Chess: Short draws level with Gulko
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.NIGEL SHORT scored the equalising win in the third game of his PCA/Intel World Championship quarter-final through a piece of imagination in the early middlegame.
Playing White against Boris Gulko, Short abandoned his recent favourite of 3. e5 against the Caro-Kann, and instead headed down a main line variation: 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Nd7 5. Bc4 Ngf6 6. Ng5 e6 7. Qe2 Nb6 8. Bb3 h6 9. N5f3 a5 10. c3 c5 11. a3 Qc7.
Short now played 12. Nh3 (improving on the 12. Ne5? of a Kasparov-Karpov game in Linares earlier this year, which should have been met by 12 . . . cxd4 13. cxd4 Bxa3]). The Short-Gulko game continued 12 . . . Bd7 13. 0-0 Bd6 14. dxc5 Qxc5 15. Be3 Qc7 16. Bd4 Ng4 to reach the diagram position.
ch14out-harts-nws
Gulko's idea is to attack h2, meeting 17. Bxg7 with Rg8 followed by Nxh2 and Bc6, or 17. g3 with e5 and 0-0-0. Short replied with 17. Nd2] taking a defender away from h2. The point is that 17 . . . Nxh2? would lose to 18. Bxb6 Qxb6 19. Nc4 Qc7 20. Nxd6+ Qxd6 21. Rfd1 and the knight on h2 will not escape alive.
Since 17 . . . Bxh2+ 18. Kh1 leaves White threatening Qxg4 (and 18 . . . Bg1 is met simply by 19. g3), Gulko found nothing better than a sad retreat with 17 . . . Nf6. Short turned his extra moves to advantage with 18. Kh1 0-0 19. Bxf6 gxf6 20. Qg4+ Kh7 21. Ne4 and Black was in severe trouble.
The end came swiftly: 21 . . . f5 22. Nf6+ Kh8 23. Qh4 Kg7 24. Rad1 Be5 25. Nh5+ Kh7 26. f4] Bh8 27. Ng5+] and Black resigned. 27 . . . hxg5 28. fxg5 leads to a quick mate beginning with Nf6, while 27 . . . Kg6 (or Kg8) is demolished by Rf3 followed by Rg3.
With Short playing soundly with the black pieces to draw the fourth game, the score half-way through the match is 2-2. Michael Adams and Sergei Tiviakov are also level. After winning the first two games, Adams lost the third and fourth, the latter after gambling in his opponent's time-trouble and meeting a surprise counter-attack.
Anand leads Romanishin 3-1 after scoring a remarkable win in the third, in which he used only 24 minutes on his clock. Romanishin overstepped the time-limit, using his full two hours before move 40. Anand slowed to a total of 28 minutes in drawing game four. In the only match going clearly against previous form, Kamsky leads Kramnik by 3-1, drawing games 3 and 4 after opening with two wins.
(Graphic omitted)
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments