Open Events / 2014 World Open 30 July Madness By GM ILYA SMIRIN
very year “July madness” comes to the eastern U.S. in the form of the World Open. This year’s edition took place from June 30-July 6 in Arlington, Virginia, just a few miles
from the White House and Capitol. The guests at the comfortable Hyatt Regency Hotel saw hundreds of people constantly crowding in the lower ballroom levels, most of whom were holding chess sets and chess clocks. Perhaps someone was surprised by this view but not me. After making some simple calculations (using the USCF’s MSA site) I conclude that this was my 15th World Open tournament since 1990. Appearances have not changed much during those 25 years, other than the city change from Philadelphia to Arlington last year. This game, played in the sixth round while we both were leading with 41 was my favorite from the event.
⁄2 points,
Symmetrical English (A35) GM Anton Kovalyov (2727) GM Ilya Smirin (2745)
World Open, Arlington, Virginia (6), 2014
1. Nf3 Already a surprise, as usually Anton
loves to play principled variations against my main choice, the King’s Indian Defense.
1. ... c5!?
No King’s Indian this time. 2. c4 Nc6 3. Nc3 g6 Other main continuations here are 3. ...
30 October 2014 | Chess Life
e5; 3. ... Nf6; or the more exotic 3. ... Nd4!?, which I played in 1990.
4. e3 Bg7 Here I could have transposed to the
popular line which after 4. ... Nf6 5. d4 cxd4 6. exd4 d5, Black’s side in this variation was defended by such players as GMs Viswanathan Anand, Fabiano Caruana, Vugar Gashimov, and Alexander Grischuk among others.
5. d4 d6 6. d5 Ne5 Choosing this set up was an over-the-
board improvisation. 7. Nxe5 I am already out of my book. The only
thing I knew about this position was the well-known game of two legendary players: 7. Nd2 f5!? (a move in the spirit of the Dutch Defense, vacating the f7-square for the e5-knight) 8. Be2 Nf6 9. h3 0-0 10. f4 Nf7 11. g4 e5 12. dxe6 e.p. Bxe6 13. g5 Ne8 14. Bf3 Rb8 15. a4 Nc7 16. Ra3 d5 17. Nxd5 Nxd5 18. cxd5 Bxd5 ..., Drawn at move 50—GM Viktor Korchnoi-GM Robert Fischer/Sousse 1967/IZT. This game was played in the Interzonal
tournament in Tunisia where Fischer famously with drew from the event while being the clear leader with 81
⁄2 points out of
10. It was also briefly annotated in the Russian-language book, Russians versus- Fischer by Dmitry Plisetsky and Sergey Voronkov. I was hoping that following footsteps of the great Robert Fischer could not harm me, and in the end this proved correct!
7. ... Bxe5 8. Bd2 This modest move indicates that Kovalyov
wants to prevent the possible exchange of the e5-bishop e5 for the c3-knight, which would damage White’s queenside pawn structure. The next example shows that this plan can be quite dangerous for White: 8. Be2 Bxc3+ 9. bxc3 f5 10. Bd3 Nf6 11. Qe2 Qa5 12. 0-0 0-0 13. e4 fxe4 14. Bxe4 Nxe4 15. Qxe4 Rf7 16. Bg5 Bf5 17. Qh4 Re8 18. Rfe1 Qxc3 19. Rac1 Qd4 and Black obtained a good position, White resign ed at move 43—Marcelo Tempone (2438)-Ruben Felgaer (2554)/Buenos Aires, 2003/2004. More active is 8. Bd3. In this case I would
not take on c3 but would proceed as in the game—8. ... Bg7. The following encoun - ter developed logically in my opinion: 9. 0-0 Nf6 10. e4 0-0 11. f4 e6 12. f5 Nd7 13. dxe6 fxe6 14. fxg6 hxg6 15. Rxf8+ Qxf8 16. Be3 Ne5 17. Qd2 Bd7 18. Rf1 Qe7 19. Bg5 Qe8 20. h4 Bc6 21. Be2 Qd7 22. Nd5 exd5 23. exd5 Ba4 24. b3 b5 25. bxa4 bxc4 and Black was fine despite losing at the end (at move 64), Black resigned— Dmitry Andreikin (2688)-Mikhail Mozharov (2478)/Moscow 2012.
8. ... Bg7 Of course, I did not like the look of 8. ...
Nf6?! 9. f4 Bxc3 10. Bxc3 0-0 11. Bd3— White has a strong pawn center and two bishops, whereas Black feels the pressure along the a1-h8 diagonal. To prevent that I retreated the dark-square bishop to its usual place.
9. Be2 Nf6 10. 0-0 0-0 11. Qc2 e6
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