TWIC is 30. First issue 17th September 1994.
53rd Reggio Emilia 2010 (1)
Short repels Gashimov, Vallejo collects a piece
Mark Crowther - Tuesday 28th December 2010
Short is joint leader after Round 1. | http://www.ippogrifoscacchi.it
Even though there were just four games, the first round provided plenty of excitement and two decisive results. Vugar Gashimov made a dangerous piece sacrifice against Nigel Short but the English player defended calmly and once Gashimov went astray Short brought the full point home after the first time control. Michele Godena had almost equalised against Vallejo but some pressure in the lead up to first time control led to him dropping a piece for nothing. Fabiano Caruana and Vassily Ivanchuk drew a very interesting Dutch.
The first round of the Reggio Emilia tournament saw two decisive games out of the four games played.
The favourite Vassily Ivanchuk played the Dutch Defence (it really is very difficult to prepare against the mercurial Ukrainian) as black against local favourite Fabiano Caruana. An interesting game ended in perpetual check just after the first time control.
The first decisive game must have taken place in time-trouble. Bottom seed Michele Godena had more or less equalised (in the position below maybe Bf8 is an idea) but his position weakened over successive moves before he just left a piece en-prise.
Michele Godena
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Francisco Vallejo Pons
Position after 30.h3
30... Rb7 31. Re1 Qa5?! 32. Ra1 Ra7 33. Qb3 Rda8 34. Rb6 g6??? 35. Rxf6 1-0
Sergei Movsesian equalised against Alexander Onischuk with black and a draw was agreed in 34 moves.
The final game to finish saw Nigel Short beat Vugar Gashimov after surviving a sacrificial attack.
Vugar Gashimov
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Nigel Short
Position after 22.Ne4
Gashimov has equalised here and possibly hoping that Short's confidence was low after the London Chess Classic he sacrificed the exchange, which quickly turned into a rook. The position then became very sharp with Short having to show good nerves to hold the position, objectively the position is probably level.
22....Rxf1+ 23. Kxf1 Qxh2 24. Nf2 Rf8 25. Qxb6 Qh1+ 26. Ke2 Qxg2 27. Rf1 h6 28. Kd2 Rf6 29. Qc5 Kh7 30. Rae1 Rc6 31. Qxe5 Rxc2+ 32. Ke3 Qc6?!
(32... Rc8)
33. Ne4 Qb6+ 34. Kf4 Qxb3 35. Rf3 Qb4 36. Rc3 Rf2+ 37. Kg3 Rf5 38. Qe6 Qxb2 39. Rc8!?
(39. Rd1 is much better)
39... h5?
(39... Qa3+ and black is still level, now once things settle down after first time control it is clear black is in serious trouble)
40. Qg8+ Kh6 41. Qh8+ Bh7 42. Qd8 g5 43. Nd2 Rf6 44. Rc7 h4+ 45. Kg2 Bg8 46. Rd7 Qc3 47. Re3 Qc6+ 48. Ne4 Rg6 49. Rd6 Qc2+ 50. Kg1 Qb1+ 51. Kf2 Qa2+ 52. Re2 Qf7+ 53. Kg1 Qf5 54. Nf6 Qc5+ 55. Kh2 1-0
Alexander Morozevich against David Navara was postponed until New Year's Day. The latest I have heard is that with Moscow's Airports shut due to the bad weather Morozevich is in St Petersburg trying to get a flight.
| 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. | Vallejo Pons, Francisco | g | ESP | 2698 | * | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | 1 | 1 | ||||
| 2. | Short, Nigel D | g | ENG | 2680 | . | * | . | . | . | . | . | . | 1 | . | 1 | ||||
| 3. | Ivanchuk, Vassily | g | UKR | 2764 | . | . | * | . | ½ | . | . | . | . | . | ½ | 2709 | |||
| 4. | Movsesian, Sergei | g | SVK | 2721 | . | . | . | * | . | ½ | . | . | . | . | ½ | 2683 | |||
| 5. | Caruana, Fabiano | g | ITA | 2709 | . | . | ½ | . | * | . | . | . | . | . | ½ | 2764 | |||
| 6. | Onischuk, Alexander | g | USA | 2683 | . | . | . | ½ | . | * | . | . | . | . | ½ | 2721 | |||
| 7. | Navara, David | g | CZE | 2708 | . | . | . | . | . | . | * | ? | . | . | 0 | ||||
| 8. | Morozevich, Alexander | g | RUS | 2700 | . | . | . | . | . | . | ? | * | . | . | 0 | ||||
| 9. | Gashimov, Vugar | g | AZE | 2733 | . | 0 | . | . | . | . | . | . | * | . | 0 | ||||
| 10. | Godena, Michele | g | ITA | 2549 | 0 | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | . | * | 0 | ||||
| Round 1 (December 28, 2010) | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vallejo Pons, Francisco | - Godena, Michele | 1-0 | 35 | C51 | Evans Gambit | |
| Short, Nigel D | - Gashimov, Vugar | 1-0 | 55 | B90 | Sicilian Najdorf Variation | |
| Caruana, Fabiano | - Ivanchuk, Vassily | ½-½ | 43 | A81 | Dutch Leningrad | |
| Onischuk, Alexander | - Movsesian, Sergei | ½-½ | 34 | E58 | Nimzo Indian | |
| Round 1 (January 1, 2011) | ||||||
| Morozevich, Alexander | - Navara, David | * | 0 | |||
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