Gata Scorches Ivanchuk
By Jennifer Shahade   
August 1, 2008
American World Championship Candidate GM Gata Kamsky pounded Vassily Ivanchuk today in the second round of the Sochi Grand Prix (July 31-August 15.) In a fine positional performance, Gata first got a strong opening in the Sveshnikov Sicilian and then squeezed Ivanchuk until the tournament's top seed dropped a pawn, and soon the game. Gata is very happy with the win.  His second Emil Sutovsky pinpoints 25.Qh6 as a key move, "changing the direction of the attack." Indeed, Black is forced to shed one pawn or the other after 25.Qh6. The threat of Bxh5 (gxh5 is terrible because of Rg3 Bg4 Qh5), can only be prevented by the text move, 25...Qf8 which drops d6.

2189

Sochi Grand Prix

Standings after 2 rounds
1-6   Radjabov Teimour 2744 AZE (1/1) and Gata Kamsky, Alexander Grischuk 2728 RUS,Levon Aronian 2737 ARM and Ivan Cheparinov 2687,BUL  -1.5/2
7-10. Boris Gelfand 2720 ISR , Yue Wang 2704 China, Dmitry Jakovenko 2709 RUS (.5/1) , Vugar Gashimov 2717 AZE- 1/2
10-14.Peter Svidler2738 RUS, David Navara 2646 CZE, Vassily Ivanchuk 2781 UKR, Sergey Karjakin 2727, UKR and Mohamed Al-Modiahki, QTR-0.5/2