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15th Monarch Assurance Isle of Man International
23 September - 1 October 2006
Last updated:
Tuesday, April 29, 2014 6:44 PM
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Round 4 - 26 September 2006
Beware of cheap imitations: we have the real world championship here
in Port Erin today - the Battle of the Grinders - with
Russia's answer to Keith Arkell, Mikhail Kobalia, playing the one and
only genuine Keith Arkell - the game opened
1 c4 c5... Alexander Areschenko looks on in silent admiration.
John Saunders reports: By a curious coincidence, a visitor who dropped in to see us on the day of round four at the 2004 tournament also called in to see us on the day of round four this year. Yes, this was our old friend, Monarch* the Manx cat. He is a stray black cat who prowls around the hotel vicinity. It was good to see him again, though there was no sign of him in 2005. As you can see from the photo, he took quite a shine to arbiter Peter Purland, who was sitting enjoying the sunshine outside the hotel. However, when chief arbiter David Welch went to tickle Monarch's tummy, the little monster got his claws out. "The speed with which four paws and two jaws homed in on my hand was alarming," confessed the chastened arbiter. At least this dispels the superstition that it is good luck to have a black cat cross your path, particularly since our chief arbiter has since gone down with a bad case of flu.* I've no idea if the cat really has a name, but Monarch seems most appropriate for our purposes.
Monarch the Manx Cat wagging his invisible tail, and making friends
with arbiter Peter Purland
Mateusz Bartel of Poland beat Malakhatko with Black to move on to 4/4. The 21-year-old is clearly someone to be watched. The last time I can remember a (semi-) unknown player exploding out of the blocks like this in a big British swiss event was in 1994 when the young Alexander Morozevich steamrollered the opposition at Lloyds Bank Masters 1994, scoring 9½/10. Bartel has a long way to go to emulate Morozevich but it takes something special to score 4/4 in this event. Malakhatko tried to vary from a previous Bartel game on move 5, but his opening play was unconvincing. The Pole launched a vigorous queenside attack which soon put him well in control. Fritz quibbled with 38...Qg2 (instead of which 38...Qa1+ is immediately terminal) but otherwise it looked pretty good.
Poland 5, Rest of the World 0... two other Poles scored important wins. Bartosz Socko beat Valery Neverov rather severely while Michal Krasenkow vs Yuri Yakovich came down to a king and pawn endgame which favoured White. Also, look out for Bobras' delightful finish against Kononenko. Dworakowska completed the Polish success.
Elsewhere, Kuzubov played a very powerful move (25 Rxe5!) to explode Zimmerman's position. Sriram was caught in a vicious opening trap after his doubtful 8 f4. It has been played before but the last person to fall for it (Bluvshtein) got away with it. Sriram was not so lucky. Shabalov is back on the march with an efficient win against John Cox. Anna Zatonskih's bright start came to an end when her queen became entombed against Kazhgaleyev. Peter Wells seemed to be doing well against Areshchenko but then succumbed to a mate in one in time pressure. Look out for Iordachescu's lovely 24...Re1! move against Siebrecht.
See above, the Battle of the Grinders - for once, one of my predictions
is going to form - they were still grinding away at 7pm, 5½ hours
into play, and was one of the three last games to finish. Keith Arkell
seemed to be within reach of a draw but an inaccuracy (40...Nc4? instead
of 40...Qd1) let Kobalia in for the kill.
Also we have a rematch of the last round game between John Nicholson and
hotel manager Jean Depin, who has stepped in this afternoon for Harry
Minor who, most appropriately, has decided that he should be playing in
the Minor (Dennis Hemsley) tournament. Last year Nicholson-Depin ended
½-½ - Monsieur Jean tells us he has been getting in some
practice on playchess.com - we'll be monitoring his performance to see
if he has benefited from the extra practice. Jean's idea of pre-game preparation
was to take the control team out for a very nice buffet lunch at the Cherry
Orchard Hotel, which was much appreciated by yours truly and the arbiters
- but one wonders if it was the ideal move for our genial host. Later...
Monsieur Jean went down in flames - perhaps 10...Nxd4!? is an improvement
on the game. But John Nicholson had had a year to prepare for the Ocean
Castle Defence (1...g6 with an early ...e6) and the Irish preparation
was too good.
