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15th Monarch Assurance Isle of Man International
23 September - 1 October 2006
Last updated:
Tuesday, April 29, 2014 6:33 PM
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Round 1 - 23 September 2006
Quick win for Elisabeth Paehtz
John Saunders reports Welcome to the website of the 15th Monarch Assurance Isle of Man International. It's great to be back here in the Isle of Man for the sixth time, and at the excellent Ocean Castle Hotel for the fourth time. I look forward all year to my trip to the Isle of Man, and this year it has been made even better by some very summery weather. The view from my third floor room at the hotel is absolutely glorious, with views of the bay and Bradda Head.
But you probably didn't arrive at the website to read my (by now) traditional travelogue. You want to hear about the chess. The first thing to say of this open tournament is that it is phenomenally strong. Looking through the list of 84 players, and breaking them up into categories - GM, IM, WGM, FM, WM and untitled: in an open tournament, which of these categories would you expect to be the most numerous? Normally you might expect 'untitled' to predominate, but here in Port Erin, the grandmasters outnumber the other categories. We have 29 grandmasters, 23 international masters (5 of whom are also woman grandmasters), 4 women grandmasters, 1 woman international master, 2 FIDE masters and 25 untitled players. While on this statistical theme, let's have a look at the nationalities: we have 22 nationalities represented in the open event - 24 players from England, 8 each from Russia and Ukraine, 6 from India, 5 from Poland, 3 each from Scotland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Israel, Netherlands, Denmark and Germany; 2 each from Lithuania and USA; and 1 each from Armenia, Qatar, France, Canada, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Czech Republic and Hungary. There is no-one from Wales in the open, although there are John and Sandra Blackburn in the Dennis Hemsley tournament, not to mention arbiter Peter Purland... and of course the webmaster who is writing this. So I guess we can say that there are 23 nationalities hard at work here.
A break-down in terms of chess strength (everyone has a published international rating except for the three Isle of Man players) shows an average rating of 2295, with 11 players rated 2600+, 16 in each of the 2500-2599, 2400-2499 and 2300-2399 categories, 3 in the 2200-2299 band, 8 in 2100-2199, 7 in 2000-2099, and 7 below 2000 (including the three unrated players).
As for round one chess: three Ukrainian players arrived too late to be included in the original draw, which meant that two of them had to play each other and the other received a default win. The round also saw a pairing between the two Subbaraman sisters from India. So that accounted for a couple of quick draw.
The first round of open tournaments was, as usual, something of a massacre but there were one or two instances of the old fisherman's story: "the one that got away". One angler who nearly (but not quite) landed a prize salmon was Scottish amateur player Ian Marks who, despite a rating differential of 450+, had Ukrainian IM Tatjana Vasilievich at his mercy for a long time. Mark Ferguson managed to draw with rook and bishop against Mikhail Kobalia's queen. Generally it was a good round for the Brits; another good result was Alan Walton drawing with GM Vitaly Golod. He seemed to have pretty good winning chances at one point.
Eventually, in the last hour of play, we had our first surprise result: English Chess Federation Director of Home Chess Chris Majer beat German IM Sebastian Siebrecht, overturning a 426 rating point differential. We could have had another more surprises if Fritz is to be believed: Max Devereaux missed a clear winning chance against Russian GM Oleg Korneev, and even top seed Vladimir Akopian seemed to be in distinct trouble for a while.
