2018 Aeroflot Open “A”
Moscow, Russia
Feb. 20-28, 2018
Final Top Standings
1. GM Vladislav Kovalev BLR 2641, 7.0/9
2-3. GM SP Sethuraman IND 2646, GM Dmitry Gordievsky RUS 2630, 6.5/9
4-10. GM Xu Xiangyu CHN 2545, GM Tigran L. Petrosian ARM 2589, GM Vladislav Artemiev RUS 2697, GM Igor Lysyj RUS 2618, GM Gabriel Sargissian ARM 2677, GM Anton Korobov UKR 2664, GM Rauf Mamedov AZE 2709, 6.0/9
11-19. GM David Paravyan RUS 2603, GM Gata Kamsky USA 2677, GM Kirill Alekseenko RUS 2609, GM Alexander Khalifman RUS 2614, GM Viktor Bologan MDA 2600, GM Maxim Matlakov RUS 2709, IM M.Amin Tabatabaei IRI 2577, GM Sandro Mareco ARG 2632, GM Vadim Zvjaginsev RUS 2629, GM Rinat Jumabayev KAZ 2614, 5.5/9
Total Number of Participants: 92 players
Time Control: 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 50 minutes for the next 20 moves followed by 15 minutes play-to-finish with 30 seconds added to your clock after every move starting move 1.
The 24-year-old GM from Belarus (formerly known as White Russia) Vladislav Kovalev won the very tough Aeroflot Open and went home with undivided first prize of €18,000 (roughly P1.1 million) plus an invitation to the superGM tournament in Dortmund later this year.
Kovalev is no weakling (rating is 2641) but he was only the 16th seed in the tournament. The favorites were the fastest-rising Russian sensation Vladimir Fedoseev 2724, the 3rd highest rated Indian Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 2723 (after Anand and Harikrishna), Dmitry Andreikin 2712, Rauf Mamedov 2709 and the reigning European Chess Champion Maxim Matlakov 2709.
This is definitely Kovalev’s biggest win to date although it should not be such a big surprise. After all, he has shown consistency in the past year and was in fact the runner-up in last year’s Aeroflot Open behind tournament winner Vladimir Fedoseev. That tie for second with Evgeniy Najer and Nikita Vitiugov was a bigger surprise than his 1st this year. Last year Kovalev’s rating was only 2598, good for 41st seed.
This year Kovalev scored 5/5 with White and drew all four games with Black. Main weapon as White is the Sicilian Chekhover (1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Qxd4) and this Kovalev played to perfection — keep a strong center, push your opponent’s forces back, and then advance on both sides of the board.
I remember that the editor-in-chief of the American Chess Magazine (also former executive editor of Chess Informant) FM Josip Asik once asked me to write something about the Chekhover, it being his favorite line as well. I said yes, but unfortunately the pressures of work did not allow me to keep my promise. The games of Kovalev played in Aeroflot are great examples of how to play it.
Kovalev, Vladislav (2641) — Tran, Tuan Minh (2522) [B53]
Aeroflot Open A 2018 Moscow RUS (1.16), 20.02.2018
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Qxd4
Our beginner’s books by Fred Reinfeld preached that you shouldn’t bring your queen out so early in the game. That is not true. Bring your queen out quickly to strike out against the enemy forces. Just make sure that it doesn’t get kicked around.
4…Nc6 5.Bb5 Bd7 6.Qd3
White had two ways to proceed here. Either 6.Bxc6 Bxc6 7.Nc3 Nf6 8.Bg5 e6 9.0–0–0 and go for the kingside attack, or 6.Qd3 followed by a Maroczy Bind with c2–c4. White goes for the second plan.
6…g6 7.c4 Bg7 8.Nc3 Nf6 9.0–0 0–0 10.Bxc6!
Removing the knight which defends the black squares (c5, d4, e5) in the center. This is a surprising statistic but this line scores something like 80% in top flight tournaments.
10…Bxc6 11.Nd4 Rc8 12.Rd1 a6 13.f3 Nd7 14.Qe2 Nc5 15.Be3 Na4 16.Nxa4 Bxa4 17.b3 Bd7 18.Rac1 Qa5 19.a4 Rc7 20.Qf2 Qb4 21.Rd3 Rcc8 22.Nc2 Qa5 23.Bb6 Qg5 24.f4 Qf6 25.e5 Qf5 26.Rcd1 Bc6 27.Ne3!
Going 27.exd6 exd6 28.Rxd6 right away is a mistake because Black gets counterplay with 28…Rfe8 29.Ne3 Qe4.
27…Qh5
The square e4 is not available to the queen because it is trapped after 27…Qe4 28.Rd4.
28.exd6 exd6 29.Bd4
The pawn is not going anywhere.
29…Bxd4 30.Rxd4 Rfe8 31.Rxd6 Rc7
Now it is time to push back the black queen.
32.h3 Qc5 33.Ng4 Qxf2+ 34.Kxf2 Kg7 35.Nf6 Ree7 36.g4 b5 37.g5! 1–0 <D>
FINAL POSITION
The Vietnamese GM resigns out of frustration — there is nothing he can undertake to avoid the loss. Take note that mate via Rd8–g8 is an ongoing threat. Here is what might happen: 37.g5 Rc8 38.axb5 axb5 39.Rd8 Rec7 40.c5 b4 41.h4 h6 42.R1d6 Bb5 43.Rxc8 Rxc8 44.Rb6 Rxc5 45.Rb8.
