exd5!

24.09.2009
– "Enjoy your free day," our commentator GM Klaus Bischoff imagined the arbiter saying, though Bischoff assumed both players would spend it in front of their laptops. Not quite. Nigel Short went on an outing to Mukachevo Castle, located at the dizzying height of 68 meters, where he made a number of new friends, some of flesh and some in bronze. After that the fourth game was drawn. GM analysis.

: Fritz 12 Fritz is the world’s most popular chess program, developed by ChessBase, “the world's leading chess software company” (Washington Post). Whether you are a beginner, club player or professional – Fritz has everything that chess players could want: automatically adjusting playing strength, handicap and coaching functions, explanation of positions, coloured danger warnings, openings statistics, automatic game analysis, trainings modules for openings, tactics, endgames, and a database of one million games. Fritz continues to fascinate the chess world. It has beaten a reigning World Champion in the battle of man vs machine, and it has worked with World Champions as a clever training partner (Garry Kasparov: “I regularly analyse with Fritz”) which will entertain you with fresh and humorous verbal comments. Available from 7. October 2009 More information...

Universal Event Promotion (UEP), the company that staged major events like
Kramnik
vs Deep Fritz and the World
Championship Anand vs Kramnik, is now continuing their series of the first-class
matches with an encounter between former World Championship candidate Nigel
Short and the very promising Ukraining GM Zahar Efimenko. The event is taking
place in the West-Ukrainian town of Mukachevo. It is a classical match over
six games, with time controls of 90 minutes for 40 moves, plus 30 minutes for
the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting with
the first move. Efimenko is seconded by GM Alexander Beliavsky, Short is playing
without a second.

Game four

Commentary by GM Klaus Bischoff

Efimenko,Zahar (2654) - Short,Nigel (2706) [C80]
Match Mukachevo (4), 24.09.2009 [Klaus Bischoff]

Enjoy your free day, the arbiter may have said to the players after
game three. Nevertheless we can be almost sure that Nigel and Zahar spent their
free day in front of their laptops.

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Nxe4 6.d4 b5 7.Bb3 d5 8.dxe5
Be6 9.Nbd2 Nc5 10.c3 Nxb3

Of course he is not ready to repeat g6 against a better prepared opponent.
Still, I would not make a bet that Nigel thinks Nxb3 is the best move here.
He may intend to show the best move in game 6; classical match strategy. 11.Nxb3
Be7 12.Nfd4 Nxd4 13.cxd4 a5 14.Qc2. So Black has weaknesses in the c-file.But
he will get a strong grip on the white squares to compensate this. 14...Qd7
15.Be3 Bf5 16.Qc1

Zahar intends Bg5, which is a strong positional threat. Exchanging the bishops
would be positional suicide and f6 is (still) highly undesirable. 16...h6!
17.Nc5 Qc6 18.Qd1 Qg6. 18...Bxc5?! 19.Rc1! Qg6 20.Rxc5 c6 is not the end
of the world for Black, but a guarantee he will suffer. 19.Rc1 0-0 20.Bf4
h5. Black starts with useful pawn moves. It is not at all easy to decide
where to put the rooks. 21.f3 a4 22.Kh1 Rfe8 23.Qd2 c6

Nigel seems to think that Nb7-d6 is not a problem. He could have prevented
this with Ra7 and only then c6. 24.Nb7 Bd7 25.Rfe1 Bf8 26.Nd6. He is
going for a very small but safe advantage. 26.h3 is a possible improvement.
Even a well timed g4 may be an idea later. 26...Re6. Preparing mass exchanges
down the e-file. 27.h3 Bxd6 28.exd6 Rae8 29.Re5 f6 30.Rxe6 Rxe6 31.Re1

31...Qe8. He is keeping his queen close to the main enemy, the d-pawn.
31...Rxe1+ 32.Qxe1 Qc2 is playable according to my engines. After 33.Qe7
Qd1+ 34.Kh2 Qxd4 35.Qxd7 Qxf4+ it's a draw. 32.Rxe6 Qxe6 33.h4 Kf7 34.Kh2
Qf5 35.Bg3 Qe6 36.Qa5 Qe8 37.Qc7 Ke6 38.a3 Kf7 39.Bf4 Qe6 40.Bd2 Ke8 41.Ba5
Kf7 42.Bd2 Ke8 43.Kg3 Kf7 44.Kf2 Kg6 45.Bf4 Kf7

