Ivanchuk wins Torre Memorial

Vassily Ivanchuk regained the title of the Carlos Torre Memorial which was held in the Mexican city of Mérida, in the state of Yucatan, from December 14 through the 22. Ivanchuk had been the champion of the 2004 edition and this time he won the title after defeating Cuba’s Bruzon in rapid games 1.5 to 0.5. The Cuban player had grabbed last year’s cup.

Photo: Instituto del Deporte del Estado de Yucatán

The match concluded with two draws in the morning and afternoon rounds, so it was necessary to play the 15-minute games. The first was also drawn, after 41 moves. But in the second the Ukrainian outplayed the Cuban, after a mistake in the opening.

Ivanchuk-Bruzon
Mérida, 2006

Bruzon’s main weapon to 1.d4 is the Queen’s Gambit Declined. He drew the first game against Ivanchuk’s Exchange Variation, but this time he misses an important move. The last moves were 16…c5 17.e4!? but though interesting, this move shouldn’t be a big problem for Black I think. After 17… c4 18. exd5 cxd3 19. Qxd3 Bh3! (an important finesse) 20. d6 (20. gxh3 Nb6) 20… Bxd6 21. Bxd6 Nb6 22. Bg3 Be6 the position is about equal. In the game, Black played 17…Nf6? after which 18. e5 Nd7 19. f4 c4 20. Bf5 Ndf8 21. Bh3! led to an overwhelming position for White, not difficult to win for a man of Ivanchuk’s quality.

In the open group, Vadim Milov was leading all the way and took the first price with his 7,5 out of 9, before Yunieski Quezada and Jesús Nogueiras.

>> replay the Ivanchuk-Bruzon games