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“Man over board!” was reported towards the end of the first hour in the second round in the GM-group. It soon turned
out the board was number 11 - and the man was GM Yuri Solodovnichenko (2566)!
Playing black against 17 year old Italian
Pier Luigi Basso (2322), the sixth seeded GM from Ukraine snatched a pawn at e2 in a very open English line –
and drove into a dangerous attacking line without his seat belt on. Black’s much too careless 11.--- e6? was
immediately punished by 12.Bf3! Bg6 13.Bxc6+!. The sacrifice at c6 was the end of the FM’s preparation,
but also the end of the GM’s position.
White was completely winning after crashing in on f7 in the next move, and Basso in an inspired mood made all the best moves
to complete the attack in just 23 moves. Truly a great game by the young Italian, suddenly ahead of schedule for an
IM-norm after this win. The game at the same time also demonstrated how exposed even strong Grandmasters today are to preparations,
especially with black. Solodovnichenko was not well enough prepared, made one move too fast – and had no chance to save the game.
Following this firework start, the round however soon slowed down. The fourth board meeting between GM Maxim Turov (2586) and
IM Anita Gara (2322) true enough made an interesting start with a Queen’s Gambit Tarrasch. After all the center pawns were
exchanged white had a pair of bishops, but if the bishops could have given him any lasting advantage Turov failed to find out how.
When playing 17.Ba6?! white somehow overlooked a very disturbing Nf5, and allowed to exchange her knight for the bishop at e3 black
suddenly had the better pawn structure. Turov pulled the emergency brake by exchanging down to a drawn rook endgame, which was buried
after 22 moves. Nice start by Gara, but lame from Turov and not too exciting for anyone else.
Third board between IM Goran Djurovic (2408) and GM Peter Prohaszka (2588) for the first 15 moves was a very closed Slav with all
32 pieces still on the board. The position suddenly opened as black played f6 followed by e5, but the result was a symmetric position in
which the open d-file could be used only to exchange rooks. Black offered a draw at move 28, and white did not hesitate to accept.
Expectations were raised for a hard fought fifth board game, as FM Joachim B. Nilsen (2363) arrived in his Real Madrid jersey and
GM Gabor Papp in his Barcelona jersey (2559). The game however was a rather tame Queen’s gambit in which the c-file gave white a
slight initiative. As the players were not interested in risking anything more, in a position where white was slightly better and black a GM,
a draw was discreetly agreed by repetition of moves just before 30 moves.
Sixth board between GM Jan Werle (2523) and FM Lars Oskar Hauge (2322) lasted somewhat longer and became somewhat more interesting,
as Hauge playing black in a Classical King’s Indian established a pawn on d4 and got some initiative after blocking white’s a-pawn.
Laidback Werle still did not have too many problems exchanging down to a balanced position with queen, rook, different colored bishops
and six pawns on each side – which was quietly drawn by repetition of moves just after 30 moves.
The first two boards lasted into the fifth hour, but still without getting any winners. First seeded GM Andrei Istratescu (2653),
today playing black against 15 year old IM Benjamin Gledura (2414), around move 25-35 was clearly better on the clock as well as on the board.
Sacrificing a pawn at a5 was a promising plan for black, but 32.--- Nd4?! afterwards was too eager as white could play 33.Nxe4! which he did –
and so the game within a few moves exchanged down to a dead drawn endgame with rook, bishop and two pawns on each side.
Second seeded GM Evgeny Romanov (2647) might have been slightly better after exchanging queens at e7 before move 10,
but gave opponent Fabrizio Bellia (2408) all the help needed to activate his pieces in the early middle game. Black later
held a pressure for 20 moves. But as he failed ever to make anything concrete out of his initiative, the result became only
another drawish rook and minor piece endgame.
In short the Italians had a good day, but the GMs a disappointing one: All six GMs winning yesterday played a draw today.
So did the highest rated IM, as Rasmus Svane (2506) failed to win a promising middle game position as black against FM Benjamin Arvola (2318).
A pawn up on the board, but short of time on the clock after 30 moves, black failed to find anything better than a drawn endgame with rook and
three kingside pawns versus rook and two kingside pawns...
Svane continued to play it for some 40 moves, but still not having made any kind of progress at move 98 he took the hint and offered a draw.
The first player to reach 2/2 was Hungarian IM Miklos Galyas (2421), paired against the field’s lowest rated player Christian Harstad (2002)
since Harstad got a full point from a walk over yesterday. As white after 1.d4 d6 2.c4 e5 did not want to exchange queens to be slightly
worse after four moves, he instead played 3.Nf3. Galyas accelerated with 3.--- e4 4.Ng5 f5 and got a promising kingside initiative without
risking anything on the queenside. Black was clearly better when allowed to park his knight on f4 after 22 moves, and his position
definitely turned winning as white gave up his important black-squared bishop to exchange the knight. The remaining eight moves were a dark-squared
massacre leading to a white-square nightmare – and a merciful mate.
The second player to reach 2/2 was the 19 year old Danish IM Mads Andersen (2470). It took him one and a half hour more,
as first round surprise man Svetoslav Mihajlov (2154) gave him a much harder fight. Chances looked about equal from the Ruy Lopez opening,
and still close to equal in the endgame with one rook, two minor pieces and four pawns on each side. Although white had two bishops,
black still had the board’s best bishop as well as the better pawn structure. 31.Be3? probably was the decisive mistake from white,
allowing black to pick up a pawn at b2 and turn the endgame into a torture chamber. The pains were shortened as white made some more
mistakes after 40 moves, allowing Mr efficient Andersen to complete the game by a direct attack against the white king.
