Linares 2010 (1)
Slow start in Linares
IM Malcolm Pein - Tuesday 16th February 2010
The Linares tournament started wsith hree fairly dull draws.
Round one at Linares did not send the collective chess pulse racing although Vugar Gashimov, making his first appearance in an elite event did come close to defeating 2009 World Cup winner and world number nine Boris Gelfand with black.
Aronian draw Grischuk, Nimzo-Indian 4.f3 26 moves; Vallejo draw Topalov, Ruy Lopez 41, Gelfand draw Gashimov, Modern Benoni, 54.
Vietnam has become an increasingly strong chess nation and this was emphasised in the early rounds of the Aeroflot Open at Moscow as
Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son and Liem Le Quang were joint leaders after four rounds. The pair made a quick draw on top board in round five. Luke McShane's reward for a round three defeat by Ivan Cheparinov was the black pieces against former FIDE world title contender Gata Kamsky. McShane dug in for a long defence using Vladimir Kramnik's Berlin Wall Defence to the Ruy Lopez and never looked in trouble before the draw was agreed on move 83.
McShane played an even longer game in round five to defeat Marie Sebag of France which lasted 148 moves. Readers will recall McShane's epic 163 move win over Nigel Short at the London Chess Classic. I have always considered Luke to be a wonderfully creative player but he can grind away in the endgame with the best of them. I'll spare you the details, this game is much more fun.
B Grachev - I Salgado Lopez
Nimzo-Indian Rubinstein
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 b6 5.Nge2 c5 6.a3 Ba5 7.Rb1 Na6 8.g3 cxd4
(A dubious line as it exposes the bishop on a5 to b2-b4. However after 8...Bb7 9.d5 exd5 10.Bg2 or 9...b5 10.Bg2 bxc4 11.0-0 0-0 12.e4 the Benoni type positions appears to favour White)
9.exd4 Bb7 10.d5 Bxc3+ 11.Nxc3 Rc8
(11...0-0 12.Bg2 Rc8 was played by 6...Ba5 expert Romanishin but he did not equalise)
12.Be2 exd5 13.cxd5 Nc7 14.0-0! Ncxd5
(Black feels obliged to take, after 14...0-0 15.Bf3 White has extra space and two bishops)
15.Nxd5 Bxd5 16.Ba6 Rc6
(16...Rc5 17.b4)
17.Bb7!! Rxc1 18.Rxc1 Bxb7 19.Qd6!
(Catching the king in the centre)
19...Bd5
(19...Qe7 20.Qb8+)
20.f4!
(Intending Re1+ Be6 f5)
20...h5
(20...Be4 21.Rfe1 Qa8 22.g4!)
21.Rfe1+ Be4 22.Rc7 h4
(22...Rh6 23.Rb7 Rg6 24.Rb8)
23.g4 h3 24.g5 1-0
I Salgado Lopez
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B Grachev
Final position after 24.g5
The power of the dark squares. In the final position Qe5 is one way
D Laylo - R Mamedov
Modern Defence
1.d4 g6 2.c4 Bg7 3.Nc3 d6 4.e4 e5 5.dxe5 Bxe5!? 6.Nf3 Bg7 7.Bg5 Bf6 8.Be3 Nd7 9.Qd2 Bg7 10.0-0-0 Ngf6 11.c5 Ng4 12.cxd6 Nxe3 13.Qxe3 cxd6 14.Nb5 0-0 15.Nxd6 Ne5 16.Nxe5 Bxe5 17.Nc4 Qc7 18.Kb1 Bg7 19.Be2 Be6 20.Na3 Rfc8 21.Rd2 Qa5 22.Rhd1 b5 23.Qg5 Rab8 24.Rd6 h6 25.Qd2 b4 26.Rxe6 bxa3 27.Ra6 0-1
