GM Mikhail Golubev annotates games
Onischuk, Alexander (2664) - Svidler, Peter (2746)
Aerosvit-2008 (Foros), 06/12/2008
Round 5 [D97]
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One more Gruenfled for this tournament. Black's pawn sacrifice is well-known, but Svidler's follow-up 11...Nbd7 is rare; usually Black played 11...Nc6 or 11...Qc7. It seems that after 14...Qa5 Black is doing well. On the 18th move Onischuk was virtually forced to sacrifice the exchange: 18.Rxd5! what lead to a double-edged play. Svidler's 19...Nb8? is a strange move, looks like a blunder. It is hard to say why Onischuk did not play 22.Rd1! with, at it seems, a clear advantage, because after retreats of the black queen White has 23.Rxd6!. After mutual mistakes, a complex position arose. 25...Ne8! is a very good move. The main idea is 26.Bb5 Rxc7 27.Rxc7 Nxc7 28.Bxd7 Rd8 29.Nb6 Na8!. Therefore Onischuk's 26.Nb6 seems to be correct. After 32...Rc6! it became clear that is it Black who plays for a win. White's last chance to organise some kind of resistance was 36.Rb8+ Kf7 37.Rh8.
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Qb3 dxc4 6.Qxc4 0-1 |
Alekseev, Evgeny (2711) - Eljanov, Pavel (2687)
Aerosvit-2008 (Foros), 06/12/2008
Round 5 [C65]
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The Ruy Lopez Berlin with 4.d3 Bc5 5.Nc3 strongly resembles Four Knight's Defence. Eljanov's 6...Nd4!? is a pawn sacrifice, which occurrs rarely. After 7.Nxe5 Eljanov started to think. Had he sacrificed a pawn intentionally?! 10...Qa5 is a novelty (in the advanced chess game VoidChessICC-SuperSongoku, Playchess.com 2006 Black played 10...d5). Instead of 11...Nd7!? curious was 11...Nxf3+!? 12.gxf3 Bh3 13.d4 Ba3. In the game Black regained the pawn and opponents agreed for a draw.
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.d3 Bc5 5.Nc3 1/2-1/2 |
Carlsen, Magnus (2765) - Shirov, Alexei (2740)
Aerosvit-2008 (Foros), 06/12/2008
Round 5 [D43]
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The key game of the round. Once again in the tournament Carlsen plays as White the Moscow System of the Slav Defence. Instead of 8.Qc2, as he played against Van Wely in the third round, now Carlen opted for 8.Rc1. Position after 14.Qc2 is still not new. But instead of 14...a5 Black usually played 14...Nf8. The move 18.Nxd7!? is not an obvious decision: White exchanges his active knight for the passive bishop. Instead of 19.g3, White could have played 19.f4!?. Soon afterwards, the game transposed into an endgame with a minimal White's advantage. Shirov's 29...e5!? was an important decision. Otherwise White could eventually develop the initiative by Bd1, h3, g4, f4. Carlsen tried to play for a win for a long time. In the end Shirov blundered terribly with 61...Bg7?? and lost the game. Instead, 61...Bb8 would have been OK for Black.
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bxf6 Qxf6 7.e3 Nd7 8.Rc1 Bd6 9.Bd3 dxc4 10.Bxc4 Qe7 11. 1-0 |
Volokitin, Andrei (2684) - Karjakin, Sergey (2732)
Aerosvit-2008 (Foros), 06/12/2008
Round 5 [E37]
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A popular and well researched line with the Black's pawn sacrifice in the Nimzo-Indian with 4.Qc2. There is an opinion that Black is able to reach equality with a precise play. By playing 18...Rd7 (a novelty) Karjakin deviated from the game Volokitin-S.Zhigalko, Aeroflot open 2008. By 21...Rhd8 22.0-0 Karjakin still could have transposed to that game, but he preferred 21...f5. As it seems, Karjakin did not get the full compensation for the pawn: after 28.Ke3 White is better. By playing 29...Rxf2? Karjakin probably missed a strong immediate 30.e5+!, after which White achieved a decisive advantage. In Volokitin's time trouble Karjakin could have tried 35...Rxe4!? 36.Kxe4 Rc2, which is more stubborn, perhaps, than 35...Rc2. After the time control, it was not difficult for Volokitin to find a nice winning move 41.Kc5!.
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 d5 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.Qxc3 Ne4 7.Qc2 c5 8.dxc5 Nc6 9.e3 Qa5+ 10.Bd2 Nxd2 11.Qxd2 dxc4 12.Qxa5 Nxa5 13.Rc1 b5 14.cxb6 Bb7 15.bxa7 Ke7 16.Ne2 Rxa7 17.Nc3 Bc6 18.Na2 Rd7 19.Nb4 Ba4 20.Be2 Bb3 21.Bf3 f5 22.e4 f4 23.g3 Rf8 24.gxf4 Rxf4 25.Ke2 Kd6 26.h4 Rdf7 27.Rh3 g6 28.Ke3 Nb7 29.Bd1 Rxf2 30.e5+ Kd7 31.Bf3 Rxb2 32.Bxb7 Rf5 33.Bc6+ Kc7 34.Be4 Rxe5 35.Nd3 Rc2 36.Nxe5 Rxc1 37.Rh1 Rc3+ 38.Kd4 Rg3 39.Rf1 c3 40.Rf7+ Kc8 41.Kc5 c2 42.Kd6 Bd5 43.Bxd5 exd5 44.Nc6 1-0 |
Jakovenko, Dmitry (2711) - Ivanchuk, Vassily (2740)
Aerosvit-2008 (Foros), 06/12/2008
Round 5 [B54]
Nisipeanu, Liviu-Dieter (2684) - Van Wely, Loek (2676)
Aerosvit-2008 (Foros), 06/12/2008
Round 5 [B90]
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In the Sicilian Najdorf with 6.Be3 e5 Nisipeanu makes the main move 7.Nb3 instead of his trademark 7.Nde2!?. 10.f4 is a rare idea, which Nisipeanu, however, already used against Ivanchuk in Khanty-Mansiysk 2007. Van Wely also has experience in this line. 14.Qe1 is a new move (there was one game with 14.Qe2). By playing 17...Nc5 Black sacrificed a pawn (after 17...f5 there was 18.Nd4!). The idea of 21...Ra7 was to prevent 22.Bd7. The move 24.Qd6! fixed White's advantage. White gradually improved his position. 38.Rb5! was a winning move.
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e5 7.Nb3 Be6 8.Qd2 Nbd7 9. 1-0 |