CHESS

The Ukrainian Ernest Pogosyants (1935-1990) was the most productive chess composer, producing nearly 6,000 problems and studies. He created 984 of them just in 1984. In 1970, he composed a miniature problem (White: Kf2,P:a6; Black: Kh1,P:f6): White mates in four moves. Can you find his witty idea? (Solution next week.) Correction: The correct task is White mates in five moves.

Anand and Carlsen Triumphant

Last week was a busy time for some of the world's top players, most of them being involved in rapid chess exhibition matches. Yesterday, the world champion Vishy Anand of India defeated Peter Leko in an eight-game match in Miskolc, Hungary, with the score 5-3. Magnus Carlsen of Norway won yesterday's dramatic final of the XXII Magistral Ciudad de Leon in Leon, Spain, against one of the world's most active players, Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine, with a 4-3 score. Ivanchuk came to Leon directly from Prague, where he participated in the CEZ Trophy eight-game rapid match at the end of May against the top Czech grandmaster David Navara. The Ukrainian grandmaster won 5½-2½.

Knights on the Sideline

Since 2003, the Prague Chess Society has been organizing CEZ Trophy matches for Navara against the world's top grandmasters. Navara, a 24-year-old student of logic at Charles University in his home city of Prague, previously defeated Viktor Korchnoi and Nigel Short, tied with Anatoly Karpov and Boris Gelfand, and lost to Alexei Shirov and Vladimir Kramnik. This year Navara lost to Ivanchuk with the same score as last year against Kramnik. In each of these two matches Navara managed to score one fine victory.

In his only loss, Ivanchuk chose to play into Navara's strength, picking a variation against the Fianchetto Grunfeld that Navara mastered with black. The Czech GM knew precisely how to deal with Ivanchuk's knights, which got stuck on the edge of the board twice. A nice positional achievement!

Navara - Ivanchuk

1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.d4 Bg7 4.g3 d5 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.Bg2 Nb6 7.Nc3 Nc6 (The Czech GM also plays the line with the black pieces.) 8.e3 0-0 9.0-0 Re8 (I witnessed this remarkable waiting move in the Czech spa Marianske Lazne in 1965, when it was played for the first time in the game Pomar-Hort. Black is waiting with the advance of his e-pawn after white plays 10.b3. He can then turn the game around with 10...e5 11.d5? e4! with an advantage. In the Moscow-Budapest match in 1949, Vassily Smyslov as black tried another waiting move 9...a5 against Pal Benko, with the intention of grabbing space on the queenside with a5-a4 and bringing the rook on a8 into the game via the square a5.) 10.Re1 e5 (Unhappy with the result in this game, Ivanchuk switched to 10...a5 in another game later in the match. The game continued 11.d5?! Bxc3 12.bxc3 Qxd5 13.Nd4 Qc4 14.Ba3 [14.Nxc6 bxc6 15.Qd4 still equalizes.] 14...Bd7 15.Bf1 Qa4 16.Qxa4 Nxa4 17.Rec1 Ne5 18.Rab1 c5 and in this position Navara burned his bridges with 19.f4 cxd4 20.fxe5 Bf5 21.cxd4 Bxb1 22.Rxb1 e6 23.Rxb7 Reb8 24.Re7 Nc3 25.Bd3 Nd5 26.Rd7 Nxe3 27.Be4 Rd8 28.Rd6 Nc4 and white resigned, since after 29.Bxa8 Rxa8 he loses material. In the game Danielsen-Areshchenko, Reykjavik 2009, black realized Smyslov's idea after 10...a5 11.h3 a4 12.Kh2 Ra5 13.Bd2 e5 14.Ne2 Rb5, but the complications led to a draw.) 11.d5 Na5 12.e4 c6 (This is a known position where white usually tries to get an advantage with 13.Bg5 f6 14.Be3 cxd5 15.Bxb6 axb6 16.Nxd5, as Ivanchuk played last month in Sofia against Lenier Dominguez Perez.)

