115/151 D 70
M AM ED YARO V 2729 - A . VO LO KITIN 2709
Istanbul (ol) 2012 [By Andrei Volokitin]
This game was played in the penultimate round of the Olympiad and its sporting significance was enormous. Ukraine was paired against the strong team of Azerbaijan, and my oppo
nent, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, was their top scorer. My task was to neutralise their main attacking force, but the circumstances were not in my favour, as two days before I had contracted a cold.
1. d4 I was expecting this move, as it has been his constant preference recently.
1... 5}f6 2. c4 g6 While preparing for this game, I spent a lot of time trying to decide on my strategy; should I play directly for equal
ization, or choose a sharper opening, aiming for counterplay? In the end, I decided to opt for the second approach and the Gruenfeld Defence, which better suits my playing style.
The downside of this decision was that Shakh himself employs this opening with Black, and consequently is fully aware of all its nuances.
3. f3 I realized that my opponent could choose any of the possible systems against the Gruen
feld, so I had to prepare for practically all of them. The one played in the game I wa re
minded of just shortly before the game.
3... d5 4. cd5 £>d5 5. e4 £>b6 6. £>c3 A g7 7.
Ae3 0 - 0 8. Wd2 £ic6 9. 0-0-0 # d 6
• Country: Ukraine
• Born: 1986
• Rating: 2724
• Peak rating: 2724
•T itle: Grandmaster since 2001
A popular line in recent times. Black’s idea is to increase the pressure on d4 and provoke the advance of White’s centre, with the aim of attacking it later.
10. <&bl Hd8 11. £>b5 W d l 12. d5 a6! The main point of my chosen line. Now the trans
fer to an endgame is not dangerous for Black.
13. £\c3 The first moment I stopped to think.
I had been analyzing both possible knight jumps, and in the end I decided to opt for the one which I had researched in greater depth.
[13. dc6 Wd2 14. Hd2 Hd2 15. A d 2 ab5 16.
TOP THREE
15. A c5 Taking away the d6-square from the black queen. [Very interesting and cunning was 15. A f2 £}bc4 (15... Wd6 is met by 16.
b3!±, restricting both black knights; White will quickly follow up with h4, g4, h5, while it is not easy for Black to create counterplay on the queenside; There is no point in playing
15... £iac4 because the £ib6 is anyway im
ciencies: 19. ¿>b2 This move is the approriate reaction to Black’s intended setup of ...Ab7, ...# d 6, ... jtd 7 , ...a5-a4; however, the king is a liability in lines involving ...c5-c4-c3, as the latter move comes with check. (After
19. <&al £ib7 20. h4 © d 6 21. h5 A d l \ 22.
£ ic 5 H db8 Black has a simple and obvious
plan of obtaining good play with the ...a5-a4 advance.) £>b7! 20. h4 # d 6 21. h5 A f 8! An important move, controlling the c5-square.
Now, if immediately (21... A d i is met by 22.
<i?bl± White’s attack is very dangerous.; a2) 25... c5 26. fe5 Jla4 27. ^ c l ! ! An important W hite’s best option, but still insufficient:
23... c5! 24. Ah3 A d i 25. A d i g d 7 26. £>h3 Hc8 27. £\g5 4}d8! Not allowing the white knight in on e6. Black will play ...c4 next and start attacking the white king. 28. <^?al g b 7 + We can conclude that after 15. A f2 Black ob
tains a good position with accurate play;
After 15. i t b 6 cb6 16. # e 3 b5! Black has enough counterplay, thanks to his strong and unopposed dark-squared bishop.]
15... £}bc4 Logical; the b-pawn should be al
lowed to advance.
16. # c l b6 17. A f2 [During the game I was calculating the move 17. Jlb4? for a long
TOP THREE time: 17... c5! 18. dc6 (after 18. Aa5 £\a5
Black’s advantage is obvious) ¿hd2 19. <&al ftc6 20. Jla3 JUi6 ! While considering this position, I saw that after 21. £\d5 ( Nothing is given by 21. f4 ± f 4 22. £ige2 A h 6 23. £id5
£>b3 24. ab3 A c l 25. £>f6 <&g7 26. £id7
±g5+) ^ b 3 22. ab3 ± c l 23. £>f6 <&g7 24.
