Extremely chuffed

Saturday, September 16th 2006 

FM Steve Giddins reports on round 10

Nigel Short became the outright winner of the 2006 EU Championship, by beating Mark Hebden in today’s 10th round, whilst his main rivals could only draw. The former world title challenger later declared himself “extremely chuffed” at having won on his first appearance in an international tournament in his home country, since 1989.

Hebden is a player whose opening repertoire is well-known, and has been almost constant for his entire chess-playing life. As Black against 1 e4, he plays only 1...e5, usually either the Marshall or a main line Chigorin. Short avoided these with 3 Bc4, secure in the knowledge that Hebden only ever plays 3...Nf6. Over recent years, just about every top-level player has abandoned the Two Knights Defence, on the basis that Black does not have enough compensation after 4 Ng5. Indeed, after the game, Short commented that “The Two Knights just loses a pawn!”, and he added that anybody who played the line regularly as Black “is taking their life in their hands”. Hebden fought well, but never really had enough for his pawn, and eventually lost the ending.

Meanwhile, McShane and Sulskis both fought out hard draws with Gordon and Jones respectively. Unlike Short, McShane chose to avoid a theoretical dispute and chose the Trompowsky. He did not achieve much for a long time, and although a significant bout of manoeuvring eventually netted him an extra pawn in the N+P ending, Black’s king was very active and he held the balance. Jones played the Scandinavian with 3...Qd6 against Sulskis. This line has been doing remarkably well for Black in recent times, notably in the hands of Dutch champion, Sergey Tiviakov. After some inaccuracies by Black in the early middlegame, Sulskis was soon well on top, and by move 25, he was completely winning, with an extra pawn and the better king. From then on, however, he made no progress at all against Jones’ stubborn defence, and eventually drifted into a drawn rook ending. It is hard to pinpoint any one moment when he could have wrapped the game up, but 31 Qa5, with the idea of penetrating to b6 and b7, looks like one way of breaking down Black’s resistance.

Simon Williams has had an excellent tournament, but today he hit the buffers big-time, losing in 19 moves, in under two hours. In an obscure line of his favourite Dutch, he produced the novelty 11...exf6?, instead of the compulsory 11...e6, which was played successfully in Kharitonov-Gajewski, San Augustin 2003. After White’s obvious reply, he was already in trouble, and his 12th move simply lost the exchange, after which the position was already hopeless. Amongst the other leaders, there were wins for Bischoff, van der Weide and Galego, who all moved up into prize spots.

Thus ends a great 10 days’ of chess. All credit is due to Dave Robertson, David Welch and all the many others, whose hard work and imagination has made such a huge success of this event. In fact, I would go so far as to say that everybody involved with the event is entitled to be “extremely chuffed”. This year’s tournament is “only” a curtain-raiser in the run-up to 2008, when Liverpool celebrates its EU Capital of Culture award. Next year, there are plans for another powerful international open, the budget for which is already in place, and will be more than double this year’s. The final budget for 2008 is yet to be confirmed, but believe me, if the plans come to fruition, you will see a chess event, the like of which has not happened in this country for 70 or more years. All, being well, I will be there to bring you daily reports, and once again, will endeavour to get through the entire event, without once mentioning Cilla Black, Ken Dodd or The Beatles...

Short,Nigel (2676) - Hebden,Mark (2532) [C58]

EU Championship Liverpool (10.1), 15.09.2006

1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Nf6 4 Ng5 d5 5 exd5 Na5 6 Bb5+ c6 7 dxc6 bxc6 8 Qf3

This old move has for years been regarded as giving Black a strong initiative, but in recent times, the cold reality of computer analysis has made people realise that Black may just be a pawn down for not enough. John van der Wiel has been at the forefront of rehabilitating the move.

8...h6 9 Ne4 Nd5 10 Ba4

Van der Wiel prefers 10 Nbc3 here, but Short was following some analysis that he had done a couple of years ago, with the Ukrainian teenage super-talent, Sergey Kariakin.

