Independent Pursuits: Chess
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Your support makes all the difference.THE BOSNIAN Ivan Sokolov propelled himself into the sole lead of the Hastings Premier on Sunday with a victory against the 15-year- old Ukrainian Ruslan Ponomariov. With 4/5, Sokolov was half-a-point clear of Matthew Sadler, who beat Mihail Saltaev to go second by himself on 3.5.
Meanwhile the erstwhile leader Sergei Shipov lost first to Ivan Sokolov as White in a fearsomely theoretical Grunfeld Defence, and then this ferocious game, to slip back to 3/5 ahead of the pack of Ponomariov, Emms and myself on 2.5.
In the opening, Black more often plays 7... b5. Instead they reached a fairly normal looking Scheveningen variation with the big difference that the bishop was on a2 rather than e2, say.
Black had a reasonable game and could, for example, exchange 11... Nxd4 12 Qxd4, but went astray when he manoevred the knight to the apparently active square c4.
15... Rfd8? was wrong; instead he should try 15... Qc5. In the diagram, 16 g4! is immensely strong because Black's pieces are badly placed to retreat in an orderly fashion.
Black could try 16... h6 but after 17 g5 hxg5 18 fxg5 Nh7 19 Qh5 seems to win. If then a) 19... g6 20 Qh4 Ne5 21 Rd3! Nxd3 22 Rxf7 Nf2+ 23 Kg2 Kxf7 (or 23... Nf8 24 Rxe7) 24 Qxh7+ Kf8 25 Nxe6+ Bxe6 26 Bxe6 Bxg5 27 Qg8+ Ke7 28 Qf7 is mate. b) Instead 19... Ne5 at once is more confusing but 20 Rd3 Nxd3 21 Rxf7 still works since the threats of 22 g6 and 22 Nxe6 are too strong.
Shipov had intended 18... b5 missing the decisive 19 fxe6 fxe6 20 Qf2!. Instead 18... e5 was hopeless. At the end White will mate in just a few more moves.
White: John Emms
Black: Sergei Shipov
Hastings, 1999 (Round 5)
Sicilian Najdorf
1 e4 c5
2 Nf3 d6
3 d4 cxd4
4 Nxd4 Nf6
5 Nc3 a6
6 Bc4 e6
7 0-0 Be7
8 a4 Nc6
9 Be3 0-0
10 Kh1 Bd7
11 f4 Rc8
12 Ba2 Qc7
13 Qe2 Na5?!
14 Rad1 Nc4
15 Bc1 Rfd8?! (see diagram)
16 g4!! Qc5
17 g5 Ne8
18 f5 e5
19 Nd5 Bf8
20 b4 Qa7
21 Bxc4 exd4
22 g6 Kh8
23 gxf7 Nc7
24 Nf4 1-0
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