DoughBoy
Norway Chess 2013 / Final
Sergey Karjakin
Karjakin wins the Norway Chess Tournament of 2013 by a point and a half – Wow – and look at the opposition; a World Champion and the highest rated player on the planet.
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# |
Name |
ELO |
Pts |
S-B |
| 1 | Karjakin, Sergey | 2786 | 6 | 24 |
| 2 | Carlsen, Magnus | 2872 | 5.5 | 22.75 |
| Nakamura, Hikaru | 2767 | 5.5 | 21.25 | |
| 4 | Svidler, Peter | 2747 | 5 | 21.5 |
| Aronian, Levon | 2809 | 5 | 20.5 | |
| Anand, Viswanathan | 2783 | 5 | 19.25 | |
| 7 | Wang, Hao | 2743 | 4.5 | 21.5 |
| 8 | Topalov, Veselin | 2771 | 4 | 18 |
| 9 | Radjabov, Teimour | 2793 | 3 | 10.75 |
| 10 | Hammer, Jon Ludvig | 2631 | 1.5 | 6.5 |
For All Games of the Final Round – See Comments.
http://norwaychess.com/
Norway Chess 2013 / Round 7
by National Life Master Loal Davis
Teimour Radjabov |
Viswanathan Anand |
Anand has a very long and strong history of playing the Black side of the Queen’s Gambit Accepted. He played it in his youth in its original form and later gravitated towards the Meran Defense and the Open Catalan; all are similar in that Black plays an relatively early dxc4. Yes a little time is lost and short term central control, but Black has an internal harmony of all of his pieces, especially the Bishops which in other (most) variations of the Queen’s Gambit are confined and a constant nuisance.
In the 7th round of Normay Chess, Vishy again shows us the pluses associated with opening the game up.
Radjabov,Teimour (2745) – Anand,Viswanathan (2783) Norway Chess 2013 Stavanger (7), 15.05.2013
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.g3 dxc4
The Open Catalan. When you think about it, it’s a Queen’s Gambit Accepted.
5.Bg2 c5 6.Qa4+ Bd7
[Black can also play 6...Nbd7 and liberate the Queenside by a6/b5 (with tempo)/Bb7 - and if necessary (often is with a Bishop on g2) Rb8 (but watch out for Bf4).
Then Black's Bishops have nice long open diagonals while he fights for central control. It can also happen that Black ends up with a Queenside majority of Pawns for the ending.]
7.Qxc4 Bc6 8.0–0
The Pawn on c5 usually ends up being a temporary Pawn sacrifice and White may well be better off ignoring it.
8…Nbd7 9.Nc3 Rc8 10.Be3 b5
11.Qd3
[11.Nxb5 cxd4 12.Nxa7 Bxf3 13.Qxc8 Qxc8 14.Nxc8 Bxg2 15.Kxg2 dxe3 and White is a mess.]
11…b4 12.Nb1 c4
There’s that Queenside majority.
13.Qc2 Be7 14.a3 b3
Black refuses (with tempo) to let the White Rook out, but the Queenside Majority is now not so mobiile.
15.Qc1 Nb6 16.Nc3 Nfd5 17.Bd2 0–0 18.Ne5 Nxc3 19.Bxc3 Bxg2 20.Kxg2 Na4 21.Re1 f5
At first this looked strange to me, but Anand wants to play Bf6 and not be bothered by Ng4.
22.f3 Bg5 23.e3 Bf6
Black is better. Look at that Rook on a1.
24.e4 Bxe5
Going for the ending. The d3 square is soft.
25.dxe5 fxe4 26.Rxe4 Qd3 27.Re3 Qd5 28.Qe1 Rfd8
29.Rc1 Qb5 30.Rd1 Rd3
Beautiful play by Anand; comletely developed, central control/pressure and White’s Bishop is playing the role of a Big Pawn.