So he can only sit and wait.The only plan for White could be Qd8 and hyperspace
the king to c7. But how can Zahar cross the e-file? After Be3 Black has Qf5.
46.Be3 Qf5 47.Qd8 Qe6 48.Bf4 Qe8 49.Qxe8+ Kxe8. 0.00 according to my
engines. I do not doubt it. 1/2-1/2. [Click
to replay]

Results and standings

Free day outing

Well, the two players did not spend their free day in front of their notebooks.
Nigel Short, at least, took part in an outing to Mukachevo Castle (or Palanok
Castle), which is is located on a former 68 meter high volcanic hill and extremley
well preserved. The cornerstone was laid in the 14th century, and the castle
was later transformed into an impregnable fortress by French engineers. After
the storming of the Bastille Palanok Castle was used as an all-European political
prison. Through the centuries, the castle served as a residence to many people:
the Koriatovych family for almost 200 years, the Serbian prince Ðurad Brankovic,
Regent of Hungary János Hunyadi, and the wife of a Hungarian king, Laiosh
Maria, among many others. From 1796 to 1897, the castle was used as a prison.

At its height the castle was protected by 164 cannons of varying sizes, and
60 barrels of gunpowder. It was surrounded by deep moat and high wooden walls.
The total area of the castle is 14,000 m², and it has 130 different rooms
with a complex system of underground passages connecting them together. The
castle currently houses a museum dedicated to the history of Mukachevo and the
castle.

Nigel Short at Mukachevo Castle

With a fan from Mukachevo, local chess activist Mikhail Beglyj, Elo 2028

After watching the second match game, in which Short successfully played the
Open Ruy Lopez with 10...g6!?, Mikhail used this line in his internet blitz
games and won it all, basically.

Mikhail's daughter Margarita is more pleasant than the wild boar in Carpathian
Mountains.
Incidentally this young lady was named after Margaret Thatcher, whom her parents
admired

Two other Ukrainian ladies Nigel met at Mukachevo Castle...

and a bearded gentleman – Karl Marx? Naw, a mediaeval prince

Remaining schedule of the Short-Efimenko match

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009!

Read Full Post »

24.09.2009
– Day two of the commemorative rapid chess match saw Anatoly Karpov win a fine game against the man who dethroned him as World Champion 25 years ago. In the final game Garry Kasparov only needed a draw, but put on the pressure until Karpov crumbled and lost – again – on time. The final score of 3.0-1.0 is exactly what the ratings predicted. Illustrated report with videos.

Karpov vs Kasparov Rapid Chess + Blitz Match

The twelve-game match commemorates the 25th anniversary of the first Karpov
vs Kasparov World Championship match in 1984-85, played in the Hall of Columns
of the Trade Union House in Moscow. There will be twelve games, four in rapid
chess, to be played on Tuesday and Wednesday, plus eight blitz games on Thursday.
Each round starts at 19:00h CEST (= 21:00h Moscow, 18:00h London, 1 p.m. NY).
Live coverage is planned on the official web site and on the Playchess
server.

In game three Kasparov played a Fianchetto Gruenfeld with a thematic rook sacrifice.
Karpov played well and was able to maintain parity on the clock. The critical
position came at move 27.

Karpov,Ana (2619) - Kasparov,G (2812) [D72]
Match Valencia ESP (3), 23.09.2009
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 d5 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.e4 Nb6 7.Ne2 c5 8.d5
e6 9.0-0 0-0 10.Nec3 Na6 11.a4 exd5 12.exd5 Nb4 13.Be3 Bd4 14.a5 Bxe3 15.axb6
Bd4 16.bxa7 Bf5 17.Na3 Rxa7 18.Ncb5 Rxa3 19.Rxa3 Bxb2 20.Re3 Qb6 21.Qe2 Bg7
22.Rd1 Bd7 23.Na3 Bd4 24.Re7 Ba4 25.Rc1 Qf6 26.Rxb7 Bb2

