Arctic Chess Challenge - Day five in pictures and text
The fifth day of Arctic Chess Challenge saw more sun on a day with more than 20 degrees as we now are used too. Today's social activity was a mountain trip to Fløya with panorama view over the Island of Tromsø. Do you recognize Susan Polgar and her husband Paul on this picture? Susan has provided 100 photos they took from the mountain - you find them here.
Photo provided by Ulf Hansen
International Arbiter Panagiotis "Takis" Nikolopoulos, famous from several World Championship matches, is Chief Arbiter during Arctic Chess Challenge 2009. Here you see him give his instructions before the start of round 5. This was going to be another a critical moment of the tournament where the picture of who's hot and who's not got clearer. The Grandmasters field still struggle as a group, and they gave away quite a few points to far lower rated players. It could even have been worse as IM Luca Shytaj lost a good position against GM Allan Stig Rasmussen. So who's hot? Definitely IM Ray Robson GM Monika Socko and Allan Stig Rasmussen! Together with GM Sarunas Sulskis from Lithuania they all are in a 4 way tie for first with 4.5/5! I will be surprised if one of these players wins a strong field, but bigger surprises has happened before. IM Ray Robson is increasing his playing strength at such a rapid pace that it might just go all the way from him. At least he impressed us all today by beating GM Vadim Malakhatko in a great aggressive game! It will be interesting to see how the tactical gifted Robson handles the strong positional 2600+ players GM Khenkin and GM Drozdovskij - I do believe he will meet them sooner or later.
At first board GM Sarunas Sulskis (2559) from Lithuania played white against GM Igor Khenkin (2634) from Germany. In a Taimanov Sicilian they produced 17 known theoretical moves and then took a draw at move 19 after an offer from Khenkin. I guess the German wanted to save energy as black and use his white serve to move in the field in the next round. Anyway I have do believe that Sulskis 18.Ke3?! is a bit inferior to the common 18.Kg3 where the white King is safer. This has been played many times before. After the text move blacks break with d6 becomes stronger due to d-file play against the white King and I was a bit surprised that Khenkin (2634) didn't play on since he looks somewhat better. White has to play accurate to meet d6. A Grandmaster draw and both players are in the race for first.
14 years old IM Ray Robson (2491) played the game of the day. He showed a lot of great chess in Tromsø so far, and with aggressive play he gives himself opportunities, and when the tactics show up, Ray is always on alert! Today he played the white side of a main line Caro Kann with 4...Bf5 against Vadim Malakhatko (2570). After a long theoretical line Ray choose a quite new idea of GM Rauf Mamedov, played at GM level in 2006. The direct 14.Nf1!? with the idea attacking g4-g5 has been played in many games the last couple of years and it has served white well. Malakhatko went wrong with 17.Nd5 and Robson got a clear edge. Perhaps the direct 20.h6! was even better since Malakhatko got in a blockade with his 20...Qh6! Robson got in his h6! in move 28 and Malakhatko did blunder on the spot with 28...Rd6?. He had to try 28...gxh6 29.N3g4 Nxg4 30.Nxg4 f5! 31.Nxh6+ Kf8 and white still has a lot to prove. When Ray first got an attack with 29.N3g4 he was brilliant! A nice win from the young IM who has great chances for a GM-norm in this tournament.
The two Bulgarian's GM Julian Radulski (left) and IM Marijan Petrov played a friendly draw in only 13 moves. They are both in the race for first with 4/5 so far.
IM Luca Shytaj (2455) from Italy played white against GM Allan Stig Rasmussen (2536) from Denmark. In a Caro Kann Rasmussen did several dubious moves around move 20 and IM Shytaj got a clear edge. But it started to go downhill with the move 26.f4? which tries to exploit the power of the heavy material in the f-file. Since it gives black counter chances in both the g-file and the long diagonal a8/h1 it can't be right and in the end GM Rasmussen turned the game around and won. The young Dane has played much better chess in ACC than he did in Politiken Cup just before the Arctic Challenge and he does impress us. His score of 4.5/5 talks for itself.
GM Monika Socko (2449) won a hard fought game against GM Matthew Turner from England. In a c3-Sicilian she found the strong 30...Nf3+! when Turner went wrong and she played very convincing after this. A fine win for the top seeded female player!
Monika's husband Bartosz Socko (2556) came to Tromsø as top seed but he seems totally out of form. Today he couldn't catch up the gap to the leaders by beating FM Arkadiusz Leniart (2390) with black.The two Polish players played a relatively short draw in a Winawer French where nothing special happened.
IM Bjørn Tiller (2371) from Oslo played GM Yuri Drozdovskij (2620) from Ukraine with the white pieces in a French with 2.d3. Drozdovskij equalized early and got quite a bit better but it seemed like Tiller got his chances when he got a strong Knight in at d6. Probably his was better but the Super GM won in the end. Drozdovskij (2620) was my pre-tournament favorite after writing all the profiles and he did an important move up in the field today.
GM Emanuel Berg (2610) from Sweden impressed me the most in the two first rounds when he overplayed much lower rated opponents with easy. But then he got two looong games against the top seeded women and I wondered if he had the stamina to go hard with the white pieces today. His opponent FM Kjetil Stokke (2347) from Bergen did play the Accelerated Dragon just as Monika did and it was a good opening choice. Stokke is known to be theoretical strong by Norwegian standards (which is far from Russian standards) and he played a quite good game today I think. It ended in a hard fought draw and FM Stokke is still hunting an IM-norm.