10...Be7 11 d3 0–0 12 0–0 f5 13 Ng3 Be6 14 Re1 Bd6 15 c4 Ne7 16 Bd2 c5 17 Nc3 a6 18 Nd5 Nac6 19 Bxc6

This is the logical follow-up to White’s plan, which is to pressurise e5, but Fritz 9 is hot to trot with the strange move 19 Nh5!?. Looking more closely, it does seem surprisingly strong. The knight will drop into f4 at some stage, exploiting the loose Black bishop on e6.

19...Nxc6 20 Bc3 Qe8 21 h3 Rd8 22 Re2 Bb8 23 Rae1 a5 24 a3 Nd4 25 Bxd4 cxd4

26 Nb6?!

Here, the exchange sacrifice 26 Rxe5 comes strongly into consideration.

26...e4 27 dxe4 f4 28 Nf1 Qc6 29 Nd5 Qxc4 30 Nd2 Qb5 31 Qb3 Qxb3

Over the past few moves, White has lost most of his advantage. At this point, Black offered a draw, but this was declined.

32 Nxb3 Bxd5 33 exd5 Rxd5 34 Rd2 Be5 35 Nc1 a4 36 Nd3 Bd6 37 Rc2

Thanks to the knight on d3, White retains a small advantage. Black’s pawn on a4 is more vulnerable that White’s on b2, which is defended by the knight-blockader.

37...f3 38 g3 h5 39 Rc4 h4 40 g4 Ra5?

Losing without much fight. A better try was 40...Rb8 41 Rxa4 Rb3, when White still has significant technical problems to solve.

41 Rxd4 Rf6 42 Ree4

Now a4 goes as well, and the rest is silence.

42...Bc7 43 Kf1 Rc6 44 Rxa4 Rxa4 45 Rxa4 Rd6 46 Ne1 Rd1 47 Re4 Rb1 48 Re8+ Kh7 49 Rf8 Bd6 50 Rxf3 Rxb2 51 Rc3 Be5 52 Rd3 Bb8 53 Nf3 Ba7 54 Rd2 Rb3 55 Kg2 Rxa3 56 Nxh4 Bb8 57 Nf3 Bf4 58 Rd4 g5 59 h4 1–0

Fritzed out on a historic day

Friday, September 15th 2006 

FM Steve Giddins reports on round 9

Today was a historic day for British chess, as two English players, Gawain Jones and Stephen Gordon, completed grandmaster norms, each with a round to spare. Those of you who found my Nigel Short trivia question earlier in the event a bit too easy may wish to think about the last time two English players completed GM norms in the same round of the same event. And when you have worked out the answer, perhaps you’d be so kind as to tell me, because I haven’t got a clue! 

How to play for a win with Black against a strong opponent, without taking ridiculous risks? This is a problem which has bedeviled players for almost as long as chess has been around, and today it was Nigel Short’s turn to face it. One of six players sharing the lead on 6/8, Short was Black against Stephen Gordon. The latter has had a tremendous tournament, and is clearly a great talent, but even so, given the disparity in rating and experience, it was clear that Short would go for a win. He chose just about the sharpest line of the 4 Qc2 Nimzo, one in which he has even tangled with Garry Kasparov in two games. Unfortunately, nowadays, the sharper a line is, the more likely that it has been analysed out to a draw, by players using Fritz or other chess engines. So it turned out here. Short’s 19...b6 was a new move, but White can force a draw by repetition immediately, and after some thought, that is what Gordon did. Afterwards, a frustrated Short complained that chess has been “Fritzed out” and even predicted that Fischerrandom chess could take over within a few years.

Pert,Nicholas (2503) - Devereaux,Max (2377) [A00]

EU Championship Liverpool (9.13), 14.09.2006

1 d4 Nf6 2 Nf3 e6 3 c4 b6 4 Nc3 Bb7 5 Bg5 Bb4 6 Nd2

This move has become popular recently, supplanting the older 6 e3. White anticipates his opponent’s planned h6, g5 and Ne4, and prepares f3 and e4, shutting out the Black fianchettoed bishop.

