American wins World Junior
Last year at age 14, Jeffery Xiong of Texas took clear first in the Chicago Open. That helped qualify him to become a Grandmaster. His history of outstanding results provided him with an invitation to compete last April in our “adult” closed U.S. Championship. Along the way to a fifth-place finish, he took down five-time U.S. Champion and former world title contender Gata Kamsky. In the 11-round competition, he lost only once. Two months later, he prevailed over our nation’s best young players, winning the all-master Closed U.S. Junior again losing only one game.
Recently, representing the U.S. in the 13-round World Junior Championship, he outpaced everyone, staying lossless throughout.
Exemplary knockout
In this column last week, we examined the dangers of not castling. In the recently completed Sinquefield Cup Tournament in St. Louis, four-time U.S. Champion Hikaru Nakamura produced a perfect case in point. Facing three-time Chinese Champion Ding Liren in the final round, he sacrificed a knight to take advantage of his foe’s centralized king. A half-dozen moves later, the brilliant encounter was over.
Here is the masterpiece: [Nakamura, Hikaru-Ding, Liren] 1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.Bg5 h6 6.Bh4 dxc4 7.e4 g5 8.Bg3 b5 9.Be2 Bb7 10.h4 g4 11.Ne5 Nbd7 12.Nxd7 Qxd7 13.Be5 Qe7 14.b3 cxb3 15.axb3 a6 16.Qc1 Rg8 17.0–0 Nh5 18.d5! [Sacrificing to blast open the center] 18...Qxh4 19.g3 Qg5 20.dxc6 Qxe5 [Here’s an amazing sequence: 20...Bxc6 21.Nxb5! Qxc1 (21...Bxb5 22.Bxb5+ axb5 23.Qc6+ Ke7 24.Qc7+ Ke8 25.Rxa8+ Qd8 26.Rxd8 mate) 22.Nc7+ Kd7 23.Raxc1 Rd8 24.Rfd1+ Ke7 25.Rxd8 Kxd8 26.Rxc6] 21.cxb7 Rb8 22.Nd5! [Exposing Black’s King to a destructive check (Qc8)] 22...exd5 [22...Qxe4!? 23.Qc8+ Rxc8 24.bxc8Q mate] 23.Qc8+ Ke7 24.Rxa6 Nxg3 25.Bxb5 Ne2+ 26.Bxe2 f6 27.Re6+ Qxe6 28.Qxb8. Black resigned to avoid 28...Kf7 29.Qc7+ Be7 30.b8Q Rxb8 31.Qxb8.
Game of the week
Xiong, Jeffery-Yuan, Qingyu World Junior Open Bhubaneswar, India
1.Nf3(A) Nf6 2.c4(B) e6 3.Nc3 Bb4(C) 4.Qc2(D) 0–0 5.a3 Bxc3(E) 6.Qxc3 d6 7.e3 e5 8.Be2 a5 9.b3(F) b6 10.Bb2 Bb7 11.d3 Nbd7 12.0–0 Qe7 13.Rfe1 Rfe8 14.Rac1(G) d5!?(H) 15.d4 e4 16.Ne5 Rec8(I) 17.c5(J) c6 18.cxb6 Nxb6(K) 19.a4 Rc7 20.Qd2 Ne8 21.Bc3(L) f6 22.Bxa5 Rxa5 23.Qxa5 Nc8 24.Nxc6(M) Rxc6 25.Rxc6 Bxc6 26.Rc1 Bb7 27.b4(N) Ncd6 28.Qc5 Kf7 29.a5(O) Nc4 30.Rxc4(P) dxc4 31.Bxc4+ Kf8 32.a6 Ba8 Q) 33.b5 Nd6 34.b6(R) g6 35.Bd5 Bxd5 36.Qxd5 Kg7(S) 37.a7 Nf5 38.a8Q Qb4(T) 39. Qdg8+(U) Kh6 40.Qaf8+(V) 1–0
A) Starting with the Reti Opening. B) Transposing into an English Opening. C) Now we have the Nimzo-English. Black will sometimes trade the Bishop for Knight to double white’s pawns. D) Not this game. E) To save time, he trades, but without inflicting the pawn weakness. F) Keeping his pawns flexible for later expansion. G) Both sides have been trying to optimize their piece placements without opening up the game. That ends next move. H) A bit too ambitious since white’s men are somewhat better placed for an open game, as will be seen. I) 16...Nxe5 17.dxe5 Nd7 18.cxd5 Bxd5 19.Qxc7 Nxe5 20.Qxb6 favors white. J) threatening a pawn fork on c6. K) Black’s a-pawn is isolated and his c-pawn is backward; two obvious targets. L) And there goes one on a combination. M) 24.Ng4 h5 25.Nxf6+ Nxf6 is materially better for White, but not the most decisive line of play. N) After trading two minor pieces for his rook, white is left with two extra, connected passed pawns, a winning advantage. O) There is no good way to stop the advancing pawns. P) 30.Bxc4 Cannot be bad either, but the exchange sac is more fun. Q) Taking the Queen would add to the pawn mass: 32...Qxc5 33.dxc5. R) Black’s extra piece is worthless against these little soldiers. S) A true die-hard. One might think is time to concede and shake hands. T) Hope springs eternal! Will white become overconfident and overlook a back-rank mate? U) Certainly not! V) Forced to trade queens, black had finally had enough.