Jewels from Gibraltar

1-7. GM Hikaru Nakamura USA 2781, GM Richard Rapport HUN 2700, GM Maxime Vachier- Lagrave FRA 2793, Levon Aronian ARM 2797, GM Nikita Vitiugov RUS 2732, GM Michael Adams ENG 2709, GM Le Quang Liem VIE 2737, 7.5/10

8-25. GM David Howell ENG 2682, GM Abhijeet Gupta IND 2610, GM Debashis Das IND 2501, GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda POL 2724, GM Grigoriy Oparin RUS 2607, GM Wang Hao CHN 2711, GM Daniele Vocaturo ITA 2609, GM Boris Gelfand ISR 2697, GM S.P. Sethuraman IND 2646, GM Emil Sutovsky ISR 2673, GM Daniil Dubov RUS 2696, Lance Henderson dela Fuente ESP 2429, GM Ori Kobo ISR 2477, GM Ivan Cheparinov BUL 2699, GM Alexander Motylev RUS 2673, GM S.L. Narayanan IND 2573, GM Vladimir Epishin RUS 2536, GM Falko Bindrich GER 2605, 7.0/10 Total of 276 players Time Control: 100 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 50 minutes for the next 20 moves then 15 minutes playto-finish with 30 seconds added to your clock after every move starting move 1.

GM Mikhail Antipov ( born June 10, 1997) won the 2015 World Junior Championship at the age of 18. Now, for outsiders like me there was hardly anything surprising about a Russian winning the title, but actually it was a huge upset. Antipov’s rating was only 2538 good for no. 8 seed. The two top seeds GM JanKrzysztof Duda (POL 2645) and Jorge Cori (PER 2637) were both rated 100 points above. Antipov lost in round 5 to third seed GM Karen Grigoryan and he was written out of the picture, but after that Antipov really gave release to all of his aggressive tendencies and scored 6.5 out of the last 8 rounds to tie for 1st and just outpoint Duda in tie-breaks.

His tactical brilliance is really something. Witness the following game.

Antipov, Mikhail Al (2588) — Schwartz, Ylon (2267) [B81] Gibraltar Masters 2018 Catalan Bay GIB (1.38), 23.01.2018 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 d6 6.g4

C’mon, all of you have heard of the Keres Attack, right? Did you know that this was an over-the-board inspiration from the game Keres vs Bogoljubow in Salzburg 1943? His thought process was that in this position White often played, among other things, 6.g3, followed by 7.Bg2, only to later initiate a “bayonet” attack with f4, g4, g5, etc. “The thought came into my head, however, why not save a tempo and begin immediately with 6.g4?”

OK, did you know that the greatest exponent of the Keres Attack was not Keres (who actually only played it three times in his career) but Anatoly Karpov? Such a classical positional player, and the positions he got from this opening really suited him! 6...h6

The text and 6... Nc6 are the most common responses to the Keres Attack. Let me show you one game to orient you on its dangers. 7.g5 Nd7 8.Be3 Be7 9.h4 0–0 10.Qh5 a6 11.0–0–0 Nxd4 12.Bxd4 b5 13.Bd3 b4? (The correct move for Black is 13...Ne5 but the position is still fraught with danger for him, but also for White.) 14.Bxg7! Nc5 (14...Kxg7 15.Qh6+ and whether the black king goes to g8 or h8 White’s 16.e5! wins; 14...bxc3 15.e5!) 15.Qh6 Re8 16.Ne2 (intending to bring the knight to h5) 16...e5 17.Ng3 Bg4 18.Bc4 Ne6 (18...Bxd1 19.g6!) 19.Bxe6 fxe6 (19... Bxe6 20.Nh5 Bg4 21.Nf6+ Bxf6 22.Bxf6) 20.g6 1–0 Movsesian,S (2580)-Babula,V (2540) Lazne Bohdanec 1996. 7.g5

Another theme you have to be familiar with: 7.h4 Nc6 8.Rg1 g6 9.g5 hxg5 10.Bxg5 a6? (Black should play 10...Be7) 11.Nxc6 bxc6 12.e5! 1–0. Juhasz,J (2270)-Reith,A (2100) Hungary 1996. 7...hxg5 8.Bxg5 a6 9.f4

Now we are going on to a bit of unfamiliar territory. The usual moves here are either 9.Bg2 or 9.Qd2. 9...Qc7

I believe 9...Qb6 goes into a superior form of the Poisoned Pawn Variation since the h-file is under the control of Black. 10.Qd2 Nbd7 11.0–0–0 b5 12.Bg2 Bb7 13.Rhe1 Rxh2 14.Nd5?! Qc4

