As several players did not show up as expected in Oslo on the starting day of Troll Masters, the conclusion became
first a short delay and then one postphoned game related to IM Mikael Agopov’s delayed arrival. As the first round
was played without acceleration, the ELO-differences were expected to allow few exciting games. The only winning games
of the second team came on the lower part of the list, where 2000-junior Olaf Berg and unrated senior Jan Arne Bjørgvik
defeated experienced 2200-players. Six out of the top ten seeded came through with the full point without too many
problems. The seventh was IM Mathias Womacka, who only won a drawish endgame against 15 year old Øystein Bøyum Fossum
around 02.00 in the night. The eight, ninth and tenth was first seeded GM Eduardas Rozentalis, fourth seeded GM Sergei
Ovsejevitch and eight seeded GM Heikki Westerinen who despite promising positions had to give away their first half
points to players around 2100-2200.dd
The result was of course a surprise, but the game development was even more surprising.
Rozentalis had no problems from the opening against a very careful and Catalan-like Bogo-Indian, and took the
initiative by playing e5 and e4 early in the middlegame. When white tried to hit back with a g4-advance he ran
into a thematic Nxg4-stroke, and even when he returned the piece his king still looked about to die. So far so good
seen from a Rozentalis’ point of view, but playing too fast he later failed to realize his advantage. That black
“had 25 wins but missed all of them” was of course another exeggerated one from Miezis, but black beyond doubt chose
away several close to winning endgames to go for a direct decision. With Glenne running short of time Rozentalis picked
up two pawns, but by doing so he allowed counterthreats which reportedly forced him to take out a perpetual just after
40 moves. As black still had two extra pawns and the less airy king the decision came as a surprise, and Glenne later
claimed having found a near win for black from the final position. First rounds at Gausdal are still not a Rozentalis
speciality, and so hard-fighting Glenne made a promising start of the tournament out of a difficult start of the game.
Never much to be discussed in the first game to finish in Troll Masters 2003: Nygren entered a
Chigorin Queen’s Gambit variation which smells, and Lugovoi has an excellent nose for such variations. Following a
short tactical carousel black was left with two pawns and otherwise much less than nothing, as white’s pair of bishops
and black's weak pawns clearified into a hopeless endgame before 30 moves.
No starting problems for the third GM either: Miezis and his Kan Sicilian equalised without any
difficulties, and even got the better position as white’s plan of placing a knight at d6 turned out to be a study in
overstretch. Finding his position about to fall apart before 20 moves after missing a highly unpleasant g5-break,
white went for non-working tactics, but gently resigned before 25 moves as he was left with only rook and pawn for
two active minor pieces in the endgame.
This like the top board was an even more surprising result following the play, as the GM had one
extra pawn in the endgame for something like 40 moves and for a few moves even two. White reportedly came clearly
better from the opening, but chose the wrong endgame from a clearly preferable middle game position. Probably white
missed some chances in the rooks and bishop ending too, but as black had very active rooks it was at least practically
possible. Ovsejevitch despite a 20 hours train travel played on until his last pawn, but as Astengo too had one pawn
left then he still got his reward for defending well in the endgame.
This started as one out of few sharp variations in the English fianchetto, where black accepts an
isolated double pawn in the c-file to exchange white’s fianchetto bishop against a knight. While both players spent
much time black as expected seemed clearly better on the board, and before the time trouble he had an extra pawn at d4.
Bøyum Fossum however turned out to be the better time trouble player (!?), and so he simply took back the d-pawn to
reach an ending with rook, knight and four against rook, bishop and four. It was proclaimed “very drawish” in the
corridors, and probably the corridors were objectively right. Womacka however kept slightly the better pieces, and
following a rook exchange Bøyum Fossum might have been wrong to allow, black finally won a pawn by marching his king
all the way to a2. As his extra pawn was a backward one at f6 is still seemed hard to win with bishop and three against
knight and two – until Bøyum Fossum after almost six hour's play tragically misplaced his knight at g6 with no
emergency exit. Womacka immediately cashed in the knight, and so the long and exiting first night bitterly ended as
only a “close to sensation” for Bøum Fossum.
