ODT100112

=**Veteran wins World Cup tournament**= ==
 * Problem:** White to play and mate in five.

The biennial FIDE World Cup tournament attracts attention from across the chess world. The 128-player knockout format means that every region is represented, and the two-game matches make for many exciting struggles. This year the event was held once again at Khanty-Mansiysk last month in the Siberian winter. Australian GM David Smerdon qualified to take part as the Oceania Zonal winner, and although he was eliminated in the first round, he did well to force 15th seed Cuban GM Leinier Dominguez to tie-breaks to do so. A bigger Pacific splash was made by 16-year old GM Wesley So of the Phillippines. He progressed as far as the fourth round, eliminating sixth seed Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukraine) and previous winner Gata Kamsky (USA) before being knocked out.

The tense final was fought out between top seed, Boris Gelfand (Israel), and former winner of this event, Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine). Gelfand had looked in the better form, but the steely Ponomariov forced the match to blitz tie-breaks after the first four standard games were drawn and the players were still tied after rapid tie-breaks. Eventually strength and experience prevailed and the veteran Gelfand (at 41 one of the oldest players of the 128 starters) won the Cup and earned a place in the next cycle of the World Championship Candidates matches.

Today's game is from the semi-finals in Khanty-Mansiysk, where Gelfand began a 2-0 demolition of the formidable Sergey Karjakin (Ukraine) with this win with the black pieces. media type="custom" key="26329544" The Bishop's Opening has rarely been seen at the top level for over a hundred years, but Gelfand's reputation for meeting 2.Nf3 with the solid Petroff Defence 2...Nf6 is the likely cause. White's opening has posed few problems and Black even has a slight lead in development.White's next move is a novelty, well met by Black. Accepting the piece by 12 Bxd5 Qxd5 13 Rxe7 runs into 13... Rg6 threatening mate on g2 and 14 ... Bxh3. If 14 g4 Qh5! and the threat to sacrifice a second piece on g4 forces 15 Re4 Qxh3 when White is left with a denuded king and an undeveloped queenside. Not so much to defend a5 as to threaten 15...Bb7. The exchange of both pairs of bishops has removed White's most effective defenders and paved the way for invasion by Black's heavy pieces. Losing the d4 pawn is hardly significant, as Black's next threatens mate. Even better was bringing the last piece into the attack by 21...Nd5! heading for f4, but the breakup of White's kingside is good enough. At last acquiescing to White's attempts to exchange queens to stave off mate – but exacting the highest price. White resigns, as three pawns down he has no chance in the ending.
 * 1.e4 e5**
 * 2.Bc4!? ---**
 * 2.--- Nf6**
 * 3.d3 Nc6**
 * 4.Nf3 Be7**
 * 5.0-0 0-0**
 * 6.Bb3 d5**
 * 7.exd5 Nxd5**
 * 8.h3 a5**
 * 9.a4 Nd4**
 * 10.Nxd4 exd4**
 * 11.Re1 Ra6!**
 * 12.Qh5 ---**
 * 12.--- Nb4**
 * 13.Na3 Rg6**
 * 14.Bf4 b6!**
 * 15.Qf3 Be6**
 * 16.Bxe6 fxe6**
 * 17.Qe4 Bd6**
 * 18.Bxd6 cxd6!**
 * 19.Qxd4 ---**
 * 19...Qg5**
 * 20.g3 Qf5**
 * 21.g4 h5**
 * 22.Re4 d5**
 * 23.Kh2 Qf3**
 * 24.Ree1 hxg4**
 * 25.Qe3 gxh3!**
 * 26.Qxf3 Rxf3**
 * 27.Rg1 Rxf2+**
 * 28.Kxh3 Rxg1**
 * 29.Rxg1 Nxc2**
 * 30.Nb5 Rf3+**
 * 31.Kg4 Rxd3**
 * 32.Nd6 Ne3+**
 * 33.Kf4 Nc4**


 * 0-1**


 * Solution:** 1 Bh7+! Kxh7 2 Rf7+ Kh6 3 Bc1+ Qf4 4 Bxf4+ Kh5 5 Rh7#.