31.Rexd3 cxd3 32.Bd4 Qc4 33.Be3 Nxb2 34.Rc1 d2
[34.Rc1 d2 35.Bxd2 (35.Qxd2 Qxc1 36.Qxc1 Rxc1 37.Bxc1 Nd3 and the Pawn from the Queenside Majority waltzes in.) 35...Nd3 36.Rxc4 Nxe1+ 37.Bxe1 Rxc4]
0–1
U.S. Championship 2013 / Final
Gata Kamsky
Gata Kamsky won the playoffs with Alejandro Ramirez.
The Final game was a must-win situation in sudden death for Kamsky (Diagram).
Congratulations Gata ! ! U.S. Chess Champion for 2013.
U.S. Championsips 2013 / Rnd 9
by National Life Master Loal Davis
Alejandro Ramirez
Alejandro Ramirez and Gata Kamsky have tied for first in the 2013 U.S. Championship.
Ramirez and Kamsky will have a playoff on Monday.
Irina Krush finished as undisputed Women’s Champion of 2013; she was last years winner and continues her reign.
Ramirez won his last round game against former U.S. Champion Larry Christiansen (Diagram).
For All Decisive Games in Round 9 – See Comments.
Norway Chess 2013 / Rnd 4
by National Life Master Loal Davis
Hikaru Nakamura won a game in the fourth round of Norway Chess against the World Champion Viswanathan Anand.
Anand was unrecognizable. Bad form? I’m at a loss to explain so many slips in a row. Explanation or not, Nakamura was right there to pick up the pieces and he put the game away very strongly.
In the first Diagram (Top/Left) the position appears flat equal. Here – Black to play – Hikaru tried 24. b4.
If the Pawn was simply ignored and met by centralization – say 25. Rd2 (Diagram Top/Right) then Black has many problems to solve; back rank, Pawn on e5, and the newly offered Pawn on b4.
Even after the Pawn was taken 24. …. b4 25. cxb4 Nc6 26. Rd2 could still have been played.
Instead Anand opted for 26. Ba4 which resulted in 26. …. Nxb4 27. Qxe5 Qe7 28. Qh5 (Diagram Bottom/Left).
Here I think 28. Qc3 may have been better. There’s a lot to be said for going after that isolated c Pawn.
After 28… Nxa2 there was a chance to play 29. Ne5 which still appears flat equal.
Instead Anand played 29. g3 and after 29. …. Nc1 30. Rc2 Nd3 Diagram (Bottom/Right) Nakamura had a bone in White’s throat that could not be removed.
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Black went on to win the game.
A World Champion taken down hard. Congratulations to Nakamura.
U.S. Championsips 2013 / Rnd 8
by National Life Master Loal Davis
Irina Krush won a game in the 8th Round that smacks of intimidation; not hard to do in this case, as she was, and still is, the tournament leader in the Women’s Section. She also outdistanced her opponent by approximately 150 rating points and is the reigning U.S. Women’s Champion. One is supposed to put all that aside and look at the board – easy to say that from the sidelines – it’s another to have the position in front of you with a clock ticking at your elbow. Let’s take a look.
On White’s 41st move Abrahamyan played f4 (Diagram Top/Left) with an obvious threat of f5 with a fork.
By simply playing 41. …. Rg7, Black could have maintained a substantial plus and most likely gone on to win the game – which she did anyway.
Instead Krush played 41. …. g3 which tossed the game in the next few moves to move 43. …. g2 (Diagram Top/Right).
Scary – Right? Yet it was here that White crumbled.
By playing 44. Qd5 White could have set up a possible e7+ with the threat to promote combined with removing Black’s Queen from supporting the g1 Queening square.
This may well have produced 44. Qd5 Qxd5 45. exd5 g1=Q 46. Bxh7+ Kf8 47. Rxg1 Rxg1+ 48. Kc2 Rg2+ 49. Kd3 Rg3+ 50. Ke4 a4 51. Bg6 Rxg6 52. Rh8+ Ke7 53. Rh7+ (Diagram Bottom/Left) with a probable draw.
Now this is all not forced, but very plausible, and certainly worth a shot.
Instead Abrahamyan believed Black and played 44. e7 which after 44. ….Ra8 produced the Diagram Bottom/Right.
Here, Black is firmly in control and went on to win the game. Interesting.
