19 December 2015

You Better Not Have 100 Friends...

Mid-marathon of the Rapid Grand Prix final in the review of Dmitry Kryakvin.

On day two those who were junior in rank and rating had a very hard time as favourites started treating them more than seriously. In the tournament table the participants started segregating into the subgroups, while the faces of some players were evidently conveying the message that whatever was happening to them was more in the way of a test than of a festive event. But sport is sport and it is only natural that the one who is strong always seeks to gobble up the one who is weaker. However, the fighting arenas between the main prize candidates featured the battles that were no laughing matter at all.

Riazantsev – Alekseev

Round 6 



White is under a crushing attack, but the knight plunge 40.Nd7 put the native of St. Petersburg up against a no easy task as the b6-rook was hanging and the threat of the f8-knight fork was in the air. However, despite being low on thinking time, Alekseev discovered a practical winning path.

40…exf2! 41.Qxf2 fxg3+ 41.Rxg3 Qxg3+ 

Black is not in time to create a mating threat: 41...Qc1 42.Nf8+, followed by the rook capture on g6.

42.Qxg3 Rxg3 43.Nxb6 Rc3! 

Now the d5-bishop is invincible: 45.Nxd5 Rc2+, followed by the arrival on the board of a freshly-promoted queen. An extra pawn, being a powerful passer at that, handed an easy victory to Black.

44.Na4 Rc4! 45.Nc5 Rc2+, and Riazantsev resigned in view of the following continuation, among other things: 46.Rxc2 bxc2 47.Nd3 Kg6 48.Kg3 Kf5.

Day two was marked by Dennis Khismatullin’s brutal onslaught. Having started from behind out of a dense peloton, the Neftekamsk grandmaster went all wild so that by the end of the day he was already in the lead, a whole point ahead of his pursuers! He was seen attacking, outcalculating his opponents, coming up with elegant tactical shots.

Khismatullin – Smirnov

Round 7 



Even though Pavel Smirnov has entrenched himself at the last defensive line, his a2-passer spicing up the situation on the board as well, Khismatullin is adamant.

50.d7+ Kd8 51.Re1! 

Standing next to me in the playing hall at that moment was Vladimir Belous, who drew the attention of your correspondent to the position - it looks elegant indeed!

51…Bxe1 52.Ne6+ Ke7 53.d8Q+ Kxe6 54.Qd5+, the rook drops after 54…Kf6 55.Qd4+, therefore Smirnov stopped the clock. 

However, the newcomers of the strong competition had their share of joyful moments either!

Shomoev – Anikonov

Round 7



Anton displayed quite a technical performance throughout the entire game, whereas 59.a4, 59.a3 and even 59.Bc4!? Nxc7 60.Bxe6 Nxe6 61.Kxa6 f5 62.a4 Nf8 63.a5 Nd7 64.Kb5! (64.Kb7? Nxb6 leads to a draw) 64...f4 65.Bd4 were winning now because the bishop is that much superior over the knight on the empty board, coupled with the rook passed pawn, which the mustangs have so much difficulty fighting against! A momentary loop of vigilance resulted in a loss of an important half point for Shomoev.

59.Bxa6 Nxc7 60.Be3+ 

What sense does an extra piece make when after 60.Bxc7 Bxa2 there are no more pawns left on the board?

60...Kh4 61.Bf2+ Kg5!, not allowing White to relish even a remote prospect of winning. Simultaneous defending of the a2-pawn from being captured and the a6-bishop from being exchanged is impossible, so the game is a draw. 

By the way, I have had an interesting conversation with Anton Shomoev, Pavel Smirnov and Pavel Maletin about the latest trends in the open chess tournament. It is no secret that due to unfavorable fluctuations in the currency exchange rates, many of our colleagues have started displaying the bias towards performing in the West and the East: it turns out that for us the prizes there are on the rise (in euros and dollars), while in Russia they are on a substantial downgrade. And now, the friends also note that the classical chess competitions held in our country remain the most conservative ones in the world. Playing 9 rounds within 9 days under such a powerful time control is a very challenging task indeed. This is a serious burden for ordinary chess fans (hotel and meals payments), for organizers (rent, referee fees, various organizational issues), as well as for professionals who have nothing special to gain from it. Just count how many days a year, taking into account the travelling time, the grandmasters have to be on the move to qualify into the Russian Cup final? You must simply embark on a permanent travel lifestyle. However, what about your family and children?

Our foreign colleagues are experimenting with various formats: the truncated Swiss tournaments featuring seven or even five rounds within a single weekend (if you cannot make the norm then why play 9 rounds in the first place?), or playing 9 rounds with two rounds per day (to make it within one week) for which purpose the "light time control" is practiced. Sometimes it is by no means easy and not as objective, but saves a lot of effort, time and money. There is a general tendency towards reducing the duration of time for thinking, the need for which has recently been highlighted by grandmaster Alexey Dreev in the course of the chess-news broadcast. By the way, there is an audacious innovator Oleg Skvortsov, who attempts more and more in the way of applying new formats of chess events, the latter of which featuring the "enhanced rapid" when you are allowed 40 minutes per game plus 10 seconds per move. (The interview with Oleg Skvortsov, who labels these time controls as "new classics", will appear on our website within the next few days – the editor’s note.)

The colleagues do not claim it to be essential for innovations be introduced everywhere. It is clear that they do not apply for the elite chess. The Russian Championships too should be carried out in accordance with the old regulations. As for the ordinary Swiss tournaments, the experiments are feasible or else the prices for Brent might collapse below $30 per barrel one day, making all strong players leave to play overseas. It is clear that the Russian chess players are tied to the All-Russian uniform sports classification and the requirements stipulated by the Ministry of Sports, but I think they just need to tweak one or two lines so that it becomes possible to carry out what has long been demonstrated by our foreign friends.

