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

April 29th, 2003

We had four Grandmasters and two newcomers in the 54^th NY Masters. Our first newcomer was Varuzhan Akobian. Akobian is the 2002 Samford Fellowship winner (The 2003 Fellowship was just won by New York’s own, Dmitry Schneider) and is one of the strongest young talents in America. Akobian is also well known for being just one win away from winning the 2003 US Championships. While everyone else took draws, he slugged it out with GM Alexander Shabalov, but in the end the GM prevailed and took home clear first. Akobian is in town playing in the Generation chess tournament, the fantastic event in which draw offers before move 50 are not permitted. This has lead to a remarkable number of decisive games, which shows that even when strong GMs and IMs play out seemingly equal positions, very often there will be a victor.

Our other first time player was Marc Esserman, who is currently a student at Harvard University. Esserman also competed in the US Championships, as he qualified for the event in the 2002 Chicago Open.

Participant List for 54th NY Masters

1.       GM Jan Ehlvest
2.       GM Leonid Yudasin
3.       GM Alex Stripunsky
4.       GM Roland Schmaltz
5.       IM Varuzhan Akobian
6.       IM Greg Shahade
7.       IM Jay Bonin
8.       IM Mikhail Zlotnikov

9.       NM Evgeny Gershov
10.     FM Ilye Figler
11.     NM Rafal Furdzik
12.     FM Boris Privman
13.     NM Oliver Chernin
14.     NM Marc Esserman
15.     Qualifier – David Grasso
16.     Filler – Larry Tamarkin

(3) Akobian,V (2634) - Ehlvest,J (2705) [D94]
54th New York Masters New York (3), 29.04.2003

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1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.e3 0-0 6.b4 b6 7.Qb3 e6 8.Ba3 Bb7 9.Be2 dxc4 10.Qxc4 Nbd7 11.0-0 a6 12.Bb2

Akobian likes to play positional, maneuvering lines against the Grunfeld Defense, relying less on opening preparation and more on his middlegame understanding.

12...c5 13.bxc5 bxc5 14.dxc5 Qc7 15.Na4 Rfc8 16.Rfc1 Bc6

17.Nd4

Akobian felt that 17.Bd4, trying to hold onto the extra c5 pawn, would have been stronger.

17...Bxa4 18.Qxa4 Nxc5 19.Qa3 Nd5 20.Rc2 Qb7 21.Rac1 Bf8 22.Bf3 Rab8 23.Qa5?!

Instead of Qa5, it may have been wiser to make “luft” with g3 or h3. You never know when a back-rank trick is going to bite you in the [butt]…… (Am I foreshadowing enough here?)

23...Nd3 24.Bxd5?