THE DAILY TELEGRAPH(LONDON)
February 05, 2005, Saturday
Five share victory in Gib
By Malcolm Pein
FIVE players shared first at the Gibtelecom Masters organised by the
BCF at the Caleta Hotel in Gibraltar. Kiril Georgiev of Macedonia and
Lev Aronian of Armenia both won their last-round games to join the
leaders on 7.5/10. The trio on seven points at start of play —
Alexey Shirov, Emil Sutovsky and Zahar Efimenko — all drew.
Danny Gormally drew with a second Armenian international, Gabriel
Sargissian, and gained nearly 30 rating points while ending as the
best-placed British player on 6.5/10. Peter Wells, who defeated Jon
Speelman, and Colin McNab, who overcame Juan Bellon, also scored 6.5,
but their results do not compare with Gormally’s, who was inspired
and faced six of the world’s top-ranked players and lost only once.
There were 120 players in the competition.
Round 10 results: 2 Kotronias (6=) = — = Efimenko (7); 3 Georgiev
(6=) 1 — 0 Erenburg (6=); 4 Sargissian (6=) = — = Gormally (6=); 5
Rogers (6) 0 — 1 Aronian (6=); 6 Spraggett (6) = — = Dreev (6) ; 7
Areshchenko (6) 1 — 0 Sasikiran (6) ; 8 Nakamura (6) 1 — 0 N Pert
(6) ; 9 Wells (5=) 1 — 0 Speelman(6) ; 10 Lahno (5=) 0 — 1 Avrukh
(5=); 11 Tregubov (5=) = — = Radziewicz (5=); 12 Postny (5=) = —
Skripchenko (5=); 13 Hamdouchi (5=) = — = Tissir (5=); 14 Hebden
(5=) = — = Thorfinnsson (5=); 15 Rendle (5=) = — = Ward (5=); 16
Arakhamia (5=) = — = Al Sayed (5=); 17 Bellon (5) 0 — 1 McNab (5=).
SHIROV mates his opponent after opening lines with a pawn sacrifice;
see if you can spot the finish in the diagram below.
A.Shirov — K.Spraggett
Gibraltar Masters (9)
Sicilian Defence
1 e4c5 2Nf3e6
3 d4cxd4 4Nxd4a6
5 Bd3Nf6 60-0d6
7 c4Qc7 8Nc3Be7
9 b3b510Bb2b4
11 Nce2Nbd712Ng3Nc5
13 Bc2Bb714Qe10-0
15 Rd1Rfe816f4d5
17 cxd5exd518e5Nfe4
19 Ndf5Bf820Rc1Qd7
21 Qe3Rac822Rfd1Qe6
23 Nd4Qb624Nde2Qb5
25 f5Nd726Bd3Rxc1
27 Rxc1Qa528e6!fxe6
29 fxe6Rxe630Nf4Re8
31 Nxe4dxe432Bc4+Kh8
1-0
Spraggett
Shirov
Final position after 32…Kh8 and Black resigned: why? Answer on
Monday.
THE Bermuda International is a top-class event, with a double-round
all-play-all that includes six of the world’s top 100 players.
Scores after five rounds: 1-3 Vescovi (Brazil) 2645, Gelfand (Israel)
2696, Harikrishna (India) 2632 3/5; 4 Dominguez, (Cuba) 2661 2.5; 5
Volokitin (Ukraine) 2; 6 Macieja (Poland) 2618 1.5.
