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The Palace Hotel International Chess Tournament Heviz (Hungary) 18th-28th March 2008. There are GM, IM and Open sections.

Official site: http://www.palace-heviz.hu with live games.

Reports: Miklos Orso

Final Round 10: Four players tied at first place Almasi Z. - Balogh Cs. Catalan Opening When White regained the sacrificed c4-pawn black found just enough counter-play in the centre to hold on. Draw agreed in 23 moves. Naiditsch - Mikhalevski    Ruy Lopez  Open White had well-placed knights in the centre and created a strong outpost on d6. Black could also build a base on d3 for his knight. During a heavy battle Black rejected a three-fold repetition but overestimated his chances. 1-0 in 47 moves. Nisipeanu  - Vallejo Pons   Sicilian, Kalashnikov Defence Black's surprising choice of opening seemed to work well and the position was about equal after trading the Queens. Later Black let his opponent make an unpleasant pin oh the h-file but White missed the right moment to take advantage of it. Draw agreed in 26 moves. Final notes: The youngest GM, former youth European Champion Csaba Balogh of Hungary won the tournament with his solid style of play. His rating was the lowest having only 2575. Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany came second due to the Berger-Sonneborn tie-break. He got a bit tired during the second half. Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu of Romania recovered well after losing in Round 1. Zoltan Almasi HUN played well in all but one game. Francisco Vallejo Pons represented a colourful, romantic style but with less success this time while Viktor Mikhalevski of Israel was far short of his best. The fighting spirit and the average of number of moves was at an all the time high.

Round 9: Another triple tie Balogh Cs. - Naiditsch     Ruy Lopez Karpov’s favourite line of the Ruy Lopez with 12.d5 arose. Black advanced at both flanks with his pawns to compensate White’s central dominance. Then Black decided to give away his king bishop for a central pawn but it proved to be wrong. 1-0 in 37 moves. Mikhalevski - Nisipeanu   Catalan Opening Black accepted the c4-pawn but it was not at all a present. White broke through in the centre with d5 early and created a weakness on e6. Black seemed to be in big trouble but survived by creating complications. Draw agreed in 29 moves. Vallejo Pons - Almasi Z.  English Opening Black developed both his bishops on the long diagonals. Before White could set up his attack against the king black bombed the centre by b5 in time. Pressure on the backward c4-pawn was enough to hold on. Draw agreed in 35 moves.

Round 8: Triple tie at first place Naiditsch - Vallejo Pons       Ruy-Lopez Vallejo Pons played in his usual romantic style and soon sacrificed a pawn for active play. It resulted his first well-deserved victory in 27 moves. Nisipeanu - Almasi Z.      Queen’s Indian Both players seemed to be familiar with the fashionable line with 4... Ba6. Black achieved a Q-side majority but White could weaken the King-position. However it was Black who started attacking against the king finding a target on f2 due to opposite coloured bishops. Defending it repetition of moves could not be avoided. Draw in 29 moves. Mikhalevski - Balogh Cs.  Slav-defence Black cleverly converted the opening into an equal line of Queen’s Gambit accepted. Draw agreed in 21 moves.

Round 7: Naiditsch takes the lead back Almasi - Naiditsch     Sicilian, Najdorf-defence Play was on the Queen-side up until the endgame. Despite opposite coloured bishops the position gradually sharpened. White used his king too to stop the opponent’s king side majority of pawns. Finally it got into trouble in the middle. 0-1 in 48 moves. Vallejo Pons - Mikhalevski    Queen’s-pawn Opening The calm opening was followed by unexpected moves from both players. White took too much of a risk and found himself in an endgame with two pawns down. Vallejo Pons put up an admirable fighting spirit that yielded a draw in 141 moves. Balogh Cs. -  Nisipeanu     Caro- Cann  defence They started sharply but it soon went into an endgame. The doubled-pawns of Black were compensated by the active role of his rooks. Draw agreed in 44 moves.

