Chessable Houska's Caro

54th Reggio Emilia 2011 (7)

Ivanchuk blunders horribly in Reggio Emilia Round 7

Vassily Ivanchuk is in one of those terrible runs of results that have scarred his career. Photo ©

Vassily Ivanchuk is in one of those terrible runs of results that have scarred his career. Photo © | http://www.ippogrifoscacchi.it

The 7th round of the 54th Reggio Emilia tournament saw two short draws from the top two players and a terrible blunder from Vassily Ivanchuk. Hikaru Nakamura repeated Peter Svidler's shock idea in the Sicilian Kan from the Tal Memorial and equalised quickly with black against Fabiano Caruana. Alexander Morozevich quickly called off aggressive intentions against Anish Giri and allowed a draw by repetition. Vassily Ivanchuk was doing absolutely fine against Nikita Vitiugov until he grabbed a pawn that couldn't be grabbed and resigned the following move having dropped a piece. This is Ivanchuk's third loss in a row. It isn't the first time he has shown he can play awful chess when not in the best mood.

Ivanchuk's tail-spin continued with a third loss in a row, this time to Nikita Vitiugov. Ivanchuk was doing perfectly fine on the black side of a Nimzo-Indian until he grabbed a pawn that wasn't available to be grabbed and lost a piece. He must have missed something completely trivial, possibly that 31...Bf6 can be met by 32.Ne5. Whatever it was this was a dreadful miscalculation.

Vitiugov,Nikita - Ivanchuk,Vassily [E21]
54th Reggio Emilia Reggio Emilia ITA (7), 03.01.2012

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Nf3 c5 5.g3 Nc6 6.Bg2 Ne4 7.Bd2 Nxd2 8.Qxd2 cxd4 9.Nxd4 0-0 10.a3 Be7 11.0-0 Ne5

[11...a6 12.Rfd1 Qb6 13.Nc2 d6 14.b4 Rd8 15.Ne3 Bf8 16.Rab1 Qc7 17.Rbc1 Qe7 18.b5 axb5 19.cxb5 Na5 20.Qd3 Bd7 21.Na4 d5 22.Nb6 Rab8 23.Qc3 Qxa3 24.Qxa3 Bxa3 25.Ra1 Bb4 26.Nxd7 Rxd7 27.Ra4 Bc3 28.Rd3 Rc7 29.Bxd5 b6 30.Bf3 Bb2 31.Ra2 Bf6 32.Ng4 Bc3 33.Bc6 h5 34.Rxc3 hxg4 35.Ra4 f5 36.e4 g6 37.Rd4 Nxc6 38.Rd6 Kf7 39.e5 Ra7 40.Rcxc6 Re8 41.Rxb6 Ra1+ 42.Kg2 Re1 43.Rb7+ Re7 44.Rdd7 Rxd7 45.Rxd7+ Ke8 46.Rg7 Kd8 47.b6 Kc8 48.f4 Rb1 49.Rc7+ Kd8 50.Rc6 Kd7 51.Rd6+ Ke7 52.Kf2 Rb2+ 53.Ke1 Rxh2 54.Kd1 Rg2 55.Rd3 Rb2 56.Rd6 Rg2 57.Rd3 Rb2 58.Rd6 Rg2 1/2-1/2 Petkov,V (2480)-Kutuzovic,B (2324)/Sibenik CRO 2006]

12.b3 a6 13.Rfd1 Qc7 14.Ne4 f5 15.Nc3 Rb8 16.e4 fxe4 17.Nxe4 b6 18.Qe2 Bb7 19.f4 Nc6 20.Nf3 Na5 21.Rd3 Bxe4

[21...Rbd8]

22.Qxe4 Nb7 23.b4 Nd6 24.Qe2 Nf7 25.Qd2 Rfd8 26.Re1 a5 27.Qc3 axb4 28.axb4 Rbc8 29.Nd2 Nd6 30.Rc1

Vassily Ivanchuk

__rr__k_
__qpb_pp
_p_np___
________
_PP__P__
__QR__P_
___N__BP
__R___K_

Nikita Vitiugov

Position after 30.Rc1

30....Nxc4?

I don't even know what Ivanchuk missed here unless it was that 31...Bf6 can be met by 32.Ne5. He is perfectly fine after 30...Bf6.

