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10th Monarch Assurance International Chess Tournament, 29 Sept - 7 Oct 2001
The Monarch Assurance 10th International Chess Tournament is being held at the Cherry Orchard Hotel, Port Erin, Isle of Man, from 29 September to Sunday 7 October 2001.
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Round 3
Results | Crosstable after Rd 3
The Russians Are Coming...
I caught a glimpse of arbiter Richard Furness getting the flags ready to line up on the top tables for round 4. There seemed to be a lot of Russian flags among them, and the proud standard of St George had receded well into the background. Even the Dutch flag (front, left) looks like a mixed-up version of the Russian flag - appropriate, as the flag-bearer is Dutch-Russian Sergei Tiviakov. Just behind can be seen the green of the Irish flag - but even this belongs to the Russo-Irishman, Alex Baburin.
Yes, the story of Round 3 was the Russian's
revenge. They obviously didn't like what Danny Gormally did to their man
Mikhail Ulibin (picture left) in the previous round, and took a
terrifying vengeance on every Englishman in sight. A body count afterwards
showed that five English players had lost to Russians (or representatives of
the Russian diaspora), with only Glenn Flear holding out for a half point
against former world junior champion Alexander Galkin. Gormally, Williams and
Hanley were dealt severe lessons by Baburin, Yakovich and Ulibin respectively,
while English amateurs Goodger and Coathup could hardly have been expected to
make much impact on the likes of Tiviakov and Cherniaev.
Still, the game of the day was the draw between Tiger Hillarp Persson (picture, below right)and Mark Hebden. Tiger is a frequent visitor to Britain's shores (particularly of its islands). Yes, Tiger is his real name, but let's not go into that story as it is too well-known already in the chess world, and I'm almost as bored as Tiger must be with retelling it. Maybe another day. Tiger had a wonderful year in 1999 when he won a number of international tournaments (including the Visa Nordic Championship and the Politiken Cup) and completed his requirement for the grandmaster title. He won the Deloitte Touche Jersey International with a brilliant 7/7, and also the all-grandmaster York Vikings event of 1999. His rating shot up to 2550+. The year 2000 also started promisingly with a repeat win at Jersey, but then things started to slide, and he lost a lot of rating points at Paignton and York (where he went from first in 1999 to last in 2000, and had a lot of trouble with his bete noire, Scottish grandmaster Jonathan Rowson). Now, with his rating at 2438, Tiger is looking to get back to where he was a year or two ago, and playing like a 2500+ player again.
Mark Hebden scarcely needs an
introduction: he is a well-seasoned grandmaster who has been plying his trade
for years in international swisses and on the British weekend circuit. The two
seemed well-matched in many ways. They met at Paignton last year in the
Golombek Memorial tournament. Though Tiger had a poor tournament overall, Mark
was the one player he beat in a long and tough struggle. So Mark would be
looking for revenge. This time the game was not spectacular but nevertheless
kept the spectators spellbound as it went down to the wire, only a few minutes
short of the full seven hours. Your correspondent won't pretend he fully
understood it all - just a couple of moves before the draw was agreed, I was
confidently predicting a Hillarp Persson victory to another spectator! Tiger
kindly helped me with the notes for this game. So let the annotations speak for
themselves...
Hebden,M (2559) - Hillarp-Persson,T (2438) [B06]
Monarch Assurance International Port Erin (3.6), 01.10.2001
[Hillarp
Persson/JCS]
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37 ..Bc7? [37 ..Ra8! "Unclear" -
Tiger (who had had a draw offer turned down a few moves previous to this)]
38 Rc1 Kg7 39 Nb3 Ra8 40 Nc5 Ra3+ 41 Kd4 Bf4 42 Rc2 Bg4 43 Nd8 Kh6?!
[Black has to do something about the threatened fork, but 43 ..Bh2 might have
been better.] 44 d6 b4! 45 Nd3! [Black's last move sets a trap into
which Hebden (picture left)does not fall. Fritz does, though: 45 d7?
