2012 TRADEWISE GIBRALTAR CHESS FESTIVAL
Monday 23 January – Thursday 2 February 2012
PRESS RELEASE 14 27, January 2012
Thursday 26 January 2012 report by Stewart Reuben on Round 3 of the Masters
Participation of female players in this congress is very important to the whole ethos of this congress. Our webmaster, Steve Connor, reminded me I intended to comment on the passing of Elaine Pritchard, who died very recently and whose career spanned a major period in women’s chess. In a way, it is fortuitous that the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival can be regarded as a memorial to her. She was a child prodigy in the late 1930s (which must have been very unusual for a girl in that period). She remembered sitting on Vera Menchik’s knee. Vera was the first-ever Women’s World Champion and won the World Girls title the same year. Elaine won the World Girls in 1936 at the age of 10 and again in 1937. She was British Ladies Champion in 1939, 1946, 1955 and 1965. Her last FIDE Rating was 2150. In her period, women mainly played separately from men. For more details, see:
http://www.englishchess.org.uk/?p=16227.
Nigel Short ENG v Shakhriyar Mamedyarov AZE
Nigel won a very nice, easy game. It was predicted he would reach the Commentary Room by 6.15pm, but he made it by 6.01pm.
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.h3 Nb8 10.d3 Nbd7 11.Nbd2 Bb7 12.Nf1 Nc5 13.Bc2 Re8 14.Ng3 Bf8 15.b4 Ne6
(15 Ncd7 is more common)
16.d4 g6 17.Bd2 Nd7 18.Bb3 Qf6 19.d5 Nf4
(Although Black has a nicely placed knight, Nigel felt the rest of his pieces were just in a tangle. The pressure on the c file was unbearable for Black.)
20.c4 Nb6 21.Rc1 bxc4 22.Bxc4 Nxc4 23.Rxc4 Rac8 24.Qc2
24…Be7 (24…Nxh6ch seems attractive. But there follows 25 gxh6 Qxf6 26 Bg5 trapping the queen.) 25.Bxf4 exf4 26.Ne2 Bd8 27.Ned4 Rb8 28.Qa4 Kf8 29.Nc6 Bxc6 30.Rxc6 Qb2 31.a3 f5 32.e5 1–0
In the final position, Black’s queen is all dressed up with nowhere to go.
Michael Adams ENG v Daniel Fridman GER
It is heart-warming to see the two leading English players on the top two boards in the Masters. Even better, they both won. What could be more appropriate in this extremely patriotic setting? Michael sacrificed a pawn in return for weakening Black’s kingside, a very long-term plan indeed. His handling of the delicate endgame put Black under so much pressure that he eventually won. 53 move games don’t usually win the £1000 Best Game Prize, but this could be the exception.
Hou Yifan CHN v Zoltan Almasi HUN
Another elegant game played by Hou Yifan, the 17 year old Women’s World Chess Champion. The Berlin Wall is regarded as virtually impregnable, but she chipped away at its foundations.
Le Quang Liem VIE v Mircea-Emilian Parligras ROU
Basically they shuffled around until the music stopped. But doing nothing extremely well is a characteristic of very strong players.
Alexei Shirov LAT v Mariya Muzychuk UKR
Alexei again came to the Commentary Room as did Emanuel Berg. Thus we got three master classes that afternoon. He was very surprised by 24…Kf8. It was a nice positional crush.
Peter Svidler RUS v Anna Muzychuk SLO
She took the fight to the Russian, sacking a pawn early on. This was returned and it then came down to a drawn endgame.
David Howell ENG v Judit Polgar HUN
Black seemed better initially, but not after the mutual time scramble. The fortunes of the game ebbed and waned and it concluded after 82 moves with only kings on the board.
Gabriel Sargissian ARM v Sabino Brunello ITA
100 rated points difference isn’t all that much, so Black’s win was not a shocking surprise. The Armenian went wrong with 38 bxa6 and after this was unable to recover.
BLITZ TEAMS OF FOUR CHAMPIONSHIP
This traditional event attracted 20 teams of 4 players in 6 rounds. They played at the rate of 4 minutes per game plus 4 seconds cumulatively for each move. That works out at about 8 minutes for the whole game for each player, or an average of 8 seconds per move. This is considered quite leisurely for such an event.
The team USSR Mixed Team were red hot favourites. It consisted of Peter Svidler 2749 RUS, Viktor Bologan 2680 Moldova, Nadezhda Kosintseva woman 2537 RUS, Natalia Zhukova 2426 UKR.
USSR Mixed 20½ game points, 12 match points
Arabic Dragon 15½ game points, 8 match points
Linares Team 15 game points, 9 match points
In addition to the 3 hours of this event some people also played 4 hours in the morning and 5 hours in the evening.
PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL PHOTOGRAPHS ARE ON OUR WEBSITE
www.gibraltarchesscongress.com
Please do not hesitate to contact me at gibchesspress@gmail.com
Alice Mascarenhas
Tradewise Chess Press Officer
Press Office
2012 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival
www.gibraltarchesscongress.com
Where’s Gibraltar?