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Chess Life Online 2007 September Wild Round in Mexico
Chess Life Online 2007 September Wild Round in Mexico | Wild Round in Mexico |
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| By GM Ian Rogers | |
| September 19, 2007 | |
Photo Cathy Rogers
Playing into Svidler's favorite Marshall Gambit, Anand hung onto the pawn but the game was not decided until a sudden collapse by Svidler close to the time control. Both Svidler and Anand agreed that time management had played a key part in the result of their game.
"One thing that is quite obvious is that you can't think for that
long on moves you actually know because you will need those 20 minutes
later in the game," said Svidler. "This is what ultimately cost me... I
ran into some serious preparation and I think I handled it reasonably
well. The 20 minutes I spent getting to the position after Qc1, which I
knew to be the critical position, would really [have] come in handy.
The position after 32.Bc1 I understood to be a critical one but by that
point I couldn't really spend more that 5 to 7 minutes on a move. I
just missed one detail and the game collapses. I completely missed Qa3
Instead of 32...Nf6?! I have 32...Qc7 with the idea of Bb7 or I can
simply play 32...f5."
1103
Anand said, "He (Svidler) spotted me a bit of
time at the end [when] the position was unbelievably complicated.
When I went 31.Ra8, I missed 31...Bb8. I had originally calculated Qa3 Ba7 ... and in fact I lose the exchange,
26...Nd5-f6-e4 is a pretty good plan because I can't exchange rooks
easily and his attack, when it comes, will be very dangerous. I reacted
with 27.a4 and 29.Ra6, probably the only correct reaction, but it's
difficult to say anything definitive."
Boris Gelfand was not getting ahead of himself after winning his
first game of the tournament, having earlier missed chances against
Anand and Leko. "It's nice to have a good start but it doesn't matter.
Most of the tournament lies ahead. Every player [must continue to play]
for two weeks more."
1105
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 c5 4.d5 exd5 5.cxd5 b5 6.Nf3
6.Bg2
d6 7.b4!? is the traditional way to go if White wishes to sacrifice a
pawn, a gambit which gained acceptance after Kasparov used it to beat
Korchnoi in their 1983 World Championship Candidates match.
6...d6 7.e4!?
"This
novelty I prepared a couple of months ago but yesterday my seconds
almost didn't sleep analyzing this position," said Gelfand. "Of
course there is a long way between analyzing an idea and polishing it,
putting it into practice."
"A rather strong idea,' said Aronian. "In a practical game this is very difficult to defend against."
7...a6 8.a4 b4
"I felt I should go for 8...Nxe4!? because ...b4 looks ugly, but I didn't risk it because I thought it [would all be] all pre-analyzed by Boris," said Aronian.
After
8...Nxe4 9.axb5 Nf6 10.Nc3 Black has some difficulties because after
10...Be7 11.bxa6 , any recapture on a6 is met by 12.Bb5+ .
9.Bd3 g6 10.Nbd2 Bg7 11.Nc4 0-0 12.Bf4 Ne8 13.a5!
Positionally
White would have everything he could want from the opening if only his
pawn was on h3 and not g3. Aronian now takes advantage of this
to disrupt White's smooth development.
13...Bh3! 14.Ng5 Bd7! 15.0-0 Bb5
A major achievement for Black - to eliminate the monster on c4 is a first step to equality.
16.Qd2 h6!?
The start of a very risky plan which Aronian thought would win a pawn. 16...Ra7 or 16...Bxc4
17.Bxc4 Nd7 intending ...Ne5 and ...Nc7-b5 were the main alternatives.
17.Nf3 g5 18.Be3 Bxc4 19.Bxc4 Qf6 20.Qd1! Nd7
Unfortunately
for Black, 20...Qxb2 is met by 21.e5! when 21...g4 (If 21...Bxe5 22.Ra2
Qc3 23.Rc2 Qa3 24.Nxe5 dxe5 25.Bxc5 wins for White.) is met by 22.Nd4!
with a very dangerous attack.
21.Rb1 Qe7 22.Nd2 Nef6 23.Re1 Rfe8 24.f3 Qd8 25.Ra1 g4!?
"Tempting, but this has to be matched with concrete play," said Gelfand.
26.fxg4 Ne5 27.Be2 Qd7?
"25...g4 is alright but [here] I should play 27...Qc8! - then I can play this 30...c4 thing," said Aronian.
28.g5 Nfg4 29.Bf4 hxg5 30.Bxg5 f5
With
the Black queen on c8, 30...c4 would be possible but now Aronian has to
look to a more radical plan for counterplay. "I thought that here I
could play 30...c4 but I missed 31.Bxg4! Nxg4 32.Nxc4 when the knight
is covering the g1-a7 diagonal," said Aronian.
31.Rf1! Rf8?!
31...fxe4
32.Nxe4 c4 was a better try for counterplay, although, with White
having the key e3 and f1 squares covered, a move such as 33.Kg2 leaves
White with a clear advantage.
32.exf5 Rxf5 33.Bf4! Nf6
An exchange sacrifice which only hastens the end. However 33...Rff8 34.Nc4 leaves White a pawn up with a much better position.
34.g4 Rxf4 35.Rxf4 Nf7 36.Nc4 Re8 37.Qd3 Qe7 38.Bf3 Ne5 39.Nxe5 Qxe5 40.Rf5 Qxb2 41.Rf1 b3
"Already
the position is lost," said Aronian. "[I can] only set a few little
traps." However 41...Ne4!? was probably a better try - after 42.Bxe4
Qd4+ 43.Qxd4 Bxd4+ 44.Kg2 Rxe4 objectively White should of course win
but in practice the Black queenside pawns could cause problems.
42.Kh1 Nd7 43.Bd1 c4 44.Qxc4 Nc5 45.Qf4! Ne4 46.Rf7 Bf6
On 46...Be5 47.Rf8+ wins.
47.Rb7 Qd2 48.Qxd2 1-0
48...Nxd2 49.Rxf6 Re1+ 50.Kg2 Rxd1 51.Rxd6 is hopeless for Black.
Alexander Grischuk joined Gelfand and Kramnik in second place by
defeating a typically ambitious Alexander Morozevich. Morozevich went
pawn grabbing and after 22...Qxa3 (22...exf3 was obligatory), his
position became critical.
"[In the opening] 14...Rael is the main move," said Grischuk, "but
it seems that Alexander didn't expect this move and he started to think
for a long time. [I expected] 19...Nd5 instead of 19...h5. After
19...h5 I think I played [well}. I am sure Alexander missed that after
23...Rxe5 I have 24.exf5 and after this move I am just winning.
1104
Morozevich was downbeat after his second loss of the tournament.
"I don't know yet what went wrong. I spent one hour [in the opening]
basically for nothing. After 22.Be5 I didn't see any move. I didn't
miss 24.exf5 but I didn't see anyway to play for Black. I decided that
maybe I had chances with this exchange down position with my passed
pawns."
The joint manager of Peter Leko and Vladimir Kramnik, Carsten
Hensel, said before the game that he was
hoping for a draw but that "I have been in this situation [watching the
two players try to destroy each others chances] often before."
Leko avoided Kramnik's Petroff Defence but could not avoid a boring position and the draw was agreed after only 24 moves.
1101
Leko admitted that his opening experiment had not worked out
well. "I decided to play 2.Bc4 because if I allowed a [Petroff] then
people would say why didn't you try something else! But Vladimir seemed
to have prepared also here quite well. He played a very classical and
very strong approach...and the game was dynamically balanced."
Crosstable after five rounds 
Crosstable from chessbase.com
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