TWIC is 30. First issue 17th September 1994.
74th Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2012 (1)
Lahno beats Ernst in first Round of Tata Steel Gpb
IM Malcolm Pein - Tuesday 17th January 2012
Kateryna Lahno. Photo © Frits Agterdenbos. | http://www.chessvista.com
IM Malcolm Pein reports on the first round of the Tata Steel tournament Groups B and C and in detail at Kateryna Lahno's win against Sipke Ernst.
Matthew Sadler made a fine start to the 74th Tata Steel Chess Tournament and won convincingly against Peter Hopman of Holland in Group C. This game will be in the Sunday Telegraph.
My fears for Boris Gelfand's prospects were partially confirmed when he avoided main lines in favour of an innocuous counter to Anish Giri's Slav Defence. The world title challenger was ground down by the Dutch 17 year old prodigy who took first at Reggio Emilia the week before last. The two favourites in Group A were the other winners. Levon Aronian defeated Sergey Karjakin with black and Magnus Carlsen played another fine endgame to defeat Vugar Gashimov.
I thought the game of the day was played by Kateryna Lahno in Group B. This was a classic Ruy Lopez attack climaxing with the thematic Nf5 sacrifice.
K Lahno - S Ernst
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0-0 9.h3 Na5 10.Bc2 c5 11.d4 Qc7 12.Nbd2 Be6
This looks like a tempo loss to me but in a closed position it might not be so serious
13.d5 Bd7 14.b3
To keep the Na5 sidelined. It eventually arrives at f7 but too late
14...c4 15.b4 Nb7 16.Nf1 a5 17.a3 Ra6 18.N3h2 Rfa8 19.g4
With the centre closed White can play this attack
19...Ne8 20.Ng3 g6 21.Kh1 Ng7
(21...Qd8 intending Bg5 exchanging a poor piece was possible)
22.Rg1 Kh8 23.Qf3 f6 24.Bh6 Rg8 25.h4 Nd8 26.g5 fxg5 27.hxg5 Rf8
Sipke Ernst
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Kateryna Lahno
Position after 27...Rf8
28.Nf5!!
A typical line opener which ultimately exposes h7
28...gxf5 29.exf5 Bxf5
(29...Nf7 30.Bxg7+ Kxg7 31.f6+ Kg8 32.Qh5)
30.Bxf5 Nf7
(30...Rxf5 31.Bxg7+ Kxg7 32.Qxf5)
31.Bxg7+ Kxg7 32.Qh5 Rh8 33.Be6 Bd8 34.g6 Ng5 35.gxh7 1-0
Sipke Ernst
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Kateryna Lahno
Final position after 35.gxh7
The 41st Rilton Cup in Stockholm took place over the New Year.
S De Filomeno - J Aperia
Caro Kann
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.Nf3 e6 5.Nbd2 Ne7 6.Nb3 Nd7 7.Be2 Bg4 8.0-0 c5 9.Nxc5 Nxc5 10.dxc5 Nc6 11.Be3 Bxf3 12.Bxf3 Nxe5 13.Bd4 Nxf3+ 14.Qxf3 Qc7 15.b4 f6 16.Rfe1 Kf7 17.Re3 Re8
J Aperia
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S De Filomeno
White play and win
Answer: 18.Bxf6! gxf6 19.Qh5+ Ke7 20.Rxe6+ Kxe6 21.Re1+ 1-0
