Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (born April 12, 1985 in Sumqayit, Azerbaijan) will be playing in the Candidates Tournament this March in Berlin. He has a lot of credentials, for example he has experience playing in Candidates’ tournaments, having participated in 2011 and 2014. Shakh is also a two-time World Junior Champion and was World Rapid Champion in 2013. For some reason though few people give him the respect he deserves. The Web site chess.com put up a reader’s survey on who they think will win the 2018 Candidates Tournament and the results were:
Levon Aronian 37%
Fabiano Caruana 16%
Sergey Karjakin 14%
Wesley So 12%
Vladimir Kramnik 7%
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 5%
Alexander Grischuk 5%
Ding Liren 4%
As you can see Aronian is the runaway choice as the top seed. But I don’t agree. He has been in the world chess elite since 2005 when he won the World Cup and was ranked no. 5 in the world. There is no doubt that he is a powerful chess player and perhaps at some time arguably the strongest player in the world, however, to become world champion you have to win the world championship cycle, and he has choked in the events which mattered most.
Caruana is another very strong player, but he does not seem to be in good form lately.
I am, of course, rooting for Wesley So, but I think the favorite to win the Candidates would be Sergey Karjakin. He has two strengths which I find very important: no. 1 Karjakin gets stronger as the tournament progresses, just when everyone is tiring he is thriving. No. 2, and more importantly, he always seems to find the inner strength to excel when he has to. Remember the 2015 World Cup? In the finals, a 4 game match, Peter Svidler won the first two games to go 2-0 and only needed a draw to win, but Karjakin won the next two to tie and bring to match to tie-breaks. Karjakin eventually won the match 5.0-4.0. And he was given little chance in the world championship against Magnus Carlsen but he almost won that as well.
And don’t forget Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Yes, that guy who only 5% of the voters supported is in roaring hot form now. In Moscow last December there was the traditional “Nutcracker” tournament where a team of experienced players, called the “Kings” play an opposing team of rising stars, called the “Princes.” The format is a scheveningen where the “Kings” play everybody from the “Princes” once. Mamedyarov finished with 3.5/4 (draw with Artemiev and wins against Daniil Yuffa, Andrey Esipenko and Grigory Oparin). I’d like to show you two of those games.
Haven’t heard of GM Yuffa before? He is 20 years old, just became a GM in 2016 and is regarded as a very promising player although he has not yet come up with a big tournament win. In September 2017 Daniil gave a blindfold simul against 3 strong players in front of a live audience. And he did so while playing Chopin on a concert piano! Stuff like that sticks to your mind.
Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar (2799) — Yuffa, Daniil (2522) [A49]
Nutcracker Classical 2017 Moscow RUS (3.3), 21.12.2017
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.g3 g6 3.b3 d6 4.d4 Bg7 5.Bb2 0–0 6.Bg2
According to the Chessbase opening book, this opening for White is known as the “Anti-King’s Indian System”.
6…a5 7.c4 Ne4 8.Qc2 Bf5 9.g4 Nxf2 10.gxf5 Nxh1 11.Bxh1 a4 12.b4 Nd7 13.Nbd2 a3 14.Bc3
What to do about the long diagonal? If Black wants to keep it closed he will play 14…c6 followed by 14…d5. If he wants to open it he can play 14…c5 right away.
14…c5
This position is hard to evaluate but since White’s king is stuck in the center it has to be correct to open up the position.
15.dxc5 Bxc3 16.Qxc3 dxc5 17.b5 Qa5 18.Qe3 Nf6 19.h3
Preparing to play Kf2, which cannot be done now because of …Ng4+
19…Rad8 20.Kf2 Rd6 21.Rg1 Rfd8 22.Qxe7
Is this greed? No. White is looking at the possibility of a combination starting fxg6 followed by Rxg6+
22…Qc3 23.Ne4 Nxe4+ 24.Qxe4
Black should solidify his position with b6, Kg7, etc. Instead, he underestimates Shakh’s tactical resources.
24…Rd1 25.Qe7 Kg7?
[25…R1d7]
26.fxg6 hxg6 27.Rxg6+! Kxg6 28.Ne5+ 1–0
After 28.Ne5+ Black has to give up his queen or be mated. For example: 28…Kh6 (28…Kh5 29.Qxf7+ is the same thing; 28…Kf5 29.e4+ Kf4 30.Qf6#) 29.Qf6+ Kh5 30.Qxf7+ Kh4 31.Qf6+ Kh5 32.Qf5+ Kh6 33.Qg6#.
Andrey Esipenko is still listed as a FIDE Master (FM) but he has already fulfilled all the requirements for a full Grandmaster title and is just waiting for the official announcement of new titles granted to come out. Born March 22, 2002, he is only 15 years of age but already has many accomplishments. In 2017 he won both the European U16 and World U16 Chess Championship, and recently made waves at the World Rapid Championships by defeating Sergey Karjakin with a tremendous queen sacrifice.
