ACP Tour November report: the Indian summer

Русская версия

ACP Tour November report: the Indian summer

By Misha Savinov

ACP's best players of November

Anand +252		Sasikiran +189		Bacrot +90

Three Corsican events

I decided to group all Corsican rapid events together, although only one of them ended in November – in my opinion, treating them separately makes no sense. Before writing about these tournaments, I would like to add my two cents about the media coverage. I realize that accusing Corsican organizers of French nationalism sounds really ridiculous. But the Circuit surely loses a great deal of attention by maintaining a French-only website. Can you imagine the World Cup in Khanty-Mansijsk being covered solely in Russian (which is by the way a much more common chess language)? The Corsican Circuit is not average event of regional interest – just look at the starting lineup! At present, it is clearly under-promoted.

Also, I can't say that the way the French site worked set up a new height in chess coverage. The navigation is far from obvious, and I failed to find any games or results of the first two events of the circle. It is only thanks to well-working website of the French Chess Federation I am able to provide the reader with the final crosstable links.

Apart from that it seems that all three tournaments ran smoothly, the players were delighted with the organization, and the prize fund was attractive as usual.

Ajaccio 2005 Rapid

Grandmaster Mikhail Gurevich finished clear first in the qualification with 8/9, half a point ahead of Almasi, Izoria and Bacrot. The overall field was very strong. It is sufficient to give just a few names of those who failed to get into the top 20 finishers – Shirov (6), Tiviakov (5.5), Lautier (6), Bologan (6)... 2699-rated Sergey Tiviakov suffered a setback already in the second round, losing a clearly superior rook ending to 2275-rated Nicolas Templier, while Shirov and Lautier both lost their games to the eventual winner Sasikiran, and Bologan was knocked down by Gurevich.

1 Gurevich Mikhail 2652 8 2877
2 Almasi Zoltan 2640 7Ѕ 2788
3 Izoria Zviad 2646 7Ѕ 2807
4 Bacrot Etienne 2725 7Ѕ 2819
5 Tregubov Pavel V. 2583 7 2755
6 Sasikiran Krishnan 2663 7 2788
7 Korneev Oleg 2599 7 2717
8 Milov Vadim 2652 7 2715
9 Nikolic Predrag 2584 7 2683
10 Chernin Alexander 2598 7 2665
11 Huzman Alexander 2565 7 2660
12 Agrest Evgenij 2570 7 2622
13 Iordachescu Viorel 2583 7 2650
14 Rustemov Alexander 2564 7 2582
15 Malakhatko Vadim 2571 7 2608

Full crosstable

The highlighted players were selected to the playoff (by some criteria which remained mysterious to me). The playoff brought the following results:

1. Sasikiran, Krishanan – 165 points
2. Bacrot, Etienne – 90 points
3-4 Izoria, Zviad – 53 points
3-4. Almasi, Zoltan – 53 points
5-8 Korneev, Oleg – 15 points
5-8 Tregubov, Pavel – 15 points
5-8 Milov, Vadim – 15 points
5-8 Gurevich, Mikhail – 15 points

Mikhail Gurevich took the early lead against Zviad Izoria, but the Georgian fought back in the second game. The situation repeated itself in a mirror in the next pair of games: Izoria wins the first game, Gurevich squeezes a better endgame in the second one. It was followed by two fighting draws in the third round, however, the Georgian's super-solid play in the last game earned him a desired Black draw, and the qualification winner was knocked out.

Pavel Tregubov failed to survive with a piece for three pawns in the endgame of his second game with Bacrot after making a relatively easy draw in the first game. The highest rated French player proceeded further.

Sasikiran lost a drawn rook ending to Korneev in the first game, but won as Black in the sharp Sicilian, brutally mating Korneev's king. The players kept exchanging Black wins until Sasikiran wisely offered a draw on 15th move as White in the 5th game. Naturally, the Indian proceeded to win the last game (as Black), and got into the semi-final.

It also took six games for Almasi to prove his superiority over Milov – 4-2. Milov missed a win in the first game, and also made a gross blunder in the 3rd. However, as the Corsican circle went on, the Swiss player eventually got into shape...

