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Yesterday I told
about we are receiving more than double of the visits than the last
year on the official site of the Najdorf Memorial, and we are proud
of it, although in the last playing hour of today it worried us. The
server was overflowed by the quantity of visitors and we had to quickly
switch to another one with higher capacity. Everything is fixed now
and let's prepare for a super chessy Saturday, with the awaited clash
between Karpov and Korchnoi!
Precisely Karpov
made to tie in the top pack in the fourth round as he defeated in great
style to brazilian Mecking, in a game most probably will be among the
best of the tournament. 
Coming from a Slav Defense, the russian couldn't obtain an opening advantage,
when both players thought their moves for a long time. In exchange for
black's isolated queen's pawn, Karpov relinquished the bishop pair,
what in the resulting position does not look very useful, being the
only bishop Karpov kept the most important minor piece. It was  noticeable
how Karpov transformed the diagrammed position, sharpening the battle
even at the cost of seemingly conceding counterplay chances to his opponent.
After 19.Nxe4
Qxe4 20.Qg3 He set deep problems to black, related with the strength
of b2-bishop pointing at black's castled position and the precarious
situation of black's queen. He concretely was threatening 21.e6! Mecking
noticed white's knight had become a threat and reasonably continued
by 20...Bc5, which by the way allows black to defend g7 with
his queen after 21.e6 fxe6, but Karpov had an unpleasant surprise awaiting:
21.b4!, quickly forcing the exchange 21...Bxd4 22.Rxd4
and giving all his pieces the highest level of activity. It would have
been imprudent to take the pawn by 21...Bxb4 as after 22.Nc2 Qe7 23.Nxb4
Qxb4 24 Ba3 white gains the exchange and in such an open position the
pawn would not fully compensate for its loss.  Compare
this diagram with the last one and you will see how Karpov in only 4
moves destabilized Mecking's position. I take for granted you will forgive
me for the number of arrows. Otherwise claim Karpov for so many threats
in only one position! The opposite colored bishops in the middlegame
always favor the side with higher piece activity and in this sense,
white position can't be asked for more. The game was very interesting
in all his phases, although Mecking then made certain imprecisions what
made the task easier for Karpov.
I continue to amaze
observing Radjabov's solid play, who at only 14 has an incredible chess
maturity. Probably the outstanding points are his orientation in different
positions and his fine sense of danger. In the Queen's Gambit Declined
Short opposed to him today, he always held a slight advantage and adopted
a zero risk policy, what led the british to content with a draw. Probably
he doesn't shine, but with this play will surely rise to the top through
the path already walked by Capablanca, Karpov and nowadays Leko: Simple
but firm chess, avoiding uneccesary complications and lots of patience..
Talking about young
people, I have to mention Ruben Felgaer is starting to get very important
results. To his draw yesterday against Karpov, he added today a draw
with the black pieces against Judit Polgar, playing a Sicilian Accelerated
Dragon, where by means of the simple plan of applying pressure to the
queenside by maneuvering on the dark squares, he didn't have any trouble
to stop his oponent aspirations.  In
the Opening CD on the Accelerated Dragon I wrote in collaboration with
argentinian IM Claudio Minzer, published by ChessBase,
we recommended black this plan pioneered by Larsen because of its soundness
and clarity of strategic ideas, what makes it a good weapon to face
higher rated players. I'm glad Ruben has made his important contribution
to this line.
Korchnoi played
a Sicilian Scheveningen to Xie Jun where the typical white's e5 against
black's d6 isolated pawns center arose. Having firmly established a
knight at e5, black provoked a liquidation to arrive in a level rook
endgame.
What happens
to Milos? Last year Milos started the Najdorf Memorial with 3 defeats
and finished with a discrete score. However this year he is playing
well below his strength. In his game against Ricardi, the latter took
control of the game right after the opening, until Ricardi gained a
pawn and Milos' position was difficult to hold. What grabs our attention
is that without being in big time scramble, he overlooked a simple mate
in two what pushed him into his fourth defeat in a row. We hope for
his followers, and he has many indeed, that he recovers and shows his
talent.
The fifth round
awaits us with the great encounter between Karpov and Korchnoi, remembering
old times of matches for the world championship title and candidates
tournement. There will also be the youngsters duel between Radjabov
and Felgaer that promises an uncompromising fight. Don't miss them!
Related
links
Chronicle
of the Round 3
Chronicle
of the Round 2
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