74th Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2012 (1)
74th Tata Steel Chess Tournament Opens
IM Malcolm Pein - Saturday 14th January 2012
IM Malcolm Pein looks forward to the 74th Tata Steel Chess Tournament which starts on 14th January 2012. Matthew Sadler is the only English player competing in the C-Group.
Matthew Sadler and Yochanan Afek. Photo © Fred Lucas. | http://www.fredlucas.eu/
The 74th Tata Steel Chess Tournament begins today in its traditional home of Wijk aan Zee, a Dutch seaside village. Group A will be the strongest ever with an average rating of 2752. This exceeds the 2008 anniversary edition when the average was 2740. There is one newcomer, Vugar Gashimov from Azerbaijan who rose to number 10in the latest rating list.
It will be interesting to see the form of Veselin Topalov, who went into semi retirement following his defeat in the WCC final by Vishy Anand in 2010, and that of Boris Gelfand, who will challenge Anand for the world title in May. Players who are preparing for a world title match often play poorly and are careful not to reveal too much information.
The US number one Hikaru Nakamura returns to defend his title of Tata Steel Chess champion but the favourite will, as ever, be the world number one Magnus Carlsen. If Nakamura is to challenge for the title again, he must halt his losing streak against Carlsen and, just occasionally, curb some of his aggressive instincts. Nakamura threw away first prize at Reggio Emilia last week when he lost his last three games.
The home fans will be keenly following the 17 year old prodigy Anish Giri who triumphed at Reggio and Loek van Wely, who has taken a year off top flight chess but played a lot of Open events in the USA.
British interest will be focussed on the return to closed tournaments of Matthew Sadler. Sadler will be the top seed in Group C. He effectively gave up top flight chess in 1999 and stopped altogether from 2004-2010. This year he made a spectacular return and won tournaments in Barcelona and Oslo. Chess is still a hobby for Sadler but he and Luke McShane, who turned down a place in Group A this year, must be the world's strongest amateurs.
One of Sadler's finest victories which came near the end of his first career. He was consistently strong with black as he was so well prepared in the Sicilian Najdorf and Queen's Gambit Accepted.
A Morozevich - M Sadler
EU Club Cup Reykjavik 1999
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e5 7.Nb3 Be6 8.f3 Be7 9.Qd2 h5
A radical way of preventing the standard attack of g2-g4. Black has to remain watchful on the kingside as he has weakened his position there
10.Be2 Nbd7 11.0-0 Rc8 12.a4
White prevents Black's pawn thrust b7-b5
12...g6 13.a5 h4 14.Nc1 Qc7 15.Rd1 Kf8
Black castles by hand. Perhaps White should have organised f2-f4
16.Bf1 Kg7 17.Bf2 Rcd8 18.Qe1 Rde8 19.Rd2 Rh7 20.Qd1 Kg8
All quite mysterious but there is a hidden agenda
21.Nd3 d5!? 22.exd5 Bf5 23.Ra4 e4! 24.Nxe4 Bxe4 25.fxe4 Bd6! 26.e5! Nxe5 27.Nxe5 Rxe5 28.Rc4 Qxa5 29.Bd4 Rf5 30.Rc8+ Kg7 31.c3 Rhh5
Sadler cleverly creates play on the kingside
32.b4 Qa3 33.Bc4
(33.Be2 Rhg5 34.Rd3)
33...Rf4 34.Bb3?
White needs this bishop near his king
34...Rhf5! 35.Bf2?
(35.Bc4 Rxd4 36.Rxd4 Qxc3)
35...Ne4 36.Bd4+ f6 37.Re2
Matthew Sadler
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Alexander Morozevich
Black to play and win
37...Qxb3! 0-1
38.Qxb3 Rf1#. 37...Rf1+! also wins.
Black completely mistimes the f5 break. 12...Nf7 was playable
S Saric - F Pancevski
17th Bosnjaci Open
1.d4 g6 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nc3 d6 4.e4 Bg7 5.Nf3 0-0 6.Be2 e5 7.Be3 Nbd7 8.d5 Ng4 9.Bg5 f6 10.Bd2 a5 11.h3 Nh6 12.g4 f5 13.Bg5 Qe8 14.gxf5 gxf5 15.Rg1 Kh8 16.Qd2 Ng8 17.exf5 Nc5 18.Nh4 Qf7 19.0-0-0 Ne7 20.Bh6 Bxh6 21.Qxh6 Nxf5 22.Ng6+ 1-0
F Pancevski
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S Saric
Final position after 22.Ng6+