In the first semifinal Sasikiran caught Almasi on a tactical trick in the first game, and then coolly repulsed the Hungarian's attack, winning the second one.

Bacrot with white pieces was unable to do anything with Izoria's Slav. The second game did not get it into the selection, however, one can safely assume that in ended in Bacrot's favor.

White won all five games in the final, one again supporting Dr Berliner's claim that 1.d4 is the strongest first move. Sasikiran was just lucky to play the ultimate game as White...

Venaco 2005 Rapid

Vishy Anand joined the qualification and eventually shared the first place with Mikhail Gurevich, Bartek Socko and surprising Artur Kogan. Bologan and Lautier improved their scores to 6.5, unlike Shirov, who once again scored only 6/9. The finalist of Ajaccio Bacrot fell on 5.5. Naiditsch joined Ajaccio heroes Sasikiran and Milov in 7/9 group, however, in Venaco there were apparently no quarterfinals, so the players had to reserve their ambition till the next event. One should note Alexander Riazantsev's fifth place. The Muscovite had starred in Moscow Blitz Final this September, finishing second only to Morozevich, and now he confirmed his speed chess skill.

1 Anand Vishy 2788 7Ѕ 2796
2 Kogan Artur 2573 7Ѕ 2766
3 Gurevich Mikhail 2652 7Ѕ 2757
4 Socko Bartosz 2610 7Ѕ 2738
5 Riazantsev Alexander 2603 7 2721
6 Milov Vadim 2652 7 2731
7 Gouliev Namig 2572 7 2700
8 Sasikiran Krishnan 2663 7 2700
9 Naiditsch Arkadij 2641 7 2678
10 Graf Alexander 2613 7 2671

Full crosstable

In the first game of his semi-final, Anand defeated Kogan in a textbook Sicilian fashion. Choosing the Evans gambit for the second game turned against Kogan, as he had to resign already on the 18th move (!) in view of inevitable mate.

After two rather uneventful draws, Socko was clearly better if not winning in the third game, but suffered some mating attack hallucination and lost it. Despite all Bartocz's attempts to complicate the struggle in the last game, Gurevich kept cool and led his ship into a peaceful harbor.

Anand kept control over the position in the first game of the final, repulsed Black's unsound attack and triumphed. The second game proceeded to a very dull endgame after a very dull opening stage. Gurevich failed to make any use of his extra pawn in the ending with opposite-colored bishops, and Anand confirmed his yet another win in Corsica.

1. Anand, Viswanathan – 132 points
2. Gurevich, Mikhail – 72 points
3-4. Kogan, Arthur – 12 points
3-4. Socko, Bartosz – 12 points

Bastia 2005 FIDE control + Rapid (playoff)

100 000 EUR in prizes secured an excellent lineup for the 7-round event. The first place in the qualification was shared between Sasikiran and Nikolic. Why Nikolic did not appear playing in the playoff is a complete mystery to me. Was he eliminated in the preliminary one round elimination before the actual playoff, which is mentioned on TWIC? I have no idea.

A couple of days after the report had been written we received an email from the tournament organizer, explaining the situation. I quote it below.

"What happened in Bastia is that 24 players qualified from the 7 round Swiss for a knockout. These 24 players then reduced to 12. Thus Nikolic failed at that stage. These 12 qualifiers were joined by 4 players who were seeded to that stage of the last 16 without having to have played any chess. Anand, Adams, Polgar and I think Bacrot. The 16 resulting players had a knockout."

Anyway, here is the final standings of the Swiss qualification:

1 Sasikiran Krishnan 2663 6Ѕ 2910
2 Nikolic Predrag 2584 6Ѕ 2876
3 Almasi Zoltan 2640 6 2734
4 Milov Vadim 2652 5Ѕ 2727
5 Markowsky Tomasz 2582 5Ѕ 2633
6 Tregubov Pavel V. 2583 5Ѕ 2575
7 Barsov Alexei 2517 5Ѕ 2650
8 Milov Leonid 2472 5Ѕ 2620
9 Izoria Zviad 2646 5Ѕ 2697
10 Chomet Pascal 2330 5Ѕ 2556
11 Korneev Oleg 2599 5Ѕ 2664
12 Agrest Evgenij 2570 5Ѕ 2644
13 David Alberto 2595 5Ѕ 2591
14 Riazantsev Alexander 2603 5Ѕ 2567
15 Shchekachev Andrei 2562 5Ѕ 2617
16 Malakhatko Vadim 2571 5Ѕ 2614
17 Iordachescu Viorel 2583 5Ѕ 2597

