The Chess Mind

Stretching those puns, aren't we? What can I say - sometimes, you've just gotta let the Foros be with you.

Anyway, this post is about two interesting draws from the Aerosvit tournament in Foros. The first, Eljanov-Jakovenko, caught my eye as a poor man's L'Ami-Stellwagen. A very sharp opening, a handful of sacs, and an aesthetically pleasing perpetual check finish. Not being a connoisseur of the Vienna Variation, I assumed it was a nice bit of home preparation by one of the players and/or an impressive instance of improvisation. No and no. Unfortunately, the players were simply regurgitating a game that had already been used eleven times, starting with Ribli-Tukmakov, EU Cup 1988. It's disappointing, but after a 57-move game two rounds ago and an emotionally brutal 72-move draw yesterday, Eljanov is entitled to an easy round. And at least it was an entertaining draw, even if the credit goes to someone else.

The other game was really exciting and deserves deep commentary. Unfortunately, I don't want to spend my entire day dealing with chess, so you'll have to look elsewhere for that, or do it yourself. What I will do is analyze the final phase of the game, which starts from the following position:



White to move: does 48.Rxd4 win? Analyze carefully, and when you're ready to see the game (plus Eljanov-Jakovenko), click here.

Standings after Round 6:

1. Karjakin 4 (remember him? Carlsen's not the only prodigy tearing up the chess world)
2. Ivanchuk 3.5
3-10. Dominguez, Eljanov, Jakovenko, Onischuk, Rublevsky, Shirov, Svidler, van Wely 3
11. Sasikiran 2.5
12. Nisipeanu 2

In round 5 of last week's Chicago Open, Dmitry Gurevich, with Black, faced" this miserable position against Zviad Izoria:



It's Black to move, and he's losing. If 67...Kf6, 68.Kf4 wins (68...Nxe4 69.Kxe4 g3 70.Rxh3 g2 71.Rg3), while 67...Nxe4 68.Kxe4 g3 69.Rxh3 Kg4 70.Rh8 g2 71.Rg8+ Kh3 72.Kf3 decides. So Black played 68...h2, with the obvious trap 69.Rxh2(??) Nf1+. White isn't going to fall for that, of course, but what's Black threatening?

Nothing, obviously! Izoria blithely continued with 69.Bg2, but then experienced a shock: 69...h1Q!! 70.Bxh1 Kg6!, and in horror agreed to a draw. If the rook goes to h2 or h4, it will be lost to a knight fork, and 71.Rh8 Kg7 merely pushes the problem off another move. White can save the rook by moving it off the h-file, but after ...Nxh1 Black reaches the drawn ending of R vs. N - that he has the g-pawn is just gravy.

A brilliant idea by Gurevich, but it shouldn't have been enough. First, White could have played 69.Rh8!, putting the rook out of the Black king's range. Now Black is in zugzwang: 69...Nh5 70.Kf2 or 69...Kf6 70.Kf4 both win easily.

But the second error is in a way even more startling: Izoria is winning in the final position! Black's knight will prove quite vulnerable on h1, and it turns out that White can trap the poor beast with accurate play. It's not that Izoria should have seen the whole sequence leadings to its capture - for one thing, he probably lacked the time to work it all out. But he could have tried without any danger! Had he not have been completely winning a couple of moves ago, I'm sure he would have, but he was probably dizzy after Gurevich's trick.

So: if you're lost but have trumps, don't give up without figuring out how you can use them. And if you're the bamboozlee, do your best to recover your senses before reconciling yourself to an unfavorable result!

You can replay the analysis above, plus the rest of the game and the knight-trapping details, here.