This Week's ChessVideos Show: Jakovenko-Gelfand, European Club Cup 2011

As I mentioned yesterday, one of the game that impressed me in round 4 of the ongoing 2011 European Club Cup was Dmitrij Jakovenko's victory over Boris Gelfand. Jakovenko came up with a novelty on move 37(!) that quickly resulted in a complicated rook ending. Objectively, Black should have held it, but theory is one thing and practice another. One highly unobvious mistake was enough to lose the game, thanks to a well-calculated sequence by Jakovenko.

The finish was exciting, and the ending was highly instructive as well. Standard endgame themes like the priority of mobilizing passed pawns and of activating the king were on display, and the need for calculation and to take king safety into account played a large role as well. So whether you watch the show as a training exercise, for instruction or even for the game's entertainment value alone, you're likely to be satisfied with what you'll see. (I hope so, anyway!)

The show is here, and it's free as always (free registration required for newbies) and will be available for on-demand viewing for the next month or so.

Comments

[Subbu]

Dennis, After Kc3, why can't black play Rb3+? White can't take the rook since the pawn queens with check.

[DM: Subbu, remember that the positive purpose behind Black's checks was to get his rook to the e-file, to stop White from queening. That's no longer possible here, so now White's king eludes the checks with 58...Rb3+ 59.Kd2 Rd3+ 60.Ke2. Black's rook can't stop the e-pawn, 60...b1Q gets mated in two (61.e8Q+ and 62.Rc6#, taking the rook is hopeless and any further rook check will be met by KxR.]

[cheVelle]

You have a minor typo in the title. It should be 2011 and you have 2001 written.

[DM: Oops! Thanks.]

[Eyal]

Thanks for the video - I wondered how early Gelfand made the decisive mistake.

I think there’s an error in the analysis of the line 23...Qxb2 (instead of Rfc8, as played in the game) 24.Qe5 g6 25.Qf6 Rfc8 26.Rxg6+ fxg6 27.Qxe6+ Kg7 28.Qd7+ Kf6 29.Rc6+ Rxc6 30.Qxc6+; here, after 30...Kg5 White should win, or at least have a big advantage in the resulting queen endgame, if he plays 31.Kg2! (instead of 31.f4+) 31...Rf8 (if the rook escapes to another square, say d8, White wins the black queen with the nice maneuver 32.f4+ Kf5 33.e4+! Kxf4 34.Qf6+ Kxe4 35.Qf3+ Kxd4 36.Qf6+ and Qxb2) 32.f4+ Rxf4 (or 32...Kf5 33.Qd6! Re8 34.Qd7+ Kf6 35.Qxe8) 33.exf4+ Kf5 (33...Kxf4 loses again to the queen-winning maneuver) 34.Qc8+! Kf6 (denying this square from the black queen) 35.d5 etc.

On the other hand, it looks as if 30...Kg7 31.Qxa8 Qxf2 32.Qxa7+ Kg8 should be a draw – in view of Black’s mate/perpetual threats, I can’t see a way for White to make progress.

[DM: Seems correct!]