Here's The Weekender Extra Edition by Mr. Manny Benitez:
REBOUNDING WITH A VENGEANCE
Sadorra, Gomez win fourth-round games
BOTH Filipino International Masters Julio Catalino Sadorra and John Paul Gomez finally hit their stride in the fourth round Sunday, vanquishing their respective rivals in Section A2 of the tough Aeroflot Open in Moscow.
Playing Black, IM Sadorra scored a major upset with a resounding win against Bangladeshi Grandmaster Al-Rakib Abdulla while IM Gomez outclassed with White Fide Master Arkadiusz Leniart of Poland.
With his second straight win, Sadorra, a 20-year-old Singapore-based Filipino IM, raised his score to 2.5 points.
Gomez, a 23-year-old former national junior champion, has had two wins and two losses and remained a half point behind his younger compatriot.
In the fifth-round Monday, Sadorra (2423) plays White when he faces Russian GM Evgeny Shapisnikov (2537) while Gomez (2469) takes on IM Oliver Kurmann (2389) of Switzerland with Black.
The two IMs, 11th-hour substitutes for the original choices of chess czar Prospero Pichay Jr., lost in the first round. Since then Sadorra has apparently found his form after drawing his second game.
On the other hand, Gomez who bounced back in the second round with a win lost to a lower-rated rival in the third but regained his bearings in the fourth.
His fans believe that if Gomez can score a second straight win, he may be able to catch up with the leaders, although that looked quite remote considering that he has had two losses.
Three Russians—GM Stanslav Novikov (2545), IM Dmitry Kryakyin (2535) and GM Marat Azkarov (2521)—and GM Shukhrat Shafin (2493) of Uzbekistan are at the helm after four rounds with 3.5 points each.
Behind them are 12 players with 3.0 points each led on tiebreak by Russian GM Semen Dvoiris (2549). They are tied for the fifth to 16th places in a field of 92 players, mostly grandmasters from Russia and the rest of Europe.
IM Sadorra who is currently ranked No. 33 belongs to the next batch of 21 players tied for the 17th to 37th places with 2.5 each. At the head of the batch is Russian GM Artem Iljin (2548). There are six GMs including Iljin and the rest are mostly IMs and a handful of FMs and one US master.
IM Gomez is ranked No. 45 in a batch of 17 players headed by French GM Arnaud Hauchard (2476). The 17 are tied for the 43rd to 59th places with 2.0 apiece.
Besides Sadorra-Shapisnikov and Kurmann-Gomez, other Section A2 games to watch in the fifth round are GM Askarov v GM Novikov and IM Kryakyin v GM Safin.
In Section A1, which consists of 66 players, those leading entering the fifth round are 1-3. Maxim Rodshtein (2614) of Israel, Viktor Bologan (2663) of Moldova and Alexander Motylov (2644) of Russia, 3.5 each; 4-10 Alexey Dreev (2636) of Russia, Gadir Guseinov (2617) of Azerbaijan, Dmitry Bocharov (2600) of Russia and Sergey Grigoriants (2586) of Russia, 3.0 each.
All the top 10 are grandmasters and so are most of the participants except for six IMs and a 13-year-old WGM from China, Hou Yifan, as well as one of the youngest grandmasters, 15-year-old Fabiano Caruana, the reigning Italian champion.
Two of Vietnam’s top young stars, No. 1 Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, 17, and No. 2 Le Quang Liem, are also among the combatants.
It will likely be the strongest open chess event this year with some of the world’s best and brightest players attracted by the total prize fund of US$200,000.
Section A1 alone will have $100,000 in prizes in all, with the champion getting the lion’s share of $30,000.
The Weekender, however, does not know or understand how the assignments of players were done since quite a number of lower-rated grandmsters and international masters were assiogned top Section A 1.
There seems to be no criteria that guided the tournament officials in selecting the players for either group.—Marlon Bernardino
Aronian upsets Anand
in Morelia’s 2nd round
DEFENDING champion Viswanathan Anand of India lost to Armenian superstar Levon Aronian in the second round of the Morelia Super Tournament in Mexico Saturday.
Anand, however, bounced back in the third round to defeat 17-year-old Norwegian GM Magnus Carlsen hang on to second place with 2.0 points, next only to Bulgarian superstar Veselin Topalov.
Anand’s nemesis, Aronian who had lost his first game to Topalov drew his third game—with White against Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan, to stay within striking distance of the two leaders.
Two others were tied with him with 1.5 each, namely, Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine and Peter Leko of Hungay.
Radjabov, Leko and Alexei Shirov of Spain, whom Anand beat with Black in the first round, remained at the bottom with one point each.
The Morelia contest is the first half of the annual Linares-Morelia Super Tournament, with the second half to be played in Spain.
How Black won is quite instructive in game Anand-Aronian.
V. Anand (2799) – L. Aronian (2739)
Rd 2, Morelia Super GM, Mexico 2008
Ruy Lopez, Marshall Attack
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0–0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0–0 8.c3 d5 9.exd5 Nxd5 10.Nxe5 Nxe5 11.Rxe5 c6 12.Re1 Bd6 13.g3 Re8 14.d4 Rxe1+ 15.Qxe1 Ra7 16.Be3 Re7 17.Nd2 Qe8 18.Nf1 h5 If 18...Be6 19.Qd2 19.a4 Be6 20.Bd1 h4 21.axb5 axb5 22.Bf3 Bh3 23.Bxd5 cxd5 24.Qd1 f5 24...hxg3 25.hxg3 b4 26.cxb4 could benefit White 25.Bg5 25.Qb3!? was better, e.g., 25…Qc6 26.Bg5!, and White is a mile ahead Re4 26.Bxh4 Qg6 27.Bd8 f4 28.Qd3 Qh5 29.Nd2 Fritz suggests 29.Bb6, with a clear advantage Re2!
Black has equalized and at the same time threatens a mating attack via 30…Rxd2! 31.Qxd2 Qf3!, and mate on g2 cannot be stopped.
30.Nf3?? Re3! 31.fxe3 Qxf3 32.Qc2 fxg3 33.hxg3 Qxg3+ 34.Kh1 Bf5! The final straw: 35.Rf1 Be4+ 36.Rf3 Bxf3+ 37.Qg2 Qxg2#! 0–1
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