Vallejo 1 point ahead after beating Short

[Javier]

Vallejo is now a full point ahead of everyone else at Reggio Emilia after beating Short, whose play so far has not caused a good impression, despite his 2/2 in the first 2 rounds.

 

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

[site "Reggio Emilia"]

[Date "2010.12.31"]

[Round "4"]

[White "Short, Nigel D"]

[black "Vallejo Pons, Francisco"]

[Result "0-1"]

[ECO "C11"]

[WhiteElo "2690"]

[blackElo "2697"]

[Annotator "Robot 3"]

[PlyCount "78"]

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

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

 

1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 {It s not so much that Short does not believe that

the Tarrasch variation is good for white, it is probably more a case of him

thinking that he has better chances of unbalancing the game with 3.Nc3.} Nf6 4.

e5 Nfd7 5. f4 c5 6. Nf3 Nc6 7. Ne2 Be7 8. c3 a5 9. h4 O-O 10. Rh3 f6 11. a3 Rf7

{Stricly speaking, a novelty. There is one obscure game played back in 1965

where black chose ...b5 instead.} (11... b5 12. Ng3 Ba6 13. Bd3 Qe8 14. Qe2 c4

15. Bc2 Nd8 16. f5 Qf7 17. Ng5 fxg5 18. hxg5 Nxe5 19. dxe5 Bc5 20. Rxh7 exf5

21. Bxf5 Nc6 22. Qg4 Rfe8 23. g6 Rxe5+ 24. Kd1 Qe8 25. Bg5 {1-0 Grecuccio,

N-Mattheys,E (1965)/Bilzen 2004/CBM 100 ext}) 12. Be3 Nb6 13. b3 Qf8 14. Qb1 a4

15. dxc5 Bxc5 16. Bxc5 Qxc5 17. b4 Qf8 18. Ned4 {White seems to have secured

control of important central squares.} fxe5 19. Nxc6 {But now comes a little

surprise...} e4 {!!} (19... bxc6 20. fxe5 (20. Nxe5 Rxf4 21. Bd3 g6)) 20. Nce5

Rxf4 21. Nh2 Qf5 22. Neg4 Rxf1+ 23. Nxf1 Qxg4 {The exchange sacrifice has lead

to a position which favours black without any doubt. c4 square, central pawns,

but more important of all, the bishop on c8, normally a nightmare for black in

the French, can now be activated easily...} 24. Ne3 Qg6 25. Kf2 {Nigel, you

cant do that in every game and get away with it! lol.} e5 {The problem with

this is not just that the c8-h3 diagonal gets opened, but the fact that d5-d4

is gonna be pretty hard to stop} 26. Rg3 Qf6+ 27. Kg1 Be6 (27... d4 {But this

would be premature!} 28. cxd4 exd4 29. Qxe4 dxe3 30. Rf1 {And black is in very

serious trouble. For example:} Qd8 31. Rxg7+ {!! it works.} Kxg7 32. Qe5+ Kg6 (

32... Kg8 33. Qg3+ Kh8 34. Rf7) 33. Qg3+ Kh6 (33... Kh5 34. Rf7) 34. Rf8 {!!

with a winning attack for white.}) 28. Qe1 Rf8 29. Rd1 Kh8 {Threatening to

take on h4, which was not possible now due to the discovered check Rxg7.} 30.

h5 Qh4 31. c4 {White was running out of moves} d4 32. c5 Nc4 33. Nf1 Qxh5 {

Black is winning now. Those central pawns are just too strong.} 34. Rc1 e3 35.

b5 e4 36. Qb4 e2 37. Nh2 Qf5 38. Nf3 Qf4 39. Qe1 Qe3+ {And Short resigned.} 0-1[/pgn]

 

There was one other victory today. Godena was struggling with the black pieces against Gashimov's incisive Ruy Lopez. This is how it ended:

 

 

30. Ne7+! and black resigned.