TENSE FINISH TO THE BARCELONA SANTS INTERNATIONAL OPEN

Heading into the final round at the Barcelona Sants International Open GM Rinat Jumabayev (KAZ), GM Daniele Vocaturo (ITA) and GM Leonardo Krysa (ARG) were all tied on 7.5 out of 9. However another 11 players were just a half a point behind the three leaders leaving the final round with must win games all the way down to board 7 in order to stand a chance of being on the podium.

In the tenth and final round, top seed GM Jumabayev drew black against the number 14 seed GM Krysa. Meanwhile GM Vocaturo also had black against GM Svetushkin (MDA). So, only one of the three leaders had the white pieced.

Before we look at the outcomes of the top boards, let’s pause a moment and look at the the two protagonists from our previous blog from the Saints Open…

Unfortunately young Leon Luke Mendonca (IND) faltered in later rounds, including a loss in the final round to finish on 4.5 and miss out on his first IM norm. But, remember his name for the future as he has many years of superb chess ahead of him.

If you recall, Mendonca’s opponent in the second round was the third seed, GM Siman Agdestein (NOR). GM Agdestein recovered through the tournament to eventually win on board 8 in the final round, finishing with a respectable 7.5.

Back to the business end of the final round, board 1 was the last to finish, allowing both players to calculate their odds of winning, should they make a draw. Boards 3, 5 and 6 all drew to finish with 7.5. Including winners from as low as board 15, we now had 12 players on 7.5 already.

FM Julian Martin (GER) on board 7, GM Jan-Christian Schroeder on Board 4 and GM Sverushkin on board 2 all won to go 8 out of 10. That relegated GM Vocaturo to join the 12 others on 7.5 out of 10.

That left the marathon on board 1 where GM Jumabayev converted his Kings Indian into a won rook and pawn endgame with black to take a clear win on 8.5 out of 10.

I leave you with a detailed look at this tournament winning game…

Krysa,Leandro (2537) - Jumabayev,Rinat (2610)

XIX Sants Open 2017 Cotxeres de Sants (10), 27.08.2017

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.g3 0–0 5.Bg2 c5 6.Nc3 d6 7.0–0 Nc6 8.dxc5 dxc5 9.Be3 Be6 10.Qa4 Nd4 11.Rac1 E65: King's Indian: Fianchetto: 6...c5 7 0–0 without d5 by White [11.Rad1 Bd7 12.Qa3 Nc2 13.Qxc5 b6 14.Qg5 h6 15.Qf4 g5 16.Qe5 Rc8 17.Nd5 Nxd5 18.Qxd5 Bc6 19.Qxd8 Rfxd8 1/2–1/2 (54) Wang,Y (2705)-Giri,A (2734) Beijing 2013]

11...Ng4 12.Bf4 Bd7 13.Qa3 White is slightly better. 

13...e5 14.Bg5 f6 15.Bd2 Bc6 16.h3N [16.Rfd1 Re8 17.Ne1 Bxg2 18.Nxg2 Qc8 1/2–1/2 (27) Prokhorov,A (2071)-Zazuliak,A (2189) Lvov 2011] 

16...Nh6 17.Nxd4 cxd4 18.Nd5 Kh8 19.e3 dxe3

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20.Bxe3 [20.fxe3 feels hotter. 20...Nf5 21.Kh2 Re8 22.e4 Nd4 23.Be3] 

20...Nf5 21.b4 Nxe3 22.Qxe3 f5 23.b5 Bd7 24.Rfd1 e4 25.c5 Bxb5 Strongly threatening ...Qa5. 

26.Nb6! Qe7 27.Nxa8 Rxa8 28.Bf1 Ba4 29.Rd6 Be5 30.Qa3 Bc6 31.Rcd1  

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31...f4 [31...e3!? 32.f4 e2 33.Bxe2 Bxd6 34.Qc3+ Be5 35.fxe5 Re8 36.e6+ Qg7=] 

32.gxf4 Bxf4 33.Qc3+ Be5 34.Qd2 Bxd6 35.cxd6 Qe5 36.Bg2 Rd8 37.Qd4 Qxd4 38.Rxd4µ Endgame KRB-KRB 

38...Re8 39.Kf1 Kg7! 40.Ke2 Kf6 41.h4 Rd8 42.Ke3 Ke5 43.Bxe4 Bxe4 KRB-KR 

44.f4+  

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44...Ke6 [44...Kf5 looks sharper. 45.Rxe4 Rxd6 46.Re5+ Kf6 47.Rb5 b6] 

45.Rxe4+ Kxd6 KR-KR 

46.h5 Rd7 Hoping for ... Re7. 

47.hxg6 hxg6 aiming for ...Re7. 

48.Kd3 Re7 Threatens to win with ... Rxe4. 

49.Ra4 b6 50.Rd4+ Ke6 51.Ke4 Rc7 52.Rb4 Rc5 [¹52...Rc2 ...Re2+ is the strong threat. 53.a4 Rc5] 

53.a4 Rf5 54.Rc4 Rc5 55.Rb4! Kd6 56.Kd3 Rh5 57.Re4 Rh3+ 58.Kc4 [58.Kc2µ was called for.] 

58...a5–+  

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59.Rd4+? [59.Re1 Rh4 60.Kb5] 

59...Ke6 Black is clearly winning. 

60.Re4+ Kf6 61.Kd5 Rb3  

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62.Re8 If White can now play Rf8+ this consolidates a bit. 

62...Rb4 63.Rf8+ Kg7 64.Rb8 Rxf4 65.Rxb6 Rxa4 66.Ra6 Kh6 67.Ke5 Kh5 68.Kf6  

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68...g5 69.Ra7 Rf4+ 70.Ke5 a4 71.Rh7+ Kg4 72.Rh1 a3 Precision: White = 42%, Black = 73%. 0–1