| Apr-21-09 | | Bears092: how about 17. Bxe5 followed by 18. Bxb5
is there anything in that? |
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Apr-21-09
 | | Dr. Funkenstein: Wow, great underpromotion at the end that somehow both stops the threatened perpetual check and threatens mate at the same time |
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| Apr-21-09 | | braimondi: Very nice pawn promotion ;) |
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Apr-21-09
 | | luzhin: In fact Akopian could have immediately played the winning king march (followed by the underpromotion) by playing 54.a7 etc. But who can blame him for using Q checks to spend more time to consider the position? Karjakin's 22...bxc4 looked very odd: after that his position was totally rigid. |
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Apr-21-09
| | luzhin: Bears092: Unfortunately after 17.Bxe5 Bxe5 18.Bxb5 axb5 19.Qxa8 Qxa8 20.Nc7+ Kd7 21.Nxa8 Kc6 Black will capture the wandering Knight and his two extra Bishops are much better than White's extra Rook. |
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Apr-21-09
 | | JointheArmy: Nice underpromotion that forces Karjakin to resign. |
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| Apr-21-09 | | Augalv: Commentary at: http://karjakin.blogspot.com/ |
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| Apr-22-09 | | arsen387: <The representative of the older generation (who had also been a young star someday) gave a perfect lesson to the young and brilliant opponent. Maybe Karjakin simply underestimated Akopian and decided to play against him beyond the acceptable risk.
Perhaps judging Sergey’s novelty 16…b5 by a single game is irresponsible, especially considering that ‘Karjakin-made’ opening ideas are usually of the highest quality. However, Akopian used simple and logical means to parry Black’s threats, and obtained a lasting advantage.
Vladimir converted this advantage in a classic way. The excellent 31.Qc7! deserves special attention.
In the endgame White sacrificed a bishop (51.Qb5!) and advanced his passed a-pawn. Here began the most interesting part! Usually players always queen their pawns without giving a proper thought to underpromotion. However, in this case the automatic 71.a8Q? only led to a perpetual check. By promoting his pawn to the knight, Akopian defended his king and created irresistible threats to the opponent’s monarch!
An excellent victory!> GM Shipov, http://nalchik2009.fide.com/round-6... really very beautiful win by Akopian, the best of the tournament so far, at least for me |
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| Apr-22-09 | | Alphastar: 78. a8=N is excellent. |
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| Apr-24-09 | | syracrophy: The  underpromotion at his best
click for larger view<MATE IN THREE>
1.a8=!
click for larger view<MATE IN THREE>
<1.a8= ? fails to 1...c5+ 2. a7 b7!. Another resource is missing...> 1.a8=! |
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| May-12-09 | | Mateo: <luzhin: In fact Akopian could have immediately played the winning king march (followed by the underpromotion) by playing 54.a7 etc. But who can blame him for using Q checks to spend more time to consider the position? Karjakin's 22...bxc4 looked very odd: after that his position was totally rigid.> The other move was 22...Qxc4. However, after 23.Qxg5 Bxd5 24.Qxd5, White won a pawn too. As a matter of fact, it should be noticed that the natural move 21...Nc4 loses a pawn. |
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sac: 51.Qb5