Capablanca Memorial: Ivanchuk leads at half-time

Vassily Ivanchuk has good chances to win yet another title in Havana. After outplaying Viktor Laznicka in round 5 of the Capablanca Memorial, the Ukrainian is the sole leader again with 3.5/5. Leinier Dominguez is in second place with half a point less.

Vassily Ivanchuk back in sole first place in Havana

We pick up the tournament at round 4, when both tournament leaders, Ivanchuk and Dominguez, drew their white games. The Cuban faced his compatriot Quesada, who had no problems whatsoever with Black in a Berlin Ending. The game between Ivanchuk and Nepomniachtchi was more interesting.

[Event "47th Capablanca Mem Elite"]
[Site "Havana CUB"]
[Date "2012.05.07"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Ivanchuk, Vassily"]
[Black "Nepomniachtchi, Ian"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "B90"]
[WhiteElo "2764"]
[BlackElo "2716"]
[Annotator "Doe,John"]
[PlyCount "94"]
[EventDate "2012.05.03"]

1. Nf3 c5 2. e4 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 Ng4 7. Bc1 Nf6 8.
Be3 Ng4 9. Bg5 h6 10. Bh4 g5 11. Bg3 Bg7 12. Nb3 Nc6 13. h4 gxh4 14. Rxh4 $146
(14. Bxh4 Be6 15. Qd2 Rc8 16. f3 Nge5 17. Bf2 h5 18. Be3 Na5 19. Qf2 Nac4 20.
Bxc4 Nxc4 21. Bd4 Bxd4 22. Qxd4 Kd7 23. Na4 Kc7 24. O-O-O Qg8 25. f4 Kb8 {
Zezulkin,J (2465)-Kempinski,R (2530)/Koszalin 1997}) 14... h5 15. Qd2 Be6 16.
f3 Nge5 17. Bf2 Bc4 18. Nd5 e6 19. Nb6 Bxf1 20. Kxf1 Rb8 21. Rd1 Qf6 22. Rh3 h4
23. Nd4 Rd8 24. Nxc6 bxc6 25. Qb4 Ng6 26. Bd4 e5 27. Be3 O-O 28. Qa4 d5 29.
exd5 e4 30. c3 Rfe8 31. dxc6 Rxd1+ 32. Qxd1 Qxc6 33. Qa4 Qb5+ 34. Qxb5 axb5 35.
Nd5 exf3 36. Rxf3 Rd8 37. Rf5 Ne5 38. Ne7+ Kf8 39. Bc5 Ke8 40. Ke2 f6 41. Bb4
Kf7 42. Rh5 Bf8 43. Rxh4 Re8 44. Rh7+ Ke6 45. Rh8 Kf7 46. Rh7+ Ke6 47. Rh8 Kf7
1/2-1/2

Viktor Laznicka caught the two leaders thanks to a huge blunder by Potkin:

[Event "47th Capablanca Mem Elite"]
[Site "Havana CUB"]
[Date "2012.05.07"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Potkin, Vladimir"]
[Black "Laznicka, Viktor"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B94"]
[WhiteElo "2642"]
[BlackElo "2693"]
[Annotator "Doe,John"]
[PlyCount "66"]
[EventDate "2012.05.03"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Bg5 Nbd7 7. Qe2 h6 (7...
b5 8. a4 b4 9. Nd5 Bb7 10. Qc4 Rc8 11. Qxb4 Rb8 12. Nxf6+ gxf6 13. Be3 Bxe4 14.
Qc4 Qa5+ 15. Bd2 Qc5 {Wang Hao (2733)-Le Quang,L (2698)/Beijing 2012}) 8. Bh4
e6 9. O-O-O b5 $146 (9... Be7 10. f4 Qc7 11. Bg3 Nc5 12. e5 dxe5 13. fxe5 Nh7
14. Ne4 Bd7 15. Nd6+ Bxd6 16. exd6 Qa5 17. Kb1 O-O {Tayar,J (2335)-Molner,M
(2447)/Los Angeles 2011}) 10. f4 Qc7 11. f5 Nc5 12. fxe6 fxe6 13. e5 dxe5 14.
Bg3 b4 15. Bxe5 Qf7 16. Nb1 Bb7 17. Nd2 Be7 18. Nc4 Nfe4 19. Nf3 O-O 20. Qe3
Rad8 21. Rxd8 Rxd8 22. Be2 Qg6 23. Re1 Bd5 24. g3 Rf8 25. Bf4 Qe8 26. Nfd2 Nxd2
27. Qxd2 Ne4 28. Qd4 Qa4 29. Kb1 Rc8 30. Rd1 Bc5 31. Qe5 Bd6 32. b3 $4 (32. Qd4
) 32... Bxe5 33. bxa4 Nc3+ 0-1