Bxd7! 46 Nxd7 b3 47 Rc5 (47 Rb2 Bc1! 48 Kc3 Bxb2+ 49 Kxb2 Ra2+ 50 Kxb3 Rxg2
51 e5 Kg5 with advantage to Black) 47 ..Be3+ 48 Kc3 Bxc5 49 Nxc5 Ra2
with advantage to Black] 45 ..Bh2 46 Nxb4 Ra4 47 Rc4 Bg1+ 48 Kc3? [48
Ke5 would have kept White's clear advantage. Now White's king gets driven
offside and the counterattack begins in earnest.] 48 ..Ra3+ 49 Kb2 Rg3 50
Nf7+ [50 Rc7 first was unclear, according to Tiger, but better than the
text.] 50 ..Kg7 51 Ne5 Rxg2+ 52 Nc2?! [52 Kc3 looks more active, and
keeps open options of Nd5 in various positions.] 52 ..Kf6 53 d7 Ke7 54 Nxg6+
Hebden accompanied this move with a draw offer. Unusually for him, he
seemed visibly hesitant in the run-up to the second time control. 54 ..Kxd7
55 Ne5+ Kd6 56 Nxg4 hxg4 57 Kc1 Ke5 58 Kd1 Rh2 59 Ne1 Bd4 60 Rc8 Kxe4 61 Rg8
Kf4 62 Rf8+ Kg3 63 Nc2 Bf2
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Black's basic plan - to keep the knight at bay while advancing the g-pawn - is easy to understand but hard to execute. 64 Rf7 Rh6 65 Nb4 Rd6+ 66 Kc2 Bd4 [66 ..Kg2 67 Nd3 Be3 looks a possible alternative.] 67 Nd3 Bf6 68 Rf8! Tiger thought he had achieved a zugzwang, but Mark can shuffle his rook back and forth from f7 to f8. 68 ..Re6 69 Kd2 Kh2 This gives the white knight access to f4 and thus is probably premature. 70 Rg8 g3 71 Nf4 Re5 72 Kd3 Mark was looking confident again and the moves were coming quickly. 72 ..Ra5 73 Ke4 Be5 74 Rg5 Ra4+ [And a draw was agreed, with Tiger having about two minutes left to Mark's ten. If 74 ..Bc7 75 Rxa5 Bxa5 76 Ne2 g2 77 Kf3 is the most comfortable way to draw.] 1/2-1/2
Baburin,A (2584) - Gormally,D (2481) [E65]
Monarch
Assurance International Port Erin (3.1), 01.10.2001
1 d4 Nf6 2 c4 g6 3 Nf3 Bg7 4 g3 0-0 5 Bg2 d6 6 0-0 c5 7 dxc5 dxc5 8 Nc3 Nc6 9 Be3 Be6 10 Qa4 Nd4 11 Rac1
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[11 Rad1 Bd7 12 Qa3 Nc2 13 Qxc5 b6 14 Qg5
h6 15 Qh4 (15 Qf4 g5 16 Qe5 Rc8 17 Nd5 Nxd5 18 Qxd5 Be6 19 Qb7 Qc7 20 Qxc7
Rxc7 21 b3 draw agreed, Grigorian-Kasparov, Moscow 1981) 15 ..Nxe3
16 fxe3 Qc7 17 Qf4 was Baburin (pictured left) -Ponomariov, Faroe
Islands 2000, drawn in 30 moves.] 11 ..Ng4 [11 ..Nd7! "with
counterplay" - Ponomariov, in notes to the above-referenced game.; Ponomariov
also points out that the immediate 11 ..Qb6? would be a mistake, thus: 12 Nxd4
cxd4 13 c5 Qxc5 14 Nd5 Qd6 15 Bf4 Qd8 16 Nxf6+ Bxf6 17 Bxb7 and White is well
on top.] 12 Bf4 Qb6 [It's hard to see why Black doesn't try something
more vigorous like 12 ..Bd7!? 13 Qa3 e5 etc.] 13 b3 Nxf3+ [The game
Fancsy-Mester, Budapest 1993, went 13 ..Rac8 and Black won. But White probably
has a slight edge.] 14 Bxf3 Ne5 15 Bg2 Rac8 16 Nd5 Bxd5 17 cxd5 Qb4?
