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Later Kibitzing> |
| Jul-12-08 | | percyblakeney: Pretty finish by Shirov, an alternative line is <26. Qd2 Rh1+ 27. Bxh1 Qxh1+ 28. Ke2 Qf3+ 29. Ke1 e3 30. Qe2 exf2+ 31. Qxf2 Qe4+ 32. Qe2 Bh4+ 33. Kd2 Bg5+ 34. Ke1 Ne3> and white is lost in spite of being rook and exchange up:
click for larger view f4 and other bad things for white are coming up here and Shredder soon sees it as -4. <26. Qb2> loses to the same combination. |
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| Jul-12-08 | | messachess: Here's a game that looks like Shirov decided from move 1 that he was going to win it and he did. |
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| Jul-12-08 | | Mendrys: What an unusual and interesting game! After 20 g4
click for larger view Someone like me would probably rather be white. I wouldn't have guessed a rook for 3 pawns material imbalance just 3 moves later. That's something you don't see very often! I was thinking that Inarkiev was doing ok until 26. Ke1? and might have been fine after 26 Ke2 instead but then 26...Qh5+ and white is just as hopelessly lost. |
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Jul-12-08
 | | holland oats: Shirov comes through with fire on the board, nice. I can't see where white went wrong here, but it seems like he had no plan when Shirov grabbed the initiative with 20...Rxh3! Maybe 23.Qd2 gxf5 24.Re1 Rh4 25.Bg3 and white looks decent. Even a plan like marching the queenside pawns and attacking the king might have been better then moving his king around hopelessly. Also I did not like the maneuvering of the king's bishop on moves 14-15. The f1-a6 diagonal looked more promising to me, and if it was for defensive purposes then it must not have worked out at all. To be fair, Shirov's attack was a hard one to spot and even harder to find the right defensive moves against it. |
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| Jul-12-08 | | JonathanJ: after a little thinking my old fritz6 sees inarkiev lost after 26.ke2 |
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| Jul-12-08 | | Mendrys: I'm pretty sure he was already lost by the time he played 26. Ke1. CHECKMO II on PDP-8 thinks 26. Qa3 is the best move. I wouldn't trust it's judgment in such a complicated poisiton though. |
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Jul-12-08
 | | 4tmac: Another wild, fighting game! Just because Bologan and Sutovsky don't want to play, don't blame everybody. |
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Jul-13-08
 | | whiteshark: Also possible is <19...Nxd4 20.Rxd4 e5> 
click for larger viewe.g. <21.Nxe4 Nxe4 22.Rxe4 exf4 23.Rxf4 Rxc5  > 
click for larger viewWell there is no attack on white's king, so maybe Shirov did right to choose 19...Qd8. |
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Jul-13-08
 | | notyetagm: Wow, this is one of the best attacking games I have seen all year! Tremendous attacking play by Shirov!
And just think, Kramnik -NEVER- wins Black games, like all Black can ever hope to do is equalize and draw. Here Shirov shows you that Black is -MORE- than just ok. :-) |
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| Jul-13-08 | | Red October: what does this game have to do with Kramnik ? |
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| Jul-13-08 | | ounos: <Red October> usually the totally irrelevant references are to Fischer, so having Kramnik's name pop up from time to time isn't so bad :) |
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| Jul-13-08 | | Red October: true true |
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Jul-14-08
 | | Ulhumbrus: 20 g4 forks the R and N whereupon Shirov gives White a horrid shock by 20...Rxh3!! offering a Rook on h3 as well instead of losing a Knight. However Shirov does not offer the Rook for nothing, for on 21 Bxh3 Rxh3 Shirov gains a bishop in return for the Rook, so that on 22 gxf5 Shirov has sacrificed "only" a Rook instead of a Rook and Knight. This is an instructive point: when Shirov sacrifices his Rook in response to the fork, he offers to White not a Rook and Knight but only a Rook. In return for this Rook, after 22...Qh8 Shirov gains a terrifying attack on the h file. However it is not enough for an attack to be terrifying. It must also be winning. I think that in the present case the attack is also winning. Inarkiev declines the Rook by 21 gxf5 whereupon Shirov sacrifices the Rook a second time by 21...Rxc3! This time he offers a Rook in another way, by offering the exchange after having sacrificed a piece. This may be in Shirov's style. Ten years ago he may have had a reputation for playing like this, and he may have had it ever since as well. After 25...Qh8 Shirov has an attack on the h file, but is it enough this time? One variation is 26 Kg1 Rh5 27 f3 Bg5 28 Qc2 Be3+ 29 Kf1 Rh1+ 30 Ke2 Qh4 31 Rxh1 Qf2+ 32 Kd1 Nc3+! 33 Qxc3 Qd2 mate. In this variation 27 f3 disturbs the King side pawns and invites the check ..Be3+. Another variation is 26 a3 Rh5 27 Ra2 Bg5 28 Qc4 Bf4 29 Rc2 Rh2 30 b4 Qh4 31 b5 Bxe5 32 dxe5 Nf4 33 f3 e3 and the threat of ...Rh1+ seems to have no answer. One possible alternative for White is to attempt to return at least a part of the material by the manoeuvre Ra1-c1-c3 eg 26 Qc4 Bg5 27 Rc1 Bf4 28 Rc3 Rh2 29 Rg3 After 28..Qh4 29 Rc1 ( instead of 29 Ke2) 29...Bg5 30 Rc3 e3 declines the offer to return some of the material and on 31 Qe2 Nxc3 32 Qc2 Nxd1 Black has won material. 34...Rxf1+ sacrifices the Rook for the last time and White resigns. |
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Jul-14-08
| | notyetagm: <Ulhumbrus: 20 g4 forks the R and N whereupon Shirov gives White a horrid shock by 20...Rxh3!! offering a Rook on h3 as well instead of losing a Knight.> Very nice work.
