Biel, Round 7
A fine Sunday to all my chess comrades! Today marked the resumption of Biel after a very well earned rest day, and the players used this recovered strength to treat us to some excellent fighting chess.
The first game to finish was Georgiadis-Svidler, and this featured another opening of which I have very fond youthful memories - the Perenyi! The Perenyi Attack is an absurdly aggressive attempt by White to immediately rip Black to shreds, and this was high fashion during the 90s and early 00s - but it's also an opening that our silicon friends very quickly "resolved", with most lines leading to perpetual checks and simplified standoffs. For the part of me that loves the art of chess, this is quite sad - while computers have enriched out game, it's also "demystified" quite a bit of the game. However, the Perenyi still has unresolved nooks, and if both sides cooperate a full game is possible - so we saw today! Svidler chose 7...h6 (7...e5 is the real craziness, with long theoretical lines that mostly all lead to perpetuals nowadays), but this only delayed ...e5 by one move. The game quickly departed known paths, and Nico actually seemed to get an excellent position (his lack of success cannot be attributed to opening play - he's actually gained some excellent positions against this pack of super GMs). However, once again, Georgiadis chose a tactical solution to attempt to resolve the position - we've seen this several times in Nico's games (his queen sac against Navara, his exchange sac against Carlsen), but all of these material transformations were in positions where desperation wasn't yet necessary. And so it was here - Georgiadis was actually a smidge more comfortable, yet he's firing away as if he's backed into a corner! 15. Bxa6? was a piece sacrifice...and this was followed by 17. Rxd4, putting Georgiadis temporarily down a full rook! He did have excellent counterplay, but Svidler played very accurately to dodge the threats, and Nico quickly went wrong (23. Nd5? was a mistake, while 23. Kc1 keeps him in the game with some practical chances). 24. exf5?? essentially ended the game, as White had no real compensation for the missing rook - the White pawn ended up being perfect shelter for the Black king! Georgiadis resigned on move 28 - he's actually gotten quite nice positions from the openings (aside from his game against Navara), but he's made it a habit of immediately breaking the glass on the most frenetic possible responses. "Coffeehouse" play doesn't work against the world elite!
Mamedyarov-Navara featured a very modest start with a line of the Tarrasch that has seen occasional use as a way to avoid the Semi Tarrasch and the big theoretical lines of the full Tarrasch. A very normal IQP position transitioned to a hanging pawns structure where I think White has a slightly more comfortable game (but that's also my bias - I love playing against hanging pawns!). However, characteristic of Navara's active style, he took a calm structure and added quite a bit of drama with 12...h5?! - while this certainly distracts White from focusing down his weak pawns, this creates weaknesses of its own and doesn't give Black sufficient chances of a kingside attack. 13. f4 was a fascinating strategic choice that is sometimes seen in these structures - in exchange for weakening the e pawn and creating a hole on e4, White blunts out the dangerous dark squared bishop and claims an outpost on e5. Mamedyarov potentially missed some more restrictive options, and the game eventually reached an uneasy position with mangled pawn structures for both sides. Navara sacrificed a pawn to reach a rook and knight ending where he was counting on his more active pieces to compensate for the pawn deficit. Mamedyarov made an excellent choice of returning the pawn to activate his king (one practical mistake many players make is to vainly hold on to material while allowing the position to dive deep into passivity), and Navara went astray with 27...g5?. Mamedyarov played very accurately, trading down into a rook ending where Black's pawns were all weak and White's pieces were far more active. It seems like Navara missed some defensive opportunities, but these sorts of rook endings are too complex for even the world's best - one of my favourite bits of chess art is the fact that, with so few pieces, such complex positions are possible. Chess is inexhaustible! Mamedyarov seemed to take the long way home - there were some moments where he could have chosen a much more direct way to convert the rook ending. He was either playing with his food, or seeing ghosts with some type of drawing mechanism (which didn't exist - with a b pawn, there's no last gasp Vancura drawing mechanism as with an a pawn). Eventually, though Mamedyarov finally brought the point home with cutting the Black monarch off from above, clearing the g pawn for a promotion.
And finally, the game Carlsen-MVL featured an absolute slugfest. MVL chose the Najdorf, and chose the ...h5 idea against Carlsen's English Attack - this is another flood of memories for me, as I played this quite extensively as a teenager. In my eyes it's a terrific psychological weapon - instead of the thematically comfortable lines where White bullrushes his kingside pawns forward, Black simply asks White to find another plan! Against weaker players, this can be quite discombobulating - against Carlsen, though, he'll most certainly find another plan... Carlsen headed for the common Najdorf structure that we saw earlier in the Georgiadis-Mamedyarov game, but Carlsen certainly handled it more deftly than Georgiadis. 13...a5?! was a bit early on MVLs part - when played before c4, this allows White to infiltrate the queenside with his otherwise unemployed bishop. Carlsen logically built up his position and poised himself for queenside progress - however, Carlsen's choice of attack might have been a bit inefficient, as a battery with Qe1 and Bd2 would have combined restraint (helping prevent an ...e4 break) with attack (focusing down the weak a pawn). MVL chose to sacrifice the e pawn to immediately enliven the position, and Carlsen responded accurately by getting the queens off the board and preserving his extra pawn. Carlsen, however, chose an inopportune moment to pawn hunt with 29. Rxa5? - this allowed MVLs rook into the delicate underbelly of Carlsen's position. MVL had incredibly dangerous chances for a direct attack, and could have put Carlsen on the brink with 32...fxg2! MVLs 32...Nf7? retained a nice looking position, but Carlsen was able to shuttle his a pawn up the board to just barely survive the kingside attack. An endgame was reached with rook and opposite coloured bishops where Black's symbolic edge in activity wasn't enough to achieve anything - a draw by repetition was found by move 49.
An incredible round filled with fantastic chess! With this bloodbath of a day, Mamedyarov took a full point lead over Carlsen. You have to feel a bit of sympathy for Mamedyarov - if he played this sort of chess during the Candidates, he'd have a date with Carlsen! All the other places are occupied by single players - Svidler in 3rd, MVL in 4th, Navara in 5th, and Georgiadis very distantly segregated in 6th. Tomorrow features Carlsen taking the Black pieces against his partial angstgegner Svidler, Mamedyarov takes the Black pieces against MVL, and Navara takes White against Georgiadis. We'll see you then!
http://view.chessbase.com/cbreader/2018/7/29/Game432277734.html
Reader Comments