Full crosstable

Previous tournaments' heroes Gurevich and Kogan both finished with 5/7, as well as Bologan, Naiditsch, Fressinet, although only Kogan did not get into the playoff from this list.

The third tournament of the Corsican Circuit brought a result that is tempting to call a sensation: Anand did not win a Corsican tournament! However, I would rather call it a modest surprise. After all, Vishy is not a robot, and, besides, Vadim Milov is a very strong chess player. The Swiss grandmaster is a very ambitious man as well – he was the only person who dared to sue FIDE for their organization of the knock-out in Libya, which discriminated players from certain countries...

During the Bastian event it has been announced that French chess federation vice-president Leo Battesti joined the race for FIDE presidency. He will have to compete with Bessel Kok and current FIDE president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov in Turin next spring. There are really many problems to solve both in chess and in FIDE, so let the strongest win!

Round 1
Anand – Markowski 2-0, M. Gurevich – Izoria 2.5-1.5, Adams – Riazantsev 4-3, Bologan – Fressinet 2.5-3.5, Polgar – Tregubov 3-1, Milov – Naiditsch 2-0, Sasikiran – Almasi 0.5-1.5, Bacrot – David 0.5-1.5

Quarterfinal Anand – Gurevich 2-0, Adams – Fressinet 2-0, Polgar – Milov 0.5-1.5, Almasi – David 2.5- 1.5

Semifinal Anand – Adams 2.5-0.5, Milov – Almasi 2.5-0.5

Final Anand – Milov 1.0-3.0

1. Milov, Vadim – 264 points
2. Anand, Viswanathan – 120 points
3-4. Almasi, Zoltan – 84 points
3-4. Adams, Michael – 60 points
5-8. Gurevich, Mikhail – 54 points
5-8. David, Alberto – 54 points
5-8. Fressinet, Laurent – 54 points
5-8. Polgar, Judit – 30 points
9-16. Tregubov, Pavel – 24 points
9-16. Naiditsch, Arkadij – 24 points
9-16. Izoria, Zviad – 24 points
9-16. Bologan, Victor – 24 points
9-16. Markowski, Tomasz – 24 points
9-16. Sasikiran, Krishanan – 24 points
9-16. Riazantsev, Alexander – 24 points

9th OIBM 2005, Bad Wiessee

Prize fund of 18 000 EUR provided by the main sponsor could actually attract more players with higher ratings, but nevertheless the tournament qualified for the ACP Tour, receiving the F-Level. The top seed player Aleksander Delchev was rated 2669; there were also many respected professionals such as Evgeny Miroshnichenko, Igor Khenkin, Konstantin Landa, Oleg Romanishin, Vereslav Eingorn, Klaus Bischoff, Vladimir Burmakin etc. As there were more than 500 participants, all favorites started impressively. Three players took the lead with 5/5, but while Postny and Miroshnichenko drew their next game, David Baramidze was knocked down in the round 6.

Delchev-Baramidze

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Be3 e5 7.Nf3 Be7 8.Bc4 0-0 9.0-0 Be6 10.Bb3 h6 11.Nh4 Re8 12.Nf5 Bf8 13.Qf3 Nbd7 14.Rad1 Qc7 15.Rd2 Kh7 16.Rfd1 Rad8

After rather calm positional play on the d-file, Bulgarian grandmaster suddenly changes the attack direction. Black is helpless against the kingside offensive.

17.g4! Bxb3 18.axb3 Re6 19.g5 hxg5 20.Bxg5 Rc8 21.Kh1! Nb6 22.Rg1 Kg8

After 22...g6 23.Ne3 Bg7 24.Bxf6 Bxf6 25.Qh3+ Kg7 26.Nf5+ Black is in trouble as well.

