51st Biel GM 2018
Biel, Switzerland
July 22-August 1, 2018
Final Standings (all GM)
1. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov AZE 2801, 7.5/10
2. Magnus Carlsen NOR 2842, 6.0/10
3-4. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave FRA 2779, Peter Svidler RUS 2753, 5.5/10
5. David Navara CZE 2741, 4.0/10
6. Nico Georgiadis SUI 2526, 1.5/10
Double Round-Robin Tournament with Ave ELO 2740 Category 20
Time Control: 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 50 minutes for the next 20 moves, followed by 15 minutes for the rest of the game. 30 seconds are added after every move starting move 1.
Last Thursday, I showed you the game Mamedyarov vs Magnus Carlsen where Shakh played very conservatively in the opening, managed to win a pawn in the middlegame and then brought it home with perfect technique. You might get the wrong impression that he is a dry player who likes grinding away at his opponent. That is far from the truth — the Azeri GM played “old man” chess because his opponent was the reigning world champion and a draw would have been a perfectly good outcome. In games against the rest of the field his play was aggressive, free-flowing and fun.
He even played the Dilworth Variation against the “Frenchman with two names” Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. It ended in a draw but there was quite a fight. Let us take a look at that.
Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime (2779)
— Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar (2801)
[C82] 51st Biel GM 2018 SUI (8.1),
30.07.2018
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0–0 Nxe4 6.d4 b5 7.Bb3 d5 8.dxe5 Be6 9.c3
The old move. Nowadays White prefers either 9.Nbd2 or 9.Be3. And do you know the reason for that? GM Boris Alterman in his Video Series on the Internet Chess Club insists it is because of the Dilworth Variation, which you are about to see now.
9…Bc5 10.Nbd2 0–0 11.Bc2
A bad idea is 11.Nxe4 and here is why (by the way, take note of who the Black player is) 11…dxe4 12.Ng5 Bxb3 13.Qxb3 e3! 14.Ne4 exf2+ 15.Nxf2 Nxe5 16.Bf4 Ng4 17.Bg3 Ne3 18.Rfe1 Qf6 19.Ne4 Qc6 0–1 (19) Dolezal,R (2225)-Polgar,S (2450) Mlada Boleslav 1994.
11…Nxf2!?
The move which ushers in the Dilworth.
12.Rxf2 f6 13.Nf1
The main line goes 13.exf6 Bxf2+ 14.Kxf2 Qxf6 where theoretically White is doing well but in practice White’s king is vulnerable and he is behind on development and liable to fall for tricks and tactics which Black can throw at him.
13…Bxf2+ 14.Kxf2 fxe5 15.Kg1 Qd6 16.Ng3 h6 17.Qe1 Bg4 18.Nh4 e4 19.h3
White might be tempted to play 19.Nxe4 dxe4 20.Qxe4 with a double attack on h7 and the g4–bishop, but the idea is refuted by 19…Rae8! instead of 19…dxe4.
19…Bd7 20.Be3 Qf6
Black cannot win the knight with 20…g5 as there is the nasty tactic 21.Nxe4! dxe4 22.Rd1 and, surprisingly enough, Mamedyarov has to give up his bishop on d7 as 22…Qe6 is met by 23.Bb3 and 22…Qe7 by 23.Ng6.
21.Nh5 Qe5 22.Nf4
POSITION AFTER 22.NF4
22…Rxf4 23.Ng6 Rf1+! 24.Kxf1
24.Qxf1? Qg3 winning either the e3–bishop or g6–knight.
24…Qf5+ 25.Nf4 g5 26.Qg3 Kh7 27.Ke2 gxf4 28.Qxf4 Qxf4 29.Bxf4 Rg8! 30.Kf2
[30.g4 h5]
30…Rf8 31.Ke3 Ne7 32.Bxc7 Nf5+ 33.Ke2 b4!
Black’s idea is to play 34…Bb5+ 35.Kd2 e3+ 36.Kc1 Kg8 37.Bf4 d4! and his pieces and pawns advance. In fact, it looks to me like he would be winning already.
34.Bf4 bxc3
Now 34…Bb5+ is met by 35.Kf2.
35.bxc3 Nh4 36.g3 Ng2 37.c4 Nxf4+ 38.gxf4 Rc8!
One final winning attempt.
39.Rd1 Rxc4 40.Bb3 Ba4 41.Rxd5 Bxb3 42.axb3 Rc3 ½–½
Now I will explain to you why despite the draw outcome of the game was so interesting to me.
Do you still remember GM Nelson Mariano? He is no longer an active player (although only 44 years of age) but in the 1990s was one of the Philippines’ most promising players. When Nelson is hot he can really put together a string of wins, even against GM opposition.
