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Snapshots from the European Team Championship

by kevinspraggettonchess · October 27, 2009

SPRAGGETT ON CHESS

I have been following the European Team Championship taking place in Novi Sad (October 21-31). This championship is undoubtedly stronger than the Olympiad , principally because there are no weak teams present. A lot of good fighting chess has been seen so far. I present here snapshots of 3 curious positions from this championship.

The Shirov vs Solak game contained an absolutely bizarre knight manoeuvre:

Shirov, A – Solak, D
26/10/2009.

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. Nf3 e6 5. Be2 Ne7 6. O-O Bg6!? 7. Nbd2

A well known position

Grandmaster Solak is a talented young Serbian grandmaster who has recently taken up the carokann (from the sicilian) and has achieved some good successes with it. Last year at the B.Kostic tournament (Vrsac) I played White against Solak and he played in the identical manner in the opening. Instead of Shirov’s 7.Nbd2 I played a queenside fianchetto (7. b3) , and I got absolutely nothing. Infact, after a few more moves I did not like my position at all (I made a draw with a bit of luck!).

7… Nf5!? A provocative manoeuvre that has been played before

Black, however, has a new idea in mind.

8. g4!? A natural move that can not be bad. White gains space and drives back Black’s Knight

8… Nh6!? This is new and at first sight seems silly 9. h3 Consolidating

It seems as though Black’s play is not logical: he has wasted some moves only to find his Knight on a very useless square.

9… Ng8 !! Brilliant and also very funny! Black has moved his Knight in a full circle…

I don’t think that I have ever seen a similar manoeuvre! Ng8-e7-f5-h6-g8 (!) almost in sequential moves. But there is an idea that justifies this loss of time: Black can now play h5 and get some counterplay on the Kingside. The position is very sharp. After some exciting play the game ended in a hard fought draw:

10. Ne1 h5! 11. Ng2 hxg4 12. hxg4 c5 13. c3 Nc6 14. Nf3 cxd4 15. Nxd4 Bc5 16. b4 Bb6 17. a4 Nxe5 18. f4 Nc6 19. f5 exf5 20. gxf5 Bh7 21. a5 Bxd4 22. cxd4 Nf6 23. a6 O-O 24. axb7 Rb8 25. b5 Na5 26. Bg5 Nxb7 27. Ne3 Nd6 28. Bd3 Qe8 29. Re1 Qd7 30. Bxf6 gxf6 31. Qh5 Kh8 32. Kf2 Rg8 33. Rh1 Rg7 34. Nxd5 Ne8 35. Bc4 Rxb5 36. Rag1 Rxd5 37. Bxd5 Qxd5 38. Rxg7 Qxd4 39. Kf1 Qd3 40. Kf2 Qd4 41. Kf1 [½:½]

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In round 3 , in the England vs Bulgaria matchup, grandmaster Delchev’s phone went off during play and he was immediately forfeited! Here we can see him getting up in disgust as his team mate Cheparinov looks on with a ”WTF” expression…Cheparinov’s opponent , Luke McShane, can barely stop himself from laughing out loud!

The McShane game was a crushing victory in only 20 moves against a 2700 grandmaster!

McShane, L – Cheparinov, I
24/10/2009.

1. e4 c5 2. d3 A good way to avoid the super-prepared Bulgarian Opening Kitchen! 2… Nc6 3. f4 g6 4. Nf3 Bg7 5. Be2 d6 6. O-O Larsen played this way once in his match with Fischer in 1971 6.., Nf6 7. Qe1 O-O 8. Qh4

White is playing a Dutch with colours reversed, and is trying to build up an attack. Here Black should play the cautious 8…e6! (over-protecting f5 and preparing …Nd7 trying to exchange Queens; in that case Black has an excellent position). Instead, Cheparinov gets sidetracked by some initiative over on the Queenside….

8… c4?! 9. Kh1 cxd3 10. cxd3 Bg4 11. Nc3 Bxf3 12. Bxf3 Qb6

At first sight Black seems to be doing well, but now White comes up with a very powerful Bishop recycle (Bf3-d1-b3) that creates a lot of threats against the Black King.

13. Bd1! Qa6 14. Rf3 Rfc8 15. Rh3 h5 Is this really necessary? 16. f5!

McShane opens up lines against eh weakened Black King position. Combined with the coming Bd1-b3 , Black soon finds himself in serious trouble.

16… Ne5 17. Bg5! Kf8 18. fxg6 fxg6 19. Bb3!

White threatens Rf1 followed by a sacrifice on f6. There is no defense!

19… Nxd3 As good as any, I suppose 20. Rf3 A crushing move!

Cheparinov, faced with the impending explosion on f6, resigns! If the King tries to escape (20… Ke8) then 21. Ba4 Kf7 22. Bb5 wins a piece. It is not often that one sees a super-gm lose in 20 moves!

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Grandmaster Sutovsky is a well known attacking player with a long list of brilliant victories behind him. Here he comes up with a flashy move that seems to give him a large advantage, but Svidler had a very unpleasant surprise in store for him…(!)

Sutovsky, E – Svidler, P
26/10/2009.

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nd7 5. Ng5 Ngf6 6. Bd3 e6 7. N1f3 Bd6 8. Qe2 h6 9. Ne4 Nxe4 10. Qxe4 Qc7 11. O-O b6 12. Qg4 Kf8 13. b3 Bb7 14. Bb2 Nf6 15. Qh3 Nd5 16. g3 c5 17. dxc5 Bxc5 (this might be new.) 18. Ne5 Nf6 19. Rae1 Rd8

White must be somewhat better in this position, though Black is very solid. Karpov has often championed the Black side in this opening, with great success, despite the awkward position of the Black King Rook.

20. Bg6!!?? Sutovsky strikes! However, the simple Qh4 was better,and would keep the edge.

Sutovsky’s move looks crushing at first sight! Black can not take the Bishop because of 21.Qe6 (with the threat of Ng6 mate!). I have no doubt that White and the spectators thought that Black was busted…Svidler’s move must have come as a real shocker!!

20…Ba8!! Incredible! The threat of …Qb7 (and mate on h1) has no good defence. Sutovsky does his best to complicate Black’s job, but it seems to do no good against Svidler’s energetic and precise play…