CNMI - Sports
64: Anand’s bête noire
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- Published on Friday, August 03, 2012 00:00
- Written by By Zaldy Dandan - Editor
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In Jermuk, Armenia, women’s world champ Hou Yifan finished first at the women’s grand prix by half-a-point only after she lost in the last round against Ukraine’s Lahno who has a plus score against the young Chinese (+4 -2 = 5). At the elite Biel Chess Festival, world’s numero uno Carlsen of Norway is on the verge of another triumph as I write this. In North Shields, England, GM Gawain Jones still leads in the ongoing British championship with one more round to go. At Boracay in central Philippines, GM Paragua won the national championship with Sadorra, Makiling and the eternal warrior, Torre, finishing 1.5 points behind. The championship also served as a qualifying event for this year’s Chess Olympics in Istanbul, and so now, the Philippine line-up is complete: GM Wesley So, 2650; GM Oliver Barbosa, 2554; GM Mark Paragua, 2508; GM Eugenio Torre, 2469; and IM Oliver Dimakiling, 2415. As the highest rated Filipino player, So was automatically seeded. Barbosa, who finished 5th-7th at Boracay, is on the team because he has the best international tournament record this year. The other three got in by virtue of their superb performances at Boracay. Asia’s first grandmaster and first world championship candidate, the 60-year-old Torre, will make history once again in his 21st appearance at the Chess Olympics. Game of the week. Our featured partie, the best of Chess Informant 113, shows the Armenian GM in fine form against the world champ no less. Indeed, since Kasparov’s retirement, Levon has been the Indian superstar’s toughest opponent. Their record in classical games is 6 to 1 with 13 draws in Aronian’s favor. A match between the two would have been extremely interesting, but the Armenian was edged by Grischuk in last year’s candidates quarterfinals, and Anand ended up facing Gelfand in what is now known as the most boring world championship match in history. Mil. Perunovic annotates.
White: L. Aronian (2807)
Black: V. Anand (2817)
Queen’s Gambit Accepted
Sao Paulo/Bilbao 2011
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 dc4 5.e4 Bb4 6.Bc4 Ne4 7.0-0 Nf6 8.Qa4 Nc6 9.Bg5 N [9.Ne5 Rb8 a) 10.d5 Bc3 11.Nc6 bc6 12.bc3 (12.de6!?) Nd5 13.Qc6 Bd7 14.Qc5 with compensation; b) 10.Nc6 bc6 11.Qc6 Qd7 12.Qd7 Bd7 13.Bg5 0-0 14.Rfc1 and White is slightly better] Be7 [9...Bc3 10.bc3 0-0 11.Rab1 with compensation] 10.Bf6 Bf6 11.d5 ed5 12.Rfe1 Be6 13.Bd5 [13.Ba6! ba6 (13...Qc8 14.Nd5 0-0 15.Nf6 gf6 16.Bb5 and White is slightly better) 14.Qc6 Kf8 15.Rad1 a) 15...Bc3 16.bc3 a1) 16...g6 17.Ng5! (17.Re6 fe6 18.Nd4 Kf7 19.Qe6 Kg7 20.Qe5 Kf7 21.Ne6 Qd6 22.Qg7 Ke6 23.Re1 Kf5 24.Re3 Raf8 25.Rf3 Kg5 26.Rg3 Kf5 equal) Kg7 18.Ne6 fe6 19.Re6 and White is superior; a2) 16...Rb8 17.Qa6; b) 15...Rb8 16.Nd5 Qd6 17.Qd6 cd6 18.b3 Bd8] 0-0 14.Be6 fe6 15.Rad1 [15.Re6 Qd7 16.Re2 Kh8 17.Rd1 Qf7 equal] Qe8 16.Ne4 Qe7 [16...Rd8 17.Rd8 Qd8 18.Qb3 Nd4 19.Nd4 Bd4 20.Qe6 Kh8 equal] 17.Qb3 Rab8? [17...Rad8 18.Qb7 Nd4 equal] 18.Nf6 Rf6 19.Ng5 Qb4 20.Qc2 20...Rg6? [20...g6 21.a3 Qg4 22.Ne4 Rf7 23.f3 Qf4 24.Nc5 and White is slightly better] 21.Re4 Qa5 22.h4 Re8 23.Rd7 h6 24.b4 [24.Re2 and White is winning] Qf5 [24...Qb5 25.a4 Nb4 26.Qc7 Nd5 (26...Qa4 27.Qd8! Rf8 28.Rf4 and White is winning) 27.ab5 Nc7 28.Nf3 Nb5 29.Ne5 Rf6 30.Rg4 and White is winning] 25.Re6! and 1-0.
Puzzler.
White: Ka5, Nb5, Qc1, Bd3, pawn on d4
Black: Kd5, Ne5, pawns on a6 and f3
White to play and mate in three moves.
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