13.b3!? (Sentencing the black knight to the square a5, this sharp move was first suggested by the Georgian grandmaster Lasha Janjgava in his book "King's Indian & Grunfeld: Fianchetto Lines," published in 2003 by Gambit Publications. It had to be well researched and analyzed because it allows black a dangerous counterplay on the long diagonal a1-h8.) 13...cxd5 14.exd5 Bg4 (Black can pour oil onto the fire with 14...e4, for example 15.Nxe4 Rxe4 16.Rxe4 Bxa1 17.Bg5 Bf6 18.Bxf6 Qxf6 19.Re8+ Kg7 20.Qe1, but white regains the piece with dividends, e.g. 20...Bg4 21.Rxa8 Nxa8 22.Ne5 Bc8 [White has the edge either after 22...Qe7 23.Qc3 Qf6 24.f4; or after 22...Bf5 23.b4.] 23.b4 as in Podgaets-Nedilko, Odessa 2007.) 15.Ba3 e4?! (Black should have tried 15...f5 16.Bb4 e4! 17.Bxa5 Qd6 18.Rb1 exf3 19.Rxe8+ Rxe8 20.Bxf3 Bxf3 with chances to equalize.) 16.Nxe4 Nxd5 (A better choice than 16...Qxd5 17.Qxd5 Nxd5 18.Rac1 Nc6 19.Nd6 Rxe1+ 20.Rxe1 Ndb4 21.Bxb4 Nxb4 22.Ng5 f6 23.Bxb7 Rb8 24.Ngf7 Nxa2 25.Re7 Bf8 26.Nh6+ Kh8 27.Ndf7+ Kg7 28.Rc7 Be6 29.Ng5+ Kxh6 30.Nxe6 Bd6 31.Rd7 and in the game Tkachiev-Iordachescu, Dresden 2007, white soon won.) 17.Rc1 Nc6 18.Nd6 (Navara moves his Trojan horse into a dominant position.) 18...Rxe1+ 19.Qxe1 Rb8 (After 19...Qf6 20.Qe4 Ndb4 21.Bxb4 Nxb4 22.Qxb4 Bxf3 23.Bxf3 Qxf3 24.Qxb7 white is clearly better.)

20.Nxb7 (Snatching a pawn, but keeping the pressure on with 20.Qd2! is even stronger, for example 20...Be6 21.Ng5 Bh6 22.h4 Nf6 23.Qc3 and white has decisive pressure.) 20...Rxb7 (After 20...Qd7 21.Nc5 Qd6 22.Na6 Qxa3 23.Nxb8 Nxb8 24.Rd1 white should win.) 21.Rxc6 Rd7 (Creating a potential threat on the first rank.) 22.h3 (Simple and good. 22.Ne5 Qe8 23.Rd6 is something computers may enjoy.) 22...Nc3 23.Kh2 Bxf3 24.Bxf3 Nb5 25.Qc1! (Threatening 26.Rc8.) 25...Qe8 26.Rc8 Rd8 27.Bc6!? (Wiping the heavy pieces off the board is preferable to 27.Rxd8 Qxd8 28.Bb4 Nd4 29.Be4.) 27...Rxc8 28.Bxe8 Rxc1 29.Bxc1 (White is a healthy pawn up and the rest should be easy. Ivanchuk manages to put up some resistance.) 29...Nc3 30.a3 (Simplifying with 30.Be3 Nxa2 31.Bxa7 and keeping both bishops on the board was also a good choice.) 30...Bd4 31.Kg2 Kf8 32.Bc6 Nd1 33.f4 Be3 (Eliminating the bishop pair does not solve black's problems.) 34.Bxe3 Nxe3+ 35.Kf2 Nc2 (Hoping to block the queenside after 36.a4 a5, but Navara has a different idea up his sleeve.)

36.Be4! Nxa3 37.Bd3! (Navara gave up the a-pawn, cutting off the black knight. His king is quicker gaining space in the center. Black has to figure out how to save the knight without allowing the white king to clean the kingside. Obviously, he can't do both.) 37...Ke7 38.Ke3 Kd6 39.Kd4 f6 40.g4 Kc6 41.g5! (Gaining the square e5 for the king's invasion.) 41...fxg5 (After 41...f5 42.h4 Nb5+ 43.Ke5 Nd6 44.Kf6 Kc5 45.Kg7 Kd4 46.Ba6 Ke4 47.Kxh7 Kxf4 48.Kxg6 Kg4 49.h5 white wins.) 42.fxg5 a5 (Again, after 42...Nb5+ 43.Ke5 Nd6 44.Kf6 Kc5 45.Kg7 Kd4 46.Bb1 Kc3 47.Kxh7 Kxb3 48.Bxg6 white wins.) 43.Ke5 Kc5 44.h4 Nb5 45.Kf6 Nd6 46.Bxg6! (The bishop sacrifice wins swiftly. The knight can't cope with the white passed pawns.) 46...hxg6 47.Kxg6 Kd5 (After 47...Kb4 48.h5 Kxb3 49.h6 a4 50.h7 a3 51.h8Q white is faster and wins.) 48.h5 Ke6 49.h6 Nf7 50.h7 Ke7 51.Kg7 Black resigned.

Solution to Last Week's Puzzle

June 1: White wins by Josef Hasek (White: Ka6,Ra5,P:a2,e3,f2,g2; Black: Kg4,Rc4,P:a3,a7,g3): 1.f3+ Kh4 2.Ra4!! Rxa4+ 3.Kb5 and white wins the rook and the pawn endgame.