Round 6: Almasi takes the lead Nisipeanu - Naiditsch  Ruy-Lopez Black made an unpleasant pin that provoked White to break up the king-side pawn structure. While White restructured his king-position Black and created a passed-pawn on the Queen-side. White had to put all his eggs in one basket and went on for the king with all his forces. Black was a little careless so the attack resulted a better endgame with a pawn up for white. 1-0 in 55. Mikhalevski - Almasi Z. London-System White failed to play c4 to have a usual Catalan, black played an early b5 and equalised. Black took the initiative gradually and an interesting two bishop against rook arose. 0-1 in 70. Balogh Cs. - Vallejo Pons   Ruy-Lopez Closed Early trades gave a slight positional advantage for White. Black started against the king bringing up both knights. White traded one of them and was able to keep the edge. However, both of them got into time pressure and a draw was agreed in 31 moves.

Round 5 Almasi Z - Vallejo Pons    Caro Cann Defence. Black's usual central blast with c5 came early then White isolated the d5-pawn. It was impossible to defend it so Black activated his Queen to find counter chances on the Black squares. White found it advisable to trade the queens with a slight positional advantage. But Black saved the game with a surprising king-manoeuvre. Draw in 26 moves. Nisipeanu - Mikhalevski   Ruy-Lopez  Exchange Black castled long and started action against the e4-pawn. White found the best way of defence and was left with an advantage due to his Kingside majority of pawns and by the formidable central knights. 1-0 in 46 moves. Naiditsch - Balogh Cs.  English opening Fine positional play went on for the centre for a long time. Then White started to advance on both flanks with his pawns in order to gain some space. Black held on well and in mutual time pressure a draw was agreed in move 37 with a complicated position left behind.

Round 4 Balogh Cs. - Almasi Z.  Ruy-Lopez   Berlin - Defence White offered a pawn for an attack before Black could castle. It lead to a jungle of complications. Both king-positions became vulnerable and repetition of moves became inevitable. Draw in 32 moves. Mikhalevski - Naiditsch   Catalan opening White sacrificed his c4-pawn for central dominance. A Central break-through came soon and then even after castling Black seemed to have serious difficulties but he found clever counter-play against the king by sacrificing a piece. In the course of defence White had to give an exchange back so material got about even. After trading the Queens a draw was agreed on move 40. Vallejo Pons - Nisipeanu   English opening A Hedgehog system arose and the usual pressure on d6 was compensated for with counter-pressure on c4. Finally the liberating b5 arrived on time to save the game. A draw was agreed in 26 moves.

Round 3 Almasi-Nisipeanu Philidor- defence They quickly left known lines and all knights disappeared. Both players concentrated all their forces in the centre and the balance was never broken though Black's position looked more impressive at some stages. Draw agreed in 31 moves. Vallejo Pons - Naiditsch QGA Queen's-Gambit soon transformed into a Catalan opening. After an early Queen-trade White decided to keep on a central knight against a bishop. Black successfully undermined its position and then his Q-side majority with the support of the R and B configuration became strong. 0-1 in 36 moves. Balogh Cs - Mikhalevski Ruy-Lopez Open The e5-outpost pawn was as strong as a fort and White started to set up against the king behind it. Black advanced on the Q-side with his pawn-majority. White missed the right course of attack so black survived with a complicated heavy piece endgame. Draw was agreed in 27 moves.

Round 2 The 2nd round of the Heviz GM tournament was no less fierce than the first. Mikhalevski - Vallejo Pons started as a Miles defence that transformed into a kind of Benoni. White could build up a strong centre and offered a bishop to breaking through with two passed central pawns. Later in mutual time pressure these two proved to be decisively stronger. Naiditsch - Almasi Ruy Lopez Classical - Black opened the c-file hoping for counter-play. White took risk with a pawn sacrifice in the hope of taking the initiative but Black countered the plan with immediate central actions a draw was agreed in 27 moves. Nisipeanu-Balogh was a Slav Defence. After a balanced opening Black sacrificed a rook for a knight and two passed pawns on the queenside. White succeeded in blockading them well enough for a correct draw.

Round 1 Almasi beat Mikhalevski in an Open Ruy-Lopez line in spectacular attacking style. Naiditsch judged the endgame phase well and beat Nisipeanu after hard a battle in a sharp Sicilian Scheveningen variation. Vallejo Pons blundered a winning endgame to allow a draw against Balogh after a fine positional game in a Double fianchetto. With the consent of all the players rounds 4 and 5 will be exchanged to avoid having the same colors three times in a row for two players. Report: Miklos Orso.

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