Chess from Malcolm Pein Chess Tuesday May 22nd 2007

You have to hand it to Veselin Topalov, he is nothing if not a crowd pleaser. Yet again the Bulgarian GM has made an astonishing comeback after a bad start and this time he made it a hat-trick of victories at the MTel Masters in front of his home fans at Sofia.

In the tenth and last round Topalov outplayed Krisnan Sasikiran of India who led at start of play to finish half a point clear of the field.

This is Topalov’s tournament, the sponsorship was organised by his agent and the patron of the event is the Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov. The former Fide champion is a hero in Bulgaria.

England’s Michael Adams had another frustrating afternoon and spoiled an advantageous endgame against Kata Kamsky. Adams missed possible wins in three of his games with white, when you count his blunder against Sasikiran he could have won this tournament easily.

Final scores: 1 Topalov (Bulgaria) 5.5/10; 2-5 Sasikiran (India), Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan), Nisipeanu (Romania), Kamsky (USA) 5; 6 Adams (England)4.5;

Topalov,V (2772) - Sasikiran,K (2690) [E43]
MTel Sofia BUL (10), 20.05.2007
[IM Malcolm Pein]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 b6 5.Bd3 Bb7 6.Nf3 0-0 7.0-0 d5 8.a3 Bd6 9.cxd5 exd5 10.b4 Nbd7 11.b5! Qb3 is played more often. Tigran Petrosian and Viktor Korchnoi both showed that in this type of position if White can play b4-b5, a3-a4 and Ba3 to exchange dark squared bishops then Black/^s position becomes very passive. If dark bishops come off White may also be able to pressure c7 [11.Bb2 1-0 Ivanchuk,V (2714)-Piket,J (2619)/Monte Carlo MNC 1999 (60)] 11...Ne4 12.Bb2 Re8 Black must try and be active in the centre and on the kingside 13.a4 Re6 14.Ne2! a5?! [14...Rh6!? Threat Bxh2+ and Qh4] 15.Ba3 Rc8 16.Bxd6 cxd6 [16...Rxd6 17.Rc1 Rh6 would at least give White something to worry about for example the lax 18.Nf4 would be met by 18...g5 19.Ne2 g4 20.Nd2 Qh4] 17.Rc1 Ndf6 18.h3 Re7 19.Qb3 h6 20.Rxc8 Qxc8 21.Rc1 Rc7 22.Rxc7 Qxc7 23.Qc2 White is more than happy to play an endgame where Black has weak pawns 23...Qe7 24.Qc1! g6 25.Nh2 Kg7 26.h4 Ne8 27.f3 N4f6 28.Nf1 In this phase of the game White attacks the kingside as he is effectively a piece up, the Bb7 is out of play 28...h5 29.Nf4 Nd7 30.Qe1! Nf8 31.Qg3 Kh6 32.Nxh5!

A great practical shot as the time control approaches but there is an element of bluff 32...gxh5 [32...Kxh5 33.Qf4! g5 34.Ng3+ Kh6 35.Nf5+ Kh5 36.g4+ Kg6 37.Nxe7+ wins] 33.Qg8 f5 [33...Ng6 34.Bxg6 fxg6 35.Qh8+ Qh7 36.Qxe8 wins] 34.Ng3 Ng7 35.Bxf5 Ng6 36.Bxg6 Kxg6 37.Nxh5! Qxe3+ 38.Kh2 Qe7? [Black cracks, after 38...Qxd4 39.Kg3 Kh6! he survives] 39.Nf4+ Kf6 [39...Kf5 40.Qh7+ Kxf4 41.Qh6+ Kf5 42.g4# mate is the brilliant point] 40.g4 Now there is no stopping the kingside pawn avalanche 40...Qf7 41.Qd8+ Qe7 42.Qg8 Qf7 43.Qd8+ Qe7 44.Qxe7+ Kxe7 45.Kg3 Ne6 46.Nxe6 Kxe6 47.f4 Bc8 48.f5+ Kf7 49.h5 Bd7 50.h6 Kg8 51.Kf4 Be8 52.Kg5 Kf7 53.h7 Kg7 54.h8Q+ Kxh8 55.Kf6 Bxb5 56.Ke7 Bd3 57.f6 Bg6 58.f7 Bxf7 59.Kxf7 1-0