New York quickly got into trouble on boards 3 and 4, where GM John Fedorowicz and Alex Katz (making his Knights debut) faced SM Greg Braylovsky and James Black.
Braylovsky found a novel opening plan against the BronxBattler.
1. Nf3 Nf6 2. d4 e6 3. c4 b6 4. g3 Ba6 5. Nbd2 Bb4 6. Qc2 Bb7 7. Bg2 (69) Be4 (83)
Greg spent 12 minutes on Bg2 and his time disadvantage would later play a decisive role.
8. Qb3 Bd2 9. Bd2 0-0 10. 0-0 d6 11. Rfd1 Nbd7 12. h3!?N (45)
Played after a 13 minute think, this move (and associated plan) is new. More popular is 12. Rac1, after which Michael Adams has ably defended the black side of the resulting complex position.
12. ..Qe7 (80) 13. g4 Rfc8 14. Rac1 (27) a5 (78) 15. Bg5 Qe8 16. Qe3 (19) h6 (73) 17. Bf4 Bb7 18. g5 hg 19. Bg5 Rab8 20. h4 Ne4 21. Bh3 Nf8 22. d5! ed 23. Bc8 (5) Qc8 (54)
Braylovsky has achieved a much better position, but is dangerously low on time. Fedorowicz's position looks to be tough to crack, with strong squares (c5 and f8) for his knights, pressure on d5 and the c8-h3 diagonal for the queen.
24. cd Nc5 25. Kh2
An interesting idea was 25. Rd4 f6 26. Bf6!! gf 27. Kh2! when white's heavy pieces will overwhelm black's defenses. Black had the resource 25. ..Qf5.
25. ..Qd7 26. Qe7! Qc8 27. h5!?
Safer was a regroupment starting with 27. Be3 Ng6 28. Qg5, when it's hard to find black's compensation for the exchange. Braylovsky saw an opportunity to plunder white's queenside, but Fedorowicz calculated further!
27. ..Qf5 28. Rc5?
It was better to immediately capture the c7 pawn. 28. Qc7 Re8 29. Rc4! Re2 30. Rf4 forces 30. ..Qd7 and white maintains the extra exchange.
28. ..bc 29. Qc7 Re8! 30. Qb7 (2) Re2 (47)
The last critical moment of the game.
31. Kg3??
In desperate time pressure, Braylovsky misses the narrow path to a draw: 31. Qb3! Rf2 32. Kg3 Rf3 33. Qf3 Qg5 and white holds the balance.
31. ..Re4 32. Qb3 Qg4 33. Kh2 Qh5 34. Kg2 c4 35. Qc3 g4 36. Kf1 Rg5 37. Rd4 Rd5 38. Rh4 Qf5 39. Rc4?
39. Ne1! prolonged resistance
39. ..Rd3! 40. Rf4 Qh3 41. Ke2 Rc3 42. bc Qe6 0:1
The Knights got the better of extreme time pressure on board 4 as well, in a shocking turn of events that changed the complexion of the match.
1. e4 (74)
Alex arrived 15 minutes late and, unfortunately, stayed in severe time trouble throughout the game.
1. ..c5 (88) 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cd 4. c3 Nf6 5. e5 Nd5 6. cd d6 7. Bc4 Nc6 8. 0-0 Nb6!?
Rare. More popular is 8. ..Be7 9. Qe2
9. Bb3 de 10. de Qd1 11. Rd1 (71) Be7 (80)
Alex began spending lots of time trying to generate an advantage.
12. Be3 (63) Nd7 (78) 13. Ba4 (58) 0-0 (76) 14. Bc6 (52) bc (76) 15. Nbd2 (45) Ba6 (74) 16. Nb3 (30) Rfd8 (69) 17. Rdc1 (18) Rdc8 (66) 18. Nc5 (9)
Also worth considering was 18. Bc5!?
18. ..Bc5 (62) 19. Bc5 Bd3 20. Bd6 (5) Be4 (61) 21. b4 (3) a6 (60) 22. Nd2 (2) Bd5 (59) 23. Nc4 f6 24. f4 Kf7 25. Rc3 Bc4 26. Rc4 Nb6 27. Rc2 Ke8 28. Rd1 Nd5 29. Rf2 Kd7?!
