English Lessons
Round Five of the 2018 Aeroflot Open in the review of Eteri Kublashvili
One of the strongest in the world and most looked-forward-to by everyone chess festival Aeroflot Open has now crept over its midline, which is high time that interim results be summed up.
There is no mistaking the Cosmos hotel environment for anything else, and it is right from the very first steps that you experience a feeling of deja-vu. It has been for many years now that on entering the festival venue you meet familiar faces: someone is deep into thinking, others sip their coffees, stroll the hall or discuss the game just finished. This festival is no different from its predecessors. It is only that the Moscow event has not been honored by some of its old timers and, perhaps, the festival's most picturesque individuals - Baadur Jobava and Denis Khismatullin. On the other hand, as many as 83 players have arrived from India!
Leading the field on the eve of round five were three players, and its aftermath gave us a sole leader - Vladislav Artemiev. A recent winner of the Nutcracker generation tournament has outplayed as White the winner of Aeroflot-2003 Viorel Bologan, while the third leader Tigran Petrosian drew Dmitry Gordievsky to join the pack of pursuers.
Artemiev was relatively early to get a significant up a pawn edge, but Bologan’s defensive performance was tough, and the game stretched into almost four hours. When the game was over, Artemiev commented his victory as follows:
V.Artemiev: “As far as I see, my second move came as a surprise for my opponent. I uncorked 2.e3 in the English Opening after 1.c4 e5. Even when heading for the game I was yet undecided about what to play, but thought that going into this continuation would not be that silly after all because the position is still underexplored. In general, it was largely due to a surprise effect.
Artemiev – Bologan
Black’s first inaccuracy seems to be 7…Bd6, since I anyway intended 8. Qb3, and now I get into the desired setup with Black losing a move for 8…Bc7. After 9.g4, I seem to better already.
9...h6 10. h4 a6 11. Rg1 g5 12. cxd5 gxh4
It was a crucial moment. Instead of taking on h4 Black could have opted for 12…cxd5, which would have seen 13. Rh1 Rg8 14.hxg5 hxg5 15. Rh6. I believe to have a strong initiative and a real edge there. This is why he went for 12…gxh4, the result being that my central play is much superior to his flank sortie.
13. Ndxe4 h3 14. Bd2 h2 15. Nxf6+ Qxf6 16. Rh1 Rg8 17. 0-0-0 b5 18. f4
Here I could win in more than one way, but I was perhaps imprecise at the stage of conversion. What I needed to do, maybe, was to trade his dark-squared bishop - I did have this opportunity. I do not think I was gradually letting my edge go, but it was definitely not one of my best conversions. On the other hand, I can assess this game as going more or less well for me: I got a winning position and committed some inaccuracies, but who does without them?
One move short of time control the Moldavian grandmaster opted for complications with 39...Qb6, but White refuted all threats with an iron fist: 40. Rc6 Qg1+ 41. Kc2! (Inferior by far is 41. Be1 because of 41…Qg4+ 42. Kc2 Qxe4+; although White is still up a pawn, he is yet a long way from claiming anything substantial) 41…Qc1+ 42. Kb3 Qe3 43. Qxe3 Bxe3 44. d6 Rxe4 45. d7 Bg5 46. f6 1-0.
Vladislav noted that prior to this game he outplayed lower-rated opponents: therefore, the most difficult part is in store for him in the rounds to come.
Alexander Khalifman and Vladimir Fedoseev, a coach and a student, made a draw so quickly that I found them no longer upon arriving at the tournament hall at 15:30.
This round has brought many draws, even if not as quick as the one made by the natives of St.Petersburg. However, several victories have been scored as well. Thus, Igor Lysyj and Vladislav Kovalenko’s victories allowed them to close the gap on the leader as far as possible.
Relatively early wins have been taken by Anton Korobov (now behind Artemiev by a point). After the game the Ukrainian grandmaster gave me a brief interview.
A. Korobov: “The most important is that I have managed to create imbalance in the position at a very early stage of the game. Thus, the opening immediately transposed into a middlegame, and a couple of moves later it was a sharp endgame already.
Korobov – Pavlov
Playing 16…Bc3 the opponent missed a counter blow 17. Bf6! This move gives me a sort of classic advantage. He should have probably grabbed my a3-pawn a couple of moves earlier. He needed to spice things up somehow, pinning hopes on his a-passer. However, I am not sure about the evaluation. This said, after 16…Bc3 17. Bf6 I was confident already.
Then, as Anton shared earlier, he managed to convert his classic edge due to his more harmoniously placed pieces. White soon won a pawn, and Black gave up on move 24.
- What is the history of your encounters with your countryman Sergey Pavlov?
- It was only today that I have refreshed my memory of our games. I seem to be an awkward opponent to him: I outplayed him many years ago in a students’ competition, at the onset of our chess careers, so to speak. He has so far failed to break this trend.
- How has the tournament been unfolding for you?
- I have nothing to complain about. However, my game with Viorel Bologan was a very interesting one, and the final position deserves a diagram. It is quite infrequent that you see the black side of KID allowing himself to move his pieces here and there first and then to checkmate the white king. It was a difficult choice between two evils: a zugzwang or a checkmated. I had no winning chances in round four, but I managed to win the first two games from the younger generation, to defend the older generation’s honor, so to say.
As for the younger generation, Aeroflot is a traditional testing ground for them. It should be added, though, that round five saw Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Andrey Esipenko and Alexandr Triapishko go down to their more experienced opponents. With four rounds to go yet, the youngsters are likely to show their worth.
Besides the youngsters, so much hard time to heavyweights is given by representatives of a fair sex. A lot of energy was used up by Vladislav Kovalev to outplay Eesha Karavade. A fifty percent score is with the Russian women’s champion Aleksandra Goryachkina, who has drawn Haik Martirosyan. A tough resistance is put up by Natalija Pogonina and Zhansaya Abdumalik.
However, let us go back to summing up the interim results. A sole lead in the A tournament with 4.5 points is with Vladislav Artemiev. Trailing half a point behind are Tigran Petrosian, Igor Lysyj and Vladislav Kovalev. With 3.5 points each are Murali Karthikeyan, Vladimir Fedoseev, Viorel Bologan, Dmitry Gordievsky, Kirill Alekseenko, Alexander Khalifman, Maxim Matlakov, Anton Korobov, Gabriel Sargissian and Amin Tabatabaei.
And what about the reserve events?
Having scored 4.5 in B tournament are Alexander Moskalenko, Dorian Rogozenko, Gabriel Flom, Mikhail Mozharov and Pavel Potapov. An unblemished score in the morning tournament has been demonstrated by the Chinese Zhao Chenxi.
I invite our readers into out picture gallery to have a look at the active participants. I am sure our chess fans will have no difficulties identifying the Aeroflot heroes, therefore no explanatory notes are required for the pictures.
