GM Mikhail Golubev annotates games
Ivanchuk, Vassily (2740) - Onischuk, Alexander (2664)
Aerosvit-2008 (Foros), 06/11/2008
Round 4 [D53]
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In the Queen's Gambit Declined Ivanchuk made a rare move 7.Qc2. Already 8th move of Black, 8...Na6, was new. Ivanchuk obtained a slight advantage. Instead of 16.Rac1 deserved attention 16.Rd2!?, protecting the b2 pawn. Or, as Ivanchuk himself suggested, 15.Rac1 e5 16.Ne4 one move earlier. The game continuation proved to be not dangerous for Black.
1.Nf3 d5 2.d4 Nf6 3.c4 e6 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 1/2-1/2 |
Van Wely, Loek (2676) - Alekseev, Evgeny (2711)
Aerosvit-2008 (Foros), 06/11/2008
Round 4 [D31]
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The Noteboom Variation of the Slav Defence usually leads to a sharp play. 18...Re8 is a new move. Instead of 21.Ne1 not so clear would have been 21.d5!? Bxd5 22.Bxd5 exd5 23.Rxd5 Ndxc5. In the game White obtained some plus. Black's 24...Nc6 probably was a blunder: 25.Nf2! gave White a winning advantage.
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 e6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.e3 b5 6.a4 Bb4 7.Bd2 a5 8.axb5 Bxc3 9.Bxc3 cxb5 10.b3 Bb7 11.bxc4 b4 12.Bb2 Nf6 13.Bd3 Nbd7 14. 1-0 |
Shirov, Alexei (2740) - Volokitin, Andrei (2684)
Aerosvit-2008 (Foros), 06/11/2008
Round 4 [D56]
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Volokitin opted for the Lasker Variation 7...Ne4 in the Queen's Gambit Declined. Black equalised chances. For a while opponents followed the game Reddmann-Stanke, Hamburg 2006, until Volokitin played 18...Nf6 (instead of 18...Rc5). After 19.f3 the draw was agreed.
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bg5 1/2-1/2 |
Karjakin, Sergey (2732) - Jakovenko, Dmitry (2711)
Aerosvit-2008 (Foros), 06/11/2008
Round 4 [C42]
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In the Petroff Defence opponents followed the path of games Svilder-Kramnik, Mexico 2007 and Anand-Kramnik, Corus 2008. 23.Qg1 is a novelty. After 30.h5 White gradually developed a very dangerous attack. After the final blow 41.Nxf5! Nxf5 42.Rf6 Black resigned.
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.Nc3 Nxc3 6.dxc3 Be7 7.Bf4 1-0 |
Eljanov, Pavel (2687) - Carlsen, Magnus (2765)
Aerosvit-2008 (Foros), 06/11/2008
Round 4 [E05]
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In the main line of the Catalan Opening Black repeats a rare move 10...Bd6 from the Round 2 game Volokitin-Onischuk. Eljanov responded with a most likely prepared novelty, 11.Ng5. But Carlsen seems to be well-prepared too. By playing 13...e5 he offered a piece sacrifice. But 14.f4 exd4 15.e5 was at best unclear (after 15...Bxe5 16.fxe5 Nxe5 bad for White is 17.Rxf6? d3) and after a long think Eljanov opted for 14.dxe5 Nxe5 15.f4 Nc4 and now a safe 16.b3 (if 16.e5, Black has both 16...Bb4 and 16...h6!). 19.Rfd1!? and 21.Nf1 is an interesting defending idea. Eljanov found one more interesting move 22.a3!?, which may lead to a big complications. (The immediate 22.Nd4?! would have been dubious because of 22...c5 23.Nf5 Qb7 24.Kf2 c4). Carlsen declined the pawn sacrifice and played 22...Bc5. Later instead of the banal 27...Rc8 Magnus made a sharp move 27...Be3!?. Instead of 34.Qxa6 a principal alternative was 34.Nxd4 Rxc6 25.Nxf5 with an endgame, which is not easy to assess: there were various opinions among GMs in the press center. After the continuation in the game White is figthing for a draw, as it seems. On the 39th move Eljanov missed a chance for a draw: 39.Ng2! Qf5+ 40.Ke1 Ra1+ 41.Ke2 d3+ 42.Ke3 Qe5+ 43.Kxd3. Because of this earlier it could have been better for Carlsen to play 37...Qe4+ 38.Kf2 Qxe5, preserving a rook on c2 (in order to have ...Rc3 mate in the respective variation). Instead of Carlsen's 39...d3?!, more precise would have been 39...Rxa3! 40.Nf1 Ra2+. While in the game White got chances for a draw. The endgame is complex: thus, the alternative for Black was 43...f5!? and on the next move the alternative for White was 44.g4!? (as GM Brodsky suggested). Later Eljanov missed a good possibility of 58.Nf4+! (or 60.Nf4+!) and put his knight on b3 instead. It was hard for Eljanov to play in the time trouble. 67...b3 (instead of 67...Kd5) 68.Nxb3 Rxb3 would have been winning for Black according to tablebases. A bit later, 70...Kc5! looked very strong. Position which arose after 73.Ne5 is theoretically winning for Black, but not too simply. Eventually, Carlsen achieved his goal.
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2 Be7 5.Nf3 0-1 |
Svidler, Peter (2746) - Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter (2684)
Aerosvit-2008 (Foros), 06/11/2008
Round 4 [B10]
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In the Caro-Kann Defence White opted for a system with 2.c4, delaying the d2-d4 advance. Svidler did not get the advantage out of the opening. Moreover, he was slightly worse in the final position where the draw was agreed.
1.e4 c6 2.c4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.cxd5 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nxd5 6.Nf3 e6 7.Bc4 Nxc3 8.bxc3 Bd6 9. 1/2-1/2 |