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L A N G E L I H L E C H A G W E

6 A

Changed Days

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Magnus Carlsen’s frstachievements as WorldChampion comparedto his predecessors

A Year in

the Life

10 A A Y E A R I N T H E L I F E

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12 A A Y E A R I N T H E L I F E

A Year in the Life

José Raul Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine – didn’t playin ocial tournaments during their rst year as Champi-ons. Instead, they devoted themselves to other activities.Steinitz’s main occupation was not chess but journalism. Hepublished countless articles in American newspapers andwas the founding editor of the International Chess Maga-zine, hailed as one of the greatest chess periodicals. Thenthere was Lasker, who toured and lectured, and also wrotehis book Common Sense In Chess. In 1921, following hisdefeat of Lasker, Capablanca married and settled down tofamily life. During this period he also worked on his bookChess Fundamentals. Alekhine popularized the game in adierent way, touring far and wide giving numerous simul-taneous displays. He also wrote his books My Best Games ofChess, 1908-1923 and New York International Chess Tour-nament, 1927.

The fifth World Champion, Dr. Max Euwe, became therst champion to play actively during his rst year as WorldChampion – a fact that is surprising, as he wasn’t a full-time professional player when he defeated Alekhine in theirWorld Championship Match of 1935. His main occupationwas teaching mathematics, and he continued to do so duringhis two-year reign as champion. Euwe’s results from 1936 aresummarized in Table 1.

Examining the results in this table, we note that the mostimportant players of the day participated in all the tourna-ments (with the exception of Leiden). At Zandvoort, therewere rising stars Reuben Fine and Paul Keres; there were

also experienced stars Efim Bogoljubow, Savielly Tarta-

kower, Géza Maróczy, Ernst Grünfeld and Rudolf Spiel-mann. Nottingham 1936 is famous for having ve WorldChampions among its field: Lasker, Capablanca andAlekhine being ex-champions; Euwe, the reigning cham-

pion; and future champion Mikhail Botvinnik. Also in themix were potential title challengers Fine, Samuel Reshevskyand Salo Flohr.

Euwe’s result (only half point behind the winners) can beconsidered a success. We should take into account that Euwecame to the tournament after an intensive academic workyear and the competition in Zandvoort.

After a little rest, Euwe was undefeated at the nal competi-tion of 1936 in Amsterdam – where he also won against for-mer champion Alekhine, who came third.

Mikhail Botvinnik became the sixth World Champion in1948, winning the tournament in The Hague and Moscow.After that, he worked on his PhD thesis in electrical engi-neering, and during the next three years didn’t play in anyocial competitions.

The seventh World Champion, Vassily Smyslov , gainedthe title on 27th April 1957. During his one and only yearas champion, he only played in one team tournamentand the return match in which ex-champion Botvinnikdefeated him.

The eighth World Champion, Mikhail Tal, like Smyslov,only held the title for a year – and indeed, both becameknown in Russian circles as ‘the winter kings’ due to theirbrief tenure as champions. Tal’s results of that year are sum-

marized in Table 3.

Tal, in his memoir, The Life and Games of Mikhail Tal ,noted that during his period as champion he rememberedit as being mostly successful, particularly at Hamburg andStockholm, and also for his famous French Defence drawagainst Bobby Fischer at the Leipzig Olympiad. He alsowrote his entertaining and free-spirited book Tal-Botvinnik,1960 – hailed by many as one of the best books ever to bewritten on a world championship match. It should be notedalso that, during this period, Tal’s serious health problemssurfaced.

E v e n tR e s u l t+ – =

F i n a lr a n k i n g

L o s e s t o

Noteboom Mem, Leiden 1936 2 0 1 1

Zandvoort 1936 5 1 5 2 (1. Fine) Bogoljubow

Nottingham 1936 7 2 53-5

(1.Botvinnik,2.Capablanca)

AlekhineLasker

Amsterdam 1936 3 0 4 1-2 (with Fine)

17 3 15

Max Euwe, 5th World Champion Table 1

E v e n tR e s u l t

+ – =L o s e s t o

European Team Championship,Vienna 1957

2 1 3 M.Filip

WChM vs M.Botvinnik, Moscow1958

5 7 11 M.Botvinnik

7 8 14

Vassily Smyslov, 7th World Champion Table 2


+ – =F i n a l

r a n k i n gL o s e s t o

Match FRG-USSR, Hamburg 1960 7 0 1 -

Olympiad, Leipzig 1960 8 1 6 - J. Penrose

Stockholm 1960/61 8 0 3 1

WChM vs. Botvinnik , Moscow 1961 5 10 6 -

28 11 16

Mikhail Tal, 8th World Champion Table 3

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A Y E A R I N T H E L I F E A 13

When Tigran Petrosian became World Champion in1963, he said: ‘Botvinnik didn’t play often, but I think youhave to play in tournaments with the strongest grandmas-ters in the world.’ The results of Tigran Petrosian duringhis rst year as champion are summarized in Table 4.

The tenth World Champion, Boris Spassky , promised toplay more often after his victory over Petrosian. He kepthis promise but wasn’t overly satised with his results. Wecan deduce this from his interview in San Juan: ‘I under-stood that particular attention was being paid to my rstperformance with the World Champion’s title, and I didn’tfeel condent enough. In the olden days, players who hadwon the title of World Champion went ‘underground’ forquite a long period to completely get back to normal andprepare properly for new battles. But I had to sit down atthe board soon after my match against Petrosian.’

The

results of Spassky during the rst year as champion are inTable 5.

The eleventh World Champion, Robert James ‘Bobby’Fischer, gained a famous and convincing victory overSpassky during their 1972 match in Reykjavik. He prom-

ised to make the game more professional, also stating that‘All I want to do, ever, is play chess’. Immediately afterwinning the title, he started to discuss the possibilities of areturn match with Spassky. This match had to take placein Las Vegas, and with a record (for that time) prize purse

of $1 million. The then FIDE president, Dr Max Euwe,supported the idea – but nothing ever came of the prom-

ises. And as we all know, Fischer didn’t play in any ocialtournaments during his three-year reign as champion –and indeed, didn’t return to competitive play for another20 years.

By default, Anatoly Karpov became the twelfth WorldChampion when Fischer refused to defend his title. Butunlike his predecessors, Karpov had to prove he was worthyof the title by virtue of his tournament performances – andhe did so, with a series of dominating tournament wins andteam results, as the evidence shows in Table 6.

The thirteenth World Champion, Garry Kasparov , had adicult task. After two very hard matches – one of whichwas controversially terminated after several months ofintense battle – against his arch-rival Karpov, in 1984-

1985, he then had less than one year to prepare for a returnmatch. He wrote about that period: ‘Time was runningout, but my training team worked very eciently. Keep-ing in mind the sad experiences of Smyslov and Tal, andhaving absorbed Botvinnik’s iron training, I had doneexcellent preparation and I felt close to a new level of chessunderstanding.’

The new champion did indeed keep his level of prepara-tion in shape, playing high-level training matches with twoof the best from the West. In December 1985, he defeatedDutch star Jan Timman (+3, –1, =2), who was then ratedthird in the world. He followed this up in May 1986 by

Anatoly Karpov, 12th World Champion Table 6


+ – =F i n a l


Vidmar Memorial,Portoroz/Ljubljana 1975

7 0 8 1

VI Spartakiad USSR,Riga 1975

4 0 3 -

Milan 1975:- Match vs Petrosian (seminal)- Match vs Portish (nal)

301

100

745

2-4(1. Portisch)

Andersson

Skopje 1976 10 0 5 1

25 1 32


+ – =F i n a l


Piatigorsky Cup, Los Angeles1963

4 1 91-2

with KeresGligoric

III Spartakiad USSR, Moscow1963

4 2 3 -Kortchnoi

Geller

8 3 12

Tigran Petrosian, 9th World Champion Table 4


+ – =F i n a l

r a n k i n g L o s e s t o

Match Yugoslavia-USSR,Skopje 1969

0 0 3 -

San Juan 1969 8 0 7 1

Palma de Mallorca 1969 3 0 145

(1. Larsen)

‘Match of the Century’ USSRvs Rest of the World, Belgrade1970

1 1 1 - Larsen

Leiden 1970 2 0 10 1

14 1 35

Boris Spassky, 10th World Champion Table 5

E v e n t R e s u l t+ – =

Match vs Timman 3 1 2

Match vs Miles 5 0 1

Match vs Karpov 5 4 15

13 5 18

Garry Kasparov, 13th World Champion Table 7

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A Y E A R I N T H E L I F E A 15

A Year in the Life

hand for the champion was to prepare for his upcomingrematch, it was a successful period, because in October2008 he condently beat Kramnik (+3, –1, =7) to retainthe title.

The sixteenth and current World Champion, Magnus

Carlsen, after his rst victory over Anand, took a two-month rest following his title match. When he returned toactive duty, it was in some of the strongest tournamentsever, along with many of his main rating rivals and poten-

tial title challengers (Table 10). Although he didn’t alwaystake rst place, he easily kept his standing at the top of therating list, whilst at the same time making preparationsfor his main competition: his return match with Anand.

In his rst year as champion Carlsen also captured theworld titles in rapid and blitz to become the rst player in

history to hold the ‘triple crown’ in chess. But in the sameyear, he also suered two defeats to rising star FabianoCaruana, whom many regard as one of the Norwegian’smain title challengers in the years to come. But Carlsen’sstar is far from waning, as can be read in this issue, as –following his successful rematch win over Anand lastNovember – he started 2015 on a high note with a braceof super-tournament victories at the Tata Steel Masters inWijk aan Zee and the Grenke Classic in Baden-Baden. ■

Chess statistician Vitaly Gnirenko is also the founder ofthe Russian online ‘Chigorin Club’ website (in Russian) thatcharts a historic roll call of players who, through the years,

have defeated World Champions, from Steinitz throughto Carlsen. To qualify for the ‘Chigorin Club’ you have to

defeat the reigning World Champion in a classical game,

and you should not have been or become World Cham-

pion yourself. The initial inductee, claims Gnirenko, is the

founding father of Russian chess, Mikhail Chigorin, hencehis naming of the club. One of the more recent inductees is

Germany’s Arkadij Naiditsch, who can now also claim anupdate to the site with a second win over Carlsen in 2015,

in Baden-Baden, to go alongside his win in 2014. Surpris-

ing, because, when he featured in Just Checking (see NewIn Chess 2013/2), his answer to our question, Who is the

greatest player of all time? was ‘Magnus Carlsen. I don’tsee how to beat him.’(!)

The ‘ChigorinClub’

Magnus Carlsen, 16th World Champion Table 10

Vishy Anand, 15th World Champion Table 9


+ – =F i n a l


European Club Cup, Kemer 2007 1 0 2 -

Team ch. Germany, Hamburg

2007 0 0 2 -

Wijk aan Zee 2008 3 1 93-4

(1. Aronian)Radjabov

Morelia/Linares 2008 4 1 9 1 Aronian

Bilbao 2008 0 2 8 6TopalovAronian

8 4 30

crushing the original style of England’s Tony Miles (+5,–0, =1).Kasparov concluded his year on the throne on a high, witha victory (+5, –4, =15) in his return match against Karpov,split between London and Leningrad.

The fourteenth World Champion, Vladimir Kramnik ,

after his unexpected victory over Kasparov in London in2000, was unable to prove to the chess world his superior-ity over his predecessor (Table 8).

The fteenth World Champion, Vishy Anand, had onlyone year to prepare for his return match against ex-cham-

pion Kramnik. He had some modest performances overthe period – his strongest opponent, Levon Aronian, beathim twice – but if you take into account that the task in


+ – =F i n a l


Wijk aan Zee 2001 4 1 83-4

(1. Kasparov)Morozevich,

5-7

Astana 2001 4 1 5 2 Kasparov, 1

Dortmund 2001 3 0 71-2

(with Topalov)

11 2 20

E v e n t R e s u l t+ – =

F i n a lr a n k i n g

L o s e s t o

Chess Challenge, Zurich 2014 3 0 2 1

Gashimov Mem, Shamkir 2014 5 2 3 1CaruanaRadjabov

Norway Chess, Stavanger 2014 1 0 82

(1.Karjakin)

Olympiad, Tromsø 2014 5 2 2 -Naiditsch

Saric

Sinquefeld Cup, St Louis 2014 2 1 72

(1. Caruana)Caruana

WChM vs Anand, Sochi 2014 3 1 7 - Anand

19 6 29

Vladimir Kramnik, 14th World Champion Table 8

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18 A W I J K A A N Z E E

Wijk aan Zee

Lagrave was trying to impress thecrowd at the goodbye party with hismoves on the dancefloor. And youmight have liked to know who thatblonde girl with Wesley So duringthat party was? And which playerfrom the Challengers was especiallycurious about the latter? Or what video game Magnus was playing theday before the rest day? Or why LevonAronian played cards with Magnus?

Or maybe you would have liked tond out what unfolded after 1.e4 ♘f62.e5 ♘g8 3.f4!? in the blitz game Giri-Carlsen (aka The Only Sober Guy vs.The World Champion) at the afore-mentioned party, which ended in 1-0

(sorry, I just had to throw that outthere).But for the moment, let’s stick to

the chess. Because that’s what we arehere for, aren’t we?

Whilst no one doubts Carlsen’s supe-riority on the chessboard, it had actu-ally been a little while since the Nor-wegian last won a tournament. Wijkaan Zee seemed like a perfect platformto conrm his status, with a 14-playereld packed with stars like Fabiano

Let’s be frank, nowadays there aretwo types of top events: those withMagnus Carlsen and those withouthim. So, small wonder that the rstappearance of the Viking after hissuccessful defence of his title in Sochiwas eagerly awaited by chess fans all

over the world. Last year, the WorldChampion skipped Wijk aan Zee,where he had been a regular guestever since his spectacular debut in2004, but this time he had let it beknown well in advance that he wantedto play again in the cold and cosy sea-side village, which is, after all, one ofthe capitals of chess.

Following last year’s successfulexperiment, two of the rounds of theTata Steel tournament were againplayed elsewhere, on the principle ‘If

you don’t come to Tata Steel Chess,then Tata Steel Chess will come toyou’. Round 5 took place in ‘De Rot-terdam’, a brand-new multifunctionalbuilding designed by world-famousarchitect Rem Koolhaas in the cityof... yup, Rotterdam, while Round 10was hosted in the press centre of theDutch parliament (called Nieuws-poort) in the heart of The Hague, alsoknown as the International City ofPeace and Justice.

A lot can be said about the typi-cal atmosphere of a tournament thatbrings together professional top-levelchess and many hundreds of ama-teur players. And every year, TataSteel Chess is more than just chess; itis also a collection of stories. PerhapsI could tell you about how MagnusCarlsen and Loek van Wely were roll-ing on the oor ghting for the ballduring a basketball game. Or perhapsI could tell you how Maxime Vachier-

Caruana, Levon Aronian and others,but also with some lower-rated GMslike Women’s World Champion HouYifan, Loek van Wely, Ivan Saric andBaadur Jobava. Under the watchfuleye of Norwegian cameras (this timethe commercial channel TV2 hadobtained the rights to broadcast thegames live on Norwegian television)the champion had quite some expec-tations to live up to. His start, how -ever, was anything but convincing.

Having drawn his rst two gamesin rather uneventful fashion (versusyours truly and Wesley So), Magnuswas facing Wojtaszek with the blackpieces. What do you do? Well, you

play the Dutch!

VO 21.5 – A41

Radoslaw WojtaszekMagnus Carlsen

Wijk aan Zee 2015 (3)

1.d4 d6 2.♘f3 g6 3.c4 f5 4.b4♗g7 5.♗b2 a5 6.b5 a4 7.e3 ♘f68.♗e2 c6 9.bxc6 bxc6 10.0-0 0-011.♕c2 ♕c7 12.♘c3 a3 13.♗c1♘bd7 14.♖b1 ♘e4 15.♘xe4 fxe416.♘d2 ♘f6 17.♖b3

L

Radek Wojtaszek ‘knows how to handle 2800 kids without a-pawns’.

N E W I N

C H E S S

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W I J K A A N Z E E A 19

Magnus has played the opening rea-sonably creatively, but what he hashere is a doomed a-pawn. It will be along time before White will promotethe little soldier from a2, though, sothere is still some hope to muddythe waters thanks to the black pieces’potential on the kingside.

T_L_ tM_T L tM_ d j lJ d j lJ _Jj sJ_ Jj sJ_ _ _ __IiJ_ _ IiJjR_ i _jR iI_Qn iIiI QnBiIi_ b _Rkb Rk

17...♗f5 18.♖xa3 h5 19.♖xa8♖xa8 20.a3 h4

Black doesn’t havethat many resources, but he is doinghis best. Now White has to decidewhether to allow ...h3 or not.21.♗b2 21.h3!? could create a targetafter ...g5-g4.21...h3 Now at least Black will havesome sort of a nail in White’s kingsideposition. Maybe the queen will appearon g2 at some stage. Who knows, it’sthe World Champion, right?22.g3 ♕c8 23.♖e1

T_D_ _M_T D M_ _ j lj l_Jj sJ_ Jj sJ_ _ _L_L_IiJ_ _ IiJi _ i iJi i iJ bQn i ibQnBi i

_ _ r kr k23...♖b8?! This move looks com-pletely pointless. It probably is, too.Instead, 23...♘h7! 24.a4 ♘g5 25.♖a1♗g4 would create some real counter-play. Basically, it would just be a bet-ter version of the game.24.♗c3 ♘h7 25.a4 ♘g5 26.♖b1♖a8 Black has lost two tempi, butthe practical chances remain. Rightnow he wants ...♗g4, using the light-

square holes.

T_D_ _M_T D M_ _ j lj l_Jj _J_ Jj J_ _ _LsLsI_IiJ_ _I IiJ_ b i iJ b i iJ _Qn i i QnBi i_R_ _ kR k

27.♕d1?! A prophylactic move,but now, exploiting the fact that thec3-bishop is left unprotected, Blackis able to soften up White’s centre. Iwould like to suggest an alternative,but to be honest I would also be con-cerned about ...♗g4. Probably 27.♗f1♗g4 28.♖b6 ♕f5 29.♖xc6 was theway for White, as after 29...♖f8,attacking f2, there is the lovely 30.f4!.27...c5! When I saw this, I felt Mag-nus might escape after all.28.♖b6

T_D_ _M_T D M_ _ j lj l

r j _J_r j J_ j _Lsj LsI_IiJ_ _I IiJ_ b i iJ b i iJ _ n i i nBi i_ _Q_ kQ k

28...♕e6?? Speculative. Magnussaw some attacking ideas, but thosewere illusions. White’s next move isactually not all that clear, so it was agood moment for the just-in-case

move 28...♔h7!, when somehow it ishard to suggest a move for White, as29.a5? is met by 29...cxd4! and sincethe a5-pawn needs protection, thebishop cannot take back on d4, andafter 30.exd4 e3! 31.fxe3 ♕e6! it issuddenly Black who is winning.29.♕a1 is better, but after 29...♗g430.♗f1 cxd4 31.♗xd4 ♗xd4 32.exd4e3! 33.fxe3 ♕f5 White has to bail outwith 34.♕b1, giving up the a-pawnand trying to hold the draw.29.g4!

T_ _ _M_T M_ _ j lj lr jD_J_r jD J_ j _Lsj LsI_IiJ_I_I IiJ I_ b i _J b i J _ n i i nBi i_ _Q_ kQ k

F R E D L

U C A S

At the goodbye party Dutch IM Manuel Bosboom, who famously beat Kasparov in 1999, lived

up to his blitz reputation by beating Levon Aronian and drawing with Magnus Carlsen.

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Wijk aan Zee

♕b6 20.e3 ♖fb8 21.♗f1 ♕xb522.♖a3 ♕e8 23.f3 ♘d6 24.♕a1g5 25.♗c3 g4 26.f4Another Dutch, and another a-pawnis doomed...

Tt _D_M_Tt D M_ _ jLlJ jLlJ _ s _ _ sj _J_J_j J J_ i iJ_ i iJrIbNi irIbNi i_ _ _ i iq _ r kq rBk

26...♘e4 27.♗xa5 h5The only source of counterplay. HereBlack’s initiative is even less promis-ing than in Wojtaszek-Carlsen. Andby now Radek already knew how tohandle 2800 kids without a-pawns.28.♖c1 h4 29.♗e1 ♗f6

Tt _D_M_Tt D M_ _ jL_jL_ _ l _ l_ _J_J_J J

_ iSiJj iSiJjrI_Ni irI Ni i_ _ _ i iq r b kq r bBk

30.♘c5?! In view of what happenedthis seems to be an oversight.30...hxg3 31.hxg3 ♘xc5 32.♖xc5

Tt _D_M_Tt D M_ _ jL_jL

_ _ l _ l_ rJ_J_rJ J_ i iJ_ i iJrI_ i irI i i_ _ _ _ q _ b kq bBk

32...e5!A nice tactical shot. Suddenly Whitehas to worry about the f8-a3 diagonal.

Cool-headed. At the end of the day,Black is left with too few pieces toattack.29...cxd4 30.♗xd4 ♗xd431.exd4 e3 32.gxf5 gxf5 33.♘f1

33.fxe3 ♕xe3+ 34.♔h1 is alsowinning.33...exf2+ 34.♔xf2 ♘e4+

T_ _ _M_T M_ _ j _jr jD_ _r jD

_ _ _J_JI_IiS_ _I IiS_ _ _ _J J _ _ k i Bk i_ _Q_N_Q N

35.♔e1! And the rest is a matter ofbeing a little accurate. White is a pieceup and his king is safe enough.35...♕f6 36.♕d3 ♖xa4 37.♖b1♕h4+ 38.♘g3 ♔f7 39.♕f3 ♔g740.♕f4 ♕xf4 41.♘h5+ ♔f742.♘xf4 ♘g5 43.d5 ♔f6 44.♔f2♖a3 45.♗d3 ♖a2+ 46.♔g3 ♖a347.♖e1 ♘e4+ 48.♔f3 ♘g5+49.♔e3 ♖a2 50.♖e2 ♖a3 51.♖f2

♘e4 52.♖f3 Black resigned.

This was not the only major victory ofthe talented player from Poland, whodespite his 15th place in the worldrankings is rst and foremost knownas a faithful second of Vishy Anand.Two rounds later, it was Caruana’sturn to face Radek with Black. Whatdo you do? Well, of course you playthe Dutch!

HD 6.3 – A88

Radoslaw WojtaszekFabiano Caruana


1.d4 f5 2.c4 ♘f6 3.g3 g6 4.♗g2♗g7 5.♘f3 0-0 6.0-0 d6 7.♘c3c6 8.♖e1 ♘a6 9.b3 ♘e4 10.♗b2♘xc3 11.♗xc3 ♘c5 12.♘g5d5 13.♘h3 ♘e4 14.♗b2 ♗e615.♘f4 ♗f7 16.cxd5 cxd517.♘d3 a5 18.a4 b5 19.axb5

33.♖xa833.fxe5!? was tempting, just giving upthe exchange. However, after 33...♖xa334.♕xa3 ♗e7 35.♕b2 ♗xc5 36.dxc5the position is quite strange. White’sbishops are pretty bad, so the assess-ment doesn’t seem obvious to me.One might argue, though, that with somany pawns White doesn’t really riskanything here.33...♖xa8 34.♕b1 exd4Taking the other way, 34...exf435.♕xf5 ♕xe3+ 36.♗f2 ♕e637.♕xf4, is clearly better for White,thanks to his extra pawn.35.♕xf5

T_ _D_M_T D M_ _ _L_L_ _ l _ l

_ rJ_Q_rJ Q_ j iJ_ j iJ

_I_ i iI i i_ _ _ _

_ _ b kbBk

35...♕xe3+? It is quite remarkable,but it was better not to take the pawn!

Black should have played 35...♕e6!,when White must take the queen,since the e3-pawn is actually hang-ing: 36.♕xe6 ♗xe6. Once again, thee3-pawn is hanging, and it’s quite aconcern. 37.♗f2 dxe3 38.♗xe3 d439.♗f2 ♗xb3, with utter equality.36.♗f2 ♕e6 37.♗d337.♕b1! was the best move objec-tively, but Radek was probably just happy to keep the game undercontrol.37...♕xf5 38.♗xf5 ♖a1+ 39.♔g2

_ _ _M_ M_ _ _L_L_ _ l _ l

_ rJ_ _rJ B_ j iJ_ j iJ

_I_ _ iI i_ _ bK_ bK

t _ _ _t

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39...d3? There is no reason forthis move, but Fabiano was mostlikely quite short on time. Best was39...♖a3!. Now if White is to move therook from the c-le, the black rookwill enjoy the second rank quite a bit.The position is simply equal here.However, Black should not play thehasty 39...♖a2 in view of 40.♖c2!.40.♗xd3 d4 41.b4And without an extra d-pawn thegame is probably already beyondsaving.41...♗b3 42.b5 ♗e7 43.♖h5♖d1 44.♗e2 ♖d2 45.♗xg4 ♖b246.♗f3 ♗b4 47.b6Black resigned.

Back at Camp Carlsen, the situa-tion was quite depressing: –1 after3 games, with Fabiano Caruana on2½/3 (yours truly being to be blamedfor the half point missing there). Whatmore would you not wish for? Fortu-nately for Magnus, and as so often inthe past, good old Dutch legend Loek van Wely came to the rescue.