6...h6 7 Bh4 Bxc3 8 bxc3 d6

This is a popular and well-respected plan against 6 e3, but here, White is better prepared to meet it, since he will achieve the advance e4 in one move, instead of two. 7...c5 may be a better attempt to exploit White’s move-order.

9 f3 Nbd7 10 e4 e5 11 Bd3 Qe7 12 Nf1 g5?!

This severely weakens the f5 square, for which the White Knight on d2 is heading, but it is already difficult to suggest a good plan for Black.

13 Bf2 exd4

The start of an attempt to break out and take advantage of White’s slow development. The danger is that, if Black does not succeed, the resulting opening up of the game will favour White’s bishop pair, as indeed proves to be the case.

14 cxd4 d5 15 cxd5 Nxd5 16 Ng3 Qb4+ 17 Qd2!?

17 Kf1 looks stronger still, since after the text, Black could gain some relief by exchanging queens.

17...Nf4 18 Bf1 Qa4?

This move was accompanied by a draw offer, but I think Black is simply lost after this move. He had to bail out into the ending, although his position remains unpleasant. With queens on, his king will never find a safe home.

19 Ne2 0–0–0 20 Nxf4 gxf4 21 Be2 f5 22 0–0 fxe4 23 fxe4 Nf6 24 Qxf4 Nxe4 25 Rac1

By now it is obvious that the Black king is not long for this world.

25...Rh7 26 Qf5+ Rhd7

Or 26...Qd7 27 Bg4 winning material.

27 Bb5 Qxa2 28 Bh4 Ng5 29 Bxd7+ Rxd7 30 Rxc7+! Kxc7 31 Bg3+ Rd6 32 Rc1+ Bc6 33 d5 1–0

An alarming day in Liverpool

FM Steve Giddins reports on round 8

Although this EU Championship is a new event for Britain and Liverpool, we do feel obliged to maintain some of the best traditions of English chess. One thing, without which no chess tournament is complete, is the mid-round fire alarm, and today we had ours. At 3.45, just over three hours into the playing session, off went all the bells and whistles, and outside we all trooped. Fifteen minutes later, we were all allowed back, the fire services having in the interim established that the building contained nothing more dangerous than a dim-witted workman, brandishing a soldering iron. Word has it that the arbiters are instituting an additional, special prize, for the best suggestion of what should be done with said soldering iron.

As far as the chess is concerned, all eyes were on the top board clash between McShane and Short. The latter selected the rarely-played Deferred Steinitz Defence to the Lopez, which clearly surprised McShane. He did not react well, his 8 h3 and 9 gxf3 looking very suspicious. Black soon stood better, and his piece sacrifice netted three pawns, with a powerful initiative. Unfortunately for Short, he then began to lose the thread in the endgame, and eventually agreed a draw in a position which was still highly promising.

On board 2, Williams-Gordon was a balanced struggle, drawn in 37 moves, as was the board 4 clash between Brandenburg and Hanley. Ciuksyte and Sulskis also fought out a draw, although at the end, White would seem to be fully justified in playing for the win by 42 Ra5.

The biggest British result of the day was Gawain Jones’victory over Sarakauskas, which leaves the 19-year old sharing the lead. He achieved nothing from the opening and would have stood only slightly better after 41...Re8, but instead, the Lithuanian blundered with 41...Rxc4?? after which all White needed to do was traverse the board with his king to avoid the perpetual.

The draws at the top allowed several players in the 4.5 points group to make significant progress. Hebden won comfortably as Black against Shaw, whose treatment of the King’s Indian went seriously wrong at an early stage, and soon led to a very unpleasant ending. Bischoff beat McNab by exploiting the latter’s pawn weaknesses in another typical King’s Indian structure, whilst Galego capitalised on a bad day for Max Devereaux, who played his worst game of the tournament so far.

Luther,Thomas (2589) - Littlewood,John (2244) [B60]

EU Championship Liverpool (8.12), 13.09.2006

1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 d6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 Nc6 6 Bg5 g6?!

