BILBAO MASTERS: ARONIAN BEATS SHIROV, KARJAKIN BEATS GRISCHUK
Chessbase News
Sept 9 2009
Germany
What an unusual tournament: at halftime we note that there has been
just one undecisive game (drawing average 16%!). In round three Sergey
Karjakin defeated the tournament leader Alexander Grischuk, while Levon
Aronian beat Alexei Shirov with the black pieces to join Grischuk in
the lead, both now having six Bilbao points. Express report.
Andrew Martin: The Scandinavian - The easy way 2nd edition It's
easy-to-learn and easy-to-play. Here is an opening for Black which
will furnish good results in the shortest possible time. Which
other opening could we be referring to apart from the Scandinavian
or Centre-Counter Defence; 1 e4 d5 ! International Master Andrew
Martin has written extensively on the Centre-Counter and here he
turns his attention to 1 e4 d5 2 exd5 Qxd5 3 Nc3 Qd6!? Playing flat
out for the win against 1 e4 is never easy, but here we encounter a
variation where Black can do just that! All relevant second and third
move alternatives for White are covered too! More information...
The II Grand Slam Final Chess Masters 2009 The II Grand Slam Final
Chess Masters 2009 is being held in Bilbao from September 6th to
September 12th, in a sound-proof glass cube in the Bilbao Plaza
Nueva (central square). The four players competing: Sergey Karjakin,
the winner of Wijk ann Zee, Alexander Grischuk, winner of Ciudad
de Linares, Alexei Shirov, winner in Sofia, and Levon Aronian,
second-place winner of Nanking. The games start at 17:00h CEST (=
19:00h Moscow, 16:00h London, 11 a.m. New York), with a rate of play
of 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes to finish the game,
with 10 extra seconds per move from move number 41. The "Sofia Rule"
is enforced, which means that players are not allowed to agree a draw
without arbiter's permission. The prize fund is 110,000 Euros. The
full schedule and results of the tournament are given below.
Karjakin-Grischuk was a closed Ruy Lopez (Smyslov Variation) in which
Sergey Karjakin appeared to be more at home than Alexander Grischuk,
who spent a lot of time searching for the right plan. At move 15 he
had just over 15 minutes for the next 25 moves, at move 25 just over
five minutes for the 15 moves until the first time control. And on
move 29, having warded off the main threats posed by his opponent,
Grischuk stepped straight off the cliff.
Karjakin,Sergey (2722) - Grischuk,A (2733) [C92] 2nd Grand Slam Masters
Bilbao ESP (3), 08.09.2009 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0
Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0-0 9.h3 Bb7 10.d4 Re8 11.Nbd2 Bf8 12.a3
h6 13.d5 Nb8 14.Nh2 Nbd7 15.Qf3 Qc8 16.Ndf1 c6 17.dxc6 Qxc6 18.Ng4
Re7 19.Ng3 d5 20.exd5 Nxd5 21.Nf5 Re6 22.Qg3 Kh8 23.Be3 h5 24.Rad1
Nxe3 25.Ngxe3 Rg6 26.Qh2 Rf6 27.Bd5 Qc8 28.Qg3 g6 29.Qg5
Black has been under quite a bit of pressure in this game, but now
he has reached a stable position and should be able to draw after
29...Bxd5 30.Rxd5 Re6. But in high tension and terrible time trouble
Grischuk plays 29...Bg7? This allows 30.Ne7 Qc7 31.Ng4! Rf4. Did you
see it? 31...hxg4?? 32.Qh4+ Bh6 33.Qxh6 mate! 32.Nh6 Rf8 33.Nxf7+
R4xf7 34.Nxg6+ Kh7 35.Qxh5+ Bh6 36.Bxf7 Rxf7
This is really cute: 37.Rxd7! Rxd7 [37...Qxd7 38.Nxe5] 38.Nf8+ Kg7
39.Ne6+ 1-0. Nicely executed by Serge Karjakin, who scored his first
win in this tournament. Alexander Grischuk suffered his first defeat -
in fact it was the first game he did not win.
