Two major open tournaments collided last week in Europe. The event at Cappelle-la-Grande, France, attracted 590 players from 52 countries. It finished Saturday with international master David Shengelia of Georgia and grandmaster Michail Brodsky of Ukraine sharing first place with 7.5 points in nine games.
The Aeroflot Open with nearly 570 players is still underway in Moscow. It is split into several sections; the top group includes players rated 2550 and higher on the FIDE list.
Many prominent grandmasters are taking part. The top three seeds are Etienne Bacrot of France and two Ukrainians: Vassily Ivanchuk, the current European champion, and Ruslan Ponomariov, a former FIDE world champion.
Spanish Delight
Some former Soviet players now living in the United States traveled to Moscow. Jet lag may have played tricks with their minds, and they all started slowly.
Alexander Ivanov, a Massachusetts grandmaster, playing black against Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu, invited a powerful attack in the Spanish after an inaccurate opening play. The Romanian grandmaster finished the game with a beautiful coup de grace.
Nisipeanu-Ivanov
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0-0 9.d4 (A choice of aggressive players, who don't mind the bishop pin 9...Bg4. The question of whether white needs to prepare building up the pawn center with 9.h3 was not clearly resolved for almost a century.) 9...Bg4 10.Be3 (Supporting the center became again more fashionable than the previously popular advance 10.d5.) 10...exd4 11.cxd4 Na5 12.Bc2 c5 13.dxc5 dxc5 14.Nc3 (Avoiding the queen exchange with 14.Qe2 gives black time to regroup and prevent the e4-e5 advance with 14...Nc4 15.Nc3 Nd7! and black is fine either after16.Nd5 Bf6! as in Rantanen-Keres, Tallin 1975; or after 16.a4 Nde5! 17.Bf4 Bd6 18.Red1 b4! as in Hartmann-Kavalek, Germany 1983. And after 14.Nbd2, black can protect his king with 14...Nd7 15.Qb1 Re8 16.e5 Nf8 with a good game.) 14...Nc4 15.e5!? (A straightforward pawn advance, favored by Igor Zaitsev, a creative coach of former world champion Anatoly Karpov.)
15...Ne8? (Of all the choices, this passive knight retreat is the most unfortunate. Black leaves the queens on the board, allowing the white pieces to mobilize for a kingside attack on the central files. Black can reach a slightly worse endgame by force: 15...Qxd1 16.Raxd1 Bxf3 17.exf6 Bxd1 18.fxe7 Bxc2 19.exf8Q+ Rxf8 20.Bxc5 Rc8 and a draw was soon agreed in the game Bruzon Bautista-Adams, played last month in Wijk aan Zee. Black can also seek a full fight with the queens on the board by playing 15...Nd7. The game Zaitsev-Klovans, Satka 2003, continued with an entertaining exchange sacrifice, 16.Be4 [More solid is 16.Bf4] 16...Ndxe5!? and after 17.Bxa8 Qxa8 18.Nd5 Bd6 19.Rb1 Rd8 with a powerful pressure. After 20.b3 Nxf3+ 21.gxf3 Bxh2+! 22.Kxh2 Rxd5 23.fxg4 Rxd1 24.Rbxd1 Ne5 25.Bxc5 Nf3+ black soon won.) 16.Qe2 Nc7 17.Rad1 Qc8 18.Bc1 Re8 19.Qe4! (White begins the assault by softening black's kingside.) 19...g6 20.Qf4 h5? (Ivanov wants to move his knight from c7 to the central square d4, but his move seriously weakens his king's position.) 21.h3 Ne6 22.Qg3 Bxf3 23.Qxf3 Nd4 (Black has achieved his goal, but his loose kingside invites an instant refutation.)
24.Rxd4! (Eliminating black's only active piece.) 24...cxd4 25.e6! (Breaking black's defense. It falls down like a house of cards.) 25...f5?! (Ivanov might have underestimated white's brilliant reply, but after 25...Rf8 26.Nd5! the black position is about to collapse anyway, for example 26...Bh4 27.e7 Re8 28.Nf6+ Bxf6 29.Qxf6 Ne3 30.Bxg6 fxg6 31.Qxg6+ Kh8 32.Qf6+ Kg8 33.Bxe3 dxe3 34.Rxe3 Qc1+ 35.Kh2 Qxe3 36.fxe3 and white should win; or 26...Ra7 27.Bh6 f5 [On 27...fxe6 28.Qg3! wins.] 28.Qf4 Rd8 29.Qxd4 Bc5 30.Qf6 Rxd5 31.e7! and white wins.) 26.Bxf5! (The Spanish bishop delivers the final blow, smashing the way through. Now 26...Rf8 is met by 27.Qg3! and white wins. After 26...gxf5 27.Qxf5 most of the black pieces are too far away to defend the king, for example 27...dxc3 28.Qg6+ Kh8 29.Qxh5+ Kg8 30.Bh6 Bf8 31.Qg6+ Kh8 32.Bxf8 Rxf8 33.Re4 Qd8 34.Qh6+ Kg8 35.Rg4+ and white wins.) Black resigns.
Linares Begins
Garry Kasparov and Vishy Anand, the world's two top-rated players, lead a star field at the prestigious tournament in Linares, Spain, that starts tomorrow. Peter Leko, the winner of this year's Corus tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands, also plays.
Millennium Chess Festival
The popular traditional tournament is scheduled Friday through Sunday in Virginia Beach. The top-rated player is the 17-year-old U.S. champion, Hikaru Nakamura. He will also play an exhibition match Saturday evening against former women's world champion Susan Polgar. Both players will comment for the public during their game. More information is available at www.geocities.com/millenniumchessfestival.
Solution to today's problem by L. Loshinsky (White: Kd4,Qf5,Bf3,P:h2; Black: Kf2,P:e2,g2): 1.Qe5 g1N 2.Qg3+ Kf1 3.Bg2 mate; or 1...e1N 2.Qe3+ Kf1 3.Be2 mate; or 1...e1Q [1...g1Q 2.Qxe2 mate.] 2.Qg3+ Kf1 3.Qxg2 mate.