27.Rxc5! Bxa3 28.h4? 28.Ra5 attacking both bishops. A possible
continuation: 28...Re8 29.Qc4 Re1+ 30.Bf1 Rc1 31.Qf4 Qxf4 32.gxf4 Bb3 33.Rxa3
Bc4 34.Rxb4 Bxf1 35.f3 Bc4+ 36.Kf2 Bxd5 and White remains a healthy exchange
up. After the text move the game is very drawish. 28...Nd3 29.Ra5 Nc5
30.Rba7 Qd4 31.Qe3 Qxe3 32.fxe3 Bc1 33.Kf2 Nd3+ 34.Ke2 Bc2

Black has extricated his pieces from the rook attacks, but they are precariously
placed and in no position to effectively stop the d-pawn. 35.d6 Re8?
36.Ra8 1-0. Kasparov, with characteristic objectivity, later said that
this was probably the best game of the match. [Click
to replay]

The game at move 20, with Kasparov pondering his move

The big screen display for the audience, with Fritz/Rybka display plans on the
left
(the red move, 20...Qb6, is the one that Kasparov played)

Game four

Kasparov,G (2812) - Karpov,Ana (2619) [D31]
Match Valencia ESP (4), 23.09.2009
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Be7 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bf4 c6 6.Qc2 Bd6 7.Bxd6 Qxd6
8.e3 Ne7 9.Bd3 g6 10.f3 Nd7 11.Nge2 0-0 12.0-0 c5 13.Qd2 a6 14.Rad1 cxd4 15.exd4
Nf6 16.g4 Kg7 17.Qf4 Rd8 18.Rfe1 b5 19.Qxd6 Rxd6 20.Nf4

In this game, which duplicated the second in the opening, Karpov has been hanging
on, but now he starts to succumb to Kasparov's permanent pressure: 20...Kf8
21.h4 Bd7 22.Kf2 Ne8 23.Rc1 Rc8 24.a3 Nc7 25.Nce2 Rb6 26.Rc5 Ne6 27.Nxe6+ Bxe6
28.Rec1 Ke8 29.Nf4 Kd8 30.b4 Ra8 31.h5 Rd6 32.Be2 g5 33.Nd3

This is a terrible position to defend for Black, especially if you are sitting
across from a hyper-aggressive player like Kasparov, and even more so if you
have very little time on your clock. Karpov chose the pragmatic way out: he
overstepped the time. 1-0. In the press conference after the
round Kasparov said that he would have preferred to win the games by playing
them out, but "the clock is also part of the game." [Click
to replay]

The position on the display screen after 24.a3

... and on the stage after Karpov's move 26...Ne6

What you gonna do? Karpov has just lost a second game on time.

Anatoly Karpov after the rapid chess section of this commemorative event

Garry Kasparov in the press conference after round four

Photos by Nadja Woisin for ChessBase

Results and standings

Rapid Chess	Rtng.	1	2	3	4	Tot.	Perf
Anatoly Karpov	2619	0	0	1	0	1.0	2621
Garry Kasparov	2812	1	1	0	1	3.0	2810

It is interesting to note that the rating difference between both players predicted
exactly this result. Naturally the figures are somewhat misleading – they
were achieved in long games, and Kasparov's is a number of years old, while
Karpov has descended rapidly in recent times.

Videos by Europe Echecs

In addition:

"Battle of two chess titans": BBC interview with GM Raymond
Keene (click to start)

Links Official event web site All games in PGN The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009!

Previous articles

Chessbase.com

Read Full Post »

23.09.2009
– Twenty-five years and still going strong: Garry Kasparov started his commemorative match against eternal rival Anatoly Karpov with two quick wins. The first game was over in 24 moves, when Karpov overstepped his time; and the second ended in 28 moves after a flashy kingside attack by Kasparov. The international press is reporting extensively, and we have some interesting video documents.

Karpov vs Kasparov Rapid Chess + Blitz Match

The twelve-game match commemorates the 25th anniversary of the first Karpov
vs Kasparov World Championship match in 1984-85, played in the Hall of Columns
of the Trade Union House in Moscow. There will be twelve games, four in rapid
chess, to be played on Tuesday and Wednesday, plus eight blitz games on Thursday.
Each round starts at 19:00h CEST (= 21:00h Moscow, 18:00h London, 1 p.m. NY).
Live coverage is planned on the official web site and on the Playchess
server.

