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Chess: Clash of titans to come

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  • Chess: Clash of titans to come

    THE DAILY TELEGRAPH(LONDON)
    March 22, 2004, Monday

    Clash of titans to come

    By Malcolm Pein


    A FINAL between former world champion Garry Kasparov and former title
    challenger Nigel Short is a possibility as both got through to the
    semi-finals of the Reykjavik Rapid. Short is in the top half of the
    draw and faces Russian international Alexey Dreev, while Kasparov is
    in the bottom half and plays Peter Heine Nielsen of Denmark, the
    winner at Hastings in 2002-03.

    Short overcame the Icelandic IM Stefan Kristjansson in the first
    round but then faced stiffer opposition in former world junior
    champion Levon Aronian of Armenia, who defeated Kasparov in the blitz
    contest held to determine the seedings.

    Short drew with white but in the return Aronian played a Trompovsky,
    a rather cheeky notion against an Englishman. By improving on a game
    played by Luke McShane, in which McShane was white against Israeli GM
    Emil Sutovsky, Short secured good chances with a pawn sacrifice.
    Aronian then sacrificed a piece but misplayed it and overlooked a
    tactical trick.

    Kasparov had an interesting match against Jan Timman: it must have
    been a relief to be playing a relative veteran after suffering
    against 13-year-old Magnus Carlsen in round one. After an easy draw
    with black, the world number one then won the return with white when
    he found a deep combination that won a piece.

    Round two results: Nigel Short draw 1-0 Levon Aronian; Anatoly Karpov
    0-1 draw Alexey Dreev; Garry Kasparov draw 1-0 Jan Timman; Emil
    Sutovsky 0-1 draw Peter Heine Nielsen.

    Semi finals: Short v Dreev, Kasparov v Nielsen.

    McShane - Sutovsky from Pamplona late last year continued 10Ne4?!
    11.f3 Nxc3 12.Nxc3 axb4 13.Na4 and White consolidated. Short's move
    10Ba6 is much better. 14.h4 created another weakness, if 14.h3 Qb8
    intending 15.Rb1 Bd3. 18.Nxe5! Nxe5 19.Nd4 Qf6 20.Bxe5 Qxe5 21.Nxc6
    Qe6 22.Nxe7+ Qxe7 23.Qxh5 was a very interesting possibility. Note
    that Short prevented it on the next move with 18Rfc8. Even the
    sacrifice played was dangerous in practice, 32.Rc7 would have given
    White serious compensation.

    L Aronian - N Short

    Reykjavik Rapid (2.2)

    Trompovsky Attack

    1 d4 Nf6 2 Bg5 Ne4 3 Bf4 d5 4 e3 c5 5 Bd3 Nf6 6 dxc5 Nc6 7 Bb5 e6 8
    b4 a5 9 Bxc6+ bxc6 10 c3 Ba6! 11 Ne2 Nd7! 12 Nd2 e5 13 Bg3 h5 14 Nf3
    Qf6 15 h4 Be7 16 0-0 Qf5 17 Re1 0-0 18 a4 Rfc8 19 b5 Bb7 20 Ned4!?
    exd4 21 exd4 Bf6 22 Qd2 Nf8 23 Be5 Ng6 24 Bxf6 Qxf6 25 Re3 Re8 26
    Rae1 Rxe3 27 Rxe3 Nxh4 28 Nxh4 Qxh4 29 Re5 Rf8 30 Qe2 g6 31 Re7 Bc8
    32 bxc6 Qf6 33 Rc7 Bf5 34 Qb5 Qg5 35 Rb7 h4 36 Rb8 Qc1+ 0-1

    Short

    6 p 7 ) p p p p c p
    p b p p c p o Z n c p - p b p n p o p n p p
    p p n b p p g p d

    Aronian

    Position after 36Qc1+ the queen comes back to f4 with check and picks
    up the rook on b8.
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