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Chess by Malcolm Pein of the Daily Telegraph
 Malcolm Pein writes for the Daily Telegraph (telegraph.co.uk)
you can read his chess columns along with those of Nigel Short and David
Norwood at their new
Chess
Club (to read the columns you need to register which is free). Win
prizes in the Telegraph chess challenge on the Chess Club pages. 4th Round Tuesday, 25 Feb 2003. The fourth round at Linares was a dour affair as Francisco Vallejo Pons and Ruslan Ponomariov saved rotten positions with dogged defence. Potentially the best game of the day between world number three Vishy Anand and world champion Vladimir Kramnik fizzled out to a draw very quickly. Garry Kasparov had the bye this round and must have enjoyed the site of prospective opponents enduring such hard games. Peter Leko, who suffered at Kasparov's hands the day before, tortured Ruslan Ponomariov for 110 moves in an endgame with an extra pawn. Ponomariov's openings look poor and he was soon worse again with white and lost a pawn on move 35. He was able to cling on for another four hours because all the remaining pawns were on the same side of the board. Francisco Vallejo Pons provided the day's entertainment as he sacrificed two pawns and nearly blew the French Defence played by the fifteen year old Teimour Radjabov off the board. However with only his queen in play the youngster stirred up a lot of trouble in the rear of his opponent's position and emerged with a clear extra pawn. The saving grace for Vallejo was the slight weakness of the black king, which prevented Radjabov from organising his pieces. Linares round four The tournament is Fide category 20 with an average rating of 2733 Vallejo Pons draw Radjabov; French Defence MaCutcheon, 48; Ponomariov draw Leko, Sicilian Rossolimo, 110 Anand draw Kramnik, Sicilian Rossolimo, 16 Kasparov bye Scores: Kramnik (Russia) 2.5/4; Anand (India), Leko (Hungary) 2/3; Radjabov (Azerbaijan) 2/4; Vallejo Pons (Spain) 1.5/3; Kasparov (Russia) 1/3 Ponomariov 1/4; Ponomariov's 3.Bb5 also got nowhere against Leko in round four. In this game he is worse after 14. ..f5! With Kramnik set to storm the kingside Ponomariov breaks in the centre with 19.d4 but this only helps Kramnik's bishops. Ponomariov,R (2734) - Kramnik,V (2807) [B31] XX SuperGM Linares ESP (2), 23.02.2003 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 g6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.h3 Bg7 6.d3 Nf6 7.Nc3 Nd7 8.Be3 e5 9.Qd2 h6 10.0-0 Qe7 11.a3 Nf8 12.b4 Ne6 13.Na4 b6 14.Nh2 f5!  Kramnik is already better. 15.f3 f4 16.Bf2 h5 17.bxc5 b5 18.Nb2 g5 19.d4 Breaking in the centre but this seems to only help Kramnik's bishops. 19...exd4 20.Nd3 Nxc5 21.Nxc5 Qxc5 22.Rfd1 Be6 23.Qb4 Qb6 24.a4 c5 25.Qxb5+ Qxb5 26.axb5 Kf7 27.Ra5 Rhb8 28.Nf1 Be5 29.Rda1 d3 30.Rxa7+ Kf6 31.Rxa8 Rxa8 32.Rxa8 dxc2 33.Rf8+ Kg6 34.Re8 Kf7 35.Rf8+ Kg6 36.Re8 Bc4 37.Rxe5 c1Q 38.Rxc5 Qxf1+ 39.Kh2 Qxf2 40.Rxc4 g4  0-1 Ponomariov,R (2734) - Leko,P (2736) [B31] XX SuperGM Linares ESP (4), 25.02.2003 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 g6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.h3 Bg7 6.d3 Nf6 7.Nc3 0-0 8.Be3 b6 9.Qd2 e5 10.Bh6 Qd6 11.g4 Be6 12.Qe3 a5 13.Ne2 a4 14.a3 b5 15.Ng3 Ne8 16.0-0 f6 17.Nd2 Rd8 18.Bxg7 Nxg7 19.f4 exf4 20.Qxf4 Qxf4 21.Rxf4 c4 22.Rf3 Bc8 23.Ndf1 Ne6 24.Ne2 cxd3 25.Rxd3 Rxd3 26.cxd3 Rd8 27.Rc1 c5 28.Rc3 Ba6 29.Kf2 Rd6 30.b4 axb3 31.Rxb3 b4 32.axb4 Bxd3 33.bxc5 Nxc5 34.Rb8+ Kg7 35.Nfg3 Nxe4+ 36.Nxe4 Bxe4 37.Re8 Bd5 38.Re7+ Bf7 39.Ra7 Kf8 40.Ra8+ Be8 41.Ke3 Re6+ 42.Kf2 Re4 43.Nc3 Re5 44.Rd8 Kg7 45.Nd5 Bf7 46.Ne3 h5 47.Rd7 Kf8 48.Rc7 h4 49.Rc8+ Kg7 50.Rc7 Ra5 51.Kf3 Ra2 52.Ng2 Ra3+ 53.Ne3 Kf8 54.Rc8+ Ke7 55.Rc7+ Ke8 56.Kf2 Be6 57.Rc2 Ke7 58.Re2 Kf7 59.Rd2 Ra4 60.Kf3 Bc8 61.Rb2 Ra7 62.Kf2 Bb7 63.Ng2 g5 64.Ne1 Be4 65.Re2 Bd5 66.Re3 Ra4 67.Kg1 Be4 68.Nf3 Ra1+ 69.Kf2 Ra2+ 70.Kf1 Bd5 71.Kg1 Ra4 72.Ne1 Be6 73.Nf3 Ke7 74.Rd3 Bc4 75.Re3+ Be6 76.Rd3 Bc4 77.Re3+ Kd6 78.Nd4 Ra1+ 79.Kf2 Ra2+ 80.Kg1 Kc5 81.Nf5 Ra6 82.Kf2 Be6 83.Ng7 Bd5 84.Nf5 Kc4 85.Re2 Be6 86.Ng7 Bd7 87.Rd2 Bb5 88.Nf5 Kc5 89.Ne3 Bc6 90.Rc2+ Kd4 91.Nf5+ Ke5 92.Rc5+ Ke4 93.Rc4+ Kd5 94.Rc3 Ra2+ 95.Kg1 Bb5 96.Re3 Rd2 97.Ne7+ Kd4 98.Nf5+ Kd5 99.Ne7+ Kc5 100.Nf5 Bd3 101.Ng7 Rd1+ 102.Kf2 Kd4 103.Ne6+ Kc4 104.Ng7 Rd2+ 105.Kg1 Kd4 106.Re1 Be4 107.Nh5 f5 108.Ng7 fxg4 109.Ne6+ Kd5 110.Nxg5 Bf5 1/2-1/2 |
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| All material © Mark Crowther |
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