Today’s Kallio was the 1.e4 one, while today’s Andersen was the seldom seen Pirc one. He did not
work out too well: Kallio by reasonable means achieved a clear structural advantage on the queenside and a promising
attack in the center before 20 moves. Kallio could have won an exchange but preferred to transfer into an easy winning
rook endgame with two extra pawns.
Stokke as usually won the opening; as this was one of his 1.e4-days it happened to be a Sicilian.
As too often he however failed to find the critical plan afterwards, this time happening to be intensifying the
pawnstorm on the kingside by an h-pawn attack.
The end of the game was tactical, but the game was decided by understanding. In a closed Sicilian
position black spent a lot of time without finding any real meat on the queenside, while white based upon her space
advantage in the center soon accelerated her pieces on the queenside. Finding himself caught in a crumbling cockpit
on the kingside, Karlsen short of time ran into a Bxg6-sacrifice, and so Kovalevskaya decided her first Gausdal game
in an elegant fashion before 30 moves.
This started as a relatively quiet Italian, where Ask tried to take the initiative by a bayonet
a-pawn attack on the queenside. First the a-pawn and then the queen was allowed to reach b7, but striking back in the
center left black with an extra a-pawn after the queen exchange. From then on 2100-player Ask however fought on well,
while the GM failed to find any decisive plan. In the end he had to exchange his advanced a-pawn to end up with just
two kingside pawns against one in the rook endgame, and Ask had no problems to keep his defence then.
The position from the start looked to be more in the taste of Lönngren than the taste of Shumiakina:
A heavyweight closed position with an early queen exchange. The position finally opened up in the endgame after about
30 moves, but with equal material it still appeared drawish. Lönngren however failed to hang on the defence when
running short of time, and so Shumiakina very efficiently opened up the queenside by a b4-break and made a decisive
rook intervention. Working day victory for Shumiakina, a reasonable loss for Lönngren.
Starting his Gausdal career with 1.b3 Korhonen achieved a closed position, but the price was
high as black was allowed to establish center advantage with e4 and d5, to get the clearly superior bishop and
to place a knight on free parking for life at c4. Exchanging the knight to open up the queenside black soon got
a strong pressure against white’s a3-pawn – and another knight at c4. The conclusion in short became first an extra
passed pawn at c4, and following some short tactics during white’s time trouble an extra piece as well.
Leer-Salvesen once more went for a quiet English line as white, and black seemingly had no
great problems even when white kept slightly the better pieces. The truth however became revealed in a materially
balanced ending with queen and knight against queen and king: Having the less active pieces and the more open king,
black faced a difficult defence. Leer-Salvesen played practical waiting moves when Stig K ran seriously short of time,
and got jackpot as black blundered his queen at move 36 in a difficult position.
Via 1.c4 g6 play transposed into a King’s Indian, which Johansen tried to escape by help of a
boring exchange variation. Following some exchanges black had no problems whatsoever, but he was probably
overambitious when sacrificing a pawn at h6 to achieve monopoly on black squared bishops. Black later had enough
compensation in the position, but white probably had enough attacking chances on the kingside to force a repetion of
moves. Johansen however failed the critical chance to test whether Nordahl would accept a repetition or test a high
risk winning attempt. Later black’s dominance on the black squares gave him the much easier position despite reduced
material, but the game was still alive until white blundered about a rook and resigned just after 30 moves.
Molander got his revenge for his surprising loss against Svensen last year, but only after a
tight battle in which the final position was probably winning for black. It started as a French advance, in which
white got the better structure after taking on f5. This however gave him only a slight plus, and both players soon
found themselves short of time. Svensen however did not realize how short of time he was, and in the bitter end lost
on time while making his 39. move. Molander then had sacrificed first a pawn and then a knight at g5 without having
anything clear afterwards, and so he should be happy if finding a perpetual on the board when the clock decided.
This was the first win for a lower rated player in this tournament. It came relatively unexpected,
even when Berg is internationally recognized as underrated: Black seemed fine from the Sicilian opening, as his pair
of bishops should compensate for white’s line initiative and slightly better pawn structure. Black however made a
dubious decision when he chose not to play Bxc3 followed by Be6, in which case white would have been left with the
slightly better heavy pieces and black with the clearly better pawn structure. Instead after Ba5 white took initiative
by b4-b5 on the queenside, and obviously shaken Charlsehouse weakened his kingside to give white real attacking chances
on both wings. Short of time Charleshouse felt forced to enter a bad endgame to achieve a queen exchange, but
blundering an exchange just afterwards he threw in the scoresheets before 30 moves.
