Larry Kaufman Tied for Lead at World Senior
November 5, 2008
larrylead.jpg
IM Larry Kaufman's aim seems to be on point at the World Senior.
 Photo Betsy Dynako
After an impressive tear at the World Senior Open, Bad Zwischenahn, Germany (October 28-November11) American IM Larry Kaufman is tied for the lead with GM Mihai Suba and IM Vladimir Onoprienko. They all have 7/8 with three games to go.  The first five boards are live so you can watch Larry's crucial game tomorrow at 4 AM EST on the official website.

Update 11/6/08: Larry drew GM Suba in round 9, and has 7.5/9 and is tied with four others: IM Alexander Zakharov and GMs Mihai Suba, Miso Cebalo, Wolfgang Uhlmann. See round ten pairings and watch Larry's game against GM Miso Cebalo live tomorrow at 4 AM EST.

Here are Larry's two consecutive victories over GMs, the first annotated by Kaufman himself.

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Rybka3Gen.ctg/Kaufman

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 0–0 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.Qxc3 b6 7.Bg5 Bb7 8.f3 h6 9.Bh4 d5 10.e3 Nbd7 11.cxd5 exd5

 Usual is 11...Nxd5, leading to an endgame with only a faint hint of an edge for White.
12.Bd3 Re8 13.Ne2
This is the reason that 11...cxd5 is unpopular.
13...Rxe3? loses material to 14.Bxf6 followed by Bh7+.
13...c6 14.Bf2
 I rejected the obvious 14 0–0 due to 14...Ne4 regaining the bishop pair, but I could have played this way because 15.fxe4 Qxh4 16.e5 retains an edge.
14...Qc8
So Black will kill White's bishop pair anyway, but White keeps an edge.
 15.Ng3
Rybka says White does better to castle and trade bishops on a6 first, and I must agree.
15...Ba6 16.Nf5 Bxd3 17.Qxd3 Re6 18.0–0 c5 19.b4?!
 This is well motivated, but I can't spare the tempo here. Correct was 19.Rae1 keeping an edge.
19...c4 20.Qc2 b5 21.Rae1 Qa6?
This is too greedy. Black should be content to prevent e4 by 21 ...Qc6 and 22...Rae8.
22.e4! Qxa3 23.e5 Ne8 24.Ra1!

This is much better than kingside play.
24...Qb3?
This was not greedy enough! Black didn't like 24...Qxb4 25.Rfb1 Qf8 26.Rxb5 with full compensation for the pawn, but now he is just worse with no extra pawn.
25.Qxb3 cxb3 26.Rfb1 Nb6 27.Rxb3 Nc4 28.f4 Kf8 29.g4 Rc6 30.Bh4 f6 31.Re1 Re6 32.Bg3 a5?!
Waiting was better.
 33.bxa5 Rxa5 34.Nh4! Nd2 35.Rd3 Ne4 36.f5 Rea6 37.Ng6+ Kg8 38.Ne7+ Kh7?
Black should try to use the king to stop the passed pawn.
39.Nxd5 Nxg3 40.hxg3 b4?
I have no idea why he gave me this pawn, although I should win anyway.
41.Nxb4 Rb6 42.Nc2 Rc6 43.Re2 Nc7 44.Kf2 Nd5 45.e6 Ra7 46.Ne3 Nc3 47.Rb2
 Rybka says I win faster with 47.d5, but of course it doesn't matter.
47...Ra1 48.Kf3 Na4 49.Rb8 Black resigns 1–0

In his eighth round battle, three-time World Senior Champion GM Janis Klovans of Latvia made a"fatal mistake" with 16.Nf3, according to Larry. After 16...Qb6, the knight is forced right back to e5 to avoid Nc6 (or Nd7) trapping the queen.

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