China extended its impressive, run but there was a bright silver lining for the young American squad at the just-finished FIDE World Team Championships in Armenia.
Backing up its first-ever gold medal at the 2014 Olympiad in Tromso, Norway, China bested a field of 10 top-rated teams to capture the team title with a 6-0-3 match record. Rising star GM Wei Yi, just 15 years old, was the anchor for the Chinese team, scoring the top individual performance with a dominant 5-0-4 result. Ukraine took silver and the host Armenians the bronze.
Russia, the top-seeded team by rating, and the U.S. tied for fourth with identical 4-2-3 records, both hurt by losing their opening two matches. But the young Americans, with the second-lowest average rating and playing without such established stars as GMs Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So and Gata Kamsky, put on a stellar closing kick, with top board Samuel Shankland holding his own against some of the world’s best, while New York GM Alexander Lenderman provided a late spark with four consecutive wins, earning a gold medal for the best performance on Board Two.
Lenderman’s Round 8 upset of veteran Vassily Ivanchuk helped the U.S. deal a crushing blow to Ukraine’s title hopes, but the young American’s best game may have been his win over Israeli GM Emil Sutovsky, sparking the Americans to a 2-1 match win. In a French, Sutovsky as White gets into trouble after 18. Nd2 Kb8 19. Nb3? (on 19. Qf3, White is at least equal) Rc8 20. Rd3?! (and now, a better defense was offered by 20. Nc5) Bb4 21. Qd1 Rdc7 22. Re2 a5!, and it’s clear White’s king is in far more peril than his Black counterpart.
By 24. Kxd2 Qxb2 25. Ke3 Rxc2, Black has won two pawns and the win is a matter of time, but Lenderman hustles things along on 28. Rd3 Qc8!, and suddenly the White king is caught in a nasty mating net. It’s over after 30. Qf3? (giving up; 30. Qe2 slows down the king hunt but can’t save White in the long run) Re1+ 31. Kf4 Qc7+ 32. Kf5 Re5+! 33. Kxf6 (dxe5 Qxe5 mate) Qd6+ 34. Kg7 Qg6+ 35. Kf8 Qh6+, and White resigned facing either 36. Kxf7 Qg6+ 37. Kf8 Re8 mate or 36. Kg8 Re8+ 37. Kxf7 Qg6 mate.
—-
Maybe it’s a generational thing. Most young players are focused on the quickest and most brilliant path to checkmate, but if you play the game long enough, you start to celebrate the passing of the seasons on the chessboard.
Maybe that’s why GM Andy Soltis devoted one of his latest popular Chess Life columns to the tricky topic of how to transition from the middlegame to the ending, and why veteran U.S. GM Joel Benjamin has written an entire book on the underappreciated topic.
Benjamin’s “Liquidation on the Chessboard: Mastering the Transition into the Pawn Endgame” (New In Chess, $22.95, 253 pages) starts off in attractively humble fashion with a rook-and-pawn ending loss as the newly minted GM Benjamin is schooled at the hands of Swiss great GM Viktor Korchnoi at a 1986 tournament. Benjamin, a three-time national champion, goes through the always-fraught decision of whether and when to simplify down to a king-and-pawn ending in a wide variety of situations.
It can sound technical and even dull to the nonexpert, but some examples the author chooses are actually things of spare, logical beauty. Take the finale of the game won by Romanian GM Mihail-Viorel Ghinda from a 1998 tournament against Moldovan IM Svetlana Petrenko.
It’s a tautly played and finely balanced Paulsen Sicilian Scheveningen for much of the middlegame, though White badly misses her light-squared bishop after 26. Ng3 Ng6 27. h5 Nh4 28. Kh2 Nxg2. Black wins a pawn after 39. Kh3 Be7 40. Bg5!? (to block the nasty threat of 40…Qh4+) Qxg5 41. f6+ Kg8 42. fxe7 Rxe7, but White appears to even the score with the tricky 47. Nf5 Bc8!? 48. Ne7+ Qxe7 49. Qxc8+ Kf7 50. Qxa6 (see diagram).