£}d7 ¿ 6 3 + Black is clearly better.]
17... # d 6 In the heat of the battle, I thought that bringing the queen to b4 was the only correct decision. However, I now believe that there was a better alternative. [17... b5! was more promising. The same position could have arisen, had White chosen 15. A f 2 .1 can offer some additional variations: 18. Ad3 b4! 19.
£>ce2 ®a4! 20. b3 £>a3 21. <&b2 (21. <4>al
£>b3! 22. ab3 « r b 3 -) # e 8! A 22. W cl Hd5!!
23. ed5 e4 24. ¿hd4 ed3 25. # a 5 ± f5\= ] 18. h4 # b 4 19. g4! A cold shower. I com
pletely missed this move, which prevents ...Ah6.
19... f5 After delving deeply into the position, at the cost of lots of time and energy, I under
stood that I should undertake immediate ac
tion; otherwise, my pieces would be gradually pushed back and I would end up in a difficult position. At first, I considered the logical idea to play ...c6, but failed to calculate it properly:
[19... ± b l 20. ± e l c6 21. d6 ! g d 6 22. ¿hd5
$}a3! (I saw that after 22... #c5 ?? 23. A b 4 + - I am lost, and this discovery prompted me to ditch this line altogether and start looking for alternatives, without having calculated all possibilities) 23. <&al
23... £\b3 !! It is very difficult to find such an idea during a practical game. 24. ab3 Wb3 and now W hite’s best decision is to allow perpetual check by taking the rook, because after 25. ba3 (25. £>e7 <&h8 26. g d 6 £>c2 27.
<&bl £>a3=) cd5 26. g d 3 # a45 c White is running serious risks. So, finally, after 19...
i i b l the game would have logically con
cluded in a draw. Still, the move I made in the game is objectively not bad at all.]
20. g5 Practically forced.
20... fe4? A serious mistake, connected to a blunder in my calculations. Black should have increased the pressure on the Ad5. [20...
c6 ! 21. j t e l f4 An important resource, taking the e3-square under control. Now White has a choice between an endgame and a compli
cated middlegame, with Black facing no problems in either case. 22. &J2 (22. d6 Hd6 23. £>d5 Wb2\ 24. # b 2 £ib2 25. £>e7 <&f7 26. Hd6 <&e7 27. g f 6 & dl 28. Aa5 A f 6 29.
gf6 <&f6 30. A d 2 A e 6= ) cd5 23. £>d5 gd5!
24. g d 5 J le 6 with excellent compensation for the exchange.]
21. £>e4 A f5
TOP THREE
22. A d3!± The move I had missed. I was cal
culating only the weak |22. i l e l ? ile 4 23.
fe4 £>d2! 24. Wd2 ®e4Tl
22... gd5!? Realizing that White retains some advantage in all variations, I decided that the best practical choice was to go all-in. But this decision cost me the advantage on the clock that I had built during the previous phase of the game.
23. A c4 £>c4 24. g d 5 A e4 25. fe4 £}a3 26.
<£>al # e 4 27. Hd2D frh l 28. ba3 g f8
I was opting for this position when I decided to play 22... Sd5. Black has compensation for the piece: two pawns and an exposed white king. Of course, White is objectively better, but in a practical game it is not easy to convert the material advantage. At this point I only had five minutes for the remaining twelve moves until the time control.
29. ^ b l? A serious mistake; Shakh had proba
bly relaxed at this point and made this move
"with his hand”, without much thought. In
stead, White had two promising continua
tions: [The first was to involve the knight to the action with 29. ^ e 2 ®e4 30. i l e l h5 31.
