Vasily Ivanchuk had lost more than 80 rating points in six months after his disastrous showing at MTel in Sofia but the mercurial Ukrainian is about to crowned Chess King of Romania as he leads the field by a point at the Tournament of Kings in Bazna.

Ivanchuk defeated Alexey Shirov in the seventh round after a study like finish.

1 Ivanchuk 5.5/7; 2 Gelfand 4.5; 3 Radjabov 4; 4 Shirov 3.5; 5 Nisipeanu 2; 6 Kamsky 1.5

Black will inevitably lose all his pawns but if he removes the white h pawn and keeps his bishop then the position with bishop and knight against bishop is a draw, 99.9% of the time but read on. Without the bishop Black is lost, bishop and knight v king is a win.

V Ivanchuk - A Shirov

67...Bh7?

(Shirov must have missed the reply because 67...g3! 68.Nxf4 Kg5 winning the h6 pawn is an easy draw. 67...g3! 68.Bxf4 Ke4 69.Nf6+?? Kxf4 70.Nxg8 g2 wins for Black)

68.Ke2!

(68.Bxf4 Ke4 69.Nf6+ Kxf4 70.Nxh7 g3 71.Kf1 Kf5 72.Nf8 Kf6 73.h7 Kg7 was Shirov's clever idea. The white king cannot approach either black pawn without allowing the other to advance so the position is a draw)

68...g3 69.Kf3

(Winning all three pawns and keeping the h6 pawn)

69...e2 70.Kxe2 g2 71.Kf2 f3 72.Bb6 Ke6 73.Nc3 Kf7 74.Be3 Kg6 75.Nd5 Kf7 76.Kxf3 Bb1 77.Nc3 Bc2 78.Kxg2 Kg6 79.Kg3 Kh5 80.Nd5 Kg6 81.Kh4 Bb1 82.Bg5 Bc2 83.Nf6 Bf5 84.h7 1-0

84.h7 Kg7 85.Bh6+ Kh8 86.Bf8 Bxh7 87.Kg5 Bd3 88.Kh6 mates, see board below.

Gata Kamsky is having a miserable event. He stands badly out of the opening and it takes only one sub optimal move to bring disaster.

A Shirov - G Kamsky

III Kings' Tournament Bazna (6)

Caro Kann Advance, Short Variation

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.Nf3 e6 5.Be2 Nd7 6.0-0 Rc8 7.b3 h6 8.c4 Bb4 9.Ba3 Qa5 10.Bb2! Qd8 11.Na3 Ne7 12.Nc2 Bxc2 13.Qxc2 0-0 14.Bd3 f6 15.a3 Ba5 16.Qe2 fxe5 17.dxe5 Bb6 18.Nd4 Bxd4 19.Bxd4 Nf5

(19...c5 20.Bb2 d4 21.f4 Nf5 22.Qe4)

20.Bc3 a5 21.Rac1 Nc5 22.Bc2 a4

(22...d4 23.Rcd1)

23.b4 Nb3 24.Rcd1 Qh4?! 25.f4 Qe7 26.g4! Nh4 27.Be1 Rc7 28.Qd3 g5

(28...g6 29.Bxh4 Qxh4 30.Qxg6+ Kh8 31.Qxe6)

29.Bxh4 gxh4 30.Qg6+ Qg7 31.Qxe6+ Kh8 32.g5 Re7 33.Qg4 hxg5 34.fxg5 1-0

in view of 34.fxg5 Rxe5 35.Rxf8+ Qxf8 36.Qxh4+ Kg8 37.Qh7#

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