Nice attacking finish
SPRAGGETT ON CHESS
18. Qg4 ! Threatening to win a pawn on e6
Black does not have much choice but to move his Knight. The solid looking 18… Qd7 runs into 19. Nf5 g6 20. Nh6 Kg7 21. d4! with a very unpleasant position for Black.
White had to calculate that Black can not play 20… Bg5 because of 21. Rh3 Bxc1 22. Qh5 h6 23. Qxg6 (diagram,right) with a crushing attack , as the reader can imagine! (23…Qf6 24.Rxh6! etc)
The 26th edition of the Cappelle tournament produced some very nice chess. In a previous blog entry I gave a game between the tournament winner (Yaroslov Zherebukh) and the veteran grandmaster Mikhail Gurevich. Today I present the only loss by the tournament victor, against Yury Vovk, his team mate back home in the Ukraine!
(Yuri Vovk vs Yaroslav Zherebukh)
POSITION AFTER BLACK’S 17th MOVE (17…Ne6)
A quick glimpse of the position might give the wrong impression that not much is happening here. Infact, Black has a serious problem that White is about to exploit: Black’s Queen Bishop is out of play. Black needs two moves (…Bb7 and …Bc8) in order to consolidate.
Grandmaster Vovk plays very energetically from this point on and does not give Black the two moves he needs. He immediately begins a King-side attack
18. Qg4 ! Threatening to win a pawn on e6
Black does not have much choice but to move his Knight. The solid looking 18… Qd7 runs into 19. Nf5 g6 20. Nh6 Kg7 21. d4! with a very unpleasant position for Black.
18… Nf4
Does White have to defend the attack on d3?
19. Nf5 ! Threatening mate in one!
19… Ng6 Forced. Playing …g6 simply loses a pawn.
So White has managed to gain two free attacking moves (Qg4 and Nf5) while Black has still not been able to deal with the problem of his Bishop on a8. As long as the Bishop stays there, White is essentially up a piece!
20. Re3!
A well calculated attacking move. The Rook plans to join in the attack via h3.
White had to calculate that Black can not play 20… Bg5 because of 21. Rh3 Bxc1 22. Qh5 h6 23. Qxg6 (diagram,right) with a crushing attack , as the reader can imagine! (23…Qf6 24.Rxh6! etc)
20… Re8
21. h4 was also strong. It is not clear how Black should defend against the threat of h5: if he takes the White h-pawn with his Bishop then White has Rh3 anyway.
However, 21.Rh3 is strong enough! Black can not really do much to stop the White attack: he can not trade pieces (notice that if the Black Queen Bishop was on c8 he could atleast chop the Knight on f5) and so he just has to hope that the weakness-free King position can hold out against the White barbarian horde (!).
21… d5 !?
A necessary defensive move. Black prepares to use the f8-square for one of his minor pieces , depending on how White proceeds with his attack.
21. Rh3 Crude but effective. White plans 22.Qh5
21. h4 was also strong. It is not clear how Black should defend against the threat of h5: if he takes the White h-pawn with his Bishop then White has Rh3 anyway.
However, 21.Rh3 is strong enough! Black can not really do much to stop the White attack: he can not trade pieces (notice that if the Black Queen Bishop was on c8 he could atleast chop the Knight on f5) and so he just has to hope that the weakness-free King position can hold out against the White barbarian horde (!).
In general, in positions like this where every single White piece is contributing to the attack (even the Bishop on a2), there is not much hope to defend: White often will be able to sacrifice a piece or two and still have enough pieces left for the coup de grace.
21… d5 !?
A reasonable move: blocking out the White Bishop on a2 from the attack, and now atleast the Black Queen Bishop finds employment!
22. Qh5
This forces Black’s next move. Not unsurprisingly, 22… h6 just invites disaster: 23. Bxh6! gh 24. Qxh6 Bf6 25. Qh7 Kf8 26. Rf3 with all the fun for White. (It is probably mate in a few more moves…)
22… Nf8 Defending against the immediate threat.
So White’s energetic play has not given Black any respite. His Bishop is still stuck on a8. Black has defended as well as could be done under the circumstances, and his mistake was made much earlier.
23. Nxg7 ! Ripping open the King position
Another well calculated move. Black has little better than to take the Knight, especially since playing otherwise (23… Bf6 24. Nf5!) is masochistic.
23… Kxg7
Black can only sit and wait for the Grim Reaper. Fortunately for him, he does not have to wait very long!
