Open Events/ 2014 World Open
slim) 41. ... Qd5! 42. Re3 Bf5 (the bishops are ruling) 43. Qxa6 Bxh3! 44. f3 Qg5.
37. Re8? The decisive error. Here White missed
his only chance to save half a point: 37. Qxb7 Bxc5 38. Qb8+ Kg7 39. Qe5+! (liquidating into the endgame) 39. ... Qxe5 40. Rxe5 Bb4 41. g3 (even after 41. a3 Bxa3 42. Ra5 Be7 43. Rxa6 Bxb3 44. Ra7 I doubt Black may win this—with all the pawns on the one side of the board, the rook is able to defend successfully against two bishops) 41. ... Kf6 42. Re8 a5 43. h4 Bb1 44. Re2 and White builds a kind of fortress with good chances to hold it.
37. ... Kg7 Now my f8-bishop is no longer pinned
and is primed for action. His first aim is the juicy pawn on c5.
38. Rd8 After making this move my opponent
offered a draw. Just a bit late, I would say. More stubborn is 38. b4 which would also lead to defeat after 38. ... Ba4 39. Ra8 Qe4 40. Qd8 Be7 41. Qh8+ Kh6 42. Qc3 Bc6 43. Qe3+ Qxe3 44. fxe3 Bf6 45. Kf2 Bc3 46. a3 Bb2 47. Ra7 Bxa3 48. b5 Bxb5 49. Rxb7 Kg7 50. Rc7 Kf6 51. c6 Ke6 52. Rb7 Bc5 53. c7 Kd7 54. c8=Q+ Kxc8 55.
Rxf7 a5 and the a5-passed-pawn decides the outcome.
38. ... Qa1+ 39. Kh2 Qe5+ 40. Kh1 Bxc5 41. Qa5 Qa1+, White resigned.
In view of 42. Kh2 Bxf2, White resigned.
An interesting battle although with quite a few errors, especially at the end. As it has been a while since I last tied for first place in the World Open (2005), it was pleasant to remember how it feels.
See the US Chess Scoop video here:
www.uschess.org/content/view/12718/770/. See full standings and more games here:
www.chesstournamentservices.com
World Open 2014: Talking to Champ Ilya Smirin By David Kerans
had plenty of tense and imbalanced games to enjoy—to give just two examples, New Yorker Aleksandr Lenderman’s upset of Gata Kamsky with black in round five after seizing a “poisoned pawn” on b2, or Lenderman’s collection of four pawns for a knight sacrifice against Czech number two GM Viktor Laznicka’s Leningrad Dutch in round six (despite exposing Laznicka’s king, Lenderman could not collect the full point, and he would finish ½ point behind the leaders). The field in the Open section this year
was not as strong as last year’s however (let alone 2012). U.S. Champion Gata Kamsky was the only FIDE 2700+ player in the field, and he did not shine. The European presence was light (just
David Kerans of Voice of Russia Radio (VR) interviews GM Ilya Smirin at the World Open.
GM ILYA SMIRIN from Israel (via the USSR and Belarus) topped a field that featured another 28 grandmasters and 70 lower- rated players to take home first prize at the World Open in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Arlington, Virigina. Two young stars finished level with
Smirin at seven points in 11 rounds: Conrad Holt, from Wichita, Kansas, and Illia Nyzhnyk from Vinnytsia, Ukraine— who has just now entered Webster University in St. Louis as part of Susan Polgar’s highly decorated chess team. The tiebreak formula gave the top spots to Smirin and Nyzhnyk, respectively, so they met for an Armageddon blitz playoff, in which White had five minutes to Black’s
three, but Black would be victorious in case of a drawn position. As leader on tiebreak, Smirin chose White. Smirin looked relaxed and confident
throughout the tournament. And he wisely gave himself some rest before the final day with a quick draw (as White) against Nyzhnyk in round seven. Smirin spoke with Radio VR’s David Kerans immediately after the playoff, discussing the tourna ment, the role famous trainer Albert Kapengut played in his formation as a chess player growing up in Minsk, his memories of his two home towns, Vitebsk and Minsk, and his plans for the Olympiad and thereafter. The sporting standard of this year’s World Open did not disappoint. Spectators
seven grandmasters). Apart from the fatigue of playing twice per day for four days in a row, Viktor Laznicka pointed out that this schedule leaves players with far less time to prepare for their next opponent. This matters. Thus, I noticed Laznicka sitting down on some stairs with his laptop buzzing through games of his round seven opponent GM Sergei Azarov just minutes before the start. Laznicka would open with 1. b3, so later I asked him if he had been spinning through games where Azarov was faced with 1. b3. “No! I was looking at how he played against 1. d4, c4, e4, or Nf3, and didn’t find any line I really liked, so I just played 1. b3 without any preparation!” As for the rest of the sections, the World
Open lived up to its reputation as the biggest festival of chess in North America. Huge fields filled up every section, with players converging from every state and dozens of nations, helped in part by the overlap of the tournament with the July 4th holiday. The World Open naturally prompts us to reflect on the current state of chess in the
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PHOTO COURTESY OF DAVID KERANS/VOICE OF RUSSIA
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