[An impatient plan, but Black probably did not want to be put under pressure
with 17 ..a6 18 Rc2 Qd6 19 Rfc1 Rc7 20 Qa3 Rfc8 etc.] 18 Qxa7 c4 19 Qe3 Ng4
20 Qf3 cxb3 21 Qxb3 Qxb3 22 axb3 Ne5 [22 ..Bb2 is better.] 23 Rfd1 Rfd8
24 Rxc8 Rxc8 25 d6 exd6 26 Rxd6 Nc6 27 Rd7 Nd4? A dispirited Gormally falls
on his sword. 28 Bxb7 1-0
Williams,S (2369) - Yakovich,Y (2577) [A28]
Monarch
Assurance International Port Erin (3.5), 01.10.2001
Yuri Yakovich (picture left) was the
Russian team coach for the country's match against China in Shanghai recently.
Peter Svidler, in New In Chess, spoke highly of his motivational and
educational skills. Here he hands out a severe lesson to IM Simon Williams.
1 c4 e5 2 Nc3 Nf6 3 Nf3 Nc6 4 e4 Bb4 5 d3 d6 6 g3 Bg4 7 h3 Bxf3 8 Qxf3 Nd4 9
Qd1 c6 [9 ..Bc5 10 h4 c6 11 Bh3 0-0 12 0-0 a6 was Hamark-Yakovich,
Stockholm 1996, which the Russian won quickly. Perhaps to avoid a prepared
response, he varies.] 10 Bg2 a6 [10 ..Ne6 11 h4 h5 12 Bh3 Qe7 13 Kf1
Bc5 14 Rb1 a5 15 Kg2 g6 16 b3 Nd7 17 Ne2 Rg8 18 Bd2 agreed drawn,
Sher-Krasenkow, Hamburg 1992.; 10 ..0-0 11 0-0 Nd7 12 Ne2 Bc5 13 Kh2 f5 14 f4
fxe4 15 dxe4 Nxe2 16 Qxe2 exf4 17 gxf4 a5 and Black won in 51 moves in,
Havrlik-Kholmov, Decin 1995.] 11 0-0 Bc5 12 a3 b5 13 b4 Bb6 14 Bb2 0-0 15
Ne2 Nxe2+ 16 Qxe2 Qe7 17 Kh2 Rfe8 18 Rac1 [There might be an argument for
18 Rfc1 to keep open the possibility of a3-a4.] 18 ..Qa7 19 cxb5 Simon
offered a draw. But Black feels he is better, with both of White's bishops
struggling to find play. 19 ..cxb5
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20 Rc6?! [20 Rc2 looks better.] 20 ..Rac8! 21 Qc2 [Unconvincing is 21 Rxd6 Qc7 22 Rxf6 gxf6 23 Qg4+ Kh8 where Black is better, though one cannot help thinking this would have been more in keeping with Simon Williams' aggressive style.] 21 ..Qb8 22 Rxc8 Rxc8 23 Qb3 Qa7 24 f4 Bd4 25 fxe5 [White cannot challenge on the c-file with 25 Rc1 because of 25 ..Rxc1 26 Bxc1 Bg1+ 27 Kh1 Nh5 winning a pawn.] 25 ..dxe5 Without having done very much, Black is dominating the board. But it is still not clear how to convert the advantage. 26 Rf5 h6 27 Bf1 Rc6 28 Be2 Now the possibility of pinning the e2 bishop against the king gives Black time to exchange the dark-squared bishops and take control of the c-file. 28 ..Bxb2 29 Qxb2 Qc7! 30 Qb3 [30 Qxe5 Qxe5 31 Rxe5 Rc2 wins.] 30 ..Rc3 The a-pawn drops. For this pawn White gets not the slightest compensation for his positional problems so decides it is time to throw in the towel. A smoothly efficient game from the Russian grandmaster. 0-1
Ulibin,M (2583) - Hanley,C (2278) [C02]
Monarch
Assurance International Port Erin (3.10), 01.10.2001
1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 e5 c5 4 c3 Nc6 5 Nf3 Bd7 6 Be2 Nge7 7 0-0 cxd4 8 cxd4 Nf5 9 Nc3 Be7 10 g4 Nh4 11 Nxh4 Bxh4 12 f4 f6 [12 ..Be7 13 Be3 f6 14 Bd3 fxe5 15 fxe5 Bg5 16 Bf2 Feoktistov-Riazantsev, Elista 2001, and Black won in 32 moves.]
