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 8 |
When one is close
to the final stage of a tournament like this one, a series of mixed
feelings arise, as nostalgia of knowing we won't have a tournament of
this level in Argentina until next year, satisfaction because the tournament
is more successful each year and relieve of the tension and workload
implied in a tournament like the Najdorf Memorial. However, the organization
of this kind of events actually never ends, because the Najdorf Memorial
2002 is being already worked out, thinking in new players to invite,
what new activities to launch, or how to make the tournament in memory
of a man like Miguel Najdorf, whose passion for chess was endless, an
activity in which the amateurs of the world live the most interesting
chess experience. It came up to my mind it would be interesting knowing
the comments of the readers of these chronicles, now we are reaching
the end, so I invite you to send your opinions about the tournament
and suggestions for future implementation that match your wishes as
chess activity followers. To those who want to do it, send an email
to najdorf@ajedrezsiglo21.com
and specify whether you watched the tournament at the playing venue,
through the Internet or both ways. Now, to the board!
Not long ago, Kasparov
expressed his opinion on what differentiates an elite player from the
rest of the grandmasters. He said it was mainly his resilience in difficult
positions, both from the  technical
and psichological viewpoint. If I remember well, he illustrated his
point by saying that to defeat a Kramnik or an Anand one has to win
three times the same game, due to the defensive resourses they oppose
and their high morale before adversity. If that is so, Radjabov had
today an elite player exam, and he passed! His examinator was no less
than ex-World Champion Anatoly Karpov, who set up a battery of tests
in a queen and rook endgame with an isolated pawn on Radjabov's camp.
The game started with a Karpov Variation of the Nimzoindian Defense,
and the young white side player chose the little used 11.Rc1
instead of the more thematic 11.Qe2 or 11.Re1, main lines in this position.
After a comfortable middlegame black got an endgame where Karpov followers
 roared
"Prepare to suffer!". In the diagram, you can perceive the
originating position of the endgame I am talking about, with white to
move. The position is difficult to play with the white pieces, because
one has to adopt an stoic attitude of waiting and preemption of the
opponent's plans, who has more freedom to start attacking operations
over both sides of the board, trying to provoke the famous second weakness
that would bring about victory. After black  applied
the restriction on both wings, the instructive diagrammed position came
up. Karpov just played 46...h4, threatening to open the h-file
in order to invade white's king position with the rook, what in conjunction
with the queen penetrating over the a-file would be lethal. This forced
the reply 47.gxh4 leaving all white pawns weak. Is is possible
that in this position black would be able to win shall his king was
less exposed, but this is the key of white's counterplay, who is waiting
for his opportunity. After 47...Qd6 48.Qc4!? Qxh2 49.Qxb4 Qxh4,
white is paradoxically not worse with his three pawn islands against
one, as his pieces are active and can create counterplay. Karpov tried
some maneuvers for 10 more moves, until he accepted his opponent's draw
offer, as he didn't find any path to an advantage. And we have come
to the last round, and Radjabov... is still on the top!
Korchnoi played
a new French Defense in this tournament against Ricardi, although this
time he adhered to the sharp MacCutcheon Variation. His plan consisting
in closing the queenside and moving his king towards c7, somewhat resembles
a plan played against the Leningrad Variation of the Nimzoindian. There
the king found safety, given it is difficult to bring white pieces to
the queenside  due
to his pawn structure. Ricardi started operations on the kingside, where
he had a space advantage, and an interesting position appeared after
25.f5!? as can be seen in the diagram. White, if allowed, could
play 26.f6, and as a consequence of this, have his king safer, in order
to slowly bring pieces to the queenside. Black assess the opening of
the position in his favor, even at the cost of the d5-weakness. Hence
they followed up with 25...gxf5 26.gxf5 exf5 to what Ricardi
answered with 27.Qf4! The resulting position is difficult to
assess, because although white will put pressure on the light colored
fixed pawns, black obtains interesting piece play on the kingside, where
the white king resides. Korchnoi later forced the exchange of queens
and in the endgame, Ricardi didn't do it right with 35.Rb1, being
35.Re1 enough for avoiding any problem, in Korchnoi own opinion. In
accordance with his las move, and close to time control, Ricardi played
36.d5+?
allowing black to remain a healthy pawn up after 36...Kc5 37.d6 Rg6
38.Nh4 Rxd6. After this, everything went smoothly for whom at 70,
shares the lead with a genius of only 14.
Milos and Mecking
reached a well known position of the Spanish, Zaitsev Variation, mainly
recalled because of the memorable 16th  game
of the World Championship Match in 1986 between Kasparov and Karpov.
In the diagrammed position, Milos innovated with 24.Nh2
a less energetic move than the continuation of that game, 24.e5!, given
the mark by Kasparov himself due to the piece play white obtains after
14...dxe5 25.Nxe5. Such it is so, the move was employed in most of the
games starting at that position after the match. Mecking catched the
ball and played 24...Ncd3 and after 25.Ng4 Qd4!? obtained
good compensation for the sacrified pawn. After a tense positional fight,
they come to a rook engame a pawn up for Mecking, but impossible to
be won.
Short employed the
Maroczy Bind against Felgaer although with a different plan to the one
Polgar and Ricardi played him, starting with 10.Nc2. What is
interesting in this plan, is it avoids the exchanges black is trying
to carry out, and does it after black has brought his bishop to d7,
impeding the maneuvre Nf6-d7-c5. They followed the game Anand-Larsen
from 1992 until Short introduced the novelty 15.b4!?, grabbing
space on the queenside with tempo on the black's queen. After a quick
white expansion on that side of the board, Felgaer successfully initiated
a tactical operation by means of 19...Nc5!?, aimed at getting
rid of the pressure he was being applied. However, Short regrouped his
pieces and continued his focal play arriving  at
the diagrammed position after 31...fxe5, to what the British
energetically answered 32.a5! forcing a distant passed pawn.
After 32...Qf6 33.h3 the Argentinian tried to mess up the game
with 33...exf4, but after 34.hxg4 hxg4 35.Bxb7 he couldn't
find enough compensation for the piece and lost quickly.
Finally, the female
duel was not such. Perhaps Polgar's motivation was at floor level after
two loses in a row, and although the Najdorf she played anounced a revenge
attempt, she offered draw on move 17 and Xie Jun agreed.
Last round isplenty
of tension as the first place will be defined by three games. Karpov
faces Ricardi, the only one who defeated him a year ago, Korchnoi with
the unrecognizable Milos and Radjabov no less than before Judit Polgar.
Besides, Ruben Felgaer has a chance to reach a grandmaster norm by FIDE
rule of rating performance, having to reach 4.5 points to meet it, instead
of the 5 points, when calculated by the table. But for this to be true,
he must defeat Xie Jun in a game to be played in the morning, given
the Chinese has to fly in the afternoon to reach her next tournament.
Don't miss the final step!
Related
links
Games
online viewer Round 8
Chronicle
of the Round 7
Chronicle
of the Round 5
Chronicle
of the Round 4
Chronicle
of the Round 3
Chronicle
of the Round 2
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