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Sigeman Chess Tournament
by John Lee Shaw
The Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament started on the 28th of April, and
runs until the 6th of May. It is being held in Sweden, and has GM
Suat Atalik TUR (2627) GM Jan Timman NED (2616) GM Alexei Fedorov BLR
(2614) GM Igor Khenkin GER (2602) GM Daniel Stellwagen NED (2543) GM
Emanuel Berg SWE (2539) GM Tiger Hillarp-Persson SWE (2524) GM Jonny
Hector SWE (2514) GM Slavko Cicak SWE (2506) IM Pontus Carlsson SWE
(2433) all competing.
Report 1
Indian GM Sasikiran is having a very bad
start to the tournament, losing his first two games. In round 2 he lost
as White to GM Predojevic. The game was a Grunfeld Defence, with
Sasikiran's 17.Bf3 looking new (17.e5 being more usual). White obtained
excellent chances, but his 31.Rxf6 was unnecessary, and should probably
have given way to g4 or Qa3, keeping up the pressure. White's advantage
reduced steadily after that, and upon 35.Rxf5, it seemed that Sasikiran
was contenting himself with the draw. However, a few moves later Black
had the point. A very disappointing result for Sasikiran after having
such promising prospects.
Malakhov-Naiditsch
followed a game that the later had played just some days previously
against Morozevich in the Russian Team Championships. Malakhov deviated
from that game with his 8.b3 (Morozevich had played Nc4 and won in
112). Black had some work to do, hid d6-bishop was hampered by his own
pawns, and his position was somewhat cramped, but some players relish
such positions. Naiditsch gradually improved his situation, but the
game became quite scrappy, possibly time was becomming a factor? They
exchanged mistakes and inaccuracy's, but it was Naiditsch who erred the
last, allowing the devastating 32.Rxh6+! and was due to get mated (in 9
or thereabouts) by force in the end position (see below).
The Sicilian of Nisipeanu-Carlsen was a draw in 20.
11...Rfe8 is a deviation from Hector-Sievers, Hamburg 2005 which
had gone 11...Nxe4 and been drawn in 47. Not too much more to say about
it really, Carlsen could probably have gotten an easier equality with
12...Qc7, but a withdrawal of that nature (from a5) is not really his
style. Perhaps White had a small but not very telling edge in the final
position.
In tournament B there was just 1 decisive game, and that was
Jankovic-Arapovic. The novelty (as far as my database is concerned)
came on Black's 9th (...a6). 11...g6 looks wrong to me, (...Bg5 or
...Rb8 being more worthy considerations), but I thought that perhaps
Black had the interesting idea of playing ...Ng7 and ...f5. However,
...f5 came without ...Ng7 and Black's position looked very exposed,
with added pressure to his d6-pawn, which eventually fell. White
converted the point without too much resistance.
Report 2
I suppose that you could say things are going according
to expectations so far in the tournament. Dutch chess-veteran, Jan
Timman, with his wealth of tournament experience, currently stands on
his own in top position and holds a perfect score of 3 wins from the
first 3 games. In fairness, however, things are not so straight-forward
as they might seem, and could have been a little different. In game 1,
Jan was a pawn down and under some pressure, until his opponent erred
in time trouble; and in game 2, his opponent opted to play for a win
instead of taking draw by repetition. This being said, one can not
disregard Timman's excellent chess understanding and technique,
just question one or two decisions so far by his opponents.
Timman's countryman, GM Daniel Stellwagen stands in
second place behind Timman, just 1 point off the pace. Stellwagen,
making his Sigeman debut, had a nice fighting draw against Turkish GM
Suat Atalik in round 1, and a 77-move marathon against Jonny Hector in
round 3. In round 2, Daniel had to react to an unusual opening from
opponent Slavko Cicak ...
