John Saunders's Chess Pages: 2007 Monarch Assurance Isle of Man, Round 3

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16th Monarch Assurance Isle of Man International

22-30 September 2007

Last updated: Tuesday, April 29, 2014 4:38 PM

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Round 3 - 24 September 2007 - "Blood on Board"

After three rounds, we have just one player on 3/3: Mateusz Bartel of Poland. This is just a little bit spooky because, in 2006, we also had just one player on 3/3 at this stage: Mateusz Bartel of Poland. The 22-year-old grandmaster was very impressive last year, and in fact made it 4/4 with successive wins against Spence, Sriram, reigning Manx monarch Alex Shabalov and then Malakhatko. But he then drew his remaining five games to finish on 6½, just behind Areshchenko and Volkov. This year he has started with wins against Casper, Georgiev and Yakovich, but he will need to keep up the momentum in this extremely strong field if he is to improve on his 2006 result and win the tournament.

Most of the upstarts were fiercely slapped down by higher rated players this afternoon. Hopefully, Oliver Jackson of England and Alan Tate of Scotland enjoyed their brief moment in the limelight but it did not last very long.

The Monarch Assurance is famous for smallness* of the chess staff and we all have to multi-task. David Welch and Peter Purland are the arbiters for the masters tournament, while David Sedgwick singlehandedly runs the Major and Minor tournaments (which are held at the Cherry Orchard, a few hundred metres away). I key in the games, update the website, take pictures, annotate a few games and present a photo-report for your enjoyment. We can't quite stretch to live coverage via DGT boards (although we have some kit) because that would be a job too far for me, would require extra personnel and a bit of know-how (anyone who has ever used them knows they are highly temperamental). As regards the other behind the scenes staff, most impressive is the way Jean Depin manages to run a hotel and organise a chess tournament simultaneously. And of course Dennis Hemsley, the tournament's founder who pops in to see us and makes sure we are not misbehaving. Last but far from least are the fantastic hotel staff at the Ocean Castle who have become used to the funny ways of us chessplayers over the past few years and seem to take everything in their stride. (* I realise this is subject to misinterpretation, but you know what I mean)

Round three was mainly about the strong defeating the weak. I don't want to give you a blow-by-blow account of the bloodshed because this is a family website and I'm not a big fan of gratuitous violence. Instead, I'm substituting a nice photo of a Port Erin sunset. Just sit back and relax...

Port Erin sunset: better than watching mindless violence, isn't it?

What's that you say? You want to see a bit of blood on board? Oh alright then, here is a game from one of the top boards. Mateusz Bartel is one of a strong new generation of Polish players and here he gives experienced Russian pro Yuri Yakovich a very hard time.

Yakovich,Yuri (2597) - Bartel,Mateusz (2609) [A89]

1 d4 f5 2 g3 Nf6 3 Bg2 g6 4 Nf3 Bg7 5 0-0 0-0 6 c4 d6 7 Nc3 Nc6 8 d5 Na5 9 Qd3 e5 10 dxe6 Bxe6 11 b3 Nc6 12 Ng5 Bd7 13 Bb2 h6 14 Nh3 Ne4

[14 ..Qe8 15 Qd2 Qf7 16 Nf4 Kh7 17 Ncd5 looked quite nice for White in Cvitan-Cherin, Nova Gorica 2006.] 15 Rac1?! [White gets into some trouble after this. 15 Rab1 Qe8 16 Nd5 Rc8 17 Bxg7 Kxg7 and White retained an edge in Mitenkov-Margoline, Moscow 1994.] 15 ..Nb4! 16 Qe3 [One problem with 15 Rac1 is that it undefends the a2 pawn. For example, if 16 Qd1 Nxa2 is possible.] 16 ..Re8 17 Nxe4 Bxb2 18 Qxh6 [White tries a piece sacrifice. If 18 Rb1 Rxe4! 19 Bxe4 fxe4 20 Rxb2 Bxh3 21 Qxh6 Qd7 and Black has an edge.] 18 ..fxe4 19 Qxg6+ Bg7 20 Ng5 Qf6 21 Qxf6 [21 Qh7+ Kf8 22 Nxe4 Qf5 looks good for Black, though White gets three pawns for the piece.] 21 ..Bxf6 22 Nxe4 [White offered a draw, thus signalling his dissatisfaction with the position.] 22 ..Bb2 23 a3!? Nc6 [23 ..Bxc1? 24 Rxc1 and White is threatening both Nf6+ and axb4. It is better for Black to retain his dark-squared bishop.] 24 Rcd1 Kg7 25 Nc5 Bg4 26 Nxb7 Nd4 27 Na5 Bxe2 28 Bxa8 Rxa8 29 Rfe1 Nf3+ 30 Kg2 Nxe1+ 31 Rxe1 Re8

