CHESS
Your support helps us to tell the story
This election is still a dead heat, according to most polls. In a fight with such wafer-thin margins, we need reporters on the ground talking to the people Trump and Harris are courting. Your support allows us to keep sending journalists to the story.
The Independent is trusted by 27 million Americans from across the entire political spectrum every month. Unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock you out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. But quality journalism must still be paid for.
Help us keep bring these critical stories to light. Your support makes all the difference.
THE 11TH Verona Open took place from 2 to 9 January with a relatively small field of 44, which nonetheless included six grandmasters and four IMs. The top seed, Michele Godena (Italy), is rated 2,550, and with another three players over 2,500 the competition was fairly well matched.
The grandmaster Miroljub Lazic (Serbia and Montenegro) took an early lead on 3/3, but then decelerated with a number of draws to reach just 6.5/9. Normally with quite a substantial tail, you'd expect one or more players to get 7, but in this case 6.5 was sufficient for first equal. Lazic was, therefore, first on tie-break with GM Jozsef Horvath (Hungary), Godena and the untitled 15-year-old Italian Sabino Brunello.
The big surprise of the event was the bad performance of the second seed, Thomas Luther (Germany), who ended up with just 5/9. After a shock loss in the first round to the Italian Augusto Caruso, he recovered in the second by beating a low rated opponent. He was, however, then set back on his heels again by Brunello in this short but violent game.
Facing the Advance French, Luther, who was, of course, playing to win, chose quite a messy line in which he castled queenside.
Brunello responded with a fairly natural sequence, followed by 19.Nf5 trying to break up the Black pawn phalanx. It's far from clear that Black can't advantageously play 19...exf5 20.e6 Bf6 21.exd7+ Qxd7, but Luther naturally tried to keep it simple. However, Brunello kept going admirably and eventually created total chaos.
Luther was possibly still in the game right up until he played the natural looking but fatal 29...Nxa4? - instead, 29...bxa4 30.Qxc3 g3! 31.hxg3 h4 gives some counterplay, though it's hard to believe this really works.
As played, it all ends very suddenly. Luther resigned, since after 30...Kb7 31.Qxd5+ Qc6 (or 31...Kxa7 32.Qxb5) 32.Re7+ Kb6 33.Re6 Qxe6 34.Qxe6+ Kxa7 35.Qd7+ Kb6 36.Re1 is conclusive; or if 30...Qc6 31.Re7 Re8 32.Qc5! Nxc5 33.a8=Q+ Qxa8 34.Rxa8 mate.
Sabino Brunello
vs Thomas Luther
Verona Open 2005 (round 3)
Advance French
1. e4 e6
2. d4 d5
3. e5 c5
4. c3 Nc6
5. Nf3 Bd7
6. a3 f6
7. Bd3 Nh6
8. 0-0 Nf7
9. Re1 fxe5
10. Nxe5 Ncxe5
11. dxe5 Qc7
12. Nd2 0-0-0
13. Nf3 Be7
14. b4 c4
15. Bc2 g5
16. Qe2 g4
17. Nd4 Rdg8
18. a4 h5
19. Nf5 Bd8
20. a5 exf5
21. e6 Nd6
22. exd7+ Qxd7
23. Ba4 Qf7
24. Bf4 Ne4
25. Qe3 Bc7
26. Bxc7 Qxc7
27. Qxa7 Nxc3
28. a6 b5
29. Qd4 Nxa4
30. a7 1-0
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments