Melody Amber, Round 6 Highlights
There have been interesting games in every round, of course, but no less than three caught my eye today.
The first game was a nice, thematic exploitation of a good knight vs. a bad bishop in an Open Ruy. It's a common problem Black needs to avoid (commonly by executing ...c5 at some convenient moment), but in this, their blindfold game, Leko was unable to do so against Anand and was ground down in 67 moves.
Game two was a clean draw in the blindfold game between Grischuk and Topalov, but what made this game noteworthy was Topalov's exchange sacrifice on the 11th move. Playing ...Rxc3 in the Sicilian is hardly cause to raise an eyebrow, let alone eat up bandwidth, but this was an unusual case. Normally, at least one of three factors is present before Black offers the sacrifice: (1) Black grabs a pawn (typically the White e-pawn), (2) the White king is castled queenside, and/or (3) White must recapture with the b-pawn, leaving himself a badly fractured queenside pawn structure.
In this case, it's 0-for-3. Not surprisingly, this sacrifice failed to occur in any of its 21 precedents, several featuring strong grandmasters wielding the Black pieces. What Topalov did achieve with this exchange sacrifice - a theme that has of late become his signature (Topalov as the new Petrosian??) - was the ...d5 break. Between that break, the accompanying threats (...d4 and ...dxe4, for starters), and his insecure king, Grischuk found nothing better than to return the exchange, leading to a safe position and an eventual draw.
Finally, a rapid, non-blindfold game between Nielsen and Morozevich saw the latter's knight take revenge against the bishop, in repayment for Anand-Leko. Morozevich is renowned for his good technique (as well as for his originality), and we see it on display here. The R+B vs. R+N ending starts out equal, but Nielsen loses the game in two stages. First, he places all his kingside pawns on light squares - the same color as his bishop - resulting in an obvious dark-square problem and the prospect of a long and passive defense. Second - and this is a common self-destructive practice in passive positions - he attempts to lash out with a pawn break, hoping to achieve some mobility for his rook and to counterattack against Black's pawn structure. With as many weaknesses as he had, there was no margin for error, and so it's not surprising that Morozevich had a winning tactical shot in reply.
All in all, three games worth studying - and you can begin to do so here.
The first game was a nice, thematic exploitation of a good knight vs. a bad bishop in an Open Ruy. It's a common problem Black needs to avoid (commonly by executing ...c5 at some convenient moment), but in this, their blindfold game, Leko was unable to do so against Anand and was ground down in 67 moves.
Game two was a clean draw in the blindfold game between Grischuk and Topalov, but what made this game noteworthy was Topalov's exchange sacrifice on the 11th move. Playing ...Rxc3 in the Sicilian is hardly cause to raise an eyebrow, let alone eat up bandwidth, but this was an unusual case. Normally, at least one of three factors is present before Black offers the sacrifice: (1) Black grabs a pawn (typically the White e-pawn), (2) the White king is castled queenside, and/or (3) White must recapture with the b-pawn, leaving himself a badly fractured queenside pawn structure.
In this case, it's 0-for-3. Not surprisingly, this sacrifice failed to occur in any of its 21 precedents, several featuring strong grandmasters wielding the Black pieces. What Topalov did achieve with this exchange sacrifice - a theme that has of late become his signature (Topalov as the new Petrosian??) - was the ...d5 break. Between that break, the accompanying threats (...d4 and ...dxe4, for starters), and his insecure king, Grischuk found nothing better than to return the exchange, leading to a safe position and an eventual draw.
Finally, a rapid, non-blindfold game between Nielsen and Morozevich saw the latter's knight take revenge against the bishop, in repayment for Anand-Leko. Morozevich is renowned for his good technique (as well as for his originality), and we see it on display here. The R+B vs. R+N ending starts out equal, but Nielsen loses the game in two stages. First, he places all his kingside pawns on light squares - the same color as his bishop - resulting in an obvious dark-square problem and the prospect of a long and passive defense. Second - and this is a common self-destructive practice in passive positions - he attempts to lash out with a pawn break, hoping to achieve some mobility for his rook and to counterattack against Black's pawn structure. With as many weaknesses as he had, there was no margin for error, and so it's not surprising that Morozevich had a winning tactical shot in reply.
All in all, three games worth studying - and you can begin to do so here.
Related Posts (on one page):
- Levon Aronian, Openings Maverick
- Melody Amber: Final Results
- Melody Amber, Round 6 Highlights