Twenty-five years on... the two world-famous opponents meet again in a match

The stage in the packed Palau de les Artes Reina Sofía in Valencia

In the background is the lone arbiter, Geurt Gijssen, watches over game one

Something we have sorely missed: Kasparov in serious OTB play

12th World Champion Anatoly Karpov in game one against his historical nemesis

Karpov,Ana (2619) - Kasparov,G (2812) [D72]
Match Valencia ESP (1), 22.09.2009
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 d5 5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.e4 Nb6 7.Ne2 c5 8.d5
0-0 9.0-0 e6 10.Nbc3 Na6 11.h3 exd5 12.exd5 Nc4 13.b3 Nd6 14.Bf4 b6 15.Qd2 Bb7
16.Rad1 Nc7 17.g4 Qd7. Novelty by Kasparov. 18.a4 f5 19.g5
Rad8 20.Bg3

20...f4!? Hyper-aggressive play by Kasparov, who sees that
his opponent is struggling with the clock. Karpov has to waste precious minutes
deciding how to capture the pawn. 21.Nxf4 Nf5 22.Nb5 Nxb5 23.axb5 Nd4
24.Ne6

With his last move Karpov had overstepped the time. Kasparov will of course
play 24.Ne6 Nxe6 25.dxe6 Qxd2 26.Rxd2 Rxd2 27.Bxb7, which leaves White an exchange
down. With just a few seconds left on his clock Karpov was bound to lose the
possibly defensible position. 0-1. [Click
to replay]

The end of game one: Karpov has lost on time

Game two

The start of the second rapid chess game in Valencia

Garry Kasparov, now 46 years old, has apparently not lost any of his legendary
skills

Anatoly Karpov, 58, has a tough time trying to keep up with his younger
rival

Kasparov,G (2812) - Karpov,Ana (2619) [D31]
Match Valencia ESP (2), 22.09.2009
1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Be7 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bf4 c6 6.Qc2 Bd6 7.Bxd6 Qxd6
8.e3 Ne7 9.Bd3 Nd7 10.Nge2 h6 11.0-0 0-0 12.a3 a5 13.Rad1 b6 14.e4 dxe4 15.Nxe4
Qb8 16.N2c3 Ba6 17.Bxa6 Rxa6 18.d5 Nxd5 19.Nxd5 cxd5 20.Rxd5 Ra7 21.Qd2.
Karpov is under considerably pressure, and now he crumbles: 21...Nc5?
Missing a deadly tactical shot:

22.Nf6+! Kasparov misses nothing. 22...gxf6 23.Qxh6
f5 24.Qg5+ Kh8 25.Qf6+ Kg8 26.Rxf5 Ne4 27.Qh4 Re8 28.Rh5 f5 1-0. [Click
to replay]

Results and standings

Rapid Chess	Rtng.	1	2	3	4	Tot.	Perf
Anatoly Karpov	2619	0	0			0.0
Garry Kasparov	2812	1	1			2.0

Photos by Nadja Woisin for ChessBase

Channel 4 News reports

Report on the Valencia match

Jon Snow speaks to GM Ray Keene

Historical report on the World Championship 1986 in London

A second nostalgic report on the 1986 match

Links Official event web site All games in PGN The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009!

Previous articles

Additional links

The international media is giving this event unpresidented coverage. We have
seen clips in the news of most major TV networks, and the broadsheets are reporting
enthusiastically as well. Kasparov and Karpov remain a hot brand in chess today.

• NYT:
  Kasparov Wins First Two Games Against Karpov
• CNN:
  Chess legends Kasparov, Karpov face off
• WSJ:
  Kasparov, Karpov Face Off Again on the Chessboard
• Guardian:
  Chess titans Kasparov and Karpov meet again - 25 years on (with live
  coverage)
• Telegraph:
  Gary Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov: kings at play
• Times:
  Chess moves with the political times
• Mirror:
  25 years on, it's Karpov v Kasparov in chess rematch
• Herald:
  Russian legends renew challenge to break stalemate after 25 years
• Channel
  News Asia: Re-match 25 years on for Kasparov, Karpov
• BBC: The
  great rivalries of chess
• Reuters:
  Chess legend Kasparov beats Karpov in first rematch (with video)
• AP:
  Kasparov has 2-0 lead over Karpov in Spain match

Chessbase.com

Read Full Post »

23.09.2009
– Four and a half years ago, at the 2004 Dubai Open, GM Evgeny Vladimirov suffered
a stunning defeat against a 13-year-old. The former Kasparov trainer was so
impressed that he predicted that young Magnus Carlsen would one day be the number
one in chess. In his Wednesday night Playchess
lecture Dennis Monokroussos looks at this astonishing game. Nine p.m. ET on the server.

