LAST TIME WE TUNED IN to the Monarch
Assurance Open on the Isle of Man, former World Championship Challenger Nigel Short
had taken an early lead by winning his first three games.
In round
four Short suffered a minor setback when he let Emil Sutovsky off
the hook in what must have been a winning position, but he
immediately snapped back into butt-kicking mode, rubbing out Petr
Kiriakov and Jonathan Parker.
With 5.5 out of 6, a full point
ahead of the closest competition, Short seemed to be cruising
towards an easy victory. Draws in the last three rounds would
probably be enough to clinch clear first. That's when things started
to go downhill.
Despite having the white pieces and
a 170 rating advantage against Mark Hebden, Short had to bite the
bullet in the following messy encounter:
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N. Short (2675) - M. Hebden,M (2510)
Monarch Assurance Open Port Erin (7), 12.11.1999
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 d6 9.h3 Na5 10.Bc2 c5 11.d4 Re8!? Hebden has been playing this pawn sacrifice on and off for more than ten years. The main line is 11...Qc7. 12.dxe5 dxe5 13.Nxe5 Bb7 14.Qf3 Bf8 15.Bf4 Re6 16.Ng4 Nc4!? 17.Nxf6+ Rxf6 [17...gxf6 is simply too disgusting for words.] 18.Bg5 Rxf3 19.Bxd8 Rxd8 20.gxf3 Nxb2 A die-hard materialist would now claim that Black is simply the exchange down, but a closer examination reveals that Black has a lot going for him in this position. He's got the two bishops, a queenside majority and a huge structural advantage. Another important factor is White's poorly coordinated pieces. 21.a4 b4 22.Ra2 Nc4 23.Rd1 Re8 24.cxb4 cxb4 25.Nd2? [25.Bb3 Ne5 26.Kg2 (with Rc2 to follow) looks like a big improvement.] 25...Ne5 26.Bb3 Rd8 27.Kg2 Rd3! Black's actively placed pieces are causing an incredible amount of annoyance. 28.Bc2 Rc3 29.Bb1 [29.Rb2 seems more natural.] 29...Bc6 30.Nf1? I understand Short's desire to untangle his pieces and get active, but this pitches a very important pawn. 30...Nxf3 31.Ne3 b3 32.Rb2 Nh4+ 33.Kg3 g5 Now White's king is in serious trouble! 34.Kg4 h6 35.Rd8 Kg7 36.Rbd2 Bc5 37.Bd3 Bxe3 38.fxe3 Bxa4 39.e5 [39.Bxa6 Rxe3 40.Bb7 (40.Bd3 Nf3) 40...Bb5 and Be2+ will win back the exchange with a decisive material advantage.] 39...Bc6 40.Rf2 a5 41.e6 fxe6 42.e4 Ng6 and White resigned. [42...Ng6 43.Kf3 Ne5+ 44.Ke2 Nxd3 45.Rxd3 Bb5 and Black wins the house.] 0-1
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Short probably wasn't too pleased
with himself after this game. And as if losing wasn't punishment
enough, the next day he had to sit down and play Black against the
only other 2650+ player in the field: Sergey Shipov.
Here's what
happened:
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S. Shipov (2658) - N. Short (2675)
Monarch Assurance op Isle of Man (8), 13.11.1999
1.d4 e6 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Qc2 d5 The main alternatives are 4...0-0 and 4...c5. 5.cxd5 Qxd5 6.e3 c5 7.Bd2 Bxc3 8.Bxc3 cxd4 9.Bxd4 Nc6 10.Bc3 [Practice has shown that Black has nothing to fear after 10.Bxf6 gxf6 (Kasparov-Anand, New York 1995 is a good example) White needs to retain both bishops to play for an advantage in this position.] 10...0-0 11.Nf3 b6 12.Be2 Bb7 13.0-0 Rac8 14.Rfd1 Qe4 [14...Qh5 looks extremely risky, but it might be playable.] 15.Qxe4 Nxe4 16.Be1 Rfd8 17.Rxd8+ Rxd8 18.Rc1 a5 19.Bb5 Rd6 20.Kf1 White's first goal is to get rid of Black's most annoying piece - the knight on e4. 20...f6 21.Ke2 e5 Short erects a central wall, hoping to keep White's dark-squared bishop contained. 22.a3 Kf8 23.Nd2 Nxd2 24.Bxd2 h6 25.f3 Ke7 26.b4 axb4 27.axb4 Kd8 28.Bd3 Ne7 29.b5 e4? Short was obviously counting on regaining this pawn with a structural advantage. White, however, manages to hang on to it and simultaneously improve the activity of his pieces. 30.fxe4 Re6 31.Rc4 Nc8 32.Rd4+ Kc7 33.Be1! This bishop now enjoys a bright future, thanks to 29...e4. 33...Nd6? [This loses the exchange by force. 33...Ne7 was Black's only try.] 34.Bg3 Kd7 35.Bc4 Re5 36.Bxe5 fxe5 37.Rd2 Bxe4 38.Bd5 Bxd5 39.Rxd5 Ke6 40.Rd3 Nxb5 41.Rb3 Nd6 42.Rxb6 e4 43.g4 g6 and Short resigned. [43...g6 44.Kd2 Kd5 45.Kc3 Kc5 46.Rxd6 Kxd6 47.Kd4 and White wins.] 1-0
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All games on this page as PGN here
Generated with ChessBase 7.0
Meanwhile Hebden had lost to
Sutovsky, which meant Sutovsky and Shipov were ahead by half a point
with one round to go. The Russian and the Israeli settled for a
quick handshake in the final round, and the only question was
whether or not their victims from the previous round would be able
to catch up by winning their last game.
Short had the white pieces
against Bogdan Lalic, but was unable make a dent in the ultra-solid
Petroff Defence. Thus Nigel had to settle for 6 points and a tie for
third place. On board three, "Heb" blew his chance to win
real money by losing to Alexandr Schneider of the Ukraine.
Final standings:
1-2.Sergey
Shipov, Russia and Emil Sutovsky, Israel 6.5 3-10.Nigel Short,
England, Sergey Tiviakov, Russia, Lev Psakhis, Israel, Jonathan
Parker, England, Alexandr Schneider, Ukraine, Petr Kiriakov, Russia,
Chris Ward, England and Bogdan Lalic, England 6.0 (54 players).
In spite of his disastrous finish,
Short did manage to score the highest rating performance of the
tournament, 2673 , which left him losing only a couple of Elo-points.
A poor man's consolation, to be sure, but at least he didn't
jeopardise his chances of being invited to next year's major events.
And speaking of performances: IM
Jonathan Parker is reported to have notched up a GM-norm with his +3
result. So, from an English point of view, I guess this tournament
wasn't a complete disaster after all...
- Einar Gausel
| 
Isle
of Disaster
