The Newest Bulgarian Grandmaster

At the beginning of March a very strong open tournament took place in Macedonia. It was won by the Croatian GM Kozul and overall eight players tied for the first place.
The tournament was though memorable for a participant who scored half a point less, but who obtained his final GM norm. This was Petar Arnaudov from Bulgaria, a very original and unpredictable player with entertaining style of play.



He was very kind to annotate one of his efforts from the event for the readers of the blog:
Arnaudov,G (2468) - Damljanovic,B (2562) [A30]
Karpos Open 2013 Skopje MKD (3.15), 10.03.2013
[Petar Arnaudov]
Karpos Open in Skopije was a really strong and excellently organized tournament. It will also be quite a memorable event for me since I managed to achieve my last GM norm.After two easy wins in the first two rounds, I faced in round 3 Serbian chess legend GM B. Damljianovic.

1.Nf3 c5 [Now my preparation was over :)This was our second game for the day and I did not have much time to prepare. Branco is famous for his fighting spirit and his main weapon is The Kings Indian Defense which I mainly expected. ]

2.c4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e6 4.g3 b6 5.Bg2 Bb7 6.0–0 a6 [This is not the main move but it is perfectly playable. Hedgehog expert S.Shipov recommends 6...Be7 which is more flexible]

7.b3



This is quite an interesting system which I prepared some months ago and this is my first game in it. I have tried 7.d4 and 7.Re1 many times in the past.]

7...d6 8.Bb2 Nbd7 9.d4 [9.e3 Be7 10.d4 This is the main theory, which is also quite interesting.]

9...cxd4 10.Nxd4!? [This was the first critical moment in the game. If Q:d4 we will be in a well known variation where black should be quite OK. The key difference between this position and the one after 7.d4 cd 8.N:d4 (which is quite harmless and black equalizes easily) is that Black cannot play the idea Qc8 and Nc6. Now the N cannot come to c6 and Black should be very careful to maintain the balance. White plan is very simple e3, f4 and Qf3.]

10...Bxg2 11.Kxg2 Rc8 [11...Qc7!? 12.e3 Qb7+ 13.Qf3 Qxf3+ 14.Nxf3+/=



this position is very unpleasant for black who do not have any counter play.]

12.e3 h5?! [My opinion is that this is too optimistic and just bad.]

13.f4! [This move is quite strong and unexpected for my opponent. I believe that here he understood that his position is dangerous. Maybe he was hoping for :

[13.h4? Be7= where the g4 square is very weak; Or- 13.h3 Qc7 14.f4 Nc5 15.Qf3 Nd3 16.Ba3 d5 with unclear play.]

13...Be7 [This move comes after 60 !!! minutes of thinking. It is clear that white has won the opening battle.]

[13...h4!? If black continues with his idea, 14.g4 h3+ 15.Kh1І the pawn on h3 seems very weak]

14.Qf3 Qc7 15.h3!



I like this move a lot. Now If black castles, g4 will come and the black king will feel unsafe.Black has no useful moves here. On the other hand, White can increase the pressure with Rd1, Rf2-d2, Ba3]

15...Rg8?! [This move came as a shock for me, I did not consider it at all. Now the very experienced Grandmaster tries to confuse me, he threatens g5 attempting to take control over e5 square. Pushing the pawn to g4 is also a possible threat. I think that after this move Black's position is strategically lost.]

[15...0–0 16.g4 g6 17.Rad1 Nc5 18.g5 Ne8 19.f5± this is just one variation which shows how dangerous blacks position is]

16.Ne4 [I like this move, despite the fact that computer does not agree with me .]

[16.Rad1 g5 17.fxg5 Ne5 (17...Rxg5 18.Ne4 Rg6 19.Nxf6+ Nxf6 20.Ne2 e5 21.Nc3 +/=) 18.Qf4 Nfd7 19.h4± Nf8 these variations look quite good for white, but I did not want to give any chance to black to complicate matters. I believe that his position is strategically lost and I do not want to allow him any chances for a dynamic play.]

