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A STELLAR PERFORMANCE
by Malcolm Pein
The Daily Telegraph (LONDON)
April 3, 2007 Tuesday
THE Armenian GM Gabriel Sargissian outclassed the field at the Ruy
Lopez tournament held at Zafra, the birthplace of the Spanish priest
who invented the opening that bears his name. Sargissian took a 1.5
point lead with just a game to play and achieved tournament victory
after twice defending the Ruy Lopez and scoring successive wins with
black. He also won twice against the Queen's Gambit Accepted with white
to finish on a remarkable 6.5/7 with second placed Julio Granda Zuniga
and former Fide champion Ruslan Ponomariov 2.5 points adrift on 4/7.
This stellar performance gained Sargissian 38 rating points, one of
the largest gains I have seen in one event in recent years and it
may even propel him into the world's top 20 players. His tournament
rating performance was 3021 and to put this into context, the world
number one is usually rated around 2800.
G Sargissian - R Ponomariov
Magistral Ruy Lopez Zafra (5)
Queen's Gambit Accepted
1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.e4 Nf6 4.e5 Nd5 5.Bxc4 Nb6 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.Be3 Be6
8.Nc3 Bc4 9.Bxc4 Nxc4 (Black neglects development in order to exchange
White's potentially dangerous light squared bishop and establish
a strong square on d5) 10.Qb3 N6a5 11.Qc2 e6 12.Nf3 Nc6 (12...Nxe3
13.fxe3 would strengthen White's centre and leave Black exposed on
the f file) 13.0-0 Nb4 14.Qe4 Nd5 15.Bg5 Nxc3 16.bxc3 Qd5 17.Qxd5
(Sargissian might have tried 17.Qg4 although 17...h6 18.Bh4 g5 19.Bg3
0-0-0 looks very unclear) 17...exd5 18.Nd2 Nxd2 (18...Nb6!? and if
19.f4 Na4 20.Rf3 Ba3) 19.Bxd2 f5 20.h3 Be7 21.g4 Rf8 22.Kg2 Kd7 23.Rab1
b6 24.a4 h5!? 25.gxh5 Rh8 26.h6 g5 (Also risky, gxh6 was reasonable)
27.h4 g4?! 28.f3 Rag8 29.fxg4 Rxg4+ 30.Kf3 Rhg8 (30...Bf8 to remove
the dangerous h6 pawn looks best)
31.Rg1! (Clearly overlooked by Ponomariov and suddenly he is
struggling) 31...Bxh4 (31...Rxg1 32.Rxg1 Rxg1 33.h7) 32.Rxg4 fxg4+
33.Kg2 33...Ke6 34.Rh1 Be7 35.Kg3 Kf5 36.h7 Rh8 37.Rh5+ Kg6 38.Kxg4
Bf8 39.e6 1-0
Ponomariov
Sargissian
Position after 31.Rg1!
Final scores: Sargissian
(Armenia) 6.5/7; 2-3 Granda
Zuniga (Peru), Ponomariov (Ukraine) 4/7; 4 I Sokolov (Netherlands) 4;
5 Candelario (Spain) 3.5; 6-7 Sasikiran (India), Stefanova (Bulgaria)
2.5; 8
Hou Yifan (China) 2
by Malcolm Pein
The Daily Telegraph (LONDON)
April 3, 2007 Tuesday
THE Armenian GM Gabriel Sargissian outclassed the field at the Ruy
Lopez tournament held at Zafra, the birthplace of the Spanish priest
who invented the opening that bears his name. Sargissian took a 1.5
point lead with just a game to play and achieved tournament victory
after twice defending the Ruy Lopez and scoring successive wins with
black. He also won twice against the Queen's Gambit Accepted with white
to finish on a remarkable 6.5/7 with second placed Julio Granda Zuniga
and former Fide champion Ruslan Ponomariov 2.5 points adrift on 4/7.
This stellar performance gained Sargissian 38 rating points, one of
the largest gains I have seen in one event in recent years and it
may even propel him into the world's top 20 players. His tournament
rating performance was 3021 and to put this into context, the world
number one is usually rated around 2800.
G Sargissian - R Ponomariov
Magistral Ruy Lopez Zafra (5)
Queen's Gambit Accepted
1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.e4 Nf6 4.e5 Nd5 5.Bxc4 Nb6 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.Be3 Be6
8.Nc3 Bc4 9.Bxc4 Nxc4 (Black neglects development in order to exchange
White's potentially dangerous light squared bishop and establish
a strong square on d5) 10.Qb3 N6a5 11.Qc2 e6 12.Nf3 Nc6 (12...Nxe3
13.fxe3 would strengthen White's centre and leave Black exposed on
the f file) 13.0-0 Nb4 14.Qe4 Nd5 15.Bg5 Nxc3 16.bxc3 Qd5 17.Qxd5
(Sargissian might have tried 17.Qg4 although 17...h6 18.Bh4 g5 19.Bg3
0-0-0 looks very unclear) 17...exd5 18.Nd2 Nxd2 (18...Nb6!? and if
19.f4 Na4 20.Rf3 Ba3) 19.Bxd2 f5 20.h3 Be7 21.g4 Rf8 22.Kg2 Kd7 23.Rab1
b6 24.a4 h5!? 25.gxh5 Rh8 26.h6 g5 (Also risky, gxh6 was reasonable)
27.h4 g4?! 28.f3 Rag8 29.fxg4 Rxg4+ 30.Kf3 Rhg8 (30...Bf8 to remove
the dangerous h6 pawn looks best)
31.Rg1! (Clearly overlooked by Ponomariov and suddenly he is
struggling) 31...Bxh4 (31...Rxg1 32.Rxg1 Rxg1 33.h7) 32.Rxg4 fxg4+
33.Kg2 33...Ke6 34.Rh1 Be7 35.Kg3 Kf5 36.h7 Rh8 37.Rh5+ Kg6 38.Kxg4
Bf8 39.e6 1-0
Ponomariov
Sargissian
Position after 31.Rg1!
Final scores: Sargissian
(Armenia) 6.5/7; 2-3 Granda
Zuniga (Peru), Ponomariov (Ukraine) 4/7; 4 I Sokolov (Netherlands) 4;
5 Candelario (Spain) 3.5; 6-7 Sasikiran (India), Stefanova (Bulgaria)
2.5; 8
Hou Yifan (China) 2