Round 3 2nd February 2002
Grandmaster B Report

"Whipper Snappers"

The Bermuda organizers definitely favor youth in their tournament. This was especially the case in the Grandmaster B group, where the average participant was aged 19.9 years old! Kind of sad for me, at age 23, who was older than any of the participants in the tournament! Fortunately I’m still nowhere near “time control”, eh, Mr. Henderson? As far as the tournament, it was a typical exciting affair. With 58% of the games being decisive, it was much tamer than the A group’s 69% decisive game result! As a Spanish journalist, I am of course very happy to see such statistics. Even happier were the winners.

21 year old GM Pawel Blehm of Poland won the event easily with a fantastic score of 7.5/9, only conceding draws to IMs Emanuel Berg, Gregory Shahade and WGM Elisabeth Paehtz. Already having shown his class by winning the Budapest Zonal in 2000 to earn the right to play in the FIDE Knockout in New Delhi, and the Polish Junior championship, Pawel improved on his past performance in Bermuda when he only achieved 5th place in the B group down the road at the Elbow Beach resort. Planning to attend university in the US, hopefully at the University of Texas at Dallas, Pawel will undoubtedly be someone who will be quickly recognized in the North American tournament circuit.

GM Pawel Blehm, winner of the Grandmaster B Tournament.

20 year old IM Emanuel Berg from Sweden made his North American debut a successful one. Gaining his first GM norm, he took clear second place in the event with his undefeated score of 6.5/9. Having just missed out on his 1st GM Norm in the 2001 Swedish Championships where he took second place to GM Evgenij Agrest, Berg’s score of 9/13 being half a point short of the GM Norm of 9.5/13, he didn’t make the mistake again, easily cruising a half point clear of the required score. Another bit of trivia: Berg was the only participant in the B group who is married! Sorry, ladies!

IM Emanuel Berg, who achieved a GM Norm and undefeated 2nd place.

Tied for 3-4 place, and gaining his second IM norm was Canada’s Pascal Charbonneau. Pascal wished to forget his 2001 performance, when he lost 4 of his last 6 games to finish out of norm contention. Here his only loss was to tournament winner Pawel Blehm. Pascal is planning to make a bit of a tour of events in the United States, and should wrap his IM title up sometime this year before the Bled Congress. Pascal achieved his first IM norm in the Istanbul Olympiad, where he represented the Canadian team.

FM Pascal Charbonneau, IM Norm and shared 3rd place.

In the Open, Board 1 again proved to be a bad board for reigning national champions to play on. Having seen the Canadian Champion knocked off on Board 1, we now see the current US Champion, Larry Christiansen succumbing to German IM Florian Handke, who has healed quite a bit from his moped accident yesterday. Notes based on comments by Larry Christiansen.

IM Florian Handke (2450) - GM Larry Christiansen (2571)
2002 Bermuda International Open (3), Southampton, February 2, 2002

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Bd3 Bc5 6.Nb3 Ba7 Does this variation even have a name? If so, I haven't heard of it. The idea is simple: put the bishop on the active g1-a7 diagonal. In doing so, you'll notice that it's very difficult to block the diagonal using pawns, owing to the d-pawn being gone and the pawn on e4. Therefore, the Bishop aims to control this diagonal, which will temporarily prevent the move f4 once the king is castled, as White will have to waste another move on the move Kh1. This variation has been popular, especially amongst German GMs Robert Huebner, Michael Bezold and Markus Stangl. 7.Nc3 [7.Qe2 Had been the move of choice in the past when Larry Christiansen played this variation in the early 1990's. Gavirkov, Wollf, Renet and Stefansson all played this immediately. It doesn't matter much as everything ends up transposing a few moves later.; 7.c4 Was the move of choice for GM Peter Leko when Kramnik essayed this opening against him in Wijk aan Zee 2000, reaching a draw after the following moves: 7...Nc6 8.Nc3 Nge7 9.0-0 0-0 10.Qe2 e5 11.Be3 Nd4 12.Bxd4 exd4 13.Nd5 d6 14.Rad1 Nc6 15.Kh1 Be6 16.f4 Re8 17.Qh5 g6 18.Qh6 Bxd5 19.exd5 Nb4 20.f5 Qe7 21.f6 1/2-1/2 Leko,P - Kramnik,V / Wijk aan Zee 2000] 7...Nc6 8.Qe2 This move has the idea of playing Be3 without allowing Black to ruin White's structure by playing Bxe3 fxe3. Although White gets the open f-file, some people just don't believe in the structure. Also the queen is eyeing the opposing king on e8, preventing some freeing moves, like d5. 8...d6 9.Be3 e5 Not the most common move in the position. Much more popular is the immediate development of the knight via 9. ... Nge7 or 9. ... Nf6. The text aims to really imbalance the position, true to Larry's style. 10.0-0 Nge7 11.Nd5N [11.Bxa7 Rxa7 12.a4 (12.f4 was the choice of another of the Bermuda Open participants, Marcin Kaminski 12...exf4 13.Rxf4 Ng6 14.Rff1 0-0 15.Nd5+/= Kaminski,M-Milov,V / Moscow 1994) 12...Be6 13.Bc4 0-0 14.Rfd1 Qc7 15.Bd5 Nb4 16.Bxe6 fxe6 17.a5+/= Short,N - Raupp,T / Germany 1988; 11.Rad1 0-0 12.Nd5 Be6 13.Bxa7 Rxa7 14.Qe3 b5 15.c3+/= Kotronias,V-Milov,V / Groningen 1997] 11...Be6 12.c4 Now White has a nice grip on the d5 square, however, Black has a d4 square for his pieces perhaps. 12...a5 With the idea of driving out the Knight on b3, gaining some queenside space, and forcing White to weaken the b4 square with his next move. 13.a4 0-0 14.Rfd1 Bxd5 15.cxd5 Nb4 16.Bxa7 Rxa7 17.Bb5 f5 18.f4

