by Aviv Friedman

The big buzz around the hotel and the pressroom here for the last day or two had nothing to do with the main event. True, round 8 was a bloody round, perhaps the most exciting one thus far. It seems as if the players have resolved to shift to second gear with the start of the second half of the event, which signified Anand's first win, Vallejo's first loss and Kasparov looking like he found his rhythm again. Alas, the big news was that top seed in the open, the very Beliavsky I have mentioned here previously, had a… how to say… professional accident! Playing against young Norwegian IM Leif Erlend Johannessen in a drawish ending, Beliavsky decided (unintentionally, of course) to become a composer of problems. Help mates, if to be more specific! Here is what happened:

Well, these things happen even to the best of players. See this example of Yevgeni Bareev, who recently was the clear winner of the super GM tournament in Corus, from the 1994 version of the main event here in Linares:

For those of you who enjoyed (or were baffled?) by the excitement of Kasparov - Vallejo last round, I want to enclose the following recent game. It is not the EXACT same themes maybe, but the similarities are quite obvious. White looks (and maybe is) much better, black holds and takes a pawn, defends, consolidates and eventually cashes in on white's over optimism:

Luther,T (2604) - Rublevsky,S (2634) [B42]
World Teams Yerevan ARM (6), 17.10.2001

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 e6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 a6 5.Bd3 Nf6 6.0-0 d6 7.c4 Bd7 8.Nc3 Nc6 9.Nxc6 Bxc6 10.b4 b6 11.Bb2 Be7 12.Qe2 0-0 13.Rad1 Qc7 14.f4 Rac8 15.Rf3 Rfd8 16.Rh3 h6 17.Rg3 Bb7 18.a3 a5 White looks quite strong here. 19.e5 dxe5 20.fxe5 Ne8 21.Nb5 Qb8 22.Rf1? axb4! 23.Qh5 Bc5+ 24.Kh1 Rd7 25.axb4 Bxb4 26.Nd6?

Errata: I have said Adams' girlfriend's name is Zoe. Egg on my face. That is the name of his former one (and now I believe Gelfand's wife) His current one is Tara. Sorry…!

Addition: After the first few days, GM Victor Bologan had joined the Ponomariov camp as another (quite strong!) assistant.

Today's battles:

Click to replay Vallejo - Anand:

Anand's tourney strategy has not changed. In the spirit of Anatoly Karpov, he is a follower of 'win with white, draw with black' (with exceptions of course) Today he played actively against the 4 Knights 1.c4 e5 English and equalized without problems. White's plan with 9.b3 is nothing new, although usually with a different move order - After the game, white admitted he switched the move order and was quite miffed at himself since after 9…Ba7! White has nothing. As a result Paco played very cautiously, maybe also trying to just recover from yesterday's loss, and not fall into a 'one-two punch' with the tourney's second seed. He proposed a peace offering on move 18 but Vishy declined, thinking his attack might lead to more. When a few more moves were played and he didn't feel like he had anything tangible, he reciprocated the draw offer, which was accepted at once. Not much to report here I am afraid.

Click to replay Ponomariov - Adams:

Finally someone allows Mickey to play the Marshall attack in the Ruy Lopez! Eager for revenge for his round 1 loss to Adams, Pono makes sure he gets a full-bodied fight and picks up the gauntlet. It is nothing new that in this line, the game really begins well into the middle game since so much has been tried and analyzed before. 15…g5 is not a typo, it is a trick (16.Bxg5? Qf5!) designed to stop Rh4. White's exchange sacrifices are not new either: With a pawn in hand and the g5 weakness, a N on e4 or later, a pawn there would compensate for the material deficit. For example, after 18.f3 the game J. Polgar - Onischuk Batumi 1999 was agreed drawn without further fighting. 18…c5 looks new to me and only more testing would reveal how good it is. 23…Bb4? Has to be a mistake. Optically, it looked attractive, but after 24.Re5! white was clearly better. White coolly consolidated, stopping any tries Mickey had for some counterplay. 28.Ne3 was an obvious exchange sac, as we saw in the real game later on, the two passers are simply too much. Many thought black's only try to prolong the fight was 32…Rxe3, but maybe even that would not have sufficed. Around the time control black tried every coffeehouse trick in the book, but of course that was not going to work at this level. After continuing a bunch of moves without chance, much like Ponomariov did against him in round 1, Adams had conceded defeat. What a sweet equalizer for the FIDE champ.

Click to replay Shirov - Ivanchuk:

This was a true tragedy. In another Ruy Lopez, Anti-Marshall variation with a somewhat odd move order, black went into a very good piece sac - perhaps white's 14.b4?! was too ambitious and 15.bxa5? was simply good for black. It looks like black could have even improved a lot on the happenings with 16…b4! preventing the games' 17.axb5 and 18.a6!, since the e4 pawn is not going anywhere anyways! Of course 18…Bxa6? 19.Bd5 or 18…Rxa6 19.Bxf7+ Kxf7 20.Rxa6 Bxa6 21.Qd5+ was crushing. As it was white got a lot play - maybe 19.Bd5 was another option to the counter sacrifice, but this is Shirov! It is very hard to asses what was going on in the position after 22.Nxe4. Was white better? Was black? Allow me to bail by saying the position seems very unclear. The seesaw continued with 23.Nxc3? where 23.Qd5+! looked necessary, and white still keeps his "a" pawn for a bit. Now black 'ate' that nuisance and was again for choice. 29…Qa4! Was a move that was extremely hard to meet, probably just winning at once. In the time trouble black, certainly went the wrong way. Many moves would have still clinched it for him, but he slowly and surely drifted until he lost the thread of the game. 34…d4? (34…Rf5!) was throwing away the advantage completely, and 35…Re4?? was throwing away the game by hanging the rook on a1. What more to say? How these things happen to Ivanchuk is really a mystery. I now understand his answer to a reporter about the subject of missing and blundering: "Mysticism!" The only amusing element in this sad story was the behavior of the two during the game: Often they could be seen (and no matter who was on the move) looking well away from the board. It might have been empty space for them, but they often seem to look directly at the web cam that showed us their board in the pressroom. It was quite funny to watch them as if they have both decided to 'space out' in mid game!