3531 Gary Quillan v Vugar Gashimov, Gibraltar 2009. Play went 1 Re3 Nd5 2 Rxc3 Nxc3 with an eventual draw. What did White miss during this sequence?
The “chess Wimbledon” at Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee looks like going to the wire this weekend. Two rounds from the finish a single point covered the top six in the standings. The world champion, Magnus Carlsen, the Azeri global No 2, Shak Mamedyarov, and the Dutch No 1, Anish Giri, all had 7.5/11, followed by India’s ex-world champion Vishy Anand on 7, and the Russians Sergey Karjakin and Vlad Kramnik on 6.5.
Wijk has not seen a Dutch winner since 1985, when Jan Timman, at that time a world title contender, broke clear of an elite field in the middle rounds. This long barren period could change this weekend. Giri, the 23-year-old who has jumped back into the world top 10 this week, meets easier opposition than his rivals in the final two rounds.
It was different when the historic event was launched at Beverwijk in 1938 with a largely Dutch entry. The tournament managed to stay alive in the difficult 1940s, when the staple diet for competitors was pea soup, the food of the common people. Since then pea soup has always been the first course served to the grandmasters and masters at the final banquet.
Giri, son of a Nepalese father and a Russian mother, who spent much of his childhood in Japan, has always been very talented but conceded too many draws in 2017. Carlsen has stayed in the running despite his bizarre game against Gawain Jones, the British champion.
They followed a book line in Jones’s speciality, the Dragon Sicilian, Jones unleashed a novelty, and the Norwegian casually blundered away a piece. It was a one-mover and the worst mistake of Carlsen’s career, even worse than the forced mate he once missed against Giri.
Then Jones started to see ghosts, slowed right down on the clock, allowed counterplay, and suddenly Carlsen’s blunder was transformed into a winning attack.
Meanwhile the third contender, the fearless attacker Mamedyarov, was outplayed by Giri in a quiet position but came back strongly to crush the eight-time Russian champion Peter Svidler in just 21 moves with the black pieces. Svidler got into trouble by mishandling a pin on his c3 knight as his 9 g3?! proved too slow against 10...f5! and 11...f4! and his sense of danger deserted him when 15 Qb3? fell into the crushing 19...Qg5! threatening mate in two by Qg1+ and thus winning a piece.
Peter Svidler v Shak Mamedyarov, Wijk 2018
1 c4 Nf6 2 Nf3 e6 3 Nc3 d5 4 d4 Bb4 5 cxd5 exd5 6 Bf4 Ne4 7 Qa4+? Nc6 8 Rc1 O-O 9 g3?! g5! 10 Be3 f5! 11 Bg2 f4 12 gxf4 Bxc3+ 13 bxc3 gxf4 14 Bd2 Kh8 15 Qb3?:Na5 16 Qc2 Nc4 17 Rd1 Rg8 18 Ne5 Nxe5 19 Bxe4 Qg5! 20 Bxf4 Qxf4 21 Bxd5 Bf5 0-1
The highlight of Tradewise Gibraltar’s opening round this week was IM Gary Quillan’s zestful attack against Daniil Dubov, a fast rising young Russian GM. When an attack on the castled king looms, a single slip is costly, and so it happened with 17...Qb6? (b4!) after which the white army stormed the open g file. The Merseyside IM, 47, who was a bright young talent in the late 1980s, had missed a chance for glory against an elite GM at Gibraltar nine years ago (see this week’s puzzle).
Gary Quillan v Daniil Dubov, Tradewise Gibraltar 2018
1 e4 g6 2 d4 Bg7 3 f4 d6 4 Nf3 Bg4 5 c3 Nd7 6 Bc4 e6 7 O-O Ne7 8 Qe1 O-O 9 Bb3 Bxf3 10 Rxf3 c5 11 Be3 cxd4 12 cxd4 Nf6 13 Nc3 Ng4 14 Rd1 Qb6 15 Na4 Qa6 16 Bc1 b5 17 Nc3 Qb6? 18 Qh4 Nf6 19 g4 Qb7 20 Rh3 h5 21 gxh5 Nxh5 22 f5 exf5 23 exf5 Nxf5 24 Qg5 Ne7 25 Rxh5! gxh5 26 Rd2! d5 27 Nxd5 Rfe8 28 Rg2 Ng6 29 Nf6+ Kf8 30 Nh7+ Kg8 31 Qxg6 1-0
3531 1 g3! with no defence to 2 Kg2 and 3 Rh1.
