kd1
28…e5?
Although Black must have pinned his hopes on this strike, this is a decisive error. 28...Qg2! 29.f5 e6! would have allowed staying in the game with a lot of fight to ensue.
29.f5 Qa1+
We can only guess what Black overlooked. He might have forgotten that after 29...gxf5 30.g6 Rg7 his pawn is no longer on е7, therefore 31.Qd8# finishes the game.
29...Qg2 is stronger than the move in the game, but even here after 30.Ne2 Qf1+ 31.Kd2 Qa1 32.f6 White features an overwhelming advantage.
30.Ke2 d5 31.Qe1!
This is a simple and yet a practical approach: to trade queens in order to forget about any perpetual check possibilities.
31…Qxe1+ 32.Kxe1 d4 33.Nd5 gxf5 34.exf5 c3
The pawn is invincible: 34...Rxf5 35.Ne7+.
35.f6 Rb7
Black redeploys the rook in order to assist his passed pawns, but is late by just a tempo.
36.Ne7+ Kf7 37.Rxh7+ Ke6 38.g6 Rb1+ 39.Ke2 c2 40.g7 Re1+
In the case of 40...c1Q 41.g8Q+ Kd6 42.Qd5+ Kc7 43.Nc8+ White is mating his opponent, therefore Black tries his last chance.
41.Kd3. Black resigned as he failed to queen his pawn with check.
Duda – Gordievsky
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ Nd7 4.d4 Ngf6 5.e5 Qa5+ 6.Nc3 Ne4 7.Rb1 d5
The opponents played out a relatively fresh line that has not been very well studied yet. Black does not profit from gaining a pawn: 7…Nxc3 8.bxc3 Qxc3+ 9.Bd2 Qa3 10.exd6 exd6 11.0-0 with a decisive advantage in development. The move in the game is unlikely to win over any supporters; stronger is 7…е6 or 7…а6, as has already been tested in this position previously.
8.e6!
This is a very unpleasant position-stifling sacrifice of a pawn.
8…fxe6 9.0–0 Nd6 10.Bxd7+
Perhaps even stronger is 10.Qe2 with the idea of 10…Nxb5 11.Qxb5 Qxb5 12.Nxb5 Kf7 13.Ng5+, and Black is in for a difficult defense in the ending.
10...Bxd7 11.dxc5 Qxc5 12.Be3 Qc7 13.Bd4
Blockading the weakened dark squares of the center.
13…0–0–0
This is a controversial decision as the king gets under attack on the queenside. It made sense to keep it the center for a while and try to develop the kingside beforehand: 13... Rg8 14.Re1 g6.
14.Re1 Nf5 15.Be5 Qb6 16.Nd4 Nxd4 17.Bxd4 Qa6 18.Be5 Be8
19.b4!
White features a very straightforward type of play. Black attempted to bail out with a couple of pawns, but to no avail.
19…d4 20.b5 Qa5 21.Bxd4 e5 22.Rxe5 e6 23.Qg4 Qa3 24.Re3 Qa5 25.Qxe6+ Bd7 26.Qc4+ Kb8 27.Be5+ Ka8 28.Nd5 Rc8 29.Nc7+ Kb8 30.Rd3 Black resigns.
Tuan Minh – Chigaev
At the end of the opening part of the game Black either sacrificed or blundered a pawn, then yet another one, having developed pressure on the queenside as a compensation for that. Now the white knight is en prize, and after 26…Nf6 the end of the game was very trivial: 27.a4 Rd6 28.Qd2 d4 29.cxd4 Nc6 30.Rac1 Rb8 31.d5 Rxd5 32.Qe3 Nd4 33.Bc4 Nf5 34.Bxd5 Nxe3 35.Bxf7+ Kxf7 36.Rxd8 Rxd8 37.Nxe3, and Black resigned.
Meanwhile the position on the diagram features a fantastic resource for Black – 26...Rb4!! Both adults and children are willing to believe in miracles, so let’s try to make ourselves believe that after 27.fxe4 Qb6+ 28.Kh1 Rxb2 Black manages to reach a draw: 29.Rab1 (Black is definitely OK after 29.Qc1 Rxe2 30.Ng3 Re3) 29...Rxc2 30.Rxb6 Rxe2 31.exd5 Rxa2 32.d6 Rd8 33.Kg1 Rc2.
However, White has a cold-blooded rejoinder at his disposal 27.Qc1! Qb6+ 28.Qe3. Notwithstanding the fact that after some trial moves like 28…Qxe3+ 29.Nxe3 Rxb2 30.Nxd5 Nxc3 31.Nxc3 Rxc3 32.Bf1 Rxf3! Black finally succeeds in restoring the material balance, White’s passed pawn is very dangerous and after 33.a4 it remains unclear whether Black is going to save this position after all.
Ali Marandi – Makhnev
Although the game between the Turkish and Kazakh juniors was being played at some distance from the leaders’ tables, the mate involving a queen sacrifice never fails to be fascinating: 26.Nh7+! Nxh7 27.Qxg7+ Ke8 28.Qg8+ Nf8 29.Qxf8+!, and Black resigned in view of 29…Kxf8 30.Bh6+ Ke8 31.Rg8#.
The Russian girls, who belonged to the group of leaders, conducted their games in the fifth round in an extremely poor manner.
Drogovoz – Abdumalik
In this approximately equal position White launches an unsuccessful manoeuvre of redeploying her bishop to b3.
19.Bd1 Bf5 20.Bb3 Be4!
Black made a better use of her bishop and went on to seize the initiative. However, White was not to be so obliging as to give away a piece in a one-move blunder.
21.Re1?? Bxf3, and White had to resign in view of 22.gxf3 Qg5+, winning a rook.
Buksa – Bivol
White obtained quite a menacing position out of the opening, but still after a typical Scheveningen move 20...Rfe8 the entire amount of struggle is still ahead. Should White start with the immediate 21.g6 fxg6 22.hxg6 h6 23.Qh2 Bf8, or with 21.Qh2, or even with 21.Qf2?
However, after the hasty 20…e5? White starts enjoying a rather easy game.
21.Nf5 Rfe8
21...Bxf5 22.exf5 would have been equally grim.
22.Nxe7+ Rxe7 23.Qxd6 Qxc2+ 24.Ka1 Rce8 25.f5 Bc8?
This rook blunder happens in a position that is very difficult for Black already. Bad is 25...Qxe4 26.f6, whereas after 25...Bc6 26.Rc1 Qxe4 27.Bb6 Black is left down a piece.
26.Qxe7 Black resigns.
Well, this is how the "black Sunday" turned out for the Russian juniors. Never mind, Monday is an excellent day to start it all over again!
