ODT080923

=Topalov back on top=

//Problem: White to play and mate in 3.//

The Otago Junior Championship was contested by 25 players at the Otago Chess Club earlier this month. Defending champion Patrick Dawson (14) of Logan Park HS had an early setback with a loss to Daniel Sanson (17) of Dunstan HS. This allowed second seed Elliot Nicholls (17) of John McGlashan to take a full point lead. However in their sixth round clash Patrick came from behind to defeat Elliot and the two shared the title on 6/7. In third place on 5½ with a notable performance was Joseph Brown (12) of Balmacewen.

Meanwhile, former world champion Veselin Topalov (Bulgaria) showed he is far from being a spent force by convincingly winning the Chess Gland Slam Final in Bilbao, Spain. The event tried out a new (for chess) scoring system of 3 points for a win and 1 for a draw and the bulgarian finished on 17 points after the ten rounds of the immensely strong tournament. Tied for second on 13 points were Norway's Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian of Armenia, followed by Ukrainian Vassily Ivanchuk on 12, Azerbaijani Teimour Radjabov on 10 and World Champion Vishy Anand of India in last place on 8. Anand's poor result combined with Toplalov's superb one will result in the Bulgarian replacing Anand at the top of the October FIDE rating list, becoming world number again after being overtaken last year.

Today's game is Topalov's 'miniature' victory (25 moves or less) over Anand from Bilbao – an exceeding rare event between players of this class. media type="custom" key="26508328" In the 4. g3 variation of the Queen's Indian Defence, tactical tricks on the long diagonal are common, so the bishop drops back to b7 having lured the white queen away from control of d5. Topalov has enlivened this once staid opening with his characteristic deep preparation and many novelties over the past few years. The pawn sacrifice for nebulous long-term pressure is well known so far, but typical of his combative approach. Freeing the knight by defending the bishop on b7. Here is Toplalov's new idea – contesting the central light squares by exchanging the black knight on f6. A sign that Black is already having to make concessions in denuding his kingside of it's main defender. Other attempts to hold d5 fail: 14... d4 15 Ne4 Be7 16 Nxd4! cxd4 17 Qxc8+ Bxc8 18 Nd2 wins the trapped rook on a8, while 14 ... Qe6 15 Nxd5! Bxd5 16 Rxd5 Qxd5 17 Ne1 also exploits the a8 rook. Choosing to give back the pawn immediately rather than allow 17 Nf5. We see the result of White's play is an extremely pleasant position where each white piece is more active than it's black counterpart. The difficulties Black faces can here be shown by 21 ... Rd8? 22 Rxd8+ Nxd8 23 Qe8+ Kg7 24 Rd7 and Black has no answer to Nh4-f3-g5 with a mating attack. This attempt to evict the rook from d7 leads to a surprisingly quick denoument. An alternative was the tricky attempt to exchange pieces with 22 ... Nd4!? but after 23 Ne5! Nb5 24 R1d3! Nxa3 25 Rf3 White's attack is breaking through on f7. White is also on top after 24 ... Qa4 25 Rd6! Qc2 26 Ng5 h5 27 Rf6 Qxc3 28 Nxf7 with a winning attack. Without making a single identifiable error the World Champion is lost! E.g. 25...Qc6 26 Ng5 h5 27 Nxf7! Rxf7 28 Rxf7 Kxf7 29 Qxd8 winning the exchange.
 * 1. d4 Nf6**
 * 2. c4 e6**
 * 3. Nf3 b6**
 * 4. g3 Ba6**
 * 5. Qc2 Bb7**
 * 6. Bg2 c5**
 * 7. d5!? exd5**
 * 8. cxd5 Nxd5**
 * 9. O-O Be7**
 * 10. Rd1 Qc8**
 * 11. a3 Nf6**
 * 12. Bg5! ---**
 * 12. --- d5**
 * 13. Bxf6! Bxf6**
 * 14. Nc3 Bxc3**
 * 15. bxc3 Na6**
 * 16. Nh4 g6**
 * 17. Bxd5 Bxd5**
 * 18. Rxd5 O-O**
 * 19. Rad1 Nc7**
 * 20. Rd7 Ne6**
 * 21. Qe4 Qe8**
 * 22. Nf3 c4**
 * 23. Qh4! Nc5**
 * 24. Re7 Rd8**
 * 25. Rf1 Resigns**


 * 1-0**

Solution: 1 Nf6+ Bxf6 2 Qd5+ Be6 3 Qxe6#.