Akopian,V (2713) - Roy Chowdhury,S (2394)
Monarch Assurance Isle of Man Port Erin IOM (1.1), 23.09.2006
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Dworakowska,J (2359) - Shabalov,A (2604) [B33]
Monarch Assurance Isle of Man Port Erin IOM (1.8), 23.09.2006
1
e4 c5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 d4 cxd4 4 Nxd4 Nf6 5 Nc3 e5 6 Ndb5 d6 7 Nd5 [An
unusual sideline against the Sveshnikov, which is not bad and helps to
avoid well-travelled theory.] 7 ..Nxd5 8 exd5 Ne7 9 c3 Nf5 10 a4 g6
11 Be2 Bg7 12 0-0 0-0 13 Qb3 Re8 14 Na3 [14 Qb4 e4 15 Bf4 Be5 was
played in Yudasin-Kramnik, Wijk aan Zee 1994, and won by Black.] 14
..Nh6 15 a5 f5 16 Bb5 Rf8 17 a6 f4 18 axb7 Bxb7 19 Bd3 Rb8 [Black's
temporary local difficulty on the queenside is soon repaired, but White's
kingside is harder to defend. Fritz only considers this slightly worse
for White, but in reality her situation seems far worse.] 20 Qa2 f3
21 g3 e4! 22 Bc4 [Black's last move was designed to lure the bishop
off the a6-f1 diagonal. If 22 Bxe4 Qd7 (the obvious plan is Qh3 and Qg2
mate) 23 Bxh6 Bxh6 24 Nc2 Rbe8! (24 ..Qh3 25 Ne1 defends) 25
Rfe1 (If the bishop moves, it is mate, e.g. 25 Bd3 Qh3 and
if the knight does to e3 or e1 it can be captured by the rook on e8)
25 ..Bd2! hitting the rook and also ensuring that the c2 knight can
be knocked out if it tries to defend against the mate threat. Black is
winning the exchange.] 22 ..Qd7 23 Re1 Ng4 24 Nc2
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Siebrecht,S (2417) - Majer,C (1991)
Monarch Assurance Isle of Man Port Erin IOM (1.35), 23.09.2006
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[White
is better here but the position is a little complex. Ideal hunting territory
for a tiger seeking to trap an elephant, in fact. If you don't understand
that reference, go out and buy Chess for Tigers (by the late Simon Webb)
immediately. One of the best chess books ever written.] 32 Ne3 Bd4 33
Qd2 Qa7 34 Bf1 N8c7 [White has failed to achieve anything over the past
few moves. Meanwhile Black has developed pressure on the a7-g1 diagonal
and effectively blockaded the c6 pawn.] 35 f4 Nxf4! [Fritz doesn't
like this, but I do. White is trying to exchange the dark-squared bishops
and then try to exploit the dark-squared weakness on the kingside. Black
probably realised this but decided to tough it out. It was a brave decision
which paid off.] 36 Ng4 Bxf2+ 37 Nxf2 Nfe6 38 Qxd6+ Kg8 39 Re2 Rd8 40
Qe7 Re8 41 Qh4 Qb6 42 Rd2 Rb8! [Good decision. Taking the pawn with
42 ..Qxc6 allows 43 Ng4 and the knight will be a handful.] 43 Bc4?
[The IM starts to lose the thread. 43 Rd7 is better, with a view to targeting
the f7 pawn.] 43 ..Qe3 [Perhaps 43 ..Qxc6 was playable now, because
of 44 Ne4 Rxb4!! when 45 Nf6+ Kg7! wins. But the text looks very sensible
too.] 44 Rd7 Qe1+ 45 Bf1 Rxb4 46 Qf6 Rf4 [Black holds his position
together with this move. White has clearly miscalculated his attack. Instead
of stepping back with Qb2, he decides to exchange the rooks via a little
tactic. I'm not sure this was a good decision.] 47 Rd8+ Nxd8 48 Qxf4
Nde6 49 Qd6 [The psychology of the game has now changed. Black must
know by now that he is grave danger of beating a very much higher rated
player. Inevitably he starts to play a little tentatively.] 49 ..Qa1
50 g3 Qd4 51 Qe7 a5 52 Bh3 Qc5 53 Qd7 a4 54 Bxe6 Nxe6
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Marks,I (1944) - Vasilevich,T (2412) [B43]
Monarch Assurance Isle of Man Port Erin IOM (1.38), 23.09.2006
1 e4 c5 2 Nf3 a6 3 Nc3 e6 4 d4 cxd4 5 Nxd4 Qc7 6 Bd3 Nf6 7 0-0 d6 8 f4 g6 [Grandmasters have played this but it looks very fishy. It gives White a big target to strike at. Ian Marks wastes no time.] 9 f5! Bg7 10 Be3 [10 Bg5 has been played here before, including by Judit Polgar.] 10 ..Nc6 11 fxe6 fxe6 12 Nxc6 bxc6 13 e5! [Excellent move. White's non-nonsense opening play has made the IM's position look slightly ridiculous.] 13 ..Nd5 [13 ..dxe5 14 Qe2 and White is having all the fun, while Black's position is riddled with weaknesses and blockages.] 14 Nxd5 cxd5 15 Qg4! [A few more direct moves and Black's position is practically hopeless.] 15 ..Bxe5 16 Bxg6+! hxg6 17 Qxg6+ Kd7 18 Rf7+ Kc6 19 Rxc7+ Kxc7