Confident play by both Galyas and Andersen so far, but both still are only on schedule as none of them have played any opponent above 2200 so far.
During my 15 years as organizer for GM-qualifying Swiss tournaments, I cannot remember any other tournament with more than 40 players out of
whom only two players reach 2/2. This field however is unusually strong and tight, and we can probably expect a very close run for the prizes
during the next seven rounds.
In the shadow of the top boards, the Norwegian title norm candidates overall had a good round. IM Frode Elsness (2465) won within two hours
against first round surprise man Kenneth Einarsen (2106), as black fatally opened the position for white’s pieces in a Catalan.
Having exchanged the queens at d8, lost an exchange at a8 and still playing with his bishop stuck at c8, Einarsen resigned after 17 moves.
Although the game lasted 51 moves, IM Aryan Tari (2456) also had reasonable control as white against the 14 year old Whiz-Kid Johannes Haug (2194).
White kept a space and center advantage all the way (black obviously should have considered that danger before playing a Grünfeld Indian opening),
and started a decisive kingside attack in the fourth hour.
IM Torbjørn Ringdal Hansen (2476) had to play well into the sixth hour, but had first a positional edge from the opening and then 1-2 extra pawns
against Vijan Pranav (2197). Although the talented player from India in the endgame got some counterplay based upon his passed b-pawn,
Torbjørn and his pair of bishops dominated the board.
Today’s best Norwegian result was produced by Frode Lillevold (2199), defending a slightly worse position into a draw as black against
GM Eduardas Rozentalis (2615). Playing with a passed d-pawn, white appeared to have some chances around move 20-30. The flashy 24.Re8+
however resulted only in some more exchanges, and after queens too were exchanged the passed d-pawn gave white only a slight plus.
Rozentalis stubbornly played on until nearly 60 moves, but Lillevold defended very well and in the end could sacrifice his rook on white’s
new passed pawn – forcing the draw with king and h-pawn versus rook and offside king.
On the final boards IM Alexandru Manea (2368) just recovered from his first round loss, scraping the win out of a rook endgame with an extra
pawn against WFM Hanne Goossens (2187). Colorful Goossens, who played first board for Belgium’s women team in the Tromsø Olympics,
today went for an ambitious pawn storm on the kingside. The offensive however backfired as the advanced pawns were nothing but weak in
the endgame after queens were exchanged. The rook endgame following this probably was just winning for black, as he had both an
extra pawn and the more active pieces.
FM Lars Hjelmås (2302) on the other hand had a strong pressure as white in a Grünfeld Indian endgame against 14 year old
Sondre Merkesvik (2179). Merkesvik however defended well and in the end succeeded raising an opposite-colored bishop fortress.
A surprise among two Norwegians was FM Richard Bjerke (2172) defeating IM Petter Haugli (2277) in 27 moves. After all the rooks were exchanged
in a French Tarrasch, Bjerke made the better calculations in a still complex struggle with queen and three minor pieces on each side.
Bjerke aged 56 however still is capable of producing game surprises – and Haugli aged 55 still is uneven.
Curiously, the game between FM Sebastian Mihajlov (2257) and Alf Roger Andersen (2170) was the second Mihajlov-Andersen game in this group this round.
This Mihajlov somehow tried to defeat this Andersen by his own means, sacrificing a pawn at move two to castle long and go for a kingside attack.
The game became unclear as black had a disturbing pair of bishops and sacrificed some pawns for counterplay on the queenside.
White however played 2-3 pawns up with a kingside attack, and the game was definitely decided as Andersen in his usual time cramp blundered a piece.
At move 39 black lost on time one piece and four pawns down; at move 40 white still completed the attack with a mate.
WIM Nagarajan Raghavi (2253) according to WIM Nagarajan Raghavi played better when losing with white yesterday than she did when winning
as black today, but still won more or less convincingly against Francisco Gonzalez (2130). A tight Classical Nimzo Indian duel looked better
for black as she placed a knight on c4 in move 27, but turned tactical as white realized the e4-advance just afterwards. In an overall messy
position Raghavi made the better calculations when sacrificing an exchange at f5 in move 34, and Gonzalez resigned three moves later
as he was losing a least two pieces for a rook with a bankrupt position.
Ludy Sousa (2228) and FM Johnny Wieweg (2140) following a rare Ruy Lopez line with 3.--- g6 played a tight positional game for three hours.
Wieweg again kept his play up for a long while, but again lost a time trouble duel – this time following a too loose sacrifice on c3.
Sousa made the better calculations the next moves, and playing with two pieces for a rook he before 40 moves had a winning attack.
The game between Eivind X. Djurhuus (2105) and Gunnar Berg Hanssen (2204) meanwhile was a Reti opening duel, in which white after
establishing a passed pawn at e5 looked better in the middle game. Black however got some counterplay after parking his knight on the e4 outpost,
and white soon ran into tactical problems after snatching a poisoned pawn at a7.
The last board game between Paul Wallace (2200) and Jens Hjort Kjølberg (2058) was a first-class exciting King’s Gambit duel,
in which white first sacrificed a pawn and then blundered an exchange. Although white’s barking bishops remained disturbing,
black got a counterattack and anyway was winning when white’s king after 40 moves stumbled into decisive threats.
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