73rd Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2011 (6)
McShane in joint lead after 7 in Tata Steel B-Group
IM Malcolm Pein - Monday 24th January 2011
Luke McShane beat Radaslaw Wojtaszek one of Anand's seconds in the B-Group of the Wijk aan Zee tournament. Malcolm Pein takes a look.
McShane - Wojtaszek from Round 6 of the B-Group. Photo © Michiel Abeln. | http://www.chess.co.uk/twic
Luke McShane is playing some great chess at the Tata Steel tournament at Wijk aan Zee and is joint leader of the B Group with 5/7 having led alone for the first six rounds. In round six McShane outplayed Radoslaw Wojtaszek of Poland, ranked world number twenty. Wojtaszek's games have been highlighted here many times and he is one of Vishy Anand's trainers.
McShane's fourth win of the tournament was achieved with that English favourite the Grand Prix Attack and he used a wrinkle popularised by England number one Michael Adams on the sixth move.
L McShane - R Wojtaszek
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 d6 3.f4 g6 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Bb5+ Bd7 6.Bc4 Nc6 7.d3 Na5 8.0-0 Nh6 9.Qe1
(Typical play in the Grand Prix Attack, White intends f4-f5 and Qe1-h4 harassing the knight)
9...Nxc4 10.dxc4 f5 11.e5! Be6
(To prevent e5-e6 which would cramp Black's position. Now 12.exd6 Bxc4 is playable)
12.b3 Nf7 13.exd6 Qxd6 14.Bb2 0-0 15.Rf2!
(White has pressure on the central files)
15...Rae8 16.Nb5 Qb6 17.Bxg7 Kxg7 18.a4! a5
(18...a6 19.a5 Qc6 20.Nbd4! wins)
19.Rd1 Bc8 20.Re2 e6 21.Ng5!
(A powerful move. If knights are exchanged Black must reckon with Rd1-d6 trapping his queen)
Radoslaw Wojtaszek
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Luke McShane
Position after 21.Ng5!
21...Rd8 22.Rxd8 Rxd8 23.Nxe6+ Bxe6 24.Rxe6 Rd1
(The only move but an intermezzo gains a second pawn and McShane wins without any fuss)
25.Rxg6+! hxg6 26.Qxd1 Qe6 27.Kf2 g5 28.Qd5 Qh6 29.fxg5 Qh4+ 30.Ke2 Qxh2 31.Qxb7 Kg6 32.Qc6+ Kxg5 33.Qf3 f4 34.Qh3 Qg1 35.Nc3 Nd6 36.Qf3 Qc1 37.Kd3 Qg1
Radoslaw Wojtaszek
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Luke McShane
Position after 37...Qg1
38.Qxf4+! 1-0
as 38...Kxf4 39.Ne2+ is a trivial win.
Hikaru Nakamura overtook Vishy Anand and grabbed the lead of Group A with successive wins over the Dutchmen Erwin L'Ami and Jan Smeets. Anand was held to draws by Alexander Grischuk and Magnus Carlsen. Levon Aronian and Vladimir Kramnik remain unbeaten on 4/7.
Scores:1 Nakamura (USA)5.5/7; 2 Anand (India) 5; 2 3.5; 3-4 Aronian (Armenia), Kramnik (Russia) 4.5; 5-7 Carlsen (Norway), Vachier-Lagrave (France), Nepomniachtchi (Russia) 4; 8 Ponomariov (Ukraine) 3.5; 9-10 Giri (Holland), Wang Hao (China) 3; 11 L'Ami 2.5; 12-13 Smeets (Holland), Grischuk (Russia) 2; 14 Shirov (Spain) 1.5.
The Ukrainian Zahar Efimenko drew level with McShane when the latter lost in round seven. This game was impressive, at the end the threat is Bc2 winning the queen and White has virtually no moves.
W Spoelman - Z Efimenko
Nimzo Indian
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.f3 c5 5.d5 0-0 6.e4 Re8 7.Nge2 d6 8.Bf4 exd5 9.cxd5 Nh5 10.Qd2 Nxf4 11.Nxf4 Nd7 12.Be2 Ne5 13.0-0 Qg5 14.Rfd1 c4 15.Kh1 Bd7 16.Bf1 Rac8 17.a3 Bc5 18.Nfe2 Nd3!! 19.h3
(19.Qxg5 Nf2+ 20.Kg1 Nxd1+ 21.Kh1 Nf2+ 22.Kg1 Nh3+ 23.Kh1 Nxg5]
19...Be3 20.Qc2 Nf2+ 21.Kh2 Nxd1 22.Rxd1 f5 23.Kh1 f4 24.Rb1 Qe5 25.b3 cxb3 26.Qxb3 Bb6 27.Na2 Qf6 28.Nac1 Rc7 29.Nd3 Be3 30.e5 Rxe5 31.Nxe5 Qxe5 32.Re1 g5 33.g4 b6 34.Rd1 Rc5 35.Kg2 Be8 36.Qd3 Ba4 37.Re1 b5 0-1
