Xtracon Chess Open 2017
Elsinore, Denmark
July 22-30, 2017
Final Top Standings
1. GM Baadur Jobava GEO 2714, 8.5/10
2-9. GM Krishnan Sasikiran IND 2688, GM Marin Bosiocic CRO 2616, GM Nikita Vitiugov RUS 2724, GM Lyna Narayanan Sunilduth IND 2564, GM Nigel Short ENG 2688, GM Ivan Saric CRO 2621, IM Andrey Kvon UZB 2500, GM Mads Andersen DEN 2586, 8.0/10
10-23. GM Frode Urkedal NOR 2543, GM Jon Ludvig Hammer NOR 2628, GM Daniele Vocaturo ITA 2592, IM Axel Delorme FRA 2518, GM Alexander Shabalov USA 2549, GM Simen Agdestein NOR 2604, GM Alexander Motylev RUS 2680, IM Francesco Sonis ITA 2440, GM Jonny Hector SWE 2497, IM Arghyadip Das IND 2416, IM Kristian Stuvik Holm NOR 2403, FM Filip Boe Olsen DEN 2189, GM Jan-Christian Schroeder GER 2539, Stephen Dishman ENG 2313, 7.5/10
Total of 413 participants
Time Control: 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 30 minutes for the rest of the game with 30 seconds added after every move starting move 1
Have you ever seen the 2004 Walt Disney Movie Miracle? It is about the United States men’s hockey team which won the gold medal in the 1980 Winter Olympics. One scene sticks to my mind — the coach of that team, Herb Brooks (Kurt Russell) chose Jim Craig as his main goalkeeper during the tryouts in Colorado Springs. The assistant coach, played by Noah Emmerich, was surprised by this choice and said that people he has talked to think that Craig’s game has been off since his mom died. To that Coach Herb replied “but have you ever seen him when his game is on?”
That is also a good description of GM Baadur Jobava from Georgia. He is a very aggressive, creative and exciting player with a lot of new ideas, but when a player is “off” they usually agree to a few short draws and try to play themselves back into form. Baadur’s unwillingness to take an easy draw and insistence on squeezing every bit from the position could lead to disaster.
In the 2016 Baku Chess Olympiad Jobava won the gold medal on board 1 with an awesome performance rating of 2926. This was his second gold medal in the Olympiad — he first did the trick with 8.5 out of 10 in 2004 Calvia.
On the other hand in the Leuven Rapid tournament last June he could only draw one game out of nine with eight losses. Yes, you can say that his opponents in Leuven are the top 10 players in the world and it is definitely no disgrace to lose to any of them. However, we know that GM Baadur is capable of so much more and should be contending for the top, not the bottom. Don’t forget that he is not a slouch at rapid chess, being the 2011 European Champion (2011 Warsaw).
Let me show you two of his games from the Xtracon Open, played in Elsinore, Denmark (if that place sounds familiar you should know that the castle Kronborg is located there, where William Shakespeare’s Hamlet is set).
* * *
Goh, Wei Ming Kevin (2446) — Jobava, Baadur (2714) [A45]
Xtracon Open 2017 Helsingor (5), 25.07.2017
1.d4 Nf6 2.Bf4 c5 3.e3 cxd4 4.exd4 Qb6 5.Nc3
White uses the Jobava Attack (characterized by d4, Bf4 and Nc3) against Jobava!
5…a6
[5…Qxb2? 6.Nb5 Na6 7.a3 Nd5 8.Rb1 Qa2 9.Rb3 Black’s queen is in big trouble]
6.Qd2 d5
The b2 — pawn is still unpalatable. 6…Qxb2 7.Rb1 Qa3 8.Bc7! e6 9.Rb3 Qe7 10.Bxb8 Rxb8 11.Bxa6 Material is equal but White’s forces are already mobilized while Black’s are still getting in each other’s way.
7.0 — 0 — 0
This is the point of the Jobava Attack — quick queenside castling.
7…e6 8.Bd3 Bd7 9.Qe3 Bb5 10.g4! h6
[10…Nxg4? 11.Qg3 either wins the knight on g4 or b8]
11.h3 Nc6 12.Nf3 Bxd3 13.Rxd3 Nb4 14.Rdd1 Ne4 15.Kb1?
Better is 15.Nxe4 dxe4 16.Ne5! (16.Qxe4? Nxa2+ and now White is forced to bring his king out of his comfort zone to d2 because 17.Kb1?? Nc3+ wins the queen) 16…Nxa2+ 17.Kb1 Nb4 18.Qxe4 White has the better game now — take note that he is strongly threatening d4 — d5.
15…Rc8!
Now Black’s attack gets really strong.
16.Nxe4 dxe4 17.Qxe4 Nd5
Jobava avoids taking on c2 with either the rook or the knight as White’s 18.Rc1 would be a good answer to either of them.
18.Bd2 Ba3! 19.b3 Rc3 20.Ng1?
Wei Ming wants to relocate his knight to e2 but the plan is too slow. 20.Ne5 is a much better move.
20…Nf6 21.Qe5 Qc6 22.d5
Not 22.Bxc3? Qxc3 the mate on b2 is unstoppable.
22…Nxd5 23.Qxg7 Rf8 24.Ne2 Rxc2 25.Nd4?
