Gausdal Bygger’n Masters 2005
THE LAHLUM ROUND REPORT (PART NINE)
Magic Magnus running into a positional exchange sacrifice from GM Ralf Åkesson came under pressure as black today, but demonstrating himself as an excellent defender he during mutual time trouble gave up his queen to reach a drawn endgame after 40 moves. Magnus failing to win today also failed to pass 2600 and his performance looped just below 2792. But still it was of course by far his best performance ever, lifting his ELO to an all time high (so far...) of 2595 :-). As the third board meeting Kulaots-Antic was a short draw and the second board meeting Dobrov-Burmakin was an even shorter draw, not much changed in the top during round nine: Magnus won an unshared first prize a full point ahead of Dobrov at 7,0/9, while Kulaots and Burmakin shared the third and fourth prize at 6,5/9. The fifth and sixth prize at 6,0/9 were shared between GMs Dejan Antic, Ralf Åkesson and Stellan Brynell - and not to forget also FM Øystein Hole. Hole still qualified as the winner of round nine, as he made his third IM-norm after winning a very dramatic six hours and 92 moves battle against IM Jean-Luc Seret! Hole's norm became the only one of this tournament, as FM Geir Sune Tallaksen despite a promising opening advantage in the end had to watch out not to lose against FM Simon Silseth.
And then, following one last Gausdal lunch, the hotel doors closed behind even another Gausdal tournament :-(. The organiser will use this last chance to thank all participants for an exciting tournament, still conducted in a very friendly and sporty atmosphere. Even larger thanks to our sponsor Bygger'n and to the Arnold J. Eikrem Memorial Fund for their much needed financial help, and to various helpful chessfriends, especially Eirik T. Gullaksen, Tarjei Svensen and the Bentsen brothers, for all their practical help.
The organiser also uses the chance to apologize to the chess internet crowd out there that the live games unfortunately had to take some time outs during round nine and some earlier rounds. Almost all those time outs however came as a result of server problems outside the organiser's reach, the main problem being simply that much too many wanted to follow the games live - more than half a million daily visitor clicks reportedly was registered during the second half of this tournament!! We will of course try to make sure the internet coverage will work out even better next time, but still the only way to be sure you catch all the exciting moments is to be present at Gausdal 23.04-01.05.2006 :-).
GM Ralf ÅKESSON 2486 - GM Magnus CARLSEN 2570 1/2 - 1/2
Magnus when making a speedy arrival five minutes delayed for his last game had two pleasant surprises: First his unshared first prize was granted as Dobrov and Burmakin had already left, and second black came ahead instead of behind on the clock as Åkesson still had not arrived. When Åkesson arrived the game started as an English double fianchetto, in which black got a space advantage by realizing e5 and e4 before 15 moves. White however took back the initiative by sacrificing an exchange at f1 move 18, giving him a pawn, a centre advantage, a pair of bishops and f-file pressure. It sounds like more than sufficient compensation, and probably was, especially as white tricked his bishop around to the d5-outpost with an instructive Bf1-Ba6-Bb7-Bd5-manoeuver. Demonstrating that he has grown as a defender too a concentrated Magnus however succeeded to keep his position together, and was well in the game when Åkesson failing to find any breakthrough suddenly had ten moves left to do in one minute. During mutual time trouble black gave up his queen for rook and knight, leading to a position with queen, bishop and five pawns against two rooks, knight and five pawns. It was still considered better for white by nervous Norwegian chessfans, as white still appeared to have some chances for a kingside attack. Anti-nervous Magnus having two rooks able to hunt white's queen around from the first rank however had no worries at this stage, and Åkesson following a long thought at move 41 sacrificed his bishop at f6 to force a perpetual check. Åkesson's result in this tournament was his worst Gausdal result in this century, but still he continues his march back towards 2500. While Magnus following this draw dropped his ELO-performance just below 2800, but still knocks on the door to 2600 after gaining 20 more points from his best result ever. That is, so far of course - while we are all waiting with great excitement for your next moves....
GM Vladimir DOBROV 2515 - GM Vladimir BURMAKIN 2508 1/2 - 1/2
15 moves, Caro-Kann. The two Russian GMs were unhappy having to play each other this round, and as they still had to the outcome was not much of a surprise when it came after about four minutes.... As Kulaots failed to win, this result gave unshared second prize for Dobrov and shared third for Burmakin, both earning some point of ELO too on their first Gausdal tournament.
