Sigeman 02: Erik the Victorious!
Round two of Sigeman saw India's Dronavalli Harika signing peace with Nils Grandelius. Reigning Swedish Champion Erik Blomqvist bounced back from yesterday's loss and defeated Pavel Eljanov. Baadur Jobava is now leading the tournament after a super-charged victory against Nigel Short. Report with grandmaster analysis.
Sigeman 02: Erik the Victorious!
Photos by Lars OA Hedlund
More than a thousand years ago, Eric the Victorious, the first king of Sweden, successfully repelled an invasion from the south in the battle of Fýrisvellir (wait, how do you pronounce this?). 1033 years later, Erik once again turned up victorious, against the Ukrainian invader, the first seed and Ukraine’s top rated player, Pavel Eljanov.
Eljanov tried the French Defense for the first time in his life, and Erik responded with a Tarrasch instead of the usual Winawer. I presume that after 6 moves, Eljanov was out of the book and had a huge time disadvantage. He gradually got outplayed, and after he traded his dark squared bishop, there was no coming back into the game.
Erik is no stranger to such giant scalps, having inflicted a crushing and convincing defeat to Li Chao (2751 at that time) just over a year ago. However, this win beats his own record for the highest rated victory for a Swede in standard time control.
[Site "Malmo"]
[Date "2017.05.11"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Blomqvist, Erik"]
[Black "Eljanov, Pavel"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C03"]
[WhiteElo "2546"]
[BlackElo "2755"]
[Annotator "Srinath,Narayanan"]
[PlyCount "91"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]
[EventType "tourn"]
[EventCountry "SWE"]
[SourceTitle "playchess.com"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceQuality "1"]
Eljanov has tried French.} 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 $5 {Erik has predominantly
preferred 3.Nc3 in the past, however, since 2017 he has exclusively used this
move.} Be7 4. e5 $1 (4. Ngf3 Nf6 5. Bd3 c5 6. e5 Nfd7 7. c3 Nc6 8. O-O g5 9.
dxc5 {was how the previous game of Erik had went in this variation against
Libiszewski in 2015. Pavel had probably prepared something here.}) 4... c5 5.
c3 Nc6 6. Bd3 h5 7. Ndf3 {The mainline after 4.e5, yet Pavel sank into thought
for about 30 minutes here.} Bd7 8. Ne2 {[%csl Ge2,Gf3] Of course, as is
obvious, the placement of knights on f3,e2 as opposed to f3,d2 protects the
important strategic point d4 much more securely. The position seems much more
pleasant for White.} cxd4 9. cxd4 (9. Nexd4 Nh6 10. Qe2 {is preferred by the
computer. I am guessing that the reason is to not allow Nb4 and the subsequent
activation of the light square bishop.}) 9... Nb4 10. Bb1 Bb5 11. O-O Rc8 12.
Re1 g5 13. Nc3 Ba6 14. Qa4+ $2 (14. Be3 $142 Nc6 15. Nd2 $14) 14... Nc6 15. Be3
Qb6 16. Qc2 g4 17. Nd2 Nb4 $2 (17... Nh6 $142 18. Nde4 $1 dxe4 19. d5 Qa5 20.
dxc6 Nf5 $1 $132 {And I believe Black has adequate counterplay here.}) 18. Qd1
Nd3 19. Bxd3 Bxd3 20. Nb3 Bc4 21. Rc1 $2 (21. Nc5 $142) 21... Nh6 $2 (21...
Bxb3 {The dark square bishop is important. The light square bishop less so.}
22. axb3 Rc6 $11) 22. Nc5 Bxc5 $2 {The decisive mistake. With Black's pawn
formation, the dark square bishop is the only protector. Exchanging it is like
Daenerys trading one of her dragons.} 23. Na4 $1 Qc6 24. Nxc5 b6 25. Bxh6 Rxh6
26. b3 {leads to a safe pawn up, but I guess Nd3 was more technically accurate.
} (26. Nd3 Qa8 27. Nf4 {[%csl Rh6][%cal Ra3f8,Rh4d8,Gd1d3,Gd3g3,Gg3h4,Gd3a3]
would've been a huge strategic advantage. Imagine White's Queen on h4/g5. The
c-file is the 'second front' and the a3-f8 diagonal is also a possible opening.
}) 26... bxc5 27. bxc4 Rg6 28. cxd5 Qxd5 29. Qa4+ Kf8 30. dxc5 h4 31. Red1 $1 {
impressive move, nipping Black's counter-play in the bud.} Qxe5 {The Queen had
to be moved from the a8-h1 diagonal, and Black's counter-play is extinguished.}
32. c6 Kg7 33. Qxa7 g3 34. Qd4 gxh2+ 35. Kh1 Qxd4 36. Rxd4 e5 37. Rdc4 Rf6 38.
