Chess Gateway News: GM Rublevsky wins Aerosvit 2006 Tournament

GM Rublevsky wins Aerosvit 2006 Tournament

by John Lee Shaw

The Aerosvit 2006 International Chess Tournament took place, in the Foros sanatorium, located in the territory of Relic Park, Crimea and Ukraine. Unfortunately, information available on the location is sketchy, both on the official tournament website, and independent searching, but seeing as the main point of interest in the chess, I guess this is no major inconvenience. It is a shame, though, as it really does seem a very nice place to play chess, it's 100 rare plants and trees, as well as its coastal setting, giving it the purest of air.

The tournament itself opened on the 17th of June, and featured a strong field of the following players: Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine: 2738), Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine: 2731), Alexander Grischuk (Russia: 2719), Alexei Shirov (Spain: 2699), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan: 2699), Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (Romania: 2695), Sergei Rublevsky (Russia: 2687), Pentala Harikrishna (India: 2680), Viorel Bologan (Moldova: 2666), Sergey Karjakin (Ukraine: 2661), Andrei Volotikin (Ukraine: 2660), Alexander Arashchenko (Ukraine: 2660). All competitors were personally invited to take part in the tournament.

The tournament format was round robin, (11 rounds), and the time control was 120 minutes each player for the whole game, with 30 second incremement per move, beginning at move 1. There would be 1 rest day, after round 6.

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov got off to a fine start, defeating Rublevsky in round 1, and then drawing with Shirov in round 2. The last 12-18 months have been very good for him, in which he has shown that he is up there with the best. He put in a fine performance at this year's Wijk aan Zee, where he replaced Vladimir Kramnik who withdrew due to illness. Even with the short notice, he scored 50%.

Rublevsky began to shine in round 3, totally outplaying Ruslan Ponomariov in the Scotch Game. For me, it was nice to see such a performance from Sergei, who had looked a bit out of sorts as of late, having a very bad time of things at the 2006 Olympiad. His game against Ponomariov was confident and aggressive, and it put him just a point behind leaders Mamedyarov and Bologan.

In round 4, he went on to crush Romanian GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu with the black pieces. He chose the Sicilian, (it started as a Taimanov, but probably wasn't a few moves later), and White seemed totally off guard to the creation of a passed e-pawn in the midst of some exchanges. He joined Mamedyarov, Ivanchuk, Grischuk, Shirov, and Volotikin, all chasing leader Bologan who was a half point ahead. At the end of round 5, Rublevsky was chasing Bologan on his own, following a nice performance over Volokitin, in which he sacrificed a rook for attacking chances. Bologan had defeated Pentala Harikrishna to retain the lead, but would play Rublevsky in round 6. Who would come out on top?

Bologan,V (2666) - Rublevsky,S (2687)
2006 Aerosvit GM Tournament, Foros Ukraine.

1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 "a number of players lately are playing the black side of the Queens Gambit Accepted aggressively, there are many new slants on it." 3.e4 e5 4.Nf3 exd4 5.Bxc4 Bb4+ 6.Nbd2 Nc6 7.0-0 Nf6 8.e5 Nd5 9.Nb3 Nb6 10.Bb5 Qd5 11.Nbxd4 [Radjabov - Rublevsky, Moscow 2002, had gone: 11.Bxc6 Qxc6, 12.Bd2 Be7, 13.Rc1 Qg6 and was drawn in 31] 0-0 12.Bxc6 bxc6 13.Qc2 c5 14.Nf5 "This natural move (threatening Ne7+ forking the Queen) appears new, 14.Ne2 and 14.Nb5 having been played before, both very slightly favouring White." Qe6 "One of the best responses, with the counter threat towards th f5-knight. But 14...c4!? is also interesting - e.g: 15.Ne3 Qe6, 16.Rd1 Be7=" 15.Ng3 Qg6 16.Qxg6

"There is nothing better than this exchange." hxg6 17.a3 Ba5 18.Bd2 Bxd2 19.Nxd2 c4 20.Rac1 Be6 21.f4 Rfd8 "Black is equal at worst here." 22.Rf2 Rd4 23.Nb1?! "White is back-pedalling, and this move hands the initiative to Black. Horrible as they seem, h3 or Rc2 were more worthy of consideration here." Na4! "The knight begins its journey to d3 (see diagram, left)" 24.Nc3 Nc5 "And here, White is already faced with problems." 25.Rcc2 "There is nothing better, but this move does not stop Black's intention of posting his knight at d3." Nd3 26.Nge2 Rdd8 27.Rf1 "Much needed accurate defence by White, but this is matched by the power of Black's attack." Rab8 28.Rd1 Bf5 29.Rcd2 Re8 "Black leaves the d-file, (where all his objectives are met), to begin to probe at the e-pawn. Very nice, flexible play by Rublevsky." 30.b4 g5 "Also possible was: 30...cxb3, when 1 possible continuation would be: 31.g4 Nxe5, 32.fxe5 Bxg4, when all the evaluations are in Black's favour. However, Rublevsky probably thought it unnecessary to open things up in this way." 31.fxg5 Rbd8 "Incorrect. Having played so accurately, Rublevsky will probably be dis-pleased with this

