Kotronias in the lead at Rilton cup

Vassilios Kotronias is topping the field in the Rilton cup in Stockholm after round six, with 5,5 points. Today he beat russian GM Evgenij Gleizerov in his favorite opening, The King’s Indian. Instead of crushing the king he aimed at whites d5-pawn.

Photo: Cathy Rogers

Gleizerov-Kotronias
Stockholm 2006

White seems to cover d5 well with 27.Bc4 but the strong 27…Ba4! will show that this pawn will be dead lost. After 28.Qd2 Bxd4 29. Qxd4+ 30. Qg7 Qxg7 31.b5 (otherwise black would play b5) 31…Tc3 32.Tb4 it looks like White got is sorted. However Kotronias finishes it with a petit combination, which might make it to some excersise books: 32…Rxc4 33.Rxc4 Bb5 34.Rfc1 Bxc4 35.Rxc4 Rc8 and White resigned as still the black knight will soon also have the d5 pawn for supper.

Kotronias is followed amongst others by GM Emanuel Berg, one of the participants of the Corus tournament. After a major upset in round one, where he lost to 2134-rated Michael Backman, he won all other five games.

Berg-Ã…kesson
Stockholm 2006

Today he crushed Ralf Ã…kesson in a Sicilian Scheveninger who tried something new with 12…Na5 but I don’t think we will see this back in practice. Berg created an immense attack and finishes it off nicely with 27.Rxf6 gxf6 28.Bxh7+ Kf8 29.Qh6+ Kf8 30.Bg6 1-0

This was much better than his fellow Corus-participant Stefan Stellan Brynell who in my opinion mixed a move with the model game in this variation (Keres-variation in the spanish) between Anand and Ponomariov, Mainz 2002. This game is given as example in the excellent book Play e4-e5 by Nigel Davies.

Lindberg-Brynell
Stockholm 2006

Without commenting 23… Ra8 (with gaining a proper Benoni position) is played and this game proofs why this move is a must as black really suffers on the seventh rank after
23…Qe7? 24. Ra7! Ra8 25. Qa1 Rxa7 26. Qxa7 Rd8 27. Ra1 Kf8 28. b3 f6 29. Qb6 Be8 30. Ra7 Rd7 31. Ra8 and white holds a firm grip on the black position and won the game in 44 moves. Let’s see if the Greec can stay up in cold Sweden!

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