14 August 2015
Bad Attitude to Kings
Round Four of the Superfinal in the review of Eteri Kublashvili.
In the fourth round the participants continued playing under bad weather conditions. When the round started, forest fire smogs in Buryatia and Zabaykalsky Krai were still tightly mantling Chita and showed no inclination of giving up. Only in the evening the rain, announced by local meteorologists (maybe sometimes they speak the truth, after all) , nailed the smoke down to earth.
Fortunately, during the first days before the smoke and rain I was able to walk through the city and capture some of Chita sights. For example, the Officers' Club of the Zabaykalsky Krai and the Odora Park of Culture and Recreation located near, which presents the exhibition of military and historical equipment and a monument to soldiers-internationalists. Since 1965 in the Officers' Club hosts the military and historical museum, which chronicles events of the Krai.
The Officers' Club keeps a photo of Leonid Stein, the three-time USSR champion, who tragically died at the age of 38. It is not a coincidence that the picture is housed in the museum: in the 50s Leonid Zakharovich did military service at the Army sports club in Chita, occasionally taking part in competitions. In 1954 he became a champion of the Zabaykalsky Military District, and won the Chita Region championship. In 1955 Stein won the USSR Armed Forces Championship, and tied for the first place in this competition next year (with E. Chaplisky).
As for our Superfinal, the fourth round featured one checkmate, which is unusual for top level competitions. In a couple of other positions a checkmate was unavoidable.
It was Denis Khismatullin, who scored his first Chita victory in the fourth round, being so disrespectful to the king of Peter Svidler himself!
At the press conference the seven-time Russia champion was hard on himself, calling the chosen opening “a complete rubbish”. Having made up his mind to avoiding the Najdorf Variation, Peter used the double fianchetto. Denis chose a Dragon setup, and Peter decided to meet it with the long castling, explaining his decision by desire to play a combative game.
It was Black who managed to create threats first, while Svidler organized a counterplay in the center.
Svidler – Khismatullin
19. e5 dxe5 20. fxe5 Nxe5
Black opts for the most principled variation with an exchange sacrifice.
21.Bxa8
Here Peter supposed that perhaps 21.Qxb4 was safer – “At least there is no checkmate here”.
21…Rxa8 22. Rf4
Peter Svidler: “At first it seemed to me that the queen can capture on b4: 22.Qxb4 axb3 23. axb3 Qa7 24. Nd4. However, instead of 23…Qa7, Black has a very strong reply – 23…Bc6, which confused me. Any rook's move is answered by 24…Nf3 with dozens of threats. The position looks very dangerous. During the game I thought that on 22.Rf4 Black will play 22…Bc6, and after 23.Rd1 White gets many defensive alternatives. I automatically included these moves and started analyzing this position”.
However, Black played 22…axb3.
White's next move was a fatal mistake – 23. axb3? Stronger was 23. cxb3 with the line mentioned by both grandmasters during the analysis: 23...Bc6 24.Rc1 Be4+ 25.Rxe4 Nxe4 26.Qxb4 Qa7 27.Qxe4 Qxa2 28.Kc2, and the resulting position is hard to evaluate.
23…Qa7
After 24. Nc1 follows 24… Nc4, and then 25…Ne4.
24. Nd4 Nh5 25. Nd5 Bc6 26. Nxc6 Qa2+ 27. Kc1
27…Qa1+ 28. Bxa1 Rxa1+ 29. Kb2 Nc4#.
Peter said that he was checkmated in such fashion only once in his life, and it was in a bughouse chess game against Konstantin Sakaev.
Vladislav Artemiev, a debutant of the Superfinal, hit stride. Apparently playing in Transbaikal area is easier for the Siberian that to people from western regions.
In the fourth round the Russian Higher League winner beat Ildar Khairullin. During the second part of the game the Petersburger was obliged to defend, having made a decisive mistake at some point.
Khairullin – Artemiev
“In this position White should already play very accurately”, said Artemiev at the press conference. On 44. Bf4 Black has a nasty reply – 44…Qf6.
44. Qf5 Rd1+ 45. Kg2 Qd2+ 46. Kh3
Vladislav mentioned that 46.Bf2 was better.
46…Qh6+
Now after 47. Qh5 Qxh5+ 48. gxh5 Rd5 49. Kg4 b5 50. Rc2 White could hope to survive.
However, he went on with 47. Kg2?, and after 47…Rg1+ got checkmated in two.
All other games were drawn. These games were full of stiff fighting and theoretical discussions. Nikita Vitiugov created problems to the sole leader Evgeny Tomashevsky, but couldn't convert an advantage. Igor Lysyj also got a promising position against Dmitry Jakovenko, but the rating favorite was able to escape. At some point Alexander Motylev's position versus Ivan Bukavshin was dangerous, but the head coach of Russian men's team neutralized the opponent's threats. Daniil Dubov had a worse position against Sergey Karjakin, but for him it wasn't the hardest challenge at this event.
Women, as usual in Chita, played longer than men, and produced more decisive games as well.
Alexandra Kosteniuk has broken a draw streak, beating her national team friend Natalia Pogonina.
The ex-World Champion played a high quality game in the Ruy Lopez as Black, and eventually reached the opponent's king. Without any doubt, this game should be analyzed in greater detail, so here I'd like to dwell only on a mating net around the white king.
Pogonina – Kosteniuk
The position looks completely winning for Black. Not on the first try, but Alexandra managed to find a way to secure a point.
38…Qg4+ 39. Qg3 Ne2+ 40. Kg2 Qe4+! 41. Kh3 Qf5+ 42. Qg4 Qf1+, and White resigned.
Valentina Gunina, who played against Olga Girya, showed her superpower again, turning a very difficult position into a victory. At the press conference Valentina explained in detail how she managed to get the black king into a mating net, and added that over the course of her career she had faced all kinds of accusations in hypnotizing the opponents and even using black magic.
The outcome of Kateryna Lagno's game was very bitter for the player: she tricked Marina Guseva in the opening, and by the 15th move it all looked like Kateryna is about to come to the press-center talking about her miniature victory. However, she did not find an instant win, and Marina somehow managed to equalize from an extremely bad position.
Alexandra Goriachkina, whose style is often compares with Tigran Petrosian's by Sergry Shipov, confidently crushed Anastasia Bodnaruk, despite a very active and tenacious defense of the strongest female player of St. Petersburg.
Kashlinskaya – Savina and Ovod – Kovalevskaya ended in draws.
After four rounds of Men's Superfinal Vladislav Artemiev and Evgeny Tomashevsky are in the lead with 3 points. Sergey Karjakin and Nikita Vitiugov scored two and a half points each.
In the women's contest Alexandra Goryachkina took a sole lead with 3.5 points. Valentina Gunina is half a point behind.
Pairings of the 5 round predict interesting battles, for example, Kosteniuk – Gunina and Lagno – Pogonina. In the men's event Vladislav Artemiev is going to be examined by Peter Svidler. The duel Jakovenko – Vitiugov obviously would be interesting. Watch the Superfinal with us!
