Saturday, January 24, 2009

Nigel Short In Sole First So Far At Corus (Group B)

The 71st Corus Tournament is presently going on. It is usually divided into three groups. In Group B, at the time of this post, Nigel Short is thus far solely in first place. Here is one of his wins from the tournament:

Dimitri Reinderman vs Nigel Short
Corus (Group B) 2009
Spanish Game: Exchange. Gligoric Variation

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Bxc6 dxc6 5. O-O f6 6. d4 Bg4 7. c3 Bd6 8. Be3 Ne7 9. dxe5 fxe5 10. c4 c5 11. b4 b6 12. bxc5 bxc5 13. Nbd2 O-O 14. Qa4 Ng6 15. Kh1 Qe7 16. Ne1 Nf4 17. f3 Bd7 18. Qa5 Rf6 19. Rf2 Rh6 20. Nf1 g5 21. g4 Rh3 22. Ng3 h5 23. gxh5 Rf8 24. Qd2 Qf7 25. Rc1 Be6 26. Bxf4 exf4 27. Nf5 Bxf5 28. exf5 Qxf5 29. Nd3 g4 30. Qe2 g3 31. Rg2 Qxh5 32. Qe6+ Kg7 33. Rcc2


Position after White's 33rd move



The actual game continued: 33 ... Re8 34. Qd5 Qxd5 35. cxd5 Re3 36. Nf2 Re1+ 37. Rg1 Rxh2+ 0-1. A stronger 33rd move for Black is 33...Qxf3 and play could then go 34.Ne1 Rxh2+ 35.Kg1 Rh1+ 36.Kxh1 Qf1+ 37.Rg1 Rh8+ and mate to follow.

From A Game I Played

A game I played, playing White, against a program, set at one of the lower levels, went: 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. c4 e6 5. Nc3 Ne7 6. Nf3 Bg4 7. h3 Bxf3 8. Qxf3 dxc4 9. Be3 Nd5 10. Bxc4 Bb4 11. 0-0 Nxc3 12. bxc3 Bxc3 13. Rab1 Qc7 14. Rfc1 Ba5 15. Qg4 Kf8 16. Rb2 Nd7 17. Rcb1 Bb6 18. Bd2 Rd8 19. a4 Rb8 20. a5 Bxa5 21. Bxa5 Qxa5 22. Rxb7 Rxb7 23. Rxb7

I think the resulting position is interesting. I am a pawn down, but have an advanatge in space and time. According to the computer evaluations, the position actually is winning for White:


Position after White's 23rd move