GI 1.14 – D76

Loek van WelyMagnus Carlsen


1.d4 ♘f6 2.c4 g6 3.♘f3 ♗g74.g3 d5 5.cxd5 ♘xd5 6.♗g2♘b6 7.♘c3 ♘c6 8.0-0 0-0 9.d5♘a5 10.♕c2 c6 11.dxc6 ♘xc612.♖d1 ♗d7 13.♗f4 ♕c814.♖ac1 ♗f5

T_D_ tM_T D tMjJ_ jJlJjJ jJlJ

sS_ _J_sS J_ _ _L_L_ _ b _ b_ n _Nin NiIiQ_Ii iIiQ IiBi_ rR_ krR k

Loek was clearly not playing all thatambitiously in the opening, so Mag-nus felt that he might as well take

some risks. Provoking e4 closes theg2-bishop and weakens the d4-square,but there are also some clear draw -backs to this idea.15.e4 ♗g4

T_D_ tM_T D tMjJ_ jJlJjJ jJlJ

sS_ _J_sS J_ _ _ __ _IbL_ IbL_ n _Nin NiIiQ_ i iIiQ iBi_ rR_ krR k

16.♕b3?16.♘d5! would lead to a clear advan-tage for White. The logical line wouldbe 16...♗xf3 17.♗xf3 ♘xd5 18.exd5

♘d4 19.♕e4 ♘xf3+ 20.♕xf3 ♕f5,when Black seems to be alright. Butit turns out that ...g5 is not a threat:21.♖c7! g5 22.♕h5! and Black is introuble. Not only did White not losea piece, he is also attacking severalpawns. Therefore, instead of the ‘logi-cal’ 16...♗xf3, Black should play 16...e5! when White is only slightly better.16...♕e6!Missed by Loek number one.17.♕xe6

T_ _ tM_T tMjJ_ jJlJjJ jJlJ sS_Q_J_sS Q J_ _ _ __ _IbL_ IbL_ n _Nin NiIi _ i iIi iBi

_ rR_ krR k17...fxe6! Missed by Loek numbertwo. 18.e5 Suddenly this is the onlymove. 18...♘d5 Black is already fac-ing a choice and the position hasbecome very double-edged.19.♘xd5 exd5 20.♘g5!? e6 21.f3h6 22.fxg4 hxg5 23.♗xg5 ♘xe524.♗f4 ♘c6

T_ _ tM_T tM

jJ_ _ ljJ l_S_J_J_ S J J_ _J_ _J_ _ bI_ bI_ _ _ iiIi _ _ iIi Bi_ rR_ krR k

This position is very unclear. Blackhas the centre, while White has two

‘Perhaps I could tell you about how Magnus Carlsen and Loek van Wely were

rolling on the oor ghting for the ball during a basketball game.’

A L I N A L ’ A M I

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lost to Caruana, and Black seems to bemoderately suering in this variationfrom a theoretical standpoint.4.♗xc6 dxc6 5.d3 ♗g7 6.h3 ♘f67.♘c3 b6 8.♗e3

T_LdM_ tT LdM tj _ jJlJj jJlJ jJ_ sJ_jJ sJ_ j _ _j_ _I_ _ I_ nIbN_I nIbN IIiI_ iI_IiI iIr _Qk _Rr Qk R

8...e5?!Standard moves like 8...♘d7 and8...0-0 are better. Magnus’s move,while positionally justied, has a tac-tical aw.

T_LdM_ tT LdM tj _ _JlJj JlJ jJ_ sJ_jJ sJ_ j j _j j_ _I_ _ I

_ nIbN_I nIbN IIiI_ iI_IiI iIr _Qk _Rr Qk R

9.0-0?!After 9.♘xe5! ♘xe4, 10.♕f3! is thepoint, as now 10...♘d6 is impossiblebecause Black has played ...b6, so c6is hanging.Caruana thought for a while beforeplaying 9.0-0. Maybe he was cal-culating the line 10...f5 (instead of

10...♘d6) 11.♗f4 ♕e7 12.dxe4 ♗xe513.0-0-0 0-0 14.♗xe5 ♕xe5 15.exf5♗xf5 16.♕xc6 ♕f4+, when it looksas if Black gets back the pawn with adecent position, but after 17.♖d2! therook protects f2, and there is no wayto exploit the pin on the d-le.9...0-0 10.a3 ♕e7 11.♕b1!?Caruana takes his role as challengerto Magnus’s supremacy seriously andplays very ambitiously. White’s pawn-push b4 will indeed put pressure on

Here is Magnus’s win against Caru-ana, annotated by the Norwegian’ssecond Peter Heine Nielsen (fromDenmark).

N O T E S B Y

Peter Heine Nielsen

SI 31.7 – B31

Fabiano CaruanaMagnus Carlsen


This game was played in the sixthround, with both players being on 3/5.

However, their routes had been quitedierent. Magnus had a bumpy startfollowed by two wins, while Caru-ana had started o with 2½/3, only tond out, like Carlsen, that playing theDutch against Wojtaszek is probablynot a good idea.But, of course, apart from the impacton the tournament standings, this is agame between the two top players inthe world.1.e4 c5 2.♘f3 ♘c6 3.♗b5!?

T_LdMlStT LdMlStjJ_JjJjJjJ JjJjJ _S_ _ _ S_ j _ _Bj_ _I_ _ I

_ _ _N_NIiIi iIiIiIi iIirNbQk _RrNbQk R

These days one would almost say

that this is the main line against theSicilian, which it has been since theWorld Championship match betweenAnand and Gelfand in Moscow 2012,but in their previous encounter Caru-ana played 3.d4 and got a promisingposition after 3...cxd4 4.♘xd4 g6 5.c4♘f6 6.♘c3 d6 7.f3!?. Even so, this fas-cinating game ended in a draw.3...g6Gelfand repeatedly played 3...e6, butsince the match he has, for example,

the black queenside, but the queenstrays far from its king.

T_L_ tM_T L tM

j _ dJlJj dJlJ jJ_ sJ_jJ sJ_ j j _j j_ _I_ _ I

i nIbN_Ii nIbN I iI_ iI_iI iIrQ_ _RkrQ Rk

11...♘h5 12.b4

T_L_ tM_T L tM

j _ dJlJj dJlJ jJ_ _J_jJ J_ j j _S j j S i _I_ _i Ii nIbN_Ii nIbN I _I_ iI_ I iIrQ_ _RkrQ Rk

12...f5!? Not at all the top move ofthe computer, but an interesting andprincipled one.

The engines like 12...♘f4, possiblyfollowed by 13...g5. This is a relevantidea for Black, but maybe White canfight for the initiative with 13.bxc5bxc5 14.♗xf4!? exf4 15.e5!? with a very interesting position.13.bxc5 f4 14.♗d2 bxc5

T_L_ tM_T L tMj _ d lJj d lJ _J_ _J_ J J

_ j j _S j j S _ _Ij _ Iji nI_N_Ii nI N I _Ib iI_ Ib iIrQ_ _RkrQ Rk

Black’s strategy is risky and very simi-lar to a King’s Indian. The doubledpawns on the c-le are not only weakbut probably just lost. After 15.♘a4,for example, things look problematic:

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15...g5 even allows 16.♘xc5!? and ifBlack takes back on c5 then 17.♗b4,followed by 18.♗xf8 and 19.♘xg5, isbetter for White.But Black can just ignore the pawn

with 16...g4! 17.hxg4 ♗xg4 18.♘h2♗c8!, stopping ♕b7, with a verypromising attack for Black. White’sextra pawn is of no immediate rele- vance, and when a black rook appearson the g-le the white king is in seri-ous danger.15.♕b3+ ♗e6 16.♕a4Caruana comes up with an interestingconcept. He disturbs the black queen-side, gaining time, because since it ispossible to sacrice the c5-pawn, los-

ing c6 is an entirely different mat-ter, as this would give White’s knightaccess to d5.16...♖ac8

_T_ tM_ T tMj _ d lJj d lJ _J_L_J_ J L J_ j j _S j j SQ_ _Ij _Q Iji nI_N_Ii nI N I

_Ib iI_ Ib iIr _ _Rkr Rk

17.♕a517.♕a6!? also makes sense: 17...g5 18.♖fb1 g4 (18...♖c7 seems tooslow, as after 19.♘a4 g4 20.hxg4♗xg4 21.♗a5 ♗xf3 22.gxf3 ♕g5+23.♔f1 ♘g3+ 24.♔e1! White wouldescape just in time) 19.♖b7 ♕f6,and despite White’s invasion on the7th rank, Blacks counterplay seems

enough – the position after 20.hxg4♗xg4 21.♘h2 (21.♔f1 ♘g3+!)21...♗e6 is immensely complex, but Iwould say Black has the better practi-cal chances.17...g5 18.♘a4Black’s queenside is collapsing, andCaruana has arranged it in such a waythat his queen will be able to take onc5, gaining time, since Black obvi-ously can’t allow a queen swap.Even so, Black’s initiative is serious, as

the white queen, while active on c5, isstill cut o from what Carlsen seemsto think is the most important factor:the vulnerable white king.

_T_ tM_ T tMj _ d lJj d lJ _J_L_ _ J L

q j j jSq j j jSN_ _Ij _N Iji _I_N_Ii I N I _Ib iI_ Ib iIr _ _Rkr Rk

18...g4 19.hxg419.♕xc5 ♕f6 will just transpose.19...♗xg4 20.♕xc5

_T_ tM_ T tM

j _ d lJj d lJ _J_ _ _ J_ q j _S q j SN_ _IjL_N IjLi _I_N_i I N_Ib iI_ Ib iIr _ _Rkr Rk

20...♕f6 A very interesting position,and critical for the outcome of the

game. It is very tempting for Whiteto try and escape with his king to thequeenside. 21.♖fb1 seems the mostlogical move, when after the direct21...♗xf3 22.gxf3 ♕g6+ 23.♔f1♘g3+, 24.♔e1! is a very typical idea,when the black attack seems to peterout. More promising is 21...♕g6!?when 22.♔f1 ♘g3+! 23.♔e1 (23.fxg3

fxg3, and Black’s attack is just toostrong), and now 23...♘xe4 24.♕c4+♗e6 25.♕xe4 ♗f5 26.♕c4+ ♗e6 is acomputer line ending in a perpetual.But much more dramatic is

_T_ tM_ T tMj _ _ lJj lJ _J_ _ _ J D_ q j _q jN_ _IjL_N IjL

i _I_Nsi I Ns_Ib iI_ Ib iIrR_ k _rR k

A N A L Y S I S D I A G R A M

23...♕h5!? 24.♗b4 ♕h1+ 25.♔d2♕xg2 26.♘xe5 ♗xe5 27.♕xe5♕xf2+ 28.♔c3 ♘e2+ 29.♔c4, whenthe white king may have reachedsafety, or may be in trouble after 29...c5!?.

Another ferce clash between the numbers 2 and 1 in the world

resulted in an impressive victory for the top-seed.


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23.♕e7! fxg2

_T_ tM_ T tMj _ q lJj q lJ

_J_ _ _ J D_ _ j _S j SN_ _I_N_N I Ni _I_ _i I_Ib iJ_ Ib iJr _ _Rkr Rk

24.♖fb1?!A logical move, as later on ♖b7!can be relevant. However, betterwould have been 24.♖fe1!? as after

24...♕xg4 25.♕g5 ♕xg5 26.♗xg5♘f4, 27.♖e3!? is now available, whenWhite defends and the positionseems balanced. However, 25...♕h326.♕xg2 ♕e6 is possible, when...♖f6-g6 or ...♔h8/...♖g8 will startan attack on the g-le, with the usualassessment: unclear, but promisingfor Black, as the pressure is very muchon White.24...♕xg4 25.♕g5 ♕e2Here 25...♕h3? is much less ecientbecause of 26.♕xg2 ♕e6 27.♖b7! –

it seems that Black is in trouble, butonly due to a line that would be almostimpossible to nd in the actual game:27...♖f6 28.♘c5! ♕d6 29.♔h1!(preparing ♖g1) 29...♕xc5 30.♖g1♕f8 31.♕g4, and Black has no realdefence.26.♕e3 ♕g4 27.♕g5

_T_ tM_ T tMj _ _ lJj lJ _J_ _ _ J_ _ j qS j qSN_ _I_ _N I Di _I_ _i I_Ib iJ_ Ib iJrR_ _ krR k

27...♕xg5!?From a tournament perspective, adraw with Black against Caruanawould not be a bad result, but this

Very interesting and fun chess indeed.But maybe Magnus would have keptit sane and would have just played21...♖f7. This is also a good reply after21.♖fe1, with serious compensationfor the sacriced pawn.21.♘h2

_T_ tM_ T tMj _ _ lJj lJ _J_ d _ J d_ q j _S q j SN_ _IjL_N IjLi _I_ _i I_Ib iIn Ib iIn

r _ _Rkr Rk21...f3!?Very direct, but 21...♕g6 alsodeserved attention, with the idea ofcontinuing in King’s Indian fash-ion after 22.f3 ♗h3 23.♖f2 ♖f7, with24...♗f8 and 25...♖g7 to come. Whitecan try and interfere with 24.♗c3,but then Black quietly defends with24...♖e8 and is ready for a regroup-ing. And again, while the position iscomplex, practically speaking it seems

more pleasant for Black.Similarly, 21...♕h4 also deservesattention, in order to bring the blackrook to the kingside via f6 in time.22.♘xg4 ♕g6

_T_ tM_ T tMj _ _ lJj lJ _J_ _ _ J D_ q j _S q j SN_ _I_N_N I N

i _I_J_i I J_Ib iI_ Ib iI

r _ _Rkr Rk

Carlsen’s idea looks almost decisive. IfCaruana tried to hang on to his extrapiece with 23.♘e3, 23...♘f4! wouldwin instantly for Black.But Caruana exploits the drawback of...f3, viz. that the white queen can nowsuddenly take part in the defence:

move is simply played on its objectivemerits. While White probably shouldbe able to defend, it is Black who hasthe initiative, even after the queenshave been exchanged.

28.♗xg5 ♘f4

_T_ tM_ T tMj _ _ lJj lJ _J_ _ _ J_ _ j bj bN_ _Is _N Isi _I_ _i I_I_ iJ_ I iJ

rR_ _ krR k

29.♗xf4?A losing blunder. Caruana shouldhave defended with 29.♔h2!? whenMagnus thought that 29...♗f630.♗h6 ♗g7 would force a repetition.Interesting would be 29...h6 30.♗h4h5, as now 31.♗g5 ♗f6 32.♗h6 ♖f7leaves the bishop on h6 in trouble.However, 31.f3!?, intending to putthe bishop back on f2 if necessary,looks reasonable for White, even ifthe computer can easily overestimate

the importance of the black kingsidepawns.29...exf4 30.♔xg2 f3+ 31.♔f1

_T_ tM_ T tMj _ _ lJj lJ _J_ _ _ J_ _ _ _N_ _I_ _N Ii _I_J_i I J_I_ i _ I i

rR_ _K_rR K

31...♖f4!!An excellent move, highlighting thedierence between 29.♗xf4 being adecent exchange sacrice or a losingblunder. The white king is now sim-ply trapped, the point being that after32.♔e1 ♖d8! 33.♔d2 is impossibledue to 33...♖xe4, so the white king is just stopped short of escaping to the

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It felt like a real damper. Barely hadthe round started, or the key game

of the day had ended in an insipiddraw. Once again Vassily Ivanchukhad shown that there is only one per-son who tells him what to do and that

person is he himself. When the resultappeared on our screen in the com-mentary room, Dutch GM John vander Wiel and I were briefy speechless.Just like the spectators online and inThe Hague we felt robbed. But notonly were we not going to be excitedabout Magnus Carlsen’s chances tostretch his winning streak to seven,this surely also ruined our chances ofhaving the World Champion in theshow. Unlike the other grandmasters,

After Vassily Ivanchuk had resolutely stopped him from showing anything on the chessboard,

Magnus Carlsen shared his great knowledge and passion for the game in the commentary room.

Interview Magnus Carlsen

‘I follow almost anything.I like the game both as a

player and as a fan.’Magnus Carlsen’s hopes to ght for a seventh

consecutive win and do ‘a Caruana’ were

effectively thwarted when in the tenth round in

The Hague, Vassily Ivanchuk showed no ambition

whatsoever and used the white pieces to steer

for a lifeless draw. The initial disappointment

about this non-game quickly subsided when

the World Champion joined Dirk Jan ten

Geuzendam in the commentary room in a

buoyant mood, ready to talk about anything

with great wit and heart-warming candour.


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‘Exactly. It was fun against Aronianthat I felt that I was learning quite abit about the line we were playingduring the game. That was, wow, I’mstarting to understand these things.It’s not always so easy in preparation

because you don’t go that deeply, butduring the game it quite often hap-pens that suddenly I understand thisposition better.’Did you ever feel, like Capablanca,that you understand everything? ‘No, not even close. Well, maybe a lit-tle bit, but then you soon get a wake-up call. Then you get completely out-played in one game and you get backto earth.’

Obviously he follows his direct

competitors, but does he also closelyfollow the young kids? ‘Yeah, I’mfollowing the Challengers group. Ofcourse. (..) Wei Yi is playing bril-liantly, and Navara is obviously agood player. I think Wei Yi has 2675and I think that is exactly what I had athis age. And then you can talk aboutination and so on (another smile). Iwon’t do that. Yes, he is a spectacu-lar talent. It’s hard to tell still whetherhe’ll be just a world class player or one

ask for his views on his colleagues,which he readily shares, for instance

on the ever-creative Baadur Jobava.‘He’s a good player. That’s what Ifound out playing against him. Hemade some strange moves, to say theleast, at the beginning, but after thathe started to play very decently. (..)

‘He has lots of good ideas. It’s justthat sometimes, I guess, they don’twork and still he thinks ah, I’ll play itanyway!’

Or on Fabiano Caruana, who wasseen as his biggest rival before the tour-nament. ‘It’s funny. After three rounds

I was worried about being 1½ pointsbehind him. So that changed prettyquickly! He doesn’t seem to be in hisbest form. (..) I don’t think we shouldconsider it a norm that he scores +7 inevery tournament. Over the last yearshe’s had his ups and downs. He’s a verygood player. Even now it feels he’s hav-ing at best a mediocre tournament andhe’s still on +1 and could ght for oneof the highest places.’

A question from a viewer arrives,

asking where Carlsen can stillimprove. I ask him the same aboutCaruana. ‘I don’t want to give him anytips (with a smile). I don’t know. Likeeveryone he can sometimes misjudgea position, he can miss stu tactically.It’s sort of the same with me, I don’tunderstand everything that’s goingon, but I try.’Is that the great thing about chess.You’re so good and you run into things you don’t understand?

of the best, but he’s really good andhe’s a well-rounded player, not just atactician.’China already won the Olympiad; canthey take over? ‘I think they’re already very good.They have been for many years, butthey’re still struggling to find thatone guy who will be one of the verybest. But I think India has more play -ers than China, especially at the youthlevel, so I think right now it’s probablymore likely that India will dominaterather than China.’Tal was known for being interested in games at any level. How far do you godown the rating list for the players you

follow? ‘I follow almost anything. I like thegame both as a player and as a fan.’ And computer versus computer games? (Hesitates) ‘If I’m really bored.’It’s time to have a final look at thepositions. He looks at Giri’s gameagainst Saric and thinks that ‘Blackshould be fine in some way’. Andindeed, the Dutchman would evenwin. The position in Ding-So remindshim of a study in which the sacriceof lots of pieces ends in stalemate.

He suspects So is still in his prepara-tion and this will be conrmed, too.Is he impressed by So’s recent goodresults?

‘I think he’s not one of the verybest yet and he still needs to get moreexperience. But you can get far even atthis level with a very good tactical eyeand excellent preparation. (..) I don’tknow if he would be quite as comfort-able playing more of the old guys likeVishy and Kramnik. But by all means

his result here speaks for itself.’We’ve talked for more than half anhour and it’s clear that the momenthas come for him to leave. He answersa final question from the audienceabout the game against Ivanchuk,patiently and with the dignity of achampion. ‘He sometimes does this.(..) Obviously, if I had known this, Imight have tried something dierent,but it’s not like it’s a terrible result forme.’ ■

Magnus Carlsen explains to

Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam what

is going on in the game Ding

Liren-Wesley So, that startedwith a sharp line that was

frst investigated by Mikhail

Botvinnik in the early 1960s.

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Wijk aan Zee

22.♘g5 22.♕e4 would keep the gamegoing. There may follow 22...♕xd523.♕xd5 ♗xd5 24.♗d1, although, let’sbe honest, with his pieces so tied up andthe material already equal, White isprobably not going to survive.22...h6! 23.♘e4 ♖g6+ 24.♔h2 f525.♘g3 ♕xd5 26.♕g1 ♕f3

_ t _M_ t M_Lj _ jLj j_ _ _Tj Tj_J_ _J_J JJ_ _ _ _J_ i _DnI i DnIIi _ i kIiB i kr b _ qr b q

And as now 27.♗e3 is nicely met by27...♕xe3!! 28.fxe3 ♖d2+, Whiteresigned. A free point for Wesley.

Good to know that at least somebodyis reading my articles. Wesley So,professional.

Wesley, as you might have guredout by now, also had a pretty decenttournament. Holding Carlsen, prot-

ing from mistakes by people like Aro-nian, who usually don’t make all thatmany mistakes…

With the following ne eort in thelast round he secured shared secondplace.

N O T E S B Y

Wesley So

BI 12.11 – A61Wesley So

Loek van Wely


I look forward to getting invited inWijk aan Zee again next year. Thetournament has had such a long andprestigious tradition that being in asmall and windy town for almost 20days is totally worth it.Going into the last round after coming

14.♘f3 ♘xg2 15.♔xg2 a5Ivanchuk seemed shocked here, butwe are still following my annotationsand the games Guliev-Gustafsson andJolly-Gozzoli (this game was actuallyplayed even earlier).

T_ _ tM_T tM_LjDlJjJLjDlJjJ _ _ _ _ jJ_ r _jJ r_ _ _ _

_ _I_N_IB I N IIiI_ iK_IiI iKr bQ_ _r bQ

16.♖xe7?! Panic. 16...♕xe717.c3? 17.a4!? looked like a betteroption. 17...♖a6 18.d4

_ _ tM_ tM_Lj dJjJLj dJjJT_ _ _ _TjJ_ _ _jJ_ i _ _ i

_ i _N_IBi N I

Ii _ iK_Ii iKr bQ_ _r bQ

18...♖f6!?This one impressed me. I would haveforced matters with 18...♖g6+ 19.♔f1♕d7 20.♘g5 h6, when Black shouldbe able to win.19.d5 a4 20.♗c2 ♖d8 21.♕e1♕d7 Wesley plays it in a very sophis-ticated way. White is actually still introuble. But 21...♕d6! would have

been stronger.

_ t _M_ t M_LjD_JjJLjD JjJ _ _ t _ t_J_I_ _J IJ_ _ _ _J_ i _N_I i N IIi _ iK_IiB iKr b q _r b q

from a loss against Anish Giri was tough,but losses are inevitable, so I told myselfnever to give up. Loek was also havinga relatively unstable tournament, and inthe nal round anything can happen.1.d4 ♘f6 2.c4 e6 3.♘f3 c5A surprise. I don’t recall Loek havingplayed the Benoni recently.4.d5 d6 5.♘c3 exd5 6.cxd5 g6

TsLdMl tTsLdMl tjJ_ _J_JjJ J J _ j sJ_ j sJ_ jI_ _jI_ _ _ _

_ n _N_n N

Ii _IiIiIi IiIir bQk _Rr bQkB R

7.♗f4 a6 Alternatively, 7...♗g78.♕a4+ ♗d7 9.♕b3 occurred in agame of mine against John Bryant atthe North American Open a monthearlier. I suppose my opponent’s prepwas based upon that game.8.a4 ♗g7 9.h3 The text restrictsBlack’s options, and here Loek startedthinking. 9.e3 gives Black the extra

option of 9...♘h5.9...0-0 10.e3

TsLd tM_TsLd tM_J_ _JlJJ JlJJ_ j sJ_J j sJ_ jI_ _jII_ _ b _I b_ n iN_I n iN I i _ iI_i iI

r _Qk _Rr QkB R10...♘h5The most direct plan, but it simply doesnot work well. Black’s undevelopedpieces on the queenside means that hisearly oensive is bound to fail.Recent games show that after 10...♖e811.♘d2 White is also slightly better.11.♗h2 f5 12.♗e2 The most naturalsquare for White’s bishop.12...f4

continued from page 27

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TsLd tM_TsLd tM_J_ _ lJJ lJJ_ j _J_J j J

_ jI_ _S jI SI_ _ j _I j_ n iN_I n iN I i _ iIbi BiIbr _Qk _Rr Qk R

13.♕d2 A slight inaccuracy, as Ihad forgotten my opening prepara-tion. Simply much better for Whiteis 13.0-0 ♕e7 (13...fxe3 14.fxe3 ♕e715.♕d3 ♗h6 16.♘e4 ♗f5 17.♘fd2is also very good for White) 14.♕c2

♘d7 (White is also better after 14...fxe3 15.fxe3 ♕xe3+ 16.♔h1 ♗f517.♕d2 ♖e8 18.♖ae1)

T_L_ tM_T L tM_J_Sd lJJ Sd lJJ_ j _J_J j J_ jI_ _S jI SI_ _ j _I j_ n iN_I n iN I iQ_ iIbiQ BiIb

r _ _Rkr RkA N A L Y S I S D I A G R A M

15.♕e4! ♘e5 16.♘xe5 ♗xe5 17.♗xh5♗f5 18.♕f3 gxh5 19.♗xf4 ♗g620.♕g3 ♗xf4 21.exf4 h4 22.♕g4.13...♗h6 The main idea after 13...fxe3 was 14.♕xe3 ♖e8 15.♕d2 ♕e716.0-0 ♗xc3 17.♕xc3 – White is sim-ply winning.14.e4

TsLd tM_TsLd tM_J_ _ _JJ JJ_ j _JlJ j Jl_ jI_ _S jI SI_ _Ij _I Ij_ n _N_I n N I i q iIbi qBiIbr _ k _Rr k R

14...♗g7

14...♘d7 is met by the powerful 15.g4fxg3 16.♕xh6 gxh2 17.♘g5, and Ithought White was better here. Lateranalysis conrmed my assessment:

T_Ld tM_T Ld tM_J_S_ _JJ S JJ_ j _JqJ j Jq_ jI_ nS jI nS

I_ _I_ _I I_ n _ _I n I i _ i ji Bi jr _ k _Rr k R


17...♕e7 18.♗xh5 gxh5 19.♕e6+♕xe6 20.dxe6 ♘f6 21.e7 ♖e8 22.0-0-0 ♖xe7 23.♖xd6. White retains theinitiative even in the endgame.15.0-0 ♘d7 16.♘e1

T_Ld tM_T Ld tM_J_S_ lJJ S lJJ_ j _J_J j J_ jI_ _S jI SI_ _Ij _I Ij_ n _ _I n I i q iIbi qBiIbr _ nRkr nRk

A typical regrouping. My only prob-lem right now is my bishop on h2.Once it gets freed, my position will beas good as winning.16...♘df6?!This was dubious. But Loek had beenusing a lot of time and I was kind ofexpecting mistakes would come soon.Black should have played 16...♕g517.♗xh5 (bad is 17.g4 ♘e5 18.♔h1?

when 18...♕h4 wins for Black) 17...gxh5 18.♘e2 ♗h6 19.f3 ♘e5 20.♔h1,when Black has great counterplay.17.♘d3

T_Ld tM_T Ld tM_J_ _ lJJ lJJ_ j sJ_J j sJ_ jI_ _S jI SI_ _Ij _I Ij_ nN_ _I nN I

i q iIbi qBiIbr _ _Rkr Rk

17...♕e8After 17...c4 18.♘xf4 ♗h6 19.♕e3♕e8 20.♗f3 ♕f7 21.♖ad1 White willslowly untangle his position, retain-ing his extra pawn and threatening,for example, e4-e5.And 17...g5 18.e5 dxe5 19.♘xe5 won’thelp Black either. His knight on h5

Wesley So, professional: ‘Wijk aan Zee has had such a long and prestigious tradition

that being in a small and windy town for almost 20 days is totally worth it.’

