Chess Piece: Two Upsets

by Bobby Ang

Business World

The ongoing chess Olympiad has given us an embarrassment of riches in tremendous games. Today we have chosen two upsets for your entertainment.

The three former Soviet Republics from the Caucasus Region have traditionally been strong chess nations. Armenia, the land of the ninth world champion Tigran Petrosian, is the defending Olympiad champion while Azerbaijan is the reigning European champion. Georgia is more known for its women’s chess, being the mother country of former world champion Nona Gaprindashvili and Maya Chiburdanidze, not to mention perennial candidates Nana Alexandria, Elena Akhmilovskaya and Nana Ioselani, among many others.

Georgian men’s chess took off in the late ’90s with its first clear chess leader, GM Zurab Azmaiparashvili. Zurab was top board for his country up till the 2004 Calvia Olympiad. After that, starting Turin 2006, their new leader was the young Baadur Jobava, born 1983. The two of them was a study in contrast -- whereas Azmaiparshvili had a solid positional style with a limited opening repertoire, Jobava was a tactician who liked to throw in new moves and theoretical novelties to unbalance his opponent.

In round 4, when Jobava faced the world’s highest rated player, everybody expected him to play for a draw. After all, the team from Norway had two strong players (GMs Magnus Carlsen 2826 and Jon Ludvig Hammer 2633) and the rest were just IMs. A draw on board 1 and 2 would enable their lower boards to go for wins. Nothing of that sort. Jobava remained true to form by unleashing an unexpected novelty and won a tremendous victory.

Jobava, Baadur (2710) -- Carlsen, Magnus (2826) [E24]

39^th Olympiad Khanty-Mansiysk 2010 Khanty-Mansiysk/Russia (4), 24.09.2010

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.a3 Bxc3+ 5.bxc3 Nc6 6.e4!?

A move played more for its shock value than anything else. Indeed, after ...

6...Nxe4 7.Qg4 f5 8.Qxg7 Qf6 9.Qxf6 Nxf6 10.Nf3 b6

There is nothing wrong with Black’s position. Carlsen decides to play positionally and put pressure on white’s doubled c-pawns. Jobava on the other hand takes a tactical approach and goes for the attack.

11.d5 Na5 12.Nd4 Kf7 13.dxe6+ dxe6 14.Bf4 Ba6 15.Nf3 Ne4

[15...Bxc4?? 16.Ne5+]

16.Ne5+ Kf6 17.f3 Nd6 18.0-0-0 Rhd8 19.h4 Nf7 20.Nd7+ Kg7 21.Rh3

Jobava continues assaulting the Black king. He now threatens 22.Rg3+ Kh8 23.Ne5 with lots of mating threats. One possible continuation is 23...Rxd1+ 24.Kxd1 Nd6 25.c5! wins.

21...Kh8 22.Bg5! Nxg5 23.hxg5

With the idea of 24.Nf6.

23...Kg7 24.Rh6 Bxc4 25.Bxc4 Nxc4 26.Rdh1 Rh8 27.f4

To keep his stranglehold on the position best would have been 27.Rxe6 Rae8 28.Rc6 Nd6 29.Nf6! (29.Rxc7? Nb5 30.Rb7 Re7) 29...Rc8 30.Nd5 (threatens Ne7) 30...Rhe8 31.f4. Now however black gets a chance to escape...

27...c5?

...which he does not see. The best defense is grabbing the central file with 27...Rad8! 28.Nf6 c5 White does not gain anything by 29.Rxh7+ Rxh7 30.Rxh7+ Kg6 31.Rh6+ Kf7 32.Rh7+ Kg6 33.Rxa7 because of 33...e5!

28.Rxe6 Rae8 

Position after 28Rae8

29.Rxh7+!

Does not allow Black to gain control of the central file.

29...Rxh7

[29...Kxh7 30.Nf6+ Kg7 31.Nxe8+ Kf7 32.Nc7]

30.Rxe8 Kf7 31.Ra8 Rh1+ 32.Kc2 a5 33.Ra7 Nxa3+ 34.Kd2 Rh2 35.Nxb6+ Kg6 36.Rxa5 Rxg2+ 37.Kd1 Nb1 38.Rxc5 Nd2 39.Nd5 Ne4 40.Rc6+ Kf7 41.Ne3 Rg3 42.Ke2

With two pawns up the end game is a win. There are a lot of tricks left and Magnus tries his best to hold, but in vain.