Meanwhile, as the tournament was going on, a group of main candidates for the medals started to gradually take shape: Pridorozhni, Khismatullin, Rublevsky, Alekseev, and Ponkratov. A very impressive win over Dmitry Anikonov was scored by the head coach of the women's national team.

Anikonov – Rublevsky

Round 8 



Black is on the offensive and could simply move 19…Bd6; however, Rublevsky made up his mind to play it nicely. 

19...f5!? 20.g3! 

This is the only move. 20.g5 fails to 20…Bxg5! 

20...fxg4 21.Nfe5? 

The trap has slammed shut! Meanwhile, after 21.Nh2! Bd6 22.Nxg4 Rh5 23.Kg2 White features an excellent position; it is this continuation that was bothering Sergei during the game.

21...Nxe5 22.Nxe5 Qxe5!! 23.dxe5 Rdh8 



What a beauty! The mate is inevitable. At moments like this a friend of mine in Tyumen is used to crying out loud, "Oh, folks! Just look at that!" The only move 24.f4 runs into 24…Bc5+ 25.Rf2 Rh1+ 26.Kg2 R8h2#. 

Towards the end of the second day the athletes started displaying the first signs of tiredness. Having misfired against Anikonov, Shomoev went on to blunder a piece to Alekseev. "How many points am I supposed to have gained as opposed to what I am having in the cross-table now from the point of view of superior positions that I have had?" - Anton was asking while in a state of being upset. I will only add that even in the 2013 Superfinal Shomoev used to pressurize his renowned heavyweight opponents in terms of better positions.

Shomoev – Alekseev

Round 9 



At first White stood better, but then the position became equal until at this very moment Shomoev decided to go on with a brief "combination."

31.Bf4?? Bxf4 32.Qxf5+ Qg6!, and Anton had to resign due to his undefended b1-rook. 

In the ending with two extra pawns Pavel Ponkratov overlooked the loss of his piece, upon which the native of Chelyabinsk had to work hard to sail into the drawish harbor.

Ponkratov – Belous

Round 9 



Ponkratov has active pieces and is up two pawns, but here Pavel started committing errors.

39.Kh3?! 

The bishop shouldn’t have been allowed into е5 with a tempo via 39.Rd3 or 39.e6.

39...Bd4! 40.Ra5? 

41.e6 Be5 42.Bg2! was a way to keep the extra material

40...Rc3! 

This is fantastic! The bishop is lost. To Pavel’s credit, he wouldn’t let go of the reins.

41.Rxc3 Bxc3 42.Ra3! Rxf3+ 43.Kg4 Re3 44.Ra8+ Kf7 45.Ra7+, and the game ended in a draw after Belous advanced his king into the center, while Ponkratov gobbled up his pawns and then skilfully traded the opponent’s passed pawns for the black bishop. 

The native of Chelyabinsk was terribly upset, "How come?!" Meanwhile, the leaders made new steps forward, but then a true miracle occurred. Rublevsky came up to Ponkratov and gave him a 100 rouble banknote for something, and not just simply gave it away, but said that it was a Lucky Hundred, the possession of which was supposed to set Pavel up for winning necessarily. Let’s see what came of it.

Smirnov – Ponkratov

Round 10 



Black is in a bad shape – simple continuations like 34.Qc7 e3 35.Qxe7 e2 36.Bg3 Qf1 37.b6 Kh6 38.Qe3+ Kh7 39.b7 or 34.Qe6 Qf2 35.Qxe4 Bf6 36.Qe3 were leading White to an easy victory. But here my eyes started playing tricks on me when I seemed to observe the pocket of the native of Chelyabinsk with the Lucky Hundred inside as if beginning to shine...

34.b6?? Bd4!, and Smirnov made a helpless gesture with his hands - 35.b7 Qg1+ 35.Kg3 Bf2#. 

So, these are some of the secrets that the head coach keeps under his belt! However, our girls will never succeed in dealing with the Chinese women in a similar fashion.
The encounter between Alexei Pridorozhni and Alexander Evdokimov turned out to be the key game of the final round. In the case of a successful outcome, the grandmaster from Surgut would finish up on a par with Khismatullin, maintaining his leading position. However, even before the start of the round Alexander told me about his full determination of delivering a battle against the leader.

Pridorozhni – Evdokimov

Round 10 



Both opponents have been performing with a lot of imagination, but the last moves of the native of Astrakhan invited his opponent iinto carrying out a nice tactical operation. 

Following 46.Qd5! Qxd5 47.cxd5 Bd7 (the point being that after 47...Bxg6 48.fxg6 Rxg6 49.h7 the pawn cannot be stopped from promoting) 48.h7 Re8 49.h8Q Rxh8 50.Nxh8 Bxf5 51.Nf7 White would emerge being up a piece. 

46.Ne4? Bc6 47.Qh5 Bxe4 48.dxe4 a4! 

Black seizes the initiative. Now White must plunge into the maelstrom of complications fearlessly: 49.bxa4! Qxc4+ 50.Ke1 d3 51.h7 Qxe4+ 52.Kf2 – and who knows what direction the events will take in the subsequent game. Here Pridorozhni committed a fatal blunder for first time during the tournament.

49.h7?? Rh8!, and due to the inevitable loss of the passed pawn Evdokimov gained the upper hand and finished on the clear sixth place. 

So, based on the outcome of the entire ten rounds Khismatullin is a point ahead, being pursued by as many as three players, promising the finish to be exciting!