16...g6 [16...Nxe4 17.Qxe4 g5 18.fxg5 Rxg5



19.Rxf7! Kxf7 20.Rf1++–]

17.Nxf6+ Bxf6 18.Rad1 [The rule "Exchange minor pieces if you lack space" is not valid here. So the trades of two minor pieces can only be in White's favour.]

18...Bg7 19.Rd2 [Prophylactics, Black has no counter-play and now I prepared to double on the d-file and in the same time protect the bishop just in case.]

19...Nc5 20.Ba3!



Now b4-b5 is a threat]

[20.Rfd1? This automatic move would be a mistake here because : 20...f5! and black has good chances.]

20...Bf8 21.Rfd1 Be7 [21...Qb7 22.Bxc5 Qxf3+ 23.Nxf3 dxc5 (23...bxc5 24.Ng5; 23...Rxc5 24.Ng5) ]

22.b4 [Now everything is ready to for the final effort and blacks position collapses very quickly.]

22...Na4 [22...Nb7 23.Rc2 +/=]

23.b5 g5 [the last try to complicate matters.]

24.fxg5 [But I had 1 hour against 30 seconds here and I had enough time to find the best moves and to finish my opponent.]

24...Rxg5 25.bxa6 Qxc4 26.a7 Qd5 27.Nc6 Qxf3+ 28.Kxf3 Nc5 29.Nb8



Very elegant finish. Now a8 -Q is coming, so my opponent resigned. I am very proud of this game, the fact that I outplayed so convincingly such a famous and experienced Grandmaster. I believe that this is one of my best games so far.Finally I finished the tournament with 6.5 from 9 with 2643 performance which achieved me my final GM norm.]

1–0

This little something…

It became a good tradition that the last round of the Belgium Interclubs is played on the same venue and that the teams are gathered together for the big finale.
This year the final was especially thrilling as the title had to be decided in the final encounter between the teams of Amay and Wirtzfeld. The latter was hosting the round and the former is my current team. We were leading by a two point margin, but Wirtzfeld had a better tie-break. In Belgium match point system is applied and the winner of an encounter receives two points, while the draw earns one point for each squad. However, individual points are also counted and they are the first additional criterion. Belgians found a clever system to fight the no-show-ups. An individual win is counted as three points for the team, a draw is two points, and loss brings one point. The tricky part is that a player who does not come for the game receives zero points. Thus, a 4-4 result might not always mean equal match as one of the teams might lose a game on forfeit. So far it seems as the system works perfectly and none tries to save on the expenses of foreign players for example.



We did a great season and very few expected our result. I have played for Amay for almost a decade now and saw the team rise from third division to top division and a chance for a title. In the last years the squad was strengthened with young and perspective players, like Giri, Khairulin, van Kampen, Bok, etc. The team atmosphere is great and all of us enjoy our meetings.
As the final clash was approaching, the team bosses tried to propitiate the chess Gods with sacral promises. Jean Marie Gheury from our team promised to run all the way back from Wirtzfeld to Amay (which is about 120-140 km), Victor Schleck promised to walk all the way to the West coast of Belgium (approximately 260 km). Jean Marie is a long-distance runner besides chess player and Victor Schleck already walked to Echternach in Luxembourg after Wirtzfeld’s first title.
While driving to the game we had to climb a slope which our glorious member lbert called the Belgium Mountains. “Is it like 1000 meters above the sea level?” I asked. “No”- he replied with a proud expression- “800 meters!” It was not that funny though once that we almost got stuck some two kilometers before the venue.
I guess that it was not funny at all for Andrey Sumets who had flight delay and managed to pop up for the game just two minutes before the time was over. With a sprint and sigh of relief for all the Wirtzfeld supporters he made the move and pressed the clock. Soon after his game was led to a draw as well were the games on the first three boards. By that time though it seemed as the host team is in control as E. Postny got large advantage straight from the opening against his country man V. Mikhalevski. The time deficit made things worse for the latter; he missed a tactical blow and had to resign.
We had a chance to equalize on board seven where Ilja Zaragatsky had an overwhelming position against Van der Doel, but the Dutchman managed to hold the golden half point. Thus Wirtzfeld won the match and the biggest trophy!
The winning team was represented this day by the Grandmasters Naiditsch, Khenkin, Fridman, Postny, Istratescu, Sumets, der Doel, Winants. This is not their best line up though. Their top seeds Svidler and Ivanchuk are competing at the Candidates at the moment which speaks of the value of the team!
The match for the third place between Eynatten 1 and Fontaine was won convincingly by the many-year’s champion Eynatten who together with the top two teams received the right to represent Belgium at the European Club Cup in Greece in October.
On the bottom of the table two teams met in direct encounter for survival. Zottegem was held to a draw by the team of Deurne and had to part with first division.

