Three in a row for Shankland
1. GM Samuel Shankland USA 2717, 9.0/11 2. GM Diego Flores ARG 2614, 8.5/11 3-9. IM Pablo Salinas Herrera CHI 2463, GM Sandro Mareco ARG 2643, IM Brian Sebasti Escalante Ramirez PER 2422, GM Jorge Cori PER 2659, IM Kevin Joel Cori Quispe PER 2468, GM Robert Hungaski USA 2510, GM Emilio Cordova PER 2621, 8.0/11
10-21. IM Guillermo Vazquez PAR 2436, IM Tomas Sosa ARG 2453, GM Felipe De Cresce El Debs BRA 2537, GM Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara PER 2539, GM Neuris Delgado Ramirez PAR 2613, GM Cristhian Cruz PER 2576, GM Jeffery Xiong USA 2656, GM Sergey Erenburg USA 2563, GM Awonder Liang USA 2571, IM Diego Rafael Di Berardino BRA 2525, GM Alan Pichot ARG 2564, GM Sevag Mekhitarian Krikor BRA 2546, 7.5/11 Total of 167 participants Time Control: 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 30 minutes for the rest of the game with 30 seconds added to your time after every move starting move 1.
GM Samuel Shankland won his last two games to take solo first place in the American Continental Championship. This was his third consecutive tournament victory after winning the USA Championship (ahead of the triumvirate of Fabiano Caruana, Wesley so and Hikaru Nakamura, all world top-10 players) and the Capablanca Memorial. He is now ranked no. 27 in the world with a rating of 2727, which is why some people are now calling him “Triple 27.”
The top four finishers of the American Continental were to be awarded automatic slots to the 2019 KhantyMansiysk World Cup. GMs Shankland and Diego Flores got the first two slots. The seven players who tied for third place had to play a single round-robin tiebreak tournament with a 15 minute (with 10 seconds added after every move) to determine who gets the other two slots. After seven rounds of play GMs Jorge Cori and Emilio Cordova, both from Peru, qualified.
In the tournament proper it was a great fight between the USA’s Shankland and Argentina’s 35-year-old GM Diego Flores, who was in brilliant form. After four wins and a draw in the first five rounds he engaged Shankland in a tactical fight.
Flores, Diego (2614) — Shankland, Samuel (2717) [E54] American Continental-ch 2018 Montevideo (6), 05.06.2018 1.c4 e6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 0–0 5.Bd3 d5 6.Nf3 dxc4 7.Bxc4 c5 8.0– 0 cxd4 9. exd4 b6 10. Bg5 Bb7 11.Rc1 There is a big debate here whether White’s rooks belong on c1 and d1 or d1 and e1. We won’t go into that now but one day we will.
[11...Nbd7 is the usual move here so as not to block his rook when it gets to c8. But anyway Nc6 also has its adherents, putting additional pressure on white’s isolated d-pawn]
[ 12. d5 Na5! 13. Ne4 is well met by 13... Be7! ( Speelman) ( not 13... exd5? 14. Bxf6 gxf6 15. Bxd5± Bxd5? 16. Qxd5 Qxd5 17.Nxf6+) 14.d6 Bxe4 15.dxe7 Qxe7 Black is simply a pawn up, which is why White withdraws his bishop to a2 first before pushing the d-pawn]
12... Be7 13. Ba2 Rc8 14. Re1 h6 15.Bh4 Nh5 16.Bg3 Nxg3 17.hxg3 Bf6 18. d5! exd5 19. Nxd5 Bxb2 20. Rc2 Bxa3 21.Rd2 Bc5 22.Nc3 Qc7 23.Rd7 Qb8 <D> Flores’ next move was a big surprise.
What happens after 24...hxg5? At first glance White wins with 25.Qh5 Ne5 26.Rxe5 Qxe5 27.Rxf7! (27.Bxf7+ Rxf7 28.Qxf7+ the pawn on g7 is covered) 27... Bd5 (27...Rxf7?? 28.Qxf7+ Kh8 29.Qh5#) 28.Bxd5 Qxd5 29.Rxf8+ Rxf8 30.Nxd5 White is clearly winning.