Looks like one of -MY- explanationns, only without the diagrams. :-) |
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Jul-14-08
| | notyetagm: <Red October: what does this game have to do with Kramnik ?> I had been discussing with <percyblakeney> how Kramnik seems to view playing the Black pieces, that the best Black can hope to achieve is equality and a draw. <percyblakeney> showed that Kramnik has gone like <+0 -5 =23> in his last 28 Black games, an -INCREDIBLY- poor record for someone rated almost 2800. My point is that Shirov most certainly does not share Kramnik's attitude about playing Black. Here Shirov launches a ferocious attack with the Black pieces, demolishing a strong 2675-rated GM. |
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Jul-14-08
| | notyetagm: Position after 20 g3-g4
click for larger view<Ulhumbrus: 20 g4 forks the R and N whereupon Shirov gives White a horrid shock by 20...Rxh3!! offering a Rook on h3 as well instead of losing a Knight. 
click for larger viewHowever Shirov does not offer the Rook for nothing, for on 21 Bxh3 Rxh3 Shirov gains a bishop in return for the Rook, 
click for larger viewso that on 22 gxf5 Shirov has sacrificed "only" a Rook instead of a Rook and Knight. 
click for larger viewThis is an instructive point: when Shirov sacrifices his Rook in response to the fork, he offers to White not a Rook and Knight but only a Rook. In return for this Rook, after 22...Qh8 Shirov gains a terrifying attack on the h file. 
click for larger viewHowever it is not enough for an attack to be terrifying. It must also be winning. I think that in the present case the attack is also winning.> |
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| Jul-14-08 | | Bobsterman3000: Wow, that d5 knight "outpost" is a killer for black. Usually a knight outpost on the 5th rank is maintained to the advantage of a WHITE knight. Very aggressive and instructive play by Shirov. |
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Jul-15-08
| | notyetagm: <Bobsterman3000: Wow, that d5 knight "outpost" is a killer for black. Usually a knight outpost on the 5th rank is maintained to the advantage of a WHITE knight. Very aggressive and instructive play by Shirov.> Yes, an outstanding game by Shirov. |
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| Jul-15-08 | | euripides: A quick glance at the 'similar games' suggests that it is very unusual for White to play Nxg6 before Black has castled kingside. Faced by this provocation, I guess most of the top players would have played for a win, including Kramnik. |
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Jul-15-08
| | notyetagm: <euripides: A quick glance at the 'similar games' suggests that it is very unusual for White to play Nxg6 before Black has castled kingside. Faced by this provocation, I guess most of the top players would have played for a win, including Kramnik.> But would Kramnik have played that interesting maneuvre 8 ...  f6-e4!? and 9 ... e4-d6 which seemed to provoke 11 h4x g6?! ? |
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| Jul-15-08 | | euripides: <Notyet> that's a fair question; he played Bd6 in that position against Topalov. But Topalov might have come up with something better than Inarkiev did. |
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| Jul-17-08 | | Riverbeast: Very sexy, Alexei! |
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| Jul-18-08 | | mang00neg: holy moly this is nice. Tournament directors take note! |
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Jul-19-08
 | | IMlday: Instead of the odd 11.Nxg6 sensible looks 11.cxd5 followed by 12.Ba3 leaving Nxg6 until Black castles. |
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Jul-21-08
 | | Chessmensch: Kavalek discusses this game in his Washington Post chess column (July 21, 2008). http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy... |
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sac: 21...Rxc3