This was a very closed and slow Sicilian, in which black looked fine from the opening. White still
did not hesitate to refuse a draw early in the middlegame, and as his queenside initiative turned into two passed pawns
he was reportedly close to winning. Having weakened his kingside by moving forward the f, g and h-pawn, he just before
40 moves missed a Nf3+-sacrifice which forced a perpetual check at g3 and h3.
Sander insisted that he had no wishes for the pairings except not to meet Micro-Magnus, but he was
still not heard neither from God nor the arbiter. The first published version of this Kan seemed fine for white,
who was ahead in development and had the apparently more active pair of bishops and queen. But after all Kan too is a
Sicilian: Suddenly black had all the better pieces, and then he just blew up the white position by a "queen sacrifice"
which might get a “!!” in some Norwegian chess columns, but which Magnus considered it “??” to allow. Anyway white
ended a piece down as he immediately had to give back the queen, and as black even without queens kept dangerous
threats in the h-file, Sander left the game for good after 22 moves. Magnus looked forward to the tournament even
more following this game, while Rolf only looked forward to meeting someone else in the next round.
No great problems for Johanssons’ sound Caro-Kann, even when white kept a slight space advantage
all the way through the middlegame. The endgame with rook, bishop and seven against rook, knight and seven still
looked drawish, but short of time black missed an a4-break with destroyed black’s pawn structure on the queenside.
The resulting rook endgame with an extra pawn for white probably was difficult anyway, but Johansson definitely
lost it when trapping his own rook on the kingside. Simonsen was not too frightening in the middlegame today,
but he was effective when offered a chance in the endgame – and so it ended like another reasonable try for Johansson.
Tallaksen’s understanding of the position turned out to be the superior one, as he got pleasant
play against white’s hanging center pawns, without risking any counterplay. White first lost one of the pawns due to
a simple double threat, and then Tallaksen elegantly took the second one by a tactical stroke. Facing a two pawns
deficit as he was unable to keep his extra piece, Bue chose the respectful way out before 25 moves.
Tallaksen’s history from earlier first rounds at Gausdal has been a tragic one – maybe a relaxed first round win is
what he is needing for a norm?
White chose a critical attacking plan involving queenside castling and a critical e5-break, and
was rewarded as black ended up with a ruined kingside after playing h5 AND having to answer Nxf6+ with gxf6. Having
exchanged black’s strong white squared bishop white was more or less winning, and black lost the rest of his apetite
for the evening when presented a two pawns bill for overlooking one pseudo-sacrifice.
Hole got a promising Slav exchange variation as black, as Saulnier looked unsure about where
to place his pieces. The pawn symmetry still provided for a long game until Saulnier suddenly collapsed after 15 moves,
and shocked by an unpleasant b5-break first spent four minutes to decide sacrificing a piece and then more than half
an hour to search in vain for compensation. Still having only a pawn for the piece Saulnier resigned after only
19 moves. Hole got the first round point served at his board, while Saulnier enjoyed Gausdal much more than his game
of the first night.
After 60 moves a dramatic scene followed, as Poulsen in some mysterious way came to believe that
he would get half an hour more. Knudsen very sportily informed Poulsen about this when he had 30 seconds or so left.
Deep within his own plans Poulsen however failed to realize the horror of the words until he had less than five seconds
left. Knudsen even more sporty offered a draw. Shockingly enough Poulsen refused with about three seconds left for the
game and without any immediate mating chances. Frenetically denying to win the game on time, Knudsen made a last and
decisive try to save the confused Faroe player from himself, by sacrificing his rook to stalemate.
In contrast to the Kovalevsakaya-Karlsen-game, this was a Sicilian where white never found any
critical breakthrough on the kingside, while black soon advanced on the queenside in general and the b-file very
much in particular. As black had achieved a passed a-pawn AND a promising pressure against c3, he should be more or
less winning strategically after 30 moves – and then he also had an extra pawn. White’s desperate try to create
counterplay by f5 on the kingside turned out just to lose two more pawns and to open up around his own king by an
elegant Nxf5-Nd5 trick. Berning missed a sweet mate in three at move 40, but still looked very convincing in his first
Gausdal game.
