Marvellous Morozevich

PeterDoggers

Updated: Aug 31, 2011, 4:41 AM | 0 | Chess Event Coverage

It was Marvellous Morozevich again, this week in Pamplona. He won the not very weak tournament with the splendid score of 6 out of 7 and noted a Rybkayan tpr of 2951. What a shame he won't be there, in Wijk aan Zee, in two weeks from now.

It's tempting to say that Morozevich's score should have been 6,5 out of 7, because he didn't win a Q-R ending. But in the last round his opponent Korneev shouldn't have lost.

Morozevich-Jakovenko Pamplona (5), 2006

A position to remember. The rook on h2 makes it quite difficult for White to win this deceptively easy position. 111. Qe5! wins most quickly: 111... Kg1 (111... Rg2+ 112. Kh3 +-; 111... Kg2 112. Qd4 Kf1 113. Kg3 Rg2+ 114. Kf3 +-) 112. Kg3 Rg2+ 113. Kh3 Kf1 114. Qa1+ Kf2 115. Qb2+ +-. Moro went wrong with 111. Kf3?? when 111... Rf2+! was an instant draw.

While replaying the game, watch Jakovenko's almost inhuman defending. 79...Rg8! (leads to mate in 17) and 83...Rg4! (mate in 24) are relatively the best moves in the position and the Russian finds them.

In the last round the badly playing 'open tournament tiger' Korneev, who for a change participated in a strong closed group, had to finish all that was left in the lethal goblet:

Morozevich-Korneev Pamplona (7), 2006

31...Qxd5?? (31... Rxe6! 32. dxe6 Qxe6 33. Qf3 Qxb3 34. Rxg7 is hard to judge but certainly not worse for Black) 32. Rxa6+! Kb8 33. Qf4+ Rd6 34. Rxb7+! Kxb7 35. Rxd6 Qxb3 36. Qf7+ 1-0

We will see Alexei Shirov at Corus. He scored a tpr of 2755 and only drew one game. The prettiest move of the tournament was from his hand:

Shirov-Illescas Pamplona (7), 2006

22. d5! (Much nicer than 22. Qe2 Qxd4 23. Rad1, which is also very good for White) 22... Rxd1 23. Raxd1 e3 24. Rfe1 b5 25. dxe6 bxa4 26. Rd7 Qb6 27. Rxe3! (stronger than 27. Rc7+ Qxc7 28. Bxc7 Kxc7 29. Rxe3 Kd6) 27... Qxb2+?! Better is 27... Qb5 when 28. Bg3! is most accurate (certainly not 28. e7? Nxe7 29. Rdxe7 Bxe7 30. Rxe7 Qd5+ 31. Kg3 Qf3+ 32. Kh4 Qxf4 33. Re8+ Kd7 34. f8Q Qxh2+ 35. Kxg4 Qg2+ 36. Kf4 Qf2+ draw) 28... Qxb2+ 29. Kh1 +-) 28. Kg3 g5 29. Bxg5 Nd4 (29... Qh8 30. Bf4 Qh3+ 31. Kf2 Qh4+ 32. Kg2 +-) 30. Rd8+! Kb7 31. Rxd4 Qxd4 32. e7 Qh8 33. e8Q Qh3+ 34. Kf4 Bd6+ 35. Kf5 1-0

Final standings:

1 MOROZEVICH Alexander    2747 RUS * ?Ç¬? 1 1 ?Ç¬? 1 1 1  6 
2 JAKOVENKO Dmitry        2671 RUS ?Ç¬? * ?Ç¬? ?Ç¬? 1 1 ?Ç¬? 1  5 
3 SHIROV Alexei           2720 ESP 0 ?Ç¬? * 1 0 1 1 1  4?Ç¬? 
4 BAUER Christian         2585 FRA 0 ?Ç¬? 0 * 1 ?Ç¬? 1 1  4 
5 WOJTASZEK Radoslaw      2630 POL ?Ç¬? 0 1 0 * ?Ç¬? ?Ç¬? ?Ç¬?  3 
6 ILLESCAS CORDOBA Miguel 2620 ESP 0 0 0 ?Ç¬? ?Ç¬? * 1 ?Ç¬?  2?Ç¬? 
7 LAZNICKA Viktor         2596 CZE 0 ?Ç¬? 0 0 ?Ç¬? 0 * 1  2
8 KORNEEV Oleg            2657 RUS 0 0 0 0 ?Ç¬? ?Ç¬? 0 *  1

>> replay round 5-7

Peter Doggers

Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”

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