Senthil's six points cost him 3.4 Fide elo, but Konopka gained 6.3.
Since both have a K factor of 10, this means Senthil's expected score was 6.34, Konopka's 5.37.
The winner was arguably slightly fortunate in that he had five whites in the nine rounds - Konopka had only four.
Senthil's three wins came with white, with the pick of the bunch, in my opinion, being this instructive round-eight game against German Fide master Rainer Roesemann (2276).
Senthil - Roesemann
Catalan
1.d4 Nf6 2.g3 d5 3.Nf3 Bf5 4.c4 c6 5.Nc3 e6
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| How should White proceed? |
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6.Nh4!?
The standard 6.Bg2 scores 55% in ChessBase's 2025 Mega database, but the main alternatives - the text and 6.Qb3!? - score 59%.
6...Bg6
6...Bg6
Black cannot save the bishop-pair as after 6...Bg4 7.h3 Bh5 White can continue with 8.g4!? Bg6 9.Nxg6, gaining a slight edge, according to Stockfish17 and Dragon1.
7.Nxg6 hxg6 8.Qd3!?
Protecting c4 so the light-square bishop can be developed at g2. The engines disagree as to whether the text or 8.Qb3 is the better way to do this.
8...Nbd7 9.Bg2 Be7 10.0-0 0-0
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| Now both sides have castled, how would you assess the position? |
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The biggest imbalance in the position is probably that White has the bishop-pair. The engines reckon White is slightly better.
11.Rd1!?
Signalling that Senthil sees his chances as lying on the central-queenside.
11...Qa5 12.e4!?
The two strongest players to reach the position after 11...Qa5, Anish Giri (2749) and Boris Gelfand (2695), chose 12.b3!?, while the engines recommend the conservative 12.e3.
12...dxe4 13.Nxe4 Nxe4 14.Qxe4 Nf6 15.Qe2 Rad8
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| Black has achieved some simplification, and has pressure against d4, but White has more space, and the position is starting to open up for the bishops |
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16.Be3 Rd7 17.a3 Rfd8 18.b4 Qa4!?
Black has completely equalised, according to Stockfish17, but Dragon1 gives White a slight edge.
19.Bf3!?
I find this hard to understand. The knight was surely not going to h5, from where it would have few prospects.
19...Ne8 20.Ra2!?
Preparing to sacrifice the a3 pawn.
20...Bf6 21.Rad2!? Qxa3
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| How can White follow up the sacrifice? |
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22.d5
Both this and the passive 22.Rb1 give complete equality, according to the engines, which reckon 22.b5!? also gives White enough compensation.
22...cxd5 23.cxd5 Qxb4?
How many club players would make this mistake? Not many, I believe. Correct is 23...exd5, eg 24.Bxd5 Qxb4 25.Bxf7+ Rxf7 26.Rxd8 Bxd8 27.Rxd8 Qe7, with complete equality, according to the engines.
24.dxe6 Rxd2 25.exf7+ Kxf7 26.Rxd2
The engines reckon 26.Bxd2!? is even stronger.
26...Rxd2 27.Bxd2 Qb3
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| It is quite possible Roesemann had seen this far, but misjudged the resulting position, - the bishop-pair and king safety prove more important than Black's connected passed pawns |
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28.Be3 b6
The engines prefer offering the pawn back with 28...Be7!?, claiming White is only slightly better.
29.Qa6 Qb1+?
29.Qa6 Qb1+?
It seems Black needed to play 29...Kf8!, one point being that after 30.Qxa7 the engines point out the strength of 30...Bd4!, getting rid of the bishop-pair. The further moves 31.Bxd4 Qxf3 32.Qxb6 leave White a pawn up, but all the pawns are on one side of the board, and the black king is in much less danger than in the game. Instead the engines recommend 30.Qb7!, with what they reckon is a slight edge.
30.Kg2 Qa1?
The engines reckon 30...Be7 31.Qxa7 Nf6 keeps Black in the game, albeit with White well on top.
31.Bd5+ Kf8 32.Bc5+!
This is the move Roeseemann probably missed.
32...bxc5 33.Qe6 Nd6 34.Qxd6+ Ke8 35.Bc6+ Kf7 36.Qd7+ 1-0
Mate cannot be avoided, eg 36...Be7 37.Bd5+ Kf6 38.Qe6+ Kg5 39.f4+ Kh6 40.Qh3+ Nh4 41.Qxh4#.
E3 poison is a popular repertoire book , if a bit boring ! BK
ReplyDeleteSounds like the type of book even I wouldn't buy.
ReplyDelete