Cover Story / Millionaire Chess 2
White keeps mounting pressure, inducing the weakening:
23. ... g6
Caruana now had only six minutes remaining while Li had 24.
24. Bb4 Rbc8 25. Rxb7 Rb8 26. Rc7 Rbc8 27. Rb7 Rb8 28. Rc7, Draw agreed. Had Li been playing anyone but the world
number six, he may have been bold enough to refuse the draw and continue with 28. Rbd7 to maintain the pressure and advantage. White’s plan is Nf3-d2 to trade off Black’s knight, which seems to be single- handedly holding Black’s position together.
Caruana explained that “I was hoping to win
the event but I didn’t have any expectations because of how strong the field was and the unusual format. I wasn’t used to playing two games a day and tiredness played a negative role, especially on the first two days.” The pairing mishaps continued in round two
when GM Yangyi Yu, who finished in the top four in last year’s event, had his first-round win recorded as a loss. He thus played down against a 2180 in round two and ended up 2-0. Just when things couldn’t get any stranger,
former U.S. Champion Gata Kamsky forfeited in round three when he was to play GM Artur Jakubiec on board five. The time limit for a forfeit was 30 minutes. Kamsky, who was staying off- site, showed up to his round 32 minutes late. In the same round, one of the top female seeds, WGM Vita Kryvoruchko from Ukraine mixed up the round times and also forfeited.
LEADERS EMERGE By mid-tournament standings were beginning
to stabilize and leaders were emerging. GM Quang Liem Le and GM Vasif Durarbayli from Webster University in St. Louis, which sent a strong delegation to the event, scored 4/4. In round four, Durarbayli beat former Webster teammate and last year’s winner, Wesley So, in a study-like rook endgame.
STUDY-LIKE GM Wesley So (2829) GM Vasif Durarbayli (2706) Millionaire Chess Open 2 (4), Las Vegas, Nevada, 10.10.2015
57. a5? So had to find the counterintuitive 57. g4+ in
order to hold. Black’s pawns would be disjointed and he would not be able to make progress after a continuation such as 57. ... hxg4+ 58. Kg3 Ra3+ 59. Kf2 e4 60. Ra8 e3+ 61. Ke2 White can always check from behind.
57. ... e4 58. Ra8 e3 59. Re8 e2 60. a6 g5 61. g4+
Unfortunately this idea was employed too late as in this position Black’s king can break through.
61. ... Kf4 62. Rf8+ Ke3 63. Re8+ Kf2 64. gxh5 Ra4 65. Rf8+ Ke3 66. Re8+ Kf3 67. Rf8+ Rf4 68. Rxf4+ Kxf4, White resigned.
White resigned in light of the forced mate after
68. ... Kxf4 69. a7 e1=Q 70. a8=Q Qf1+ 71. Qg2 g4+ 72. Kh4 Qxg2 73. h6 Qxh2 mate.
Liem, the top player in Vietnam, continued his
streak to win five in a row after beating Durarbayli and So in round seven, and then drew Nakamura in round six, placing him at the top of the pack to qualify for the “Millionaire Monday” playoff. On the last day of the tournament, the top four finishers play a series of rapid games to determine the top spots while the remaining players continue with rounds eight and nine.
DRAW? Not far behind were eight grandmasters with
5/6, including Nakamura and Luke McShane who were paired in round seven. The battle to make it into Millionaire Monday created a game theory situation among the contenders. A usual solution to such puzzles is for the players to cooperate. In chess, this would be tantamount to a draw. Notwithstanding that Millionaire Chess had in
place a rule that players are not permitted to agree to a draw before move 30, Nakamura and McShane may have found one of the few loopholes in what Maurice thought was an “airtight” rule. The two players found themselves in a gridlock situation on move nine of a Najdorf Sicilian (6. Be3). For various reasons, neither player wanted to deviate from the repetition. GM David Smerdon analyzed the situation from an economic perspec tive and concluded that it was in fact in the economic interest of both players to decline the draw. (See his analysis at
www.davidsmerdon.com/?p=1757) According to Smerdon, Nakamura had a better
chance of winning than facing off with So and Caruana in the tiebreaks, and McShane should have played on to avoid a play-off for the play-off, which would include Nakamura. However, according to both players in the post-mortem interview, they were convinced that it was risky to play on.