18...exf4?! Larry really did not like this move. "I should have never let him go e5" was his opinion. [Larry was of the opinion that he would be just fine after 18...Ng6 19.fxe5 Nxe5 20.exf5 Rxf5 21.Nd4 Rf6 when Black is very happy due to the good positions of his knights.] 19.e5 Kh8?? annotation is that of Christiansen, not me. [19...Qb6+ 20.Kh1 Rd8 was a huge improvement over the game.] 20.Nd4 Ra8 Played to get the "stupid" rook away from this a7 square, but sacrificing the exchange. 21.Ne6 Qb6+ 22.Kh1 h6 23.Nxf8 Rxf8 24.Rac1 Nexd5 25.Qf3 dxe5 26.Rxd5 e4? [Perhaps a better defence is the following: 26...Nxd5 27.Qxd5 Qe3 28.Rf1 b6 White should of course be winning, but it is 3 pawns for the piece. A stubborn defender such as Larry would make it as difficult as possible to win.] 27.Qa3+- This was the square Larry missed. The Queen on a3 pins the Black Knight due to the fact that the Rf8 is hanging. What follows now is Larry trying every possible trick in the book to confuse Handke. 27...Rf6 28.Rd7 Qf2 29.Rd8+ Kh7 30.Qb3 Kg6

A very funny concept! The wall of pawns on the kingside act as a bit of a shield to the Black king, which will be used in the attack against the White king! Unfortunately, Handke's extra rook proves too much. 31.Rf1 Qb6 32.Qg8 Kh5 33.Be2+ f3 34.gxf3 Qe3 35.Bb5 [35.Bd1 was simpler according to Christiansen] 35...Rg6 36.Be8 Qe2 37.Bxg6+ Funny, but this is the only legal move that doesn't lose! 37...Kg5 [Unfortunately, Larry's original idea of 37...Kh4 38.Rdd1 Kh3 fails to 39.Bxf5+ otherwise Black would checkmate the White king! So close, and yet so far.] 38.Rdd1 Nd3 He's still fighting down two rooks! Now some kind of perpetual check with Nf2+ may be threatened. 39.Rg1+ Kf4 40.Rxd3

A good move, leaving White with queen, rook and bishop versus queen. Black Resigned. 1-0

Final GM B Group Standings:

1:   GM  Pawel Blehm          POL  2535  7.5
2:   IM  Emanuel Berg         SWE  2500  6.5
3-4: FM  Pascal Charbonneau   CAN  2386  5.5
     GM  Dennis De Vreugt     NED  2446  5.5
5:   IM  Gregory Shahade      USA  2454  4.5
6:   WGM Elisabeth Paehtz     GER  2383  4
7-8: IM  Eugene Perelshteyn   USA  2451  3.5
     GM  Heikki Kallio        FIN  2522  3.5
9:   IM  Johann Alvarez       VEN  2379  3
10:  IM  Tomi Nyback          FIN  2448  1.5

You can reach John Fernandez via e-mail at jfernandez@jfern.com

The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of TWIC, Chess & Bridge Ltd or the London Chess Center.