This rather ugly move is associated with an amusing anecdote. The move is actually known as the Bondarevsky Variation, after the Soviet GM and former trainer of Boris Spassky. It should not be confused with the Boleslavsky Variation, 6 Be2 e5, which is much more respected and popular amongst top GMs. At the 1994 Olympiad in Moscow, a certain British GM, who shall remain nameless, met the charming daughter of the late Igor Bondarevsky. A most attractive lady, she worked at the time as a TV presenter. Our GM was suitably impressed, and begun making serious attempts to chat her up. He was making great progress, until he told her, “Your father was a great player. His Sicilian line with 6...e5 is still regarded as one of the best lines in that position”. “That was NOT my father, that was Boleslavsky!”, shouted the outraged daughter, before storming off, and thereby ending our hero’s hopes of making further progress with the relationship.

All of which only goes to show the importance of knowing your opening theory...

7 Bxf6 exf6

Black’s pawn structure is extremely ugly, of course, but he hopes that his bishop pair will provide dynamic compensation. The line has never achieved any degree of popularity, but very recently, there have been a few games involving the Romanian GM, Nisipeanu, and the variation was also the subject of a review in a recent issue of the NIC Yearbook. The main long-term practitioner is Oleg Chernikov, a veteran Russian master and former World Seniors Champion.

8 Bc4 Bg7 9 Ndb5 0–0 10 Qxd6 f5 11 0–0–0 Qb6

Not a novelty, but the most common move here is 11...Qg5+. This is Chernikov’s usual choice, although he has also tried 11...Qa5.

12 Nd5

This is technically a novelty, although the rarity of this whole variation is shown by the fact that Megabase 2006, which has just over 3.2 million games, contains only two examples of this position. Both were old and obscure encounters, where the White players respectively chose 12 f4 and 12 Qg3, both winning.

12...Qxf2 13 Nf6+ Kh8 14 Nc7

14...Be6?

Clearly, this is not a position for the faint-hearted, but this looks too optimistic. Black should try 14...Rb8, when the position is still very unclear.

15 Bxe6 Rad8

The imaginative point of Black’s last move, but it fails tactically. 16 Qa3? fxe6 now wins material for Black, but White can simply self-pin on the d-file.

16 Bd7 Qh4

The Lincolnshire Poacher could have bagged a knight by 16...Bh6+ 17 Kb1 Bf4, but after 18 Qa3 Bxc7 19 Bxc6 bxc6 20 Qc3, the position is still gone.

17 Nce8 Rfxe8 18 Nxe8 Be5?

Shortening the agony.

19 Qf8# 1–0

More nuts than a fruitcake

FM Steve Giddins reports on round 7

A few minutes into the playing session today, Dave Clayton, who is in charge of the excellent live games relay, came up to me, brandishing a handful of evil-looking brown objects, which bore a suspicious resemblance to animal droppings. “Here’s a challenge for you”, he said. “See if you can find a way to work these into your report. They’re hazelnuts, grown on Brett Lund’s allotment”. I am always eager to rise to a challenge, but this one does pose something of a problem. If I were John Henderson, legendary former chess correspondent of The Scotsman newspaper, it would be easy. I could just recycle his favourite joke about chessplayers showing off their games in the hotel lobby, and the manager expelling them, on the grounds that he couldn’t stand “chess nuts boasting in an open foyer”. I, on the other hand, could never stoop so low.

Fortunately, the players today cooperated very generously in providing some fairly nutty happenings. Not only did we have cases of people playing on when large lumps of material down (a whole rook in one case, and bare K v K+Q+N+2Ps in another!), but we also had some pretty extraordinary blunders. Richard Britton simply left a piece en prise against Gyimesi (thereby breaking the latter’s 5-game drawing rut), whilst the end of the game White-Savory was one of the most unlikely I have ever seen.

On top board, Sulskis-Williams was a sharp and furious encounter, which ended in a draw, but the result might have been different had Williams played 21...Ne5!, instead of 21...Nde7. Meanwhile, Short failed to achieve anything more than a small edge against Jones, and despite trying for some time, he could only draw. “That’s what you get for analysing Rublevsky’s games!”, a disappointed Short commented afterwards, Russian GM Sergey Rublevsky being the world’s leading authority on 3 Bb5+ in the Sicilian.

