GM Yury Shulman, current US Champion and winner of last year’s Foxwoods Open after a blitz tie-break game, is coasting into yet another 1st place finish after crushing GM Alex Shabalov on board 1 in round 7. Shulman’s devastating attack was too much for the former US Champion to handle.
GM Yury Shulman-GM Alex Shabalov, Round 7
Position after 29…g5
30. R1d6 Be7 31. Rxh6+ Kg8 32. Qc4+ Qf7 33. Qxf7+ Rxf7 34. Nxe5 Rf6 35. Rg6+ Kf8 36. Rxf6+ Bxf6 1-0
This win leaves Shulman with 6½/7 a half-point clear over IM Alex Lenderman who sits all by himself on 6/7 after his excellent win over GM Varuzhan Akobian.
GM Varuzhan Akobian-IM Alex Lenderman, Round 7
Position after 27.Na2
Here Akobian offered Lenderman, which Lenderman turned down by playing…
27…Qa7!
A cruel move for Akobian to meet while in severe time pressure. Look at how the white queen has no squares!
28.Nc3 Rb8 29. Rxb8+ Qxb8 30. Nb5
Position after 30.Nb5
30…Bd7!
Black can play 30…cxb5 but after 31.Qxb5 white has play fot the piece even though black still probably has an edge. The move played by Lenderman is best as the white knight cannot escape, e.g. 31. Nd6 Qb1+ 32. Kd2 Qb2+ 33. Ke1 Qc3+ 34. Kd1 Bg4+
31. Kd2 cxb5 32. axb5 Bxb5 33. Qb1 Rxf2+ 34. Kc3 Re2 0-1
A great game by Lenderman who has everything to play for in terms of the tournament, but unfortunately nothing left in terms of norms as he will not have played enough foreigners.
On the next two boards, the two longest games of the night were taking place. IM Robert Hess, luckily paired against the Dutch GM Loek Van Wely to keep his norm hopes alive, at least from the foreign opposition perspective, managed to save a pawn down position to see himself onto 5½/7. This draw for Hess would be good enough for a GM norm but he has to play 2 foreigners in the final two rounds. Time to start praying to the pairing Gods, although he will meet one in round 8 as he and GM Darmen Sadvakasov are the only two players in the 5½ score group.
On board 4, GM Hikaru Nakamura was unable to convert a won position against GM Josh Friedel. In the end Nakamura had to try and win a rook and knight versus rook ending, theoretically drawn but not always so easy in practice. However, Friedel showed that he knew enough about the ending to hold it and in the middle of the night a draw was reached on the 50 move rule.
The final day’s play is going to see Lenderman play Shulman and Sadvakasov play Hess on boards 1 and 2 respectively. Play starts at 10:00 am EST so be sure to tune in and follow all the action.
Seems unfair that Lenderman does not get a GM norm for his amazing perfomance.
-Shaun