On Tuesday Ivanchuk became the sole leader again. With Black the Ukrainian ouplayed Laznicka completely:

[Event "47th Capablanca Mem Elite"]
[Site "Havana CUB"]
[Date "2012.05.08"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Laznicka, Viktor"]
[Black "Ivanchuk, Vassily"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "E41"]
[WhiteElo "2693"]
[BlackElo "2764"]
[Annotator "Doe,John"]
[PlyCount "64"]
[EventDate "2012.05.03"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 c5 5. Nf3 Nc6 6. Bd3 Bxc3+ 7. bxc3 d6 8.
O-O e5 9. Nd2 O-O 10. Rb1 b6 11. d5 Ne7 12. Qc2 g6 13. f4 exf4 14. h3 $146 (14.
exf4 Bf5 15. h3 h5 16. Nf3 Qd7 17. Rb2 Rfe8 18. Ng5 h4 19. Bd2 Bxd3 20. Qxd3
Nf5 {Chuprikov,D (2461)-Shaposhnikov,E (2553)/Voronezh 2008}) 14... Nf5 (14...
fxe3 $5 15. Rxf6 Nxd5) 15. Bxf5 Bxf5 16. e4 Bd7 17. Rxf4 Qe7 18. Bb2 Nh5 19.
Rf2 f5 20. Re1 Rae8 21. Bc1 f4 22. Qd1 Qg7 23. Nf1 Re5 24. Nh2 Qe7 25. Qd3 Rg5
26. g4 $6 (26. Nf3 Rg3 $17) 26... fxg3 27. Rxf8+ Qxf8 28. Nf3 Re5 $1 29. Kg2
Re7 30. e5 dxe5 31. d6 Re6 32. Qd5 Nf6 0-1

Potkin won in a pawn ending:

[Event "47th Capablanca Mem Elite"]
[Site "Havana CUB"]
[Date "2012.05.08"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Quesada Perez, Yuniesky"]
[Black "Potkin, Vladimir"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B46"]
[WhiteElo "2625"]
[BlackElo "2642"]
[Annotator "Doe,John"]
[PlyCount "104"]
[EventDate "2012.05.03"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nc6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Nxc6 bxc6 7. Bd3 d5 8.
O-O Nf6 9. Qf3 Be7 10. e5 Nd7 11. Qg3 Kf8 (11... g6 12. Bh6 Bf8 13. Bxf8 Kxf8
14. Na4 a5 15. b3 Ba6 16. c4 Qb8 17. Rfe1 {Sjugirov,S (2629)-Kobalia,M (2679)/
Taganrog 2011}) 12. Re1 $146 (12. Na4 Rb8 13. b3 h5 14. Bb2 g6 15. f4 Nb6 16.
Nxb6 Qxb6+ 17. Kh1 h4 18. Qh3 c5 {Jansa,V (2495)-Priehoda,V (2365)/Hamburg 1995
}) 12... h5 13. h3 h4 14. Qg4 a5 15. Na4 Ba6 16. Bxa6 Rxa6 17. c4 g6 18. Qe2
Ra8 19. cxd5 cxd5 20. Be3 Qb8 21. f4 Kg7 22. Rac1 Qb4 23. b3 Rhc8 24. Qf2 Qb7
25. Bd4 Ra6 26. Rxc8 Qxc8 27. Re3 Rc6 28. Rc3 Rxc3 29. Nxc3 Nb8 30. Qc2 Na6 31.
Qd2 Nb4 32. Ne2 Qa6 33. a4 Nc6 34. Be3 Bd8 35. Nd4 Nxd4 36. Qxd4 Qb7 37. Qc3
Bb6 38. Kf2 Bxe3+ 39. Kxe3 Qb6+ 40. Kd3 Qa6+ 41. Kd2 Qf1 42. Qf3 Qb1 43. Qf2 g5
44. fxg5 Qb2+ 45. Ke1 Qxe5+ 46. Qe2 Qg3+ 47. Qf2 Qxf2+ 48. Kxf2 e5 49. Ke3 $2
e4 50. Kd4 Kh7 51. b4 axb4 52. a5 b3 0-1

And so Ivanchuk is half a point ahead of Dominguez at half-time. The 47th Capablanca Memorial runs until May 14th in the Hotel Habana Riviera in Havana, Cuba.

Capablanca Memorial | Grupo Elite | Schedule and results