N E W I N

C H E S S

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Wijk aan Zee

21...g4? Loek decides to go for-ward! His only chance was to defendwith 21...♘d7, when there is nothingconcrete: 22.♘d5 ♕g6 23.♘c7 ♖b824.♗xh5 ♕xh5 25.♘e6 ♕f7 26.♘xf8♕xf8 27.f3 and this is very unclear.After 21...e4 I saw 22.♘xc5 ♗f523.♘3xe4 ♘xe4 24.♘xe4 ♗xe4 25.d7,when White is almost winning.22.♖xe5 ♕g6 23.♘xf4 ♘xf424.♗xf4 gxh3 25.♖g5 ♕f7 26.♗e5The bishop on h2 has awakened and isnow very well placed.

T_L_ t mT L t m_J_ _DlJJ DlJ

J_ i s _J i s_ j b rj b rI_ _ _ _I_ n _ _J n J i q iI_i q iIr _ _ kr B k

26...♗d7? The final mistake. ButWhite was winning anyway. After26...♗e6 27.♗f3 ♖g8 28.♖xg7 ♖xg729.♘e4 ♘xe4 30.♗xe4 ♖g8 31.♕h6White’s bishops dominate the board.

27.♗b3! ♗e6On 27...♕xb3 28.♖xg7 removes thelast of Black’s defenders: 28...♔xg729.♕g5+ ♔h8 30.♗xf6+ ♖xf631.♕xf6+ ♔g8 32.♖e1 ♖f8 33.♕g5+♔h8 34.♖e7, and wins.28.♗xe6 ♕xe6 29.♖e1 ♕f7 30.♘d5

T_ _ t mT t m_J_ _DlJJ DlJJ_ i s _J i s

_ jNb rjNb r

I_ _ _ _I_ _ _ _J J i q iI_i q iI_ _ r kr k

30...♘h5 Losing very quickly, butthere was no defence anyway. E.g.30...♖ae8 31.♘xf6 ♗xf6 32.d7 ♖d833.♕c3, and White wins. 31.♗xg7+♘xg7 32.♖e7 Black resigned.

is sidelined and the passed d-pawncould become very annoying.18.♖fe1

T_L_DtM_T L DtM_J_ _ lJJ lJJ_ j sJ_J j sJ_ jI_ _S jI SI_ _Ij _I Ij_ nN_ _I nN I i q iIbi qBiIbr _ r kr r k

18...g5 Here is one example in whichWhite’s centralized pieces more than

compensate for the h2-bishop that hegives up: 18...c4 19.♘b4 g5 20.♗xc4g4 21.e5 dxe5 22.♘d3 g3 23.♘xe5!gxh2+ 24.♔h1, and Black is in bigtrouble.

T_L_DtM_T L DtM_J_ _ lJJ lJJ_ j s _J j s_ jI_ jS jI jSI_ _Ij _I Ij

_ nN_ _I nN I i q iIbi qBiIbr _ r kr r k

19.e5! I had been preparing thispawn break for a long time, as it isclear that it’s the fastest way for Whiteto make progress.19...dxe5 20.d6 ♔h8 21.♗d1?!As usual, mistakes come in time-trouble! 21.♘xc5 g4 22.hxg4 ♗xg423.♖ad1 is probably better. The

d-pawn is quite annoying for Black.

T_L_Dt mT L Dt m_J_ _ lJJ lJJ_ i s _J i s_ j j jS j j jSI_ _ j _I j_ nN_ _I nN I i q iIbi q iIbr _ r kr Br k

Talking about theweather

Wesley So:My friendthe wind

No matter how many calm, fresh

and sunny days Wijk aan Zee enjoys

in the rst month of the year, most

chess players associate the Dutch

coastal village with wind, rain and

storm, or even snow and icy tem-

peratures – and the dangers thatcome with these meteorological con-

ditions. As Fabiano Caruana said on

his arrival – speaking from experi-

ence: ‘One of your first concerns

during the Tata Steel tournament

is to stay healthy.’ Garry Kasparov

famously explained the fact that he

only made his rst appearance in

1999 by pointing at the unappeal-

ing weather, an unexpected reser-

vation from a man who was used to

the grim winter in Moscow.

But apparently there is also abright side. Looking back on a suc-

cessful tournament, Wesley So gave

a most remarkable possible expla-

nation for his ne result: ‘The week

we arrived, a huge storm came in off

the North Sea. The wild wind didn’t

stop its crazy howling for almost a

week. To tell you it was screeching,

moaning, slamming and banging

night and day doesn’t really describe

it. To try and explain the high-

pitched wailing sound that pushed

its way through walls and around

tightly closed windows... is impos-

sible if you haven’t actually heard

it yourself. It was fantastic. Una-

ble to sleep through those nights, I

got more study and prep work done

than I ever have before. This might

be the reason I made some good

moves during the day.’

8/18/2019 New In Chess 2015-2



Wesley had remained undefeatedfor many rounds... until he met yourreporter. The modest Dutch guy.

RE 11.2 – A13

Anish GiriWesley So


1.c4 e6 2.g3 d5 3.♗g2 ♘f6 4.♘f3d4 5.0-0 c5 6.e3 ♘c6 7.exd4cxd4 8.d3 ♗d6We’ve got the so-called reversedBenoni on the board. Not only isWhite a tempo up, but Black has also just played the modest ...e7-e6 insteadof the usual ... e7-e5. Still it’s not easyto use these two tempi, as unlike in

the Benoni, White’s goal is to ght forthe advantage, not for just getting aposition with counterplay.

T_LdM_ tT LdM tjJ_ _JjJjJ JjJ _SlJs _ SlJs_ _ _ __Ij _ _ Ij_ _I_NiI NiIi _ i iIi iBi

rNbQ_RkrNbQ Rk9.♘a3 e5!? A brave decision,but here I would raise an eyebrow.9...0-0 is more natural, but then Wes-ley might have been worried about10.♘c2 e5 11.b4, when White gainssome space thanks to the fact that theb4-pawn is taboo, since its central col-league on e5 is of a lot more value.

T_LdM_ tT LdM t

jJ_ _JjJjJ JjJ _Sl s _ Sl s_ _ j _j_Ij _ _ Ijn _I_Nin I NiIi _ i iIi iBir bQ_Rkr bQ Rk

10.c5!I felt this was the most ecient way to

use my two extra tempi. Now Whitegets the initiative.10.b4 was also very tempting, butfinally, after looking at 10...♘xb411.♖e1 0-0 12.♘xe5, I decided thatBlack would have enough activity tocompensate for my killer bishop ong2: 12...♖e8 13.♘f3 ♖xe1+ 14.♘xe1♗g4! etc.10...♗xc510...♗c7 11.b4! is quite intimidating,too.11.♘c4

T_LdM_ tT LdM tjJ_ _JjJjJ JjJ

_S_ s _ S s_ l j _l j_Nj _ _ Nj_ _I_NiI NiIi _ i iIi iBir bQ_Rkr bQ Rk

11...♘d7

This is not a very challenging move.11...e4 12.dxe4 0-0 13.e5 ♘d5 14.a3looks pleasant for White.11...0-0 12.♘fxe5 ♘xe5 13.♘xe5 isslightly better as well, thanks to thepowerful bishop on g2.And nally there was 11...♗g4!?.12.♖e1 I could also have taken on e5rst, but I saw no reason to do so.

T_LdM_ tT LdM tjJ_S_JjJjJ S JjJ _S_ _ _ S_ l j _l j_Nj _ _ Nj_ _I_NiI Ni

Ii _ i iIi iBir bQr kr bQr k

12...0-0 After a long think Wesleyagreed to suer in a very unpleasantposition. The dierence in the bish-ops is too obvious. 12...f6 keeps thepawn, but it’s way too dangerous. For

Anish Giri in a light-hearted pre-game chat with Robin van Kampen. The Dutch number one

won four games in a row, ‘the second-longest winning streak of the tournament. Haha.’

N E W I N

C H E S S

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Wijk aan Zee

37.a5 ♕d1+ 38.♔g2 d3 39.a6 d2 40.a7♕a4 41.♕d8+ ♔h7 42.♕xd2 ♕xa7etc. Although I almost managed to win2 vs 1 in my game against Ivanchuk,these 3 vs 2 endings are really hopeless.31.♕xb4 h5 32.♖xd4Now it should have been easy, but...32...♕f3 33.♖e4 ♖d8 34.♖e3♕d1+ 35.♔g2 ♖xd3 36.♖xd3♕xd3 37.h4 g5

_ _ _M_ M_ _ _J_J_ _ _ _ _ _ _ jJ jJIq _ _ iIq i

_ _D_ iD i_ _ iK_ iK_ _ _ _

38.♕b8+?38.hxg5 wins on the spot. After38...♕d5+ 39.♔h2 ♕xg5 40.a5 I getmy pawn to a5, and Black stands nochance: 40...♕f5 41.♕d2 etc.38...♔g7 39.♕e5+ f6 40.♕e3♕c4 41.hxg5 ♕d5+ 42.♕f3♕xg5

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ mm_ _ j _ j_ _ _ dJ dJI_ _ _ _I_ _ _QiQi_ _ iK_ iK_ _ _ _

This position is surprisingly dicultto win, as I will eventually have toallow ...h4, followed by some checksto my king. This is pretty annoying.Although the position is still obvi-ously winning, it is far from simple.I played well enough till move 70,but then made a slip which put theresult of the game in doubt. Towardsthe end, though, I managed to regaincontrol and to nally win this impor-tant game after 111 moves.

Another young player (I know, Iknow, when I say this it sounds silly)is Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The24-year-old ‘Frenchman with twonames’ (a nickname that stuck eversince the legendary Viktor Kortch-noi coined it) nished on a respecta-ble +4, tied for second, and caused myonly loss. Our game was pretty one-sided, for I had the feeling that I waslooking forward to the rest day a littletoo eagerly. However, the game Max-ime was probably happiest about isthe one from the last round in whichhe outplayed Fabiano Caruana.

N O T E S B Y

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

SI 14.12 – B90

Fabiano CaruanaMaxime Vachier-Lagrave


1.e4 c5No more Caro-Kann against Fabiano!(A reference to the game the Italianwon in 30 moves in St. Louis last year,

the second win of Caruana’s 7-gamewinning streak – ed.)2.♘f3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.♘xd4 ♘f65.♘c3 a6 6.h3Successfully employed by BobbyFischer in the early 60s, this ostensiblymodest approach against the Najdorfhas become quite popular of late.6...e5Besides 6...e6 the most popular reply.But almost any Black move has beenplayed in this position.7.♘de2 h5

TsLdMl tTsLdMl t_J_ _JjJ JjJ_ j s _J j s_ _ j _J j J _ _I_ _ I_ n _ _I n IIiI_NiI_IiI NiIr bQk _Rr bQkB R

8.g3 I have plenty of experience inthis line from both sides, althoughmostly with Black. At rst sight 8.g3might seem a bit slow, and it is whyit was not the most popular option

until 2013, when ideas were found forWhite to create pressure by graduallyremoving Black’s counterplay, gener-ally connected with long-term planson the kingside. This was urged aswell by the fact that immediately play -ing for the control of the d5-square isnot enough for an edge: 8.♗g5 ♗e69.♗xf6 ♕xf6 10.♘d5 ♕d8 11.♘ec3g6 12.♗c4 ♗h6.

Ts dM_ tTs dM t

_J_ _J_J JJ_ jL_JlJ jL Jl_ _Nj _J Nj J _ _I_ _ B I_ n _ _I n IIiI_ iI_IiI iIr _Qk _Rr Qk R


Unexpectedly, this bishop controls afew key squares, notably preventing

♘e3. 13.0-0 0-0 14.♗b3 ♘c6 15.♕d3♖c8 16.♖ad1 ♘d4 17.♘e2 ♘xb318.♕xb3 b5 19.a4. This was the latestexample in this line, and here 19...♖b8would have guaranteed me at least anequal position against Nakamura inthe 2014 Sinqueeld Cup.

TsLdMl tTsLdMl t_J_ _JjJ JjJ_ j s _J j s

_ _ j _J j J _ _I_ _ I_ n _ iI n iIIiI_Ni _IiI Nir bQk _Rr bQkB R

8...♗e6Both 8...♗e7 9.♗g2 b5 10.♘d5 ♘xd511.♕xd5 ♖a7 12.♗e3 ♗e6 13.♕d2♖b7 14.♘c3 ♘d7 15.♘d5 and 8...b59.♘d5 ♘bd7 10.♗g5 ♗b7 11.♘ec3

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Wijk aan Zee

13.b3, which happened in my gameagainst Judit Polgar in Hoogeveen in2011. I certainly was not satised withthe outcome of the opening, as my ♘b6is out of place and ...d5 is not happen-ing: 13...d5?! 14.♗xf6 ♗xf6 15.exd5♗f5 16.♗e4, with a clear Whiteadvantage.11.0-0I warmly recommend readers inter-

ested in this line to investigate all themove order subtleties. For instance, thedierence between the text-move and11.♗e3 or 11.a5 at once.

T_ dM_ tT dM t_J_SlJjJ SlJjJ_ jLs _J jLs_ _ j _J j JI_ _I_ _I I_ n _ iI n iI

iI_Ni _iI NiBr bQ_Rkr bQ Rk

11...♖c8 Instead, 11...♕c7?! 12.♗e3♖c8 13.a5 0-0 14.b3 ♖fe8 happenedin another of my games, with Whiteagainst Makarov in the 2013 Russianteam championship. Here, after theobvious 15.f4 d5 16.exd5 ♗c5 17.♗xc5♕xc5+ 18.♔h2 ♗f5 19.♖a4, Blackdoesn’t have enough compensation.

_TdM_ t TdM t_J_SlJjJ SlJjJ_ jLs _J jLs

_ _ j _J j JI_ _I_ _I I_ n _ iI n iI iI_Ni _iI NiBr bQ_Rkr bQ Rk

12.♗e3 Now 12.a5 allows 12...♖c5.This pawn grab appears a bit reckless,as after 13.♗e3 ♖xa5 14.♖b1, the ♖a5has no way back, but being a pawn upBlack certainly has resources.12...♘b6 A very ambitious option.

Although I couldn’t remember all thedetails of my preparation, I felt quitecondent going for it.

_TdM_ t TdM t_J_ lJjJ lJjJs jLs _Js jLs_ _ j _J j JI_ _I_ _I I_ n b iI n b iI iI_Ni _iI NiB

r _Q_Rkr Q Rk13.b3 Another idea was 13.♗g5,the same two-step bishop move as inJudit’s game against me! But Whitehas now castled, and this might giveBlack some counterplay: 13...♘h714.♗xe7 ♕xe7 15.a5 ♘d7, and Whiteis not too condent on the kingsidewith ...h4 coming, as 16.f4 h4 17.b3♘df6 18.f5 ♗d7 is a bit awkward.13...d5! Otherwise, there is simply

no point in 12...♘b6.

_TdM_ t TdM t_J_ lJjJ lJjJs _Ls _Js Ls_ _Jj _J Jj JI_ _I_ _I I_In b iIIn b iI _I_Ni _ I NiBr _Q_Rkr Q Rk

♗e7 12.♘xe7 ♕xe7 13.♗g2 are morepleasant for White.In general, playing ...b5 too fast givesWhite good control of the d5-square,without having to part with his dark-squared bishop, which seems to havegot itself a great summerhouse on g5.9.♗g2 ♘bd7I’ve always been faithful to this line,allowing White to prevent an expan-

sion on the queenside. My main hopeis to get good control in the centre.Still, there is the serious danger ofgetting neither success on the queen-side, nor the d5 break in the centre,while White calmly improves on thekingside.10.a4

T_ dMl tT dMl t_J_S_JjJ S JjJ_ jLs _J jLs_ _ j _J j JI_ _I_ _I I_ n _ iI n iI iI_Ni _iI NiBr bQk _Rr bQk R

10...♗e7More precise than 10...♖c8 11.♗e3♘b6 12.♗g5! (remember this cutedouble-step bishop move!) 12...♗e7

A brilliant win against Fabiano Caruana brought Maxime Vachier-Lagrave shared second

ace and helped him full his New Year’s resolution to nally win a last-round game again.


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Wijk aan Zee

_T_ _M_ T M_J_Ll jJ Ll jJ_ _ _ _J

i _I_ _i I_I_NtIj I NtIj_I_ _I_II I I _ _ _ _ r _ _Rkr Rk

27.♔f2Or 27.♔g2 ♗b4 28.♖a2 ♖cf8 29.♖2♔h7 30.♖fe2 ♔h6 31.♖e3 ♗e8! andthe extra piece will prevail.27...♖cf8 28.♔e3

_ _ tM_ tM_J_Ll jJ Ll jJ_ _ _ _Ji _I_ _i I_I_NtIj I NtIj_I_ kI_II kI I _ _ _ _ r _ _R_r R

28...♗e8!Now ...♗g6 is a very serious threat

and the ♘e4 can’t move, since thiswould expose ♔e3. Fabiano cleverlytries to create a new chain of pawns.29.c5 ♗b5 30.b4!

_ _ tM_ tM_J_ l jJ l jJ_ _ _ _JiLiI_ _iLiIi _NtIji NtIj_ _ kI_I kI I

_ _ _ _ r _ _R_r R

30...♖xe4+! An obvious shot.Black’s remaining pieces will worktogether in perfect harmony.30...♗xf1? would probably not evenbe my option without the tactical shotat my disposal. Now, after 31.♖xf1Black will not pass. At least, that iswhat it feels like when none of Black’s

_T_ tM_ T tM_J_Ll jJ Ll jJ_ d _ _J d

i _I_J_i I J_I_J_Ij I J Ij_In q _IIn q I _ _ i _ iBr _ _Rkr Rk

22...♗d8!After hitting a wall in the very logicalline 22...♕e5 23.f4, I invested a con-siderable amount of time in slow playlike 22...g6, when I suddenly realizedthere was another way to create the

typically lethal ♕+♗ battery. A fewseconds later, my hand was lashingout the moves and I knew my positionwas already close to winning.

_Tl tM_ Tl tM_J_L_ jJ L jJ_ d _ _J di _I_J_i I J_I_J_Ij I J Ij

_In q _IIn q I

_ _ i _ iBr _ _Rkr Rk

23.♗xe4White’s best hope. He gives up a piece,making the black bishop pair a bit lessscary for the moment. Especially thebishop on d7 might be restricted byWhite’s pawns.Instead, after 23.f4 exf3 24.♖xf3 ♗c725.g5 ♖fe8! 26.♕f2 ♕h2+ 27.♔f1♗d6! followed by 28...♗c5 is curtains.23...fxe4Here 23...♗c7! 24.f4 fxe4 was moreprecise, with the idea of 25.♘xe4♖ce8!.24.♘xe4 ♕f4 25.♕xf4 ♖xf426.f3 ♗e7I am aiming for the ideal set-up...♗b4, ...♖cf8 followed by ...♗e8-g6,and White will have too many weak -nesses. White’s taking his king tothe centre was therefore no surprise,although it accelerates his fate.

remaining pieces or pawns is able tomake a breakthrough.31.♔xe4 ♖e8 White’s king is sud-denly under fire and he can’t runaway, hindered by his own pawns.

_ _T_M_ T M_J_ l jJ l jJ_ _ _ _JiLiI_ _iLiIi _K_Iji K Ij

_ _ _I_I I I _ _ _ _ r _ _R_r R

32.♔f4 32.♔d4 runs into 32...♗f6mate. I don’t use the word ‘cute’lightly, but this is one hell of a cutecheckmate!Also losing is 32.f4 ♗xc5+ 33.♔f3♗e2+ 34.♔g2 ♗xf1+.After 32.♔f5, ♗f6 is not the only wayto Rome, but it suces: 33.g5 ♗d7+34.♔g6 ♖e5 35.gxf6 ♗e8+, and mate.32...g5+ 33.♔f5

_ _T_M_ T M

_J_ l _J lJ_ _ _ _JiLiI_KjiLiI Kji _ _Iji Ij

_ _ _I_I I I _ _ _ _ r _ _R_r R

33...♔f7! Closing the door. 34.♖fe1Or 34.♖ad1 ♗f6 35.♖fe1 ♗d3+36.♖xd3 ♖xe1 37.f4 ♖f1, winning.34...♗d3+

_ _T_ _ T_J_ lM_J lMJ_ _ _ _Ji iI_Kji iI Kji _ _Iji Ij

_ _L_I_I L I I _ _ _ _ r _ r _r r

8/18/2019 New In Chess 2015-2



35.♖e4Or 35.♔e5 ♗xc5 mate. I also have athing for that one.35...♗f6And as mate follows, White resigned.Obviously, I’m delighted with thecourse of the game, starting from mypreparation to the move sequenceleading to my strong attack, which didnot stop after the queen swap.It also helped me nish my success-ful tournament on a high note. Nordid it take me long to full my NewYear’s resolution to nally win a last-round game again after one-and-a-half years!

■ ■ ■One more young star who left windyWijk aan Zee in a good mood was the22-year-old Chinese (another one!)Ding Liren... And no, he is not the onewho won the Qatar Open and aboutwhom you read in the previous issue;that was Yu Yangyi. And no, he is notthe 15-year-old kid who is now break-ing Magnus’s records; that is WeiYi. Ding Liren is currently the high-est rated Chinese player in the worldrankings (2755 on the January list).

In Wijk aan Zee he won an amazingseven(!) ghting games.

When asked about the secret ofhis success, the calm and emotion-less Chinese declared: ‘First I stayedin a single room and Wei Yi and ourcoach were staying together. I lost therst game. Then I moved in with WeiYi and our coach stayed alone.’ Turnsout it was all about the food. Chineseplayers tend to miss their food whenthey are in Europe and prefer to cook

their own meals instead of tryingEuropean cuisines. Fortunately, theircoach Xu Jun and Hou Yifan’s motherturned out to be excellent cooks, andthey provided the Chinese playerswith the food they are accustomed toevery night! Oh well, I can understandpoor Ding; I had the same problemswhen I was on their side of the world.

Here is one of Ding Liren’s besteorts, a King’s Indian clash betweentwo noted experts.

N O T E S B Y

Ding Liren

KI 20.5 – E90

Teimour RadjabovDing Liren


1.d4 ♘f6 2.c4 g6 3.♘c3 ♗g7 4.e4d6 5.♘f3 0-0The King’s Indian Defence, which Ihave been playing with the black piecessince I was a child. My opponent is aprominent expert in this opening, whoregularly comes up with importantideas. I had studied his games carefully

to improve my understanding of theKID.

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6.h3 e5 7.d5 I have played this posi-tion with both sides and have come tothe conclusion that the plan of 7...♘h5,followed by ...f5, may suit the spirit ofthe position best.7...♘h5 Also popular is 7...a5, with theidea of ...♘a6-c5 or ...♘fd7-c5.8.g3 f5 Many players prefer 8...♕e8rst in order to control the e6-square,e.g. 8...♕e8 9.♗e2 f5 10.exf5 gxf511.♘h4 ♘f6, with an unclear position.9.exf5 gxf5 10.♘g5

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10...♕e8 An important move in myopinion, introduced by Maxim Rod-shtein.11.♗e2 After 11.c5 Black goes11...♘f6. After 11.g4, 11...♘f4 is thepoint behind 10...♕e8.11...♘f6 12.♗e3Here 12.g4 is not as annoying as in theprevious line: 12...h6 13.♘e6 ♗xe614.dxe6 ♕xe6 15.gxf5 ♕xf5 16.♖g1♔h8, and after ...♘c6-d4 Black is outof danger. Therefore White can play13.♘f3 in case of 12...h6, when theposition looks pretty quiet.12...♘a6 13.♕d2

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13...♗d7 An inaccuracy. I calculatedthe variations after 13...h6 or 13...♘c5,but I couldn’t make either of them

work. So in the end I just played whatI believed was a useful waiting move.I should have played 13...♘c5 14.b4(in case of 14.0-0-0 h6 15.♘f3 ♘ce416.♘xe4 ♘xe4 17.♕c2, comparedto the game, I can immediately acton the queenside: 17...c6! with anextremely complicated position, e.g.18.dxc6 bxc6 19.g4 d5 20.gxf5 ♗xf521.♘h4 ♗h7 22.♖hg1 ♘g5 23.♕d2♘e4, and this might be repetition)14...♘a4 15.♘b5

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15...♕e7!. I had missed this simplebut strong move. Or should I say Ididn’t want to leave my knight on a4.On the other hand, White cannot nda safe place for his king either.

