Almost 2,000 woodpushers are competing in all kinds of events, which include, ChessBase reports, “side-shows such as occasional chess variants competitions, chess composition, etc. This year, an endgame study solving competition will be held on Jan. 31, which is expected to attract some of the strongest solvers in the world, headed by [veteran British GM] John Nunn, a double world champion in the problem-solving field.”
There are three 14-player round-robin tournaments for the A, B, C groups, the participants of which are selected based on the players’ ratings. The top guns are on the A list: Adams, Aronian, Carlsen, Ivanchuk, Kamsky, Karjakin, Morozevich among other highly rated GMs.
This year’s B group has an average rating of 2641, making it a category 16 event. The top seed is India’s Krishnan Sasikiran who is competing with former FIDE champ Rustam Kasimdzhanov, Britain’s ex-world championship challenger Nigel Short, the legendary Brazilian GM Henrique Mecking, who turned 57 last week, and the14-year-old Chinese girl Hou Yifan, who scalped Short in the same tournament last year.
Game of the week. Last year, writes Steve Giddins who annotates this week’s featured partie, “Short’s participation in the B Group provided one of the biggest stories of the whole event, after his pre-game handshake was refused by [Topalov’s second] Cheparinov. But this incident somewhat overshadowed one of Short’s best tournament performances in years, as he scored +4, to finish equal second behind tournament winner Movsesian. [After three rounds this year], Wijk has again been a happy hunting ground for Nigel. In round two, he wielded his QGD in characteristic fashion, to score a fine win as Black against Vallejo, and then in round three, produced the following demolition of an ultra-solid member of the young Dutch GM generation.”
White: N. Short (2663)
Black: E. L’Ami (2603)
Four Knights Game
Corus B, Wijk aan Zee 2009
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6. Erwin usually defends the Spanish, often using the Berlin Wall, but in last year’s Wijk aan Zee B Group, Short crushed him with the Evans Gambit. L’Ami therefore heads for a Petroff, but is soon surprised by another 19th century weapon. 3.Nc3 Nc6 4.Bb5. Short was the first contemporary GM to revive the Four Knights, during the early 1990s. 4…Nd4. Rubinstein’s Defense, which was largely responsible for killing off the Four Knights in the early 20th century. However, it soon becomes apparent that L’Ami is not too familiar with its finer points. 5.Nxe5!? The least popular choice for White in this position. The 1990s revival of the Four Knights concentrated on the moves 5.Ba4, 5.Bc4 and 5.0–0. 5…Nxb5?! Already a perceptible inaccuracy. Theory recommends 5…Qe7 6.f4 Nxb5 7.Nxb5 d6 8.Nf3 Qxe4+ with equality. Speaking to reporters after the game, Short made a very interesting point about the cause of Black’s defeat in this game. As he explained, many players nowadays, especially young players, are so used to rattling out huge amounts of pre-game opening preparation, that they are simply not used to thinking at a very early stage of the game. Here, after barely five minutes’ play, L’Ami was already out of his book knowledge, and needed to start thinking deeply about the position. Instead, he played a couple of plausible-looking moves rather quickly, but they proved to be errors. In addition, the position is rather more critical than it appears, and by the time L’Ami started really thinking about the position, it was too late — he was already practically lost. 6.Nxb5 c6. Black already has problems regaining his pawn, since 6…Nxe4? 7.Qe2 is obviously terrible. 7.Nc3 Qe7 8.Nf3 Nxe4 9.0–0 Nxc3 10.dxc3 d5 11.Bg5. The position is already a disaster for Black. As Bobby Fischer pointed out, annotating his game against Celle in “My Sixty Memorable Games,” “A mistake is usually much more serious in these open games.” Short goes on to dispose of his opponent in thoroughly convincing style, but it must be admitted that his task was not especially difficult, as White’s position almost plays itself. 11…Qd6 12.Re1+ Be6 13.Nd4 c5. Played after long thought, but the position is already gone. The main point is that the natural 13…Be7 walks into the cruncher 14.Nf5! e.g., 14…Bxf5 15.Rxe7+ Kf8 16.Rxb7 with an extra pawn and an overwhelming position. 14.Nxe6 fxe6 15.Qh5+ g6 16.Qg4 Kf7. 16…e5 17.Rad1 Bg7 18.Qf3 is equally hopeless. 17.c4 d4 18.Qf3+ Kg8 19.Bf6 1–0. L’Ami had had enough punishment for one day. After the game, Short revealed that he had drawn extra motivation for this game, from the discovery that, during the Sofia tournament in 2008, his opponent had worked as Ivan Cheparinov’s second!
Puzzler.
White — Bd7, Nd5, Kf4, Bg7, pawns on h6 and h4
Black — pawn on f5, Bh5, Kh7, Rh8
White to play and mate in five moves.
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