2011 Russian Team Chp: Caruana and Najer bring HSM-64 to victory

Tournament: The Russian Club Championship is being held in the village of Olginka (Krasnodar Territory), Russia, from April 11 to 23.The men's tournament is a round-robin with twelve clubs participating. Each team consists of six players with two reserves. Time Control: 40 moves in 90 minutes followed by 30 minutes KO and a 30-second increment as of the first move. Time: All rounds at 6:30 AM New York / 12:30 PM Paris Rest day: April 18

The final rounds

It was a fitting end to a great event, with two teams racing with a "catch me if you can" pace. The first was Tomsk-400, with a very in-form Ponomariov on board one, and a super Motylev on board two, unable to shake off HSM-64 spearheaded above all by an amazing Caruana. But the parallels don't stop there. On board six, both teams had a player who was notching a roughly 2900 performance, Kurnosov with Tomsk-400 and Najer with HSM-64. By round ten (of eleven), the two teams had distanced themselves decisively from the rest, and were scheduled to meet. One might think they would agree to a quick draw, but it was out of a question as HSM-64 had a better tiebreak determined by the number of actual games it won, and was two games ahead. With only one round left, they needed to absolutely try and clinch it there and then.

Gelfand contained Ponomariov, and Wang Hao drew Motylev, while Caruana continued his incredible run and beat Areshchenko (2687).

On board four, Riazantsev was Black against Inarkiev and faced the advance variation in a Caro-Kann. Inarkiev decided to prepare for a kingside attack, but it was this very move that instead subjected him to one.

Inarkiev,Ernesto (2674) - Riazantsev,Alexander (2679) [B12]
TCh-RUS Premier Olginka RUS (10), 22.04.2011

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.Nf3 e6 5.Be2 Ne7 6.0-0 c5 7.Na3 Nec6 8.c4 cxd4 9.Nb5 a6 10.Nbxd4 Be4 11.Bf4 Be7 12.cxd5 Bxd5 13.Bd3?

This move is obviously to prepare for a quick assault on the king if Black should castle kingside, but White has commited a serious oversight. 13...g5! Black doesn't need to castle kingside, and instead it is he who launches a lightning attack. 14.Bg3 g4 15.Nxc6 Nxc6 16.Ne1 h5!

This is starting to look very ugly. 17.f4 gxf3 18.Nxf3 h4 19.Bf2 h3 20.Re1 Bb4 21.Re2 Rg8 22.Bg3 Qb6+ 23.Kh1 0-0-0 24.Qc2 hxg2+ 25.Kxg2 Bxf3+ 26.Kxf3 Kb8 27.Re4 Nd4+ 28.Rxd4 Qxd4 29.Be4

29...Rxg3+! 30.hxg3 Qxe5 31.Rd1 Rg8 32.Rg1 f5 33.Bd3 Bc5 0-1. [Click to replay]

With Potkin capitulating to Bologan it came down to the two super board sixes: Kurnosov-Najer. Kurnosov was trailing Najer in the absolute performance ranks by a fraction, but a win would change that and that is exactly what happened. Except that by a twist of fate, Najer missed a delicate win.

Kurnosov,Igor (2653) - Najer,Evgeniy (2638) [C11]
TCh-RUS Premier Olginka RUS (10), 22.04.2011

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.f4 c5 6.Nf3 Nc6 7.Be3 Be7 8.Qd2 0-0 9.dxc5 Bxc5 10.0-0-0 Qa5 11.Bxc5 Nxc5 12.h4 Bd7 13.h5 b5 14.Kb1 b4 15.Ne2 Ne4 16.Qe1 Rab8 17.Nd2 Nxd2+ 18.Qxd2 Qc5 19.Nc1 a5 20.Nd3 Qe7 21.g4 a4 22.Bh3 Rfc8 23.f5 Nd4 24.f6 Qd8 25.Qg5 Qf8 26.Ne1 Nb5 27.Bf1 h6 28.fxg7 Qxg7 29.Qf4?

Najer was doing very well and misses a winning continuation here. 29...Rf8. Here he might have finished his amazing journey in style had he played 29...b3! 30.axb3 axb3

and here both White's main choices fail.

The obvious 31.cxb3 is punished by 31...Nc3+! 32.bxc3 (32.Kc2 Ne2+ 33.Kd2 Nxf4) 32...Rxb3+ 33.Kc1 Rcxc3+ 34.Kd2 Qf8 and Black is winning.

The alternative 31.c4 also meets a spectacular demise with

31...Nc3+!! Curiously, none of the engines seem to find this move. 32.bxc3 Qf8! and though White has a number of choices, they all end up losing significant material to avoid mate. Ex: 33.Rh2 Ra8 34.Rf2 Be8 Protecting f7 and freeing the queen. 35.Qc1 Ra4 followed by Rca8 and White is lost. 30.Nf3 f6 31.exf6 Qxf6 32.Qxf6 Rxf6 33.Ne5 Be8 34.Rg1 Rb7 35.g5 hxg5 36.Bd3 Rg7? 36...Nd6! 37.Rxg5+ Rg7 38.Rxg7+ Kxg7 39.Rg1+ Kh8 and it is equal. (39...Kh6 40.Ng4+) 37.Ng4 Rf4 38.h6 Rh7 39.Bxh7+ Kxh7 40.Rdf1 Bg6 41.Rxf4 gxf4 42.Rh1 f3 43.Kc1 Nd6 44.Nf6+ Kh8 45.Rg1 f2 46.Rf1 Nf7 47.Ng4 Kh7 48.Rxf2 Bf5 49.Nf6+ Kg6. 49...Kxh6? 50.Nxd5 exd5 51.Rxf5 50.Ng8 Nxh6 51.Nxh6 Kxh6 52.Rf4 b3 53.cxb3 axb3 54.a4 1-0. [Click to replay]

This just, but nerve-wracking draw left HSM-64 in control of its fate. With a two game lead in the tiebreaks, even if Tomsk scored a whitewash 6-0 against its last-round opponent, not unfeasible as they were also the weakest team, HSM would still take the title with a score of at least 4.5/6. Fittingly, that is exactly what happened with Wang Hao winning on board one against Dmitry Frolyanov (2610) and Caruana scoring his fourth consecutive win, this time over Zontakh (2568). To wrap it up, Najer secured the team's victory with a win on board six.

In terms of absolute performances, Igor Kurnosov's 8.5/9 on board six and 2893 performance was the best of the event, but the second best was none other than the Italian import, Fabiano Caruana, who scored 8.0/10 and a fantastic 2852 from boards one to three. This was followed by Alexey Dreev with a 2837 performance and of course Ponomariov on board one with 2828. Special note should also be made of FM Pogos Nakhapetiane (2495) who scored a nine-round GM norm with 7.0/9 and a 2741 performance.

In the women's league, HSM-RSCU tied with three others and took it on the third and very last tiebreak criteria.

Final Premier League standings

Final Women's standings

Tie Break1: Matchpoints (2 for win, 1 for draw, 0 for loss)
Tie Break2: Game points
Tie Break3: The results of the teams in the same point group according to Matchpoints

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