Only move to hold the game together is 25.Qd4.
25…Rb2+ 26.Ka1 <D>
POSITION AFTER 26.KA1
26…Qc3!!
If now 27.Bxc3 Nxc3 and White cannot prevent mate on a2.
27.Nxe6 Qc2 28.Nc7+ Kd7 0 — 1
No choice: Rxa2 checkmate is unavoidable.
The next game is a royal battle between the two tournament leaders at the time. Nigel Short, of course, is one of the greats — he played for the world Chess championship against Garry Kasparov back in 1993. Nigel is already 52 years old but still remains a force to reckon with.
* * *
Jobava, Baadur (2714) — Short, Nigel D (2688) [A14]
Xtracon Open 2017 Helsingor (8), 28.07.2017
1.c4 e6 2.g3 d5 3.Bg2 Nf6 4.Nf3 Be7 5.0 — 0 0 — 0 6.Qc2 b6
For some reason this move scores very poorly for Black. Most people play 6…c5 or 6…d4 and those two moves do much better.
7.cxd5 Nxd5 8.Nc3
Even an “unbeatable” player like Peter Leko was crushed by Manuel Bosboom in this line. Not to demean the Dutch International Master, he is a blitz specialist and a good attacker, but not in Peter Leko’s league. 8.a3 Bb7 9.d4 Nf6 10.Nc3 c5 11.dxc5 bxc5 12.Rd1 Qb6 13.Bg5 Rc8 14.Rac1 Na6 15.e4 Bf8 16.Bxf6 gxf6 17.e5 Bg7 18.Rd6 Qc7 19.Rcd1 Rd8 20.Nb5 Qa5 21.Ng5 Rxd6 22.Qxh7+ Kf8 23.Nxd6 fxg5 24.Bxb7 Rd8 25.Qh5 Rd7 26.Nc4 1 — 0 (26) Bosboom,M (2424)-Leko,P (2734) Bilbao 2014.
8…c6
Former world champion Anatoly Karpov took part in the 2009 World Blitz Chess Championship and there Aronian took him down pretty quickly with 8…Bb7 9.Rd1 c5 10.d4 Nb4 11.Qb1 Qc8 12.Bg5 Bxg5 13.Nxg5 g6 14.Nce4 Kg7 15.Nd6 1 — 0. Aronian,L (2786)-Karpov,A (2619) Moscow 2009.
9.Rd1 Bb7 10.d4 Nd7 11.e4 Nxc3 12.bxc3 Qc7 13.Bf4 Bd6 14.e5 Be7 15.h4 Rfe8 16.h5 b5 17.h6 g6 18.Nh2 Nb6 19.Ng4 c5 20.Nf6+ Bxf6! 21.exf6 Qc8 22.Bxb7! Qxb7 23.dxc5 Nc4 24.Bd6
White is a pawn up with a better position, but his kingside offensive has fizzled out. Jobava has to activate his rooks either on the b-file or d-file.
24…Qf3 25.a4 bxa4 26.Rd4 Na5 27.Rf4 Qb7 28.Rb4
Don’t do 28.Raxa4?! Nc6
28…Qd7 29.Qxa4 Nc6 30.Rab1
Mission accomplished. White has unassailable domination of the b-file and should be winning already. Then again, he still has to prove it.
30…Rec8 31.Rb7 Qe8 32.f4 Kh8 33.Qe4 Kg8 34.Qa4 e5?
Ugh. Short has an active style and could not get himself to adopt wait-and-see tactics like Kg8 — h8 — g8. He tries to get his queen back into action but all this does is hasten the end.
35.fxe5 Qe6 36.Qb3 Qxb3 37.R1xb3 Na5 38.e6! Nxb3
[38…fxe6 39.f7+ Kh8 40.Be5#]
39.exf7+ Kh8 40.Re7 Nd2 41.Re8+! Rxe8 42.fxe8Q+ Rxe8 43.f7 Re1+ 44.Kg2 Re2+ 45.Kh3 Rf2 46.Be5+ Rf6 47.Bxf6# 1 — 0
The 2017 FIDE World Cup will be held in Tbilisi, Georgia from Sept. 2-27, 2017. Jobava is qualified to play here by virtue of his 3rd place finish in the 2016 European Championship (behind Russia’s Ernesto Inarkiev and Latvia’s Igor Kovalenko).
In addition to the big money prizes for all qualifiers (even those eliminated in the 1st round get a few thousand dollars) the top two placers get automatic slots to the Candidates’ Tournament next year, and whoever wins that will challenge Magnus Carlsen for the world title.
Jobava will be on home turf and will carry the hopes of the Georgian nation. From the New in Chess Magazine interview after the Baku Olympiad, he said that “I think I am the type of player who doesn’t make progress early. I’m like wine, I have to mature. Maybe now my best age is coming. I don’t know. I hope so. But I need to serve it and work hard. Let’s see.”
From what I see he is on target to give a good accounting of himself!
Bobby Ang is a founding member of the National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) and its first Executive Director. A Certified Public Accountant (CPA), he taught accounting in the University of Santo Tomas (UST) for 25 years and is currently Chief Audit Executive of the Equicom Group of Companies.
bobby@cpamd.net