Chessbase News
Sept 9 2009
Germany
What an unusual tournament: at halftime we note that there has been
just one undecisive game (drawing average 16%!). In round three Sergey
Karjakin defeated the tournament leader Alexander Grischuk, while Levon
Aronian beat Alexei Shirov with the black pieces to join Grischuk in
the lead, both now having six Bilbao points. Express report.
Andrew Martin: The Scandinavian - The easy way 2nd edition It's
easy-to-learn and easy-to-play. Here is an opening for Black which
will furnish good results in the shortest possible time. Which
other opening could we be referring to apart from the Scandinavian
or Centre-Counter Defence; 1 e4 d5 ! International Master Andrew
Martin has written extensively on the Centre-Counter and here he
turns his attention to 1 e4 d5 2 exd5 Qxd5 3 Nc3 Qd6!? Playing flat
out for the win against 1 e4 is never easy, but here we encounter a
variation where Black can do just that! All relevant second and third
move alternatives for White are covered too! More information...
The II Grand Slam Final Chess Masters 2009 The II Grand Slam Final
Chess Masters 2009 is being held in Bilbao from September 6th to
September 12th, in a sound-proof glass cube in the Bilbao Plaza
Nueva (central square). The four players competing: Sergey Karjakin,
the winner of Wijk ann Zee, Alexander Grischuk, winner of Ciudad
de Linares, Alexei Shirov, winner in Sofia, and Levon Aronian,
second-place winner of Nanking. The games start at 17:00h CEST (=
19:00h Moscow, 16:00h London, 11 a.m. New York), with a rate of play
of 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes to finish the game,
with 10 extra seconds per move from move number 41. The "Sofia Rule"
is enforced, which means that players are not allowed to agree a draw
without arbiter's permission. The prize fund is 110,000 Euros. The
full schedule and results of the tournament are given below.
Karjakin-Grischuk was a closed Ruy Lopez (Smyslov Variation) in which
Sergey Karjakin appeared to be more at home than Alexander Grischuk,
who spent a lot of time searching for the right plan. At move 15 he
had just over 15 minutes for the next 25 moves, at move 25 just over
five minutes for the 15 moves until the first time control. And on
move 29, having warded off the main threats posed by his opponent,
Grischuk stepped straight off the cliff.
Karjakin,Sergey (2722) - Grischuk,A (2733) [C92] 2nd Grand Slam Masters
Bilbao ESP (3), 08.09.2009 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0
Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0-0 9.h3 Bb7 10.d4 Re8 11.Nbd2 Bf8 12.a3
h6 13.d5 Nb8 14.Nh2 Nbd7 15.Qf3 Qc8 16.Ndf1 c6 17.dxc6 Qxc6 18.Ng4
Re7 19.Ng3 d5 20.exd5 Nxd5 21.Nf5 Re6 22.Qg3 Kh8 23.Be3 h5 24.Rad1
Nxe3 25.Ngxe3 Rg6 26.Qh2 Rf6 27.Bd5 Qc8 28.Qg3 g6 29.Qg5
Black has been under quite a bit of pressure in this game, but now
he has reached a stable position and should be able to draw after
29...Bxd5 30.Rxd5 Re6. But in high tension and terrible time trouble
Grischuk plays 29...Bg7? This allows 30.Ne7 Qc7 31.Ng4! Rf4. Did you
see it? 31...hxg4?? 32.Qh4+ Bh6 33.Qxh6 mate! 32.Nh6 Rf8 33.Nxf7+
R4xf7 34.Nxg6+ Kh7 35.Qxh5+ Bh6 36.Bxf7 Rxf7
This is really cute: 37.Rxd7! Rxd7 [37...Qxd7 38.Nxe5] 38.Nf8+ Kg7
39.Ne6+ 1-0. Nicely executed by Serge Karjakin, who scored his first
win in this tournament. Alexander Grischuk suffered his first defeat -
in fact it was the first game he did not win.