McShane won a long and highly obscure game against Deveraux, whilst Stephen Gordon moved further up the table by beating Miezis. The young Oldham talent is really coming of age in this tournament, and this was another excellent result. It was a bad day all round for Latvia, as Meijers also lost, after he allowed a rook to stray into enemy territory, only to see it trapped behind the Brandenburg gate. The other great hope of Northern chess is Craig Hanley. After his round 3 debacle, he has won 4 games in a row, to move within half a point of the lead. Today he added the excellent scalp of Thomas Luther, who misplayed some complications and got a knight trapped on the edge of the board.

For Mark Hebden, this tournament has been a tale of missed opportunities, and today saw another half point slip through his fingers. When it comes to opening ideas, Mark’s mind is almost as fertile as Brett Lund’s allotment, and today his latest wrinkle in the Barry (5 Qd2 instead of 5 e3) soon brought him a substantial advantage. The computer suggests that at move 19, White can just take the offered piece, but Mark’s choice also gives a clear advantage in the ending. Unfortunately, he lost much of it by 27 Rfe1?, when instead, 27 Rae1 would have set up Bd1-c2, with excellent winning chances.

Amongst the other games, I would single out Colin McNab’s endgame against Karttunen. This has certainly been the tournament for unusual endgames, with three examples of R+B v R. Today we had a much rarer ending still, that of 2N’s v P, with Colin giving a textbook example of how to corral the enemy king in such positions.

This ending of 2Ns v P was first analysed by the great Soviet endgame study composer Lev Troitzky in the first half of the 20^th century. Although done entirely without computers, his analysis has proved remarkably accurate, so much so that when John Nunn wrote his definitive, computer-aided book “Secrets of Pawnless Endings”, he did not bother to cover this ending, because he had nothing to add to Troitzky’s own analysis. Troitzky indicated a line, behind which the Black pawn must stand, if the ending is to be winning. Here, the pawn is behind the critical line. The winning plan is to leave one knight blockading the pawn, whilst the other knight helps its king to round up the enemy king, and drive it into the corner. Once this is done, the second knight can give up the blockade and come over to the corner, to give mate.

59 Ngf5 Ke6 60 Ke4 Kd7 61 Kd5 Kc7

Black heads as far as possible from the blockading knight on h4.

62 Nd4 Kd7 63 Nc6 Kc7 64 Ne5

The last two moves are the standard way to restrict the enemy king in this ending.

64...Kb6 65 Kc4 Ka5 66 Nd7 Ka4 67 Nb6+ Ka5 68 Kc5 Ka6 69 Nc4 Kb7 70 Kd6

The Black King is gradually surrounded and prevented from escaping from the corner.

70...Kc8 71 Na5 Kb8

If 71...Kd8 72 Nb7+ and the Black King can only choose whether to be driven into the a8 or h8 corners.

72 Kd7 Ka8 73 Kc7 Ka7 74 Nb3 Ka6 75 Kc6 Ka7 76 Nc5 Kb8 77 Kd7 Ka7 78 Kc7

Now the Black King is trapped, and it only remains to bring up the other knight, to administer the coup de grace.

78...Ka8 79 Nf5 h4 80 Nd6 1–0

It is mate after 80...h3 81 Nb5 h2 82 Nd7 h1(Q) 83 Nb6 mate. Excellent technique from the Scottish GM.

Lightning never strikes...three times?

FM Steve Giddins reports on round 6

It was another day of fighting chess at the EU Championships, and also another excellent day for the English.

The top board game between Williams and Short almost provided a major upset, as Short was, by his own admission “dead lost”. His troubles started with the move 18...c6?, condemned by the top seed as “a nervous move” (18...Qh6 is OK for Black). Williams took energetic advantage with the central break 21 e5, and by move 30 was clearly winning. 34 e6 was one good alternative, but Williams’ chosen line should also have been sufficient. He made things harder by not retaining his h-pawn on move 38, and a move later, feeling that he had spoilt things, he offered a draw. Even in the final position, White has much the better chances, and Short was certainly relieved to emerge unscathed.

