Vallejo leads in Italy after defeating Navara

[Javier]

Spanish GM Paco Vallejo is leading at Reggio Emilia. His game against Navara was quite nice.

Meanwhile Nigel Short lost his game against Caruana, who ended the Englishman's short lived 100% score.

The other games ended in draws.

 

[pgn][Event "53° Tornei di Capodanno"]

[site "Reggio Emilia/Italy"]

[Date "2010.12.30"]

[Round "3"]

[White "Vallejo Pons, Francisco"]

[black "Navara, David"]

[Result "1-0"]

[ECO "C69"]

[WhiteElo "2697"]

[blackElo "2731"]

[Annotator "Robot 4"]

[PlyCount "91"]

[EventDate "2010.??.??"]

[TimeControl "40/5400+30:1800+30"]

 

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. Nbd2 O-O 10. Qb3+ Kh8 11. h3 Bh5 12. Qxb7 Bf7 13. dxe5 fxe5 14. Nb3 Bc4

15. Rfd1 Rb8 16. Qa7 Ra8 17. Qb7 {Vallejo probably wanted to gain some

valuable clock time. David still has to decide whether he s happy with a draw

or not, and those decissions take time. White doesn t have to settle for a

draw though, he has an interesting exchange sac. This is what might have

happpened if Navara had decided to repeat the position} (17. Qc5 Bxb3 (17...

Bxc5 18. Rxd8 Rfxd8 19. Nxc5 Ng6 20. b3 Be2 21. Ng5) 18. axb3 Bxc5 19. Rxd8

Rfxd8 20. Bxc5 Ng6 21. Ra5 {With compensation for the exchange. black has a

lot of weak pawns...}) 17... Be2 {Complications now seem to favour white.} 18.

Nxe5 Qe8 (18... Bxd1 19. Rxd1 Qe8 20. Nc4 {With a good game for white.}) 19.

Rxd6 cxd6 20. Re1 dxe5 (20... Bb5 {This might have been an improvement.}) 21.

Rxe2 Ng6 22. Rd2 {With piece and 2 pawns for the rook and those weak black

pawns, white is on top.} Qe6 23. Nc5 Qxa2 24. Kh2 {No hurry to win back the

pawn.} Qc4 25. Rd7 Rab8 26. Qxc6 Rxb2 (26... Rfc8 27. Qd6) 27. Rxg7 Rfxf2 (

27... Kxg7 28. Ne6+ {Discovered check on the black Queen.} Qxe6 29. Qxe6 {

White is winning.}) 28. Bxf2 Rxf2 29. Qc8+ Kxg7 30. Ne6+ Qxe6 31. Qxe6 Rxg2+

32. Kh1 {The problem for black here is that c pawn...} Rg3 33. c4 Rc3 34. Qd7+

Kh8 35. h4 h5 (35... Rxc4 36. h5 Nf4 37. h6 Rc1+ 38. Kh2 Rc2+ 39. Kg1 Rg2+ 40.

Kh1 Rg8 41. Qf7 {And black is getting mated.}) 36. Qc8+ Kg7 37. Qd7+ Kh8 38.

Qd6 Kg7 39. c5 Rh3+ 40. Kg1 Rxh4 41. c6 Rg4+ 42. Kf2 Rf4+ 43. Ke3 Rf6 44. Qd8

Rf7 45. c7 Ne7 46. Qd6 {Very nice. Winning e5 before playing c8. Black

resigned.} 1-0

[/pgn]