Benjamin picks up the action here, where White’s outside passed pawn would seem to make a transition to a pawn ending suicidal for Black. But Ghinda has seen farther, noting that Black’s king can keep an eye on the White a-pawn while his disconnected f- and d-pawn tandem can still make progress against the lone White king.
There follows: 50…Qe6+!! 51. Qxe6+ Kxe6 52. Kg4 d4 53. Kf3 f5 (a key insight is that the Black passed pawns cannot break through on their own, but the White king also dare not capture one since the other can race to the queening square; Black’s king does double-duty shepherding the pawns forward while never neglecting that White a-pawn) 54. Ke2 (Kf4 Kd5 55. Kf3 Ke5 “would force the f-pawn forward,” the author notes) f4! — and not 54…Ke5?? 55. Kd3 f4 56. a5 Kd5 57. a6 Kc6 58. Kxd4 and it’s White who wins.
Navigating one last nasty shoal, Ghinda sets up a winning zugzwang after 55. Kd3 f3 56. Kd2 Ke5 57. Kd3 Kd5 58. Kd2 Ke4!, and White resigns as it’s over after 59. a5 Kd5! (and not the hasty 59…d3?? 60. a6 f2 61. a7 f1=Q 62. a8=Q+, again winning for White), and the Black king will swoop over to capture the a-pawn and then swoop right back to help his own pawns advance. A brilliantly judged ending from Black.
Sutovsky-Lenderman, FIDE World Team Championship, Tsaghkadzor, Armenia, April 2015
1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bg5 dxe4 5. Nxe4 Be7 6. Bxf6 gxf6 7. Nf3 a6 8. g3 b5 9. Bg2 Bb7 10. Qe2 Nd7 11. O-O-O Bd5 12. Rhe1 c6 13. Nc3 Qa5 14. Nxd5 cxd5 15. Bh3 Qxa2 16. Bxe6 O-O-O 17. Bxd7+ Rxd7 18. Nd2 Kb8 19. Nb3 Rc8 20. Rd3 Bb4 21. Qd1 Rdc7 22. Re2 a5 23. Nd2 Bxd2+ 24. Kxd2 Qxb2 25. Ke3 Rxc2 26. Red2 R8c3 27. Rxc3 Qxc3+ 28. Rd3 Qc8 29. g4 Rc1 30. Qf3 Re1+ 31. Kf4 Qc7+ 32. Kf5 Re5+ 33. Kxf6 Qd6+ 34. Kg7 Qg6+ 35. Kf8 Qh6+ White resigns.
Petrenko-Ghinda, Centrocoop-op A, Eforie Nord, Romania, June 1998
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be2 e6 7. a4 Qc7 8. O-O b6 9. f4 Bb7 10. Bf3 Nc6 11. Kh1 Rc8 12. Nb3 Be7 13. Be3 Nd7 14. Qe1 O-O 15. Rd1 Rfe8 16. g4 Nc5 17. g5 Nb4 18. Qf2 Bf8 19. Rd4 Nc6 20. Rd2 Qb8 21. h4 Nxb3 22. cxb3 b5 23. Bb6 b4 24. Ne2 Ne7 25. Bg2 Qa8 26. Ng3 Ng6 27. h5 Nh4 28. Kh2 Nxg2 29. Qxg2 Rc6 30. Be3 Qc8 31. Qf2 Qc7 32. f5 exf5 33. exf5 Rc1 34. Bf4 Rxf1 35. Qxf1 Qb6 36. g6 d5 37. gxh7+ Kxh7 38. Qd3 Qf6 39. Kh3 Be7 40. Bg5 Qxg5 41. f6+ Kg8 42. fxe7 Rxe7 43. Re2 Re5 44. Rxe5 Qxe5 45. Qe2 f6 46. Qg4 Qc7 47. Nf5 Bc8 48. Ne7+ Qxe7 49. Qxc8+ Kf7 50. Qxa6 Qe6+ 51. Qxe6+ Kxe6 52. Kg4 d4 53. Kf3 f5 54. Ke2 f4 55. Kd3 f3 56. Kd2 Ke5 57. Kd3 Kd5 58. Kd2 Ke4 White resigns.
• David R. Sands can be reached at 202/636-3178 or by email at dsands@washingtontimes.com.
• David R. Sands can be reached at dsands@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.