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Monarch Assurance Isle of Man Round: 1 Bd White Result Black --No-- 1 Akopian, Vladimir....... 2713 1 - 0 Roy Chowdhury, Saptarshi 2394 1 50 2 Ferguson, Mark.......... 2389 ½ - ½ Kobalia, Mikhail........ 2647 51 3 3 Korneev, Oleg........... 2638 ½ - ½ Devereaux, Maxim L...... 2377 5 53 4 Kononenko, Tatiana...... 2387 0 - 1 Krasenkow, Mikhal....... 2635 52 6 5 Volkov, Sergey.......... 2628 1 - 0 Peek, Marcel............ 2367 8 55 6 Zimmerman, Yuri......... 2374 0 - 1 Socko, Bartosz.......... 2621 54 9 7 Kazhgaleyev, Murtas..... 2606 1 - 0 Sahl, Bjarke............ 2364 10 56 8 Dworakowska, Joanna..... 2359 0 - 1 Shabalov, Alexander..... 2604 57 11 9 Iordachescu, Viorel..... 2603 1 - 0 Zozulia, Anna........... 2352 12 59 10 Mannion, Steve R........ 2346 0 - 1 Malakhatko, Vadim....... 2594 60 13 11 Postny, Evgeny.......... 2591 1 - 0 Quillan, Gary........... 2344 14 62 12 Ashton, Adam G.......... 2329 0 - 1 Ikonnikov, Vyacheslav... 2587 63 15 13 Khenkin, Igor........... 2586 1 - 0 Szieberth, Adam......... 2328 16 64 14 Mohota, Nisha........... 2313 0 - 1 Landa, Konstantin....... 2584 65 17 15 Yakovich, Yuri.......... 2583 1 - 0 Eggleston, David J...... 2232 18 67 16 Walton, Alan J.......... 2222 ½ - ½ Golod, Vitali........... 2576 68 19 17 Bartel, Mateusz......... 2561 1 - 0 Spence, David J......... 2205 21 69 18 Grant, Alan G........... 2193 0 - 1 Stocek, Jiri............ 2561 70 22 19 Neverov, Valeriy........ 2556 1 - 0 Collier, David O........ 2175 23 71 20 Groffen, Hans........... 2171 ½ - ½ Kiriakov, Petr.......... 2554 72 24 21 Greenfeld, Alon......... 2551 1 - 0 Sarakauskiene, Zivile... 2158 26 73 22 Hutchinson, Norman A.... 2107 0 - 1 Bobras, Piotr........... 2535 75 28 23 Hebden, Mark L.......... 2532 1 - 0 Fox, Anthony............ 2117 29 74 24 Henrichsen, Jens........ 2106 0 - 1 Gormally, Daniel W...... 2513 76 30 25 Al Sayed, Mohamad N..... 2492 1 - 0 Savory, Richard J....... 2101 32 77 26 Sharma, Dinesh K........ 2358 ½ - ½ Wells, Peter K.......... 2480 58 33 27 Arkell, Keith C......... 2479 1 - 0 Fairbairn, Stephen...... 2088 34 80 28 Lunn, Timothy........... 2079 0 - 1 Williams, Simon K....... 2473 81 36 29 Paehtz, Elizabeth....... 2456 1 - 0 Fraser-Mitchell, Jeremy 2077 37 82 30 Spanton, Tim R.......... 2075 0 - 1 Zatonskih, Anna......... 2432 83 39 31 Haslinger, Stewart G.... 2423 1 - 0 Werner, Gert............ 2069 40 84 32 Cafolla, Peter.......... 2062 0 - 1 Hanley, Craig A......... 2419 85 41 33 Cox, John J............. 2418 1 - 0 Henderikse, Bert........ 2019 42 86 34 Meenakshi, Subbaraman... 2310 ½ - ½ Vijayalakshmi, Subbarama 2417 66 44 35 Siebrecht, Sebastian.... 2417 0 - 1 Majer, Chris E.......... 1991 43 87 36 De Lagontrie, Jean...... 1974 0 - 1 Sarakauskas, Gediminas.. 2414 88 45 37 Palliser, Richard JD.... 2413 1 - 0 Nicholson, John......... 1945 46 90 38 Marks, Ian A............ 1944 0 - 1 Vasilevich, Tatiana..... 2412 91 47 39 Ledger, Andrew J........ 2411 1 - 0 Fabri, Henrik........... 1940 48 78 40 Minor, Harry............ 1500d 0 - 1 Sriram, Jha............. 2408 93 49 41 Areshchenko, Alexander...2641 ½ - ½ Kuzubov, Yuri 2554 42 Default 0 - 1 Efimenko, Zahar 2632 43 Ormsby, Alan............ 1939 ½ - ½ Bye..................... 89 Venue: Ocean Castle Hotel Port Erin Date: 23 Sep 06 to 01 Oct 06 Timings: First 40 moves in 120 mins. Next 20 moves in 60 mins. 30 mins to completion.
Tournament Director/Organiser: Dennis HemsleyWebmaster: John Saunders
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