GMs Darmen Sadvakasov and Yury Shulman finished tied for 1st with 7½/9
GM Darmen Sadvakasov came from behind to catch GM Yury Shulman in the final round, and then he took the Foxwoods Open Champion title by beating Shulman in an Armageddon Play-Off.
Shulman had been leading the tournament from the start and had a half-point lead over his nearest rivals going into the 9th and final round. However, he could only manage a draw with GM Jaan Ehlvest, which meant that the door was open for either Sadvakasov or IM Alex Lenderman who were playing each other on board 2.
Playing a solid Exchange Slav, Lenderman ended up getting into a bad ending, a dreadful bishop against a marauding knight, that allowed the Kazakhstani GM the chance to slowly grind away at the position with no risk of losing.
IM Alex Lenderman-GM Darmen Sadvakasov, Round 9
Position after 27.Bxc3
This position looks harmless enough and should not be lost. I think Lenderman thought the same and started to relax, making moves very quickly as each player reached the first time control with an hour to spare.
27… Nb8 28. Kf2 Nc6 29. e4 f6 30. Ke3 Kf7 31. g4 Kg6 32. h4 h5 33. exd5 exd5 34. Kf4 hxg4 35. fxg4 Kf7 36. g5 g6 37. gxf6 Kxf6 38. Kg4 a5 39. Be1 a4
Position after 39…a4
We are only 13 moves on from the position shown earlier and already Sadvakasov has made significant progress. The white bishop will be continuously tied down to defending pawns. Now if only the black king could somehow get into the white camp.
40. Kf4 Nd8 41. Kg4 Nf7 42. Bd2 Nd6 43. Be3 Nc4 44. Bc1 Na5 45. Bd2 Nb3 46. Be3 Na1 47. Bd2 Nc2 48. Kf4 Ke6 49. Bc3 Na1 50. Bd2 Nb3 51. Be3 Na5 52. Bd2 Nc4 53. Bc1 Nd6 54. Be3 Kf7 55. Bd2 Kf6 56. Be3 Nf5 57. Bf2 Ng7 58. Kg4 Ne6 59. Be3 Ke7 60. Kf3 Kd7 61. Ke2 Ke7 62. Kf3 Kd6 63. Ke2 Kd7 64. Kf3 b4 65. Ke2 b3
Position after 65…b3
The b-pawn advances to b3, which creates some tactical threats. However, it is likely that this should still not be enough to win although Sadvakasov keeps pressing.
66. Kd3 Nd8 67. Bg5 Nc6 68. Kc3 Ke6 69. Bh6 Kf5 70. Bg7 Ke4
Position after 70…Ke4
Sadvakasov’s king marches into the position. Lenderman’s king and bishop become overworked and something has to give.
71. Bf6 Ke3 72. Bg7 Ke2 73. Bh6 Ne7 74. Kb4 Kd3 75. Bg5
Position after 75.Bg5
75… Kc2!
There is no stopping the capture of the b2 pawn and the black pawn will queen.
76. Bxe7 Kxb2 0-1
This win catapulted Sadvakasov into a share with Shulman which meant an Armageddon blitz tie-break game. Shulman won last year’s title the same way and once again had the better tie-breaks and elected to have the white pieces. This year though the time control was slightly different with white having 5 minutes to black’s 3 minutes and both sides having a 5-second delay. Black would be declared the winner if the game was drawn. On the line was the title of Foxwoods Open Champion 2009 and a complimentary hotel room for next year’s event.
I won’t go into analysing the play-off game as I didn’t think it was too interesting. Sadvakasov seemed to be in control, trading off pieces at every opportunity. After about 19 moves both players had about 1:30 remaining and to me it didn’t seem to be as exciting as a normal blitz game, primarily due to the 5-second delay. Of course both players were moving quickly, probably forgetting they could relax a little, but the usual time scramble tension just never materialized. There was however one moment of tension when in the following position Sadvakasov nearly blundered.
GM Yury Shulman-GM Darmen Sadvakasov, Armageddon Play-Off
Position after 29.b3
Here Sadvakasov picked up his bishop and was just about to release it on c8 when he realized that 30.f6+ would net Shulman a piece. He managed to keep hold of the bishop, eventually placing it on a6 and then went on to easily hold the ending. Eventually Shulman offered a draw with both players having 7 or 8 seconds left but Sadvakasov was starting to get on top and with the 5-second delay, there was no hope for him to win on time.
Finishing in sole 3rd place with 7/9 was Dutch GM Loek Van Wely who managed to beat his good friend Jorge Sammour Hasbun in the final round. The final position recorded was not the final position in the game as Sammour Hasbun managed to blunder a piece in an eventual time scramble.
Just another half-point behind Van Wely was a group of seven players that included the aforementioned Lenderman and GMs Julio Becerra, Jaan Ehlvest, Alex Shabalov and Josh Friedel, IM Jay Bonin and FM Farai Mandizha.
On the norm front, IM Robert Hess sort of overshadowed the tournament itself as he secured his 3rd and final GM norm with a quick draw against Toshiyuk Moriuchi. Hess had a great tournament, beating GMs Hikaru Nakamura and Ehlvest and drawing with GMs Varuzhan Akobian, Shulman and Van Wely. Only an 8th round loss to Sadvakasov prevented him from being in contention for the tournament itself although that particular result worked in his favor, at least from a norm perspective, as the pairing Gods performed a miracle to give him 3 foreigners in the final 3 rounds. This capped an amazing few previous weeks for Hess after winning the Spice International and the K12 Supernationals tournaments just prior to this event. It also meant he had come full circle in just one year after earning his 1st GM norm by finishing tied for 1st in last year’s Foxwoods event.
Another norm was also earned by FM Tegshsuren Enkhbat who secured a draw in the final round against GM Pascal Charboneau. This is Enkhbat’s 2nd IM norm, the previous one also earned at Foxwoods last year. The only person missing from completing an amazing deja vu of last year’s norms was Chris Williams!
Thanks to everyone who participated in this year’s exciting event and we look forward to seeing you next year.