6th Tal Memorial 2011 (6)
15 draws in a row at the Tal Memorial
IM Malcolm Pein - Thursday 24th November 2011
IM Malcolm Pein reports on the 6th round of the Tal Memorial and looks at the final combination of Hou Yifan's win in game 6 of her Women's World Chess Championship defence against Humpy Koneru.
Nepomniachtchi against Karjakin from Round 6 was Malcolm Pein's game of the round. Photo © Michiel Abeln. | http://www.russiachess.org
Fifteen draws in a row is not quite a record, but some of the players must be growing increasingly frustrated with their missed opportunities at the Tal Memorial in Moscow. It's not for the want of trying, there were four well contested games in the sixth round, although Vasily Ivanchuk played like he couldn't wait to shake hands with Vishy Anand.
Peter Svidler's Gruenfeld Defence looked robust enough again and he defended with an idea introduced by Tony Miles and dealt comfortably with an unusual sideline played by Magnus Carlsen. Hikaru Nakamura also played the Gruenfeld and looked comfortable enough against Vladimir Kramnik. Four players shared the lead on 3.5/6.
At Tirana, the Women' World Chess Chamionship the defending
champion Hou Yifan leads 4-2 after Humpy Koneru played poorly in the
fourth and sixth games. In the fourth she launched a rash attack that
did not compensate for her ruined pawn structure and in the sixth,
went badly astray from a position where she held the advantage and
blundered into a mate. Here it is.
Hou Yifan
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Humpy Koneru
Black to play and mate in 4 moves.
Answer: 37...Ng3+ 38.hxg3 Rh5+ 0-1 37...Nf2+ is mate in 6.
The game of the round, sacrifice and counter sacrifice but Black seems to hold in all lines.
I Nepomniachtchi - S Karjakin
NImzo Indian
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 0-0 5.a3 Bxc3+ 6.Qxc3 d5 7.Bg5 c5 8.dxc5 d4 9.Qc2 e5 10.e3 h6 11.Bh4 Qe7 12.Be2 Re8 13.Rd1 a5 14.Nf3 Nc6 15.0-0 d3 16.Rxd3 e4 17.Rd6 exf3 18.Bxf6 fxe2
(18...gxf6 19.Bxf3 coming to d5 with compensation)
19.Bxe7 exf1Q+ 20.Kxf1 Rxe7 21.b3 Be6 22.Qc3 Rc7 23.e4 Re7 24.h3 f5 25.exf5 Bxf5 26.Kg1 Be6 27.Rd3 Bf5 28.Rd6 Be6 29.Rd3 Bf5 30.Rd5 Be6 31.b4 axb4 32.axb4 Rae8 33.b5 Bxd5 34.cxd5 Ne5 35.c6 bxc6 36.bxc6 Nxc6 37.Qxc6 Rd8 38.g3 Red7 39.Qe6+ Kh8 40.Kg2 draw
Vassily Smyslov
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Mikhail Tal
19.Nxf7+ Kg8 20.Nh6+ gxh6 is insufficient, What did Tal play?
Answer: 19 Qxf7!! Qa1+ 20.Kd2 Rxf7 21.Nxf7+ Kg8 22.Rxa1 Kxf7 23.Ne5+ Ke6 24.Nxc6 with decisive material advantage 24...Ne4+ 25.Ke3 Bb6+ 26.Bd4 1-0 Tal-Smyslov Candidates 1959