GM Jon Ludvig Hammer failed to impress in the previous rounds and today his friends tried to give him extra confidence by writing "It's Hammer time! on his forehead before the round. It wasn't to smart to enter the tournament hall with this I guess, but Jon Ludvig is still a teenager and you got to see some humor in it.
WIM Silje Bjerke (2231) did just smile of Hammer's joke it seems. When the Deputy Arbiter signaled that he didn't quite like it Hammer washed it of at once and no harm was done. WIM Bjerke played an excellent game for a long time in a Sicilian Dragon and she didn't give the GM an inch. But after the time control at move 40 she suddenly started to fumble and lost in the end. It was an important win for GM Hammer that brought him up on 3/5
IM Kalle Kiik (2475) from Estland beat IM Anna Zozulia (2341) in a Modern opening. He has done well so far with 4/5 but he only met lower rated opponents and it will be tougher in the days to come.
IM Fabio Bruno (2455) won with the white pieces against 16 years old Norwegian Lasse Østebø Løvik (2296) and the norm chances for Løvik are now slim.
GM Amon Simutowe got a quick win today and has started to recover after a horrible start. Here you see him get into and aggressive mood together with the Polar Bear at the playing venue.
WGM Natalia Zdebskaja from Ukraine is still in the run for being best female player. With the black pieces she beat the local hope Pål Røyset (2239). Natalia turns 23 years old one week after the tournament ends. Natalia has a strong 4/5 so far and she has good chances for an IM-norm.
So what about 13 years old Peter Flermoen that had a 2400+ performance so far? He got a tough time against IM Luis Javier Bernal Moro (2446) from Spain and lost. The IM was just to positionally strong.
One of the hero's of the day was young Nicolai Getz (2219) from Oslo who beat IM Torbjørn R. Hansen (2440) in a Ruy Lopez as black. Getz was worse most of the game in a Chigorin variation but when Ringdal Hansen went wrong with 43.Rg1, just to blunder with 44.Kg1! on the next move, Getz took his chance and won a hard fought game. Nicolai Getz is in the race for an IM-norm now.
Another strong result was achieved by 17 years old Sondre Waage Tofte (2119) from Norway. He beat IM Aleksandar H. Wohl (2387) from Australia in a sharp Sicilian as white and got his second IM catch so far!
IM Harald Groetz from Austria won against WIM Melissa Greeff as black in a Sicilian and he has now 3.5/5.
Elias DeMac (2089) from Norway held IM Nikolaj Mikkelsen (2399) from Denmark to a draw with white and the young player from Bergen has done it excellent so far.
16 years old FM Frode O. O. Urkedal (2399) is a member of 1911 in Oslo and is one of many talented players in this club that is known for their Youth chess. The picture was taken Tuesday when Urkedal lost, but Wednesday he won with the white pieces against 18 years old Kristoffer Madland and is right back on track.
WFM Katrine Tjølsen (2160) won with black versus young Birk Rølvåg (1906) from Northern Norway in a Sicilian. Rølvåg had a good position but misplayed it and Katrine could collect an important point with black.
This is 9 years old Michael Fernandez. The picture is from round 4 and he is here with his older brother FM Daniel Howard Fernandez. They both come from Singapore.
Another blond Norwegian? Not at all! This is Danielle Pienaar from South Africa. Simen Agdestein has re-invited a huge delegation from this country where he has been with his pupils from NTG.
Susan Polgar and Gary Robson from USA in a conversation before tournament start. Susan got a nice T-shirt from Tromsø with Northern Light on. Thursday morning she leaves us and we hope to see her again sometime! Susan and her husband Paul made the best possible impression.
Love is in the air... GM Simen Agdestein shows his girlfriend Laila Arvola from Tromsø some interesting stuff he found at Susan Polgar's blog. Yes, Laila is living in Tromsø and has a chess playing son. She is also in the tournament staff and does an excellent work for Arctic Chess Challenge. I bet you already guessed that Simen has visited Tromsø quite often in recent time :-)
Those lovely evenings in Northern Norway! Here you see organizer Ulf Hansen (right in blue T-shirt) enjoying a good meal with his new friends from South Africa. 4 people from the South African delegation lives with his family this week.
Photo provided by Ulf Hansen
Yes, it's really snow. Some places up in the Mountain it's still snow and the excursion to Fløya today found it. Quite exotic for the people from South Africa!
Photo provided by Ulf Hansen
This is also taken at Fløya, a mountain at the east side of the Tromsø Island. It's quite popular with hang gliding there - and here you see one of them. I took the photo the day before Arctic Chess Challenge and it was my last chance for some rest before a hectic week.
The official homepage of Arctic Chess Challenge with results, table and games.
The entire text and all photos that's not credited others by Sven Wisløff-Nilssen (C) 2009.
06.aug.2009 kl.16:06
The Wiz
06.aug.2009 kl.17:26
Zack Pienaar
07.aug.2009 kl.08:31
Sven
07.aug.2009 kl.13:46