Malakhatko,V
(2594) - Bartel,M (2561)
Monarch Assurance Isle of Man Port Erin IOM (4.1), 26.09.2006
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[Black has a big attack and continues energetically:] 35 ..Rab8! 36 Qxe6+ Kh8 37 Qxd6 Qa2+ 38 Kd1 Qg2? [Giving White a chance. 38 ..Qa1+! 39 Ke2 Rb2+ 40 Ke3 Qxf1 keeps it relatively simple.] 39 Rff3 [After 39 Ke1! Re8+ (best) 40 Qe5 Rxe5+ 41 fxe5 h6 42 e6 it is surprisingly difficult to find a convincing winning continuation for Black.] 39 ..Qh1+ 40 Kd2 [40 Ke2 Rb2+ 41 Rd2 Re8+ mops up] 40 ..Rb2+ 0-1 [41 Ke3 Qe1+ and mate next move]
Kobalia,M
(2647) - Arkell,K (2479)
Monarch Assurance Isle of Man Port Erin IOM (4.9), 26.09.2006
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Wells,P (2480) - Areshchenko,A (2641)
Monarch Assurance Isle of Man Port Erin IOM (4.10), 26.09.2006
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Round: 4 Bd White Result Black --No-- 1 Malakhatko, Vadim....... 2594 (2½) 0 - 1 Bartel, Mateusz......... 2561 (3) 13 21 2 Ikonnikov, Vyacheslav... 2587 (2½) ½ - ½ Akopian, Vladimir....... 2713 (2½) 15 1 3 Landa, Konstantin....... 2584 (2½) ½ - ½ Korneev, Oleg........... 2638 (2½) 17 5 4 Krasenkow, Mikhal....... 2635 (2½) 1 - 0 Yakovich, Yuri.......... 2583 (2½) 6 18 5 Golod, Vitali........... 2576 (2½) ½ - ½ Volkov, Sergey.......... 2628 (2½) 19 8 6 Socko, Bartosz.......... 2621 (2½) 1 - 0 Neverov, Valeriy........ 2556 (2½) 9 23 7 Kazhgaleyev, Murtas..... 2606 (2½) 1 - 0 Zatonskih, Anna......... 2432 (2½) 10 39 8 Gormally, Daniel W...... 2513 (2) ½ - ½ Postny, Evgeny.......... 2591 (2½) 30 14 9 Kobalia, Mikhail........ 2647 (2) 1 - 0 Arkell, Keith C......... 2479 (2) 3 34 10 Wells, Peter K.......... 2480 (2) 0 - 1 Areshchenko, Alexander.. 2641 (2) 33 4 11 Efimenko, Zahar......... 2632 (2) ½ - ½ Paehtz, Elizabeth....... 2456 (2) 7 37 12 Shabalov, Alexander..... 2604 (2) 1 - 0 Cox, John J............. 2418 (2) 11 42 13 Siebrecht, Sebastian.... 2417 (2) 0 - 1 Iordachescu, Viorel..... 2603 (2) 43 12 14 Sriram, Jha............. 2408 (2) 0 - 1 Khenkin, Igor........... 2586 (2) 49 16 15 Stocek, Jiri............ 2561 (2) ½ - ½ Palliser, Richard JD.... 2413 (2) 22 46 16 Kiriakov, Petr.......... 2554 (2) ½ - ½ Ferguson, Mark.......... 2389 (2) 24 51 17 Zozulia, Anna........... 2352 (2) 0 - 1 Greenfeld, Alon......... 2551 (2) 59 26 18 Kuzubov, Yuri........... 2554 (1½) 1 - 0 Zimmerman, Yuri......... 2374 (1½) 25 54 19 Bobras, Piotr........... 2535 (1½) 1 - 0 Kononenko, Tatiana...... 2387 (1½) 28 52 20 Roy Chowdhury, Saptarshi 2394 (1½) 0 - 1 Al Sayed, Mohamad N..... 2492 (1½) 50 32 21 Williams, Simon K....... 2473 (1½) ½ - ½ Sharma, Dinesh K........ 2358 (1½) 36 58 22 Peek, Marcel............ 2367 (1½) ½ - ½ Haslinger, Stewart G.... 2423 (1½) 55 40 23 Hanley, Craig A......... 2419 (1½) 1 - 0 Mannion, Steve R........ 2346 (1½) 41 60 24 Vijayalakshmi, Subbarama 2417 (1½) 1 - 0 Ashton, Adam G.......... 2329 (1½) 44 63 25 Sarakauskas, Gediminas.. 2414 (1½) 1 - 0 Mohota, Nisha........... 2313 (1½) 45 65 26 Vasilevich, Tatiana..... 2412 (1½) 1 - 0 Meenakshi, Subbaraman... 2310 (1½) 47 66 27 Eggleston, David J...... 2232 (1½) 0 - 1 Ledger, Andrew J........ 2411 (1½) 67 48 28 Collier, David O........ 2175 (1) 0 - 1 Hebden, Mark L.......... 2532 (1) 71 29 29 Devereaux, Maxim L...... 2377 (1) 0 - 1 Sarakauskiene, Zivile... 2158 (1) 53 73 30 Sahl, Bjarke............ 2364 (1) 1 - 0 Hutchinson, Norman A.... 2107 (1) 56 75 31 Werner, Gert............ 2069 (1) 0 - 1 Dworakowska, Joanna..... 2359 (1) 84 57 32 Quillan, Gary........... 2344 (1) 1 - 0 Fairbairn, Stephen...... 2088 (1) 62 80 33 Szieberth, Adam......... 2328 (1) 1 - 0 Lunn, Timothy........... 2079 (1) 64 81 34 Spence, David J......... 2205 (1) 1 - 0 Fabri, Henrik........... 1940 (1) 69 92 35 Majer, Chris E.......... 1991 (1) 0 - 1 Grant, Alan G........... 2193 (1) 87 70 36 Henderikse, Bert........ 2019 (½) ½ - ½ Walton, Alan J.......... 2222 (½) 86 68 37 Ormsby, Alan............ 1939 (½) 0 - 1 Groffen, Hans........... 2171 (½) 93 72 38 Fox, Anthony............ 2117 (½) 1 - 0 Henrichsen, Jens........ 2106 (½) 74 76 39 Savory, Richard J....... 2101 (½) ½ - ½ De Lagontrie, Jean...... 1974 (½) 77 88 40 Fraser-Mitchell, Jeremy 2077 (½) ½ - ½ Cafolla, Peter.......... 2062 (0) 82 85 41 Marks, Ian A............ 1944 (0) 0 - 1 Spanton, Tim R.......... 2075 (0) 91 83 42 Nicholson, John......... 1945 (0) 1 - 0 Depin, Jean 90 Monarch Assurance Isle of Man Open 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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