23.Nxg7 Black resigned. After 23...Bxg7 24.Bxf6 White wins easily.

In the same 6th round Konstantin Landa lost a very sharp game to Hoffman. After a hard-fought draw between Hoffman and Delchev in the next round, Israeli Evgeny Postny took the lead with 6.5/7, followed by a group that included Delchev, Hoffman, Baramidze, Vysochin and Kritz with 6/7.

In the penultimate round Delchev defeated Rotstein with a powerful attack. GM Kritz and untitled player Morawietz also won their games against Burmakin and Naumann respectively, so there were four leaders before the final round. These four players were paired with each other and made quick 12-move draws on the last day. Although they were caught up by Vysochin, Baramidze and Braun (who defeated Landa), a superior tiebreak ensured Delchev the first place.

Complete standings

1-7 Postny, Evgeny – 72 points
1-7 Kritz, Leonid – 72 points
1-7 Braun, Arik – 72 points
1-7 Baramidze, David – 72 points
1-7 Vysochin, Spartak – 72 points
1-7 Morawietz, Dieter – 72 points
1-7 Delchev, Aleksander – 72 points
8-24 Rotstein, Arkadij – 19 points
8-24 Bobras, Piotr – 19 points
8-24 Rau, Hannes – 19 points
8-24 Burmakin, Vladimir – 19 points
8-24 Romanishin, Oleg – 19 points
8-24 Kopylov, Mihail – 19 points
8-24 Bromberger, Stefan – 19 points
8-24 Jaracz, Pawel – 19 points
8-24 Naumann, Alexander – 19 points
8-24 Zude, Arno – 19 points
8-24 Khenkin, Igor – 19 points
8-24 Eingorn, Vereslav S – 19 points
8-24 Hoffmann, Michael – 19 points
8-24 Senff, Martin – 19 points
8-24 Miroshnichenko, Evgenij – 19 points
8-24 Pirrot, Dieter – 19 points
8-24 Balinov, Ilija – 19 points

VI Torneo Internacional de Ajedrez Villa de El Sauzal – Rapid

A two-day rapid tournament with total prize fund of 8000 EUR also qualified for the f-Level of the ACP Tour. Serbian grandmaster Aleksa Strikovic won the event and 1850 EUR with 8/9, having dropped half-points to Epishin and Korneev in 4th and 5th rounds. A rather uneven field allowed grandmasters to produce impressive scores: 7.5/9 only sufficed for sharing 2nd-5th places. The top-seed Reuben Felgaer suffered the last round defeat at hands of Sergey Fedorchuk and did not manage to do any impact on top of the table, but was credited with 3 ACP Tour points together with other 10 participants.

The standings

Epishin and Khamrakulov won the blitz event.

1. Strikovic, Aleksa – 50 points
2-5. Khamrakulov, Ibragim S. – 17 points
2-5. Korneev, Oleg – 17 points
2-5. Fedorchuk, Sergey A. – 17 points
2-5. Epishin, Vladimir – 17 points
6-8. Narciso Dublan, Marc – 5 points
6-8. Lalic, Bogdan – 5 points
6-8. Vera, Reynaldo – 5 points
9-19. Kurajica, Bojan – 3 points
9-19. Mendivil Anton, Daniel – 3 points
9-19. Hoffman, Alejandro – 3 points
9-19. Perez, Rodney – 3 points
9-19. Segundo Carrillo, Pablo – 3 points
9-19. Brito Garcia, Alfredo – 3 points
9-19. Felgaer, Ruben – 3 points
9-19. Natalicchio Escalante, Nicolas – 3 points
9-19. Pinto Henriquez, Rodrigo – 3 points
9-19. Campora, Daniel H. – 3 points
9-19. Movsziszian, Karen – 3 points

NOVEMBER SUMMARY

These November events did not really change the ACP Tour standings apart from Anand predictably entered the top eight. Corsican events also helped Krishnan Sasikiran to jump on the 21st place.

In December we all look forward to the World Cup and European Rapid championship, which will surely make some impact on the ACP Tour standings.