Ottawa Citizen, Canada
Aug 23 2008

Aronian hangs on to win

Deen Hergott, Citizen Special
Published: Saturday, August 23, 2008

Armenian Grandmaster Levon Aronian hung on to win the second FIDE
Grand Prix Tournament in Sochi, Russia, by half a point — he scored
8.5/11.

GM Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan was clear second with 8, while GMs
Wang Yue of China and Gata Kamsky of the United States shared
third-fourth with 7.5 points each.

The 6th Staunton Memorial, held in Simpsons in the Strand in London,
England, ended in victory for the event’s top-rated participant,
English GM Michael Adams. His 8/11 outdistanced second-place GM Loek
Van Wely of the Netherlands by half a point — the two players, in
fact, drew in the final round. 2008 Dutch champion GM Jan Smeets was
clear third with 7/11.

The following win by Smeets, from the second-last round, was a strong
contender for the brilliancy prize:

Smeets-Short:

Ruy Lopez, Classical

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 Na5

An opening with a huge pedigree, the Classical has largely been
supplanted by the Marshall Gambit and other Lopez systems. 9…Na5 is
a principal choice, but only one of many, many moves that have been
tried here.

10.Bc2 c5 11.d4 Nd7

Most common is 11…cxd4 12.cxd4 Nc6, though again there are lots of
choices available.

12.Nbd2 exd4 13.cxd4 Re8 14.dxc5 dxc5 15.e5! Nf8 16.Qe2 Bb7 17.Ne4 Ne6
18.h4!

Short has done a good job of controlling the sensitive e5-e6 break,
but White’s last guarantees some constant K-side pressure. Note that
18…Bxh4? fails tactically to 19.Nd6 Rf8 20.Nxb7 Nxb7 21.Qe4!,
forking two pieces.

18…Qc7 19.Neg5 Bxg5 20.Nxg5 Nxg5 21.Bxg5 h6?!

This does not work out well, but Black’s task is not easy.

22.Qd3! hxg5 23.Qh7+ Kf8 24.Qh8+ Ke7 25.Qxg7

Black had no choice but to go in for this, but White has fantastic
compensation for his sacrifice.

25…Rg8 26.Qf6+ Kf8 27.e6 Nc6?!

The last chance seems to be 27…Qe7 28.Qh6+ Rg7 29.Rad1 Bc6!?, and
while Black’s position is rather unenviable, White still needs a
knockout punch.

28.hxg5 Rd8 29.Qh6+ Rg7 30.g6! fxg6 31.Qh8+ Rg8 32.Qf6+ Ke8 33.Bxg6+
Rxg6 34.Qxg6+ Kf8 35.Re3! Black Resigns

With this rook entering the attack, there is absolutely no hope.

– – –

Locally, the 2008 RA Fall Open is fast approaching. It will be held on
the weekend of Sept. 5-7, and will feature a FIDE-rated section for
the first time in many years, with a substantially increased prize
fund. Further details at the event webpage, under Tournaments:
, or through the organizer, at arismarghetis@rogers.com.

Also this fall, the RA Chess Club will be offering an introductory
chess course on Sundays, running Sept. 14 through to the end of
November. Information is available on line at
or through Mr. Pat Coyne at the RA
Centre (pcoyne@racentre.com, 613-736-6206)

The next big international tournament coverage will be Moscow’s Tal
Memorial, which began Aug. 17. The lineup features several of the top
10 GMs in the world rankings, and is headed by Russian GM Vladimir
Kramnik.

Deen Hergott is an international chess master living in the area. For
questions/ comments, write to him at Chess Moves, c/o The Citizen,
1101 Baxter Rd., Box 5020, Ottawa K2C 3M4.