42...Ke8 43.Re6+ Kf7 44.Re5 Nxc3+ 45.Kf2 Rh3 46.Rxf5+ Kg6 47.Rf6+ Kg7 48.Nf5+ Kg8 49.Kg2 Rd3 50.Rd6 Ne2 51.Rg6+ Kh8 52.Rh6+ Kg8 53.Ne7+ Kf7 54.Ng6 Kg7 55.Kf2 Nc3 56.Ne7 Ne4+ 57.Ke2 Ra3 58.Nf5+ Kg8 59.Re6 Nc3+ 60.Kf3 Nd5+ 61.Kg4 Ra1 62.Re5 Rg1+ 63.Kf3 Rf1+ 1-0

Now the tournament book gives 64.Ke4 as the last move played, but I believe Black resigned here, realizing that 64.Ke2 (or even 64.Kg2) wins a piece. After a game is over and white wins the arbiters usually clear the board and put the white king on e4. Perhaps the arbiter in this case put the king on e4 first before clearing the board, so the sensory board registered Ke4 as the move played.

Vietnam started the Olympiad very well. After an expected win over Botswana they had victories over Azerbaijan (2.5-1.5), Uzbekistan (2.5-1.5) and Estonia (3.5-0.5). Clearly the Vietnamese are going to finish higher than their seeded 27^th place.

Azerbaijan was one of the title contenders and may have been pulling their punches against Vietnam -- they didn’t want to give away any special opening preparation against a "weak" team. Too bad for them... below is the decisive encounter.

Mamedov, Rauf (2660) -- Nguyen, Anh Dung (2500) [C54]

39^th Olympiad Khanty-Mansiysk 2010 Khanty-Mansiysk/Russia (1), 22.09.2010

1.e4 e5 2.Bc4

Lately a lot of people are playing this way to avoid the Petroff Defense.

2...Nf6 3.d3 Nc6 4.Nf3 Bc5 5.c3 d6 6.Bb3 h6 7.Nbd2 0-0 8.h3 Be6 9.Nf1 d5 10.Qe2 Re8 11.g4

Looks out of place, but I don’t want to condemn it, considering that I have a lot of respect for the player behind the white pieces -- he has whipped my butt very comprehensively each and every time we played bullet in the Internet Chess Club.

11...a5 12.Ba4 dxe4 13.dxe4 Nxe4!

Probably overlooked by white.

14.Qxe4 Bd5 15.Qe2 e4 16.Bxc6 Bxc6 17.Nd4

It is really a wretched position, for example 17.Be3 exf3 18.Qd2 Qxd2+ 19.Kxd2 Rad8+ 20.Kc2 Be4+ 21.Kc1 Bd3 this cannot be held.

17...e3!

The rook in the corner is lost.

18.Bxe3

Also bad is 18.f3 Qh4+ 19.Kd1 Bxd4 20.cxd4 Qf6! (threatening the pawn on f3) 21.Nh2 Ba4+ 22.Ke1 (22.b3 Qxd4+ and the a1 rook falls)22...Qh4+ 23.Kf1 Bb5! 24.Qxb5 Qf2# checkmate.

18...Bxh1 19.0-0-0 Qf6 20.Ng3 Bxd4 21.Rxd4 Bf3 22.Qc4 Rad8 23.Rf4 Bd5 24.Qxc7 Qa6 25.Qb6 Bxa2 26.Qxa6 bxa6 27.Kc2 Rb8 28.Nf5 Bb3+ 29.Kc1 a4 30.Nd4 a3 31.bxa3 Rec8 32.Bd2 Ba2

This bishop will transfer to the b1-h7 diagonal to create mating threats against the king.

33.Nf5 Kh7 34.Nd6 Rc7 35.h4 Rb6 36.Nf5 Bb1 37.Ne3 Bd3 38.Rb4 Rb5 39.Kb2 h5 40.g5 Re7 41.a4 Rxb4+ 42.cxb4 Re4 43.Ng2 Be2 44.Nf4 Bd1 45.a5 Rc4 46.Ka3 g6 47.Be3 Kg8 48.Bd2 Kf8 49.Be3 Ke7 50.Kb2 Kd6 51.b5 axb5 52.a6 Bf3 53.a7 Ke5 54.Nd3+ Kf5 55.Ne1 Ba8 56.Nc2 Rxh4 57.Nd4+ Rxd4 58.Bxd4 h4 0-1

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