THE DAILY TELEGRAPH(LONDON)
March 19, 2004, Friday
Kasparov matched with boy wonder
By Malcolm Pein
THE line-up for the Reykjavik Rapid is now complete after the Open
tournament ended in a six-way tie for first place at the Reykjavik
City Hall. Five players qualified to join the 11 invited to take
part, who include the former world champions Garry Kasparov and
Anatoly Karpov, and England’s Nigel Short.
Of the eight players tied in the open on 6.5/9, Vladimir Epishin of
Russia, Igor Nataf of France, Jan Timman of Holland and Levon Aronian
of Armenia qualified, and Stefan Kristjansson of the host nation also
made it through to the main event.
A blitz tournament held to determine seeding saw Kasparov placed
second after losing to the Armenian Levon Aronian. The 13-year-old
sensation from Norway, IM Magnus Carlsen finishes in 15th place to
produce the dream first-round pairing between the world number one
and the world’s most precocious talent – Carlsen is already a
GM-strength player.
The full line-up (in world ranking order) is: 1 GM Garry Kasparov
2831 Russia; 2 GM Nigel Short 2702 England; 3 GM Anatoly Karpov 2682
Russia; 4 GM Alexey Dreev 2682 Russia; 5 GM Emil Sutovsky 2666
Israel; 6 GM Levon Aronian 2648 Armenia; 7 GM Johann Hjartarson 2640
Iceland; 8 GM Peter Heine Nielsen 2638 Denmark; 9 GM Vladimir Epishin
2633 Russia; 10 GM Jan Timman 2578 Holland; 11 GM Hannes Stefansson
2572 Iceland; 13 GM Margeir Petursson 2540 Iceland; 14 GM Helgi
Olafsson 2504 Iceland; 15 IM Magnus Carlsen 2484 Norway; 16 IM Stefan
Kristjansson 2404 Iceland.
Most of the Icelandic players have given up full-time chess and gone
into such fields as banking and law, but they are still a threat.
Johann Hjartarson is a former WCC Candidate.
Nataf got through by winning his last two games in the Open. The
Frenchman is a King’s Indian aficionado and does not fear the loss of
the dark squared bishop because of the closed nature of the position
after 15f4.
After 19g5 threat of g4 is imminent and the Black attack is clearly
quicker, hence the response 20.g4 but that does not solve all White’s
problems. 27.Be1 was an error because 27.Bg1 would have kept both f2
and e3 under control.
With Rf8 coming, White panics and gives up a pawn, but this only
serves to improve the Black position. 28.Rh4 would have been better.
R Pogorelov – I Nataf
21st Open Reykjavik (8)
King’s Indian Classical
1 Nf3 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nc3 Bg7 4 e4 d6 5 d4 0-0 6 Be2 e5 7 0-0 Nc6 8 d5
Ne7 9 b4 Nh5 10 Re1 f5 11 Ng5 Nf6 12 f3 Kh8 13 Be3 Bh6 14 Nf7+ Rxf7
15 Bxh6 f4 16 c5 Neg8 17 Bg5 h6 18 Bh4 Rg7 19 Bf2 g5 20 g4 fxg3 21
hxg3 Nh5 22 Kh2 g4 23 Rh1 Qg5 24 fxg4 Nhf6 25 Qc1 Nxg4+ 26 Kg2 Qg6 27
Be1? Bd7 28 c6 bxc6 29 dxc6 Bxc6 30 Bxg4 Qxg4 31 Qe3 Rf8 32 Bd2 Rf4
33 Rae1 Qg6 34 Qd3 Rg4 35 Rh3 h5 36 Reh1 Nf6 37 Kf1 Rxg3 38 Rxg3 Qxg3
39 Qxg3 Rxg3 40 Rh4 Rg4 41 Rxg4 hxg4 42 Bg5 Kg7 43 Kf2 Kg6 44 Be3 a6
45 Kg3 Bxe4 46 Ba7 Kf5 47 Bb8 d5 48 Bxc7 d4 49 Nd1 Nh5+ 50 Kf2 g3+ 51
Kg1 Nf4 0-1
Nataf
p p p p p 8 p p c p p p p p p o ) p n o – m p p p p o b p p p p p p ‘
p d
Pogorelov
Final position after 51Nf4