14.0-0-0 h6I played 14...h6 rst, because I wantedto avoid the possibility, after 14...♘c515.g4 h6, of 16.♘e6!?.15.♘f3Now 15.♘e6 won’t work because of15...♗xe6 16.dxe6 ♕xe6 17.♗xh6♘e4.15...♘c5

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16.♘h4Now White is threatening 17.g4. HereI was afraid of the variation startingwith the immediate 16.g4: 16...♘ce4

17.♘xe4 ♘xe4 18.♕c2 ♘xf2 19.♗xf2fxg4 20.hxg4 e4 21.g5

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and now 21...h5! is a very importantdetail (21...exf3 runs into 22.♗d3). Itlooks as if Black will be able to hold hisown: 22.♖de1 ♗g4 (22...♕f7 is alsopossible, but harder to nd over theboard: 23.♕xe4 ♖ae8 24.♕d3 ♕f4+25.♕d2 ♗xb2+! 26.♔c2 ♕xd2+27.♔xd2 ♗g4, with equality) 23.♗d4♗xf3 24.♗xf3 ♖xf3 25.♗xg7 ♔xg7

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23.♕d2 He had many choices here,such as 23.♕b3 or 23.♗d4. Also 23.c5deserves attention: 23...dxc5 24.♗b5♖c7 (24...♘e6!?) 25.♖xd7 ♖xd726.♗xc5 ♖7 27.♗xa7 ♕e5 28.♗xd7♖xd7 29.♘g6 ♕b5. White is a pawn

up, but Black has typical KID-likecounterplay.23...♗e6 24.♗xg524.♗d4 was a safer way to play:24...♕f7 25.♗xg7 ♔xg7 26.♕d4+♔h7 27.b3, when White has a solidadvantage, e.g. 27...f4 28.♗g4!.24...hxg5 25.♕xg5

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25...♖a6 I thought I must haveenough compensation for the pawn,but I couldn’t find the best move,which was 25...b5! 26.♗h5 (26.cxb5runs into the amazing

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26.♖xe4 ♕f7 27.♕e2 ♖f2 28.♕xh5♕xh5 29.♖xh5 ♖af8, with an approx-imately equal position.The computer suggestion 16.♗xc5dxc5 didn’t even occur to me.

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16...♘ce4 17.♘xe4 ♘xe4 18.♕c2♘g5 The only move, but a perfectlyacceptable one.18...♕d8 fails to 19.♗d3, while18...♘c5 can be met by 19.g4.

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19.♗d3 A very interesting idea. Hewants to provoke ...e4 and fix mypawn structure.19.♔b1 is a little slow: 19...♗a4! 20.b3♗d7 21.♗d3 ♕f7, and Black canattack along the long diagonal.19...e419...♕f7 was stronger: 20.f4 exf4

21.gxf4 ♖ae8 22.♖de1 ♘e4 23.♖hg1♔h7, when Black keeps the balancewith energetic play.20.♗e2Now we can conclude that the posi-tion is slightly better for White.20...♖c820...♖b8 was another way to supportthe ...c5 idea: 21.♔b1 c5 22.dxc6 bxc623.♗d4 ♗xd4 24.♖xd4 ♖f6 25.♖hd1,with a white edge.21.♔b1 c5 22.dxc6 ♖xc6

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I offered a draw here, because Icouldn’t gure out what was going onand I wanted to enjoy the rest day in agood mood.

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28.♘g6 The computer line 28.♕g6♖c6 29.♖dc2 f4 30.♕xe4 d5 showshow dicult this position is.28...♗f6 Driving his queen away

from g5 and avoiding ♘e7+.

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26...♖a6!! 27.a3 (27.bxa6 ♕a4)27...♖xa3! 28.bxa3 ♗a2+! 29.♔c2♕c8+. I think I would have won thebrilliancy prize – if there had beenone – if I could have gotten this position

on the board) 26...♕b8! 27.♘g6 bxc428.♘e7+ ♔h8 29.♖d2 ♖b6 30.♘g6+♔h7 31.♘xf8+ ♔g8 32.♕xg7+ ♔xg733.♘xe6+ ♔h6 34.♖c1 ♔xh5 35.♖xc4,and this is probably equal, but Blackhas easier play.26.♖d2If 26.b3 then 26...b5 will be even morepowerful, since 27.cxb5? is met by27...♗xb3.

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26...b5? A mistake. During the game Ihesitated between 26...b5 and 26...♕a4.After 26...♕a4 27.b3 Black can choose

between giving a perpetual or playingon with 27...♖b6 (27...♕xb3+ 28.axb3♖a1+ 29.♔c2 ♖a2+ is the perpetual)28.♕e3 ♕a5 29.♖c1.

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27.♖c1 The only move I had consid-ered as well, missing the strong con-tinuation 27.g4! when maybe the bestI can hope for is an endgame a pawndown after 27...♕d8 28.♕xd8 ♖xd829.♘xf5 bxc4 30.♘xg7 ♔xg7 31.♖c1♖c8 32.♖c3 d5 33.f3.27...♕f7

29.♕h6? Surprisingly, this is thedecisive mistake. He should haveexchanged queens by means of29.♕h5 bxc4 30.♘xf8 ♕xh5 31.♗xh5♔xf8, although Black has a strongpawn centre and cannot be worse.29...♖b8Now all my pieces are well-placed.

30.♘f4 ♗xc4 31.♖xc431.♗xc4 also loses: 31...bxc4 32.♘d5♗xb2 33.♖xb2 ♖xb2+ 34.♔xb2 ♕xd535.♕g6+ ♔f8 36.♕f6+ ♔e8 etc.31...bxc4 32.♘d5

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32...♗g7The only move, but good enough.Not 32...♗xb2? 33.♘e7+ ♕xe734.♗xc4+, of course.33.♕g5 c3The only winning move, but not veryhard to nd.

Ding Liren’s tie for second in the Masters and Wei Yi’s rst place in theChallengers must have made Xu Jun a happy and satised coach.

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24...♘xe4 25.♕c2 ♗f5Blung. 25...♘f6 is quite sad after thesimple 26.♗xf6 ♖xf6 27.♘f2, whenWhite has a beautiful blockade on e4and the kingside pawns will eventu-ally speak the decisive word.

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26.g4!! I was very happy to executethis move. As a matter of fact, it is alsothe only move to worry Black.

far... in the King’s Indian with White,I felt I might have my chances to score2/2. I went for the old Petrosian Vari-ation, and so far we have been follow -ing a game played in 1986 betweenArtur Jussupow and a player calledScheeren, who is unknown to me.19.♘d1This is a new move. More standard isfor the knight to go to b5. I had seensimilar ideas in my preparation, butsince all the lines are quite confus-ing and frequently transpose to oneanother, I wasn’t quite sure whetherI wanted to play it in this position.Anyway, the move is alright, sincethe knight guards the e3-square. Note

that the knight might be better placedon a4 than on a6, but it is still theproblem piece here. In fact, this is theonly problem for Black in the entirePetrosian Variation. After 19.♘b5!?♗xb5 20.cxb5 ♗e3+ 21.♔h1 f4Mr. Scheeren got an interesting posi-tion and went on to contain the leg-endary Jussupow.19...g5 20.♗f2 g4 21.fxg4I decided to get rid of the tension,hoping to use the fact that the knighton a4 is quite awkwardly placed.

However, a surprise was awaiting me.

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21...♗xd2 Wow! The idea is bril-liant from a strategic point of view,but unfortunately for Ding there is aconcrete refutation.22.♕xd2 f4 Imaginative stu!23.gxh5 ♘g5 24.♗h4!If I had paid attention to my e4-pawn,my opponent’s idea would havebeen fully justified (24.♕c2? f3!).Here, however, White takes over theinitiative.

26.♗d3 ♕xh5 27.♗xe4 ♗xe428.♕xe4 ♕xh4 would have been OKfor Black.26...♘g3Trying to create some kind of mess,as 26...fxg3 is met by 27.♖xf5 and26...♗h7 by 27.♗d3 ♘f6 28.♗xf6

♗xd3 29.♕xd3 ♖xf6 30.♘f2. Thelines are simple, yet nice.27.gxf5 ♘xf1 28.♔xf1! e4

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29.f6! ♔h829...f3 30.♗xf3! exf3 31.♕g6+♕xg6 32.hxg6 is hopeless for Black:32...♘b6 33.♘e3 ♘d7 34.♘g4.30.♘f2The most forcing, although 30.♗g4!?might have been even stronger.30...f3 31.♗d1 ♕xh5 32.♕xe4♘c3

Anish Giri and World Champions Hou Yifan and Magnus Carlsen pose together

with students of the Rotterdam Dance Academy at the opening ceremony.

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33.♕d4! The rook on b1 turns outnot to be doomed. This would nor-mally be the end of the game, butsomehow it lasted a lot longer...33...♖f7After 33...♘xb1 34.f7+ ♔h7 35.♗c2+

♔h6 36.♕f6+ mate is in the ong.34.♕xc3 ♕xh4 35.♗xf3 ♖a236.♖b2 ♖xb2 37.♕xb2 ♕xf638.♕xf6+ ♖xf6 39.♔g2This endgame is hopeless for Black,and although I really converted it inneither the best nor the fastest way,the result was never in any doubt.

43.h5?! The cage that the black kingwill nd itself in felt so beautiful... Butbetter was 43.♘g5!.43...♖a2+ 44.♔f1Here 44.♔g3! ♖c2 45.♔h4! shouldhave been played.44...♔h6 45.♗e2 ♖a8 46.♔f2♖f8+ 47.♔e3 ♖f7 48.♗f3 ♖f849.♔f2 ♖a8 50.♗e2 ♖a3 51.♘f6♖a8 52.♔e3 ♖f8 53.♘e4 ♖a854.♔f4 ♖f8+ 55.♔g3 ♖a856.♘f2 ♖a2 57.♗d1 ♖b2 58.♘e4♖b1 59.♗e2 ♖b2 60.♔f2 ♖a261.♔e3 ♖a8

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39...♖f8 40.b5 ♔g7 41.♘e4 b642.h4 ♖a8

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76.♗d7! I was very proud to see thisline; pity I couldn’t show it: 76...♖b877.♗c8 ♖xc8 78.bxc8♕+ ♔xc879.♔b6, and wins.69...♖f4 70.♘d2 ♔g5 71.♔e7

♖f5 72.♘e4+ ♔f4 73.♘f6 ♔e574.♘d7+ ♔d4 75.♔d8Black resigned. His queenside struc-ture will collapse.

As you can imagine, this was not anordinary tournament for me. It is a rareoccurrence for me to win one game ina row in a top event, let alone four.Supported by the Dutch crowd, I man-aged to get to +4 before the last roundand had some theoretical chances ofrst place. In the nal round I tried to

complicate matters with black againstsolid Wojtaszek (obviously not withthe Dutch Defence), but it didn’t workout and a draw was reached quitequickly. Although Magnus didn’t playconvincingly against Saric, his neme-sis from the Tromsø Olympiad (wherehe lost to Ivan with Black), he never-theless made a draw as White. As aresult, Magnus took rst prize nish-ing on +5, half a point ahead of a hun-gry quartet: Vachier-Lagrave, So and

Ding and myself.

Let’s nish with a brief summary ofthe tournament by the World Cham-pion himself:1. First tournament I’ve won sinceApril.2. First time since Zurich I havegained rating points.3. My longest winning streak ever.I feel a spicy fourth point is missing.Suggestions, anyone?

62.♗g4!? Another way of win-ning this position was something like62.♔f4 ♖f8+ 63.♔g4 ♖g8+ 64.♔h4♖f8 65.♘g3! ♖f4+ 66.♗g4 ♖xc467.♘f5+ ♔h7 68.♔g5 ♖c5 69.♘e7♖xb5 70.♗f5+ ♔g7 71.h6+ ♔h8.

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Here I decided I might get confusedand not find a mate, but it’s not sohard after all: 72.♘g6+ ♔g8 73.♗e6+♔h7 74.♘f8+ ♔h8 75.♔g6 ♖b276.♘h7! ♖g2+ 77.♘g5 b5 78.♗f5 b479.h7 b3 80.♔f6, and the threat ofmate in one ends the game.62...♖a4 62...♖f8 would probablyhave forced me to go for the otherwinning plan: taking the king to h4and giving up the c4-pawn.

63.♔f4! ♖xc4 64.♗d7I liked this way of converting, but mytaste is quite perverted when it comesto technique.64...♔xh5 65.♔f5 ♔h6 66.♗c6♔g7 67.♘g5 ♖h4 68.♔e6 ♔g6

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69.♘f369.♔d7 ♔xg5 70.♔xc7 wins beauti-fully, too, but I didn’t want to dependon one tempo: 70...♔f6 71.♔xb6 ♖h772.♔a6 ♔e7 73.b6 ♔d8 74.b7 ♔c775.♔a7 ♖h8

PostscriptIf he plays in Wijk aan Zee next year,Magnus Carlsen will face the youngboy whose current results are remi-niscent of the Norwegian’s at the

same age. At 15, Wei Yi became theyoungest winner of the Tata SteelChallengers ever and earned the rightto play in the 2016 Tata Masters.

The Chinese prodigy scored 10½from 13 (a 2804 performance) andfinished half a point ahead of topseed David Navara and one and a halfpoints ahead of third-prize winnerSam Shankland.

From his eight wins, Wei Yi choseto annotate his victory over for-

mer European Champion VladimirPotkin.

N O T E S B Y

Wei Yi

FR 4.4 – C11

Wei YiVladimir Potkin


1.e4 e6The French Defence, in which Potkinis a great specialist.2.d4 d5 3.♘c3 ♘f6 4.e5 ♘fd75.f4 c5 6.♘f3 ♘c6 7.♗e3 a68.♕d2 b5

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9.♗d3!?This is a rare line. The two mainchoices are 9.a3 and 9.dxc5.9...b4I think 9...♕b6 is the best choice for

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Black. After 10.♕f2 cxd4 11.♘xd4♗c5 12.♘ce2 f6! 13.exf6 ♘xf6 Blackhas a good position.10.♘a4Another rare choice, which Russiangrandmaster Motylev played twice,against two Chinese players...10...c4 11.♗e2 c3 12.♕d1 cxb213.♘xb2 ♗e7The alternative is 13...♘b6 14.0-0♗e7 15.♗d3 ♗d7, as was seen inNakamura-Wang Hao, Moscow 2010.14.0-0 0-0 15.♗d3We are still following a game playedby two top players: Motylev-WangHao, Guangzhou 2010.

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15...f5!?A natural move. Here Wang Hao

chose 15...a5, but after 16.♘g5! I feelthat Black is under pressure.16.g4!An exciting move! I rst consideredgoing 16.♔h1 first, and only then17.♖g1 and 18.g4, but that is kindof slow. Therefore I chose the moredynamic move in the game.

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16...a5Maybe Black should have acceptedthe pawn sacrice: 16...fxg4!? 17.♘d2(after 17.♘g5 ♗xg5 18.fxg5 ♖xf1+

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19...a4 20.♖g1 a3 21.♘d1 ♘a4Restricting the knight on d1, becauseif White moves it, Black will have...♘c3. But this move gives Whitean opportunity to attack the black

queenside.

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22.♖g3After the immediate 22.♗b5!? ♕b623.♖b1 White is slightly better, but Iwanted to continue the attack on thekingside.22...♖f7 23.♕g2

19.♕xf1 ♘e7 Black is OK) 17...h5!18.h3 (in case of 18.♗g6 Black has18...♖f5! and as he is ready to play19...♘f8, he has enough compensa-tion for the exchange)

T_Ld tM_T Ld tM_ _Sl jSl jJ_S_J_ _J S J_ _Ji _J Ji J j i iJ_j i iJ_ _ b _I Bb IInIn _ _InInr _Q_Rkr Q Rk


18...♗c5! A brilliant computermove! Now after 19.dxc5 ♕h420.♕e1 ♕xh3 21.♗f2 g5! (after21...♗b7 22.♕e3 ♕xe3 23.♗xe3 d424.♗f2 ♖xf4 25.♗g3 ♖xf1+ 26.♖xf1♘xc5 27.♗g6 ♘e7 28.♗xh5 ♘f529.♗e1 White is better) 22.♕e3!gxf4 23.♕xh3 gxh3 24.♘a4 ♘dxe525.♘b6 ♖a7 26.♔h2 ♘g4+ 27.♔xh3♖g7 the position is quite complicated.17.gxf5 exf5 18.♕e2Stopping Black from playing ...♗a6.

18...♘b6 19.♔h1Now White is ready for 20.♖g1 andan attack along the g- and h-files.Black needs to defend precisely andtry to create some counterplay on thequeenside.

Wijk aan Zee 2015 cat. XX

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 T P R

1 Magnus Carlsen IGM NOR 2862 * ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 0 1 1 ½ 1 1 9 2877

2 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave IGM FRA 2757 ½ * 1 ½ 1 0 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 1 ½ ½ 8½ 2854

3 Anish Giri IGM NED 2784 ½ 0 * 1 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 1 8½ 2852

4 Wesley So IGM USA 2762 ½ ½ 0 * ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ 1 1 1 8½ 28545 Ding Liren IGM CHN 2732 ½ 0 0 ½ * ½ 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 8½ 2856

6 Vassily Ivanchuk IGM UKR 2715 ½ 1 ½ 0 ½ * ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 1 7½ 2805

7 Fabiano Caruana IGM ITA 2820 0 0 ½ ½ 1 ½ * ½ 0 ½ ½ 1 1 1 7 2769

8 Teimour Radjabov IGM AZE 2734 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ * 1 ½ ½ 1 ½ 0 6 2717

9 Radoslaw Wojtaszek IGM POL 2744 1 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ 1 0 * ½ ½ 0 ½ 0 5½ 2688

10Levon Aronian IGM ARM 2797 0 ½ ½ 0 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½ 1 5½ 2684

11Hou Yifan IGM CHN 2673 0 0 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ * ½ 0 1 5 2664

12Ivan Saric IGM CRO 2666 ½ 0 0 0 0 ½ 0 0 1 ½ ½ * ½ 1 4½ 2641

13Loek van Wely IGM NED 2667 0 ½ 0 0 0 0 0 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ * ½ 4 2610

14Baadur Jobava IGMGEO 2727 0 ½ 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 ½ * 3 2536

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Now Black has great diculty keep-ing his position together.25...♕b6After 25...♘b4 26.♖g1 ♕f8, 27.♗e8!was what my opponent had missed!:27...g6 28.♗xf7+ ♕xf7 29.h4 ♖a630.h5, and White is winning.26.♖g1 ♗f8

T_L_ lM_T L lM_ _ _TjJ TjJ dS_ _ _dS_ _JiJ_B JiJ_ i i _ i ij j bNrj j bNrI_I_ _QiI I Qi_ _ _ rK rK

27.♖h3!27.♘g5 also wins, but the text-movewas easier.27...g627...♕xb5 is met by 28.♖xh7! and27...♘d8 by 28.♗e8! (also win-ning is 28.♘g5 ♕xb5 29.♘xh7 ♗b430.♘f6+ ♔f8 31.♖h8+ ♔e7 32.♕f1!!♕c6 33.♖e8+ ♕xe8 34.♘xe8 ♗a635.♕b1!) 28...♖e7 29.♖xh7 ♔xh730.♗g6+ ♔g8 31.♕h3.28.♘g5!

T_Ld _M_T Ld M_ _ lTjJ lTjJ _S_ _ _ S_ _JiJ_JiJSj i i _Sj i ij _ bNrj BbNr

I_I_ _QiI I Qir _N_ _Kr N K

23...♘c3? The decisive mistake,which gives White the chance to winwith a combination.Instead, 23...♘b2!? is the engine’schoice, but after 24.♗e2 g6 25.♗f2!♖g7 26.♘e3 ♗e6 27.♖g1 Blackremains under some pressure.24.♘xc3 bxc3

T_Ld _M_T Ld M_ _ lTjJ lTjJ _S_ _ _ S_ _JiJ_JiJ_ i i _ i i

j j bNrj jBbNrI_I_ _QiI I Qir _ _ _Kr K

25.♗b5! I didn’t miss this chance!

T_L_ lM_T L lM_ _ _T_J T J dS_ _J_dS J

_ _JiJnB JiJn_ i i _ i ij j b _Rj j b RI_I_ _QiI I Qi_ _ _ rK rK

28...♕xb5 After 28...♖aa7 29.♘xf7♖xf7 30.♖xh7! ♖xh7 31.♕xd5+ (or31.♕xg6+) White wins Black’s knightand the game.29.♘xf7 ♘e7 30.♘h6+ ♗xh631.♖xh6

T_L_ _M_T L M_ _ s _J s J _ _ _Jr Jr_D_JiJ_D JiJ_ i i _ i ij j b _j j bI_I_ _QiI I Qi_ _ _ rK rK

31...♖a7

31...♕e8 is met by 32.♗f2! with thethreat of a deadly inltration via h4.32.♕h3 ♕e2 33.♖xh7 ♕xc234.♖h8+ ♔f7 35.♕h7+ ♔e6

_L_ _ r L rt _ s _Qt s Q _ _M_J_ M J_ _JiJ_JiJ_ i i _ i ij j b _j j b

I_D_ _ iI D i_ _ _ rK rK

36.♖xg6+And about to be checkmated, myopponent resigned. This was an excit-ing game and also my rst win in thetournament. It was a good start andeventually I won the Challengers andqualified for next year’s Tata SteelMasters.■

Wei Yi is on his way to beat Belgian GM Bart Michiels in Round 11.The Chinese prodigy won eight games and drew ve, a 2804 performance.

N E W I N

C H E S S

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50 A S H O R T S T O R I E S

‘The dierence between the sexes is remarkable in chess,but not any more so, to my mind, than any other eldof cultural activity. Women cannot play chess, but theycannot paint either, or write, or philosophise. In fact,women have never thought or made anything worth con-

sidering.’ – Jan Hein Donner

Russian communism may have brought untoldmisery to many millions, but at least, by very small

consolation, this warped ideological system provided itscitizens with good (and cheap) chess books. Recently,I was kindly pre-sented with a 1957

copy of SovetskieShahmatiski byElisaveta IvanovnaBykova. How manyof today’s youngergeneration haveeven heard of theauthor – the 3rd Women’s World Champion – I wonder?Alas, my decient knowledge of the language is inade-quate to provide a proper appreciation of the book’s con-tents, but even a linguistic patzer can enjoy the veritablecornucopia of information – annotated games, crossta-bles, pen-portraits etc. – on largely forgotten gures in

Soviet women’s chess.

What struck me, alas, when leang through the fadedpages, was just how mediocre many of these play-

ers were. The era between the tragic death of Vera Men-chik and the rise of Nona Gaprindashvili was particularlyfallow. Indeed, could it be that the provocative, outra-geously-sexist, bitingly-savage wit, Jan Hein Donner (seeintroductory quotation), had a point?

The towering Dutch Grandmaster, not for the onlytime in his literary life, might have overstated his

case. Indeed, I suspect his unbending life-long convic-tions and prejudices – such as undue reverence for the

two bishops – retarded his development somewhat. Atuniversity level, women are clearly now outperformingmen in many disciplines. In my own family, my daughterwas uniformly academically excellent, whereas my son(like his father before him) is both lazy and erratic. Butwithin the narrow connes of chess, the jury is still out. Itis not enough to point to the recently-retired Judit Polgaras evidence that women are as good as men, as the bril-liant Hungarian is clearly an outlier. It would be equallyerroneous to claim that (the pre-debilitating stroke)Viktor Kortchnoi proved that older players are no weakerthan young.

According to Chris Fegan, of the UK charity Chess inSchools and Communities, girls at primary school

level who take compulsory chess lessons are as good as,or sometimes even better than, boys of the same age.Unfortunately, this promising start is rapidly eroded andthey soon lag far behind. Nevertheless, my gut feelingwas that female chess players are both stronger and morenumerous than they were when I rst began competing.The latter is certainly true, but an excellent article by theAustralian Richard Howard on the chessbase.com websitelast year demonstrated that, despite the enormous soci-

etal changes over 40 years,the gap between the lead-

ing males and females hasremained fairly constantat nearly 250 Elo points –a yawning chasm in abil-ity. That women seemstronger has more to dowith universally higher

standards, due to the ubiquity of computers, than anyclosing of the gender gap.

Howard also subtly critiques the most absurd theoryto gain prominence in recent years, by Bilalic,

Smallbone, McLeod and Gobet (which was submittedto the prestigious Royal Society, no less), that the rating

sex dierence is almost entirely attributable to participa-tory numbers (they comprise just 1% of the readershipof this magazine). With the aid of a couple of bell curvesthis foursome neatly solve the eternal chess conundrumof why women lag behind their male counterparts, whilesimultaneously satisfying that irritating modern psycho-logical urge to prove all of us, everywhere, are equal. Onlya bunch of academics could come up with such a prepos-terous conclusion which ies in the face of observation,common sense and an enormous amount of empiri-cal evidence too. Howard debunks this by showing thatin countries like Georgia, where female participation is

substantially higher than average, the gender gap actu-ally increases – which is, of course, the exact opposite ofwhat one would expect were the participatory hypothesistrue. Interestingly, in the intellectually rigorous, but farmore sociable game of bridge, where women make up themajority of club members, men still dominate the upperechelons. This would suggest that discrimination or overtsexism may be less of a factor in explaining the gendergap in chess than is commonly supposed.

The Tradewise Gibraltar Masters famously oers alarge prize fund, with hefty additional prizes avail-

able to the fairer sex. Brian Callaghan, the genial driv-

Short Stories

VIVE LADIFFÉRENCE!

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54 A P A RI M A R J A N ’ S C H E S S G Y M

Parimarjan’s Chess Gym

_T_S_M_ T S M_ _LqJ_J LqJ J j _ _J_j J

j _J_ _j JI_ i _I_I i I_Id _I_IdB I_ _ b i b i_ _ r kr k

30...♗e6 30...♗c6 is better, but after31.♖e3 the position isn’t much funeither. Black’s idea of going after theb3-pawn clearly hasn’t worked out.31.♗a6 And all of a sudden, Black’sposition collapses!

31...♖b8 32.♖xe6 fxe6 33.♕xe6+♔f8 34.♕xd5

t _Sm _t Sm_ _ _ _J J j _ _J_Bj Jj _Q_ _j QI_ i _I_I i I_Id _I_Id I_ _ b i b i_ _ _ kk

And Black soon resigned.