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13 g5!? [Ulibin is in no mood to let another young Englishman take the offensive against him and goes for all out attack: 13 Be3 0-0 14 exf6 Bxf6 15 Qd2 (15 Rc1 g6 16 Qd2 was Nunn-Anand, Munich 1991, which Nunn won in 40 moves.) 15 ..g6 16 Rf2 Bg7 17 Kg2 a6 was Tebb-Hanley, British Championship Torquay 1998, where a very young Craig Hanley lost in 42 moves.] 13 ..Qb6? [The queen immediately becomes a target on this square. If 13 ..fxg5 14 fxg5 Bxg5? 15 Bd3! g6 16 Qg4 and Black is in all sorts of trouble; one slightly outrageous possibility for Black might be 13 ..0-0!? 14 exf6 gxf6 15 Bd3 fxg5 16 Qh5 Qe7 and White doesn't appear to have anything too nasty - but White can probably improve somewhere.] 14 Be3 fxe5 Black must have missed the refutation of his coming tactic. [If 14 ..Qxb2 then the knee-jerk reaction is 15 Nb5! leaving the black queen without any escape squares.; 14 ..fxg5 is also answered by 15 Na4 and White has a healthy initiative.] 15 Na4 Qa5 16 fxe5 Nxd4?? 17 Qxd4 Qxa4 18 b4! and it's goodbye to the bishop on h4. 1-0
Round 3 Results
Bd WHITE Result BLACK 1 BABURIN,Alexande 2584 (1½) 1-0 GORMALLY,Danny 2481 (2) 2 TIVIAKOV,Sergei 2618 (1½) 1-0 GOODGER,Martyn 2136 (2) 3 BRODSKY,Michail 2528 (1½) 1/2 GLEIZEROV,Evgeny 2587 (1½) 4 FLEAR,Glenn C 2489 (1½) 1/2 GALKIN,Alexander 2583 (1½) 5 WILLIAMS,Simon 2369 (1½) 0-1 YAKOVICH,Yuri 2577 (1½) 6 HEBDEN,Mark 2559 (1½) 1/2 HILLARP-PERSSON, 2438 (1½) 7 MARUSENKO,Petr 2362 (1½) 0-1 KIRIAKOV,Petr 2548 (1½) 8 STOCEK,Jiri 2530 (1½) 1-0 AFEK,Yochanan 2381 (1½) 9 MCNAB,Colin 2437 (1) 1/2 LALIC,Bogdan 2528 (1½) 10 ULIBIN,Mikhail 2583 (1) 1-0 HANLEY,Craig A 2278 (1½) 11 COLLINS,Sam 2194 (1½) 0-1 GALLAGHER,Joe 2516 (1) 12 BOUSBOURAS,Spiro 2102 (1½) 0-1 SHAW,John 2478 (1) 13 COATHUP,Roger 2130 (1) 0-1 CHERNIAEV,Alexan 2437 (1) 14 CLARK,Stephen P 2112 (1) 0-1 KIRSANOV,Oleg 2365 (1) 15 BOLT,Graham 2124 (1) 0-1 SOWRAY,Peter J 2334 (1) 16 RYAN,Joe 2305 (1) 1-0 MAY,Frank 2125 (1) 17 WILLMOTH,Robert 2239 (1) 1-0 LUTTON,J Ezra 2093 (1) 18 YURENOK,Maria S 2088 (1) 0-1 SMITH,Andrew P 2234 (1) 19 JACKSON,Adrian 2230 (1) 1/2 ELLISON,D George 2104 (1) 20 MCNALLY,Bruce 2010 (1) 0-1 SIMONS,Martin 2215 (1) 21 ORMSBY,Alan (1) 