GM Kaido KULATOS 2558 - GM Dejan ANTIC 2519 1/2 - 1/2
Following the short draw between the Russians Kulaots' knew he could reach a shared second prize if winning as white, and the crowd has some expectations for this game as Antic also could reach a shared third prize if winning. The game however made a dry start as a closed Ruy Lopez with 3.--- Nf6, and still only one set of knights and one set of pawns were exchanged when a draw was agreed in a balanced postion after 20 moves. Kulaots being the only undefeated player except Magnus following this finished shared third and won four points of ELO, while Antic shared fifth prize and lost one point of ELO - everything well in accordance with expectations.
GM Stellan BRYNELL 2496 - GM
Arnaud HAUCHARD 2483 1/2 - 1/2
The questions following this Queen's indian with 4.--- Ba6, were about a somewhat double-edged bishop at c4. As a tatical exchange of the bishop left white with a queen at a6 and black with a pawn at c3, black looked better for some moves, but before 30 moves the players had exchanged all down to a rook endgame in which white had an extra pawn but much too bad a structure to play on for a win. "Below hoped" and slightly below expected score for both - but still I guess not much of a surprise as Brynell seeded seventh finished seventh, while Hauchard seeded ninth finished ninth...
IM Jean-Luc SERET 2391 - FM
Øystein HOLE 2336 0 - 1
The
last game to finish of Bygger'n Masters 2005 also became the great drama of
round nine. The curtains finally went down as Øystein Hole needing a win for
his third IM-norm, mated his opponent at move 92 - with both players having few
seconds left for the game. Well before that Seret again got nothing as white
from his slow King's Indian Advance set up. Black playing a4 and c4 had a space
advantage on the queenside and the better bishops, but still had a hard time to
create winning chances with a symmetric King's pawn centre. Not much more
except exchanges happened before 50 moves, leaving a balanced and still closed
queen and knight endgame still with seven pawns on each side. Hole still
playing for a win probably overreacted when exchanging knights, giving up a
pawn to intervene with his queen on g1. Admitting that black after 60 moves was
willing to accept a repetition of moves, but white instead returned the pawn to
advance his passed b-pawn. As white's passed b-pawn was exchanged against
black's passed h-pawn, the queen endgame with queen, a-, c-. e- and f-pawn versus
queen, a-, c-, f- and g-pawn again seemed very drawish. Hole again played for a
win, giving up his c-pawn and f-pawn to establish a passed a-pawn. At move 80
the end still seemed close as black's passed pawn had reached a2, while white
had a straightforward perpetual check between h4 and e7. Seret playing for a
win despite having very few minutes left on the clock instead "checked
in" black's final kingside pawn, allowing the black king to escape around
to f1. White playing with three pawns against one still was better until he at
move 88 allowed black to play Qb3, after which white could no longer hold back
the a2-pawn. Seret when offering a draw the next move was lost, and despite
having less than one minute left for the game Hole played on and efficiently
used his chance for a mate in one at move 92. Seret until the bitter end of
this tournament wasted too many chances to save his ELO. But still all
remaining congratulations to Hole for his third IM-norm (and the second one
from Gausdal), after which he is missing "only" about 25 points (=
1,5 Gausdal tournaments) to get the title! Not aware that his opponent
needed a win to reach his third IM-norm, Seret
reportedly was surprised how much some Norwegians were willing to risk for 7.5
ELO points and a prize of 75 EUROs...
FM Geir Sune TALLAKSEN 2350 - FM Simon SILSETH 2328 1/2 - 1/2
Both
players had 5 out of 8 before this last round, but while Silseth had much too
weak opponents for any norm chances, Tallaksen still could just make an IM-norm
in winning as white. Black first seemed fine at least in a very expected Dutch
Leningrad duel, but white came better as black for no reason gave up his white
squared bishop for a knight at e4. ("It was a mistake" reportedly was
Silseth's answer when he was asked to explain this move.) Later white's
position seemed promising as he had first the pair of bishops and then the much
better pawn structure. As a junior Geir Sune however was never to come closer
to an IM-norm than a preferrable position with queen, two rooks, bishop and
five pawns against queen, two rooks, knight and five pawns in this game.
