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Boris
Gelfand vs. Jeroen Piket
White has sacrificed a pawn to rip the black
kingside wide open. But instead of protecting
the e6 pawn with the queen, black made white's
life very easy: 1..Nd4?? 2.Qxd4! 1-0
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Alexander Morozevich vs. Evgeny Vladimirov
White has won a pawn, and now he wins more
material with a nice combination: 1.Nb6!
ab 2.ab Rxa1 3.Rxa1 Nd6 4.h4! Ke8 (4..Bxh4
5.Ra8+ Ne8 6.b7 and the pawn queens, as the
bishop can no longer cover the queening square.)
5.hg and white soon won. |
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Alexander
Grischuk vs. Grigory Serper
Black has had to play ..h7-h5 to prevent mate,
but now he loses material: 1.Rxh5! gh 2.Qg5+
Kh8 3.Qxh5+ Kg7 4.Qg5+ Kh8 5.Re1 Ne5 6.Re3
Qxe3 7.Qxe3 and white had a queen + 2
pawns for the pair of rooks. The black pawns
proved hard to protect, and Grischuk later
invaded black's position with his queen, winning
material and the game. |
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Zurab
Azmaiparashvili vs. Boris Gulko
A very complicated game. White was already
in shambles, and he went for: 1.ed Nc2
2.dc Qf7 3.c7!? Nxa3 4.Bxa8 Rxa8 5.Rxa3
but the advanced white pawns did not provide
white with enough compensation for the sacrificed
queen, and black won easily. |
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Evgeny
Bareev vs. Alexej Alexandrov
White played 1.a4 and black did not
react to the threat, but went for a short-lived
counter-attack: 1...Qc7? 2.ab Rxb5 3.Qa3
Rb4 4.Rac1 Rfc8 5.b3 Bxc4 6.Nxc4 Qb8 7.Bxd5
ed 8.Nd6 Rc5 1-0
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Peng
Xiaomin vs. Peter Svidler
White had been looking for a way to break
through for some time, and now when the black
king was at the edge of the board, the time
was ripe for opening the position up: 1.Ne5!
Nxf4 2.h4 a4 3.ba Ka5 4.Ke3 Ne6 5.Nxg6
and white won.
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Kiril
Georgiev vs. Veselin Topalov
White has been marching his pawns up the kingside,
but never managed to create any concrete threats
against black's king. Now Topalov is well
into a winning counter-attack: 1..Qf5!
2.Qf3 Qc2 3.Rf1 Qxb2 winning a pawn. Black
won the c3 pawn as well in short order, and
soon after that the game. |
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Rafael
Leitao vs. Igor Nataf
Black could not make anything of his central
control in the middlegame, and white has managed
to exchange into an advantageous ending. Black
tried the thematic 1..b5 but this just
lost a pawn in this position: 2.cb Ne7
3.Rd3 ab 4.Nc3 b4 5.Nd5 Kf7 6.Nxb4 and
white soon realised his advantage. |
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Loek
van Wely vs. Alexey Dreev
The white pieces are too passive and white
has too many pawn weaknesses. Dreev was quick
to exploit this: 1..Qc4! 2.Qxc4 Rxc4 3.b3
Rb4 4.Bd3 a5 5.Bc4 Bxf3 6.Rxf3 Rxd4 winning
a pawn. Black won later. |
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