I recently came across a very interesting site by Vladimir Grabinsky, a famous trainer from the Ukraine:
”In USSR chess books were published in vast editions. It looked absolutely normal when some collection of games was issued in 100 thousands copies. Nowadays even such an undoubted bestseller as Kasparov’s books in Russian language comes into world in no more that 5 thousand copies. Despite enormous issues one couldn’t easily get some good book in 70-80ies. When I managed to buy one book of Yugoslavian Chess Informant for 9 rubles (that was about 1/20 part of my mother’s monthly salary), I was the happiest boy in the world. Chess Informant and Encyclopedias were sold only in departments of foreign literature and one had to wait almost 1 year for a book .
The readers can also find an informative article published in chessbase about Grabinsky’s chess school at:
SPRAGGETT ON CHESS
24. Bh6
24… Kg8 [24… Kh8 25. Bxf8] 25. Bxf8
And that is that! Black finally resigns. There is no defence to White taking on h7. A beautiful attacking finish by the White pieces!
It is worth mentioning that had Black tried to fight on to the bitter end with 25… Bg5 (with the idea of escaping with his King to e7 via f8), White would have the horribly sadistic 26. Be7 !(diagram, right)
that puts an end to things immediately!
It is quite remarkable (going back to the position after Black’s 17th move) that Black did not have a single opportunity to bring into play his awkwardly posted Bishop on a8. There is a moral to wise here…
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I recently came across a very interesting site by Vladimir Grabinsky, a famous trainer from the Ukraine:
The site has lots of interesting articles, pictures and stories that the readers might find entertaining and instructive. Gabrinsky is one of the world’s top trainers, with many famous Ukrainian stars under his wing: Volokitin, Kryvoruchko, the Vovk brothers (Yury and Andrei), Oleksienko, and Zherebukh, Matseyko, just to name a few!
Vladimir Gabrinsky (born 1974)
Fide Senior Trainer, International Master, Honoured trainer of Ukraine
”I started to play chess when I was 10. Was student of IM Viktor Zheliandinov. In 2003 Fide awarded me with title of International Master. Since I started to train already in 19, I rarely had chance to play in tournaments, although do it always with much pleasure. Out of my best results can be noted: tie of 2nd place (together with grandmasters Baklan, Malakhatko, Hamdouchi, Chatalbashev, Vuckovic) on open de Balagne in Calvi, France 2005. The first was my student Yuri Kryvoruchko. One more tie was on open tournament in Guingamp (France 2007), the first prize went Dejan Bojkov.
Trainer Career
I graduated from Lviv State Institute of Physical Culture with speciality chess trainer (1990-1994). From 1993 I have been working in Sports School of Olympic Reserve “Opening”. ( 9 of my students achieved the title of grandmaster. Among them are Andrei Volokitin, Yuri Kryvoruchko, Yuri and Andrei Vovk, Mikhailo Oleksienko, Yaroslav Zherebukh, Martyn Kravtsiv, Kateryna Matseyko and Myroslava Hrabinska (Yakivchyk). 2 more of my students became International Masters (Vita Chulivska and Andrei Grekh). For 4 times I was chief coach of Ukrainian Youth Team on championships of Europe.
In 2009 Fide awarded me the title of Fide Senior Trainer. At this moment I am the youngest in the world with such title, but of course it’s temporary ” from his website
Grabinsky has also co-authored (with one of his students!) one of the best selling chess books:
”In USSR chess books were published in vast editions. It looked absolutely normal when some collection of games was issued in 100 thousands copies. Nowadays even such an undoubted bestseller as Kasparov’s books in Russian language comes into world in no more that 5 thousand copies. Despite enormous issues one couldn’t easily get some good book in 70-80ies. When I managed to buy one book of Yugoslavian Chess Informant for 9 rubles (that was about 1/20 part of my mother’s monthly salary), I was the happiest boy in the world. Chess Informant and Encyclopedias were sold only in departments of foreign literature and one had to wait almost 1 year for a book .
Perhaps since that time I keep anxious attitude towards books. When in the process of training work I collected a lot of interesting materials, together with Andrei Volokitin we decided to write a book. With help of original structure we tried to combine best fragments of Andrei’s games and instructive positions from recent praxis of other players. The literary part of work on “Perfect your chess” took more than a year. In our book we tried to select high quality positions which would be interesting both for players and trainers for self improvement. Our goal was produce material and detailed explanations which would push reader to higher level of understanding chess. We are really happy that readers and critics appreciated our efforts.”
The readers can also find an informative article published in chessbase about Grabinsky’s chess school at:
SOME MORE PHOTOS:
From Cappelle this year. The Grabinsky connection:
Kryvoruchko, Chulivska, Barishpolets, Kravtsiv, Vovk Yuri, Zherebukh, Grekh, Vovk Andrei
The charming Vita Chulivska (from the website)
And ofcourse, the Cappelle winner: Yaroslav Zherebukh. Travelling all that way, only to lose to your team mate!
SPRAGGETT ON CHESS