move when he analyses the game. The immediate ...Rxe5 was more worthy." 32.Ng3 "This does not take advantage of Black's 31st move, 32.Na4 or 32.Nf4 were more constructive to White's task." Bg4 33.Rf1 Rxe5 34.h3 Be6 35.h4 "Nge4 was better, here." Rd4! "with a pretty much winning advantage." 36.g6 fxg6 37.Re2 Rxe2 38.Ngxe2 Rxh4 "and of course, here, Black's position is vastly superior." 39.Nb5 c5 40.Nc7 Bg4 41.Nc3 cxb4 42.axb4 Nxb4 43.Rf4 g5 44.Rxc4 Bd7 45.Rc5 Rg4 46.N7d5 Nxd5 47.Nxd5 Rd4 "a slight inaccuracy, but not serious. ...Ra4 was better, though." 48.Ne7+ Kf7 49.Nc6 Bxc6 50.Rxc6 a5 51.Rc5 a4 52.Rxg5 a3 53.Ra5 Rd3 54.Kh2 Ke6 "for a player of Rublevsky's calibre, such an endgame is unlikely to prove a problem." 55.g3 Rd2+ 56.Kh3 a2 57.Kh4 Kd6 58.g4 Kc6 59.Ra8 Kb6 60.Ra3 Kb5 61.Ra7 Kb4 "(see diagram, left) and Bologan resigned the game ... and with it, the lead." 0-1

Going in to the first rest day, then, Rublevsky had taken the lead on the score of 4.5/6, pushing Bologan down in to second place on 4/6. To make matters worse for Bologan, he had Volokitin, Grischuk, and Ivanchuk all snapping at his heels, a mere half point behind him. What would the second half of the tournament have in store?

Well, in round 7, Rublevsky faced Indian GM Pentala Harikrishna, and, playing white in a 3.Bb5+ Sicilian (something which he is very fond of) he did not get a great deal out of the opening. Infact, around the 13th move mark, Black was the one with the advantage. Harikrishna's 13...Kh8, however, seems very slow to me, and ...bxa4 was probably the only move if black wanted to go for anything. Maybe Harikrishna was merely trying to hold his opponent? That, usually, is a very risky thing to decide, and so proved the case here. His very next move (14...g6?) was a large error, and allowed Rublevsky's 15.Bh6! with tempo on the rook. A little later, came a crushing queen sacrifice, for rook and 3 pieces, and black had very little to resist with. Also winning were Arashchenko and Ivanchuk, the latter moving up to join Bologan in second place. The other games were drawn.

Alexei Shirov played the Petroff's Defence in his round 8 clash with Rublevsky. 12...Qh4 seems to be new, but when the queens left the board a move or so after, and a pair of rooks, the players were left with little to try for and agreed peace very quickly. Vassily Ivanchuk scored a nice win over Volokitin, employing the Alekhine Defence -- now there's a thing that you don't see in GM chess often! It was a rather interesting game, really, which I urge you to take a look at, White obtained the two bishops, and black had 2 knights, which coupled with good dark-square play on the kingside, proved far more potent. A nice display of chess by Ivanchuk to take the point. This moved him up in to sole second place, a half point behind Rublevsky, and a half point ahead of Bologan, who was held to a draw by Areshchenko.

In round 9, Alexei Shirov stomped with the white pieces against Pentala Harikrishna. I must say, though, he was somewhat aided by his opponent's 11...g5?! To say that this move is questionable just does not seem to cut it really. Rublevsky had a rather qick draw against Arashchenko, in which nothing much occurred really. He retained his lead, but would face off against nearest rival Ivanchuk in the 10th round. Ivanchuk, himself, enjoyed a rather quiet draw with Bologan.

The final two rounds only saw one decisive game in twelve. I think the sanatorium environment had prompted the players in to early recuperation. Rublevsky's round 10 clash with Ivanchuk proved a bit of an anti-climax, with a 29 move repetition draw. Sergey Karjakin's win over Volokitin in the final round was quite incidental, the young Ukranian had not had a very good tournament by his standards and did not figure at the top end of things. This left Rublevsky taking first prize, with Ivanchuk second, and Bologan third.

Final Standings: Rublevsky -- 7.5/11; Ivanchuk -- 7.0/11; Bologan -- 6.5/11; Mamedyarov, Shirov, Grischuk -- 6.0/11; Areshchenko, Nisipeanu -- 5.0/11; Ponomariov, Karjakin -- 4.5/11; Volokitin, Harikrishna -- 4.0/11.

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