Chess from Malcolm Pein Chess for Thursday December 22nd 2005

Malcolm Pein writes for the Daily Telegraph

Two more wins for the players of the white pieces and no peaceful draws again characterised the day's play in the second round of the 2005 Russian Championships taking place at Moscow. The players are making a lot of moves with all the players striving for victory.

Classical Chess World Champion Vladimir Kramnik got back to 50% with a smooth win over Sergey Volkov. Kramnik won in 41 moves, seven of which were made by his queen's knight. Peter Svidler was held to a draw by his good friend and trainer Alexander Motylev in the same line of the Petroff Defence that Svidler used to defeat Kramnik in round one.

Round two results.

Kramnik 1-0 Volkov
Svidler draw Motylev
Zvjaginsev 1-0 Khalifman
Morozevich draw Rublevsky
Bareev draw Jakovenko
Dreev draw Tomashevsky

Scores:

Svidler, Zvjaginsev, Rublevsky 1.5/2; Kramnik, Motylev, Tomashevsky, Jakovenko, Morozevich, Dreev, 1; Bareev, Khalifman, Volkov 0.5;

V Zvjaginsev - A Khalifman
Russian Ch (2) Moscow
Sicilian Defence

1.e4 c5 2.Na3!? (Amazing, never seen in a top flight game before. The knight occasionally goes here in some lines to get to c2 to support pawn c3 and d4) 2...Nc6 (2...d5 3.exd5 Qxd5 4.Nb5 Qd7 5.Nf3 Nc6 would justify Na3 to an extent but looks well playable) 3.Bb5 Qc7 (To prevent doubled pawns after Bxc6 when a subsequent Nc4 would be reasonable) 4.Nf3 g6 5.c3 a6 6.Bxc6 Qxc6 7.0-0 Bg7 8.d4 d6 9.d5 (Now we have a Benoni structure where the ideal square for a White knight is c4 attacking d6 and e5. Ironically it never gets there) 9...Qc7 10.h3! (The Bc8 is a problem piece now. The impression is that 2.Na3!? unnerved Khalifman) 10...Nf6 11.Bf4 0-0 12.Re1 b5 13.Qd2 Bb7 14.Rad1 Rfe8 15.c4 (White will soon be ready to attack on the kingside and play e4-e5 if Black closes the queenside with b5-b4 ) 15...Qb6 16.Bh6 Bh8 17.b3 e6 18.Ng5 exd5 19.cxd5 (Now we have an unbalanced Benoni formation where each side has one silly minor piece and tries to advance his pawn majority) 19...Re7 20.Re3 Rae8 21.Rde1 a5 22.Nb1 b4 23.Qc2 Nd7 24.Nd2 Ba6 25.Ngf3 Ne5 26.Bg5 Nxf3+ 27.Nxf3 Rd7 (27...Rc7 28.e5 c4 29.exd6 Rxe3 30.Rxe3 Qxd6 31.Re8+ Kg7 32.Qd2 wins) 28.e5!? dxe5 29.Nxe5 Rxd5 30.Nxf7! ( A good practical decision, with both players short of time it is harder to defend than attack) 30...Rxe3 31.Rxe3 Kxf7 32.Re7+ Kf8 33.Qe4 Rd1+? (33...Qd6! was forced the threat of Rd1+ is stronger than the execution - well in fact, by opening the e4-a8 diagonal Black loses the game to a hidden tactic 34.Bh6+ Bg7! (34...Kg8 35.Re8+ Kf7 36.Rf8+) 35.Bxg7+ Kg8 36.f4 Bb5 and remarkably White has no mate and the position is unclear 37.Bh6 Bc6) 34.Kh2 Qd6+ 35.f4 Bf6 36.Bh6+ Kg8 37.Qa8+! 1-0

Khalifman

Zvjaginsev

Final position after 37.Qa8+