39th Chess Olympiad Khanty-Mansiysk 2010 (7)
England lose to Belarussia Ukraine lead after 7
IM Malcolm Pein - Thursday 30th September 2010
Malcolm Pein looks at the disappointing loss of the England team to Belarussia and examines the fine win of Vassily Ivanchuk of Baadur Jobava.
Baadur Jobava at the start of his loss against Ivanchuk. Photo © Albran. | http://www.chess.co.uk/twic
After a fine victory over Norway, England subsided to a 1-3 defeat at the hands of a lower rated Belarussian team in the seventh round of the Chess Olympiad and their medal chances look remote. Nigel Short and Davd Howell lost as Michael Adams and Gawain Jones drew.
Ukraine lead on 13/14 match points, thanks to Vassily Ivanchuk's wonderful run. Ivanchuk took his personal score to 5/5 by defeating Peter Leko as Ukraine scored a comfortable win over Hungary. He won again in round six, beating Jobava Baadur as his team overcame Georgia. Hungary, Russia I and Azerbaijan are joint second on 12/14.
Azerbaijan won the politically charged match of the day, against Armenia, avenging some previous defeats. Russia I defeated their second team and once again it was Sergey Karjakin who scored the win. Karjakin has 5.5/6, a performance surpassed only by Ivanchuk.
England are in 34th place on 9/14, Scotland are 82nd on 7/14 and Wales 102nd on 6/14. Four rounds remain.
Ivanchuk plays the Fantasy Variation and some of this game is pure fantasy. 4.a3, an original idea, intends Nc3 and Be3 when Qxb2 allows Na4 trapping the queen. Jobava's vigorous response was justifiable, but winning Ivanchuk's queen looks wrong. Rook, bishop, knight and pawn is too much compensation. One can only marvel at Ivanchuk's genius. With his king in the middle, he calmly moves his only active piece to the back rank with 15.Bd1 and develops his rooks on move 19 and 21.
V Ivanchuk - B Jobava
Ukraine v Georgia
Caro Kann Fantasy
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.f3 Qb6 4.a3 e5 5.exd5 Nf6 6.dxe5 Bc5 7.exf6 Bf2+ 8.Ke2 0-0
(8...Bxg1 9.Rxg1 Qxg1 10.fxg7 Rg8 11.Bh6 Qxh2 12.Qd2 f6 13.Kf2! is very good for White)
9.Qd2 Re8+
(9...Bxg1 10.Kd1 Bd4 11.fxg7 Bxg7 12.Nc3 looks unclear. White's king will be unsafe for a long time)
10.Kd1
Baadur Jobava
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Vassily Ivanchuk
Position after 10.Kd1
10...Re1+ 11.Qxe1 Bxe1 12.Kxe1 Bf5 13.Be2 Nd7 14.dxc6 bxc6 15.Bd1 Re8+ 16.Ne2 Nxf6 17.Nbc3 Bc8 18.a4 a5 19.Rf1! Ba6 20.Rf2 h5 21.Ra3! h4 22.g3 h3 23.g4 Rd8 24.Nf4 Nd7 25.Rb3 Qd4 26.Nfe2 Re8 27.Ne4 Qxa4 28.Bd2 Qa1 29.Bc3 Ne5? 30.Ra3! Qb1 31.Nd2!
Baadur Jobava
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Vassily Ivanchuk
Position after 31.Nd2! the queen is trapped.
31...Qc1 32.Rxa5 Ng6 33.Rxa6 Nf4 34.Ra8! 1-0
Black can take the rook but he loses his queen.
Another huge upset
M Bluvshtein - V Topalov
Canada - Bulgaria
King's Indian
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.h3 Na6 7.Bg5 c6 8.Be2 e5 9.d5 h6 10.Be3 Nh5 11.dxc6 bxc6 12.Qd2 Nf4 13.0-0 f5 14.Bxf4 exf4 15.exf5 Bxf5 16.Rad1 Rb8 17.Nd4 Bd7 18.Bf3 Qb6 19.Nb3 Be5 20.Ne4 Rbd8 21.Qe2 c5 22.Rd2 Rfe8 23.Rfd1 Bf5? 24.Nxd6! Bxd6 25.Rxd6 Rxe2 26.Rxd8+ Kf7 27.Bxe2 Ke7 28.Bg4 Bxg4 29.hxg4 Qxd8 30.Rxd8 Kxd8 31.Kf1 Ke7 32.Ke2 Kd6 33.a3 Nb8 34.Kf3 Ke5 35.Nxc5 g5 36.Nb3 Nd7 37.Ke2 Kd6 38.f3 Ne5 39.Na5 Kc5 40.b4+ Kd4 41.c5 Kd5 42.Kd2 1-0