29. ..f5 seemed most straightforward
30. Bc5 a5 31. a3 ab 32. ab Rcb8 33. Rf3 Ke8 34. f5 ef 35. ef g6! 36. Rh3?
36. g4! was necessary
36. ..h5! 37. Rb3 Nf6 38. Re3 Ne4 39. h3 Rd8 40. Rf1
Down to a minute and in a losing position, Katz looks for a miracle swindle...
40. ..Rd2??
And gets it! 40. ..Ra2! was the right way to double on the 2nd rank. Another tragic miss for James.
41. Re4!
and white is just up a piece
41. ..Kf7 42. Re7 Kf6 43. Rc7 Raa2 44. Rc6 Kg7 45. Rc7 1:0
Pascal won a smooth game on board 2 against IM Dmitry Schneider
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bb5 Bd6!?
This unsightly move has become quite popular. In the absence of an exchange on c6, the d6 square is a temporary home that allows black to cover e5 while completing his kingside development, before redeploying the bishop to a more active square.
5. 0-0 0-0 6. d3 h6 7. a3 Re8 8. Ne2 Bf8 9. Ng3 g6 10. Re1 Bg7 11. c3 a6 12. Ba4 b5 13. Bb3 d6 14. a4 Rb8
And...we have a Ruy Lopez.
15. ab ab 16. h3 Be6 17. Be6 Re6 18. d4 d5!
Black achieves this standard break and is close to equalizing.
19. ed Qd5 20. de Qd1 21. Rd1 Ne5 22. Nd4 Ree8 23. Bf4 Nfd7?!
First step in the wrong direction. More dynamic was 23. ..Nc4! 24. Bc7 Rb7 25. Ba5 Nb2 26. Rdb1 Nc4 27. Bb4 Nd5 when black is for choice.
24. Nc6 Rb6?!
Again, a less critical path. More accurate was either removing the offending knight with 24. ..Nc6 25. Rd7 Ne5 26. Rc7 Nd3 27. Bd2 Nb2 28. Raa7 Rf8 29. Ne4 Nc4 30. Bf4 Rbe8 31. Nd6 Nd6 32. Bd6 Re1 33. Kh2 Be5 34. Be5 Re5 when white's advantage is slight or 24. ..Rbc8 providing additional support for c7.
25. Nb4 Rb7 26. Ne4 f5 27. Be5 Ne5 28. Nc5 Rbb8 29. Ra7 Nc4 30. b3!?
Also playable was 30. Nc6 Rbc8 31. b3 Nb2 32. Rd7 Bf8 33. Nb7!?
30. ..Nb2 31. Rc1 Rbd8 32. Rc7 Rd1 33. Rd1 Nd1 34. Ncd3 Nc3 35. Nc6
Material balance has been restored, but white maintains a pull with his piece activity. Black falls headlong into a trap.
35. ..Re2?? 36. Ne7 Kh7 37. Ng6! Rc2
If 37. ..Kg6 38. Rc3! Rd2 39. Nf4 and white retains an extra pawn
38. Nf8 Kg8 39. Ne6 Ne2 40. Kf1 Rc7 41. Nc7 Nd4 42. b4 Kf7 43. f4 Ke7 44. Kf2 Kd7 45. Nd5 Kd6 46. Ne3
46. ..Ke6?!
More accurate was 46. ..h5 forcing white to trade at least a pair of pawns on the kingside.
47. g4! Bf6 48. Nc5 Kd6?
48. ..Kf7 was safer
49. Nf5 Nf5 50. Ne4!
The point
50. ..Ke7 51. Nf6 Nd4 52. Nd5 Kd6 53. Nc3 Kc6 54. h4 Nc2 55. g5 hg 56. fg Kd6 57. h5 Ke5 58. h6 1:0
With the match turning New York's way on the lower boards, the battle between Giorgi and GM Alex Stripunsky had less say on the outcome of the match than the high drama and creative play between the two grandmasters warranted.