0-1 HOWELL,David WL 2193 (1) 22 SPENCE,David 2185 (1) 1/2 KEMENADE,R van (1) 23 VALENTI,Richard 2143 (1) 1-0 SPANTON,Tim 2051 (0) 24 ARAKHAMIA-GRANT, 2446 (0) 1-0 STUART,E Leslie 2039 (0) 25 CROUCH,Colin S 2407 (0) 1-0 DOSSETT,Chris (0) 26 BENSON,PJ 2046 (0) 0-1 ALLEN,Keith 2289 (0) 27 BISBY,Daniel L 2285 (0) 1-0 WAUGH,Jonathan (0) 28 NICHOLSON,John (0) 0-1 ISHERWOOD,Paul 2172 (0)
START OF PLAY : 1330 (1.30pm)
RATE OF PLAY : 40 moves
in 2 hours, 60 moves in 3 hours then 30 minutes to each player to complete the
game. 7 hour playing session.
Accelerated Swiss Pairing System being
employed
Monarch Assurance International, Port Erin, Isle Of Man , IX 2001 - X 2000 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After Rd 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Baburin, Alexander g IRL 2584 = 8 +20 +16 . . . . . . 2.5 2651 2 Tiviakov, Sergei g NED 2618 =11 +21 +24 . . . . . . 2.5 2555 3 Stocek, Jiri g CZE 2530 +19 =14 +28 . . . . . . 2.5 2717 4 Kiriakov, Petr g RUS 2548 =27 +18 +29 . . . . . . 2.5 2596 5 Yakovich, Yuri g RUS 2577 +46 =13 +27 . . . . . . 2.5 2694 6 Brodsky, Michail g UKR 2528 +22 = 9 =14 . . . . . . 2.0 2626 7 Hebden, Mark g ENG 2559 =28 +25 = 8 . . . . . . 2.0 2462 8 Hillarp Persson, Tiger g SWE 2438 = 1 +37 = 7 . . . . . . 2.0 2567 9 Galkin, Alexander g RUS 2583 +30 = 6 =13 . . . . . . 2.0 2609 10 Gallagher, Joseph G g SUI 2516 +26 -27 +35 . . . . . . 2.0 2414 11 Shaw, John m SCO 2478 = 2 =35 +31 . . . . . . 2.0 2429 12 Ulibin, Mikhail g RUS 2583 +15 -16 +32 . . . . . . 2.0 2523 13 Flear, Glenn C g ENG 2489 +40 = 5 = 9 . . . . . . 2.0 2608 14 Gleizerov, Evgeny g RUS 2587 +41 = 3 = 6 . . . . . . 2.0 2626 15 Cherniaev, Alexander m RUS 2437 -12 +23 +45 . . . . . . 2.0 2410 16 Gormally, Daniel m ENG 2481 +42 +12 - 1 . . . . . . 2.0 2609 17 Lalic, Bogdan g ENG 2528 =29 +33 =30 . . . . . . 2.0 2468 18 Willmoth, Robert ENG 2239 +36 - 4 +48 . . . . . . 2.0 2373 19 Kirsanov, Oleg RUS 2365 - 3 +43 +44 . . . . . . 2.0 2380 20 Simons, Martin ENG 2215 +50 - 1 +39 . . . . . . 2.0 2352 21 Smith, Andrew Philip f IRL 2234 +44 - 2 +50 . . . . . . 2.0 2397 22 Sowray, Peter J f ENG 2334 - 6 +39 +43 . . . . . . 2.0 2345 23 Valenti, Richard FRA 2143 +34 -15 +54 . . . . . . 