top americans
Many of our top players paid the entry fee for Millionaire Chess 2. Clockwise from top left: GM Sam Shankland (left, playing Polish GM Jacek Stopa in round five), GM Alejandro Ramirez, GM Wesley So, GM Gata Kamsky, GM Ray Robson, GM Samuel Sevian, GM Fabiano Caruana. So was the defending champion, and Caruana, mere points behind Nakamura on the top-player list, described his own form in this event as “unrecognizable.”
WHITE TO PLAY 26 January 2016 | Chess Life SICILIAN DEFENSE,
NAJDORF VARIATION (B90) GM Luke J. McShane (2797) GM Hikaru Nakamura (2884) Millionaire Chess Open 2 (7), Las Vegas, Nevada, 10.11.2015
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 Ng4
McShane beat Jakubiec in round five of Millionaire after 6. ... e5. Nakamura was aware of the game and didn’t want to go with this alternative. 7. Nf3 Qc7 8. a4 Be7 9. a5 0-0 10. Be2 Nc6 11. Bb6 Qd7 12. Nd2 Nd4 13. Bd3 Qc6 14. 0-0 Bg4 15. Qe1 Bd8 16. Bxd4 exd4 17. Ne2 Bxe2 18. Qxe2 Re8 19. Rfe1 Qc5 20. Ra4 b5 21. axb6 e.p. Bxb6 22. Nf3 Qc7 23. h3 g6 24. Qd2 Rab8 25. Rxa6 Bc5 26. Qf4 Nd7 27. b3 Kg7 28. Rea1 Ne5 29. Nxe5 Rxe5 30. g3 Qb7 31. R6a5 Qe7 32. Qf3 h5 33. h4 Bb6 34. Ra6 Qb7 35. Kg2 Bc5 36. R6a5 Bb6 37. Rb5 Rbe8 38. Rxe5 dxe5 39. Bc4 Rd8 40. Bd5 Qc7 41. Qd3 Rd6 42. Ra8 Rd8 43. Ra6 Rb8 44. Qc4 Qxc4 45. Bxc4 Kf6 46. Kf3 Ke7 47. Ke2 f6 48. Kd3 g5 49. Ra1 Kd6 50. Rh1 Rh8 51. b4 Bd8 52. Bf7 Rh7 53. Bg6 Rh6 54. Bf5 Rh8 55. g4 1-0 Luke McShane (2797)-Artur Jakubiec (2592) Las Vegas, Nevada, 2015.
7. Bc1 7. Bg5 h6 8. Bh4 g5 9. Bg3 Although this sharp
line was a possibility, McShane was unwilling to take the risk. On air he stated, “You’ve got to know what you’re doing. If you’re going into a position like sic and you don’t know what you’re doing, it’s not pretty ... To take reckless risks, that’s not necessarily for me. I played Bc1 and I certainly wasn’t hoping for a draw. When I played 8. Be3 I wasn’t at all sure he would play 8. ... Ng4 again.”
7. ... Nf6 8. Be3 Ng4 9. Bc1, Draw agreed. According to Nakamura, the only acceptable,
non-“dubious” continuation at this point is to retreat the knight to f6.
Regardless of the correct decision from a
theoretical perspective, the draw presented a direct challenge to the tournament rules. Maurice Ashley was clearly frustrated with the players for circum- venting the anti-draw rule designed to encourage fighting chess. The premise of Millionaire Chess is to showcase chess at its fiercest, which is nullified with quick grandmaster draws, or a “stain on the game” as Maurice calls them. Under the rules specific to Millionaire Chess,
the players cannot repeat moves until move 30 to avoid the move limit, but also cannot be compelled to play on if doing so would result in a checkmate or loss of material. However, FIDE rules would have permitted a draw in the situation. The resolution turned on which set of rules “ruled.”
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