Cover Story / Wijk aan Zee
and slower 3. g3, since White often plays f2-f4, h2-h3 and g3-g4 later. However, as with Hort’s 3. g4, Rapport’s
move is played in a position where Black is completely flexible and can react appro - pri ately. The game continued ...
3. ... Bg7 4. Bg2 Nc6 5. d3 d6 6. g5 e6 7. h4 h5 8. Bxc6+!?
Another weird positional plan, although
one which Yasser Seirawan has used in similar positions in the past.
8. ... bxc6 9. f4 e5 10. fxe5 Bxe5 11. Nf3 Bxc3+!? 12. bxc3 Ne7
Dominguez has not kept his bishop pair
but is happy with the long term weakness of White’s king. Indeed Rapport continued pushing too hard and was soon punished, and Black won in 31 moves.
The Wrong Qf3: Caro-Kann Defense Remember that top players have plenty
of ideas intended for use for one game only. Here Rapport’s early queen move is not too difficult to neutralize but, unprepared, Harikrishna drifts into trou ble.
Classical Caro-Kann (B18) GM Richard Rapport (FIDE 2691, HUN) GM Pentala Harikrishna (FIDE 2706, IND) Wijk aan Zee GMA (7), 01.19.2014
1. e4 c6 2. Nc3 d5 3. d4 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Bf5 5. Qf3!?
Caro-Kann players are used to seeing
1. e4 c6 2. Nc3 d5 3. Qf3, but this is alto - gether more weird, since unlike the 3. Qf3 line it does not serve the purpose of keeping the c8-bishop from developing.
5. ... Bg6 6. Ne2 e6 7. c3 Qd5 8. N2g3 Nd7 9. h4 h6 10. Bd3 Ngf6 11. Nxf6+ gxf6 12. Qxd5 cxd5 13. Be2! Bd6?!
After 13. ... h5 Black would have no
wor ries but now White finally gets some benefit from his unusual play.
14. h5 Bc2 15. Nf1! a6 16. b3 Rc8 17. Bd2 Rg8 18. Ne3 Bh7 19. c4
... and Rapport eventually won a long endgame.
If 13. Nc3 Black can fight back with 13.
Avoiding the Maroczy Bind: Sicilian Moscow Variation Above all, the opening play in most of
the Wijk aan Zee games required players to stay alert; to start thinking and planning early in the game. In the final round of the tournament,
Sergey Karjakin tried to pressure his opponent Dominguez in a similar way to that which almost brought GM Magnus Carlsen victory in the final game of his world title match in November. However
At A Glance AFTER 37. ... Re6
38. exf4? Bd4+!!, White resigned. Too late, Aronian sees that he will be
mated after 39. cxd4 Qb1+ 40. Be1 Qxe1+ 41. Nxe1 Rxe1!
Date: January 11-26, 2014 | Location: Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, High Tech Campus Eindhoven, Wijk aan Zee, The Netherlands | 12 players | Standings: 1st, 8: Levon Aronian; 2nd-3rd, 61 Sergey Karjakin; 4th-6th, 6: Fabiano Caruana, Leinier Dominguez, Wesley So; 7th, 51 8th-9th, 5: Loek Van Wely, Hikaru Nakamura; 10th, 41
Tata Steel Chess Tournament : Anish Giri,
⁄2 ⁄2 ⁄2 : Boris Gelfand; 11th-12th, 31
: Pentala Harikrishna; ⁄2
: Richard Rapport,
Arkadij Naiditsch. | For tournament crosstable see:
http://www.tatasteelchess.com/tournament/standings/ year/2014/group/1.
www.uschess.org 35 6. Qe2
The move 6. Re1 is the normal preface to a c3-plan.
6. ... Nc6 7. Rd1 Rc8 8. c3 e6 9. d4 cxd4 10. Nxd4!? Be7 11. Nf3!? Qc7 12. c4 White’s curious set-up aims for a type
of Maroczy Bind (e4- and c4-pawns) without light-squared bishops.
12. ... a6 13. b3 Tailender trick
GM Levon Aronian (FIDE 2812, ARM) GM Loek Van Wely (FIDE 2672, NED) Wijk aan Zee (11)
Dominguez used plenty of time early in the game and found the one line which cast doubt on Karjakin’s artificial plan.
Sicilian Defense Moscow Variation (B52) GM Sergey Karjakin (FIDE 2759, RUS) GM Leinier Dominguez (FIDE 2754, CUB) Wijk aan Zee GMA (11), 01.26.2014
1. Nf3 c5 2. e4 d6 3. Bb5+
The Moscow Variation has become fashionable thanks to Carlsen’s success with it.
3. ... Bd7 4. Bxd7+ Qxd7 5. 0-0 Nf6
... Na5 14. b3 b5. Now, it seems, White is ready for Bb2 and Nc3 with the bind, but Dominguez finds a clever way to break the shackles.
13. ... Nxe4!! 14. Qxe4 Bf6 15. Nc3! The right reaction. After ...
15. ... Bxc3 16. Rb1 Bf6 17. Bb2 Bxb2 18. Rxb2 Rd8 19. Rbd2
Karjakin had some compensation for
the pawn and the game was eventually drawn.
Postscript Grandmaster openings are easy to study
and easy to try to replicate but they only rarely win games—after the opening, the gods have placed the middlegame and the endgame. Aronian’s final game is a good antidote to too much opening study. The Armenian needed a win over “tailender” Van Wely to achieve a record score, and the opening and early middle game had gone very well. Then, however, came time trouble and with one cheap tactical trick, Van Wely turned the game around and Aronian fell to his only defeat.
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