Dennis Monokroussos writes:

With the recent
news that Magnus Carlsen is working with Garry Kasparov, it seems like only
a matter of time before he reaches the very top of the chess world. Of course,
that has been a common opinion for some years anyway, and it's games like the
one we'll look at this week that have encouraged such speculation.

Played when he was just 13, his victory over the experienced and strong GM
Evgeny Vladimirov was both important and remarkable. Important, because it jump-started
him in the 2004
Dubai Open on the way to his final grandmaster norm and the title; remarkable,
because afterwards Vladimirov – one of Kasparov's former trainers, declared
that Carlsen's future in chess was as the number one player!

13-year-old GM Magnus Carlsen at the Tripoli World Championship

We've all had some time now to appreciate Carlsen and to see Vladimirov's prediction
come closer and closer to fruition, but it's worth having a look at this game
in particular, to see what so impressed Carlsen's opponent. Those of you who
want to see the game in advance can undoubtedly do so, but for those who want
to enjoy the surprises with fresh eyes, I'll keep any possible spoilers out
of this blurb.

What I will tell you is that you can watch the show tomorrow night –
Wednesday night – on the Playchess server, at 9 p.m. ET. (That's 3 a.m.
CET on Thursday, for my European insomniac and early-rising viewers.) To watch,
simply log on, go to the Broadcasts Room, find Carlsen-Vladimirov under the
Games tab, double-click and you're good to go. See you then!

You can find the exact times for different locations in the world at World
Time and Date. Exact times for most larger cities are here.
And you can watch older lectures by Dennis Monokroussos offline in
the Chess Media System room of Playchess:

Enter the above archive room and click on "Games" to see the lectures.
The lectures, which can go for an hour or more, will cost you between one and
two ducats.
That is the equivalent of 10-20 Euro cents (14-28 US cents).

Monokroussos in Mexico: World Championship 2007

Dennis Monokroussos is 41, lives in South Bend, IN, where
he teaches chess and occasionally works as an adjunct professor of philosophy
at the University of Notre Dame and Indiana University-South Bend.

At one time he was one of the strongest juniors in the U.S. and has reached
a peak rating of 2434 USCF, but several long breaks from tournament play have
made him rusty. He is now resuming tournament chess in earnest, hoping to reach
new heights.

Dennis has been working as a chess teacher for ten years now, giving lessons
to adults and kids both in person and on the internet, worked for a number of
years for New York’s Chess In The Schools program, where he was one of
the coaches of the 1997-8 US K-8 championship team from the Bronx, and was very
active in working with many of CITS’s most talented juniors.

When Dennis Monokroussos presents a game, there are usually two main areas
of focus: the opening-to-middlegame transition and the key moments of the middlegame
(or endgame, when applicable). With respect to the latter, he attempts to present
some serious analysis culled from his best sources (both text and database),
which he has checked with his own efforts and then double-checked with his chess
software.

Chessbase.com

Read Full Post »

22.09.2009
– The first two games of this match were both won by Black, after hard and interesting fights. Would White achieve a better result today? Almost. Former World Championship challenger Nigel Short had his younger Ukrainian opponent on the ropes, and only with a strong and imaginative defence could Zahar Efimenko save his bacon. Game three analysis by GM Klaus Bischoff.

: Fritz 12 Fritz is the world’s most popular chess program, developed by ChessBase, “the world's leading chess software company” (Washington Post). Whether you are a beginner, club player or professional – Fritz has everything that chess players could want: automatically adjusting playing strength, handicap and coaching functions, explanation of positions, coloured danger warnings, openings statistics, automatic game analysis, trainings modules for openings, tactics, endgames, and a database of one million games. Fritz continues to fascinate the chess world. It has beaten a reigning World Champion in the battle of man vs machine, and it has worked with World Champions as a clever training partner (Garry Kasparov: “I regularly analyse with Fritz”) which will entertain you with fresh and humorous verbal comments. Available from 7. October 2009 More information...