I play quite rarely these days, but whileplanning this article, I coincidentallyplayed my first serious event in sixmonths. And in one of the games, Inoticed a similar pattern:

_ d tM_ d tM_ jS_JjJ jS JjJ j _Js _j Js_ _L_ _LT_ i _ _T i_ b iNib iNiI_ _Qi iI QiBir r _ kr r k

Bregadze-Negi

Burlingame 2015

We’ve had a slow game, and I think Idid reasonably well out of the open-

17.a4 a5 18.♖fc1 ♖ec8 19.♖c5 ♕e6

20.♗f2 b6 21.♖xc8+ ♖xc8 22.b3

♕c6 23.♗e1 ♘e8 24.♗a6 ♖c7

_ _S_M_ S M_ tL_JjJ tL JjJ jD_ _ _BjDj _J_ _j JI_ i _ _I i_I_ _I_I I_ q _Ii q Ii

r _ b kr b k

25.♗d3 Obviously, the manoeuvre♗a6-♗d3 hasn’t achieved much – I

imagine Anish thought he could play25.♗g3, but noticed 25...♕c3! so he justtracked back. Not that such an inaccu-racy does much to change the position.25...♕f6 26.♗f2 ♕c6 27.♖e1 ♕c328.♕e3 ♖c8 The rst signs of a transi-tion marker... Here, for instance, 29.♕e7is a very tempting move, and Black’sposition would absolutely collapse if hedidn’t have 29...♘f6! with the idea of...♖e8. So White continues to improvehis position with:

_T_S_M_ T S M_ _L_JjJ L JjJ j _ _ _jj _J_ _j JI_ i _ _I i_Id qI_IdBqI_ _ bIi bIi

_ _ r kr k

29.g4 Black completely fails to recog-

nize that there are some tactical motifsin his position. He ought to have beencareful, but continues with the natural29...g6? Threatening 30...♕xb3. Blackis beginning to play concretely himselfwithout noticing the tactical motifs hehas created. The text-move would havebeen an ideal move, but no doubt Anishhad seen that it would take away the pos-sibility of ...♘f6, thereby removing hisonly way to hold his position together.30.♕e7!

ing. Not much is happening, and eventhough my position is more pleasant,it’s hard to see a clear way to breakthrough. The computer isn’t particu-larly impressed by a few of my nextmoves, but I just continued playingwhat felt to be natural, even if some-what imprecise moves.15...♕a8 16.♘e1 ♖c8 17.♗xd5♕xd5 18.♘d3 ♖ca8

T_ _ _M_T M_ jS_JjJ jS JjJ j _Js _j Js_ _D_ _DT_ i _ _T i

_ bNi ibNi iI_ _Qi iI Qi ir r _ kr r k

19.♗b4 An interesting moment. Thecomputer likes White’s move, butit felt very suspect to me during thegame. He could have played 19.♗b2,attacking c7, followed by a3, andmaintain the same type of position.Here he nds a more novel and activeapproach involving my back rank

(19...♖xa2 20.♖xa2 ♖xa2 21.♖xc7!threatening mate with 22.♖c8).At the same time, the bishop on b4 istemptingly misplaced, and I saw allkinds of tactical motifs around the pinon the d3-knight.19...♕b5 So I began calculating seri-ously. 20.a3 Forced. Now Black haddierent options, and I chose the mostforcing continuation, since it used themotifs in a nice way.

T_ _ _M_T M_ jS_JjJ jS JjJ j _Js _j Js_D_ _ _DTb i _ _Tb ii _Ni ii Ni i_ _Qi i Qi ir r _ kr r k

20...c5!? 21.dxc5 bxc5 22.♗xc5

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P A RI M A R J A N ’ S C H E S S G Y M A 55

The bishop remains hanging a bit, whilenow I turn my attention to the kingsideweaknesses and the pin.22...♘e5

T_ _ _M_T M_ _ _JjJ JjJ _ _Js _ Js_Db s _Db sT_ _ _ _Ti _Ni ii Ni i_ _Qi i Qi ir r _ kr r k

23.♘f4

As it turns out, it was time for White torealize the danger his position was in,and start thinking concretely: thinkingabout candidate moves.He had the amazing defence: 23.♖d1!!♘xd3 24.♗e7! ♘d5 25.♖xd3, and25...♘xe7 is impossible due to 26.♖d8+!.Again, not very hard if you know you’relooking for it, but impossible to findotherwise.23...♕b7!

T_ _ _M_T M

_D_ _JjJD JjJ _ _Js _ Js_ b s _b sT_ _ n _T ni _ i ii i i_ _Qi i Qi ir r _ kr r k

This doesn’t look enviable at all. Whitehad missed my 25...g5 while calculating.24.♖ab1 ♕e4 25.♕c2

T_ _ _M_T M_ _ _JjJ JjJ _ _Js _ Js_ b s _b sT_ _Dn _T Dni _ i ii i i_Q_ i i Q i i_Rr _ kRr k

25...g5! 26.♕xe4 ♘xe4 27.♘h5♘d3 And I won the exchange, whichI eventually converted quite easilywith some help from my opponent.

As you saw in the previous game, forc-ing confrontations on my opponentwasn’t even technically any better thanother lines if he had found the bestdefence. But it posed him some prob-lems, and he didn’t handle them cor-rectly (candidate moves again!). Thus,this approach: not worrying aboutplaying correct moves and conserv-ing energy, followed by diving intotactics when I noticed him waveringand allowing tactical motifs, provided

me an excellent guideline as to how tothink during the game. It often ends upsaving a lot of time and energy – youdon’t waste time calculating variationswhen you know it’s not going to makea big dierence.

It can happen that you just continue toplay in ‘normal chess’ mode and miss a

very crucial moment. This doesn’t justhappen to weak players; sometimesWorld Championships are decided bysuch a state of mind.

T_L_ _ tT L t_JmS_JjJJmS JjJJ_J_J_ _J J J_ _ i _i_I_ b _ I b_ i _ _iI_ _ iIiI iIir _ k _Rr kB R

Carlsen-Anand

Sochi 2014 (6)

White’s position may be somewhatpreferable, but nothing dramatic. Nowwe see a period of ‘normal chess’ inwhich Carlsen slowly outplays Vishyby essentially shuffling around thepieces better than he does.13.h4 b6 14.h5 h6 15.0-0-0 ♗b716.♖d3 c5 17.♖g3 ♖ag8 18.♗d3♘f8 19.♗e3 g6 20.hxg6 ♘xg621.♖h5 ♗c6 22.♗c2 ♔b7

_ _ _Tt Tt_M_ _J_M JJjL_J_SjJjL J Sj

_ j i _R j i R _I_ _ _ I_ i b ri b rI_ _ iI_I B iI_ k _ _k

23.♖g4?!It kind of looks nice just to put therook there, and perhaps Magnus hada deeper positional idea, but it wasperfectly well placed on g3, and hecould’ve continued with ♔d2, ♔e2

etc., as he did later.Now the rook is undefended againstoccasional knight jumps, but theknight has no good square, so it’s a

very subtle point, and perhaps not evenworth noticing. Especially at this level,you don’t expect your opponent to justallow simple tactical tricks, so there isno reason to move out of the ‘normalchess’ phase.23...a5 24.♗d1Hinting at Carlsen’s idea; perhaps hewanted to play g3 ?

24...♖d8 Preventing g3.25.♗c2 Oh well, it doesn’t reallymatter. Specic moves usually don’thave a high cost in this phase.25...♖dg8

_ _ _Tt Tt_M_ _J_M JjL_J_SjjL J Sjj j i _Rj j i R _I_ _R_ I R

_ i b _i bI_ _ iI_I B iI_ k _ _k

26.♔d2??Magnus continues to play in the samemode as well – slowly improving hisposition by shuing around his pieces.The tactical dierence in the position is

very subtle, but once it strikes you, thetactics themselves are very easy. Unfor-

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B A D E N - B A D E N A 59

‘For many years I have considered it a very sad state of aairs that since theWar, the great chess tournaments,which were held frequently before,have altogether ceased. In the goodold days before the War, a great inter-national tournament was held in Ger-many at least every two years’. That’s

what Dr. Siegbert Tarrasch wrotein his book about the Baden-Badentournament in 1925 that was won byAlexander Alekhine.

Today, the Chess Meeting in Dort-mund is the only annual elite event onGerman soil. You may safely call it a venerable institution, as this summerthe 43rd edition will be played. The

Grenke Chess Classic is still a youngevent, but there can be no doubt thatWolfgang Grenke and his team inBaden-Baden have the ambition tobecome a respected fixture on theinternational calendar.

This year’s tournament was unmis-takably an important step in thatdirection, with a top-notch line-up. The main attraction was WorldChampion Magnus Carlsen, whoplayed his rst tournament in Ger-

many since Dortmund 2009. Andthere were three more top-10 play-ers: Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aro-nian, who came almost straight fromthe Tata Steel Masters, and the win-ner of the rst Grenke Chess Classicin 2013, Vishy Anand. The eld wascompleted by Etienne Bacrot (win-ner of the Baden-Baden Open in

2013), Arkadij Naiditsch and DavidBaramidze (who qualified from the2nd Grenke Classic in 2014, in whichonly German players took part), andMichael Adams, a long-time memberof the Baden-Baden Bundesliga team.

Why was no Russian invited toBaden-Baden, which is often called‘the most Russian city in Germany’?Here the Russian aristocracy used totake the waters, and writers like IvanTurgenev and Fyodor Dostoevsky

The World Champion also won the second tournament since his successful title defence in Sochi last November.

F

E R I C V A N R E E M

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60 A B A D EN - B AD EN

Baden-Baden

not like 35...♗xa5 after 36.♖b8 ♗d837.♗h4 ♖d7, with a cramped posi-

tion, but that might be the best wayto defend. ‘It’s already gone by then,’Adams commented later.36.♖b5 ♖e8 37.♕d5 ♕xd538.♖xd5 ♖b8 39.♗g3 g6 40.h4♖a8 41.♗e1 ♖e4 42.g5 h543.♖b5 ♖a7 44.♔f1 ♖e8 45.♔e2♖ea8 46.♖f6 ♖a6 47.♗b4 ♗xa548.♖xa5 ♖xa5 49.♗xa5 ♖xa550.♖xd6

_ _ _M_ M

_ _ _J_J_ r _J_ r Jt _ _ iJt iJ _ i _ i i i_ _ i _i_ _K_ _ K_ _ _ _

This rook and pawn endgame is aclear win for White. He will simply

lived in Baden-Baden. These days,the spa has a partnership with Sochiand Yalta. However, the political situ-ation in Russia and Ukraine has notfailed to have its eects: from Januaryto September 2014 there were 10,000fewer overnight stays by Russians, a16.2 per cent decline compared to theprevious year. For the Grenke Finan-cial Services Group, political reasonsare not a decisive factor, but commer-cial reasons often do play a role whenplayers are selected. As ChristianBossert, the President of the Baden-Baden Chess Centre, which servedas the venue, explained: ‘Since thecompany has no branches in Russia,

it makes no sense to invite a Russianplayer’.The drawing of lots took place in

one of the best hotels in Germany, the‘Brenners’, a ve-star grand hotel witha rich history. Since most of the play-ers, trainers and commentators camefrom various Bundesliga matchesthat weekend, a short no-nonsenseceremony was held. The players justhad to pick an envelope with a start-ing number, had a glass of champagne(or mineral water) and that was it!

The rst two rounds saw only onedecisive game. On the second dayMagnus Carlsen won against hisSochi second Michael Adams andincreased his score with the whitepieces against the Englishman to awhopping 7½/8!

_ _ _M_ D M_Rl tJjRl tJj_ jT_ j jT j

i _ _ _i_ i _I_ i I

_Q_ iR_IQ iR I _ _ bK_ bK_ _ _ _

Carlsen-Adams

Baden-Baden 2015 (2)position after 35.♖xb7

35...♕a8? Carlsen had just wona pawn on b7. Adams probably did

push his pawns and support them withhis king.

50...♔f8 51.♖f6 ♖a3 52.♔f3 ♔e753.♔e4 ♖a5 54.♖f4 ♖b5 55.d5 ♖b356.♔d4 ♖a3 57.e4 ♖b3 58.♔e5♖d3 59.♖f1 ♖h3

_ _ _ _ _ _ mJ_mJ_ _ _J_ J

_ _Ik iJ Ik iJ _ _I_ i I i_ _ _ _T T

_ _ _ _ _ _ _R_R

60.♖a1! ♖xh4 61.d6+ ♔d7 62.♖a7+♔e8 63.♖a8+ ♔d7 64.♖f8 1-0

Michael Adams immediately bouncedback in the third round to beat DavidBaramidze with the white pieces. Inthe same round, Fabiano Caruana wona weird game against Levon Aronian.

A no-nonsense opening ceremony. At the 5-star ‘Brenners’ the players just had to pick an

envelope with a starting number, had a glass of champagne (or mineral water) and that was it!


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The words that were used most in thepress conference after the game were‘stupid’, ‘weird’ and ‘silly’.

T_T_ lM_T T lM_ _ _J_JJj d _JjJj d Jj_ _Nj _Nj_ _Q_ _ Qi _R_ ii R ii _ i ii i i_ _ _RkRk

Aronian-Caruana

Baden-Baden 2015 (3)position after 28...♗f8

Aronian, who is a pawn down, tried29.♖fd1, although he could havetaken a repetition after 29.♘f4 e.g.29...♕f6 30.♘d5 ♕d6 etc.29...b5 30.♕f3 ♔g7

T_T_ l _T T l_ _ _JmJmJ_ d _JjJ d Jj_J_Nj _J Nj_ _ _ _ i _R_Qii R Qii _ i ii i i_ _R_ kR k

31.♘c3? In time-trouble, Aronianmissed 31.♘c7! ♕xc7 32.♖d7 ♕c433.♖1d5! ♗e7 34.♖xe7 ♖f8 35.♖dxe5,which is slightly better for White.31...♕e6 32.♖d7 ♗c5 33.♕e4

T_T_ _ _T T

_ _R_JmR JmJ_ _D_JjJ D Jj_Jl j _Jl j_ _Q_ _ Qi n _ ii n ii _ i ii i i_ _R_ kR k

33...♖a7 Aronian: ‘I completely for-got about 33...♖a7 – a weird blunder’.

34.♖d8? Black wins another pawn,and the rest is easy for Black.34...♖xd8 35.♖xd8 ♗xf2+36.♔g2 36.♔xf2? ♕f6+. 36...♗b637.♖d2 ♖c7 38.♕a8 ♗d4

39.♘e2 ♖d7 40.b4 h5 0-1

The game of the third round was theepic battle between local hero ArkadijNaiditsch and World ChampionMagnus Carlsen. As you will remem-ber, Naiditsch beat Carlsen with theblack pieces in Round 7 of the 2014Chess Olympiad, in the only deci-sive game in the match Norway-Ger-many. Obviously Carlsen was highlymotivated to rub out this opprobrium

and boldly sacrificed a bishop fortwo pawns on move 10! On Twitter,Maxime Vachier-Lagrave nicknamedCarlsen ‘Magnus Jobava’.

N O T E S B Y

Arkadij Naiditsch

KF 13.5 – B06Arkadij Naiditsch

Magnus Carlsen

Baden-Baden 2015 (3)

A day earlier, I had managed to save a very bad rook ending against Anandafter totally misplaying the opening.So I was in a very good mood, know-ing that my game against Magnus wasgoing to be an interesting and a ght-ing one, like probably almost all thegames of the World Champion.I had not really been sure whetherto expect a Berlin, or maybe some

Spanish variation or even a Sicilian.Everything was possible. I knew thatMagnus wanted to win against me very much after our encounter at theOlympiad in Tromsø last year.1.e4 g6A big surprise already on move 1 ☺.2.d4 ♗g7 3.♘c3 d6 4.♗e3For many years now, I have alwaysgone for the same set-up against thePirc and I cannot explain why I stillhave such a great score with it.

4...a6 Well, not the most centralopening. I was not sure if Magnus hadprepared something against my usual5.h4, or whether he had just woken upshortly before the game and wantedto play ‘something’. In any case Idecided to play something safer.5.a4 Of course, 5.a4 is nothing new.It has been played in a lot of games,also at top level.5...♘f6

TsLdM_ tTsLdM t_Jj jJlJJj jJlJJ_ j sJ_J j sJ_ _ _ _

I_ iI_ _I iI_ n b _n biI_ iIiiI iIir _Qk nRr QkBnR

6.h3!? I played this fast, but it wasnot my preparation. I knew frommany similar lines that it is very nicefor White to play g4/♗g2 if possible,so why not now?! Of course, I alsokeep the option of playing ♘f3 andreturning to the usual set-up.

6...0-0 After 6...d5 7.e5 ♘e4 the posi-tion is quite unclear.7.g4 Logical and normal. 7.♘f3would also be ‘normal’, but I thoughtwhy not put the World Championunder pressure a bit?7...e5 About this move I am not sureat all. In my opinion, a more ‘usual’continuation was 7...c5 8.d5 e6 9.♗g2exd5 10.exd5 ♘bd7 11.♘ge2, andmaybe White is a bit better, but thegame has only just begun.8.d5 c6Black has to search for some play.9.♘ge2I thought that my knight has to beplaced on e2 anyway, and the bishopfrom f1 might find another square,depending on Black’s play.9...cxd5 10.exd5I was quite happy with my positionhere. My plan is simple: ♘g3, theng5 and ♘ce4, with a large positionaladvantage.

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8/18/2019 New In Chess 2015-2



T_ _ tM_T tM_J_S_ lJJ S lJJd j _J_Jd j J_ _IjJbIjJb

I_ _N_S_I N S_ _ _ _B iIqNi _iIqNir _ k _Rr k R

15...♘df6

15...fxe4 does not work for Black:16.♗xg4 ♕xf2+ 17.♔d1, and I havethe idea of playing ♕e1 next.16.♘xf6+ ♘xf6

I am still a piece up, but Black is quite

well developed and ...♘e4 is threaten-ing. I had to decide whether to give upthe dark-squared bishop or not.17.♘c3

A good practical decision, I think. Theother option was 17.♗xf6 ♗xf6 18.c3,but I was not sure if I was actually bet-ter here after 18...♖ac8. Black’s pawnstructure is very solid, and if I castlequeenside to attack the black king, thea4-pawn will get weak. I found things very complicated here.

T_ _ tM_T tM_J_ _ lJJ lJJd j sJ_Jd j sJ_ _IjJbIjJb

I_ _ _ _I_ n _ _n B iIq i _iIq ir _ k _Rr k R

17...♕xb2!

It doesn’t matter what happens next,but Black needs to take on b2. If Ihad had time to castle queenside, myattack would have got very dangerous.18.♖b1 ♕a3

T_ _ tM_T tM_J_ _ lJJ lJJ_ j sJ_J j sJ_ _IjJbIjJbI_ _ _ _Id n _ _d n B _Iq i _ Iq i_R_ k _RR k R

19.♖xb7?! Too greedy. Muchstronger was 19.♖b3! ♕a1+ (after19...♕c5 20.♗e3 ♕c7 I have 21.0-0,followed by ♖fb1, and of course Blackhas three pawns for the piece, but Ibelieve that White is doing clearly bet-ter here, as the b7-pawn is a seriousweakness) 20.♕d1 ♕xd1+ 21.♔xd1,and I think that this endgame shouldbe better for White.19...♖f7?!

Black is not taking his chances. Weboth saw that 19...♖ab8! should prob-ably be the move, but as Carlsen toldme he had dismissed it because of20.♖xg7+ ♔xg7 21.♗xf5

t _ t _t t_ _ _ mJ mJJ_ j sJ_J j sJ_ _Ij bIjBbI_ _ _ _Id n _ _d n_Iq i _ Iq i_ _ k _R k R


(I was not sure at all if White is win-

ning here) 21...gxf5 22.♗xf6+ ♔xf6.Now White has a lot of moves,but the position seems to be just adraw: 23.♕h6+ (one of the possi-ble lines) 23...♔e7 24.♕e6+ ♔d825.♖xh7 ♕xc3+ 26.♔f1 ♕c4+27.♔g2 ♕g4+ 28.♔h2 ♕f4+, witha perpetual.I had two ideas: to just play 20.♖xb8♖xb8 and 21.♗g2, but then most ofmy advantage may be gone, or to play20.♖c7

t _ tM_t tM_ r _ lJ r lJJ_ j sJ_J j sJ_ _IjJbIjJbI_ _ _ _Id n _ _d n B _Iq i _ Iq i_ _ k _R k R


Arkadij Naiditsch: ‘I can tell you guys that there is no better feeling than

beating the World Champion in a difcult, six-hour game! ☺ ’


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8/18/2019 New In Chess 2015-2



I continued my calculation: 35.♔g2♖h5 (Black wants to play 36...♖g5+)36.♖bf6 ♖xf6 37.♖xf6 ♔g7, and sud-denly I was not at all sure whether thiswas actually winning or just a draw:38.♖xa6 still gives White winningchances, but 38.♖xf5 ♖xf5 39.♗xf5♔f6 is probably already a drawnposition.So after all these calculations I totallyforgot that I should just play 31.♘xe5dxe5 and 32.♖b4, and instead playedthe stupid 31.♗g2?.

_ _ _M_ M_ _ _T_T

J_ j _JjJ j Jj_ _ lJ_lJI_ _ _ _I_R_ _N_R NT_ _ i _T iB_R_ _ kR k

31...♗f6! Here I understood that wehad started the game anew.32.♘h2 ♔g7 33.♗d5 ♖e7Black has managed to defendeverything.

34.♖b4 ♖d2 35.♗c4 a5 36.♖b7Here we both had very little time toreally delve into the position.36...♖d4 37.♖xe7+ ♗xe738.♗b5 h5 39.♘f3 ♖f4 40.♔g2Having made my 40th move, I left theboard. I was very angry with myselfthat I had missed such a great oppor-tunity to get a big advantage.40...h4

_ _ _ _

_ _ l ml m_ j _J_ j Jj _ _J_jB JI_ _ t jI t j_ _ _N_N_ _ iK_ iK_R_ _ _R

From a strategical point of view,White’s position should be better.

Let’s say, in case of a rook exchangeit is clear that White can attack the

a5-pawn and the other black pawns,but if the black pawns start moving,the position should just be a draw.41.♖d1!I am not sure if this was the bestmove, but I liked it a lot. My threat issimple: to play ♖d4 or ♘d4 next.41...♖g4+This is probably also the best.42.♔f1 After 42.♔h3 ♖f4 I probablywouldn’t have anything better than togo back to g2: 43.♔g2 (as 43.♖d3? ismet by 43...g5) 43...♖g4+, and we are

back in the same position.42...h3I wasn’t sure if this move was reallyneeded. It is great to have a passedpawn on h3, but it could become atarget, and if Black loses it, the posi-tion should be winning for White.43.♖d3 With the simple idea of play-ing ♘h2 next.

_ _ _ _ _ _ l ml m

_ j _J_ j Jj _ _J_jB JI_ _ _T_I T_ _R_N_J R N J _ _ i _ i_ _ _K_K

43...♗f6! A very strong move, usingthe fact that I cannot take on d6.Black’s idea should basically always

be to play ...g5-g4 and connect thepawn structure. Which I should, ofcourse, prevent.44.♘h2Continuing my strategy of playingagainst the h3-pawn. After 44.♖xd6♖f4 45.♖d3 g5 followed by ...g4, Ithink the position should be a draw.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ mm_ j lJ_ j lJj _ _J_jB JI_ _ _T_I T_ _R_ _J R J _ _ i n i n_ _ _K_K

44...♖h4 45.♔g1!The beginning ofa nice plan. First I need to move myking to free my knight from h2.45...♗d4 46.♖f3Protecting the f2-pawn and at thesame time playing against Black’s ideaof ...g5-g4, because now the f5-pawnwould be hanging.46...♔f6 47.♘f1Now that the white king can easily

stop the black h-pawn, it is time tobring the knight back into the game.47...♗e5 48.♘e3White already has the serious threatof ♘c4 at the right moment.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ j mJ_ j mJj _ lJ_jB lJI_ _ _ tI t

_ _ nR_J nR J _ _ i _ i_ _ _ kk

48...♔g5?!The World Champion starts driftinginto the wrong direction...He should have played 48...h2+!. Ofcourse it is very risky to put the pawnon h2, as it can easily be attacked,but Black is getting active play for it:

Ma y be m y recen t w n ag

t he Gren k e C hess C lassic.

Who is your fa vouri te chess player o f

all time?

Magnus Car lsen. I don’ t see ho w to

bea t him J.

Is there a chess book tha t had a pro found

In New In Chess 2013/2 Arkadij Naiditsch

answered the Just Checking questionnaire.

In hindsight the reason why he named

Magnus Carlsen as his favourite chess player

of all time is most remarkable. Or was he

displaying a great sense of humour?

8/18/2019 New In Chess 2015-2


66 A B A D E N - B A D E N

Baden-Baden

50.♖xf4 ♔xf4 (and again we are in anendgame in which it is very dicultto say if White is winning or not...)

51.♗e8 (of course, there are manyother possibilities) 51...g5 52.♗d7

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _B_ j _ _ jj _ lJjj lJjI_ _ m _I m_ _ n _J n J _ _ i _ i

_ _ _ _K KA N A L Y S I S D I A G R A M

(we can clearly see how benecial itis for White that the bishops are notof the same colour, as Black can-not defend his pawns from a dou-ble attack) 52...♔f3 53.♗xf5 ♔xf254.♘c4, and once again only an in-depth analysis could clarify whetherWhite really has enough for the fullpoint here.

49.♔h1 ♖d4! (the black rook will begreat on d2) 50.♔g2 ♔g5 (avoidingall tricks) 51.♖h3 d5, and of courseBlack still has to put up a serious ght;but objectively the position should be very close to equal.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ j _J_ j J

j _ lJmjB lJmI_ _ _ tI t_ _ nR_J nR J _ _ i _ i_ _ _ kk

49.♔h1! This is probably the win-ning move! Calm but deadly... As isoften the case in endgames. The silent♔h1 creates the deadly threat of ♘c4.49.♘c4? was premature, since after49...♖g4+ 50.♔h1 Black would savethe game with 50...♔h4!, defendingthe h3-pawn.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_ j _J_ j Jj _ lJmjB lJmI_ _ _ tI t_ _ nR_J nR J _ _ i _ i_ _ _ _K K

49...♔f6?! It is strange that Carlsendidn’t seize his best practical chance,which was 49...♖f4!? and now Whitehas three dierent options:

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ j _J_ j J

j _ lJmjB lJmI_ _ t _I t_ _ nR_J nR J _ _ i _ i_ _ _ _K K


Or 50.♖xh3 ♖xf2 51.♘c4 (attack-ing the e5-bishop and the a5-pawn)51...♔f4 52.♘xa5 g5, and my feeling

tells me that Black should be able tosave the game, even though things arestill pretty unclear.Or 50.♖g3+ ♔h4 51.♖xg6 ♖xf252.♖h6+ ♔g3 53.♘f1+ ♔g4 54.♘e3+♔g3, and this leads to a forced draw.50.♘c4 Now the a5-pawn will fall.50...g5Black doesn’t have anything betterthan to try and create counterplay asquickly as possible.51.♘xa5 g4 52.♖d3 f4

But I am in time for ...

