GM Mikhail Golubev annotates games
Onischuk, Alexander (2664) - Karjakin, Sergey (2732)
Aerosvit-2008 (Foros), 06/10/2008
Round 3 [D48]
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The well known and quite principled line of the Meran System had been seen in practice of the world champions. A knight sacrifice 17.Ndxb5!? for the first time was used by Karpov against Anand in the 1998 FIDE World Championship Final. At that times Onischuk was Karpov's assistant. By playing 22...Ncd7 Karjakin deviated from the Karpov-Anand game (where Black played 22...Rc8). Onischuk responded with 23.Bd2, which was already tested in practice (White scored two wins). Onischuk obtained the better ending. Only 32.Ra5 was a novelty (instead of 32.a4 Bf5 33.Rg3, Legky-I.Cosma, Metz 2002). Afterwards Karjakin defended stubbornly and escaped for a draw.
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.Nf3 e6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Bd3 dxc4 7.Bxc4 b5 8.Bd3 Bb7 9. 1/2-1/2 |
Jakovenko, Dmitry (2711) - Volokitin, Andrei (2684)
Aerosvit-2008 (Foros), 06/10/2008
Round 3 [E94]
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The second King's Indian of the tournament. Volokitin plays the Glek Variation 9...Nc6 which does not have a particularly good reputation, but sometimes occurrs at GM level. The position after 20...Qh5 was still not new. Black's plan is to equalise by the eventual ...f5. The move 21.g4 is a novelty. Instead of 21...Qh4 Black could have played 21...Qe5, and if 22.f4, then 22...Qg7. By playing 24.Kh1, White prevented 24...f5 (25.gxf5 gxf5 26.Rg1+ Kf7 27.e5! dxe5 28.d6 and wins) and developed pressure. After 33.f4 Black's position is unsafe. Instead of 35...Rxe4 a better chance probably was 35...Re5 36.Qh6 Rxf5 37.Rxg6+ fxg6 38.Qxg6+ Kf8 39.Qxf5+ Ke7. Later 36...f6? would lose to 37.Qh5! R8e7 38.g7 Rh4 39.Qe8+. As it seems, Jakovenko missed a forced win: 38.Rge1 Rf8 39.Qh5 Rg7 40.Rf3 Rxf3 41.Qxf3 Qa4 42.Qg4! Qd7 43.Qe4 Kf8 44.Qh4 Kg8 45.Re3 Rxg6 46.Re7. Instead, Jakovenko won in a somewhat longer way.
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 1-0 |
Alekseev, Evgeny (2711) - Svidler, Peter (2746)
Aerosvit-2008 (Foros), 06/10/2008
Round 3 [C54]
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White plays so-called Giuoco Pianissimo system of the Italian Game. A very slow play is guaranteed! The main experts in this system are grandmasters from Moldova, but this White's setup was also used by Karpov in the world championship match against Korchnoi. Meanwhile Svidler makes a new move 9...d5, and the play sharpens. After 14...Ra8 White probably has a slight advantage. Alekseev plays very aggressively: 16.g4!?. Instead of 17.g5 the alernative was 17.f4 Qd6 18.Rf1. After 17.g5, 17...Nh5 was not an easy decision for Black. Later, Svidler possibly disliked the line 19...Qxg4+ 20.hxg4 Nf4 21.Nxe4 Nd3 22.Re3 Rfe8 23.Rxd3 Rxe4 24.Rd4 and decided to give away the pawn in another edition. Step by step, White won.
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.c3 Nf6 5.d3 a6 6.Bb3 Ba7 7. 1-0 |
Eljanov, Pavel (2687) - Shirov, Alexei (2740)
Aerosvit-2008 (Foros), 06/10/2008
Round 3 [A16]
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A battle between two experts in the Gruenfeld Defence. By playing 11...Nd5 Shirov deviated from the Round 1 game Eljanov-Svidler where Black opted for 11...c6. Shirov obtained an acceptable position. But 21...Re4 and 22...Rae8 hardly was a good idea: Black lost the pawn. Eljanov confidently converted his advantage.
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.Qa4+ Bd7 6.Qb3 Nb6 7.d4 Bg7 8.Bf4 1-0 |
Carlsen, Magnus (2765) - Van Wely, Loek (2676)
Aerosvit-2008 (Foros), 06/10/2008
Round 3 [D43]
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A calm Moscow Variation of the Slav Defence. 8.Qc2 (instead of the usual 8.Bd3) and now 8...Qd8 (instead of 8...g6) is a line, which occurrs very seldom. White obtained a somewhat better position. After a long think Van Wely played 18...Rxd1+. Black temporarily won a pawn, put White's rook penetrated to the 7th rank. After 23...Rc7! attractive is 24.Nxh6+ but it is not clear whether it is actually good for White (24...gxh6 25.Rd8+ Kg7 26.Rxa8 Rd7!). Because of this, White played 24.Ne5. Later Van Wely could have played 27...Bd6!? (suggested by grandmaster Brodsky) with the idea of 28.Nxe6 c5!. After 42.Bg6 it became obvious that White should win the ending.
1.c4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bxf6 Qxf6 7.e3 Nd7 8.Qc2 Qd8 9.Bd3 Be7 10. 1-0 |
Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter (2684) - Ivanchuk, Vassily (2740)
Aerosvit-2008 (Foros), 06/10/2008
Round 3 [B40]
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For the first time in his practice, Ivanchuk plays with Black a Kveinys Variation 4...Qb6 in the Sicilian Defence. After the typical 12.a5! White developed some initiative. After 16...Qxb2 White has a choice between 17.Nb5 and 17.Nc6. But Nisipeanu found a third option: 17.c5. Instead of 17...dxc5 deserved attention also 17...Qb7. And maybe it would have been better, because in the game White got a rich compensation for the pawn after 21.Bxc5. The position became very sharp. After 26...g6 White could have played 27.Bxg6 Rxg3 28.fxg3 Bxf1 29.Bc2+ Kh8 30.Qe4, so Ivanchuk preferred 26...g5 instead, and obtained the better position more or less by force. Nisipeanu was on the verge of defeat but manged to hold. It was an exciting game! In retrospect, 17...Qb7 was not so good because of 18.cxd6 Bxd6 19.e5 Qc7 20.exf6 Qxa5 21.fxg7, etc.
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Qb6 5.Nb3 Qc7 6.Bd3 Nf6 7. 1/2-1/2 |