Elshan Moradiabadi tops global chess field to capture International

An Iranian-born grandmaster, by way of Texas, thriving in suburban Maryland — was a highly appropriate winner of the fifth annual Washington International Tournament last week.

With a last-round victory over Hungarian GM Denes Boros, GM Elshan Moradiabadi topped a first-class field to win the Maryland Chess Association’s crown jewel event in Rockville with an undefeated 7-2 score. Iran’s 2001 national champion who went on to star for Texas Tech’s college chess team, the 31-year-old Moradiabadi finished a half-point head of five-time U.S. champion Gata Kamsky, GMs Ilya Smirin and Conrad Holt, and IMs Keaton Kiewra and Arthur Shen.

The strong field is a tribute to the MCA and the quickly growing reputation of the tournament, which despite being held in the dog days of August in the wake of the U.S. Open, still manages to attract top players from around the world.

Critical to Moradiabadi’s finishing kick was his exciting Round 7 win over FM Michael Song, a game that featured some tricky tactics from both players. In a Botvinnik System Nimzo-Indian, Song as White gets a nice open position for his pieces, but Black scores a key positional victory with 12. 0-0 Ba6! 13. Bd3 Bxd3, removing one of White’s attacking bishops.

When White’s kingside build-up reaches alarming proportions, Black jettisons a piece, relying on his queenside pawns as compensation: 22. d5!? exd5 23. Rg5 dxc4! 24. Qc3 f6 (Nf6? 25. Qxf6) 25. Rxh5 b5 26. axb5 axb5, and the b- and c-pawns are ready to roll down the board.

But Black’s cornered king makes for some tense moments for both sides: 27. Rg5! Kh8! 28. Ne4 b4 29. Qd4 Ne6 30. Qxf6 c3 (gxf6 31. Bxf6+ Ng7 32. Bxg7+ Kg8 33. Be5+) 31. Nd6 Nxg5! (gxf6 32. Nf7 mate) 32. Qe7 cxb2 33. Re1 Rd8, and Black has weathered the storm. It’s over after 34. Nf5 Nf3+! 35. Kf2 (gxf3 Qg6+ 36. Ng3 Re8 is winning) Qc2+, and Song resigned in light of 36. Qxf3 Qxf5 and White’s attack is shot.

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It’s been a great summer for Texas teenager Jeffery Xiong, starting with a win in the premier section of the Capablanca Memorial in June and winning his first U.S. junior title in St. Louis in July. He managed to top that in August, easily winning the under-20 World Junior Championship last week in Bhubaneswar at the tender age of 15. Xiong is just the seventh U.S. world junior champion and the first since Tal Shaked in 1997.

WGM Dinara Saduakassova of Kazakhstan took the Girls’ Junior title.

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 Finally, the Olympics were OK, but the real drama this month was half a world away at the 40th World Chess Solving Championship in Belgrade. The strong Polish team took home the gold, and we offer here one of the easier problems from the event. It’s White to move and mate in just two moves. We’ll have the answer here next week.

Song — Moradiabadi, 5th Washington International, Rockville, Md.

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 O-O 5. Bd3 d5 6. a3 Bxc3+ 7. bxc3 dxc4 8. Bxc4 c5 9. Bb2 Qa5 10. Nf3 cxd4 11. exd4 b6 12. O-O Ba6 13. Bd3 Bxd3 14. Qxd3 Nbd7 15. a4 Rfc8 16. Rfe1 Qd5 17. Nd2 Rab8 18. c4 Qc6 19. Re3 Nf8 20. f4 a6 21. Rg3 Nh5 22. d5 exd5 23. Rg5 dxc4 24. Qc3 f6 25. Rxh5 b5 26. axb5 axb5 27. Rg5 Kh8 28. Ne4 b4 29. Qd4 Ne6 30. Qxf6 c3 31. Nd6 Nxg5 32. Qe7 cxb2 33. Re1 Rd8 34. Nf5 Nf3+ 35. Kf2 Qc2+ White resigns.

• David R. Sands can be reached at 202/636-3178 or by email at dsands@washingtontimes.com.