GM Baadur Jobava was interviewed by New in Chess (NIC) Magazine last year after he won the gold medal on Board 1 for Georgia with an awe-inspiring 2926 performance in the Baku Olympiad. As NIC editor-in-chief Dirk Jan Ten Guezendam described GM Baadur, “with his original, convention-defying ideas, his bohemian lifestyle and his approachability, he is one of the most popular grandmasters on the circuit.”
Anyway, during the interview they mention the mayfly, which do not live long, rarely for more than 24 hours. In fact, the female mayfly in some species only survive for five minutes. Dirk tells the story about the cartoon — there are these two mayflies, and the male says to the female, what do you mean “not today,” we live only one day!
GM Baadur agrees that he is no mayfly and wants to live each day three times — he is his own worst enemy and is addicted to gambling. However, he makes one thing clear:
“In team competitions I am a really boring guy. I am a real professional here. Only preparation, food, sleep, chess. Only that, because I’m not alone. If you don’t sleep and you lose… This is not my captain’s orders, this is my wish. In team competitions, well, when I was very young it was different, but when I reached a more solid age, I became like this. When you’re first board, you have to be an example. If you go to a discotheque and drink, what do you do? Of course you don’t sleep.”
In Tbilisi, in front of his home crowd, GM Jobava was similarly aware of his responsibilities as leader of Georgian chess and prepared seriously for each and every game. He played strong solid chess in every round without losing his tactical brilliance.
In round 1 Jobava fought a stern battle with the Spanish GM Ivan Salgado Lopez (not a pushover — he is a 2627 rated player) which saw two quick draws in the classical games, two draws in the active 25-minute games, an exchange of wins in the 10-minute games before he finally prevailed in the blitz.
In round 2 he faced his first higher-rated opponent, the Chinese no. 2 Yu Yangyi (rated 2744). Once again they drew both classical games in abbreviated fashion, 2 draws in the active 25-minute games and then Jobava broke through winning both games in the 10-minute active games.
Round 3 saw another highly rated adversary, former Russian and European champion Ian Nepomniachtchi (2751). Once again there were two quick draws in the classical games and Jobava won the 25-minute game mini-match 1.5-0.5.
Round 4 was where he got derailed against Fil-Am GM Wesley So (2810). Wesley was put under pressure in the two classical games but wouldn’t crack and drew both. The momentum shifted to Wesley in the 25-minute rapid games and GM So won 1.5-0.5 to eliminate Jobava.
GM Jobava is well-known for the Jobava Attack which starts with 1.d4 followed by 2.Nc3 and 3.Bf4. The idea is to castle queenside right away and attack the opponent’s kingside. I am sure that all of his opponents studied the Attack at great length. What occurred was a surprise — out of a total of 22 games in the Tbilisi world Cup not once did he use his trademark attack. Instead, the Georgian GM mostly relied on the Larsen Opening with 1.b3.
This opening was originally used by Aron Nimzovich in the 1920s and was picked up by the “Great Dane” Bent Larsen in the 1960s who really worked out its attacking potential. Nowadays Jobava is its greatest promoter and maybe we should talk about renaming the opening as the Larsen-Jobava.
Anyway, Jobava recounted the story of this line in the same interview with Dirk:
“I was living with my ex-wife in Ukraine, in the Odessa region, Ilishevsky is the city’s name. One of my friends, a kids’ coach, used to be a very gifted, talented player, but then he stopped playing. His name is Roman Tisevic. Originally he was called Roman Kozul, but he changed his name to Tisevic. He told me that he was teaching kids to play 1.b3. And we went running together every day and discussed this, and at some point I thought, why not try it? The first time I tried it was in the Fujairah Open in 2012, and it went well, 4.5 out of 5 with 1.b3, something like that.”
Here it is in action. As Dirk says, 1.b3 essentially says let’s play and have fun …
Jobava, Baadur (2687) — Yu, Yangyi (2744) [A01]
FIDE World Cup 2017 Tbilisi (2.5), 08.09.2017
1.b3 d5
Currently the main line here is considered to be 1…e5 2.Bb2 Nc6 3.e3 (3.c4 to stop Black’s …d5 is logical, but it has the stigma of leading to Larsen’s worst defeat. During the USSR vs the Rest of the World 1970 match, Spassky continued 3…Nf6 4.Nf3!? e4 5.Nd4 Bc5 6.Nxc6 dxc6! 7.e3 Bf5 8.Qc2 Qe7 9.Be2 0–0–0 10.f4? Ng4! 11.g3 h5 12.h3 h4! 13.hxg4 hxg3 14.Rg1 Rh1! 15.Rxh1 g2 16.Rf1 Qh4+ 17.Kd1 gxf1Q+ 0–1 Larsen,B-Spassky,B Belgrade 1970) 3…d5 4.Bb5 Bd6 with an exciting game ahead.