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ j m _ j m

n _ l _nB lI_ _ jJtI jJt_ _R_ _J R J _ _ i _ i_ _ _ _K K

That’s what you get when the World Champion comes to town.


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53.♘c4 ... stopping Black from play-ing ...g3. Here I started to feel that awin over the World Champion was very very close.. .53...♖h7

Of course, 53...g3 wouldn’t work,since after 54.fxg3 fxg3 55.♘xe5 g2+56.♔h2 White is easily winning.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _T T _ j m _ j m_ _ l _B lI_N_ jJ_I N jJ_ _R_ _J R J _ _ i _ i_ _ _ _K K

54.♘xe5I have to push my a-pawn and avoid...g3 at the same time. The text-moveis maybe not the best, but from a prac-tical point of view it is a very logicalmove. Now I don’t need to care aboutthe unpleasant ...g3 threat anymore.54...dxe5 55.a5It is time to push the pawn.55...♖c7

The rook must be activated.56.♖a3 This is a risky move at rstsight, but before playing it, I had cal-culated the complications right up tothe end, hoping I was right.

_ _ _ _ _ t _ _t_ _ m _ mi _ j _iB j_ _ jJ_ jJ

r _ _ _Jr J _ _ i _ i_ _ _ _K K

56...♖c1+This is Black’s only chance. To waitfor a6 and play 56...♖a7 is clearly notan option because of ♗c6-b7, and theblack rook would be trapped on a7.57.♔h2 ♖c2Black will win the f2-pawn.

58.a6 ♖xf2+ 59.♔h1Now Black has a huge armada ofpawns advancing, but White is faster.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _I_ _ m _I m_ _ j _B j_ _ jJ_ jJr _ _ _Jr J _ _ t _ t_ _ _ _K K

59...g3 60.a7 From b5 the bishopcovers the f1-square.

60...♖d2 60...♖b2 61.♖a1 wouldn’tchange anything...

_ _ _ _ i _ _ _i_ _ m _ m_ _ j _B j_ _ j _ jr _ _ jJr jJ _ t _ _ t_ _ _ _K K

61.♖a1And the game is over. Black can’t stopWhite from playing a8♕, and aftera line like 61...♖h2+ 62.♔g1 ♖g2+63.♔f1 ♖f2+ 64.♔e1 h2 65.a8♕ thequeen covers the h1-square.I can tell you guys that there is no bet-ter feeling than beating the WorldChampion in a difficult, six-hourgame! ☺

■ ■ ■Carlsen rushed out of the playing hallafter he resigned, but contributed afun fact via Twitter later that night:‘Well, that’s my fourth third-roundloss in a row’. To refresh your mem-ory: Carlsen lost to Caruana in thethird round of the Sinqueeld Cup,to Anand in the third game of theWorld Championship match and toWojtaszek in the third round of theTata Steel Masters.

Following the free day, an inspiredMagnus Carlsen faced Vishy Anandfor the first time since the WorldChampionship match in Sochi lastNovember.

N O T E S B Y

Peter Heine Nielsen

HD 3.8 – A90

Vishy AnandMagnus Carlsen


After three rounds both participants

in the last two World Championshipmatches found themselves on 50 percent, both having good reasons to feela bit shortchanged. Anand had been very close to winning against Naid-itsch in Round 2, while Carlsen, inRound 3 and against the same oppo-nent, had gone for an interesting butrisky piece sacrice, only to overpressand lose. So while it would be obvi-ous to see this game as a continua-tion of the match in Sochi, the tour-nament situation made it something

quite dierent. Both players needed awin to correct missed opportunities,and they both seemed willing to lowertheir guard and go for an open ght.1.d4!?In 2008, when Anand defended hisnewly achieved crown against Kram-nik, his choice of 1.d4 was seen as arisky surprise, since it was very muchplaying on the challenger’s turf. Thesedays, one almost has to get a copy ofAnand’s games collection to remem-

ber that he is by nature a 1.e4 player,but that of late the switch has workedmaybe better than ever. Both in Sochi,Baden-Baden and Zurich he gener-ated serious pressure in almost everygame that he opened with 1.d4.1...f5!?The Norwegian media had put quitesome focus on the World Champi-on’s recent experiments in the open-ing phase. It is true that the Modernagainst Giri and Naiditsch, as well

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68 A B A D EN - B AD EN

Baden-Baden

the point is that after 10.♘c4! Blackhas to give up the bishop: 10...♘c611.♘xd6+ ♕xd6 12.a4 ♕d7 13.♗a3♔f7, as quite often in the Stonewall.Although things are not too bad forBlack, he is not exactly equal either.8...0-0 9.♘d2

TsL_ tM_TsL tMjJ_ d jJjJ d jJ _JlJs _ JlJs_ _JnJ_JnJ_Ii _ _ Ii_I_ _ iI iI_ nIi iI nIiBi

r bQ_Rkr bQ Rk9...a59...b6 was seen twice in the matchVan Wely-Moiseenko from the 2012World Cup. After 10.cxd5 exd5 Blackgot a promising position, but even-tually drew, and in the later play-ohe didn’t want to see Loek’s improve-ment and went 10...cxd5, only to losea one-sided game.10.♗b2

TsL_ tM_TsL tM_J_ d jJJ d jJ _JlJs _ JlJsj _JnJ_j JnJ_Ii _ _ Ii_I_ _ iI iIb nIi iIb nIiBir _Q_Rkr Q Rk

10...♘bd7 The standard move.

Simen Agdestein has played 10...♖a7,which at rst sight might seem odd,but the point is that 10...b6 is stillmet by 11.cxd5 cxd5, and now even12.♘dc4!, when the rook is hangingon a8. However, after 11.♕c2 Blackcould play 11...b6 and, after 12.♖fc1♗b7, have an acceptable position.11.♕c2 a4 Black is solid, the onlyproblem being the ‘Stonewall’ bishopon c8. Putting the pawn on a4 addssome tension, as it is Black who

as the Dutch against Wojtaszek, hadworked out badly, with two lossesand just one draw. Even so, Magnusdecided not to be bothered by statis-tics and gave it another try.2.g3 ♘f6 3.♗g2 e6In Wijk aan Zee, against Anand’s sec-ond Wojtaszek, Carlsen had tried theLeningrad Dutch, but here he aimsfor a Stonewall instead.4.c4 c6!? An interesting detail. InAnand’s earlier encounters againstthe Stonewall, which both date backmore than 10 years, he always suc-cessfully developed his knight to h3,but only after Black had committedhimself to a Stonewall with 4...d5.

TsLdMl tTsLdMl tjJ_J_ jJjJ J jJ _J_Js _ J Js_ _ _J_J_Ii _ _ Ii

_ _ _ iiIi _Ii iIi IiBirNbQk nRrNbQk nR

5.♘f3 The two games mentioned

went 5.♘h3 d5 6.0-0 ♗d6 7.♕c20-0, and now 8.♗f4 ♗e7 9.♘c3 wasAnand-Schmittdiel, 2004, and 8.♘d2♗d7 9.♘f3 ♗e8 10.♗f4 was Anand-Nikolic, 2000.5...d5 6.0-0 ♗d6 7.b3 ♕e7

TsL_M_ tTsL M tjJ_ d jJjJ d jJ _JlJs _ JlJs_ _J_J_J J

_Ii _ _ Ii_I_ _NiI NiI_ _Ii iI IiBirNbQ_RkrNbQ Rk

8.♘e5!?An interesting move order employedby Van Wely against Carlsen in Wijkaan Zee 2012. The concept is to stop...b6, but then Magnus played it any-way! However, after 8...b6 9.cxd5 cxd5

chooses when to either push ...a3 orexchange with ...axb3. In Gunina-Cmilyte, 2011, White decided to keepa1 for the bishop with 12.♖ab1, andalthough Viktorija later lost the game,she had an equal position.

T_L_ tM_T L tM_J_Sd jJJ Sd jJ _JlJs _ JlJs_ _JnJ_JnJJ_Ii _ _J Ii_I_ _ iI iIbQnIi iIbQnIiBir _ _Rkr Rk

12.♘df3 The greedy 12.bxa4!? is sug-gested by the engines. Asked after thegame Magnus said that this is defi-nitely not as stupid as it looks. Apartfrom the extra pawn, which will prob-ably be temporary, it does open thequeenside, which is where White hasmore inuence. Black’s hope is thatWhite’s structure is broken and thec4-square weakened, but exploitingthis is not trivial.12...♘e4 13.e3

Technically speaking this is a nov-elty, but it is also a sound move. Ako-pian has played 13.♘d3, which hasthe drawback that it allows Black todevelop his bishop by playing 13...b6.

T_L_ tM_T L tM_J_Sd jJJ Sd jJ _JlJ_ _ JlJ_ _JnJ_JnJJ_IiS_ _J IiS

_I_ iNiI iNiIbQ_ i iIbQ iBir _ _Rkr Rk

13...a3!?Or ?!. It is very hard to judge whetherBlack releases the tension on thequeenside way too early and creates aweak pawn on a3, or whether he getsa strong pawn on a3 and a favourablestructure on the queenside. The com-

8/18/2019 New In Chess 2015-2



puter, with or without the inclusionof ...a3, likes the move ...g5. Not as awild attacking move, but challengingthe e5-square. Magnus considered theconcept, but preferred not to throwforward a pawn on the kingside as yet.14.♗c3 ♘xe5 15.♘xe5

T_L_ tM_T L tM_J_ d jJJ d jJ _JlJ_ _ JlJ_ _JnJ_JnJ_IiS_ _ IiSjIb i ijIb i iI_Q_ i iI Q iBi

r _ _Rkr Rk15...♗d7

Quite logical would be 15...♗xe5?!,rst removing the strong white knightand then trying to break the pawnstructure: 16.dxe5 b5 (16...♘xc3?!17.♕xc3 b5 18.cxd5 cxd5 19.♖fc1? is just sad for Black, when a3 – or in caseof ...b4, then b4 – can easily becomea weakness after ♗f1, ♕d4 and b4)17.cxd5 cxd5 18.♗d4?! ♗a6 19.♖fc1.At rst sight this looks overwhelm-

ing for White, as 19...♖fc8 20.♕d3indeed gives him a huge edge. But:

T_ _ tM_T tM_ _ d jJ d jJL_ _J_ _L J_J_JiJ_J JiJ_ bS_ _ bSjI_ i ijI i iI_Q_ i iI Q iBi

r r _ kr r kA N A L Y S I S D I A G R A M

19...b4!? 20.♗xe4 (the computer move)20...fxe4 21.♗c5 ♕f7 22.♗xf8 ♖xf8.White is a full exchange up, but he isin serious trouble. The direct threat is...♕f3 and ...♗e2, attacking f2, and if23.♕d2, 23...♕f3 24.♕e1 h5! threat-ens to push the pawn to h3 and delivermate. Thus 25.h4, when 25...g5! givesBlack a very promising attack.

So why did Magnus not play this? Hethought d4 was not the square for thebishop, but e1. And after 18.♖fc1! b419.♗e1! White is indeed just better.

T_ _ tM_T tM_J_Ld jJJ Ld jJ

_JlJ_ _ JlJ_ _JnJ_JnJ_IiS_ _ IiSjIb i ijIb i iI_Q_ i iI Q iBir _ _Rkr Rk

16.♘xd7!? A very interesting deci-sion. In his post-game interview Mag-nus, much to the delight of commen-tator Nigel Short, mentioned that

this idea had been used by Salo Flohragainst Goldberg in 1949! John Wat-son has discussed that game in one ofhis excellent books on modern chessunderstanding. The point is that theknight on e5 looks good, so takingBlack’s so-called bad bishop mightseem odd. However, the knight on e5might later be exchanged and thus isonly a temporary advantage. But thebishop pair could have bigger long-term potential.

16...♕xd7 17.c5 ♗c7 18.b4

The position has been clarified, yetit still is not obvious how to proceed.One could use Flohr’s argument hereas well and take on c3, while 18...b5!?,sealing the queenside, also makes alot of sense, as 19.cxb6 would be metby 19...♗d6!?, followed by 20...♖fb8,

with pressure against the pawn on b4.Carlsen’s move is just as interestingand logical. If White wants to repel theknight from e4, it will involve playingf3, while counterplay with ...h4 willsoften g3, which would make a hugedierence.

T_ _ tM_T tM_JlD_ jJJlD jJ _J_J_ _ J J

_ iJ_J_iJ Ji iS_ _i iSj b i ij b i iI_Q_ i iI Q iBir _ _Rkr Rk

18...h5!? 19.♗e1

19.b5!?, not fearing the black attack,looked interesting, but after 19...h4!?the weakness of g3 will give the blackknight a solid foothold on e4. Vishy’s

Commentator Nigel Short and Magnus Carlsen happily go down

memory lane. ‘Flohr-Goldberg, 1949, need I say more, Nigel?’

E

R I C V A N R E E M

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that 32...♕xf5 allows 33.♖d7+!, forc-ing a perpetual. Black’s only way tokeep playing for a win would havebeen 32...♖fe8!, as 32...♗f6 33.♖xf6!♕xf6 34.♖d7+ ♖f7 35.♗d4 ♕xd4+36.♖xd4 a2 37.♖d1 a1♕ 38.♖xa1♖xa1+ 39.♔g2 just leads to a drawnqueen vs two rooks ending.

T_ _T_ _T T_J_ _ _MJ D M _J_R_ _ J R_ i _Iji Iji _ _J_i Jj _ _ ij i

lQ_ b ilQ b i_ _R_ kR kA N A L Y S I S D I A G R A M

33.♖ed6! ♔g8!, when Black managesto defend, as his king hides safely onf8 after 34.♖g6+?!. So White will haveto seek a draw after 34.♗d4 ♗xd4+35.♖6xd4 a2 36.♖a1, when Black isstill pressing, but White’s chances fora draw seem better than Black’s for awin. Now, however, it’s just over.

32...♕xd7! 33.f6Black’s king looks trapped, as ♖g7+ isthreatened and 33...♔h8?? 34.♖h6+mates. But with an elegant temporaryqueen sacrifice Black immediatelydecides the issue:

T_ _ t _T t_J_ _ _MJ D M _J_ iR_ J iR_ i _ ji j

i _ _J_i Jj _ _ ij ilQ_ b ilQ b i_ _ _ kk

33...♕d1+! 34.♕xd1 ♔xg6Two rooks for the queen is a fair tradefor Black, but the unstoppable a-pawnmakes all the dierence. White’s lasthope is a perpetual against the blackking.

T_ _ t _T t

_J_ _ _J_J_ iM_ J iM_ i _ ji ji _ _J_i J

j _ _ ij il _ b il b i

_ _Q_ kQ k

35.♕d3+ ♔h6 36.h4 gxh3And Vishy resigned.

■ ■ ■In the same round, Arkadij Naid-itsch was lucky to get a full pointwhen David Baramidze decided to becreative.

In the fth round Baramidze alsolost, this time against Carlsen, allow-ing the World Champion to catch upwith Naiditsch. At the start of the nalround, Carlsen and Naiditsch sharedthe lead with 4/6, followed by Caru-

ana with 3½/6, and various play-oscenarios for rst place were possible.

A rapid play-o for rst was plannedfor players with the same numberof points after the nal round. Two10 min + 2 sec games were planned,then if needed two 5+2 games and anArmageddon decider.

Carlsen faced Etienne Bacrot, whowas still unbeaten, in the nal roundand came very close to winning, buthaving missed his chance he had tosettle for a draw. As Naiditsch failedto win a dicult rook ending against

Aronian, the two front-runners hadto wait a long time for the result ofthe game Baramidze-Caruana to seeif the Italian would join them in athree-way play-o. History repeateditself for Caruana, who missed a winin the 2013 Grenke Chess Classic ina tricky endgame against Daniel Frid-man. Again the Italian failed to ndthe winning move in another mara-thon game, much to the relief of theorganizers:

Can I go to sleep now? An exhausted Magnus Carlsen waits for

sponsor Wolfgang Grenke to proceed with the priz-giving.


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72 A B A D E N - B A D E N

Baden-Baden

of chess that day, the nal game of thetournament started, with White hav-ing an extra minute and Black drawodds.

SI 14.2 – B91Magnus CarlsenArkadij Naiditsch


1.e4 c5 2.♘f3 d6 3.d4 cxd44.♘xd4 ♘f6 5.♘c3 a6 6.g3 e57.♘de2 ♗e7 8.♗g2 0-0 9.0-0♘bd7 10.a4 b6 11.♘d5 ♘xd512.♕xd5 ♖b8 13.♘c3 ♘f614.♕d3 ♗e6

t d tM_t d tM_ _ lJjJ lJjJJj jLs _Jj jLs_ _ j _jI_ _I_ _I I_ nQ_ inQ iiI_ i iiI iBir b _Rkr b Rk

Does he just blunder a pawn, or is Blacksetting a cunning trap? That wasn’t

clear anymore at this hour of the day.15.♕xa6 ♕c7!?The point. The threat is ...♗c4, win-ning an exchange, while white knight jumps to d5 or b5 will leave the pawnon c2 en prise. The correct evaluationwas given by Nigel Short with just theright dose of red wine and positionalunderstanding. White wins by sacric-ing the exchange, was his verdict in thecommentary room.16.♕e2! ♗c4 17.♕f3 ♗xf118.♗xf1

t _ tM_t tM_ d lJjJ d lJjJ j j s _j j s_ _ j _jI_ _I_ _I I_ n _Qin QiiI_ i iiI i ir b _ kr b Bk

_ _ _ _ _ _K_ _K_ _J_J_ J J

_ _ m _J m J _ _ j i j i_ _ _ __ n _ _ n

_ _ _ _Baramidze-Caruana

Baden-Baden 2015 (7)position after 71.♘d2

The winning move is 72...♔d4!, giv-ing up the e-pawn. It is hard to seethat the white knight can be trapped

on h2. Caruana played 71...♔f6?and after 72.♔c6 g5 73.♘e4+♔f5 74.♘xg5 ♔g4 75.♔d6♔xh4 76.♘e4 ♔g4 77.♔xe6 h478.♔e5 f3 79.♔d4 h3 80.♔e3h2 81.♘f2+ ♔g3 82.♘h1+ ♔g283.♘f2 h1♕ 84.♘xh1 ♔xh185.♔xf3 the game ended in a draw.

Play-offNot many would wager a penny onNaiditsch in the play-o against theRapid and Blitz World Champion

and, indeed, in the rst 10+2 gamethat started shortly past 10 p.m.,Carlsen won with ease. Playing Whitein the second game, the opening wentcompletely wrong for Naiditsch, butin a wild middlegame Carlsen col-lapsed. After a long day Carlsen feltexhausted and drank a glass of cokein the short break between the gamesinstead of his preferred orange juiceand water mix. A bad idea, because‘I couldn’t calculate properly any-

more, because of the sugar overdose,’as Carlsen put it. In the remarkablywell-played blitz games there wasno winner, and so the Grenke ChessClassic was to be decided by one nalArmageddon game! The regulationsstated that a 6+2 vs. 5+2 game wouldbe the decider, but Carlsen protestedand said that increments make nosense in an Armageddon game. Hisopponent agreed, and just beforemidnight, after almost nine hours

This leaves Black an exchange up, butstrategically he is busted. The obviousidea of ♗g5xf6 and ♘d5 is certainlyrelevant, but even the slow b3, ♗b2and ♗d3 would be almost hopelessfor Black, as his pawn structure hasmajor holes on d5 and b5, and thereare no ways to repair them. Quite log-ically, Naiditsch decided that this wasthe time to act, but his position wasbeyond repair.18...d5 19.exd5 e4 20.♕f5♖bd8 21.♗f4 ♕c5 22.♖d1 ♕b423.♗e5 ♗c5 24.♗xf6 gxf625.♘xe4 ♕xb2 26.♗d3 ♖fe827.♘xf6+ ♔f8 28.♘xh7+ ♔e729.♖e1+ ♔d6 30.♕f4+ ♔xd5

31.♘f6+ ♔c6 32.♘xe8

_ tN_ _ tN_ _ _J_JjM_ _ _jM

_ l _ _lI_ _ q _I q_ _ _ iB idI_ i idI i i

_ _ r kr k

And a very long day came to an end just a few minutes before midnight.Naiditsch resigned.

Finally, around midnight, the GrenkeChess Classic had a winner! Naiditschwas obviously disappointed, but washappy with his performance in theend.

What’s more, many of the specta-tors regarded Arkadij Naiditsch as the

moral winner, because he had beatenthe World Champion in the tourna-ment game.

Magnus Carlsen was exhausted, butstated that he had had a lot of fun dur-ing the play-o games. And he hadn’tbeen the only one: the 50 or so loyalchess fans that had bravely stayed inthe playing hall of the Baden-BadenChess Centre to follow the excite-ment live rewarded the players with astanding ovation. ■

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H A N S R E E A 75

Recently, Jeremy Silman wrote thathis 4000 chess books were pushinghim out of his home. It reminded meof a newspaper article about a middle-aged man who had kept all the news-papers that he had ever received. Theywere filling up his place, with onlynarrow corridors left free to enablehim to reach his bed, a small table anda chair. Obviously he had no partnerliving with him; at some point in lifeone has to make a choice.

In an interview with Dirk Jan tenGeuzendam for New In Chess 2008/5,the Dutch chess book collector JurgenStigter referred to the publisher andbook collector Tony Gillam, and to

the way Tony’s friend Ken Whyld hadconsoled him after Tony’s divorce:‘Now at least you’ve got more roomfor your books.’ This remark mayseem harsh, but to a real collector itcomes naturally.

Obviously, the collector’s life is notall roses, but as I wrote, I never was acollector and the 3000 chess books Iown – or should I say owned? – usedto t easily in my home. I am not inthe same situation as Jeremy Silman,but our fates are related. He is in dan-

ger of being pushed out of his homeby his books; I will move to a muchsmaller place, so my wife and I areforced to shed most of the books thathave been stacked here for 40 years.

My wife is less sentimental than mein what she (keeping her chin up) calls‘shedding excess’, so she is getting ridof more of her personal possessionsthan me. But I also have to make acontribution, and part of that is tak-ing leave of about half my chess books.

It is not an easy job. First there is thepainful selection, and then the ques-tion of what to do with the ones thatcannot join me in my transmigration.I wanted to sell them and get as muchmoney for them as possible.

General literature fetches nothingnowadays, which pains me, not somuch because I would like to get agood price – although that’s true too –but out of a general respect for books.The Dutch poet and writer Gerrit

Komrij, who died in 2012, once wrotea poem that started triumphantly ‘I sawthe book of my enemy in the publish-er’s remains store’, but now I nd hisown ne works in the one-euro crateoutside an antiquarian’s shop or evenin a box on the street, put there by afriendly reader shedding his excess andto be taken away for free. To be sold ata publisher’s remains store is almost abadge of honour for a book these days.Chess books are still doing a bit better.

A personal library is a reinforcer ofprivate memories, connected with thepurchase and the first reading. Thesame applies to the great collectors, ofcourse, but those people also have an

important public function. They areguardians of the chess world’s collec-tive memory. Great public collections

like those at the Koninklijke Biblio-

theek in The Hague or at the Cleve-land Public Library grew from privatecollections. Private collections may beinaccessible for a period of time, butone day everything will nd its way to awider public.

In his essay Unpacking my Library ,the German philosopher Walter Ben- jamin described the love of a collec-tor for his books in a curious way. Heregards the purchase of a book as res-cuing it from its lonely abandonment

on the market place and giving it itsfreedom – ‘the way the prince boughta beautiful slave girl in The ArabianNights. To a book collector, you see,the true freedom of all books is some-where on his shelves.’

Recently I had dinner at the houseof Jurgen Stigter, who has given free-dom on his shelves to more than25,000 books. Some of them areextremely valuable – a Carrera, aSalvio, a Damiano, which may betouched with gloves by privileged vis-itors – others are there just by causeof what I would call the child’s delightof hoarding. The foundations of hishouse have been strengthened, but

Jurgen still worries sometimes. Atsome point Tony Gillam, who wasalso present at the dinner, exclaimed:‘All we have is history!’ He, too, is aguardian of our collective memory.

Collectors were extremely helpfulin nding new freedom for the booksI had to shed. This may sound rathercynical, but in fact they bought onlya few items for themselves – alwaysoffering more than I would haveasked – as my collection contained very little that they didn’t already

have themselves. But thanks to them,the rest will be in safe hands to be auc-tioned or sold, which is a great relief.

As I write this, I am still in my oldat. The books that I cannot take withme have already been disposed of. Theothers have been packed in boxes, andin a few weeks I will unpack them atmy new place. As with Walter Benja-min, when he was unpacking the 2000rare books that he hadn’t been able tosee since his divorce two years earlier,

memories will come to me of foreigncities and their bookshops.I think of Benjamin’s remark that

inheritance is the soundest way ofacquiring a collection, because itbestows a sense of responsibility onthe owner. And indeed, one of mymost cherished books is the Lehr -buch des Schachspiels by Mieses andDufresne, the only chess book in mypossession that was owned by myfather.■

‘The Germanphilosopher WalterBenjamin regardedthe purchase of a

book as rescuingit from its lonelyabandonment onthe market placeand giving it its

freedom.’

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Z U R I C H A 79

Zurich

The classical part of the Zurich ChessChallenge was clearly dominated byAnand and Nakamura. None of theother players even managed to win asingle game. Anand and Nakamuraboth won two games. The key gamewas their direct encounter, which waswon by Anand and gave him a one-point lead over the American (as their‘classical’ points were doubled for thecombined standings) before the rapidgames on the nal day.