Results by tables here
Ranking here

Three Combinations

While browsing the old tournaments I spotted a couple of nice combinations from the Berkeley open 2011. In the first one Timur Gareev show his usual creativity:
Gareev,T (2605) - Ravichandran,Si (2458)
Berkeley, 2011



1.d7! Qe6 2.d8N! Qe7 [Or: 2...Bxf4 3.Nxe6+ fxe6 4.gxf4]3.Qd2+–

The second one saw a very curious break.
Yankovsky,R (2359) - Naroditsky,D (2419)
Berkeley, 2011



1.Bxg5! fxg5 2.f6!!



2...gxf6 [2...Bxf6 3.Nf5 Be7 4.Nxg7+ Kd7 (4...Kf8 5.Nf5 Bxe4 6.Bxe4 Rxe4+ 7.Kd2 Rf4 8.g7+ Kf7 9.Nxe7 Kxg7 10.Rxd6+–) 5.Nf5 Bxe4 6.Bxe4 Rxe4+ 7.Kd2 Bf8 8.Rxd6+ Bxd6 (8...Ke8 9.Rxa6+–) 9.g7 Rf4 10.Nxd6+–]

3.Nf5 Bxe4 4.Bxe4 Rxe4+ 5.Kd2 Rf4 6.Rh3 Rxf5 7.Rh8+ Kd7 8.g7



1–0 (the lines are given by S. Velickovic)
As a desert I would like to share a combination which one of my students missed recently:



25.Nxf5! gxf5 26.Reg1 Rag8



27.Rh7+!! Rxh7 [27...Kf8 28.Rxh8 Rxh8 29.Qg7+ Ke8 30.Qxh8+ Kf7 31.Qg7+ Ke8 32.Qg8#]

28.Qxg8+ Kf6 29.Qxh7 and White wins.

Farewell, Julian

One of my bright memories that I have about Julian is the tournament in Ferrol (Spain) some years ago. The event was coming to its end and a bunch of Bulgarian players were sitting outside the restaurant before the final round, having lunch.
Julian was co-sharing the lead in the event and had the white pieces against the future GM Ilmars Starostits from Latvia. The latter needed a draw to achieve his final norm. None was deeply surprised to see Julian having a beer at lunch. After all, a draw would be good for everyone in this situation.
We went to the hall, the games started. Starostits was late. He then came, made ten moves and offered a draw. To our surprise it was rejected. Julian won quickly (did not spend more than an hour on his clock and twenty five moves for the game). He then explained that his opponent did not pay the needed respect (came late) and offered the draw too late (he had already messed the things up).
Had the Latvian come in time he would have achieved the desired draw as Julian was too good a person to spoil anyone’s happiness. On the other hand his perception of right and wrong and the way that he was understanding things in life was very clear, and the gentleman behavior- a law.
16-th of February was a black day for the Bulgarian chess. Our most modest, honorable and pure friend GM Julian Radulski passed away at the age of forty.
He was always a model person in behavior towards the game of chess and the people in general. Quiet, calm and respective towards his opponents, he would always find a good word for his adversary, no matter how good (bad) that person played.
I have the feeling that this was one of the main reasons for him not to achieve the maximum of his enormous knowledge and strength. Ever since I remember him he was rated around 2500-2550 but the respect that he had towards the names was somehow limiting him.
In the last two years though, he started trusting himself. He understood how strong he is. And the results were spectacular.
I already mentioned the tournament in Ferrol, but forgot to add that he won this even three times in a row, without losing a single game. He shared the win at the prestigious Linares open 2002 with 7.5/10, came third at Cappelle la Grand open 2010, won the strong Miguel Najdorf Memorial (Warsaw Poland) 2010 and many others.
In 2011 after winning many national team titles he was also crowned as a Bulgarian Individual Champion.
He lifted his rating above the 2600 mark and could improve further...
Julian was always very loyal to the clubs that he represented and would do the best for the team. At the Olympiad in 2002 he scored 9/13 for the Bulgarian squad, when out of these games he played seven with the black pieces!
I can spend days describing you in detail the many good things he did and caused in our chess community, the respect that people had to him.
But let now leave the chess pieces speak with his own words:

Ivanchuk,Vassily (2716) - Radulski,Julian (2497) [C97]
EU-ch 5th Antalya (1), 15.05.2004
[Wedberg]

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0–0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 Na5 9.Bc2 c5 10.d4 Qc7 11.d5 Bd7 12.b3 0–0 13.h3 Nb7



[13...c4 14.b4 Nb7 15.Be3 a5 16.a3 axb4 17.cxb4 c3 18.Bg5 h6 19.Bxf6 Bxf6 20.Re3 Rfc8 21.Nxc3+– 1–0 Kasparov,G-Comp Meph Experimental/Hamburg 1985/EXT 2002 (55)]

14.c4 [14.Nbd2 g6 (14...a5 15.Nf1 a4 16.Bg5 h6 17.Bd2 axb3 18.axb3 Rfb8 19.g4‚ 1–0 Kozlov,S-Pokazaniev,N/Smolensk 2001/EXT 2002 (48)) 15.Nf1 Ne8 16.Bh6 Ng7 17.Ng3 f6 18.Nh2 Nd8 19.f4 Nf7 20.Bxg7 Kxg7 21.f5І 1–0 Livshits,R-Lesiege,A/Canada 1992/EXT 98 (53); 14.a4 Rfb8 15.Na3 Ne8 16.Qe2 Nd8= 1/2–1/2 Hracek,Z-Nikolic,P/Selfoss 2002/CBM 92 (24); 14.Be3 a5 15.Nbd2 b4 16.c4 a4 17.g4 axb3 18.axb3 Na5 19.Nf1 Ra7 20.g5‚ 1–0 Berzina, I-Petrovich,I/Paris 1998/EXT 2000 (30); 14.c4 b4 15.Nbd2 Ne8 16.Nf1 g6 17.Bh6 Ng7 18.g4 f6 19.Ng3 1/2–1/2 Kasparov,G-Matanovic,A/Banja Luka 1979/EXT 99 (19); 14.a4 Rfb8 15.Na3 Ne8 16.Qe2 Nd8 17.Bd2 g6 18.Nh2 f6 19.c4 bxa4 20.bxa4 Nf7 21.Ng4 Bf8 22.Bc3 Qd8 23.Ne3 Bh6 24.Nb1 1/2–1/2 Hracek, Z-Nikolic,P/Selfoss 2002/CBM 92 (24)]

14...Rfe8 [14...b4 15.Nbd2 Ne8 16.Nf1 g6 17.Bh6 Ng7 18.g4 f6 19.Ng3 1/2–1/2 Kasparov,G-Matanovic,A/Banja Luka 1979/EXT 99 (19)]

15.Nc3 [15.Nbd2 is more standard.]

15...g6 16.Bd2 Bf8 17.g4



White starts the classical K-side attack, but in this game things develop in quite an unusual fashion. As we will see the combination of Nc3 and g4 works against White here.]

17...h5! 18.Nh2 [18.g5 Nh7 looks drawish.]

18...b4! 19.Na4 [Without this N on the K-side White's expansion with g4 lacks punch.]

19...hxg4 20.hxg4 Be7! 21.Nb2 Kg7!



Black is quick to seize his chance. As it turns out he gets the benefit of the opened h-file. White is worse already.]

22.Kg2 Rh8 23.Rh1 Rh4 24.f3 Rah8 25.Qe2 Qc8 26.Rag1 Qg8 27.Be1 [27.Kf1 Qh7 28.Rg2 no fun, but maybe White can survive by just protecting h2.]

27...Rh3 28.Nd1? [Better was 28.Kf1]

28...Qh7 29.Bg3 Nxg4!