This game was born as a closed Sicilian, in which the players cooperated to exchange queens and
some other pieces in a tricky way during the opening. The remaining parts of the position first looked fine to black,
but having exchanged one bishop to play with rooks and knights against rooks and bishop, white gradually increased the
pressure against black’s backward center pawns. Black was definitely wrong to exchange down into a single rook ending
in which white had the better rook and king. Black still claimed to have drawing chances as late as when having one
passed pawn against three, but it was at least very difficult then.
Hammer made a modest start with one of his slow and closed white set-ups, and for four hours
nothing much more exciting took place. The game finally accelerated in the fifth hour, as Harestad sacrificed his
queenside to attack with his remaining pieces on the kingside. Hammer might very well have had the better chances
for some moves, but having picked up two pawns he in the sixth hour of play found himself forced to give up an
exchange. Still Hammer reportedly had drawing chances, but following another defending miss the game finally ended
just after 01.30, when the white king was driven all the way up across the third, fourth and fifth rank, only to be
trapped on the same rank as the queen on the sixth.
This was lucky start for Nolsøe, who still shaken declared Larsen heavily underrated
after the game. White tried to blow away black’s Caro-Kann by a pawn storm on the kingside, but his play
seemed to be based upon a dubious exchange sacrifice which he then refused to test – leaving his own pawns
scattered and his own king the more exposed one. Larsen established a center advantage, but refused to exchange
queens and to use his attacking chances in the middlegame. As white helped by time managed to reactivate his pieces,
the position was probably about to become unclear when black wiped out himself on material and position by a mysterious
Ne3-jump. Immediately regaining his chess understanding, Larsen immediately resigned when facing queen exchange, pawn
losses and an overall bankrupt position after the critical Bxe3.
This started as a slow, closed and overall boring English, which suddenly accelerated when Valenti
gave up an exchange to get an extra pawn at d3 and the pair of bishops. Black’s compensation still looked airy
following a queen exchange, but as black still had an active pair of bishops and more then six hundred extra points of
ELO, white settled for a repetition of moves and a promising start regarding FIDE-ELO just after 20 moves.
Bjørgvik’s opening again was a not too brilliant self-made one, in which he weakened his kingside
pawn structure with h6 and exf6 within the first four moves. White’s center advantage and sound pieces later should
be more important than black’s pair of bishops, but instead of securing the advantage white blundered a pawn in a
Bb4-Qa5-pin. Following a queen exchange white’s compensation never looked convincing, and when he finally got back
the pawn black’s passed a- and c-pawns anyway were decisive when Unander blundered a bishop after 50 moves. Unander
looked far from his usual strength following ten hours of driving, and so Bjørgvik following four hours on a train
made a very promising start for his FIDE-ELO.
This was a mutually cowardly King’s Indian, where white kept an initiative despite playing b3, e3
and g3, as black played even more careful with a6-b6-c6-d6. White probably chose the wrong plan when playing on the
queenside with Rfd1-d5-Nd4-Nc6 instead of on the kingside with f4-f5, as the resulting c6-pawn turned out to be
an isolated pawn more than a passed pawn. Following the death of the pawn the players soon found themselves in a
queen and rook “endgame” in which black had an extra pawn and plenty of attacking room behind white’s advanced
kingside pawns. Black might have played for a mate, but at move 40 instead exchanged down into an easily winning pawn
endgame.
This game was played after second round, as Agopov arrived Norway six hours delayed due to a
misunderstanding between him and a German bus schedule, and as odd number substitute Bryn sr did not step in before
it was confirmed that Bojkov was prevented from coming. Agopov actually managed to exploit the delay, as he inspired
by Rozentalis’ fast win went for the same Ruy Lopez variation. Bryn handled it a little bit better than Ask, but the
weakened kingside pawns after gxf6 still gave white lasting attacking chances for a very low rent. After 20 moves
black had problems to save both f7 and h6, and having forced himself to give h6 with killing threats against the
king, Bryn ended the game humorously with a non-electric rook sacrifice at g2 before 25 moves.
|