Exchanging the queens probably was a mistake, as Silseth in the following rooks
and minor piece endgame succeeded to demonstrate that none of his three
isolated pawns were actually exposed. As white lost further touch somewhere in
between move 30 and 35, black armed with a passed c-pawn was the one to refuse
a draw and play for a win in the rook endgame at move 35. After 40 moves both
players looked satsified for a while as white believed the endgame to be a dead
draw, while black believed it to be a clearcut win. White later gave away one
tempo for no reason as he played his king from f3 to g4 via f4, but still had
the one tempo needed to sacrifice his rook for black's c-pawn and run with his
king and h-pawn. 5,5/9 with a performance of 2319 was very much back to normal
for Silseth, while Geir Sune still having no IM-norm continues his "slow
rush" towards 2400. Now leaving
GM Lars KARLSSON 2501 - Håkon
BENTSEN 2158 1 - 0
Chronically unpredictable Karlsson had a nice take-off with his Bird today, as awkward knight exchanges from black left him with weak pawns at e4 and c6. Black succeeded saving both pawns but then instead had to give white the d-file, and the GM putting his rook on d6 and the queen at e5 by simple means demonstrated a decisive attack before 30 moves. The younger Bentsen brother despite this hard landing is knocking on the door to 2200 following a performance close to 2300 in this tournament, while Karlsson despite this nice win did well below the expectations created by his recent successful results.
FM Torbjørn RINGDAL HANSEN
2323 - Bertil SVENDSEN 2205 1 - 0
Black came fine from this English Four Knights, with a pleasant file pressure against white's backward d3-pawn. The advantage seemed obvious as black having realized g5-g4 for some moves played with an extra pawn at h3 and some attacking chances. The tide turned suddenly between move 30 and 40 as black failed to come up with anything concrete on the kingside, while white hit back in the centre by realizing d4 and d5. Having underestimated the dangers until the pawn was at d5 black then felt forced to give up a piece, and later helpfully exchanged down to a hopeless endgame with rook and five pawns against rook, bishop and three. 5,5/9 sounds fine from a Torbjørn point of view, but having played only one opponent above 2250 he actually had an underscore of nearly a full point and continues his fall towards 2300. While Svendsen having wasted his chances today landed exactly as expected with 4,5/9 and an increase of 0,3 ELO-points.
Stein Arild AARLAND 2278 -
Øyvind BENTSEN 2146 1/2 - 1/2
Following
a modest start with an English Botvinnik, this game suddenly accelerated as white
went for a kingside attack with f4-f5. Trying to counter the threat against Be6
with Qb6+ black ran into a thematic 11.c5 Qxc5+ 12.d4 exd4 13.Na4, and had to
give up a piece for insufficient compensation. Having only one pawn for the
piece black seemed totally lost in the middlegame after 20 moves as well as in
the rook and minor piece endgame after 30. Aarland mentally well back in
Odin BLIKRA VEA 2090 - Sjur
FERKINGSTAD 2239 0 - 1
This meeting between two emigrants from the West coast not too unexpectedly went to Ferkingstad following a jumpy battle. Blikra Vea's 16.Ne5 was demonstrated much too loose as he within a few moves lost his new e5-pawn. As white was playing with his king at f1 and the rook at h1 out of play he did not have much compensation, and after exchanging queens black after 28 moves played a sound pawn up in a rooks and bishop endgame. Much too satisfied with himself Ferkingstad immediately overlooked a tactical rook sacrifice, after which the bishop endgame with four pawns on each side should be drawish. Just as I thought Blikra Vea might be about to overcome his endgame problems, he however forced himself into a lost pawn endgame by trapping his own bishop at a8. Ferkingstad again using his endgame chances efficiently nearly saved his ELO despite the troublesome start, while Blikra Vea despite wasting his chances today is closer to 2100 than ever before. What a talent he would have been only some 150 years ago...
Rune MYHRVOLD 2164 - Thomas THOMASSEN 2077 1 - 0
White got no real kingside attack from this Sicilian Four Knights, but his slight initiative remained more important than black's pair of bishops in the middle game. Black's ambitious g5 and f4 during such circumstances turned out just to weaken his kingside, and having snatched a pawn at a7 white was anyway clearly winning when black just before 40 moves overlooked a decisive kingside attack. Finishing off the tournament a rook up after 40 moves in this game, Myhrvold in this Gausdal come-back finally turned his long time falling curve. While daddy Thomassen following a slow start and a collapse in round nine finished around average, despite demonstrating potential for much more during round 4-8.
FM Jon Ludvig HAMMER 2278 -
GM Heikki WESTERINEN 2410 1/2 - 1/2
Jon Ludvig's 2.Nf3 and 3.Nc3 again transposed into a Classical French, in which black playing with a pair of bishops had no problems following an early queen exchange. Having successfully transposed his white squared bishop around to g6 black could very well play on after 22 moves, but still having a very long road to winning chances which could still not give any money prize, Heikki understandably finished off this tournament when getting the chance. Following diappointing play from earlier rounds, both players were guaranteed to lose ELO before this game started. Westerinen lost most as it ended, but Hammer still aged 15 has more reason to worry about his downgoing trend so far in 2005.