[Black is now very comfortably placed to win the game.] 32 Rb1 Bd4 33 Nc6 Bd3 34 Rd1 Be4+ 35 Kf1 Bxf2 36 Kxf2 Bxc6 37 Rd4 Be4 38 b4 Kf6 39 Ke3 Bf5+ 40 Kd2 Rh8 41 h4 Rg8 42 Rd5 Rxg3 43 Ra5 Rd3+ 44 Ke2 Rc3 45 c5 dxc5 46 bxc5 Ke5 47 h5 Kf4 48 Rxa7 Rc2+ 49 Kd1 Rxc5 0-1

Jackson,Oliver A (2198) - Krasenkow,Michal (2660)

[This game finished with a neat deflection.] 30 ..Rd2! 0-1

Monarch Assurance Isle of Man	
Open	
	
Venue:      Ocean Castle Hotel Port Erin	
Date:       22 Sep 07 to 30 Sep 07	
Controller: Mr David Welch	
Timings:    First 40 moves in 120 mins. Next 20 moves in 60 mins. 30 mins to completion. 	
	
	
Round: 3	
	
 Bd White                                Result  Black                                 --No--	
  1 Yakovich, Yuri.......... 2597   (2)  0 - 1   Bartel, Mateusz......... 2609   (2)   12   9	
  2 Sulskis, Sarunas........ 2537   (2)  ½ - ½   Kotronias, Vasilios..... 2602   (2)   24  11	
  3 Iordachescu, Viorel..... 2584  (1½)  ½ - ½   Golod, Vitali........... 2589   (2)   16  14	
  4 Jackson, Oliver A....... 2198   (2)  0 - 1   Krasenkow, Michal....... 2660  (1½)   68   1	
  5 Roiz, Michael........... 2630  (1½)  1 - 0   Tate, Alan.............. 2053   (2)    6  84	
 	
  6 Wells, Peter K.......... 2517  (1½)  ½ - ½   Moiseenko, Alexander.... 2641  (1½)   25   3	
  7 Speelman, Jon........... 2511  (1½)  ½ - ½   Gurevich, Mikhail....... 2633  (1½)   27   5	
  8 Adly, Ahmed............. 2488  (1½)  ½ - ½   Efimenko, Zahar......... 2624  (1½)   29   7	
  9 Dworakowska, Joanna..... 2320  (1½)  0 - 1   Malakhatko, Vadim....... 2596  (1½)   50  13	
 10 Horner, Jeff............ 2344  (1½)  0 - 1   Kritz, Leonid........... 2571  (1½)   47  17	
 	
 11 Kuzubov, Yuriy.......... 2568  (1½)  ½ - ½   Drozdovskij, Yuri....... 2567  (1½)   18  19	
 12 Phillips, Roy........... 2271  (1½)  0 - 1   Spraggett, Kevin........ 2585   (1)   58  15	
 13 Areshchenko, Alexander.. 2645   (1)  1 - 0   Almond, Richard......... 2101  (1½)    2  76	
 14 Kobalia, Mikhail........ 2634   (1)  1 - 0   Ly, Moulthun............ 2295   (1)    4  54	
 15 Svetushkin, Dmitry...... 2618   (1)  1 - 0   Bannink, Bernard........ 2271   (1)    8  57	
 	