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For All Decisive Games (Round 8) – See Comments.
Norway Chess 2013
Viswanathan Anand |
Veselin Topalov |
In the third round of Norway Chess, Anand played a brilliant game. In the Diagram position White could have played Bb3 with the same idea; as a matter of fact Anand thought that may well have been a better move than what he played. Better or not, the move he played was one for the books.
U.S. Championsips 2013 / Rnd 7
by National Life Master Loal Davis
Timur Gareev
Gareev kicked off the U.S. Championship this year by giving a 33 board blindfold simultaneous (non-defeated); see http://www.saintlouischessclub.org/
His game in the 7th round against Ray Robson was something to behold. Not just White; both players gave it their all. I don’t think anyone could have been disappointed if the result of game were different – except for the players themselves. There were many/several times when White’s advantage could (I believe) have been consolidated by simpler moves. There is something to be said for Violence. If you knew that there was going to be a car wreck at an intersection at a specific time, would you be at least a little curious? Both players seemed hell bent on violence throughout this game. Sometimes because desperation just called for it, other times because it was the disposition of the players – again – both players. Although I have a hard time believing in some of these moves, if I knew there was going to be a car wreck – well you get the idea.
Gareev started to go ballistic on move five with h4 (Diagram). It reminded me of some of the early Frank Marshall games where the principle behind the move may not be all that great – but I love the intent. Enjoy.
For All Decisive Games in the 7th Round – See Comments.
U.S. Championsips 2013 / Rnd 6
by National Life Master Loal Davis
Conrad Holt
The sixth round featured a nice tactical slugfest between Larry Christiansen and Conrad Holt. Larry is a wily tactician, but came up short today against a youngster who had remarkably calm insight into the turbulent winds that blew across the board.
With White about to make his 43rd move (Diagram Top/Left) Larry could have played
43. d5 Qd6, 44. Rc8 Rh4,45. Qe8 Re4, 46. Qc6 with very strong pressure
or
43. d5 Qf6, 44. Rc8 Rxe3, 45. fxe3 Qa6, 46. Qe8 again with tremendous pressure and a probable win.
Instead he played 43. Qf3 and got caught in a tactical snare after Black (Holt) played 43. ….. Qc6 (Diagram Top/Right).
Here Black threatens Rg4+ with an exposed attack winning White’s Queen on f3; not to mention the hanging Rook on a8.
Not to be outdone (at least not yet), White plays the very tricky 44. Ra7 (Diagram Bottom/Left).
Should Black blindly continue with his “winning the Queen trick”, he comes up short. The Rg4+ would be captured by the Knight. Yes Black can win the Queen, but White then plays Nf6+ Kh8, and Rh7# (Arabian Mate).
Black saw through all of this and played a beautiful stinger 44. ….. Bc5 !
This attacks the Rook anew and provides an escape from Larry’s intended mate by vacating the f8 square.
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White struggled on valiantly, but succumbed in the end.
For All Decisive Games of the 6th Round – See Comments.
U.S. Championsips 2013 / Rnd 5
by National Life Master Loal Davis
Alexander Stripunsky
Wilhelm Steinitz would be proud that his “restrained” method of handling the White side of the Ruy Lopez is very much in vogue today.
Stripunsky utilized the Steinitz “method” and by move 15 (Diagram) had a good center, was beginning to expand, and had emulated the Steinitz Knight Maneuver of Nbd2/f1 enroute to e3 or g3 and into f5 or d5. At this point Black gave a kick with his g Pawn in what appeared to be an attempt to win a central Pawn. This merely facilitated a Knight tour into the f5 weakness and with it Black’s King position was decimated. In the final position Black had indeed won his Pawn, but nothing could stop Qd3/Qh7 and Black didn’t want to see any more. This was the shortest game of the round.
Irina Krush now is the only participant in both the U.S. Championship and the Women’s Championship with a perfect score.
Playing Black today, she played a strong Nimzo-Indian that transformed into a quasi-Benoni. Irina looked to be in control during the final tactical phase (Diagram).
For All Decisive Games of the 5th Round – See Comments.
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