D37 – QO 1.5

Viswanathan AnandHikaru Nakamura

Zurich 2015 (4)

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.♘c3 ♗e7 4.♘f3

♘f6 5.♗f4 0-0 6.e3 ♘bd7 7.c5

T_Ld tM_T Ld tMjJjSlJjJjJjSlJjJ _ _Js _ Js_ iJ_ _iJ_ i b _ i b_ n iN_n iNIi _ iIiIi iIi

r _Qk _Rr QkB R7...♘h5 In the third match game inSochi, Carlsen played 7...c6 againstAnand. The Indian scored a ne winwhen the World Champion wentbadly astray later (1-0, 34). For an anal-ysis of that game and a lucid explana-tion of the opening subtleties by AnishGiri, see New In Chess 2014/8.8.♗d3 ♘xf4 9.exf4 b6 10.b4 a511.a3 c6 12.0-0 ♕c7 13.g3 ♗a614.♖e1 ♗f6

T_ _ tM_T tM_ dS_JjJ dS JjJLjJ_Jl _LjJ Jlj iJ_ _j iJi i i _i i ii n _Nii nB Ni_ _ i i i ir _Qr kr Qr k

15.♔g2A new move. Hitherto 15.♘e5 hadmainly been played here.15...♗xd3 16.♕xd3 ♖fb8 17.h4♕a7

Tt _ _M_Tt Md _S_JjJd S JjJ jJ_Jl _jJ Jlj iJ_ _j iJi i i ii i i ii nQ_Nii nQ Ni_ _ iK_ iKr _ r _r r

18.♘e2 (?)After the game Anand said that thereason he played this was that thismove worked in a similar position hehad looked at, but that here he ‘mighthave misplayed it’.Instead he suggested 18.♖ab1, butNakamura felt that he should not beworse at all after 18...axb4 19.axb4♕a3 20.♕c2 bxc5 21.bxc5 ♖xb122.♘xb1 ♕b4, to which Anandagreed.

Tt _ _M_Tt Md _S_JjJd S JjJ jJ_Jl _jJ Jlj iJ_ _j iJ

i i i ii i i ii _Q_Nii Q Ni_ _NiK_ NiKr _ r _r r

18...g6? A blunder, according toNakamura, from which he didn’trecover. He felt that he was better andthat he should have gone 18...axb419.axb4 ♕xa1 20.♖xa1 ♖xa1 21.b5cxb5 22.♕xb5 ♖a7 23.c6 ♘f8,

t _ sM_t sMt _ _JjJt JjJ jI_Jl _jI Jl_Q_J_ _Q J_ i i i i i i_ _ _NiNi_ _NiK_ NiK_ _ _ _


Swiss GM and commentator Yannick Pelletier welcomes Vishy Anand and Hikaru Nakamur

at the press conference. The American still cannot believe that he played 18...g6?.

N E W I N

C H E S S

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80 A Z U R I C H

Zurich

25...♖xb6 26.cxb6 ♕a5 27.♖b1 ♖b828.♕b3, and White wins thanks tothe mighty passed pawn on b6.26.♘c3 ♕a7 27.♖cb1 White startsan invasion on the queenside andthere is little Black can do.

T_T_ _M_T T Md _ _Jld JlrJ_J_J_rJ J J_ iJi _J iJi J _ i _ i i i_ nQ_ inQ i_ _ iK_ iK_R_ _ _R

27...♕d7 28.♖1b4 ♗h6 29.♘a4♕d8 30.♖a6 ♔g7 31.♖b7 ♖xa632.♕xa6 g5

_Td _ _ Td_R_ _JmR JmQ_J_J_ lQ J J l_ iJi jJ iJi jJN_ i _ iN i i_ _ _ ii

_ _ iK_ iK_ _ _ _

A bid for counterplay, but it comestoo late.33.♕e2 A cool reply. Now Blackcannot allow the queen to take onh5, and after his forced answer theattempt at counterplay is smothered.33...g4 34.♕a6 ♕g8 35.♘b6♖f8 36.♘d7

_ _ tD_ tD_R_N_JmR N JmQ_J_J_ lQ J J l_ iJi _J iJi J _ i _Ji i Ji_ _ _ ii_ _ iK_ iK_ _ _ _

36...♕h7

and now for instance 24.♘c1 ♖c725.♘d3 ♖bc8, when Black can meet26.♘b4 with 26...♗e7.19.♖ab1 axb4 20.axb4 ♕a221.♖ec1 bxc5 22.bxc5 h5

Tt _ _M_Tt M_ _S_J_S J_J_JlJ_ J JlJ

_ iJ_ _J iJ J _ i i i i i i_ _Q_NiQ NiD_ _NiK_D NiK_Rr _ _Rr

Another move Nakamura wasunhappy about, as it created a weak-ness that kept bothering him.23.♘e5 ♘xe5 24.fxe5

Tt _ _M_Tt M_ _ _J_J_J_JlJ_ J JlJ

_ iJi _J iJi J _ i _ i i i_ _Q_ iQ i

D_ _NiK_D NiK_Rr _ _Rr

24...♗g7? But this is more serious.He should have gone 24...♗d8, notonly keeping an eye on b6, but also onh4 in case White tries to break openthe kingside with g4.25.♖b6!

Tt _ _M_Tt M_ _ _JlJl

rJ_J_J_rJ J J_ iJi _J iJi J _ i _ i i i_ _Q_ iQ iD_ _NiK_D NiK_ r _ _r

25...♖c8Now he’s losing. Nakamura thoughthe could take on b6, until he saw

Anand had expected him to go36...♖a8, when he showed the fol-lowing nice win: 37.♖a7 (and not37.♕xc6? ♖a2 38.♘f6 ♗e3!, and sud-denly it’s a draw, e.g. 39.♔f1 ♕a8!)37...♖xa7 38.♕xa7 ♕h7 (if the queengoes to the queenside, White alsoplays 39.♘f6, and the pawn on h5drops, since the king cannot protect itbecause of ♕a2-c2+) 39.♘f6 (cover-ing e4, so there’s no check) 39...♕d340.♕b8, and White wins.37.♘xf8 ♕e4+ 38.♔h2 ♔xf839.♖b8+ ♔g7 40.♕c8 ♔g641.♕h8 Black resigned.

The classical part also showed once

again how detailed and deep open-ing preparation can be these days –and what a price you pay if you fail toremember what you have looked at. InRound 2, Anand proted from excel-lent opening preparation and fromthe fact that Levon Aronian, whoknew of the improvement, got lost inhis attempts to reconstruct what thecomputer’s conclusions had been.

GI 10.3 – D97

Viswanathan AnandLevon Aronian

Zurich 2015 (3)

1.d4 ♘f6 2.c4 g6 3.♘c3 d5 4.♘f3♗g7 5.♕b3 dxc4 6.♕xc4 0-07.e4

TsLd tM_TsLd tMjJj jJlJjJj jJlJ _ _ sJ_ sJ_ _ _ _

_QiI_ _ QiI_ n _N_n NIi _ iIiIi iIir b k _Rr b kB R

7...♘a6Almost all moves have been played inthis position, but of late this has beenone of the most popular choices.8.♗e2 c5 9.d5 e6 10.0-0 exd511.exd5 ♖e8 12.♖d1

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Z U R I C H A 81

In the 10th game against Carlsen in theWorld Championship match in Sochi,Anand played 12.♗g5 (½-½, 32).12...♗f5 13.d6 h6

T_ dT_M_T dT MjJ_ _JljJ JlS_ i sJjS i sJj_ j _L_j L_Q_ _ _ Q_ n _N_n NIi _ iIiIi BiIir bR_ kr bR k

14.♗e3

Many games have been played with14.♗f4. For instance, Karpov didso in the 1987 World Champion-ship match against Kasparov (in thatmatch he also tried 14.h3; both gameswere drawn) and Piket successfullyemployed it against the same Kaspa-rov in Amsterdam in 1995.14...♘g4 15.♗f4This allows Black to win a piece, butit’s only a temporary loss.

T_ dT_M_T dT MjJ_ _JljJ JlS_ i _JjS i Jj_ j _L_j L_Q_ bS_ Q bS_ n _N_n NIi _ iIiIi BiIir _R_ kr R k

15...♗xc3 16.bxc3 ♖e4 17.♕b5♖xf4 18.♕xb7 ♖a4

The best option for Black.

T_ d _M_T d MjQ_ _J_jQ JS_ i _JjS i Jj_ j _L_j LT_ _ _S_T S_ i _N_i NI_ _ iIiI BiIir _R_ kr R k

19.d7

T_ d _M_T d MjQ_I_J_jQ I J

S_ _ _JjS Jj_ j _L_j LT_ _ _S_T S_ i _N_i NI_ _ iIiI BiIir _R_ kr R k

A strong move that was still part ofAnand’s opening preparation. For themoment, White is a piece down, buthe has great compensation thanks to

Black’s lack of coordination and theannoying passer on d7.After the game Anand said that hehad already looked at this positionmany years ago with an early ver-sion of Fritz that gave 19.♗xa6 ♖b820.♕c6 ♗d7, and the bishop ona6 drops off. Some months ago theAnand team had taken a fresh lookwith modern engines and found thetext-move.19...♗e4

Anand indicated that Black is per-fectly fine after 19...♘c7 20.h3♘xf2 21.♔xf2 ♗xd7 22.♗b5, when‘three only moves’ lead to equality:22...♘xb5 23.♖xd7 ♕b8 24.♕d5

♕f8.20.♕b3 ♗c6?

T_ d _M_T d Mj _I_J_j I JS_L_ _JjS L Jj_ j _ _jT_ _ _S_T S_Qi _N_Qi NI_ _ iIiI BiIi

r _R_ kr R k

This loses. Interestingly, Aronianhad also investigated 19.d7, but at theboard he could not recall the varia-tions and got lost in his calculations.The only way to go was 20...♖a5,when White keeps the initiative with21.♘d2.21.♖d6! A cruncher. The rook notonly attacks the bishop on c6, but alsothreatens 22.♖xg6+.

The stately Savoy Baur en Ville Hotel on the night of the closing

ceremony of the Zurich Chess Challenge.

N E W I N

C H E S S

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Z U R I C H A 83

N_Lm l tN Lm l tjJ_J_J_JjJ J J J _ _J_ _ J

_ _ _ jjQ_K_I_ _Q K I_ n _ in iId _ _ iId ir _ _ _Rr B R


17...♗g7! (Nakamura explained thathe had chosen to play this variationbecause he hoped that at this point hisopponent might choose the ‘human’

move 17...d5+, when 18.♔d3 ♗g719.♘e2 ♕xa1 20.♗g2 ♕e5 21.♕xa7dxe4+ 22.♔e3 is better for White)18.♕a5+! (another only move – atthe board Karjakin got worried about18.♕b3, but this is a mistake, as after18...♕xa1 19.♗g2 ♕xc3+ 20.♕xc3there is, as Karjakin himself indicatedlater, 20...b5+, and Black will win theknight and most probably the game)18...b6 19.♕xg5+ f6

N_Lm _ tN Lm tj _J_ lJj J lJ j _Jj _j Jj_ _ _ qq_K_I_ _ K I_ n _ in iId _ _ iId ir _ _ _Rr B R


20.♕b5 (only this one, as after

20.♕xg7 ♗a6+ 21.♔d4, 21...♕f2 ismate) 20...♗a6! 21.♕xa6 f5!, and aftertwo more only moves Black has reacheda position in which the white king can-not run away from perpetual check.16.♔b3 ♕d2 17.a3

Here Karjakin started thinking for along time, not because he had missedthis move, which is the only way forWhite to prevent mate, but ratherbecause he realized he had mixed uphis opening preparation.

N_Lm l tN Lm l tjJ_J_J_JjJ J J J _ _J_ _ J

_ _ _ jjQ_ _I_ _Q IiKn s iiKn s ii d _ ii d ir _ _ _Rr B R

17...♕c2+ 18.♔a2 Karjakin nowchooses the best continuation underthe circumstances, but it neverthelessleaves him with a precarious position.18...♕xa4 19.♘xa4 ♘xf1

20.♖hxf1

N_Lm l tN Lm l tjJ_J_J_JjJ J J J _ _J_ _ J_ _ _ jjN_ _I_ _N Ii _ _ ii iKi _ _ iKi ir _ _R_r R

20...b5 There’s no time for 20...b6 21.♖ac1 ♗b7 22.♘c7 and theknight will escape.21.♘4b6 axb6 22.♘xb6 ♗b7

23.♖xf7 ♗c6 24.♖d1 ♗e7

_ m _ t m t_ _JlR_J JlR J nL_J_ _nL J_J_ _ jJ j_ _I_ _ Ii _ _ ii iKi _ _ iKi i_ _R_ _R

25.♖f3As he said at the press conference,Nakamura was very happy to findthis move, which essentially ends thegame.Originally he had planned 25.♘c8,but then he saw 25...♗c5 26.b4 ♔xc827.bxc5 and it’s not so easy to winthis, if it’s winning at all.

Sergey Karjakin: ‘The worst way to lose a game is when you know the line until

a draw, but cannot remember how it goes and get a losing position immediately.’

N E W I N

C H E S S

continued on page 86

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84 A Z U R I C H

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chess long ago – because it seemsmore logical and oers greater con-solation than a prayer, an altar or aconfessional – watching these play-ers in action, hunched over the chess-board, is like attending a Mass in atranquil church: it calms the spiritenormously.

Moreover, things are dierent thismorning. It’s an exceptional, almost

The Savoy Hotel inZurich. The chess

tournament sponsoredby the Russian million-aire, Oleg Skvortsov, istaking place over sev-eral days and some ofthe world’s most impor-tant players are participating. Eachday, hour after hour, everything hap-

pens in an appropriate silence, inter-rupted only by the click of the clocksafter each move or the gentle thudof pieces on chessboard squares. Abrief round of applause, at the verymost, rings out at the end of a game.Among those here are Anand, Aro-nian, Kramnik, Karjakin … Someof the strongest grandmasters. Theperfect elite, or just about. For thosewho, despite being mediocre play-ers, like myself, replaced God with

The Eyesof ViktorKortchnoi

Arturo Pérez-Reverte

historic occasion: Vik-tor Kortchnoi, at 84 yearsof age, is playing a friendlygame against the German,Uhlmann (80). Yesterday,I had the chance to observeold Kortchnoi at close quar-ters. I was next to him in the

audience, and I took a good look athim as he watched the players. There

he sat, in a wheelchair since suer-ing his second stroke, very deaf, in a virtually vegetative state, attended toalmost constantly by his wife, Petra:the veteran fighter – with his longnose, large ears, sparse hair and livelyeyes keenly examining the players –he never missed a single detail of whatwas happening on the electronicscreens which showed the positionsof the pieces. Motionless, his handsresting on his knees as if he himself

Viktor Kortchnoi dominated the exhibition

match against Wolfgang Uhlmann, but

had to settle for a 2-2 tie when, having

reached a winning position in the fourth

rapid game, he dropped a piece.

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Z U R I C H A 85

were playing, bent forward just asif he were sitting at the chessboard,this legendary player focused with analmost inhuman degree of concentra-tion on the three games being playedsimultaneously. ‘He’s still playing inhis head.’ Leontxo García whispered,next to me. ‘It’s the only thing he canstill do.’

But he could do more, as we foundout this very morning, just a momentago, when they wheeled him in frontof a chessboard to face WolfgangUhlmann. The ancient Kortchnoiappeared to be oblivious to every-thing, absent, gazing at us bewil-deredly while people took photos,

and when he said a few words, he didso ill-humouredly, in Russian, to hiswife – in a very loud voice, as is usu-ally the case with people who are veryhard of hearing. He wanted to changeplaces with his opponent. Some of ussmiled, recognizing the combativeViktor Kortchnoi, ready for a ght,the formidable personality who hadchallenged Karpov in Baguio City, inthe Philippines, in 1978. The livinglegend who inspired the characters of

the two players in Dangerous Moves,which is, perhaps – together withSearching for Bobby Fischer – one ofthe greatest lms about chess everymade, in the same way that StefanZweig’s Schachnovelle (Chess Story)is the nest novel about chess of alltime.

Then Kortchnoi began to play andthe miracle occurred. The ancient,absent invalid xed his eyes on thechessboard and, without once look-ing at his opponent, except throughthe pieces, those eyes of his – eyeswhich had seen corpses strewn on thestreets of Leningrad, the eyes of thedissident whose wife was deported

to Siberia and whose son was sentto prison, the eyes of the man whowas persecuted by the KGB to thepoint that they considered murder-ing him, the eyes of the valiant herowho had fought so ferociously, withhis mind and sheer courage as hisonly weapons, against the cham-pions backed by the all-powerfulSoviet Union – those same eyesplayed out two memorable games.Without once looking away from the

pieces, Kortchnoi pauses for quite awhile, every now and then, tappinghis fingers deep in thought, or heleans right over the board to exam-ine something which we, packedinto the hall, are unable to see. Ontwo occasions, he even covers oneeye with a hand, as if that eye werebothering or betraying him. Then,loyal to his old, murderous style,he gobbles up every piece Uhlmannplaces within range in the nal fewmoves. And this man, at 84, who ispartially paralysed after two strokes,emerges with a defeat as Black and a victory as White. From time to time,he turns a little to look at the clock

and it is clear that, although his fac-ulties have been reduced to the min-imum, the thousands of games andthe millions of moves registered inhis memory continue to be playedout independently, almost auto-matically. And as we realized this,Leontxo and I looked at each otherin astonishment, thinking the samething: the very last corner of hisbrain to fade would be chess. ■

(Translated by Adam Feinstein)

Guest of honour Arturo Pérez-Reverte together with Nataliya and

Oleg Skvortsov, both ardent readers of his novels.

That internationally

acclaimed author Arturo

Perez-Réverte is passionate

about chess can be gleaned

from his novel The Flanders

Panel (1990), in which a

chess position on a 15th-

century painting plays a

pivotal role. Pérez-Reverte,

whose books have been

translated into 19 languages,was in Zurich for the rst

three days of the Chess

Challenge and dedicated his

weekly column (published

in 28 newspapers in Spain

and Latin America) to Viktor

Kortchnoi, one of his chess

heroes. N E W I N

C H E S S

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Z U R I C H A 87

blitzed out, so it was rather obviousthat he had looked at it before thegame with his second, Polish GMGajewski.8.bxc4 c5

Ts dMl tTs dMl tjL_ jJjJjL jJjJ _ _ s _ s_ j _ _jIjI_ _ _IjI_ _ _NiNi_ iIi i iIiBirNbQ_RkrNbQ Rk

9.d3

This move is, strangely enough, anovelty. However, the previous gamedidn’t do anything to change theevaluation.After 9.a5 e6 10.d3 a6 11.♘bd2 ♘bd712.♗b2 ♗d6 13.♘e4 ♗e7 14.♘xf6+♗xf6 15.♗xf6 ♕xf6 16.♕a4 ♖b817.♖ad1 ♔e7 18.♘d2 ♗xg2 19.♔xg2♕e5 Black had absolutely no prob-lems in Pantsulaia-Vallejo, Plovdiv2012.

9...e6 10.♘bd2 ♗e7 11.♘b3

Ts dM_ tTs dM tjL_ lJjJjL lJjJ _ _Js _ Js_ j _ _jIjI_ _ _IjI_N_I_NiN I Ni_ _Ii i IiBir bQ_Rkr bQ Rk

11...a5!?

An interesting decision by Anand. Asthis was a rapid game, I had alreadydecided to avoid using time consid-ering whether to go a4-a5 or prolongthe decision. Thus, I was quite happyto see this move, as it made my lifeeasier.12.♗b2 ♘bd7 13.e3 0-0 14.d4

♕c7 15.♕e2 ♘e4 16.♖fc1 ♖fc8

17.♘e1

T_T_ _M_T T M_LdSlJjJLdSlJjJ _ _J_ _ Jj j _ _j jIjIiS_ _IjIiS_N_ i iN i ib _Qi ib QiBir r n kr r n k

17...♘d6?!

Better was 17...♗f6! 18.♕d3 (after18.f3 ♘c3 19.♗xc3 bxc3 20.♖xc3 e521.dxc5 e4 22.♘d4 ♘xc5 Black has

massive compensation for the pawnand is probably even better) 18...♘d619.e4 cxd4 20.c5 ♘e8 21.♗xd4 ♗xd422.♕xd4 ♖d8, and Black should bemore than fine as the exchange ofthe dark-squared bishops, unlike inthe game, is substantially in Black’sfavour here.18.e4! Originally, I had miscalcu-lated a long line when I went for this,mistakenly assuming that 18...cxd4was not possible.

18...cxd4 19.c5 ♘e8

T_T_S_M_T T S M

_LdSlJjJLdSlJjJ _ _J_ _ Jj i _ _j iIj jI_ _Ij jI_N_ _ iN ib _Qi ib QiBir r n kr r n k

20.♗xd4

My original plan was 20.c6, but

it doesn’t quite work: 20...♗xc621.♘xd4 ♕b6 22.♘xc6 ♖xc623.♖xc6 ♕xc6 24.e5 ♕a6! (the moveI had missed) 25.♕b5 (I did see thismove when I was calculating whetherto go 20.c6 or 20.♗xd4, but it just feltlike it couldn’t possibly be enough)25...♕xb5 26.axb5 ♖d8 27.♖xa5 ♘b6,and the computers still think the posi-tion is equal, but I would much preferBlack in a rapid game.20...♘e5 21.f4 ♘c6 22.♗b2

Hikaru Nakamura: ‘It’s been a while that I’ve been enjoying playing

tournaments so much. I am just happy and enjoying everything.’

J A C E K P U L A W S K

I

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Zurich

T_T_S_M_T T S M_Ld lJjJLd lJjJ _S_J_ _ S J

j i _ _j iIj _Ii _Ij Ii_N_ _ iN ib _Q_ ib Q Bir r n kr r n k

22...♘f622...e5 23.♕e3 ♘f6 24.♘d3 ♘d7leads to a very double-edged posi-tion with chances for both sides. Ofcourse, that was exactly what I was

hoping for before the game!23.e5

T_T_ _M_T T M_Ld lJjJLd lJjJ _S_Js _ S Jsj i i _j i iIj _ i _Ij i_N_ _ iN ib _Q_ ib Q Bir r n kr r n k

23...♘d5In case of 23...♘d7 24.♖c2 ♘d825.♖ac1 ♗xg2 26.♕xg2 ♘c6 27.♕e4White should be better, as it is hardfor Black to create counterplay.24.♘f3 ♖ab8 25.♘fd2 ♘c326.♕e3 ♘d8 27.♗xc3 bxc328.♖xc3 ♗xg2 29.♔xg2 ♖b430.c6 ♖b6 31.♘d4

_Ts _M_ Ts M

_ d lJjJ d lJjJ tI_J_ _tI Jj _ i _j iI_ n i _I n i_ r q ir q i_ n _Ki n Kir _ _ _r

31...♗b4?!This isn’t the best move, but without

going deep into the tank and usinga lot of time (bad idea in rapid), it’sborderline impossible to go for theslightly better 31...♘xc6. However,even after the alternative White stillretains an advantage. After 32.♘b5♕b7 33.♔h3 ♗b4 34.♘d6 ♕b835.♘xc8 ♗xc3 36.♕xc3 ♕xc837.♖c1 White keeps a strong initia-tive and an advantage, despite theequal material, due to the clumsinessof Black’s pieces, combined with thea5 weakness.32.♘b5

_Ts _M_ Ts M_ d _JjJ d JjJ tI_J_ _tI JjN_ i _jN iIl _ i _Il i_ r q ir q i_ n _Ki n Kir _ _ _r

32...♖xc6After 32...♕b8 33.c7 ♕a8+ 34.♔h3♗xc3 35.cxd8♕+ ♖xd8 36.♕xc3♖c6 37.♘c4 White is simply winning,

as the knight on b5 will go to d6 andbecome a rock.33.♘xc7 ♖xc3 34.♕e4 ♖3xc735.♘f3 ♘b7 36.♖d1 ♘c537.♕c2 ♘d7 38.♕d3 h6 39.h4♘c5 40.♕c2 ♘d7 41.♕d3

_T_ _M_ T M_ tS_JjtS Jj_ _J_ j J jj _ i _j i

Il _ i iIl i i_ _Q_NiQ Ni_ _ _K_ K_ _R_ _R

41...♘c541...h5 was a way of trying to x thepawn structure, but there are techni-cal issues here, too: 42.♘g5 ♘f8 (42...g6? 43.♘xe6) 43.♔h3 ♗e7 44.♘e4,and White’s knight is heading to d6

and the a5-pawn will likely becomeweak. However, I think this mighthave been a better defence for Blackin a rapid game.42.♕c4!

The only try. Bad was 42.♕b5?! ♘e4!43.♖d7 ♖c2+ 44.♔h3 ♘f2+ 45.♔g2♘e4+ 46.♔h3 ♘f2+ 47.♔g2 – arepetition of moves was obviously notwhat I was looking for.

_T_ _M_ T M_ t _Jjt Jj_ _J_ j J jj s i _j s iIlQ_ i iIlQ i i

_ _ _NiNi_ _ _K_ K_ _R_ _R

42...♘d7I suspect that 42...♘xa4 43.♖d8+♖xd8 44.♕xc7 ♖f8 45.h5 should be adraw with correct play, but it would

C O L O P H O N

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EDITORS-IN-CHIEF:

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Sarah Hurst, Ken Neat, Piet Verhagen

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90 A Z U R I C H

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or 50...♔h8 51.♕f5 ♘xd1 52.♘h4)51.♕g4 ♖cf8 52.♖d3) 50.♕g4 ♘c551.♘d4 ♖e8 52.♕g6 ♖ce7 53.♘c6♖f7 54.♖f1 ♖ef8 55.♖c1 ♖c7 56.♘d4♖e7 57.♖c4 – surely this must be atechnical win.49.♕xf5 ♘xa4 50.♖d7

This is winning, but during the gameI had actually missed that Anandcould still defend with ...♘b6 and...♗c5. However, it is more than

enough, thankfully.

_T_ _M_ T M_ tR_JjtR Jj_ _ _ j jj _ iQ_j iQ ISl _ _ _Sl_ _ _NiK NiK _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

be unpleasant enough in classicalchess, let alone rapid.42...h5 was a try to prevent the loom-ing structure, but it doesn’t quitework: 43.♘g5 g6 44.♔h3. Black hastoo many moving parts, and the whiteknight on g5 is extremely strong.43.♕b5 ♘f8 44.h5

From here on in, I think this is closeto winning.