2.0 2244 24 Goodger, Martyn ENG 2136 +53 +41 - 2 . . . . . . 2.0 2486 25 Howell, David WL ENG 2193 +51 - 7 +49 . . . . . . 2.0 2302 26 Ryan, Joseph IRL 2305 -10 +55 +38 . . . . . . 2.0 2277 27 Williams, Simon m ENG 2369 = 4 +10 - 5 . . . . . . 1.5 2547 28 Afek, Yochanan m ISR 2381 = 7 +45 - 3 . . . . . . 1.5 2406 29 Marusenko, Petr m UKR 2362 =17 +47 - 4 . . . . . . 1.5 2416 30 McNab, Colin A g SCO 2437 - 9 +38 =17 . . . . . . 1.5 2362 31 Bousbouras, Spyridon GRE 2102 =32 +40 -11 . . . . . . 1.5 2348 32 Hanley, Craig ENG 2278 =31 +46 -12 . . . . . . 1.5 2364 33 Jackson, Adrian ENG 2230 +48 -17 =36 . . . . . . 1.5 2241 34 Van Kemenade,Rudi ENG ---- -23 +42 =37 . . . . . . 1.5 2204 35 Collins, Sam IRL 2194 +54 =11 -10 . . . . . . 1.5 2348 36 Ellison, Derek George ENG 2104 -18 +51 =33 . . . . . . 1.5 2171 37 Spence, David ENG 2185 +55 - 8 =34 . . . . . . 1.5 2238 38 May, Frank WLS ---- +49 -30 -26 . . . . . . 1.0 39 McNally, Bruce SCO 2010 +47 -22 -20 . . . . . . 1.0 2115 40 Allen, Keith IRL 2289 -13 -31 +51 . . . . . . 1.0 2087 41 Arakhamia, Ketevan m GEO 2446 -14 -24 +55 . . . . . . 1.0 2129 42 Bisby, Daniel L ENG 2285 -16 -34 +56 . . . . . . 1.0 43 Bolt, Graham ENG 2124 +56 -19 -22 . . . . . . 1.0 44 Clark, Stephen P ENG 2112 -21 +52 -19 . . . . . . 1.0 45 Coathup, Roger ENG 2130 +52 -28 -15 . . . . . . 1.0 46 Crouch, Colin S m ENG 2407 - 5 -32 +52 . . . . . . 1.0 47 Isherwood, Paul ENG 2172 -39 -29 +53 . . . . . . 1.0 2006 48 Lutton, J.Ezra ENG 2093 -33 +53 -18 . . . . . . 1.0 2038 49 Ormsby,Alan IOM ---- -38 +54 -25 . . . . . . 1.0 2122 50 Yurenok, Maria S ENG 2088 -20 +56 -21 . . . . . . 1.0 51 Benson, Paul J ENG 2046 -25 -36 -40 . . . . . . 0.0 52 Dossett,Chris IOM ---- -45 -44 -46 . . . . . . 0.0 53 Nicholson, John IRL 2021 -24 -48 -47 . . . . . . 0.0 54 Spanton, Timothy ENG 2051 -35 -49 -23 . . . . . . 0.0 55 Stuart, E. Leslie ENG 2039 -37 -26 -41 . . . . . . 0.0 56 Waugh,Jonathan IOM ---- -43 -50 -42 . . . . . . 0.0 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As well as Monarch Assurance plc, The Tournament is also sponsored by The Isle of Man Tourism, and The Cherry Orchard Hotel, plus the Erin Arts Centre, the Isle of Man Department of Tourism, Port Erin Commissioners and the Isle of Man Chess Association.