2.Bb2 Nf6 3.e3 g6 4.c4 dxc4 5.Bxc4 Bg7 6.Nf3 0–0 7.0–0 c5 8.Be2 b6 9.d3 Bb7 10.Nbd2 Nc6 11.a3 Nd5 12.Bxg7 Kxg7 13.Qc2 Qd7 14.Qb2+ f6 15.Rfd1 Rfd8 16.Rac1 Rac8 17.h3 e5 18.Ne4 Qe7 19.Re1 Rd7 20.Bf1 Qd8 21.Rcd1 Nde7 22.b4 cxb4 23.axb4 Nf5 24.Rc1 Qe7 25.b5 Na5 26.Rxc8 Bxc8 27.d4 Bb7? <D>
Correct is 27…exd4 28.exd4 Qd8 and White is only slightly better. Now is the chance for Jobava to show us that, when he is in form, in tactical situations he sees everything.
POSITION AFTER 27…BB7
28.Nxf6! Kxf6
[28…Qxf6 29.dxe5 Qe6 30.Ng5 White wins as well]
29.dxe5+ Kf7 30.e6+! Kxe6
[30…Qxe6 31.Ng5+]
31.e4 Ng7 32.Qa2+ Kd6 33.Rc1!
With the idea of e4–e5+.
33…Bxe4 34.Qd2+ Ke6
[34…Bd5 35.Qf4+ Ke6 36.Nd4#]
35.Ng5+ Kf5
[35…Ke5 36.Qc3+ Kf5 37.h4 (threatening g2–g4+ followed by Qg3+ and mate soon) 37…Ne6 38.Nxe4 Kxe4 39.Re1+ Kf5 40.Qe5+ Kg4 41.Be2+ Kxh4 42.Qg3#]
36.g4+ Kf6 37.Nxe4+ Qxe4 38.Qxd7 Ne6 39.Bg2 Qd4 40.Qxh7 Nf4 41.Qh8+ Ke6 42.Re1+
Jobava avoids one last trick: 42.Qxd4?? Ne2+
1–0
Another one of Jobava’s pet lines is the Reversed Philidor. What does it do? Well, for one early exchanges are avoided and the main battle will be fought in the middle game. And that is what Jobava wants.
Jobava, Baadur (2687) — Salgado Lopez, Ivan (2627) [C44]
FIDE World Cup 2017 Tbilisi (1.8), 05.09.2017
This was the decisive game of the Jobava vs Salgado match.
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.d3
The Reversed Philidor, obviously played to avoid the drawish tendencies of the Petroff. Even Kasparov has resorted to this at times.
3…Nc6 4.c3 d5 5.Qc2 a5 6.a4 Bc5 7.Be2 0–0 8.0–0 h6 9.h3
Jobava played 9.Na3 against Matlakov in the 2017 European Championship in Minsk, but the knight position proved to be ineffectual, so now White makes do without that move.
9…Be6 10.Re1 dxe4
Many years ago I saw 10…Qd7 11.Nbd2 Bxh3!? 12.gxh3 Qxh3 played in the Champions’ League Blitz Championship in the Playchess Internet server hosted by Chessbase. Black’s attack looks very dangerous but it might be too much of a “caveman” approach for a game as important as this.
11.dxe4 Qe7 12.Na3 Rad8 13.Bb5 Nd7 14.Be3 Bxe3 15.Rxe3 f6 16.Bc4 Bxc4 17.Nxc4 Qe6 18.Na3 Ne7 19.Rd1 Nc5 20.b4 Rxd1+ 21.Qxd1 axb4 22.cxb4 Na6 23.b5 Nc5 24.Qc2 b6 25.a5 Ra8 26.Nc4
Not 26.a6 c6! when White’s queenside pawns become weak.
26…bxa5?!
Not the best move. I believe 26…Qd7! 27.axb6 cxb6 28.Nxb6 Ra1+ 29.Kh2 Qxb5 equalizes.
27.Ncxe5! Nd7
[27…fxe5 28.Qxc5 a4 29.Qxc7 (29.Ra3) 29…a3 30.Re1 a2 31.Qc3 Ng6 32.Ra1 White’s passed pawn is more dangerous than Black’s]
28.Nxd7 Qxd7 29.Qc4+ Kh7
After 29…Kh8 the same reply 30.e5 suffices for a White advantage.
30.e5
Now there is an additional threat of Qe4+ winning the rook on a8.
30…Qd5 31.Qxc7 Qd1+ 32.Re1 Qd8 33.Qxd8 Rxd8 34.exf6 Nd5 35.Rd1 a4 36.f7 a3 37.Ne5! a2 38.Nd7 1–0
Let us hope that GM Baadur Jobava will continue with his brilliant chess. He is only 33 years old and is obviously not yet done with his chess career.
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.
