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Chess Life Online 2008 November UTD Invitational Update
Chess Life Online 2008 November UTD Invitational Update | UTD Invitational Update |
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| By WIM Alexey Root | |
| November 28, 2008 | |
Coach IM Rade Milovanovic and Mihail Bantic, Photo Alexey Root
Although most of the games from the 2008 UTD GM/IM Invitational (Nov.26-30) can be found on Monroi or the Internet Chess Club , I didn't find the following exciting round two battle there. Rather, I witnessed a round two post mortem by players FM Keaton Kiewra (Nebraska license plate "GM Bound") and Mihail Bantic (nickname "Serbian Tower".) UTD Chess Coach IM Rade Milovanovic also offered commentary, and explained Mihail's nickname, "Mihail has been the chess team's sportsman of the year for the past two years because he plays basketball, volleyball, water polo, and soccer. Whenever a good player is need for any intramural sports team, Mihail is always picked." 2653 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. f3 0-0 Mihail commented "I always play the Saemisch." 6. Be3 e5 7. d5 c6 8. Bd3 cxd5 Mihail said, "I don't think Black should take on d5, because c7-c6xd5 is two tempos." 9. cxd5 a6 Rade suggested 9....Nh5 instead, with the idea of ...f5 10. Nge2 b5 Mihail said, "I offered a draw here because I had tickets to go to a Serbian concert, which was starting in two hours." Keaton refused the draw, saying, "I was worse but I said no to the draw." Mihail said that he thought to himself, "Okay, since Keaton refused this draw now I have to beat him." 11. b4 Nbd7 12. 0-0 Nb6 13. a4 Nc4 14. Bxc4 bxc4 15. b5 axb5 16. axb5 Rxa1 17. Qxa1 Nh5 18. b6 f5 19. Rb1 Bb7 20. Qa7 Qe7 Rade said, "If instead 20....Rf7 21. Nb5 Bxd5 22. exd5 Rxa7 23. bxa7 with the idea of Nc7." Mihail said he saw this line, and thought that Keaton had seen it too. 21. Nb5 fxe4 Mihail said, "If Keaton had instead played 21....Ra8 22. Nd6." 22. fxe4 Nf4 23. Ng3 Bh6 24. Kh1 c3 25. Nc7 c2 26. Rc1 Ne2 Keaton said, "I missed a forced win here. I should have played 26....Qh4 27. Qxb7 Nh5 28. Nxh5 Qxh5 with the threat of Qd1." Mihail said that, had Keaton played 26....Qh4 he might have played 27. Rxc2. Keaton said 27....Nh5 might still be a good idea. 27. Bxh6 Nxc1 28. Bxc1 Qf7 29. h3 White played this move to stop the checkmate on f1. 29....Bc8 An alternative was 29....Qf2 30. Kh2 Qe1 31. Qxb7 Qxc1 32. Ne6 Qh6 33. Nxf8 c1 (Q) 34. Ne6 And, as Rade said, black's two queens are no match for white's two knights. 30. b7 Bxb7 31. Qxb7 h5 32. h4 Qe7 33. Kg1 
Position after 33.Kg1
Keaton said "I'm still fighting after 33....Qd7" The following lines were analyzed by Rade, Keaton, and Mihail, plus Davorin Kuljasevic and Taut Vedrickas, who had stopped by to watch the post mortem. If 33....Qd7 then 34. Qb6 Qg4 35. Qe3 Qd1 36. Kh2 Rf4; or 34. Qc6 Qg4 35. Qxc2 Qxg3 36. Bg5 Qe1 37. Kh2 Rf1. White was unsatisfied with the outcome of these two queen moves (34. Qb6 and 34. Qc6) in the post mortem. At this point, Rade said, "Let's play like Karpov." After 33....Qd7 34. Ne2 Rc8 35. Qc6 Qxc6 36. dxc6 Rxc7 37. Kf2 and White has a better endgame. 33...Kh7 34. Qb6 Qxh4 35. Qe3 Kg8 36. Ne6 Rb8 37. Qg5 Qxg5 38. Nxg5 and Black resigned soon after. Keaton said, "The game was interesting. Mihail played very well, and had a great first day first beating Igor Schneider and then me." ROUND THREE In the IM norm section, White won every game in the third round, except this game, where GM Babakuli Annakov, playing Black, defeated NM Francisco Guadalupe. 2654 Annakov said that 14....Qb4 was really a good move, and hard to find. If White responds 15. Nde2 then ...Nxe4 16. Bxe4 Rxe4 17. a3 Qb6 and Black has an extra pawn. White's 15th move is a small positional mistake that ended up being a decisive moment. After this move, Black has a better endgame according to Annakov. Move 19 was White's bigger mistake. 19....Nh3 gives Black a big advantage because all the pawns fall. Annakov analyzed with Rybka after the game and noted that both sides followed that chess engine's recommendations until move 15 for White. UTD GM Section Standings after 5 rounds 1. GM Julio Becerra-3.5/5 (also won his round six game for 4.5/6) 2-5. IM Marko Zivanic, IM Davorin Kuljasevic, IM Puchen Wang and IM Jacek Stopa-3 6. GM Alejandro Ramirez-2.5/5 (won his sixth round game for 3.5/6) 7-8. GM Sergey Kudrin and IM John Bartholomew- 2 9-10 IM Salvijus Bercys and IM Drasko Boskovic-1.5 UTD IM Section Standings after 6 Rounds 1-2. GM Jesse Kraai and Igor Schneider-4.5 3-5. GM Babakuli Annakov, Mihail Bantic and Bayaraa Zorigt-4 6-7 Chaitanya Vaidya and Keaton Kiewra-3.5 8-9- Nelson Lopez and Tautvydas Vedrickas-1.5 10. Francisco Guadalupe-1 Follow the UTD Invitational on monroi.com or the Internet Chess Club. Dr. Alexey Root is a WIM and former U.S. Women's Champion. You can find out more about her and her books in the following links: http://lu.com/authors/AlexeyRoot.pdf , Science, Math, Checkmate and Children and Chess. |