Bazna R7: Ivanchuk beats Shirov, leads by a point
21 June 2009, 22.19 CET | Last modified: 9:43 | By Peter Doggers | Filed under: Reports | Tags:
Don’t write him off yet! In a marathon game of 84 moves, Vassily Ivanchuk defeated Alexei Shirov today and increased his lead to a full point in Bazna, as Boris Gelfand drew with Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu. After six draws Teimour Radjabov won his first game, against Gata Kamsky, who is now on a terrible 1.5/7.
The 3rd Kings Tournament, a six-player round-robin with Radjabov, Ivanchuk, Shirov, Gelfand, Kamsky and Nisipeaniu, takes place June 14-25 in Bazna, Romania.
Round 7
So far it hasn’t been going too well with Gata Kamsky. The American is in poor form and after seven rounds he’s all the way down the standings with 1.5/7. It’s not that he’s playing that terrible, but it seems that he still has problems in the opening phase, so that it just takes too much time on the clock to reach a satisfactory position. In many games he does manage, only to follow-up with a big mistake, which is exactly how he lost to Radjabov.
Nisipeanu’s opening was fine this time: in a Petroff he improved upon an old Kholmov game and got a small but lasting advantage in the ending. However, Gelfand is Gelfand, and the Israeli defended the position to a draw on on move 74.
The game of the round was of course Ivanchuk-Shirov. Repeating the 4.Bg5 line Radjabov had tried before against Shirov in Bazna, Ivanchuk came up with a strong novelty. White seemed to be getting very strong pressure when Black suddenly found a great way to change the type of position.
The ending with three pawns against a piece should have been a draw, but first Shirov missed a threefold repetition, and then after some inaccurate moves he allowed Ivanchuk to push his h-pawn, and then after seven hours of play Shirov committed a big mistake, where he could still hold it. A fantastic performance by Ivanchuk, whose persistence was rewarded in the end.
Games round 7
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Bazna 2009 | Schedule and results
| Round 1 | 14.06.2009 | 15.30 | Round 6 | 20.05.2009 | 15.30 | |
| Kamsky | 0-1 | Shirov | Shirov | 1-0 | Kamsky | |
| Radjabov | ¬?-¬? | Gelfand | Gelfand | ¬?-¬? | Radjabov | |
| Nisipeanu | 0-1 | Ivanchuk | Ivanchuk | 1-0 | Nisipeanu | |
| Round 2 | 15.06.2009 | 15.30 | Round 7 | 21.06.2009 | 15.30 | |
| Shirov | ¬?-¬? | Ivanchuk | Ivanchuk | 1-0 | Shirov | |
| Gelfand | 1-0 | Nisipeanu | Nisipeanu | ¬?-¬? | Gelfand | |
| Kamsky | ¬?-¬? | Radjabov | Radjabov | 1-0 | Kamsky | |
| Round 3 | 16.06.2009 | 15.30 | Round 8 | 22.06.2009 | 15.30 | |
| Radjabov | ¬?-¬? | Shirov | Shirov | ¬?-¬? | Radjabov | |
| Nisipeanu | ¬?-¬? | Kamsky | Kamsky | ¬?-¬? | Nisipeanu | |
| Ivanchuk | ¬?-¬? | Gelfand | Gelfand | ¬?-¬? | Ivanchuk | |
| Round 4 | 17.06.2009 | 15.30 | Round 9 | 24.06.2009 | 15.30 | |
| Nisipeanu | ¬?-¬? | Shirov | Gelfand | ¬?-¬? | Shirov | |
| Ivanchuk | ¬?-¬? | Radjabov | Ivanchuk | ¬?-¬? | Kamsky | |
| Gelfand | ¬?-¬? | Kamsky | Nisipeanu | ¬?-¬? | Radjabov | |
| Round 5 | 18.06.2009 | 15.30 | Round 10 | 25.06.2009 | 13.30 | |
| Shirov | 0-1 | Gelfand | Shirov | 1-0 | Nisipeanu | |
| Kamsky | 0-1 | Ivanchuk | Radjabov | ¬?-¬? | Ivanchuk | |
| Radjabov | ¬?-¬? | Nisipeanu | Kamsky | ¬?-¬? | Gelfand |
Bazna 2009 | Round 7 Standings
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |||||
| 1 | Ivanchuk,V | 2746 | +200 | ** | ½ | ½ | ½1 | 11 | 1 | 5.5/7 |
| 2 | Gelfand,B | 2733 | +93 | ½ | ** | ½½ | 1 | 1½ | ½ | 4.5/7 |
| 3 | Radjabov,T | 2756 | +18 | ½ | ½½ | ** | ½ | ½ | ½1 | 4.0/7 |
| 4 | Shirov,A | 2745 | -17 | ½0 | 0 | ½ | ** | ½ | 11 | 3.5/7 |
| 5 | Nisipeanu,LD | 2675 | -94 | 00 | 0½ | ½ | ½ | ** | ½ | 2.0/7 |
| 6 | Kamsky,G | 2720 | -209 | 0 | ½ | ½0 | 00 | ½ | ** | 1.5/7 |
Photo courtesty of the official website, used with permission
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Incredible game for Ivanchuk and incredible result so far 5.5/7 !!!
That game is a bomb!
I must be missing something …. . Why did Shirov resign? What happens after 84.-Kg7 (85.Bh6+ Kh8)?
“What happens after 84.-Kg7″
h8Q Kxh8 Bh6 and in a few moves white will play Bg7#
Thanks, that’s convincing … interesting example how opposite-colored bishops favor the attacking player !!?
Any predecessors for this mating pattern (from practical games or endgame studies) ?
This might be a reason: 84…Kg7 85. Bh6+ Kh8 86. Kg5 Bxh7 87. Bf8 and Kh6 with Bg7 will round it up.
“Any predecessors for this mating pattern (from practical games or endgame studies) ?”
I’ve never seen anything like it in a game, it probably exists in a study somewhere.
What a game! Maybe there was a draw somewhere, but it was a great fight and a great winning idea, which I never saw before.
Two (+2) questions for the experts:
1. Is this endgame (K+B+N+P vs. K+B) already published before? Where?
2. Is it always winning? What are the exact conditions?
Well, sorry, someone is asking almost the same…
Go Gata!!
(but not that way!!
)
When I first saw it, I though of the white king coming to f8, by the black squares, which made me full of joy, but indeed Kg7 Bh6+ Kh8 Bf8 is faster and as enjoyable
Sorry but Kamsky is a never was and a never will be but he got paid so so away pretender….
??
That is one of the most hilarious comments ever!
SEE MY POST FROM Ivanchuk grabs sole lead….
ChessVibes, I see that you have obtained a resident village idiot. Good for you, it was becoming boring reading all those more or less sane comments.
Ivanchuk: battery is recharged.
I had my previous questions half answered (elsewhere). In fact, for various moves the game was a draw, but Shirov finaly cracked with Bh7??
It remained to know if there is a general known rule for the ending KBNP vs. KB. Exactly when is it not winning?
(answers like “when it is a draw or a loss” will not get a reward!)
But I have another hot question for the same experts:
Could it be that, after the piece sacrifice, Shirov even had A WIN, somewhere?
I ask this because — unless any convincing variations — one never knows about those pawn advantages and phalanxes.
Ivanchuck had always the upper-hand or does anyone spot a win for black?