In 1994 he was tapped to represent the Philippines in the World Junior Championships. He did quite well and three rounds before the end was among the leaders. Then he faced Sofia Polgar, one of the famous Polgar Sisters.
Mariano, Nelson (2345)
– Polgar, Sofia (2450) [C82]
Wch-U20 Matinhos, 1994
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0–0 Nxe4 6.d4 b5 7.Bb3 d5 8.dxe5 Be6 9.c3 Bc5 10.Bc2 0–0 11.Nbd2 Nxf2 12.Rxf2 f6 13.exf6 Bxf2+
Black should take on f2 first before Qxf6. If he inverts the moves then 13…Qxf6 14.Qf1 and White can now retake with the queen on f2.
14.Kxf2 Qxf6 15.Kg1
The other main branch here is 15.Nf1 which is probably better. White saves a tempo to activate his dark-squared bishop. After 15…Ne5 16.Be3 Rae8 17.Bc5 Nxf3 18.gxf3 Rf7 19.Kg1 (19.Kg2 is another option) 19…Qxf3 20.Qxf3 Rxf3 21.Re1 Kf7 we have a nice queenless middlegame ahead of us. Aseev, K (2519)-Mikhalevski, V (2531) St Petersburg 1999 1/2 55.
15…Rae8
The developer of this line, Vernon Dilworth, was a correspondence player who wrote extensively about his pet line. One of his games with it went 15…g5! (threatening to win a knight in broad daylight with …g5–g4) 16.Nb3 g4 17.Qd3 Rf7 18.Bg5 Qg7 19.Nfd4 Nxd4 20.Nxd4 Qxg5 21.Nxe6 Qf6 22.Qe3 Re7 23.Qg5+ Qxg5 24.Nxg5 h6 25.Nh7 Rxh7 26.Bxh7+ Kxh7 27.Re1 Kg6 28.Re6+ Kf5 29.Rxh6 Ke4 30.Kf2? (30.Rc6 right away is indicated) 30…Kd3 31.Rc6 Re8 32.b4 Re2+ 33.Kg3 Rc2 34.Rxc7 d4 35.Rc6 Rxc3 Black is clearly winning: Walther, E-Dilworth,V Wch M corr 1986 0–1 43.
16.Nf1 Ne5 17.Be3
Bobby Fischer himself had this position in the 1957 USA Open Championship. He couldn’t make headway either with White: 17.Ne3 Nxf3+ 18.Qxf3 Qxf3 19.gxf3 Rxf3 20.Bd1 Rf7 ½–½ Fischer,R-Stevens,W USA-op 1956.
17…Nxf3+ 18.Qxf3 Qxf3 19.gxf3 Rxf3 20.Bd4 Bh3 21.Ng3 Re6 22.Rd1?!
This is aimless play. White should either play Bf2+Re1 to exchange off one pair of rooks or b2–b4 followed by a2–a4 to open up one file for his own rook, seeing that the black rooks control two files. But please not 22.Bd1?? Re1+ 23.Nf1 Rexf1 mate.
22…h5! 23.Bb3
[23.Nxh5? Re2 24.Bb1 Rg2+ 25.Kh1 Rxb2 with a rook on the 2nd rank Black has good chances.]
23…c6 24.Nxh5 Bg4! 25.Nxg7 Rg6 26.Kg2 Rf7 27.Re1 c5 28.Be5 c4 29.Bc2 Bf5+ 30.Bg3 Bxc2 31.Ne8 Be4+ 32.Kg1 Rf3 33.a3 Kf8 34.Nc7 Rf7 35.Rf1 Rxf1+ 36.Kxf1 Ke7 0–1
After this loss Nelson couldn’t recover and at the end it was the representative from Iceland who won the title and the International Grandmaster title which went with it.
Wch Under-20
Matinhas, Brazil
September 1994
Final Top Standings
1. Helgi Gretarsson ISL 2390, 9.5/13
2-4. Hugo Spangenberg ARG 2510, Sofia Polgar HUN 2490, Jonas Barkhagen SWE 2430, 9.0/13
5-7. Giovanni Vescovi BRA 2430, Nelson Mariano PHI 2345, Dharshan Kumaran ENG 2465, 8.5/13
8-11. Vladimir Georgiev BUL 2430, Michael Oratovsky ISDR 2485, Christian Gabriel GER 2530, Salvador Gabriel Del Rio ESP 2335, 8.0/13
Total of 52 Participants
After Nelson came back from the tournament we had coffee together in Starbucks and went through the Matinhas games together. At one point I asked if he was surprised by Polgar’s Dillworth Variation. No, not really, he said. You see … she had this dress with a plunging neckline …
Alas, against that there is no easy antidote.
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 the Chief Audit Executive of the Equicom Group of Companies.
bobby@cpamd.net