 16 Georgiev, Vladimir...... 2567   (1)  1 - 0   Bentley, John L......... 2242   (1)   20  59	
 17 Hebden, Mark............ 2540   (1)  1 - 0   Allen, Keith............ 2222   (1)   22  63	
 18 Grant, Alan............. 2223   (1)  0 - 1   Abergel, Thal........... 2512   (1)   61  26	
 19 Taylor, Peter P......... 2209   (1)  ½ - ½   Kunin, Vitaly........... 2507   (1)   64  28	
 20 Weeks, Manuel........... 2200   (1)  0 - 1   Heberla, Bartlomiej..... 2484   (1)   67  30	
 	
 21 Haslinger, Stewart...... 2468   (1)  ½ - ½   Smokina, Karolina....... 2205   (1)   31  65	
 22 Van Den Bersselaar, Jero 2183   (1)  0 - 1   Smerdon, David.......... 2461   (1)   70  32	
 23 Paehtz, Elisabeth....... 2457   (1)  1 - 0   Wright, William......... 2186   (1)   33  69	
 24 Ferguson, Mark.......... 2413   (1)  1 - 0   Yeo, Michael............ 2153   (1)   36  71	
 25 Troyke, Doreen.......... 2151   (1)  0 - 1   Collins, Sam E.......... 2405   (1)   72  38	
 	
 26 Troyke, Christian....... 2386   (1)  1 - 0   Goodger, Martyn......... 2093   (1)   41  79	
 27 Noordhoek, Henk......... 2102   (1)  0 - 1   Kolbus, Dietmar......... 2384   (1)   75  42	
 28 Fraser-Mitchell, Jeremy  2097   (1)  0 - 1   Welling, Gerard......... 2364   (1)   77  44	
 29 Fairbairn, Stephen...... 2091   (1)  0 - 1   Zozulia, Anna........... 2332   (1)   80  48	
 30 Obers, Frits............ 2073   (1)  0 - 1   Prosviriakov, Vladimir.. 2319   (1)   83  51	
 	
 31 Szieberth, Adam......... 2315   (1)  1 - 0   Marks, Ian A............ 1914   (1)   52  88	
 32 Majer, Chris E.......... 2041   (1)  0 - 1   Ashton, Adam G.......... 2295   (1)   85  53	
 33 Egozi, Nadav............ 2205   (½)  ½ - ½   Bradford, Joseph........ 2406   (½)   66  37	
 34 Mueller, Matthias....... 2405   (½)  ½ - ½   Adams, Philip........... 2144   (½)   39  73	
 35 Cox, John J............. 2381   (½)  1 - 0   Collier, David O........ 2131   (½)   43  74	
 	
 36 Mannion, Stephen R...... 2359   (½)  ½ - ½   Waters, Michael......... 2096   (½)   45  78	
 37 Spanton, Tim R.......... 1982   (½)  0 - 1   Shachar, Ehud........... 2353   (½)   87  46	
 38 Klinova, Masha.......... 2326   (½)  1 - 0   Fox, Anthony............ 2084   (½)   49  81	
 39 Weisbuch, Udi........... 2284   (½)  1 - 0   Walton, Alan J.......... 2223   (0)   55  62	
 40 Hutchinson, Norman A.... 2079   (0)  0 - 1   Pavlovic, Milos......... 2541   (0)   82  21	
 	
 41 Casper, Thomas.......... 2421   (0)  1 - 0   Cafolla, Peter.......... 2034   (0)   34  86	
 42 Johnson, Paul A......... 1820*  (0)  0 - 1   Palliser, Richard....... 2417   (0)   90  35	
 43 Nelson, Jonathan P...... 2282   (0)  1 - 0   Nicholson, John......... 1910   (0)   56  89

Tournament Director/Organiser:

Jean-Pierre Depin
Ocean Castle Hotel

Webmaster: John Saunders

Main Sponsors

Monarch Assurance plc
Head Office:
Manxonia House
Bay View Road
Port St Mary
Isle of Man IM9 5AE
Tel: +44 (0)1624 834903 Fax: +44 (0)1624 834921

As well as Monarch Assurance plc, the Tournament is sponsored by The Isle of Man Department of Tourism, and the Port Erin Commissioners.

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