Lars BREIVIK 2236 - WFM Jessie GILBERT 2148 1 - 0
Breivik is much too tough to play this Colle system, which today brought him a roughly balanced isolani position. As black had given herself a backward pawn at e6 white probably was a little better after 20 moves, but still it was very much a game until black overlooked a flashy Nb4 winning an exchange by trapping black's rook at d5. Getting one pawn and nothing more for the exchange, Gilbert again seriously short of time without too many protests drifted into a hopeless knight versus rook endgame. Breivik an exchange and a pawn up after 41 moves after all nearly saved his ELO in this tournament, which he himself proclaimed horrifying regarding the quality of his play. While the end for now unfortunately was fairly typical for Gilbert's tournament, as she missed too many tactics and ran too short of time to defend her ELO.
Sigmund REPPEN 1916 - FM
Felix NORDSTRÖM 2184 1/2 - 1/2
White's play was a bit misunderstood in this Caro-Kann with 3.--- dxe4, as he turned out having sacrificed a queenside pawn to misplace his pieces on a kingside offering no real attacking chances. For some reason believing white had an attack black however did not go on to pick up the second queenside pawn, but instead retrated his queen to e7 to cover up non-existing threats. Still playing a sound pawn up first with queen, rook, knight and six versus queen, rook, knight and five and then in the rook and knight endgame, black definitely should have something better than the rook endgame reached after 40 moves. Black still had a pawn more in this endgame, but as his extra pawn was a much too advanced b4 pawn needing babysitting all the time, black probably made a qualified decision to offer a draw at move 51. Reppen of course accepting immediately could start celebrating a performance of nearly 2200, reportedly gaining him a tournament record of nearly 70 ELO points. While Nordström following his promising start had too many pole outs in the second half of this tournament, but still turned the long time trend of losing ELO.
Joachim THOMASSEN 1963 - Øystein BØYUM FOSSUM 2247 1/2 - 1/2
Thomassen junior obviously satisfied with his result tried to bore down black with an English fianchetto. And succeeded, as Bøyum Fossum having exchanged two minor pieces without getting any advantage accepted a draw offer instead of making his move 16. Still aged 15 Thomassen junior succeeded to prove himself still underrated with a nice plus result. While Bøyum Fossum really should have tried to limit his loss by trying to defeat lower rated opponents in the second half of this tournament - as he not doing so in the end lost a disasterous 36 points.... I am very impressed the nice and gentle young man still never lost his smile...
WIM Heather RICHARDS 2239 - Joar G. PETTERSEN 2050 1 - 0
I
did not believe it possible to lose that fast and that ugly in a
Nicolai GETZ 1913 - Frode URKEDAL 2141 0 - 1
Remarkably interesting and exciting for being between two Norwegians being 25 years taken together, the outcome still became as expected for now in this Sicilian Scheveningen. As white's aggressive try for a pawnstorm on the kingside failed, black came better having the centre and chances for an attack against white's king on c1. Black made the game more exciting than necessary as he at move 23 preferred a creative e4-break to a simple and probably winning b3. Having sacrificed the e-pawn for some moves to play two pawns down, Urkedal however got the necessary help to raise a killing attack well before 40 moves. Promising result and nice wins in both rating system for both players - and hopefully not the last Gausdal tournament for any of them.
Johannes KVISLA 2123 - Espen HAUGSTAD (1607) 1/2 - 1/2
This meeting between two more upcoming stars of tomorrow on the other hand did not get an expected result, although the outcome was much less surprising at the end of this week than it would have been in the beginning of it. White got some space advantage and a pair of bishops from this Grünfeld, but the position deadlocked as black's solid blockade on d6 prevented white from advancing his d5-pawn Having exchanged all minor pieces white playing with a passed pawn at d5 could still play on from the final position, but true enough he still had a very long way to go create any winning chances. Unrated Haugstad qualifying for a FIDE-ELO of 2046 definitely qualifies among the winners of this tournament, while Kvisla following his recent advances definitely had ambitions for more.
