Report of round 10 - CCT 2009

Aronian Wins Again - Claims Lead

The collaboration of Aronian and his new second, Israeli GM Rodstein worked well for the Armenian’s game against Adams. They decided on a Catalan where “Adams had some problems in the main line” -- Aronian. More specifically, the rare move 9.Nc3 was the product of home cooking. The Brit’s reaction 9...a6 was a slight inaccuracy according to Levon, who suggested 9...Bd7 10.0-0 a5!? as a better alternative. 10...0-0?! was the main cause of black’s problems (10...Bd7 again, was the best), and after 14.b3, where the preparation stopped white was better. Black’s position drifted further after 14...Qd6?! (see diagram 1), where the queen trade accentuated black’s poor pawn structure. Perhaps Mickey relied on his 17...e5 move to give him some counterplay, but this turned out not to be the case. White had a strong grip on the position, and black’s last real try was to take 18...exd4, and hope for 19.R1d1? d3!. After the game’s 18...a5, white consolidated, traded his knight for the black bishop, and even his tempo-losing 27.Rd7?! did not change anything. Adams tried giving two pawns to get some chances, but Levon gave him none.

A first victory for Carlsen, over Dominguez. After the game, the Norwegian said he had been better after the opening, but in the middlegame allowed black a strong pawn sacrifice 19...b5, because he had overlooked 22...Qb7! in his calculations. Now the Cuban had a fine position, with the liquidation of the queenside pawns, but when he got short on time after white had given up his e pawn, he started to go wrong. 30...Bc4!, taking away square b5 from the white rook would have been much better than the game’s 30...Bd3?!, and 31...Qc6 should have been preferred over 31...Qa4. After 32...Bd3? white’s powerful 33.Rb7! (see diagram 2) was killing. Carlsen crowned his fine effort with his pseudo-sac of 26.Nxe5! that leaves black unable to fend off checkmate, and so Lenier resigned.

A true drama occurred in the game between Radjabov and Smeets. Jan, who is never shy from ‘head on collisions’ with anyone, provoked his opponent with his ...Be6-g4-xe2 maneuver -- a provocation that should have cost him dearly. White picked up the gauntlet with his 11.Ne5!, forcing black to defend f7 or risk disaster after 11...Bxf1? 12.Kxf1. White was down two pawns in a messy position, where black had a lot of problems to solve. A first crisis arose after black’s 16...e6?!. White should have played 17.Nxe6! (see diagram 3), which was instantly suggested by Rybka, with the follow up: 17...fxe6 18.Rxe6+ and now 18...Be7 19.R1e1 or if 18...Kf7 19.Qc4, and finally if 18...Kd7 19.Rxf6! gxf6 20.Qf5+, all of which seems to win for white. Then after 18...Bd6 (maybe more prudent was 18...Be7) came the second crisis when white sacrificed on e6. Soon thereafter the black king found itself traveling around the middle of the board, with the white pieces hovering over it. Miraculously, it did not get mated! The Azeri could have wrapped up matters with the finishing 28.Qb7! (see diagram 4), aiming for Bd6+ and Re7, where black can safely resign. Instead in serious mutual time trouble, he played 28.Bd6+? at once, and black managed to repulse the attack. Now came 35...Ng4? and white was winning again with his strong passed a-pawn. The game’s climax happened when as he was making his 39th move, and with only seconds on the clock for both players, Radja knocked over a piece, and pressed the clock without fixing it. Smeets restarted his opponent’s clock without making a move., Teimour then overstepped the time limit. Just before the arbiters were about to award a time win for the Dutchman (a decision that would have been sure to prompt an appeal), and upon the initiative of the arbiters, the players decided to meet half way and the game was declared a draw.

In the Karjakin - Van Wely game the players had a discussion in a main line of the ...e5 Najdorf, where white invited black to play 11...d5 - a theoretical idea that Loek avoided in order not to face a possible novelty. In a position with opposite side castling, the players were typically attacking each other and ‘ignoring what the other guy does’ (Van Wely). With his 21...Ra5! black had it all under control, eventually deciding to trade his optimally placed knight on e5 for the white dark squared bishop. White got his bishop to its ideal square on c4, but black calmly piled up on the e-file, and wisely played 28...Kh8!, intending to take on f6 at an appropriate moment. With the black storm gathering, white decided to initiate a trade of queens - an action that simplified the game to a drawn ending. On move 42, with the exchange of the last rook, the point was shared.

Ivanchuk had a better game throughout against Kamsky. The American compromised his position in his search for activity, playing the risky 19...b5 and then the dubious 22...e5?!. Chuky reacted very strongly with 24.Qb2!, since now 22...Qe8? pitches an exchange after 23.f4 Re6 24.Nc5. After the game Ivanchuk suggested 28.Bf3 in place of his 28.Qc6, and 30.Bd3! instead of 30.Bf1. In the game black missed a chance to reach equality with 31...d4! 32.Bxf5 Rxf5 33.Rxd4 Bxe3!, but later defended very well by sacrificing a pawn for some activity. Vassily praised 38...Rd5 and said his best would have been 41.Qe4 instead of 41.Qd3. Towards the end the Ukrainian lost his concentration, first missing 51...Qb7! (he expected 51...Bd4 52.e5 Rb8 53.Qd5), and then playing 56.Rf1? (51.Bd2!), allowing 56...Bxf4+!. He had seen this, but had forgotten that after 57.Kxf4? there was the possibility of 57...Rxc3! 58.Qxc3 Qf5+!. Now the position was drawish and the players shared the point one move later.

Stellwagen - Morozevich was a dynamic Ruy Lopez that followed yesterday’s game from group B between Volokitin and Kasimdzanov from start to finish - unbeknownst to the Dutchman, who was a bit disappointed after the game. 26.Nh5!? was of course immune (26...gxh5? 27.Rg3+), but the best white had out of the attack was a perpetual check, which he settled for.

Once again Movsesian remained loyal to his 5.c4 in the Petroff, this time against Wang. A position with a white isolani on d4 that can come out of several openings, has arisen, where black cements a knight on d5 and white plays around the dark squares. After the game Sergei said he missed black’s simple resource 21...Bxe5! that equalizes instantly. With his recapture, the Slovak offered a draw, which was accepted.

After a draw against Motylev, Short is still alone at the top in GM group B with 6.5/10, and is still chased by 5 players who are behind him by the smallest of margins.

In GM group C Hillarp Persson (7.5/10) and So (7/10) won against Holzke and Pruijssers respectively, and maintained their first and second positions.