R1c2 Rc7 39. Kxh2 Kf8 40. Kh3 Rg6 41. a4 Ke7 42. a5 Kd6 43. a6 f5 44. Rd2+ Ke6
45. a7 Rg8 46. Rxh4 1-0
Things started going downhill for Short when he played 23...Rg7 instead of 23...c5. His final chance was to force an exchange of queens with 32...Qe7. With the win, Jobava has now emerged as early leader of the tournament.
The simple fact of the matter is that I did not play well enough #TePeSigeman
— Nigel Short (@nigelshortchess) May 11, 2017
[Site "Malmo"]
[Date "2017.05.11"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Jobava, Baadur"]
[Black "Short, Nigel D"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A45"]
[WhiteElo "2713"]
[BlackElo "2688"]
[Annotator "Srinath,Narayanan"]
[PlyCount "141"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]
[EventType "tourn"]
[EventCountry "SWE"]
[SourceTitle "playchess.com"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceQuality "1"]
choice should hardly come as a surprise as he had played the same line
yesterday. Perhaps being predictable is the 'new unpredictable' in modern
chess?} 6. cxd4 Nc6 7. Ngf3 {already in no man's land, but possibly prepared.}
g5 (7... Qb6 8. Bxf6 gxf6 9. d5 exd5 10. e3 {seems not that clear.}) 8. Bg3 Nh5
(8... g4 9. Ne5 Nxd4 10. e3 Nf5 11. Nxg4 Bg7 12. Rc1 Nxg3 13. hxg3 Nxg4 14.
Qxg4 $13) 9. e3 Nxg3 10. hxg3 Bg7 11. Bb5 O-O 12. Rc1 f5 13. Bxc6 bxc6 14. O-O
{An interesting balance, Black has the pair of bishops, White has an excellent
pawn structure, ideal against Black's bishops.} Bb7 15. Re1 d6 16. Qb3 Qd7 17.
Qa4 Rf7 18. b4 g4 19. Nh4 Bf6 (19... c5 20. Qxd7 Rxd7 21. bxc5 dxc5 22. Rxc5
Bf8 23. Rc2 Kg7 $44 {was worth considering, opening up the position and
letting the bishop's breathe. It's important to keep the h4-knight out of the
game as far as possible.}) 20. Qb3 Kh7 21. Nc4 Raf8 22. Na5 Ba8 23. Qd3 {[#]}
Rg7 $2 (23... c5 $142 $1 24. dxc5 dxc5 25. Qxd7 Rxd7 26. bxc5 Rd3 {[%cal Gf6c3]
puts White in a difficult spot.} 27. Red1 Rxd1+ 28. Rxd1 Rd8 $1 $15 {[%csl Rh4]
Black's play is based on the bad h4-knight and the pair of bishops on the open
board.}) 24. e4 $1 Bg5 25. Rc2 c5 26. exf5 exf5 27. bxc5 $2 (27. d5 $1 cxb4 28.
Re6 {[%csl Ra8] [#] was a simple operation, leading to a huge strategic
advantage.}) 27... Bxh4 28. gxh4 Qd8 (28... Be4 29. Rxe4 fxe4 30. Qxe4+ Kh8 31.
c6 Qd8 $1 {[%csl Ra5,Rh4]}) 29. Nb3 Be4 30. Rxe4 fxe4 31. Qxe4+ Kh8 32. g3 {
[#] A very difficult position for Black, especially in time trouble.} Re8 $2 (
32... Qe7 $142 {Considering Black's king position, Black had to swap the
queens. Of course, it's also important that White doesn't get a dangerous
protected paser. Here, White doesn't have enough time to achieve that.} 33.
Qxe7 Rxe7 34. c6 (34. Kg2 Rc7 35. c6 d5 $11) 34... d5 $11) 33. Qf4 dxc5 34.
Rxc5 Qb6 35. Rf5 {Black's king is very unsafe and the pawns are too weak.
