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Round 1: Rated against Unrated
By GM Mikhail Golubev
First of all, I should express my gratitude to organisers of the Arcapita International Chess Championship for the invitation to play here. A British colleague suggested that the informal name of my round reports could be 'A Ukrainian in Bahrain'. True to say, majority of my compatriots know next to nothing about this small, modern country, The Kingdom of Bahrain. But, the chess-players (as probably also the F1 fans) are among those who definitely have heard about Bahrain! Such a big event as Kramnik vs Computer 2002 match was held here.
For the development of chess, quite crucial also is the organisation of tournaments for, say, the ordinary international players. The Bahrain Chess Club is only three years old, has no permanent venue, and no governmental budget support. Nevertheless, the International Open is organised here already for a second time. Thanks to efforts of the new tournament's sponsor, the Arcapita Bank, this year's event is much stronger than the previous one. Among 93 players from 20 countries there are 45 foreign players, including 14 International Grandmasters. And I even met here two more Grandmasters: the old friends of mine Alex Raetsky (Russia) and Sarkhan Guliev (Azerbaijan) are not playing but came as coaches with their pupils from UAE.
A top seed is the 2000 European Champion Pavel Tregubov, a Russian Grandmaster who is living in Paris for many years. In 2008, Tregubov won a strong rapid chess tournament in my hometown Odessa, where such world chess stars as GMs Karpov, Ponomariov, Korchnoi and Gelfand participated.
The second by rating is GM Vadim Malakhatko, who represented Ukraine in the past, and, playing on the national team, became a winner of the 2001 World Team Championship. Now Malakhatko is playing for Belgium, as well as his wife, International Master Anna Zozulia who is also participating in the Open.
GM Ahmed Adly from Egypt is the third strongest participant by rating. In 2007, he won the Under 20 World Championship in Yerevan, Armenia.
The tournament was officially opened in its beautiful venue, the Alumni Club, on Saturday. A highly impressive ceremony was attended by Minister of Industry and Commerce Dr. Hassan Fakhro and Mr. Atif Abdulmalik, CEO of Arcapita. The symbolic first moves were made by Tregubov and the Egyptian Grandmaster Basem Amin.
I noticed that, strictly speaking, the tournament is taking place in the capital of Bahrain, Manama. But, as the country as small, and the capital occupies much of its space, people tend to say just 'Bahrain', rather than 'Manama'. Results and games will be published at the official site www.bahrainchessclub.com and also at the chess-results.com server. The English language newspaper Gulf Daily News - The voice of Bahrain (www.gulf-daily-news.com) is also covering the tournament.
In the first round, the rated players played against the unrated on all boards (!), with predictable results, and, basically, no upsets. Most of favourites have won their games rather easily. Still, there was a tense fight in number of games, such as the encounter between IM Sarwat, Walaaa (EGY) and Jelisilda, Lou (PHI) on the 24th board. Both sides have had their chances in their battle.
Sarwat,W (2388) - Jelisilda,L [B53]
Arcapita Int Open Championship Manama BAH (1), 24.01.2009
[Golubev,M]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Qxd4 Nc6 5.Bb5 Bd7 6.Bxc6 bxc6
[More usual is 6...Bxc6]
7.c4 Qb6
[The best plan for Black is, probably, 7...e5 and then ...Nf6, ...Be7, ...0-0.]
8.Qd3! Be6 N 9.0-0 h6?! 10.Nd4
[Simpler was 10.b3! and Black has serious problems with a development.]
10...Bd7 11.Nc3 Nf6 12.Re1
[An interesting alternative was 12.e5 dxe5 13.Nf3]
12...e5! 13.Nb3 Be7 14.c5 Qc7
[Avoiding 14...dxc5 15.Qg3!?]
15.cxd6 Qxd6
1DIAGR1.jpg
16.Qg3
[White created an isolani pawn in the Black's camp and after the careful 16.Qc2! he would have preserved a slight but lasting advantage.]
16...Nh5! 17.Qf3 Qg6! 18.h3 0-0 19.Be3 f5
Black has developed a counterplay, and the double edged fight begins.
20.Nc5 fxe4 21.Qxe4 Bf5 22.Qc4+ Kh8 23.Kh2 Nf6 24.Ne2 Nd5 25.Ng3 Nxe3 26.Rxe3 Bc8
[Spectacular, but not really promising is 26...Bxh3 27.gxh3 Rxf2+ 28.Kh1 Bxc5 29.Qxc5 Rd8 30.Rf1.]
27.Nge4 Rb8 28.b4 Rf4 29.Nd3 Ba6!? 30.Nxe5?!
[Preferable was the immediate 30.Qxa6 Rxe4 and now 31.Rg3]
30...Qf5! 31.Nf7+ Kh7 32.Qxa6 Rxe4 = 33.Qxa7?
1DIAGR2.jpg
33...Rbxb4?
[Black could have exploited the opponent's mistake by 33...Rxe3 34.fxe3 (or 34.Qxb8 Qxf2 threatening with both 35...Qxf7 and 35...Rxh3+!) 34...Re8!, winning the knight]
34.Rf3!
The position is double edged again. And the next Black's move was a big error.
34...Bd6+? 35.Nxd6 Qe5+ 36.Rg3! Qxa1
1DIAGR3.jpg
Now White decides the game nicely.
37.Nf5! +- Qe5 38.f4! 1-0
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