44...♖c5 45.♕b7 ♖5c7 46.♕e4♘d7 47.♔h3 ♘b6

47...♘c5 48.♕c4 ♘xa4 49.♖d8+♖xd8 50.♕xc7 ♖f8 51.♘d4 more orless transposes to the line I mentionedabove with 42...♘d7.

_T_ _M_ T M_ t _Jjt Jjs _J_ js J j

j _ i _j i I

l _Qi _Il Qi_ _ _NiK NiK _ _ _ _ _ _R_ _R

48.f5! The key break!48...exf5

The alternative was 48...♘xa4 49.fxe6fxe6 (49...♘c3 loses in all of the fol-lowing variations: 50.exf7+ ♖xf7(or 50...♔f8 51.♕f5 ♘xd1 52.♘h4;

50...♖xd7 51.♕xd7 ♘b6 52.♕b7

♗c5 53.e6 fxe6 54.♘e5 ♖f8

55.♕c6 ♗d4 56.♕xe6+ ♔h7

57.♕d6

_ _ t _ t_ _ _ jM jM s q _ js q jj _ n _j n I _ l _ _ l_ _ _ iK iK _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Now, after 57...♗xe5 58.♕xf8 ♗f6

59.♕c5, Black can’t save the knightand loses. If Black could magicallymove the knight to a square like e7,there would be very good drawingchances. Anand resigned here and thetournament began anew!

■ ■ ■Still, according to the tournamentrules, Anand had the better tiebreak,and would therefore be the overallwinner. But during the nal rounds ofthe rapid part, the organizers began to

feel that blitz games would be a moreattractive tiebreaker for the audience.And at the start of the last rapid roundit was announced that in case of a tiefor rst, blitz games would decide thetournament winner.

For Anand this came as an unpleas-ant surprise, and he declined to playtwo blitz games, as was suggested rst.But he did agree to play one Arma-geddon game. A kind gesture towardsthe sponsor, although he may have

regretted his compliance later. Butif he did, he didn’t show it. Still, theArmageddon game itself must havebeen a cold shower. It all was over in acouple of minutes.

After the ip of a coin, Anand choseWhite and an extra minute on theclock, with draw odds for Nakamura.For the American this was all ne, asin Armageddon he tends to preferBlack. He had little doubt about theoutcome anyway. As he said after-

Zurich 2015 Rapid cat. XXII

1 2 3 4 5 6 T P R

1 Vladimir Kramnik IGM RUS 2783 * 1 1 0 ½ 1 3½ 2933

2 Levon Aronian IGM ARM 2777 0 * ½ 1 1 ½ 3 2857

3 Hikaru Nakamura IGM USA 2776 0 ½ * ½ 1 1 3 2857

4 Sergey Karjakin IGM RUS 2760 1 0 ½ * ½ 0 2 2716

5 Vishy Anand IGM IND 2797 ½ 0 0 ½ * 1 2 2709

6 Fabiano Caruana IGM ITA 2 811 0 ½ 0 1 0 * 1½ 2629

Zurich 2015 Combined cat. XXII

1 Vishy Anand IND 2797 9

2 Hikaru Nakamura USA 2776 9

3 Vladimir Kramnik RUS 2783 8½

4 Levon Aronian ARM 2777 7

5 Sergey Karjakin RUS 2760 6

6 Fabiano Caruana ITA 2811 5½

Nakamura won the Armageddon tiebreaker

Zurich 2015 Classical cat. XXII

1 2 3 4 5 6 T P R

1 Vishy Anand IGM IND 2797 * 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 3½ 2930

2 Hikaru Nakamura IGM USA 2776 0 * ½ 1 1 ½ 3 2857

3 Vladimir Kramnik IGM RUS 2783 ½ ½ * ½ ½ ½ 2½ 2784

4 Sergey Karjakin IGM RUS 2760 ½ 0 ½ * ½ ½ 2 2716

5 Fabiano Caruana IGM ITA 2 811 ½ 0 ½ ½ * ½ 2 2706

6 Levon Aronian IGM ARM 2777 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ * 2 2713

For the combined standings the points scored in the classical games were doubled

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Z U R I C H A 91

wards: ‘I thought my chances were90 per cent that I was going to win. Ididn’t care if it was one or two games.I just gured I was going to win.’

QO 1.5 – D37

Vishy AnandHikaru NakamuraZurich 2015 (tiebreak)

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.♘c3 ♗e74.♘f3 ♘f6 5.♗f4 0-0 6.e3 ♘bd77.c5 ♘h5As in the classical game that Anandwon. There he played 8.♗d3, now hechooses a more aggressive approach.8.♗e5 c6 9.g4 ♘hf6 10.♖g1

♘xe5 11.♘xe5 ♘d7 12.♘xd7♗xd7 13.f4 b6 14.b4 a5 15.a3axb4 16.axb4 ♕b8 17.g5

Td _ tM_Td tM_ _LlJjJ LlJjJ jJ_J_ _jJ J_ iJ_ iiJ ii i i _i i i_ n i _n i_ _ _ i i

r _Qk rr QkBrWhite’s aggression on the kingsideleaves his own king vulnerable.17...bxc5 18.bxc5Taking on a8 rst would have limitedthe damage a bit.

Td _ tM_Td tM_ _LlJjJ LlJjJ _J_J_ _ J J

_ iJ_ iiJ i

_ i i _ i i_ n i _n i_ _ _ i ir _Qk rr QkBr

18...♕b4Even more killing was 18...♕b2.19.♖c1 ♖a3 20.♕d2 ♗d8Adding to White’s problems. Anand’splay is unrecognizable.

21.♘d1 ♕xd2+ 22.♔xd2 ♗a5+23.♔e2 ♖b8 24.♔f3 e5!

t _ _M_t M_ _L_JjJ L JjJ _J_ _ _ Jl iJj il iJj i_ i i _ i i

t _ iK_t iK_ _ _ i i

_ rN_ rrN Br

Decisive and blitzed out withoutthinking.25.fxe5 ♗f5!And no matter how long you look atWhite’s position, it’s totally lost.26.♖g2 ♗e4+ 27.♔f4 ♗xg228.♗xg2 ♖a2 29.♗f3 ♗d2White resigned.

Nakamura was understandably happywith this new win after Gibraltar.‘I played quite well from start to n-ish in Gibraltar and in many waysI deserved to win that tournament.

Here it was quite different. I wonquite a few games, but was also a bitlucky. It was much more of a strug-gle to win.’

His recent results must have givenhis hopes to one day play for theWorld Championship a new boost,but Nakamura was reluctant to devi-ate from the observation that hehas been making regularly over thepast few years: that he just wants toimprove and play better. Not becausehe doesn’t want to be more specic.‘That’s the fault of FIDE, I can say Iwant to play for the world title, but somany things in the cycle are unclear.

At the end of the day I think that ifI play well, good things will hap-pen. This seems to be true at leastfor the rst six weeks of this year. Ingeneral I am enjoying playing chessright now – for the rst time in quitea while. I think I am just happier inlife in general. I cannot explain it inwords, but it’s been a while that I’vebeen enjoying playing tournamentsso much. I am just happy and enjoy-ing everything.’ ■

And then it was all over in about 5 minutes. Vishy Anand and Hikaru

Nakamura put on their jackets again after the Armageddon tiebreaker.

N E W I N

C H E S S

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100 A J A N T I M M A N

Jan Timman

improvisation, but I don’t think Naka-mura will be in any hurry to repeat theexperiment he tried out there.

HD 12.12 – A80

Jovana VojinovicHikaru Nakamura

Gibraltar 2015(2)

1.d4 f5 2.♗g5 c6 3.e3

TsLdMlStTsLdMlStjJ_Jj jJjJ Jj jJ _J_ _ _ J_ _ _JbJb

_ i _ _ i_ _ i _iIiI_ iIiIiI iIirN_Qk nRrN QkBnR

3...♕b6A strange way to handle the DutchDefence. Black doesn’t bother abouthis development and starts grabbingpawns.4.♘d2 ♕xb2 5.♖b1 ♕c3

TsL_MlStTsL MlStjJ_Jj jJjJ Jj jJ _J_ _ _ J

_ _ _JbJb_ i _ _ i_ d i _d iI_In iIiI In iIi_R_Qk nRR QkBnR

6.g4 Far too enterprising. WhatWhite is in fact doing is taking awaythe natural defences of his king with-out achieving anything concrete.Simple and strong was 6.♗d3 d6

7.♘e2, ♕a5 8.0-0, after which Whitehas completed his development, whileBlack has only played his queen. As itwas, Nakamura managed to put hishouse in order with 6...♕a5 and qui-etly win the game.

Nakamura immediately set a blister-ing pace, winning ve games on thetrot. Sometimes he didn’t go for sharpopening lines to play for a win, and inRound 4 he beat Grandelius with sur-

prising ease.

EO 20.8 – A22

Hikaru NakamuraNils Grandelius

Gibraltar 2015 (4)

1.c4 ♘f6 2.♘c3 e5 3.g3 ♘c64.♗g2 ♗c5 5.a3 a6 6.e3 ♗a77.♘ge2 d6 8.b4 0-0 9.d3 ♘e710.0-0 c6 11.h3 ♗e6 12.♗b2♕d7 13.♔h2 ♘g6 14.♕d2

Gibraltar turns intoNakamura show

arly last year, Naka-mura had alreadydecided to play his

rst tournament of2015 in Gibraltar,which meant thathe would skip the

Tata tournament in Wijk aan Zee.Although there was a day betweenthe two events, it didn’t make senseto play both. Nakamura had noregrets. In an interview with Chess.

com immediately after the tourna-ment he explained that the weather inGibraltar was better than in the win-

try north. There was also more to dothere; you could go down to the wateror visit the town of Gibraltar. In addi-tion, he had won the tournament of2008 there and considered it time toplay another open tournament.

The open Tradewise Gibraltar ChessFestival is so strongly contested that ifyou score well, you end up playing ina strong grandmaster tournament. Inthe rst round there is some room for

E

Hikaru Nakamura demonstrated in Gibraltar

that super-GMs can also show their extra

class in open tournaments. The American wonhis rst six games and nished the unbeaten

winner. Jan Timman still regards Nakamura

as a possible challenger of Magnus Carlsen,

especially if he renes his endgame technique.

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J A N T I M M A N A 101

d5 15.c5 ♖ae8 16.♘a4 ♕e717.♖ae1

_ _TtM_ TtMlJ_ dJjJlJ dJjJ

J_J_LsS_J J LsS_ iJj _iJjNi _ _ _Nii _Ii iIi Ii iI b qNi kb qNiBk_ _ rR_rR

Nakamura has gone for a quiet Eng-lish set-up and cannot really boastan advantage. With all pieces still onthe board, every decision is impor-

tant, a factor that usually favours thestronger player. White has just takenhis queen’s rook to e1 and is ready forthe advance f2-f4.17...e4? The wrong reaction. Blackshould have gone for 17...♘d7! 18.f4f5, when the chances are roughly equal.18.♗xf6!This is Black’s problem. White givesup the bishop pair to increase hisinuence in the centre.18...♕xf6 19.dxe4 dxe4 20.♘ac3

The black e-pawn is very weak nowand will eventually be lost.20...♗f5 21.♘d4 ♗b8 22.♕c2Now the e-pawn can no longer bedefended adequately.22...♘h4 23.♗xe4 ♖xe4 24.♘xe4

♕g6 25.♘xf5 ♘f3+ 26.♔g2♘xe1+ 27.♖xe1 ♕xf5 28.♖d1

l _ tM_l tM_J_ _JjJJ JjJJ_J_ _ _J J_ i _D_i Di _N_ _i Ni _ i iIi i iI _Q_ iK_ Q iK

_ _R_ _R

Accurate play. White takes control ofthe d-le, since 28...♖e8 will now bemet by 29.♕c4.28...h5 29.♕c4 ♕e5 30.h4 ♕e731.♘g5 ♖e8 32.♖d4 g6 33.♕d3♕f8 34.♖d7 ♖e7 35.f4 1-0

In Round 5, Nakamura went for aspeculative line that is becoming moreand more fashionable these days.

QG 3.2 – D20

Baskaran Adhiban

Hikaru Nakamura

Gibraltar 2015 (5)

1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.e4 b5

Old theory books have nothing goodto say about this seemingly primitivecovering move, but according to moremodern insights, it is the first steptowards a future exchange sacrice.

TsLdMlStTsLdMlStj j jJjJj j jJjJ _ _ _ _ _J_ _ _J_JiI_ _ JiI

_ _ _ _Ii _ iIiIi iIirNbQk nRrNbQkBnR

4.a4 c6 5.♘c3 Adhiban took a lotof time over this obvious developingmove. This is a sign of uncertainty,because Black can now go for a play-able variation with 5...b4 if he wants.After the move order 5.axb5 cxb56.♘c3 he would not have had that op-tion.

5...a6 Nakamura wants to try out theexchange sacrice anyway.6.axb5 cxb5 7.♘xb5 axb5 8.♖xa8♗b7 9.♖a1 e6Black cannot really take on e4, forafter 9...♗xe4 10.b3 White wouldclearly be better. After the text he hasa check up his sleeve.

s dMlSts dMlSt_L_ _JjJL JjJ _ _J_ _ J_J_ _ _J_JiI_ _ JiI_ _ _ _i _ iIii iIir bQk nRr bQkBnR

10.♘e2 This is absolutely beyond me.If White wants to refute Black’s plans,he should at least go 10.f3!, which fea-tured as follows last year:

Hikaru Nakamura was also moving fast and furious in the traditional

Battle of the Sexes, a social highlight during the Gibraltar Festival.

S O P H I E T R I A Y

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J A N T I M M A N A 103

7.♕xd4 a6 8.♗e2 b6 9.0-0♗b7 10.♖d1 ♕c7 11.♗g5 ♗e712.♘d2 h6 13.♗h4 ♘e5 14.♘f1♖d8 15.♗g3 0-0 16.♘e3 ♖c817.♔h1 ♖fd8 18.f3 ♘h5 19.♗f2

♘f4 20.♗f1 ♘fg6 21.♕d2 ♗g522.♕e1 ♘f4

_Tt _M_ Tt M_Ld _JjLd JjJj jJ_ jJj jJ j_ _ s ls lI_ _Is _I Is_ n nI_n nIiI_ bIiiI bIi

r _Rq _Kr RqB KWhite has got nothing out of a Sicil-ian opening. On the contrary: Blackhas got very active play.

White can already start thinkingabout an advantage.30...d5 A badly timed pawn push,but after 30...♘c5 31.♖a3 Black’s lifewouldn’t be easy either.31.♘b4 ♖c5 32.exd5 ♖a5

_T_ _M_ T M_L_SdJjL SdJjJj _J_ jJj J jt _I_ lt I lIn _ _ _In_Ri _I_Ri Ii _ bIii BbIi_ _Rq _K Rq K

33.♘c6! With a large advantage.White nished the job awlessly.‘Objectively I never should have won,’Nakamura later observed. But it wasthe win that virtually guaranteed himnal victory.

Nakamura came very close to doing a‘Caruana’ in Gibraltar.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _R_ _J R J _ _ _ _ _ _ _M_M_K_ _ _ K_ _ _ _T T

Howell-Nakamura

position after 62...♖h1

A typical position in which the play-

ers start looking for the ‘Vancuraposition’. This means that the whiterook continues to attack the outsidepawn horizontally. If the black kingtries to cover the pawn from the g-le,it will be put in check.63.♔b2? The correct idea but thewrong execution. The narrow route toa draw was 63.♖d3+! ♔e4 64.♖c3!, andonly then taking the king to b2. NowBlack can avoid the Vancura position.63...h4 64.♖d4

Yet White has nothing to fear, sincethere are no obvious weaknesses inhis position. Nakamura now decidesto go for repetition.23.♗g3 ♘h5 24.♗f2

_Tt _M_ Tt M_Ld _JjLd JjJj jJ_ jJj jJ j_ _ s lS s lSI_ _I_ _I I_ n nI_n nIiI_ bIiiI bIi

r _Rq _Kr RqB K

24...♕e7Topalov was trailing by half a point,which is probably why he wantedto play for a win. The text is some-what unfortunate, since it causesthe b-pawn to lose its cover, whilethe black queen is unable to bolsterBlack’s initiative on the kingside.25.♖a3 ♘f4 26.♖b3 ♖c6

_ t _M_ t M_L_ dJjL dJj

JjTjJ_ jJjTjJ j_ _ s ls lI_ _Is _I Is_Rn nI_Rn nIiI_ bIiiI bIi

_ _Rq _K RqB K

27.♘e2 Freeing himself from Black’spressure. 27...♘xe2 28.♗xe2♖dc8 29.c3 ♘d7

_T_ _M_ T M_L_SdJjL SdJjJjTjJ_ jJjTjJ j_ _ _ llI_ _I_ _I I_Ri nI_Ri nIi _ bIii BbIi

_ _Rq _K Rq K

30.♘c2

Gibraltar 2015

1 Hikaru Nakamura USA 2776 8½ 2919

2 David Howell ENG 2670 8 2818

3 Hou Yifan CHN 2673 7½ 2772

4 Nikita Vitiugov RUS 2735 7½ 2770

5 Veselin Topalov BUL 2800 7½ 2767

6 Dennis Wagner GER 2501 7½ 27597 Wei Yi CHN 2675 7½ 2754

8 Baskaran Adhiban IND 2630 7½ 2750

9 Pentala Harikrishna IND 2723 7½ 2748

10 Axel Bachmann PAR 2629 7½ 2722

11 Maxim Matlakov RUS 2695 7½ 2667

12 Peter Svidler RUS 2739 7 2719

13 Yu Yangyi CHN 2724 7 2707

14 Dmitry Jakovenko RUS 2733 7 2700

15 Daniel Naroditsky USA 2622 7 2698

16 Richard Rapport HUN 2716 7 2677

17 Tamir Nabaty ISR 2579 7 2615

18 Emil Sutovsky ISR 2637 7 2605

19 Benjamin Bok NED 2572 7 2582

20 Deep Sengupta IND 2569 7 2574

21 Chanda Sandipan IND 2574 7 2526

22 Maxim Rodshtein ISR 2680 6½ 2642

23 M R Babu Lalith IND 2537 6½ 2637

24 Aleksandr Lenderman USA 2614 6½ 2626

25 Grigoriy Oparin RUS 2551 6½ 2621

47 Ju Wenjun CHN 2547 6½ 2621

27 Ivan Cheparinov BUL 2681 6½ 2619

28 Rout Padmini IND 2388 6½ 2608

29 Ivan Lopez Salgado ESP 2628 6½ 2607

30 Eylon Nakar ISR 2419 6½ 2604

256 players, 10 rounds

8/18/2019 New In Chess 2015-2


104 A J A N T I M M A N

1.c4 e5 2.g3 ♘f6 3.♗g2 c6 4.d4 exd45.♕xd4 ♘a6. Another advantage of4.♘a3 is that Black will quickly beforced to make his own decisions.4...♘f6 5.♘f3 ♘c6 6.♗c4 ♕d8

7.0-0 a6 8.♘c2 ♗g4 9.d4 e610.h3

T_ dMl tT dMl t_J_ _JjJJ JjJJ_S_Js _J S Js_ j _ _j_ i _L_ Bi L_ i _N_I i N IIiN_ iI_IiN iI

r bQ_Rkr bQ Rk10...♗xf3This is already a serious mistake,which puts Black with his backagainst the wall. After 10...♗h5 hewould have had reasonable chancesof equality.11.♕xf3 ♖c8 12.♖d1 cxd413.♗b3 ♕c7 14.♘xd4 ♘xd415.cxd4 ♗d6

_T_M_ t T M t_Jd _JjJJd JjJJ_ lJs _J lJs_ _ _ __ i _ _ i_ _ _Q_IB Q IIi _ iI_Ii iIr bR_ kr bR k

16.♗g5The white position is playing itself.

The text increases the pressure on theenemy position.16...♔e7Now it goes from bad to worse.Black should have given a pawnwith 16...0-0, as after 17.♗xf6 gxf618.♕xf6 ♗h2+ 19.♔h1 ♕f4 he couldhave forced a queen swap, when theopposite-coloured bishops hold outsome hope of a draw.17.♖e1 h6 18.♗xf6+ gxf6 19.♖e3h5 20.♖ae1 ♕d7

_T_ _ t T t_J_DmJ_J DmJJ_ lJj _J lJj

_ _ _ _J J _ i _ _ i_ _ rQ_IB rQ IIi _ iI_Ii iI_ _ r kr k

21.♕e4 Remarkably enough, this is notone of the computer’s top four suggestions,despite the fact that this queen move is partof a straightforward strategic plan.21...♔f8 22.d5 e5

_T_ m t T m t_J_D_J_J D JJ_ l j _J l j_ _Ij _J Ij J _ _Q_ _ Q_ _ r _IB r IIi _ iI_Ii iI_ _ r kr k

23.♖f3! This was the idea. White blocksthe black kingside pawns, after which the

game is won in a higher sense.

In the nal round, Nakamura got anotherrook ending a pawn up that resulted in adraw. The result didn’t threaten his tourna-ment victory, but it was a disappointmentnevertheless. When you’re getting nearthe 2800 level, every half point is welcome.Nevertheless Nakamura has reached thepoint where, like Caruana and Giri, he mustbe regarded as a serious candidate to chal-lenge for the world championship. Caruana

and Giri both have an experienced GM fora coach, and their opening repertoires havebeen rened to a T. This is not somethingNakamura can say. But he does have a verygood sense for which opening to go for,looking for systems that he really under-stands. And he will have every chance inthe world to develop his opening repertoirefurther. The same goes for the endgame.Studying the standard works by Dvoretskyand Nunn will probably enable him to makehim more accurate in the nal phase. ■

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _

_ _ _ __ r _ j r j_ _ _M_Mk _ _ _k

_ _ _ _T T

64...♔e3?Black returns the compliment. Heshould have played his king towardsthe passed pawn. After 64...♔g3White cannot continue his checks,since the rook is too close.

65.♖c4! Now the Vancura positionis rmly established.A disappointment for Nakamura,but the next day he struck merciless-ly again.

SI 46.4 – B22

Hikaru NakamuraYu Yangyi

Gibraltar 2015 (8)

1.e4 c5 2.c3 d5 3.exd5 ♕xd54.♘a3

TsL_MlStTsL MlStjJ_ jJjJjJ jJjJ _ _ _ _ _ jD_ _jD_ _ _ _

n i _ _n iIi i iIiIi i iIir bQk nRr bQkBnR

A very unusual move, which has onlybeen played in classical chess by play-ers under 2400 Elo.But it is a solid way to play neverthe-less. Zviagintsev has experimentedwith 1.e4 c5 2.♘a3, but I think Naka-mura’s move is better, since it makesb5 and c4 vital squares after Black hasadvanced his d-pawn.Another comparison: with the col-ours reversed, the following line isquite playable in the English defence:

Jan Timman

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8/18/2019 New In Chess 2015-2


106 A J U S T C H E C K I N G

Just Checking

N E W

I N C

H E S S

What was your best result ever?

I never think that way. Whom you lovethe most, your wife or your child?

Who is your favourite chess player of

all time?

Bobby Fischer, because he refreshed the

chess world and was able to challengethe great Soviet chess school.

Is there a chess book that had a pro-

found inuence on you?

The rst book I read, which my mothergave me when I was seven: The Secrets

of the Chess Game, by Vladimir Vukovic.

What was the most exciting chess

game you ever saw?

I witnessed the 13th match gamethat Fischer won against Spassky, the

Alekhine Defence. That cemented mygreat admiration for him.

What is the best chess country in the

world?

Yugoslavia.

What are chess players particularly

good at (except for chess)?

They are good at being selsh.

Do you have any superstitions con-

cerning chess?

I had pens specially meant for writ-ing chess moves. And clothes that I feltcomfortable in when playing.

Who or what would you like to be if

you weren’t yourself?

I would like to be my father, to under-stand his relations with me better.

Which three people would you like to

invite for dinner?

What is your favourite colour?

Orange, because it makes me happy.

What kind of food makes you happy?

Thai cuisine; Tom Kha soup with duck.

And what drink?

Red wine. The older the better.

Who is your favourite author?

Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

What was the best or most interesting

book you ever read?

One Hundred Years of Solitude. I wasyoung and a dreamer when I read it andit made a deep impression.

What is your all-time favourite movie?

All of Milos Forman’s lms.

What is your favourite TV series?

I never watch series, I prefer educationalchannels.

Do you have a favourite actor?

Marlon Brando, Laurence Olivier. Thebest actors are the ones who also weretheatre actors.

And a favourite actress?

Greta Garbo, a brilliant actress. But

she realized that the lm industry waschanging her character and she pre-ferred to return to normal life.

What music do you like listening to?

Music without words. The words I liketo imagine myself.

Do you have a favourite painter?

Salvador Dali. Maybe there are paint-ers that are technically better, but heexpressed all he wanted to say.

I would invite good friends that havepassed away, and with whom I haveshared lots of good moments.

What is the best piece of advice you

were ever given?

Don’t rush to do everything today, leave

something for tomorrow.

Is there something you’d love to

learn?

The whole wisdom of humanity, but thelimitations of life don’t permit me.

Where is your favourite place in the

world?

Belgrade, the whole of my spirit isattached to that city.

What is your greatest fear?

Since I lost my parents, I have no morefears.

What would you save from your

house if it were on re?

Anything which lives. The rest is of laterconcern.

How do you relax?

Sometimes I relax by being extremelyactive, sometimes by being very pas-sive.

What is the stupidest rule in chess?

That you are forfeited if you are delayedfor a game by an accident, a trac jamor whatever.

Is a knowledge of chess useful in

everyday life?

Chess is an educational tool until it isused in immoderate measure. In gen-eral it is useful, but in professional chessthere are also negative sides.

P E A K R A T I N G :

D AT E O F B I R T H :

P L A C E O F B I R T H :

P L A C E O F R E S I D E N C E :

2645 (3rd in the 1983 rankings)

November 2, 1950

Titovo Uzice, Yugoslavia

Linares, Spain

Just Checking

Ljubomir Ljubojevic

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8/18/2019 New In Chess 2015-2


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New In Chess 2015-2