10 May 2016
Doves of Peace, Balloons of Happiness
Day Seven of the Russian Team Championships, held at the Zhemchuzhina hotel, in the review of Vladimir Barsky.
The “friendship tour” took place at the Russian team championships in Sochi on May 7. However, it was not intended for all groups, but only for orphanage and boarding schools. The children were invited to Dagomys to the early morning's opening of the monument dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory, therefore draws were agreed in all match games. The monument is installed at the premises of the recreation center that has long since been familiar to chess players because it was used to accommodate national individual and team championships, while the “Belaya Ladya” finals have taken place here during the last few years as well. A year ago it was still a secluded shady park’s corner with a couple of benches and a wild cherry growing, and now it has a snow-white monument symbolizing the stuck in the earth and chained sword of war.
The ceremony was attended by Sochi’s city fathers, general director of “Dagomys” Alexan Baghdasaryan (who is, obviously, the organizer and mastermind of this event), veterans of the Great Patriotic War and armed forces, the nowadays pioneers in red, blue and white ties. There was no end of songs, speeches and poetry, accompanied by white doves' being released into the blue sky from time to time. Even a field kitchen was set up in which one was able to taste the soldier’s porridge, to gulp down a shot of vodka and to nibble it on a sandwich.
On that day the children had another trip to the Olympic Park. They saw around the stadiums, which used to hold the 2014 Games, visited the amusement park, and also launched something into the sky. Rather than pigeons it was launching balloons for good luck this time, making a wish that will not fail to come true!
Mendel Krik was known as a rude person among draymen”... The bandied Babel ‘s phrase sprang to mind when I first saw certain winners of the 24th Russian Cup on chess problems solving. No, they are certainly not rude, but rather quite intelligent people, just being so markedly different from conventional chess players, among whom you might come across some colorful characters too. However, solvers belong to a special caste. Somehow, the number of participants was limited to 26 only, so that beautiful prize cups, including those for victories at non-final stages, were received by every one in three. Meanwhile, the prize pool for a two-day tournament was very decent - 180 thousand rubles. As was noted at the closing ceremony by Alexander Tkachev, the recent children’s championships in Loo used to gather up to one hundred and fifty solvers, so that the new generation is growing up and the competition will soon acquire a lot more serious dimensions.
...While taking daily morning pictures from the children’s tournament I succeed in capturing one or two scholar’s mates. However, in the early days the mates used to be of a “classic” type with the bishop on c4, whereas now they tend to become of a more refined nature - for example, in one of the games the white queen was supported by the g5-knight. It should be added, however, that a lot of player fall victim to the weakened f7 (f2) squares, adult players not being an exception either. A striking example is the last exhibit in our gallery “Position of the day.” The below-given example, however, belongs to a more complex category.
Shuvalova (”Youth of Moscow”) - Kosteniuk (”Legacy Square Capital”)
12…Nxe5!? 13. Nxe5 Bxe5 14. dxe5 Qxf2+ 15. Kh2 Qg3+ 16. Kg1 Qf2+ 17. Kh2 Qg3+ 18. Kg1
Black plays with a draw in her pocket, but should she count for more? Alexandra made up her mind to take her chance after all.
18…Nf2
19. Qf3?
Polina’s move is beside the mark. The refutation was there, and a nice one at that – 19. Ne4! The knight is untouchable: 19...Nxe4 20. Rxe4 Bxh3 21. Re2 or19…dxe4 20.Qxd8+ Kg7 21.Bh6+! Kxh6 22.Qd2+. There is nothing else left but 19…Nxh3+ 20. Kh1 Qh4, but after 21. g3 Nf2+ 22. Kg1 Qxe4 23. Rxe4 Nxd1 24. Rb4 Nxb2 25. Rxb2 it is White who is superior despite Black’s having as many as 4 pawns for the bishop.
19.Qd4 Nxh3+ 20.Kf1 Qh2 21.Be3 would have resulted in an approximate equality, whereas the natural-looking queen move to f3 proved the most ill-fated one.
19...Nxh3+ 20. Kf1Qh2 21. Be3 h5
This is the point as the queen is vulnerable on f3. Even more precise implementation of the idea was via 21...d4 22. Rad1, only now followed by 22...h5.
22. Nxd5 Rxd5 23. Qxd5 Be6 24. Qd4 Qh1+ 25. Bg1
25…Bc4+!
Alexandra carries out the attack with a lot of inspiration.
26. Qxc4
26. Re2 Qxg1+ 27. Qxg1 Nxg1 28. Kxg1 Bxe2 fails to bail out since Black ends up with two extra pawns to his good.
26...Qxg1+ 27. Ke2 Qxg2+ 28. Kd3 Rd8+ 29. Kc3 Qd2+ 30. Kb3 Rd3+ 31. Qc3 Rxc3+ 32. bxc3 Nf2 33. Bb5 Ne4 White resigns.
Balaian (SDYUSSHOR SHSH) - Fatianova (Boavista)
18. Nxf7+! Qxf7
Joyless also is 18...Rxf7 19. Bg6 Rxf1+ 20. Rxf1 Qe2 21. Bxh6 gxh6 22. Rf7.
19. Rxf7 Rxf7 20. Qg6 Kg8 21. Qh7+ Kf8 22. Bg6!
White wins the exchange on top of everything else.
22... Ndf6 23. Qh8+ Ke7 24. Bxf7 Kxf7 25. Rf1, and White went on to win the game.
In the women’s team championship “SHSM - Legacy Square Capital” (thanks to Yandex translator that helped understand the meaning of English words) acts like a roller running across her opponents by winning all matches, having thus secured the silver medal beforehand. It is separated from “gold” only by one point in the remaining two matches. However, the time to relax is not opportune since in round seven the Muscovites will be faced off with their closest pursuers from “Ugra”, while board one is in store for us with the duel of two World Champions: A. Kosteniuk - A. Ushenina.