[29...Nxg4 30.fxg4 Rxg3+ 31.Kxg3 Qh3+ 32.Kf2 Bh4+–+]

0–1

RIP Julian, (from the Bulgarian chess players and the many friends around the world...)

Attacking with the Pirc

My new DVD about the Pirc Defense is out at the chessbase shop
I would like to thank the user QuietGuru on his positive feedback:

I just purchased your DVD on the Pirc from Chessbase.com. I want to tell you that this DVD like your DVD's on the Na6 KID, and Sicilian Kalashnikov , and your 1 hour videos on the Pirc for White, and the English for Black is excellent. All of your chess related videos to this date are always very well prepared and easy to understand and at the same time you somehow give a lot of variations without confusing me. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!!!!!!!!!!

I love collecting games in which one of the sides manages to establish complete control of the position by dominating the opponent's pieces.
Chess is a fight of the pieces, minds and energies and domination demonstrates that.
the following game was played some weeks ago at the Belgium team championship.
My teammate, the strong Russian GM Khairulin managed to outplay the Belgium champion Tanguy Ringoir in an impressive way:

Khairullin,Ildar (2632) - Ringoir,Tanguy (2460) [A07]
BEL-chT 1213 Belgium (7.1), 13.01.2013
[Dejan Bojkov]

1.Nf3 d5 2.g3 c6 3.Bg2 Bg4 4.0–0 Nd7 5.d3 e5 6.e4 dxe4 7.dxe4 Ngf6 8.Nbd2 Be7 9.Qe1

White frees himself from the pin and prepares to maneuver with his f3 knight. The f5 square is quite tempting.]

9...0–0 10.Nc4 [The knight is transferred on the e3 square. This looks more logical than:]

[10.h3 Bh5 11.Nh4 Re8 12.Nc4 Bf8 13.Bg5 Qc7= Aronian,L (2825)-Tomashevsky,E (2738) Moscow 2012]

10...Qc7 11.Ne3 Bh5 [As the Belgium champion intends to give the bishop pair anyway it made sense for him to do that at once with:]

[11...Bxf3!? 12.Bxf3 Nc5 (Or: 12...Rfd8 13.Nf5 Bf8; Interesting is: 12...g6 13.a4 Nc5 14.Ng4 Ne6 15.Be3 Nd7 16.Bh6 Rfd8 17.h4 Bf8 18.Bxf8 Ndxf8 19.a5 h5 20.Ne3 Rd7 21.b4 Rad8 22.c3 Nh7 1/2 (22) Markus,R (2572)-Postny,E (2661) Aghios Kirykos 2008) 13.Nf5 Rfd8 objectively speaking, the bishops should be better on the long run, but on the other hand the black knights enjoy also some juicy central squares.]

12.Nf5 Nc5?! [This is probably the first moment which can be indeed criticized. I believe that Black needed to keep the bishop:]

[12...Bc5 for example- 13.Nd2 a5 14.a4 Rfd8 15.Nb3 Bb4 16.c3?! Bf8 and Black had an excellent game in Ruiz Saiz,A (2274) -Starostits,I (2497) Parla 2008]

13.Nxe7+ Qxe7 14.Nh4

14...Ne6N [A logical novelty. This square is good for the knight. Previously only the move:]

[14...Qe6 have been seen in practice, but Black did not do well in the following encounter- 15.b3 Rfe8 16.Ba3 Nfd7 17.Qe3± the black pieces lack good squares, and White is always good to open the game for his bishops- Matikozian, A (2409)-Casella,M (2248) Los Angeles 2012]

15.f3 +/= [White's advantage is based on the two bishops and the poor position of the black one!]

15...Qc5+ [Black probably needed to play in a more restrained way. 15...Rfd8 16.Be3; The bad position of the bishop demonstrates the line: 15...Nd4 16.Nf5!? (16.Qf2) 16...Nxf5 17.exf5± when it is suddenly trapped!]

16.Rf2!

Prepares the doubling of the rooks along the d file, and some tempo gains against the black queen.]

16...Qb6 17.b3 a5 18.Be3 Qb4 [Ringoir understands that the long-termed factors of the position are not in his favour and tries to compensate with activity. Unfortunately, this makes things worse.]

