Ongoing Events: Oslo and Poikovsky
The Oslo Chess International wouldn't normally catch my eye, but as Matthew Sadler is participating it's interesting to see his unretirement unfold before our eyes. He's the second seed, behind Sergei Tiviakov, but after five of nine rounds he's in clear first with 4.5 points, half a point ahead of Jon Ludvig Hammer and Victor Mikhalevski. Tiviakov and seven other players have 3.5. (Round 6 is underway, and you can see the live games here.)
The Karpov tournament in Poikovsky, Russia, hasn't exactly caught fire, but at least there were a couple of decisive games today. Three games were drawn, all in fairly short order (two in 27 moves and one in 33), but both wins were entertaining. Sergey Karjakin defeated Viktor Laznicka in a theoretically hot line of the Caro-Kann, and in short order (30 moves), while Zahar Efimenko's triumph over Alexander Motylev was an impressive display of cool defense. Efimenko had the long-term advantages, but had to put out the fire before he could hope to use them. Eventually Motylev's pieces lost their harmony, and just as Efimenko's counterattack was about to come crashing through Motylev gave up. After three of nine rounds, Karjakin, Efimenko and Fabiano Caruana lead with 2/3. (TWIC coverage here.)
Reader Comments (1)
Karjakin’s win over Laznicka in the “hot” Caro-Kann line indeed seems due in a large measure to good preparation – with 13.Bd1 Karjakin improved on a recent Motylev-Leal game (http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1606013), where 13.Qa1 was played. Since Motylev works as Karjakin's second, it’s likely they’ve analyzed it together – something similar happened in the recent world cup, when Karjakin used in his win over Wesley So in the second round a novelty first played a round earlier by Motylev against Drozdovskij (also in the CK Short variation). So when preparing for a game against Karjakin, it’s important to go over Motylev’s games as well…
Laznicka’s 25...Rh7 is one of the ugliest moves I’ve seen for a long time... It reminded me a bit of Nakamura’s Rh2 in his loss to Shulman in the US championship of last year. And apparently it has similar tactical drawbacks - blocking an escape square for the king (this is evident in a line such as 26...Re8 [to avoid the pinning of the rook by Bc1-a3] 27.Qxa7 Ne7 28.b6 Nc6 29.Qa3+ Kg8 30.Qa4 Rc8 31.b7 Rc7 32.b8Q+ and mate), and disconnecting the rook from the other pieces, putting it on a vulnerable square (as the final position, where White has 31.Qxf5+ in response to 30...exd5, makes clear).