Games of the Day, Rounds 8-9

Annotated by GM Alexander Kalinin

The temperature reached its zenith in the finial rounds, reflected by the quality of the games played. The creative content of the contests in the lead groups is unlikely to please the competitors themselves since the interesting schemes were often coupled with serious oversights. An indicator of this are games in many ways surpassing the winners of the Cup of Russia stage and Student-grandmaster tournament. 

Queen Sacrifice

The sacrifice of the strongest piece pulls at the emotions of all. Although the line chosen by the Armenian grandmaster was not the most accurate continuation of his bold scheme, the game nonetheless is of high interest. 

Tigran PETROSIAN – Ernesto INARKIEV
Men's Cup of Russia stage 2015

White finds an interesting possibility for resolving the central tension.
27.Qf4!
Pinning the black knight and practically forcing his opponent's reply. Slowly playing 27.Rad1 Bc6 dooms black to inadequate counterchances.
27...g5!
In black's favor was the continuation 27...Rbe8 28.Rad1.

28.Qxd4?!
Beautiful and … unsound! The correct idea for sacrificing the queen was 28.Qxe5! Bxe5 29.Rxe5 Kg7! 30.Bxd4 Kg6 31.Nd6 and white has a serious initiative.
28...Nf3+ 29.Bxf3 Qxg3+ 30.Bg2 Bxd4+ 31.Bxd4+ Kg8

Now, in contrast to the variation 28.Qe5!, the white king as well as the black king is exposed. White's top priority is to cramp the black queen, allowing the bishops to attacking diagonals d4-h8 and d5-
32.Re3?!
Another inaccuracy. Forcing black to play with extreme accuracy was 32.Bf2 Qf4 33.Be3 Qc7 34.Bd5+ Kg7 35.Bd4+ Kh6 (35...Kg6? 36.Be5 Qd8 37.Bxb8 Qxb8 38.Ne5+) 36.Be5 Qd8, although here it is already unclear how adequate white's compensation is for the opponent's matrial.
32...Qh4 33.Bd5+ Rf7 34.Be5 Rbf8 35.Nd6 f4 36.Rf3 Bxh3 37.Ne4

The “clenched fist” of white's pieces in the center looks impressive, but they are unable to create any real threats. However, in severe mutual time trouble both sides manage to find a safe harbor.
37...Re8?
Allows white to achieve practically the only concrete idea. Among the many of black's options was the calm 37... h6, strengthening the pawn g5 and preparing the move Re8.
38.Rxh3 Qxh3 39.Bxf7+ Kf8 40.Bd6+ Re7 41.Bc4

Now black has nothing better than forcing a draw by perpetual check.
41...Qg4+ 42.Kf1 Qh3+ 43.Kg1 Qg4+ 44.Kf1 Qh3+ ½
It is hard to imagine Ernesto Inarkiev being discontent with the result of the game. In the final round the grandmaster from Moscow had a comfortable lead and the white pieces forcasting his successful tournament outcome.

Ghost Compensation
The sacrifice of a piece made by Daniil Dubov on his 11th move gave white a compensation the computer is unwilling to admit. But from a “human” perspective, black's problems were nothing simple.

Daniil DUBOV – Samvel TER-SAAKYAN
A.Pochkin Memorial. Student-grandmaster tournament

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 e6 5.g3 dxc4 6.Bg2 b5 7.0–0 Nbd7 

The Slavic Defense was met by white with a Catlan setup, gambiting a pawn on c4.
8.Ng5 Qb6 9.e4 h6

10.Nxe6!?
A bold piece sacrifice. At other times the position has only seen 10.Nf3 and 10.e5.
10…fxe6 11.e5 Nd5 12.Qg4 Kf7 

While observing the encounter, I was reminded of the game I. Cheparinov – E. Alekseev, also played at the Student-grandmaster tournament of the Moscow Open festiva, only in 2011. There events transpired in the following manner: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.cxd5 exd5 6.Bg5 Nbd7 7.e3 c5 8.Be2 Qa5 9.0–0 c4 10.Qc2 Bxc3 11.bxc3 Ne4 12.Rac1 Nxg5 13.Nxg5 Nf6 14.e4 h6 

15.Nxf7!? Kxf7 16.e5 Ne8 17.Bh5+ Ke7 18.f4 Kd8 19.f5 with inviting compensation for the sacrificed piece.
Admittedly, in the 2015 game the compensation for knight is less visible as the pawn e6 constrains the white infantry's active ambitions.
13.a4
Perhaps more accurate was immediately honing in on the square g6—13.Be4 Ne7 14.a4 b4 15.Ne2. After the text move black is allowed to harmoniously configure his pieces.
13...b4 14.Ne2 Be7 15.Nf4 Nf8 16.Be3 Bd7 17.Rfc1 c3 18.bxc3 bxc3 19.Be4 Bg5 20.Rab1 Qc7 

21.Nxd5
An alternative was 21.Nh5 g6 22.Qf3+ Kg8 23.Bxd5 exd5 24.Bxg5 gxh5 25.Bf6 Rh7 26.Rxc3 Bg4 etc.
21...cxd5 22.Qf3+ 

22...Kg8
The retreat 22...Ke7 was called for. In this case white keeps some compensation for the piece by means of 23.Bxg5+ hxg5 24.Bc2 Rc8 25.Qg4.
23.Bxd5 Rb8 24.Rxb8 Qxb8 25.Be4 Qb2 26.Rb1 

26...Bc6!
A clever resource seen by black in advance. In case of 26...Qa3 27.Rb8 Bxe3 28.Qxe3 white's initiative truly becomes formitable. As a reminder, playing to activate black's pawn c3 doesn't work here—28…Bc6? 29.Bxc6 Qa1+ 30.Kg2 c2 31.Qf3 c1Q 32.Rxf8+ Kh7 33.Be4+ with mate.
27.Rxb2 ½- ½
And here the opponents unexpectedly agreed on a draw. After 27...cxb2 28.Qe2 Bxe4 29.Qxb2 Bxe3 30.fxe3 Rh7 31.Qf2 g5 32.Qf6 Bg6 33.g4 Rf7 34.Qd8 Kg7 black as before keeps some material advantage, but it is unclear wither he will be able cash in on his piece in the ensuing battle for the point. The Armenian grandmaster did not bother searching for a solution to this difficult problem since a draw was sufficient to secure the tournament.