Black should have accepted the sacrifice. After 14...exd5 15.exd5+ Kd8 16.Nc6+ Kc8 (16...Bxc6 17.dxc6 Nc5 18.Qc3! Rxg2? 19.Bxf6+ gxf6 20.Qxf6+) 17.Re3 White has a strong attack, but Black is still fighting. 15.Re3 Nxe4? <D>

POSITION AFTER 15...NXE4

This was Black’s idea. After 16.Rxe4 Bxd5 he is winning, but alas he overlooked something... 16.Nxe6!! fxe6

[16...Nxd2 17.Ndc7+ Qxc7 18.Nxc7#] 17.Bxe4 1–0

It is mate after 17...Rxd2 Bg6. The Indian GM Sandipan Chanda ( born Aug. 23, 1983 in Calcutta) is always a strong competitor. He represented India in the chess Olympiad in Calvia 2004, Turin 2006 and Dresden 2008. Sandipan was very highly regarded in India. His rating reached a peak of 2656 in 2011 and he was even tapped to second Vishy Anand in his 2013 world championship match with Magnus Carlsen.

GM Chanda’s rating may have dipped a bit but he is still a force to reckon with. Take a look at his over-the-board inspiration against the great Vassily Ivanchuk. Just an amazing win. Sandipan, Chanda (2579) — Ivanchuk, Vassily (2726) [E42] Gibraltar Masters 2018 Catalan Bay GIB (6.6), 28.01.2018 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 c5 5.Nge2

This move has been played literally hundreds of times. Its idea is obvious - to recapture on c3 with the knight and therefore preserve his pawn formation. 5...cxd4 6.exd4 d5 7.c5 Ne4 8.Bd2 Nxd2 9.Qxd2 a5 10.a3 Bxc3 11.Nxc3 a4

We are still “in the books”, but now, after 35 minutes’ thought, Sandipan decides to do something no one else had ever done. 12.Nxa4!? Rxa4 13.Bb5+

The big idea. But is it any good? 13...Bd7 14.Bxa4 Bxa4

The Chessbase shop ( www.chessbase. com then click “shop”) has lots and lots of instructional DVDs on openings, strategy, middle game, biographies, historical tournaments, etc. etc. One of its best chess authors is GM Adrian Mikhalchishin. I remember one particular DVD on winning methods where he explained what “black square strategy” was and “the theory of the weakest piece.” It was very illuminating.

Another of his DVDs which I found particularly instructive was on the Chess Secrets of the World Champions where he expounded on some favorite stratagems which the holders of the title used to do battle. There was Tigran Petrosian and his exchange sacrifice and Garry Kasparov’s pawn sacrifices. Did you know that Mikhail Tal liked to give up two pieces for a rook and one or two pawns? His idea was to unbalance the position and force a battle with unequal weapons where he was confident his brilliant tactical powers can overcome the opponent.

This is exactly that type of position on the board. 15.Qb4 Qd7 16.0–0 Qb5?!

The correct move for Black was 16...0– 0 but perhaps Ivanchuk was afraid of

17.b3 Bc6 18.a4 and the pawns run up the board quickly. 17.b3!

But it turns out that the move can still be played. 17...Qxb4 18.axb4 Bb5

[18...Bxb3 19.Ra7 gets White’s rook on the 7th rank.] 19.Ra7!

Sandipan is always one step ahead of Chuckie. It turns out that this rook can nevertheless get on the 7th rank. 19... Bxf1 20. Rxb7 Nc6 21. Kxf1 0–0?

The toughest defense is to keep his king in the center. Black should play 21... Rf8! to guard the f7–pawn and then move his king towards the queenside. 22.b5! Na5

After 22...Nxd4 23.c6 followed by c6– c7 and Rb8. 23.Rc7! 1–0

And now Ivanchuk realizes that he cannot take the b3–pawn. After 23.Rc7 Nxb3 (23...Rb8 24.b4 Nb7 25.Rd7 wins comfortably.) 24.b6 Na5 25.c6 followed by b6–b7 and Rc8.

But if he doesn’t take the pawn then 23.Rc7 Rb8 24.b4 Nc4 25.b6 Nxb6 26.cxb6 the back rank mate prevents Black from taking the b- pawn 26... g6 27. b7 Kg7 28.Ke2 White’s king will simply march up the board to a6 and win the rook. No choice but to resign. By the way, while we are on the topic of Chess DVD’s. Wesley So himself has recently authored two DVD’s in the Chessbase shop: My Secret Weapon: 1.b3, and My Black Secrets in the Modern Italian This is the first time we have a Filipino author of a Chessbase Opening DVD and naturally I quickly snapped them up and went over the contents carefully. They are both equally well produced and very instructive. Together with the videos is a database of model games for the lines under discussion.

Next Tuesday, I have a treat for BW readers. With Wesley So’s kind permission we will present one of his recent wins from the Black side of the Italian Game with his own notes and comments.

Don’t miss it!