Chess
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Your support makes all the difference.ON THURSDAY at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, the slaughter was truly ferocious.
Of 14 second-round matches in the Fide world championship remaining undecided, an astonishing 12 were resolved by just two tie-break games. Among the victims were Tony Miles, who lost against Mihail Krasenkow; Ivan Sokolov, losing to Alexei Shirov; and Gata Kamsky who won wonderfully well against Alexander Khalifman in their first regular game but lost the second, then lost the play-off games 1.5-0.5.
After two hours just two of the 14 matches were still in progress, with Sergei Dolmatov facing Viktor Korchnoi and Veselin Topalov against the Ukrainian wunderkind Ruslan Ponomariov, 16 in October.
Viktor Korchnoi, now 68, displays the enthusiasm and energy of a man half his age. He eventually won both games against Sergei Dolmatov, the first a crushing position victory, the second on time after heroic defence. But the performance of the round, for me, was the superb grit shown by Ponomariov, who, as Nigel Short pointed out, has rather the look of the young Karpov.
Though Ponomariov did go down, he afforded huge resistance, particularly in this, the second quickplay game.
White quickly got the advantage, and 23 Rfd1! would have been very strong. If a6? 24 Rab1 simply wins. If 24 Rd7 Qb5! so Topalov had to start again. If 27 ...Qb5 28 Qe4! is strong. 38 ...Kh5! was splendid and 41 ...Qc6 might even have been better for Black. But Ponomariov quickly became worse again before drawing well.
White: Veselin Topalov
Black: Ruslan Ponomariov
English Opening
Daniel Gormally, aged 23, leads the field in the 11-round Smith & Williamson British Championship at Scarborough, with four straight wins.
1 Nf3 Nf6
2 c4 c5
3 g3 Nc6
4 d4 cxd4
5 Nxd4 e6
6 Bg2 Qb6
7 Nc2 d5
8 0-0 Be7
9 cxd5 Nxd5
10 Ne3 Nxe3
11 Bxe3 Qxb2
12 Bxc6+ bxc6
13 Bd4 Qb7
14 Bxg7 Rg8
15 Bc3 c5
16 Qc2 Rg6
17 Nd2 Qc6
18 Nc4 Bb7
19 f3 f6
20 Na5 Qc7
21 Nxb7 Qxb7
22 Qa4+ Kf7
23 Rad1? a6!
24 Rd2 Rd8
25 Rxd8 Bxd8
26 Rd1 Be7
27 Qc4 Rg5
28 a4 Rd5
29 Ra1 h5
30 Kf2 Rd7
31 e4 Qc6
32 f4 Bf8
33 Rb1 Qd6
34 Ke3 Bh6
35 a5 Kg6
36 Ke2 h4
37 Rf1 f5
38 Rb1 Kh5!
39 Rg1 Bg7
40 gxh4 Bh6
41 e5 Qd5
42 Qxd5 Rxd5
43 Bd2 Rd4
44 Be3 Ra4
45 Kf3 Rxa5
46 Rd1 Kg6
47 Rd6 Kf7
48 h5 Rb5
49 Rd7+ Kg8
50 Rd6 Kf7
51 Rxa6 Bf8
52 Ra7+ Kg8
53 Rc7 Rb3
54 h4 Rb5
55 Ke2 Rb2+
56 Kd3 Rb3+
57 Kd2 Rb2+
58 Kc3 Rh2
59 Bxc5 Bxc5
60 Rxc5 Rxh4
61 Rc8+ Kg7
62 Kd4 Rxf4+
63 Kc5 Ra4!
64 Rc6 Kh6
65 Kd6 Kxh5
66 Kxe6 Kg4
67 Kf6 f4
68 e6 f3
69 e7 f2 70.Rc1 Draw
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