Alexander Morozevich’s aggressive approach to the French Defence was again too much for Peter Svidler as the pair exchanged places in the last round of the Blindfold section of the 16th Amber Blindfold and Rapid tournament just concluded in Monaco. Svidler lost to the same opponent in the same variation in the last round at Linares in February.
The world champion Vladimir Kramnik coasted to victory in both the Blindfold and Combined sections with draws against the back marker Paco Vallejo but Morozevich played the game of the day.
P Svidler – A Morozevich
Amber Blindfold Monte Carlo (11)
French Defence Classical
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.f4 c5 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Be3 a6 (Black expands on the queenside to counter White's potential plan of castles queenside and a kingside pawn advance. If White can maintain his centre he will be better but as we shall see Black has a variety of pawn levers to try and undermine it)
8.Qd2 b5 9.a3 Bb7 10.Bd3 (Svidler played 10.dxc5 at Linares)
10…Qc7 (The Black queen usually goes to b6 in this line to pressure d4 but Morozevich has something more ambitious in mind)
11.0–0 0–0–0 12.Nd1 (Seeking to maintain the pawn chain with c2-c3 but the reply rules this out. Clearing the d4 square for a knight was an alternative plan and the following lines look good for White: 12.dxc5 d4 13.Nxd4 Nxd4 14.Bxd4; 12.dxc5 Nxc5 13.Nd4 g5 14.Nxc6 Qxc6 15.Bd4 Ne4 16.Qe3 gxf4 17.Qxf4 looks like a better version of the game for White with the knight on c3 and not d1. If 12.dxc5 Nxc5 13.Nd4 f6 14.b4! Nxd3 15.Nxe6)
12...cxd4 13.Nxd4 g5! (A typical French Defence thrust to undermine e5)
14.Nxc6 Qxc6 15.Bd4 gxf4 (15...Bc5 16.Bxc5 Qxc5+ 17.Nf2 gxf4 leaves the position unclear, the e5 pawn remains but may come under attack)
16.Qxf4 Rg8 17.Ne3 (Covering g2 but Morozevich's next move is quite unexpected. 17.Qxf7 Bc5! 18.c3? Nxe5! wins and 17.Qxf7 Bc5! 18.Qf4 Rdf8 gives Black good counterplay)
17...f6! 18.exf6 e5!! ( Forcing open both the c5-g1 and c6-g2 diagonals)
19.f7? ( the position is already bad if 19.Bxe5 d4 20.f7 Rxg2+ 21.Nxg2 Qxg2 mate)
19...Rxg2+! 0–1
Morozevich
Svidler
Position after 19.f7?
FINAL SCORES
Blindfold: 1 Kramnik (Russia 2766) 9/11; 2-3 Morozevich, (Russia 2741) Gelfand (Israel 2733) 7; 4-5 Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Svidler (Russia 2728) 6.5; 6 Aronian (Armenia 2744) 6; 7-8 Radjabov, (Azerbaijan 2729), Anand (India 2779) 5; 9-10 Carlsen (Norway 2690), Leko (Hungary 2749) 4; 11 Van Wely (Netherlands 2683); Vallejo Pons (Spain 2679) 2.5.
Rapid: 1 Anand 8.5; 2-5 Kramnik, Carlsen, Leko, Ivanchuk 6.5; 6 Aronian 6; 7 Svidler 5.5; 8-9 Gelfand, Morozevich 4.5; 10-11 Radjabov, Vallejo 4; 12 Van Wely 3.
Combined: 1 Kramnik 15.5/22; 2 Anand 13.5; 3 Ivanchuk 13; 4-5 Svidler, Aronian 12; 6-7 Morozevich, Gelfand 11.5; 8-9 Carlsen, Leko 10.5; 10 Radjabov 9; 11-12 Vallejo Pons, Van Wely 6.5.
Even the strongest Grandmasters can blunder and this was not a Blindfold game it was Rapid Chess. A quick check of the database showed that Aronian is not the first to make this error.
L.Aronian - T.Radjabov
Amber Rapid Monte Carlo (10)
Trompovsky Attack
1 d4 Nf6 2 Bg5 d5
3 e3 c6 4 Bd3 Bg4
5 Ne2 Nbd7 6 c4 dxc4
7 Bxc4 Qa5+ 8 Nbc3 Bxe2
9 Kxe2 Qxg5 10 Qb3 e6
11 Qxb7 Rb8 12 Qxc6 Rxb2+
13 Kf1 Be7 14 Bb3 Qf5
15 Nd1 Rd2 16 Qa8+ Bd8
17 Qf3 Qd3+ 18 Kg1 Re2
19 h3 h5 20 Qc6 Re1+
21 Kh2 Ng4+ 22 hxg4 hxg4+
23 Kg3 Rexh1 24 Bc2 Bh4+
25 Kf4 g5+ mate 0-1
Radjabov
r3kb1r/pp1npppp/2p2n2/q5B1/2BP2b1/4P3/PP2NPPP/RN1QK2R
Aronian
Position after 7...Qa5+ winning the bishop on g5.
Originally posted by BagheriYeah, agression does pay off in the end. Good post.
Alexander Morozevich’s aggressive approach to the French Defence was again too much for Peter Svidler as the pair exchanged places in the last round of the Blindfold section of the 16th Amber Blindfold and Rapid tournament just concluded in Monaco. Svidler lost to the same opponent in the same variation in the last round at Linares in February.
The world ...[text shortened]... 5B1/2BP2b1/4P3/PP2NPPP/RN1QK2R
Aronian
Position after 7...Qa5+ winning the bishop on g5.
Originally posted by z00tIt almost sounds like you want him to come back.
Is the OP the wannabe GM who copy and pasted a chess article from the Telegraph not too long ago? If he is a real GM, GMs are paid ducats to play on the PlayChess server so he should not shy away.