After seven rounds Kovalev and Tabatabaei were tied for 1st place so the result of this game would have a big say in the final standings of the tournament.
Mohammad Amin Tabatabaei is among the group of young Iranians who are slowly establishing their country as a chess power in Asia.
The chess historian H.J.R. Murray maintains that our game was developed in India around 600 AD, which remains the most widely accepted theory today. However, there have been several other scholars who says that it was developed in Persia and introduced to India by Muslims. As the Iran Chamber Society reports, “we know that while chess flourished in Baghdad in the 9th century, the earliest reliable account of chess-playing in India date only from the 11th century.”
In the ’70s the top Iranian players were Mershad Sharif, Khosro Harandi and Kamran Shirazi. When Ayatollah Khomeini took power in 1979 he banned chess and these players had to continue their chess careers elsewhere. In fact, when fighting broke out in Teheran in 1978 Eugene Torre, Ruben Rodriguez, Rico Mascariñas and Glenn Bordonada were there in the center of the fighting because the Iran leg of the Asian GM Circuit was being held in their capital city. They managed to leave the city and escape to London where they were stuck for a few days while the Philippine Chess Federation was frantically raising funds to get them to the Buenos Aires Olympiad.
They were successful but the 4 top Philippine players could only arrive before the 2nd round.
Glenn Bordonada told this story: “With only Ricky (de Guzman) and Vic (Torre) present, the Philippines was at first disallowed from playing against Andorra. Vic, who is a top sales engineer at Connell Bros., had to use his most persuasive sales talk to make them change their mind. Succeeding, he and Ricky played and won but Andorra claimed the other two boards by default.
“A lot of people, mostly fellow Asians who are acquainted with the Filipino players, were curious to know what happened. A preposterous rumor circulated that Eugene did not play because the Andorrans were very weak. Of course, it was not true. But still, Eugene had a lot of explaining when we finally arrived. That was the next morning, only a few hours before the second round.”
Enough reminiscing! The Iranian contingent to Aeroflot consisted of:
GM Parham Maghsoodloo 2594 17 years old
IM M. Amin Tabatabaei 2577 17 years old
IM Alireza Firoozja 2549 14 years old
IM Arian Gholami 2489 17 years old
Believe me, chess in Iran is really getting stronger.
Kovalev, Vladislav (2641) — Tabatabaei, M. (2577) [C01]
15th Aeroflot Open Moscow (8), 27.02.2018
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Bd3
Kovalev must have been wary of the fact that his young foe’s repertoire against 1.e4 is 1…e5, and sometimes either 1…c5 or 1…c6. Rarely the French, so it is quite possible Black had something special in mind against the French Tarrasch, which is why White avoids it right away.
3…dxe4 4.Bxe4 Nf6 5.Bf3
Well, at least Black can’t go into the Fort Knox formation with …Bc8–d7–c6 and …Nb8–d7.
5…c5 6.Ne2 Nc6 7.Be3 Nd5?
Kovalev from the Russian Chess Federation Web site: “In the 8th round there was a decisive game with a young Iranian chess player. I got a bit lucky: in the opening he blundered after my trap that I’d looked at a few years ago. It turned out he fell into it and I immediately had an advantage after the opening. I couldn’t recall the variations, though, despite everything being written down literally to a win, so I had to convert what became a technical position.”
But why is this a bad move? You will soon see why.
8.Bxd5 Qxd5 9.Nbc3
The point. 9…Qxg2 is met by Rg1, Nb5 followed by Bf4.
9…Qxg2 10.Rg1 Qf3 11.Nb5 Rb8 12.dxc5
There is a mate threat here: 13.Nc7+ Ke7 14.Qd6+ Kf6 15.Ne8+ Kf5 16.Rg5+ Ke4 17.Nec3+ mate.
12…f6 13.Nd6+ Bxd6
No choice. If 13…Ke7 14.Qd3 followed by queenside castling
14.Qxd6 g6 15.Rd1
To be followed by b2–b4–b5 and, with the knight gone, check on d8. You will notice despite the different opening Kovalev plays in the same style as in the previous games — strong center then action on both flanks.
15…Rf8 16.Nd4?!
Not the most efficient. White should have continued with 16.b4 as now Black gets to exchange queens.
16…Qd5 17.Qxd5 exd5 18.Bf4 Nxd4 19.Rxd4 Ra8 20.Rxd5
White remains just a pawn up but the active position of his pieces are enough to keep the enemy forces at bay.
20…Be6 21.Rd6 Kf7 22.Kd2 g5 23.Be3 Rfd8 24.Rxd8 Rxd8+ 25.Kc3 Rd7 26.a4 h5 27.b4 a6 28.b5 axb5 29.axb5 Bf5 30.Ra1 Be4 31.Ra4! Bf3 32.Ra8 Rd1 33.Rc8 Ke6 34.Bd4 Rc1 35.Kb2 Rh1 36.Rf8 f5 37.Rf6+! Kd5? 38.c6! bxc6 39.b6 1–0
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.