Universal Event Promotion (UEP), the company that staged major events like
Kramnik
vs Deep Fritz and the World
Championship Anand vs Kramnik, is now continuing their series of the first-class
matches with an encounter between former World Championship candidate Nigel
Short and the very promising Ukraining GM Zahar Efimenko. The event is taking
place in the West-Ukrainian town of Mukachevo. It is a classical match over
six games, with time controls of 90 minutes for 40 moves, plus 30 minutes for
the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting with
the first move. Efimenko is seconded by GM Alexander Beliavsky, Short is playing
without a second.

Game three

Commentary by GM Klaus Bischoff

Short,Nigel (2706) - Efimenko,Zahar (2654) [B92]
Match Mukachevo (3), 22.09.2009 [Klaus Bischoff]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be2. This quiet move
was Geller's main weapon against any kind of Sicilian. He was one of the few
players, who had a positive score against Bobby Fischer. 6...e5. Zahar
continues to play a Najdorf. Kasparov used to play e6 instead of e5 to get a
Scheveningen Sicilian. 7.Nb3 Be7 8.Bg5 Be6. Black is now ready to connect
his knights with Nbd7. This Nf6 is the best defender of the key square d5. 9.Bxf6
Bxf6 10.Qd3. 10.Bg4 looks interesting, but Black will of course not exchange
the bishops. Black is not afraid at all to get a doubled e-pawn, because he
would then win the fight for d5. 10...Be7. Bad bishops protect good pawns
(Suba). 11.Nd5 Nd7 12.Rd1!?

Interesting, more obvious moves were castling queenside or castling kingside
and play for Rfd1. With Rd1 immediately Nigel wants to provoke a concession.
12...Bxd5. This is of course a very safe way to play the position. Rc8
could have led to more interesting positions. 13.Qxd5 Qc7 14.c3 0-0 15.0-0
b5 16.Nd2!? Still d5 is the most important square. So the useless Nb3 is
starting a long journey. 16...Nb6 17.Qb3 Qc5 18.a3!

It is not easy to explain how deep this move is. White is not threatening
Qb4, but he has this move available now. 18...Rac8 19.Rfe1 g6. Black
starts to prepare f5, but this is of course in itself risky. 20.Nf1 Kh8.
Zahar continues his risky plan, but I am afraid this is asking for trouble.
20...Bg5 to prevent Ne3 looks solid. After 21.Qb4 Black can protect
his d-pawn with 21...Rfd8. 21.Ne3 f5 22.exf5 Bg5 23.Qb4!

This was prepared five moves ago. Black is now in big danger. 23...Bxe3
24.fxe3 gxf5 25.Qxc5 dxc5 26.Rd6 Rb8. This passive move is more or less
forced. White has the d-file under control and things look grim for Black. 27.Red1
Kg7 28.h4!?

This is either a great move or a sign of impatience. It is a bit boring to
suggest Kf2 as an improvement, but Rc6 and Re6 looked promising. 28...c4
29.Kf2 Rf6 30.Rxf6 Kxf6 31.Rd6+ Kg7 32.e4 fxe4 33.Ke3 Na4 34.Rxa6. Now Nigel's
queenside will be destroyed. 34.Rd7+ may be a better try. After 34...Kh8
White plays 35.Rd2 to keep his pawns for a while. If Black tries 35...Nc5 White
can calmly build up the kingside with 36.g4 before he starts operations at the
other side. 34...Nxb2 35.Ra7+ Kh8 36.Kxe4 Na4 37.Kxe5 Nxc3 38.Bf3 Re8+ 39.Kf6
Rf8+ 40.Ke6 Re8+ 41.Kf7 Rg8 42.Ra5 Rb8 43.Bc6 Nb1 44.Bxb5 Nxa3 45.Ba6 Ra8!

With this strong defence Zahar is saving his bacon. 46.Rxa3 Ra7+ 47.Kf8
Ra8+ 48.Kf7 Ra7+. These checks are necessary, because Black must take the
bishop with check. 49.Kf6 c3 only now 50.Rxc3 Rxa6+ 51.Kf7 Ra7+ Black
is still okay, but today Zahar had to work hard to get away with a draw.
1/2-1/2. [Click to replay]

On the brink: Zahar Efimenko in game three

Playing for England: Nigel Short

Results and standings

Remaining schedule of the Short-Efimenko match

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009!

Read Full Post »