Malcolm Pein on Round 6 of Linares

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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 Chess Club (to read the columns you need to register which is free).

Round 6 February 25, 2004

Alexey Shirov duly defeated Teimour Radjabov the sixteen year old prodigy from Baku and joined Peter Leko in the lead on 3/5 after the sixth round at Linares. Shirov had no difficulty wrapping up the technical phase of the game in the fith hour of play, see below. The Spanish number one who hails from Latvia out-prepared the youngster Teimour Radjabov in the opening and after four hours play Shirov had reached a won endgame.

Shirov improved on a previous game of Radjabov's played four years ago and sacrificed first a rook for a bishop and a pawn and then another bishop. Radjabov's kingside defences were shredded and Shirov won back all his material to reach a position with queen and three pawns against two rooks and one pawn. With his king wide open Radjabov will be unable to defend against the advance of Shirov's connected passed pawns on the f and g files.

World number one Garry Kasparov outplayed world number six Veselin Topalov with black but the Bulgarian clung on in the endgame after a short time scramble. Kasparov managed to defuse his opponent's attacking ideas in the middlegame, generated his own threats and even won a pawn but Topalov, despite having to defend for a while kept one active rook and held the balance.

So far sixteen of the eighteen games have been drawn.

Round six results
Topalov draw Kasparov, Slav 4. ..a6, 36
Vallejo draw Leko, Scotch Game, 25
Shirov 1-0 Radjabov, King's Indian Classical, Bayonet Attack 9.b4

Scores: Shirov (Spain) 3/5, Leko (Hungary) 3/5; Kramnik (Russia) 2.5/5, Kasparov (Russia) 2.5/5, Vallejo Pons (Spain) 2.5/5, Topalov (Bulgaria) 2.5/5, Radjabov (Azerbaijan) 2/6;

Shirov and Leko are the only players to have won a game from the eighteen played and Radjabov is the only player to have lost.

Shirov,A (2736) - Radjabov,T (2656) [E97]
XXI SuperGM Linares ESP (6), 25.02.2004

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Be2 0-0 6.Nf3 e5 7.0-0 Nc6 8.d5 Ne7 9.b4 Nh5 10.Re1 f5 11.Ng5 Nf6 12.Bf3 c6 13.Bb2 h6 14.Ne6 Bxe6 15.dxe6 fxe4 16.Nxe4 Nxe4 17.Rxe4 d5 18.cxd5 cxd5 19.Rxe5! Bxe5 20.Bxe5 Qb6 21.Bb2! Novelty. [ 21.Qd2 Qxe6 ( 21...Kh7 22.Re1 a5 23.bxa5 Rxa5 24.Bd4 Qa6 25.Qb4 Re8 26.Be2 Ra4 27.Qb3 Qa8 28.Bc5 Re4 29.Rb1 Rxe6 30.Bf1 b6 31.Bxb6 Rb8 32.Qf3 Nf5 33.g4 Ng7 34.h4 Rbxb6 35.Rc1 Qxa2 36.Qg3 Qb3 0-1 Szeberenyi,A-Radjabov,T/Budapest HUN 2000 (36)) 22.Re1 Rxf3 23.gxf3 Nf5 24.Bg3 Qf7 25.Rc1 d4 ( 25...Rd8 26.Rc7 Rd7 27.Rc8+ Kh7 28.Be5 g5 29.f4 Nh4 30.Qd3+ Qf5 31.Qxf5+ Nxf5 32.fxg5 hxg5 33.Kf1 Nh6 34.Bb8 a6 35.Ke2 Kg6 36.Kd3 Nf5 37.f4 g4 38.Be5 Rh7 39.Rf8 Rh3+ 40.Kc2 Rxh2+ 41.Kb3 Rh3+ 42.Ka4 Ne3 43.b5 g3 44.Bd4 Nc2 45.f5+ Kg5 46.Bc5 g2 47.Rg8+ Kxf5 48.Rxg2 Rc3 49.bxa6 bxa6 50.Bf8 d4 51.Ka5 Rc6 52.Rh2 Ke4 53.Bh6 Ne3 54.Rh4+ Kd3 55.Rh3 Ke2 56.Rh2+ Kd3 57.Rh3 Ke2 58.Rh2+ 1/2-1/2 Malakhatko,V-Karpov,A/Simferopol 1997 (58)) 26.Rc7 Qd5 27.Qd3 Re8 28.a4 h5 29.Kg2 Qe6 30.Rxb7 h4 31.Rxa7 h3+ 32.Kg1 Qe1+ 33.Qf1 Nxg3 34.fxg3 Qe3+ 0-1 Nyback,T-Matthiesen,M/Copenhagen DEN 2003/The Week in Chess 454 (34). ] 21...Kh7 22.Qe2 d4 23.h4! Rf6 24.Re1 Qxb4 25.a3 Qd6 26.h5 Raf8 27.Qe4 Nc6 28.hxg6+ Kg7 29.Bc1!! Qe7 30.Bxh6+

30...Kxh6 31.Qh4+ Kxg6 32.Bxc6 bxc6 33.Re5! Qxe6 34.Rxe6 Rxe6 35.Qg4+ Kf7 36.Qxd4 a6 37.g4 Rg8 38.f3 Rf6 39.Kf2 Re8 40.Qc4+ Kg7 41.Qxa6 Ref8 42.Qd3 c5 43.a4 Ra8 44.Qc3 Kg6 45.Qxc5 Rfa6 46.Kg3 Rxa4 47.Qd6+ Kf7 48.g5 R8a6 49.Qd7+ Kg6 50.f4 Ra1 51.Qd3+ Kg7 52.Qd4+ Kg8 53.Kg4 R1a2 54.Qd8+ Kg7 55.Qc7+ Kg8 56.f5 Ra7 57.Qd8+ Kg7 58.f6+ Kh7 59.Qd3+ Kh8 60.Kf5 Ra8 61.Qh3+ Kg8 62.Kg6 R2a7 63.Qe6+ Kf8 64.Qd6+ Kg8 65.Qd5+ Kh8 66.Qh1+

1-0

Topalov,V (2735) - Kasparov,G (2831) [D15]
XXI SuperGM Linares ESP (6), 25.02.2004

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 a6 5.c5 Nbd7 6.Bf4 Nh5 7.Bg5 h6 8.Bd2 Nhf6 9.Qc2 [ 9.Bf4] 9...Qc7 [ 9...g6 10.g4 Qc7 11.g5 Nh5 12.e4 dxe4 13.Nxe4 hxg5 14.Nexg5 Ng7 15.Bc4 e6 16.0-0-0 Be7 17.Bxe6 Nxe6 18.Nxe6 fxe6 19.Qxg6+ Kd8 20.Ng5 Nf8 21.Nf7+ Kd7 22.Qe4 1/2-1/2 Lisko,F-Maros,M/SVK 2001/The Week in Chess 354 (22). ] 10.e4 dxe4 11.Nxe4 Nxe4 12.Qxe4 Nf6 13.Qc2 Be6 14.Bd3 Nd7 15.0-0 Bd5 16.Rfe1 e6 17.Ne5 Nxe5 18.dxe5 Be7 19.Rac1 0-0 20.Qa4 f5! 21.exf6 Bxf6 22.Qg4 Be5 23.h3 Bh2+ 24.Kf1 Qg3!