Public RelationsCHESS #616
Quarterfinals at the World Cup. Just five of the top ten seeds are still in contention. Gelfand (No:1) is tied with Jakovenko (9) while Ponomariov (7) is tied with Gashimov (2) after the first game. Svidler (3) appears to be on his way out against Malakhov (22) and Karjakin (12) looks set to eliminate Mamedaryov (13) after Malakov and Pono won their first games.
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All the young studs are out of the running. Wesley So knocked out Ivanchuk and Kamsky before succumbing to Vladimir Malakov. Boris Gelfand cut down World Junior Champion Maxim Vachier Lagrave. Fabiano Caruana was eventually beaten by Vugar Gashimov.
Malakhov is one of the legion of super GMs, who float on the fringes of the Russian team. At a rating of 2706, he’s hardly a pushover. He won with black against Svidler so the task for the higher-rated Russian GM (Svidler is 2754) is very daunting.
Svidler must win tomorrow with the black pieces to get to a tie-break. In Karjakin-Mamedaryov, the Azeri GM has a slightly easier task, for he must win with the white pieces. Incidentally the lopsided nature of the matches (two normal games, but a minimum of 4 tie-breakers) is supposedly due to clerical error. It was written thus in the initial contracts.
Gelfand as top seed must theoretically stand the best chance. But the top seed (Anand on both occasions) has only won twice in six such KO events (World Cup and KO Fide titles combined). Other KO winners include “Pono” himself and certainly, the Ukrainian GM has the nerves and talent to repeat.
Karjakin is a slightly unknown quantity — GM at 12 and Corus winner at 19 — but still not considered quite “stable” in top events. Malakhov would be out of left field but he’s an experienced and very hard-nosed player, like Jakovenko. Gashimov is a brilliant young Azeri who is, again, a slightly unknown quantity in terms of matchplay nerves.
The Diagram (Svidler Vs Malakhov, WC 2009, QF), WHITE TO PLAY, is decision-time for white. Svidler has attacked, Malakhov has defended and now 25.f6 Bxf6 ( the alternative 25...Bh8 26.g5 Nbd7 27.Ba2 looks good for white ) 26.Qxf6 Qg3+ is a draw by perpetual. White could take it and look for more in later games.
However, white continued with what, in hindsight, was an error that allowed a strong counter-attack. 25.Ba2? Bd4 26.Be3 Ne4 27.Qxh4 g5! 28.Qh5 d2 29.f6 with a transparent threat of 29.-- d2xe1=Q 30. Qg6+ and Qg7#. Black duly parried with 29.--Qxf6 30.Bxd4 Qxd4+ 31.Kg2. It’s possible white had seen this far and noted that 31. -- d2xe1=Q 31. Bxf7+ delivers mate. But black also has 31. -- d2xe1=N+ (0-1). One of the most effective underpromotions in a real game.