White has a straightforward, safe advantage. Rf5 ensures that Black can't
attempt any tricks with the e8 rook.} Kg8 36. d5 Qb5 37. Kg2 Kh7 38. Nd4 Qc4
39. Ne6 Qxf4 40. Rxf4 Rgg8 41. Rf7+ Kg6 42. Rxa7 Ra8 43. Rc7 Rxa2 44. Nf4+ Kf5
45. Rf7+ Ke5 46. Re7+ Kf5 47. Re6 Rd2 48. Rxh6 Ra8 49. Nh5 Ra1 50. Rf6+ Ke5 51.
Re6+ Kxd5 52. Rg6 Rdd1 53. Nf6+ Ke6 54. Nxg4+ Kf7 55. Ne5+ Ke7 56. Kh3 Ra2 57.
f4 Ra3 58. h5 Rh1+ 59. Kg4 Rg1 60. Nf3 Rd1 61. Nh4 Kf7 62. Nf5 Rdd3 63. Kh4 Rf3
64. Nd6+ Kf8 65. f5 Rad3 66. g4 Rh3+ 67. Kg5 Rd4 68. Re6 Rg3 69. Kf6 Rxd6 70.
Rxd6 Rxg4 71. Rd8# 1-0
Grandelius-Harika was a strange game. Harika got a stable advantage of bishop pair right from the opening and held the advantage for most part of the game. She had various ways to convert the advantage, but she wasted a couple of opportunities that could have won her the game on the spot.
[Event "Tepe-Sigeman Chess 2017"]
[Site "Malmo"]
[Date "2017.05.11"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Grandelius, Nils"]
[Black "Harika, Dronavalli"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "B23"]
[WhiteElo "2665"]
[BlackElo "2531"]
[Annotator "Srinath,Narayanan"]
[PlyCount "102"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]
[EventType "tourn"]
[EventCountry "SWE"]
[SourceTitle "playchess.com"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceQuality "1"]
Qxd6 9. Bxc6+ $2 {The idea seems very suspect. If White doesn't succeed in
getting an overpowering initiative, Black simply has a strategically superior
position.} Qxc6 10. O-O Nf6 11. d4 cxd4 12. Qxd4 b5 13. Ne5 Qc5 14. Rd1 Qxd4
15. Rxd4 Bc5 16. Rd3 Bb7 {[%csl Gb7,Gc5] I believe Black is just better here.}
17. Bg5 Be7 18. Rad1 Rc8 19. R1d2 h6 20. Bh4 g5 21. Bg3 Nd5 (21... Ne4 {
would've won a pawn for good.} 22. Nxe4 Bxe4 23. Rd7 f6 24. Nf3 Bxc2 {[%cal
Ge6e5]} 25. Ra7 e5 26. Rdd7 Rh7 $17) 22. Nxd5 Bxd5 23. Ng4 h5 24. Ne3 Be4 25.
Rd4 Bc6 (25... f5 $5) 26. Be5 f6 27. Bd6 Bd8 28. Bc5 Kf7 29. c4 Bc7 (29... f5
30. cxb5 axb5 $17 {[%csl Re3][%cal Gf5f4]}) 30. Bd6 e5 31. R4d3 bxc4 32. Nxc4
Bb5 33. Bxc7 Bxc4 $2 (33... Rxc7 $142 34. Nd6+ Ke6 35. Nxb5 Rc1+ 36. Rd1 Rxd1+
37. Rxd1 axb5 38. Kf1 Ra8 39. a3 b4 40. Rd3 bxa3 41. bxa3 f5 42. Ke2 f4 43. Rb3
Kf5 $15) 34. Rd7+ Kg6 35. R2d6 $4 {[#]} (35. b3 Bb5 36. Re7 Rhe8 37. Rxe8 Bxe8
38. Rc2 Bb5 39. f3 $11) 35... Rhe8 $2 (35... Bb5 $142 36. Re7 Rhe8 $1 $19 {
[%csl Rc7] wins a piece on the spot.}) 36. g4 hxg4 37. Rd8 Rcxd8 $4 {[#]} (
37... Rexd8 38. Bxd8 Be2 $1 {[%cal Ge2f3]} 39. f3 gxf3 40. Kf2 Rc2 $19) 38.
Bxd8 Re6 39. Rxe6 Bxe6 40. a4 Bb3 41. a5 f5 42. Bc7 e4 43. Bd8 f4 44. Be7 Bc4
45. Bd8 Kf5 46. Be7 e3 47. fxe3 fxe3 48. Kg2 Kf4 49. Bf6 Bd5+ 50. Kf1 Bc4+ 51.
Ke1 Bb5 1/2-1/2
Despite the missed chances, she still had opportunity two moves later. She’ll not be happy about ruining her chances, but 1.0/2 with two Blacks is still a very solid beginning!
Jobava has the early lead after two rounds, but we still have three more days and 9 more games of exciting chess to go!