Grand Prix Events / 2015 World Open
This game is strategically won for White and the rest is just a matter of technique.
29. ... Rb7 30. Kf2 h5 31. h4 Bc8 32. Ke3 Re7 33. Ra5 Rb7 34. b4 Be6 35. Rc5 Rb6 36. Kd2 Kg7 37. Kc3 f6 38. Ra5 a6 39. c5 Rb7 40. Rxa6 Bd7 41. Nb2 Rc7 42. Nc4, Black resigned.
Moving into the final round four players, GM The Armageddon game between Rauf Mamedov and Alex Lenderman.
Alex Lenderman, GM Ghaem Maghami, GM Alexander Ipatov and GM Rauf Mamedov were leading the tournament with 61
⁄2 /8. Ipatov and
Mamedov played a quick draw in the Sveshnikov Sicilian and probably hoped that there would be no decisive result in the Lenderman-Maghami game. Lenderman is known for his fighting chess when having the white pieces—he was not going to let Maghami have an easy draw. But Maghami’s unusu al opening took Lenderman by surprise and soon they too agreed to a draw. Even though this result was expected of the top boards, this just left the remaining boards with plenty to play for. Each game was roughly worth $6,000! Trailing half a point behind the leaders were
The first new move. An alternative continuation
is 13. Rac1 Ne4 14. Nd4 Bd7 15. Bxe4 Bxa4 16. b3 Bxd4 17. Bxd4 Bc6 18. Bd5 1-0, as seen in the game Fedoseev, V (2668)-Gordievsky, D (2479), Moscow, 2015.
19. Bxc6! A remarkable idea! White gives up his strong
bishop for a knight and sets the pawn structure for Black. But there is more to this than that meets the eye: First, the c6-knight was holding Black’s position together and that is eliminated. Second, the knight on a4 gets the fantastic c5-square. Finally, the c8-bishop is left without any target and will be a useless piece for Black.
19. ... bxc6 20. Nc5 Nf6 20. ... Ne3 21. fxe3 Bxh3 22. e4 and Black
manages to spoil White’s structure, but that does not affect White’s advantage.
21. Kg2 Bf5
13. ... Ng4 14. Bd4 Nc6 15. Bxg7 Kxg7 16. Rfd1
After playing a relatively rare system, White
managed an advantage thanks to his better-placed pieces.
16. ... Rb8 17. Ng5 h6 18. Nh3 e5 (see diagram next column)
30 October 2015 | Chess Life
The continuation 21. ... Bxh3+ 22. Kxh3 Rfd8 would have been more stubborn.
22. f3 Rfd8 23. Nf2 Nd7 24. Nxd7 Rxd7 25. e4 Be6 26. Rxd7 Bxd7 White has fixed all the pawns in such a way that
none of the pawns can be attacked by the bishop! 27. Nd3 Kf6 28. a3 bxa3 29. Rxa3
(see diagram top of next column)
a group of 10 players with 6/8: Sergei Azarov, Gata Kamsky, Ilya Smirin, Boris Avrukh, Illia Nyzhnyk, Alex Stripunsky, Romain Edouard, Alejandro Ramirez, Axel Bachmann and Magesh Panchanathan. Azarov versus Kamsky started as an Italian
game where White won a pawn after the opening but Black always had some compensation. Soon the pieces got traded off and the game was agreed to a draw leaving them half a point short of 7, the magic number. GM Boris Avrukh employed the Sicilian
Taimanov variation as black against GM Ilya Smirin and managed to get a good initiative and was up a pawn by move 20. A couple of small inaccuracies let White comfortably back into the game and Smirin managed to capitalize the momentum to his favor and won in the end. GM Alexander Stripunsky as white em ployed
an unu sual opening in the Barry Attack against GM Illia Nyzhnyk. These openings are mainly used for the surprise value, but to Stripunsky’s dismay, Nyzhnyk reacted well and obtained a good position after the opening. He slowly improved his position and finally White blundered in a difficult position and lost. GM Alejandro Ramirez looked completely in
control after the opening against GM Romain Edouard. Ramirez had used 10 minutes while Edouard had used up close to 50 minutes and the position was simply crazy! After the first move
PHOTO CREDIT: DAAIM SHABAZZ
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