GM Daniel Stellwagen - GM Slavko Cicak
Sigeman & Co Chess Tournament Malmo (2), 2006
1.e4 g6 2.d4 Bg7 3.Nc3 c6 4.f4 Qb6 "Probably not the most credible opening to play against a GM, though you will find plenty of instances of it." 5.Nf3 d5 6.e5 Bg4 7.Be2 Nh6 8.Ng5 "this appears to be a new move" Bxe2 9.Nxe2 c5 10.dxc5 Qxc5 11.Qd3 0-0 12.c3 Rc8 13.Nd4 Qc4 14.Qh3 Na6 "Cicak
was himself critical of this move after the game, the knight probably
was best suited to the natural c6. From here, Black just seems to get
outplayed." 15.Kf2 Nc5 16.Rd1 f6 17.Nge6 Nf7 18.Nxg7 Kxg7 19.Kg1 Qa6 20.Be3 Kh8 21.exf6 exf6 22.f5 Ne5 23.fxg6 Nxg6 24.Rf1 Re8 25.Nf5 "Blockading the isolated f-pawn." Ne4 26.Bd4 "White has nicely organised his pieces, and now with the isolated pawn blocked, Stellwagen attacks it." Ne5 27.Ng3 "Playing extremely accurately, threatening Nxe4 followed by Rae1" Nxg3 28.Qxg3 Re7 29.Qh4 "probably played with a winning advantage here" Kg7 30.Rf5 Rf8 31.Raf1 Rff7 32.Qg3+ Kf8 33.Bc5 Qe6 "Rxe7 probably still wins for White, here, but Stellwagen does not need to rush, and so turns the thumb-screws." 34.Qh4 Ng6 35.Rxf6 "or Bxe7+" Qe3+ 36.Bxe3 Nxh4 37.Bc5 "With unavoidable material loss for Black, who resigned." 1-0
Suat Atalik of Turkey, is also on 2 points, and faces
Timman in round 4 (though as I write this, I notice that they have
agreed a rather disappointing 14-move draw). He started his
tournament with a round 1 draw against Stellwagen, with another against
Fedorov in round 2. In round 3, he caught Pontus Carlsson totally
off-guard, when he sacrificed a pawn on his 12th move. Carlsson spent
so much time on this, that he was left with only 1 minute to make 20
moves! From here, I suppose that the point was a formality in going to
Atalik.
Hopefully the home boys can pull their socks up a bit, as things are
certainly not going their way right now. Cicak is the highest scorer,
on 2 points along with Atalik. Jonny Hector brings up the rear of the
standings, with just half a point from the first 3 games. He faces
Fedorov in round 4, with things not getting any easier for Berg either,
who has Stellwagen to contend with.
Final Report
The event was won
by Dutch Grandmaster Jan Timman, with 7 points from the 9 games. Timman
is no stranger to the Sigeman Tournament. 2006 is his eighth
appearance, and in 2005 he won the event (jointly with Sasikiran).
On his way to first place, Timman started the tournament with a win
over Sweden's Emanuel Berg. It was a game in which Berg equitted
himself very well, sacrificing a piece for two pawns, getting Timmans
king caught in the centre in return. Timman chose to bail out and
entered a variation that should have ended in a perpetual check draw.
However, Berg chose to attempt to win, and this decision, though
admirable, cost him dearly. Timman's victim in round two was also
Swedish, in the form of Tiger Hillarp-Persson. It was a classical
Sicilian, with Timman opting for the unusual 12.Nce2. It seemed to
throw Hillarp-Persson off his balance, Timman played confidently and
broke through to score the point.
Game 3 was quite an incredible turn of fortunes, in which Timman faced
Igor Khenkin of Germany. The game was a Nimzo-Indian (4.Qc2). Kenkin
(White) obtained some pressure and won a pawn, with excellent chances.
However, a time trouble error allowed Timman back in to the game, and
Kenkin must have been must have been feeling quite green to have found
himself losing by move 40. Game 4, I personally was looking forward to,
Timman was White against Suat Atalik of Turkey. Unfortunately this game
turned in to quite a let down, as it was a 14-move draw, well inside
theory.
Game 5, and he was back to his winning ways, this time against Slavko
Cicak. It was an interesting game, in which Cicak had a very nice
position, but Timman invested a couple of pawns for counterplay. From
there, some strange play by his opponent left Timman with another
point. Poor Jonny Hector had a bad game against Timman in round 6, with
a not very nice position quite early on. On his 16th, he felt he had to
play the weakening c5, and this pawn fell 10 moves later. It was the
sign of things to come, and on the verge of losing yet more material,
Hector called it a day.
In game 7, it was the Dutch derby, between Timman and countryman
Stellwagen, who was just half a point behind him in second place.
Stellwagen obtained a nice position in the French Defence, but some
misplay from him allowed Timman to draw the game. Unfortunately, game 8
was another quick draw, (14 moves), this time against Belerussian
Alexei Fedorov. Game 9 was even shorter, a 12-mover against Pontus
Carlsson. However, Timman had done enough in the earlier rounds to seal
victory, finishing a point over Tiger Hillarp-Persson of Sweden,
(who defeated Daniel Stellwagen in round 8), and Suat Atalik of Turkey,
both on a very respectable 6 points.
From a commentators point of view, this was a very fine tournament,
possibly slightly marred by one or two regrettable draws very early on,
indeed inside theory. However, in saying this, the standard of play was
excellent in the main, and fighting. Chess Gateway congratulates the
competitors and players alike, especially GM Timman on his excellent
win!
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