Emil AGDESTEIN 2057 - Terje LIE (1178) 1 - 0
Black appeared fine for the first 10 moves in this Pirc, but following a premature d5-break white came clearly better with a pair of bishops, the better pawn structure and chances for a kingside attack. Instead of winning a pawn with a probably winning position by exchanging queens at e5 at move 19, white however exchanged the queens at b6 five moves later, repairing black's pawn structure without winning any pawn. Following this, on board after 30 moves was a very drawish endgame with rook, bishop and six pawns on each side. Although black was wrong to exchange the rooks, even the bishop endgame probably was drawn - until black placed his king too far away from the queenside, allowing white to transpose his bishop around to b6 and then escort in the passed a-pawn. Playing with bishop for a queen from move 50 on black very well could have resigned long before move 92, but on the other hand of course white could have played faster and/or for a mate earlier on.... 4,5/9 for Agdestein sounds promising, but having won the last two rounds he actually made a score just about expected. While Lie seeded 52 and finishing 41 with an ELO-norm of 1900 can be well satisified with his best tournament result so far, especially taking into account that his play although still somewhat unstable was much better this time.
Per JOHANSSON 2005 - Tarjei SVENSEN 2112 0 - 1
Allowed to place his bishop at d6 and realize e5 early, black had no problems from this Catalan opening. To the contrary black held a slight initiative from around move 15, and having exchanged the white fianchetto bishop at g2 even got some chances for a kingside attack. Johansson having a solid position however defended well for a long time, and having exchanged all the minor pieces he should still have excellent drawing chances when playing with queen, two rooks and five pawns on each side. Having played inaccurately the last moves before 40, white at move 41 however exchanged queens to land in a difficult rook endgame, in which black having the more active king elegantly realized the win just after 60 moves. Johansson stopped short of his expected score as he in this and several other hard fought games failed to convert his chances, but had no reason to be dissatisfied with his play. While Svensen despite the round eight tragedy, following this ninth round triumph once more made an ELO plus out of this - beside his duties as a bulletin slave.
Kristian AANDAL 1941 - Christian HARSTAD 2078 1 - 0
Having spent most of his last evening at Gausdal trying to convince everyone within reach how great this Grüfeld exchange line with Qc7 would work out against Aandal, Harstad lost some prestige in addition to some ELO as he was unable to prove it over the board.... Having established a centre advantage with d4-d5 and a nice square for a minor piece at d4 white appeared pleasantly better before 20 moves, and black's search for counterplay with h6-g5 turned out just to weaken his kingside. As Harstad again was about to run short of time, Aandal still looking relaxed came up with nice attacking play, and was about a ton of material up when black looking a bit confused at move 36 just managed to stop the clock before losing on time... Aandal following this nice win gained some more points of FIDE-ELO to end whistling on a happy note, as he much better than many other players succeeded turning the tide following a very difficult start. While Harstad went the other way around following a reasonable (if still somewhat jumpy) start, and seems to lose in 2005 nearly everything gained in 2004.
Kevin WHITE 2069 - Håkon ASTRUP 1943 1/2 - 1/2
7 moves, English fianchetto. It did not come as a surprise, especially not as White had an early plane to reach. White having a hard time to reach winning chances finished nearly a full point below his expected score, while Astrup thanks to his modest ELO actually won a few points on this average result.
Jarle NILSEN (1632) - Henrik SJØL (1656) 1 - 0
Nilsen
until the end continued first to play the very tame
Askild BRYN 2019 - Ellen CARLSEN 1866 1/2 - 1/2
9 moves, closed Sicilian. Bryn was expected to play for limiting his ELO-loss today, but obviously not in a mood to fight today he offered after 9.h3. Well ahead on the clock and having no problems on the board Ellen could very well play on, but declared herself well satisfied with 3,0/9 and a performance close to 2000 - for now.
Jan Arne BJØRGVIK 2119 -
Anders HOBBER 1915 1 - 0
For a long time this generation battle was considered a given draw. Starting as a very symmetric Russian, it remained symmetric with a slight e-file initiative for white all into the queen and rook position (meaning for the first 17 moves). When later (meaning at move 18) exchanging the queens at g6 black accepted a slight disrupting of his kingside pawn structure, but still the rook endgame should be safely within the drawing borders. Although being a remarkably mature and talented 11 year old, Anders still is an 11 year old: Playing too fast and becoming too eager to finish off the game he first entered the pawn endgame much too early, then fatally weakened his kingside by playing f5, and then definitely lost it by exchanging at e4. Bjørgvik accurately demonstrating why black's isolated double g-pawns was a decisive weakness in the pawn endgame, finally got his win in round nine - and then did fine compared to his Norwegian rating, although not unexpectedly losing some if his ELO. Anders definitely reached the top of his tournament when defeating his first opponent ever above 2200 in round one, but although two draws for the last eight rounds were disappointing the total became a modest plus regarding FIDE-ELO.
Håkon
White in this Scotch Gambit
line is allowed to sacrifice his bishop at f7 and win back the bishop at c5,
but still has to prove compensation for a pawn. Just about to do this,