Sulskis joined the leaders by beating Medvegy on board 2, after a crashing blunder by the latter at move 33. The fatal move was accompanied by a draw offer, something which did not impress Sulskis, who exchanged a few sharp words with his opponent after the game. The rest of the significant winners today were all English. McShane bounced back from yesterday’s disappointment to beat Karttunen, whilst Gawain Jones trounced Bischoff with the black pieces, destroying his GM opponent with a standard Bxh2+ Greek Gift sacrifice. Another young English player who has been very impressive in this tournament is Stephen Gordon, and he scored a further excellent win today, crushing Luis Galego with Black.

Hebden had an excellent chance to make further progress, after Haslinger over-extended himself seriously with 14 c5? The immediate 14...Bxe5 is possibly even better than Hebden’s choice, but even so, he soon forced an ending with an extra pawn. However, in the face of stiff resistance, he was unable to convert the advantage, and had to settle for a draw after 80 moves. Max Devereaux continued his superb run of form, by beating Gormally with Black. Amazingly, the FM is now unbeaten in his last 17 games against grandmasters! Martin Taylor also put up an excellent result, clinging on tenaciously in a bad position and with no time on his clock, to hold Gyimesi.

Finally, lower down the draw, my personal nightmare came true. Not only did we get another ending of R+B v R, our third of the tournament, but this one involved a Lithuanian, the very nation whose algebraic notation uses R for bishop and B for rook!  Fortunately for me, Dagne Ciuksyte’s opponent was John Littlewood, who gets his R’s and B’s the right way round, so I managed to key in the whole game without ending up being sectioned under the Mental Health Act. Unfortunately for John, he failed to hold the ending, blundering fatally with 98...Rg7?. Instead, a rook move along the first rank would hold.

Bischoff,Klaus (2533) - Jones,Gawain (2416)

EU Championship Liverpool (6.5), 11.09.2006

1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 c5 3 Nf3

Declining the invitation to sharper play after 3 d5, but this quiet line has not scored well for White in recent years.

3...cxd4 4 Nxd4 e5

The sharpest response, and almost certainly the best. Black gambits a pawn for excellent compensation.

5 Nb5 d5 6 cxd5 Bc5 7 N5c3 0–0 8 e3 e4 9 Be2 Qe7 10 a3 Rd8 11 Nd2 Nxd5 12 Nxd5 Rxd5 13 Qc2 Bf5 14 b4 Bb6 15 Bb2 Nc6 16 0–0 Bc7

Surprisingly, this is the first novelty. A youthful Kasparov preferred 16...Qg5 against Mihalchishin (USSR Ch 1981), winning handily.

17 Rfd1 Rc8

The opening has been a complete success for Black, who has regained the pawn and stands clearly better. The White Queen is short of good squares.

18 Qb3 Be6 19 Qa4 b5!?

Preparing his next move, by deflecting the White Bishop from control of the h5 square.

20 Bxb5

20...Bxh2+! 21 Kxh2 Qh4+ 22 Kg1 Rh5 23 f4?!

A critical moment. 23 f3 may be a stronger alternative, when it is not clear that Black has better than perpetual check.

23...Qh2+ 24 Kf2 Rh3

This is the difference. With his pawn on f3, White would now have 25 Nxe4, but here, that move would be met by 25...Bg4 26 Bxc6 Rf3+ with a virulent attack. Nonetheless, this is what White has to try, since after the move in the game, he is demonstrably losing.

25 Nf1? Rf3+ 26 Ke1 Qxg2 27 Rd2 Qg1?!

Slightly spoiling things. 27...Qh1 is more accurate when the extra threat of a check on h4 leaves White defenceless.

28 Rad1?

Missing his chance. 28 Qa6! is much more tenacious, although Black should still win after 28...Rxe3+ 29 Be2 Bh3.

28...Bh3 29 Qa6 Rxe3+ 30 Re2

If 30 Be2 Qxf1 mate.

30...Qxf1+ 31 Kd2 Rd8+ 0–1 Mate is forced.