[30...Bf6]

31.Nxc4 1-0

Hikaru Nakamura quickly equalised as black against Fabiano Caruana in a game where he repeated Peter Svidler's radical idea in the Sicilian Kan from the Tal Memorial.

Caruana,Fabiano - Nakamura,Hikaru [B42]
54th Reggio Emilia Reggio Emilia ITA (7), 03.01.2012

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Bd3 Nf6 6.0-0 e5 7.Bg5 h6 8.Bxf6 Qxf6 9.Nf5 g6 10.Ne3 Bc5 11.Nd5

[11.Nc3 d6 12.Ncd5 Qd8 13.c3 Be6 14.Bc2 0-0 15.Ng4 Nd7 16.Nxh6+ Kg7 17.Nf5+ gxf5 18.exf5 Bxd5 19.Qg4+ Kh6 20.Qh3+ Kg5 21.Qg3+ Kh5 22.Qg7 Bf3 23.Qh7+ Kg5 24.Qg7+ Kh5 25.Qh7+ Kg5 26.Qg7+ Kh5 1/2-1/2 Karjakin,S (2763)-Svidler,P (2755)/Moscow RUS 2011/The Week in Chess 889]

11...Qd8 12.b4 Ba7 13.a4 d6 14.a5 Be6 15.Bc4 0-0 16.Qd3 Nc6 17.c3 Ne7 18.Nd2 Rc8 19.Rac1 Kg7 20.Kh1 Nxd5 21.Bxd5 Qe7

Hikaru Nakamura

__r__r__
bp__qpk_
p__pb_pp
P__Bp___
_P__P___
__PQ____
___N_PPP
__R__R_K

Fabiano Caruana

Position after 21...Qe7

Black has completely equalised.

1/2-1/2

Alexander Morozevich pushed his Kingside pawns with aggressive intent right out of the opening in a topical variation of the Queen's Gambit against Anish Giri. However almost immediately he acquiesced to a repetition in a position where he didn't look one bit better.

Morozevich,Alexander - Giri,Anish [D31]
54th Reggio Emilia Reggio Emilia ITA (7), 03.01.2012

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Be7 4.cxd5 exd5 5.Bf4 c6 6.e3 Bf5 7.g4 Be6 8.h4 Nd7 9.g5 h6 10.g6N

Anish Giri

r__qk_nr
pp_nbpp_
__p_b_Pp
___p____
___P_B_P
__N_P___
PP___P__
R__QKBNR

Alexander Morozevich

Position after 10.g6

[10.Qf3 0-1 Zacurdajev,M (2408)-Klimov,S (2483)/St Petersburg RUS 2008/The Week in Chess 691 (40)]

10...Ngf6

[10...fxg6 11.Bd3 Bf7 12.Qc2 Ngf6 13.Bxg6 0-0]

11.gxf7+ Bxf7 12.Bd3 Nh5 13.Be5 0-0 14.Qg4 Nhf6 15.Qg3 Nh5 16.Qg4 Nhf6 17.Qg3 Nh5

After yesterday's loss Morozevich probably didn't want to push his luck in a level position.

1/2-1/2

54th Reggio Emilia Reggio Emilia (ITA), 27 xii 2011 - 6 i 2012 cat. XX (2744)
1 2 3 4 5 6
1. Nakamura, Hikaru g USA 2758 * * ½ . 1 . ½ ½ 1 . 1 1 15 2967
2. Morozevich, Alexander g RUS 2762 ½ . * * 1 ½ 1 0 0 . 1 . 11 2784
3. Giri, Anish g NED 2714 0 . 0 ½ * * 1 . ½ 1 ½ . 9 2755
4. Caruana, Fabiano g ITA 2727 ½ ½ 0 1 0 . * * 0 . 1 . 8 2701
5. Ivanchuk, Vassily g UKR 2775 0 . 1 . ½ 0 1 . * * ½ 0 8 2683
6. Vitiugov, Nikita g RUS 2729 0 0 0 . ½ . 0 . ½ 1 * * 5 2594
Round 7 (January 3, 2012)
Morozevich, Alexander - Giri, Anish ½-½ 17 D31 Semi-Slav Defence
Caruana, Fabiano - Nakamura, Hikaru ½-½ 21 B42 Sicilian Paulsen
Vitiugov, Nikita - Ivanchuk, Vassily 1-0 31 E21 Nimzo Indian 4.Nf3

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