Joel Lautier unrivaled in Ubeda chess tournament
By Kristianus Liem
JAKARTA (JP): The young Grandmaster Joel Lautier dominated the Ubeda Tournament in Spain from Feb. 7 to Feb. 20 to record his best results since finishing equal first equal with Garry Kasparov in the 9th VSB Tournament in Amsterdam 1995.
The 23-year-old Frenchman scored an undefeated eight match points from eleven rounds to win by one-and-a-half points. Lautier, who has defeated Kasparov and Karpov in the past, has been in a slump the past few years but posted an excellent performance rating of 2815 for the event where the average rating was 2640 (category 16) and no other player was higher than 2665.
For the rankings and complete results see the cross table. Below is one of the winning games from Lautier over runner-up Grandmaster Alexander Beliavsky in round seven.
White: GM Joel Lautier
Black: GM Alexander Beliavsky
Nimzo-Indian Defense
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3
At the moment, the Rubinstein Variation of the Nimzo-Indian Defence is experiencing a new surge of popularity at the highest level.
4...c5 5.Nge2 b6 6.a3 Ba5 7.Rb1 Na6
Black accepts his dark-squared Bishop being threatened by imprisonment for the sole purpose of keeping the tension in the center and provoking d4-d5 so as to initiate a counterplay similar to the Benoni, with ...exd5, ...d6 and so on.
8.Bd2
At the same tournament Korchnoi played 8.Ng3 then after 8...Bb7 9.Bd3 Timman grab a pawn with 9...Bxc3+ 10.bxc3 Bxg2 11.Rg1 Bb7 12.e4 d6 13.Nh5 Nxh5 14.Qxh5 Qf6 15.Rg3 e5 16.d5 h6 and the compensation did not look enough.
8...0-0 9.Ng3 Bb7 10.Bd3 d5
For 10...Bxg2 11.Rg1 Bb7 12.d5 is too dangerous for Black, Rechlis-Psakhis, Tel-Aviv 1992.
11.cxd5 cxd4 12.exd4 Bxc3 13.bxc3 Qxd5 14.Qe2! A necessary intermediate move, as after 14.f3 Nc5! the Black Knight joins the fight with gain of tempo.
14...Nc7 15.f3 e5
Black launches his offensive before White has completely mobilised his pieces.
16.Bc4 Qc6 17.dxe5 Rfe8 18.f4 Rad8
The endgames after 18...Qxg2 19.Qxg2 Bxg2 20.Rg1 is particularly unattractive for Black, for example 20...Bd5 21.Bxd5 Ncxd5 22.c4 Nc7 23.Bb4 Kh8 24.Rd1 and White dominates.
19.0-0 Ng4?
The position after 19...Qxg2+ 20.Qxg2 Bxg2 21.Kxg2 Rxd2+ 22.Kh3 Nfd5 23.Ne4 Rc2 24.Rf3 planning Rd1; or after 19...Ne4 20.Nxe4 Qxe4 21.Rbd1 are both better for White.
20.Rb2! Qc5+ 21.Kh1 Rxd2 22.Rxd2 Ne3
See diagram.
23.Bxf7+ Kxf7 24.Rd7+ Kf8
Black cannot play 24...Re7? 25.Rxe7+ Kxe7 26.Qxe3 Qxe3 27.Nf5+ Ke6 28.Nxe3 and White winning the Exchange; or 24...Kg8 25.Rg1 Nc4 26.Qh5 Re7 27.Rd8+ also winning for White.
25.Rg1 Nxg2?
A wrong move. But after 25...Rc8? 26.Qh5 or 25...Nc4? 26.Qd3 Re7 27.Rxe7 Kxe7 28.Nf5+ Kf8 29.Qd7 White still winning. Maybe 25...Ba8!! would save the game after 26.Rxc7 Nxg2! 27.Rxc5 Nxf4+ 28.Qe4 bxc5 29.Rf1 g5 30.Qxa8 Rxa8 31.Ne4 h6 32.h4 Ke7 and a draw is the most likely outcome.
26.Rxg2 Qc6
If 26...Bxg2+ 27.Qxg2 Qxc3 28.Rxg7 White is winning.
27.Qd2 Ne6 28.Nh5! Ba8
Black also losing after 28...Qxg2+ 29.Qxg2 Bxg2+ 30.Kxg2 g6 31.Nf6 Nxf4+ 32.Kf3 Rxe5 33.Nxh7+ Ke8 34.Nf6+ Kf8 35.Rd4! discovering a Knight fork on d7.
29.Kg1 Qc5+ 30.Rf2 Kg8 31.Ng3
Also winning is 31.Rxa7 Qc6 32.Ng3 Rd8 33.Qc2 b5 34.Qb3 Kh8 35.Kf1.
31...Qb5 32.f5 Nc5 33.Rxa7 Nd3 34.f6
Black resigned here because after 34...Nxe5 (if 34...Nxf2 35.f7+ Kh8 36.fxe8Q+ Qxe8 37.Qxf2 White wins too much material) 35.Rxg7+ Kh8 36.Qc2 Ng6 37.Rxg6 Re1+ 38.Nf1 hxg6 39.Qxg6 Rxf1+ 40.Rxf1 Qc5+ 41.Rf2 Qf8 42.Rf4 Qc5+ 43.Rd4 and mate next move. 1-0.
Ubeda, Spain, February 1997 Category XVI (Averagerating 2640)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 Tot TPR ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 Lautier, Joel g FRA 2630 * 1 = = = = 1 1 1 = 1 = 8.0 2815 2 Beliavsky, Alexander g SLO 2665 0 * = 1 = = 0 = = 1 1 1 6.5 2702 3 Bareev, Evgeny g RUS 2665 = = * = 0 = 1 = = = 1 = 6.0 2673 4 Khalifman, Alexander g RUS 2650 = 0 = * 1 = 0 = 1 = 1 = 6.0 2675 5 Almasi, Zoltan g HUN 2595 = = 1 0 * 1 1 = = 0 0 = 5.5 2644 6 Andersson, Ulf g SWE 2655 = = = = 0 * = = = = = 1 5.5 2638 7 Jussupow, Artur g GER 2665 0 1 0 1 0 = * = = = = 1 5.5 2637 8 Korchnoi, Viktor g SUI 2635 0 = = = = = = * = 1 = = 5.5 2640 9 Leko, Peter g HUN 2600 0 = = 0 = = = = * 1 = = 5.0 2607 10 Timman, Jan H g NED 2630 = 0 = = 1 = = 0 0 * = = 4.5 2575 11 Akopian, Vladimir g ARM 2655 0 0 0 0 1 = = = = = * 1 4.5 2573 12 Illescas, Miguel g ESP 2635 = 0 = = = 0 0 = = = 0 * 3.5 2507