Black has a saving tactical shot though. After 24...hxg5 25.Qh5 Ne5 26.Rxe5 he can force a draw with 26...Bxf2+! 27.Kxf2 Qxe5 28.Bxf7+ (28.Rxf7?? Qd4+ 29.Kf1 (29.Ke1 Qxc3+ 30.Kf1 Qa1+) 29...Ba6+ Black mates) 28...Rxf7+ 29.Qxf7+ Kh8 30.Qh5+ draw via perpetual check.
[25...Kh8]
A pity that Flores missed 26.Nf6+! gxf6 (Black is forced to accept the sacrifice. If 26...Kh8 27.Qd3 g6 28.Bxf7! wins for White) 27.Qg4+ Kh8 28.Qf5 Rxd7 29.Bb1 Black can only prevent mate at huge material loss.
[28.Nxd7 Bc8!]
[30.Kh1 Kg7 31.Nxd7 Qc8 32.Rf1 Re8 Black is winning as well]
[ 32. Kxd2 Qd4+ then he takes the knight on f6.]
[32...Qd4+ 33.Kf4 Rf2+ 34.Kg4 Bc8+ wins the queen]
To his great credit the Argentinian GM shrugged off the loss and won his next three games to tie for the lead with GM Shankland, two rounds to go. You’d think that GM Sam would play cautiously so as not to jeopardize qualifying for the World Cup. But that’s not his thing.
Yup! Shankland chooses to make his own luck and counters with the Sicilian Najdorf.
A tactical motif that White has to look out for is 10.0–0–0 Bb7 11.f3 Nbd7 12.h4 Rc8 13.h5 b4 14.Nce2 e5 15.Nb3 Nxe4! 16.fxe4 Bxe4 with an attack on c2 and h1. Amonatov,F (2632)-Debashis,D (2496) Bhubaneswar 2017 0–1 37.
From the looks of the result of this game and others perhaps it is more prudent for White to castle kingside. After 11.0–0 Nfd7 (Not agreeing to the complications of 11...Nbd7 12.e5 dxe5 13.Ne6!? Mokry, K ( 2485)- Georgiev, K ( 2590) Warsaw 1987 1/2 18.) 12.a4 bxa4 13.Rxa4 Nc5 14.Ra3 Nbd7 15.b4 Ne6 we still have a big fight ahead of us but White is doing fine. Santos Latasa,J (2263)-Dastan,B (2087) Porto Carras 2010 1–0 46.
There is no immediate win in sight — the sacrifice was made on purely positional considerations. The rest of the game shows that Sam’s intuition is spot on.
Xiong didn’t like 18.Rhe1 Nf3 19.Re2 Qd7 but the text is even worse
Here and in the next few moves it looks like Black can take on f6 but clearly Shankland didn’t felt he was already winning and did not need the extra complication of weak black squares around his king.
24. Bc1 Rc4 25. Qe3 Qa7 26. Nf5 Qxe3 27. Nxe3 Rh4 28. R6f4 Rxh3 29.a4 h6 30.axb5 axb5 31.Rb4 Nd3! 32.cxd3 Bxd3+ 33.Ka2 Bxf1 34.Nxf1 Rh1 35.Rf4 hxg5 36.Rf2 Bd4 37.Be3 Rxf1! 38.Bxd4 [38.Rxf1 Bxe3] 38...Rxf2 39.Bxf2 h4 Black has 5 passed pawns for the bishop. Way more than enough.
This move appeals more to the attacking player. The more popular 5...c5 has the possibility of transposing right away into the endgame with 6.dxc5 Qa5 7.Bd2 dxc4 8.Qxc4 Qxc5 9.Qxc5 Bxc5 the game is equal, but Black didn’t play the Ragozin Complex to go into the endgame!
Black is trying to open up the position to get at the white king, but he does not get the desired result. On the contrary it opens up the position so that White queenside forces and coordinate with the rook on the kingside.
[20...h6 is indicated]
Transferring the rook to the g-file. White is already winning.
The only other way to prolong the game, 25...Rad8 (threatening Qd1 mate) also loses to 26.Rxg7+ Kh8 27.Qb1 Qd2+ 28.Kf1 Qd1+ 29.Qxd1 Rxd1+ 30.Kg2 although here a bit of endgame technique is necessary.
If Sam is not careful then Black sneaks in 27...Qa5+ 28.Kf1 Rd1+ 29.Kg2 Qe1 and it is the second player who wins.
Intending Rh4 mate. After Kf1 the checks are at an end. A nice tournament victory, and totally well-deserved.