Karjakin, Sergey (2760) — Esipenko, Andrey (2564) [B11]
World Rapid 2017 Riyadh KSA (8.9), 27.12.2017
1.e4 c6 2.Nf3 d5 3.Nc3 Bg4 4.h3 Bxf3 5.Qxf3 Nf6 6.d3 e6 7.Bd2 Qb6 8.0–0–0 d4 9.Ne2 c5 10.e5 Nd5 11.Nf4 Nb4 12.Kb1 Nd7 13.Qe4 Nc6 14.Nh5 0–0–0 15.f4 c4 16.dxc4 Ba3 17.Bc1 Nc5 18.Qf3 d3 19.cxd3 Na4 20.Rd2 Nd4 21.Qf2 Nc3+ 22.Ka1 Qb3! 23.bxc3 Qxc3+ 24.Bb2 Bxb2+ 25.Rxb2 Qc1+ 26.Rb1 Nc2+ 27.Qxc2 Qxc2 28.g3 b5 29.cxb5 Rd4 0–1
He is so tactically gifted and (department of bad puns!) makes it all look “esi” (from GM Jan Gustafsson).
Esipenko, Andrey (2564) — Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar (2799) [D46]
Nutcracker Classical 2017 Moscow RUS (2.3), 20.12.2017
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 c6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Qc2 Bd6 7.Bd3
Since we are living in an age of g2–g4 opening thrusts, I should point out here that 7.g4 is quite an acceptable gambit. After 7…Nxg4 8.Rg1 h5 9.h3 Nh6 10.e4 White has good compensation. But not 10.Rxg7? I met GM Pavel Kotsur during the 1999 Asian Team Championship and he impressed me very much with his quick sight of the board and theoretical knowledge. Which makes it all the more remarkable that he makes this blunder even more so because it has occurred before. After 10…Qf6 the rook and f3–knight are en prise 11.Rh7 Rxh7 12.Qxh7 Nf8 0–1. Kotsur,P (2586)-Barua,D (2541) Doha 2003. It is now White’s queen and f3–knight which are simultaneously attacked.
7…0–0
Here is another tactic that Black should be familiar with. After 7…dxc4 8.Bxc4 e5 9.0–0 exd4 10.exd4 0–0 11.h3?! is a psychological trap, trying to induce Black to play 11…h6? (falls into the trap. Correct is Nd7–b6–d5) 12.Bxh6! gxh6 13.Qg6+ the point 13…Kh8 14.Qxh6+ Nh7 (14…Kg8 15.Ng5 Bf4 16.Nce4 Bxg5 17.Nxg5 Qa5 18.Qg6+ Kh8 19.Bxf7+– is clearly winning for White) 15.Qxd6 Nb6 16.Qxd8 Rxd8 17.Bxf7 Nf8 18.Ne5 1–0. Farago,I (2502)-Sentef,N (2171) Baden Baden 2002.
8.0–0 dxc4 9.Bxc4 a6 10.Rd1 b5 11.Bf1
This bishop usually goes to e2 or d3. Esipenko took 10 minutes here and went for a relatively rare line, so I guess he is out of his preparation already here.
11…Qc7 12.e4 e5
Mamedyarov was 15 minutes ahead of his opponent at this point and in the following moves steadily increases his time advantage.
13.g3 Re8 14.Bg2 h6 15.h3 c5 16.dxe5 Nxe5 17.Nh4?! <D>
POSITION AFTER 17.NH4
Now Mamedyarov attacks.
17…g5! 18.Nf5
[18.Nf3 loses a pawn to 18…Nxf3+ 19.Bxf3 Bxh3 so the knight is forced to go to f5]
18…Bxf5 19.exf5 Rad8
Getting the rook out from the g2–bishop’s firing zone. Now Black intends …c5–c4, …Nd3 and possibly …Nxf2. This is the beauty of the Semi-Slav — once Black’s pieces start rolling they take over the position like an avalanche.
20.a4 b4 21.Nd5 Nxd5!
Nice. Then the other knight will go …Ne5–d7–f6 and take over from where its counterpart left off.
22.Rxd5 Nd7! 23.f6
Esipenko couldn’t find any other way to generate counterchances, so he jettisons the f5 pawn to make way for his rook or queen to take a threatening position on f5.
23…Nxf6 24.Rf5 Re1+!
White expected 24…Kg7 when 25.b3 Be5 26.Bb2 still keeps the game going.
25.Kh2 Nh5
Threatening 26…Bxg3+ 27.fxg3 Qxg3 checkmate.
26.Qb3 Ng7 27.Rf6 c4!
Aside from threatening the queen this move also leaves the c5 square open for queen or bishop.
28.Qf3 h5 29.Rh6
[29.Qb7 forces the exchange of queens but leads to a lost game. For example 29…Ne6! 30.Qxc7 Bxc7 White is defenseless against 31…h4 32.Rf5 hxg3+ 33.fxg3 Rd3 34.Rf3 Nd4 35.Rxd3 cxd3 hopeless]
29…h4 30.Qg4 hxg3+ 31.fxg3 Qc5 32.h4 Bxg3+ 33.Qxg3
Taking with the King leads to mate 33.Kxg3 Rd3+ 34.Bf3 Qg1+ etc.
33…Qg1+ 34.Kh3 Rd3 35.Bf3 Rxf3 36.Qxf3 g4+ 37.Qxg4 Qh1+ 38.Kg3 Rg1+ 0–1
Yes, “Shakh” is in red hot form and I expect him to finish well in the ongoing Tata Steel tournament. We will report on the final results next week.
Bobby Ang is a founding member of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines and its first Executive Director. A Certified Public Accountant, he taught accounting in the University of Santo Tomas for 25 years and is currently Chief Audit Executive of the Equicom Group of Companies.