1. e4 c5 2. Nc3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nd4 4. Bc4 e6 5. Nge2 Nf6 6. 0-0 a6 7. a4 d5 8. ed ed 9. Ba2 Bd6!?
Carlsen chose 9. ..Bg4 against Radjabov earlier this year. That game continued 10. f3 Be6 11. d3 Nc6 12. Nf4 Qd7 13. Bd2 Be4 14. Nce2 0-0 15. c3 b5 16. Bb1 Rab8 17. ab ab 18. Bc2 with a double-edged game that eventually ended in a draw. Kacheishvili's move order sets some additional problems for white, as he waits for the exchange on d4 to develop his c8 bishop.
10. d3 0-0 11. Nd4 cd 12. Ne2 Bg4 13. f3 Bd7 14. Nd4 Qc7 15. Kh1 Ba4
16. Be3?!
Too passive. More energetic was 16. Nf5 Bh2 17. Qd2! menacing the kingside. After 17. ..Be5! 18. d4 Bd6 19. Qg5 Ne8 20. Re1 white appears to have ample compensation for the pawn.
16. ..Rfe8 17. Bg1 Bd7
White's pawn structure may be slightly better, but black's pieces are much more actively placed and that allows him to grab the initiative.
18. c3 Re5! 19. f4 Rh5
Guarding d5 and hitting h2!
20. Qf3 g5!?
Giorgi not holding back. At this point in the match, it was quite possible black would have to press for a win, given the situation on the bottom two boards.
21. Be3 Bg4 22. Qf2 Re8 23. Bd2 Bc8
As GM Alex Lenderman put it "a real grandmaster move"
24. Rae1 Re1 25. Qe1 gf 26. Nf3 Bf5
Consistent, but also possible was 26. ..Bd7, intending to pressure white on the a6-f1 diagonal.
27. Bb1 Kg7 28. Qd1 Bg6?!
A bit slow. Possible was 28. ..Ng4!? 29. h3 Ne3 30. Be3 fe 31. Nd4 Bg6 with an extra pawn.
29. Qa4 Ng4 30. h3 Nh6 31. Qd4 f6 32. Qf2 Nf5 33. Kg1
33. ..Bc5?!
Why rush? White is in a sort of middlegame zugzwang, where most moves contain a positional or tactical concession. 33. ..a5, intending a5-a4 continues to put the squeeze on white. One venomous idea is 34. Bc1 a4 35. Bd2 d4!! 36. Nd4 Nd4 37. cd Rb5 38. Bc3 a3!
34. d4 Bd6 35. Bf5 Bf5 36. Ne1 Rg5 37. Qh4 Qb6 38. Bf4 Bf4 39. Qf4 Be4 40. Rf2 Qe6 41. Nf3 Rf5 42. Qc7 Qf7 43. Qf7 Kf7 44. Nd2 Rg5!?
Better to suffer in a pawn down R+P ending than get squeezed in N vs B.
45. Ne4 de 46. Rf4 f5 47. Kf2 Ke6 48. g4 fg 49. hg h5 50. Re4 Kd5 51. Kf3 Kc4! 52. gh Rh5 53. Re7 b5 54. Rc7 Kd3
54. ..Kb3 55. Ke4 Kb2 56. d5 a5 57. d6 Rh8 58. d7 Rd8 59. Kd5 a4 60. Kd6 a3 61. Rb7 Kc3 62. Rb5 a2 is also drawn.
55. b4 Rf5 56. Kg4 Rf1 57. Rc6 Rf8 58. Kg5 Ke4 59. Rc5 Rf1 60. Kg6 Rf2 61. Re5 Kd3 62. Rc5 Ke4 63. Rc6 Kd5 64. Rf6 Rc2 65. Rf3 Kc4 66. Kf7 Re2 67. Kf6 Re1 68. Kf5 Re8 69. Rh3 Re1 70. Kf4 Re8 71. Re3 Rf8 72. Kg3 Ra8 73. Rf3 a5 74. ba Ra5 75. Kf4 Ra3 76. d5 b4 77. cb Rf3 78. Kf3 Kd5 79. b5 Kc5 80. b6 Kb6! 0.5 : 0.5
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