19.c3 Qa3 20.Rd1 [The d file is the key to the position!]

20...Rfd8 [20...a4? self-traps the queen after- 21.b4!]

21.Rxd8+ Rxd8 22.Rd2 Ra8 [Or: 22...Rxd2 23.Qxd2 when the d file is still in White's hands.]

23.Nf5 [The reserves are joining the battle.]

23...b5 24.h4 [While watching the game I saw the funny line: 24.Nd6 with the idea to meet- 24...a4? (24...Ne8! is better instead and ruins mine idea.) 25.b4! Qxc3 26.Nxb5 Qc4 27.Bf1

and suddenly the queen is trapped- 27...Qxb4 28.Rd8+]

24...Bg6 25.Bf2! [Opens the e file for the queen and prevents the trade of the bishop for the knight:]

25...Nf8 [25...Bxf5 26.exf5 Nc5 27.g4± (White can also win a pawn with: 27.Qxe5 Nce4! 28.Re2 Nxf2 29.Kxf2) ]

26.Ne3 a4 27.Qd1 axb3 28.axb3 [Khairulin had increased his advantage and intends to crack into the opponent's camp along the d file. Ringoir desperately tries to free himself but this leads to a pretty finish:]

28...Qa1 29.c4 Qxd1+ 30.Rxd1 N6d7?! 31.cxb5 cxb5 32.Nd5 f6 33.Bh3!

Black resigned at a moment when the material is equal. This seems a bit premature but the lines confirm that the second player lacks reasonable moves:]

[33.Bh3 Rd8 (as does- 33...Be8 34.Nc7 Rb8 35.Nxe8 Rxe8 36.Rxd7! with two powerful bishops for the rook.) 34.Ne7+ Kf7 35.Nc6 wins a whole piece for White.]

The total outcome of the match was very positive for my team and for the first time in the history of the Amay club we are leading the championship at the half time.

Space

pace is one of the most important elements in chess in general. Pawn endgames are no exception. One of the conditions for a successful breakthrough is the advantage in territory.
However pure space advantage means more advanced and better enrgized pawns and might also be a key factor in the endgame:
Grigoriev
1927

[It seems as White is losing as the enemy king is more active. However, there is a deeper detail which decides the battle- space!]

1.Kc3! [White needs to win the opposition if they want to win!]

[1.Kd3? Kd5=]

1...Kd5 [1...Kf5 2.Kc4 Kg5 3.Kc5 Kxh5 4.Kb6 Kg4 5.Kxa6 h5 6.Kb6 h4 7.a6 h3 8.a7 h2 9.a8Q+–; 1...Ke6 2.Kc4 is winning for White, too.]

2.Kd3 Kc5 3.Ke4 Kb5 4.Kf5 Kxa5 5.Kg6 Kb4 6.Kxh6 a5 7.Kg6 a4 8.h6 a3 9.h7 a2 10.h8Q

Just in time! All of this was possible thanks to the space advantage of the white pawns!
1–0
The corner pawns proved faster thanks to their better energy and together with the geometrical motifs gave the win to white.
Surprisingly, a few days ago the same position could have occurred in the match between the "Snowdrops" and "Oldhands":
Uhlmann,Wolfgang (2319) - Tania,Sachdev (2400)
Snowdrops vs Oldhands Podebrady CZE (5.3), 13.12.2012

47.e3?? [One move too short. The legendary GM could have won with:]

[47.e4! dxe3 48.fxe3 Kf6 49.e4 fxe4 50.dxe4 c4 51.e5+! The pawns are swapped off and after: 51...Ke6 52.Ke4 c3 53.Kd3 Kxe5 54.Kxc3+– We suddenly reach the position from the Grigoriev's study! 54...Kd5 55.Kd3 Kc5 56.Ke4 Kb5 57.Kf5 Kxa5 58.Kg6 Kb4 59.Kxh6 a5 60.Kg6 a4 61.h6 a3 62.h7 a2 63.h8Q (a line given by chesstoday.com)]

47...c4!–+ [Breakthrough. It is now Black who suddenly wins!]

48.dxc4 d3 49.Kf3 Ke5

Chess is a cruel game sometimes...
0–1