Chessville - New York Masters Game of the Week - Analysis by IM Greg Shahade

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Game of the Week
With Analysis by IM Greg Shahade

(4) Ehlvest,J (2702) - Stripunsky,A (2648) [A25]
47th New York Masters New York (4), 11.03.2003

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4 GM’s were slugging it out for first place in the final round. Yudasin and Wojtkiewicz made things more tense when their game ended in a draw. Yudasin had a chance to simply win a piece for nothing, but shockingly missed it. Although he still had the edge, Wojo was able to recover from this near certain loss, and salvage a half point.

Blatny, Charbonneau and Privman also won their last round games, thus leaving, Yudasin, Wojtkiewicz, Blatny, Charbonneau and Privman with three points. It would all come down to the last round game. Either Ehlvest or Stripunsky would take clear first, or there would be a massive 7 way tie for first place!

1.c4 e5 2.g3 Nc6 3.Bg2 g6 4.Nc3 Bg7 5.Rb1 d6 6.b4 Nh6 7.b5 Nd4 8.e3 Ne6 9.Nge2 0-0 10.0-0 f5 11.f4 e4 12.d3 exd3 13.Qxd3 Nc5 14.Qc2 Re8

15.h3 a6 16.Nd4 axb5 17.cxb5 Kh8 18.Nb3 Nxb3 19.axb3 Bd7

Stripunsky decides to jettison the b7 pawn to complete his development.

20.Bxb7 Rb8 21.Bg2 Ng8 22.b4 Nf6 23.Bd2 d5 24.Rfc1 Re7 25.Rb3 Be8 26.Kh2 h5 27.Rd1 Bf7 28.Ra3 h4!?

Stripunsky, not willing to dawdle about any longer, sacrifices two pawns to go for Ehlvest’s king!

29.gxh4 d4!? 30.exd4 Nh5

Ehlvest is up 3 pawns on the board, but what ugly pawns they are!

31.Qd3 Rd7 32.d5 Qxh4 33.Rf1 Re8 34.Ra7 Nf6

Now it’s heating up! One is always scared when the queen is so close to one’s king, especially when the king lacks real pawn protection! The good news for white, is that it’s very difficult for black to bring the rest of his pieces over to the kingside.

35.b6

Ehlvest ignores Stripunsky’s attacking pieces, and simply proceeds with events on the queenside.

35...cxb6 36.Rxd7 Nxd7 37.Nb5 Ra8 38.Bc3!

38...Nf6 39.Kg1 Ra2 40.d6 Nd7 41.Bxg7+ Kxg7 42.Nd4 Qf6 43.Rf2 Ra1+ 44.Kh2 Qh4 45.Qc3

At this point both players had just 2 minutes left, with the 5 second increment. White is threatening Qxa1 and Ne6+ followed by Qg7 mate! Things look dire, but black found the only saving grace in moving the king.

45...Kh7 46.Qxa1 Qxf2 47.Nf3!

Ehlvest’s knight is heading to g5. White is the one attacking all of the sudden. One could say black’s attack was always doomed to fail, as it was only backed up by the lone queen.

47...Qe3 48.Ng5+ Kg8 49.Nxf7 Qxf4+ 50.Kh1 Nf6!? 51.Qxf6

Ehlvest captured this knight very quickly, confident that there was no perpetual check.

51...Qc1+ 52.Kh2 Qf4+ 53.Kg1 Qc1+ 54.Bf1 Qe3+ 55.Kh1

Looks like Ehlvest was right, as black will run out of useful checks in one move!

55...Qf2 56.Qxg6+ 1-0

And GM Jan Ehlvest takes clear first and $350 in his first ever New York Masters! Word on the street is that he will be back next week too, so we should have some great action coming! Tying for 2nd place and picking up $55 with 3/4 were GM Yudasin, GM Wojtkiewicz, GM Blatny and IM Charbonneau. Also with 3/4 was Boris Privman, which gave him the U2400 prize of $90.

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