KC-Conference with Ruslan Ponomariov, Part 2
Part 1 came out a few weeks ago; here now is part 2.
HT: Chess Today
Part 1 came out a few weeks ago; here now is part 2.
HT: Chess Today
Here, brought to us in English by the good offices of Chess in Translation.
Boris Gelfand has a repertoire he can use to fight for a win with White and with Black against 1.d4, but some years ago he decided that after 1.e4 he'd give up the Najdorf and play for the draw with the Petroff. It might not be as entertaining, but it's definitely safe, and an effective (anti-) weapon in non-must-win situations. It worked like a charm today, giving Gelfand an easy draw in the first of (up to) four classical games against Ruslan Ponomariov in the World Cup final. You can replay the game, with my comments, here.
Since Ruslan Ponomariov has made it to the finals of the 2009 World Cup, it seems like an auspicious moment to have a look back at the greatest prior success of his career. In early 2002, when he was still just 18 years old, Ponomariov managed to win the FIDE world championship in a similar knockout event, defeating his countryman Vassily Ivanchuk in the final. He was considered a great talent at the time, and a few years earlier had set the (then-) record for becoming the youngest GM ever, but no one expected him to win the title when players like Viswanathan Anand, Michael Adams, Alexander Morozevich, Vassily Ivanchuk, and other greats were playing. In fact, Ponomariov was only the 19th seed, but despite this he plowed through the opposition, defeating Li Wenliang, Sergei Tiviakov, Kiril Georgiev, Morozevich, Evgeny Bareev, Peter Svidler and then Ivanchuk. Very impressive!
We'll look at one of his games against Morozevich, both because of the game's own merits and because it's typical of Ponomariov's style. It's combative and he doesn't shy away from complications, and once the game reaches the technical phase he's extremely efficient. Morozevich is also known as a great endgame player, but he was never given the chance to show what he could do. Add to it that Ponomariov outplayed "Moro" in one of the latter's favorite openings, and you've got a game worth seeing.
And how does one do that? It's simple: log on to the Playchess server at 9 p.m. ET on Wednesday night (= 3 a.m. CET Thursday morning), go to the Broadcast room and double-click on Ponomariov-Morozevich under the Games tab. The show is free for Premium members and available for a fee for those interested in checking it out, "a la carte". Hope to see you there!
Gelfand won his match yesterday (2-0 over Karjakin), but Ponomariov and Malakhov still had work to do, and it was tiebreak time for them. Malakhov won the first game, with Black, but Ponomariov rebounded to win three in a row, and thus advance to the finals. At long last the players get a day off, and on Thursday the Gelfand-Ponomariov match will start. Note that it will be a four-game match (plus tie-breaks, if necessary), not two.
Boris Gelfand crushed Sergey Karjakin once again, and secured his place in the final, while Vladimir Malakhov and Ruslan Ponomariov again drew and are headed for tiebreaks. Gelfand had no trouble at all. Karjakin tried to sharpen the game with 16...h6, a new move (though he may not have known it was a new move) that led to forcing play. Unfortunately for him, the forcing play led to a winning Gelfand attack, and Black got slaughtered. If that result was dictated by the competitive situation, it's a little harder to get a handle on the Malakhov-Ponomariov game. Ponomariov came up with a very interesting novelty that led to a very unclear game, and it remained unclear all the way up to the very premature end. Why did the players agree to a draw? Ponomariov had aimed for sharp play and had achieved it, while Malakhov's position was probably slightly more promising. Whatever the case, they'll have tiebreaks tomorrow while Gelfand relaxes and prepares for the winner.
Games, with my comments, here.