# d l ± ; Also strong was to restrict the black queen with 29. Wc4 <^?h8 30. i l e 3 e4 31.
& bl Wh4 32. £ie2 c5 33. & c2±]
29... # e 4 [Black missed an excellent oppor
tunity to secure his king here: 29... h5!c£, taking into account that after 30. gh6 A h 6 31. Wc4 & h 8 32. Hc2 g f2 33. g f2 ® g l 34.
g f l # e 3 = the game should end in perpetual check.|
30. Wc2 ® g4 31. Wd3 <&h8 32. g e 2 My op
ponent obviously was trying to win in com
fort, without taking risks. Here he should have given up the Ah4, in order to bring his knight into the game: [32. i l e 3 ! # h 4 33.
£}e2±]
32... c5? A far from obvious mistake. It was again better to provide the king with some space by means of [32... h5! 33. gh6 A h 6 34.
g c 2 i l g 7 with sufficient counterplay to main
tain the balance.]
33. Ag3? This move loses any advantage White had at this point. White missed his last opportunity to bring his knight into the game after [33. ge4! Wg2 34. £>h3! gf2! (34... b5 35. Se3 c4 36. ® e 2± intending i l e l - c 3) 35.
£>f2 t m ± 1
33... c4! 34. # e 3 e4 35. ^ c2?? After this se
rious error Black even wins. [He should have played 35. ± e l g f l 36. £>h3 g f3 37. # e 4
# h 3 38. A b 4 = and the game should end in a draw.!
TOP THREE 35... # d 7 ! —I- 36. S f2 I should mention that
both players were in serious time trouble at this stage; this should explain the numerous mistakes...
36... Hd8? [Much stronger was the immedi
ate 36... # a 4 ! 37. <&cl H d8 38. Hd2 Hd3, transposing to the game!
37.Hd2 # a 4 38. <&cl? [Better was 38. & b l !, although after 38... g f 8 ! 39. A e lD # b 5 40.
* c l # e 5 41. Wb6\D # c 3 42. <&dl e3 43.
Sd8 # a l 44. <^?e2 # a 2 + Black has excellent winning chances.]
38... Sd3! 39. Wb6 # a 3 40. <&dl And here, with one minute to make the last move before the time control, I relaxed and committed a serious mistake. I obviously saw that 40... h5 was winning easily, but instead I played
40... Sd2?? [40... h5 a) 41. Wg6 Hd2 42. <&d2 fb 2 43. <4>el (43. <&e3 # d 4 44. <&e2 Wd3 45. & el &c3 46. <&f2 e 3 - + ) W b\ 44. <&e2 fd 3 ; b) 41. A e l # a 4 42. <&cl <&h7-+; c)
41. £ie2 # a 2 42. ± f4 # a 4 43. <&cl (43.
<4>el USfal— h) <&h7-+]
41. <^?d2 I now started to think and was horri
fied to realize that there was no way to win the game anymore...
41... Wd3 42. <&cl At this moment our cap
tain came and advised me to make a draw, as this would secure our team victory in the match. I decided, without risking anything, to make one last attempt for victory.
42... h5
43. J lel! The only move, which Shakh found without much effort.
43... ©a3 44. <&bl Wd3 45. & cl # a 3 46.
<&bl # d 3 A very complicated and combative game. The players made a lot of mistakes; this is partly explained by the severe pressure and responsibility caused by the sporting situation, with Olympiad medals at stake. Hopefully the readers will excuse them, and enjoy the game!
1/2 : 1/2 A. Volokitin
ISTANBUL (ol), V III- IX 2012 Round 10
Bo. AZERBAIJAN (AZE) UKRAINE (UKR) l l/ 2 :: 2'A
1 TEIMOUR RADJABOV g 2788 - VASSILY IVANCHUK g 2769 '/2 '/2
2 ELTAJ SAFARLI g 2620 - RUSLAN PONOMARIOV g 2734 0 1
3 SHAKHRIYAR MAMEDYAROV g 2729 - ANDREI VOLOKITIN g 2709 '/2 '/2
4 RAUF MAMEDOV g 2634 - ALEKSANDR MOISEYENKO g 2706 '/2 l/2
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