Chessable

53rd Reggio Emilia 2010 (2)

Short defeats Morozevich from lost position to lead on 2/2

Alexander Morozevich made it to Reggio for round 2 but he lost to Nigel Short.

Alexander Morozevich made it to Reggio for round 2 but he lost to Nigel Short. | http://www.ippogrifoscacchi.it

Nigel Short had a lucky escape on the white side of a wild French Defence against the newly arrived Alexander Morozevich to move to 2/2 half a point clear of the field. Vassily Ivanchuk allowed a quick draw after a new move was convincingly refuted as a way of getting the advantage by Francisco Vallejo Pons. David Navara got a nice positional advantage on the white side of a Sicilian against Fabiano Caruana and brought this home for a win. The remaining games were drawn.

Nigel Short moved into the lead alone on 2/2 after winning a second game in a row, this time against Alexander Morozevich who managed to make it out of snow and ice-bound Russia in time for the game. Morozevich got much the better of it as black when he played the French. He had a decisive advantage on move 28 but just couldn't put Short away. After 33...Nxd3 Short accurately saw his way through the complications to a win. Short has made the most of his luck and the two games with the white pieces at the start of the tournament. For Morozevich we will have to wait and see if he can recover some of his best form. All this traveling can't have done him much good, but there were also question marks about what standard of play he would manage after such a long break.

Alexander Morozevich

______k_
____R_p_
_q_____p
___p_r_n
r_____b_
_pQP_N__
_P__K_PP
___NR___

Nigel Short

Position after 28.Qc3

(28. Qc7)

28... Bxf3+?

(28... d4 {wins} 29. Qc8+ (29. Qc7 Qg6 30. Nf2 Bxf3+ 31. gxf3 Qg2 32. Qc8+ Rf8 33. Qg4 Qxh2) 29... Kh7 30. Re8 Re5+)

29. gxf3 d4?! 30. Re8+

(30. Qc8+)

30... Kh7 31. Qc8 Nf4+ 32. Kf1 Qb5 33. Nf2 Nxd3?

This seems to be the losing move. 33... Ra2 is about equal.

34. Rh8+ Kg6 35. Qe6+ Kh5 36. Rb8 Qe5 37. Rxe5 Ra1+ 38. Re1

(38. Ke2)

38... Rxe1+ 39. Qxe1 Nxe1 40. Kxe1 Rxf3 41. Rd8 Re3+ 42. Kf1 Rc3???

Black is losing but this is pretty ridiculous.

43. bxc3 dxc3 44. Nd3 1-0

Vassily Ivanchuk's 10.f3 seems to be new, but led straight to a drawish position which was agreed on move 13.

Francisco Vallejo Pons

r__qk__r
pp_n_ppp
__pbp_b_
___p____
__PPn__N
__N_PPP_
PP__B__P
R_BQ_RK_

Vassily Ivanchuk

Position after 10.f3

10... Nxg3 11. hxg3 Bxg3 12. Ng2 Qg5 13. Rf2 1/2-1/2

Vugar Gashimov and Sergei Movsesian drew a pretty colourless Sicilian Taimanov in just 19 moves.

David Navara put a slow positional squeeze on Fabiano Caruana. Maybe 37...a4 is an error that denies the later possibility of b4 for black but white can wait a long time in this position before taking action. Just after the first time control Navara had a decisive advantage.

Fabiano Caruana

_______k
____qrp_
_brpp__p
_p__p__P
p___P_Q_
P_PR_PPK
_P______
___RN___

David Navara

Position after 37...a4

38. Ng2 Bc7 39. f4 Rc4 40. Nh4 Kh7 41. fxe5 dxe5 42. Rd7 Qe8 43. Qg6+ Kg8 44. R1d3 Rc6 45. Rxf7 Qxf7 46. Qxf7+ Kxf7 47. Rd7+ Kf6 48. Ng6 Bd6 49. Kg4 Rb6 50. Nh8 Be7 51. Rd3 Bc5 52. Rf3+ Ke7 53. Rf7+ Ke8 54. Rxg7 Be3 55. Rg8+ Ke7 56. Ng6+ Kf6 57. Rf8+ Kg7 58. Rf3 Bc1 59. Rf2 Rd6 60. Rc2 Rd1 61. Nxe5 Re1 62. Nc6 Rxe4+ 63. Kf3 Re1 64. Nd4 e5 65. Nxb5 e4+ 66. Kg4 e3 67. c4 Bd2 68. c5 Rd1 69. Nd4 Ba5 70. Nf5+ 1-0

The game Michele Gondena against Alexander Onischuk was a fairly dull Sicilian. Onischuk seemed to turn down a draw by repetition on move 37 which only landed him in an awkward knight and pawn ending which he eventually held.

53rd Masters Reggio Emilia (ITA), 28 xii 2010 - 6 i 2011 cat. XVIII (2695)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
1. Short, Nigel D g ENG 2680 * . . . . . 1 . . 1 2
2. Vallejo Pons, Francisco g ESP 2698 . * . ½ . . . . 1 . 2849
3. Navara, David g CZE 2708 . . * . . . . 1 . . 1
4. Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2764 . ½ . * . . . ½ . . 1 2703
5. Movsesian, Sergei g SVK 2721 . . . . * ½ ½ . . . 1 2708
6. Onischuk, Alexander g USA 2683 . . . . ½ * . . ½ . 1 2635
7. Gashimov, Vugar g AZE 2733 0 . . . ½ . * . . . ½ 2507
8. Caruana, Fabiano g ITA 2709 . . 0 ½ . . . * . . ½ 2543
9. Godena, Michele g ITA 2549 . 0 . . . ½ . . * . ½ 2497
10. Morozevich, Alexander g RUS 2700 0 . . . . . . . . * 0
Round 2 (December 29, 2010)
Short, Nigel D - Morozevich, Alexander 1-0 44 C11 French Defence
Navara, David - Caruana, Fabiano 1-0 70 B33 Sicilian Sveshnikov
Ivanchuk, Vassily - Vallejo Pons, Francisco ½-½ 13 D12 Slav Defence
Gashimov, Vugar - Movsesian, Sergei ½-½ 19 B48 Sicilian Paulsen
Godena, Michele - Onischuk, Alexander ½-½ 64 C45 Scotch Game

View the games on this Page

Download the PGN from this page

vs

Advertising

New in Chess Endgame patterns


Chess.com Events


Chess and Bridge Fritz 19

Modern Chess April


Jussupow course Build Up Your Chess 1: The Fundamentals

The New Jobava London System


Contact Mark Crowther (TWIC) if you wish to advertise here.


The Week in Chess Magazine

Send a £30 donation via Paypal and contact me via email (Email Mark Crowther - mdcrowth@btinternet.com) I'll send you an address for a cbv file of my personal copy of every issue of the games in one database. Over 3 million games.

Alternatively subscribe to donate £4 a month

Read about 25 years of TWIC.

TWIC 1537 22nd April 2024 - 6430 games

Read TWIC 1537

Download TWIC 1537 PGN

Download TWIC 1537 ChessBase

TWIC Sponsor(s):

Clark St James Ltd - online advertising agency eg Google AdWords, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads