This edition of the New York Masters brought us a lot of brand new faces. Israeli GM Victor Mikhalevski has been in the States for a couple of weeks and participated in the World Open earlier this month in Philadelphia, and decided to make his New York Masters debut. Dutch FM Jan van de Mortel is no stranger to chess events, having been a successful journalist for KasparovChess and spent some time in New York City in the past. Jake Kleiman has been a successful junior for quite some time, but hasn’t had many chances to shine, living in Tennessee. Adam Maltese isn’t a brand new face, but by making his third appearance as a qualifier, has enshrined himself on the Website.

Alex Stripunsky had held onto the Internet board with an iron grip throughout the tournament. Only needing a draw to clinch first place, the White pieces are a blessing, unless your opponent is Alex Shabalov. Shabalov’s combativeness has won him lots of fans recently, after his brave performance to win the 2003 US Championships in Seattle. Occasionally his fighting spirit gets the worse of him, but you certainly know you’re in for an entertaining game. Since a draw was no good to Shabalov, you can definitely expect him to beat down the house in order to win this game. Stripunsky would have to test his mettle to win this tournament.

1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.g3 h5!?

Vintage Shabalov. Facing Stripunsky with the Black pieces is never an easy task, especially when you have to win! This move was first played by the great Argentine GM Herman Pilnik in 1959, the same year that the famous Danish GM Bent Larsen essayed an early h5 against a Kingside Bishop Fianchetto against that famous Danish player Frode Terkelsen.

4.Bg2

Stripunsky continues as if nothing has happened, calmly placing his Bishop on g2 as he intended.

4...h4 5.g4

Attempting to seal off the Kingside the next move by playing h3. Shabalov, of course, has other plans.
 

5...h3!

This pawn sacrifice is the logical continuation of Black's strategy. For a pawn, Black obtains the open h-file for counterplay (And we know how much Shabalov loves counterplay), as well as the discombobulation of White's pieces, and at some point in the future, perhaps the f4 and h4 squares will be of use. This had all been seen before in the game Kokolias - Falkos, Aegina open 1996. However, that game wasn't very good, so we can give Shabalov full credit for an interesting and new continuation.

6.Nxh3 e5 7.Ng1 Nge7 8.d3 Ng6

The Knight now takes up control of the weak f4 and h4 squares.

A cute shot! Shabalov continues to make threatening moves.

20.Qf1

The idea, of course, is 20.cxd4 exd4 21.Bg5 Bxd5 regaining the piece. Silicon warriors would try to play 20. cxd4 exd4 21. Bd2, in order to attack the Bishop on a5, but after 21...Bxd5 22. Bxa5 Qa4!, things get messy. White probably has to go in for something like 23. b4, but who would want to play that position against Shabalov? Certainly not Stripunsky, who just calmly retreats his queen.

20...Nb5 21.Nd2 Bd8 22.f4 Bxd5 23.exd5 exf4 24.Bxf4 Nxf4 25.Qxf4 Bf6 26.Be4

Stripunsky seems to have everything under control, and focuses his attack on the offsides Knight on b5, the weak pawn on d6, and eventually, making a passed pawn with his extra h-pawn.

26...Qd8 27.Rc2 Ka8 28.Nc4 Qe7 29.Rf1 Rf8 30.a4 Be5 31.Qf2 Nc7 32.Re2 Qe8 33.Nxe5 dxe5 34.Qxc5 Qxa4 35.d6 Nb5

Uh oh. Shabalov has gotten his pieces to start menacing White's king. When a player as tactically gifted as Shabalov starts doing that, one should take serious precautions.

36.Qd5

36.Rxf7 would be a brilliant move here, if Black didn't have the embarrassing 36...Qd1+ forcing perpetual check.

Now that the smoke has cleared, Stripunsky has found himself with the better endgame, due to a wonderfully centralized Bishop, a weak pawn on an open file (f7), and the prospect of engineering a passed h-pawn. Grandmasters don't hesitate to go for the win here, and Stripunsky is a good Grandmaster.

39...Kb8 40.h4 Nc7 41.Ref2 Rd7 42.h5 Ne6

42...Re7 followed by 43...Ne6 was suggested by IM Mark Ginsburg on ICC as an improvement, to avoid the pin.

Black now has to continually worry himself about White having the break h6 available.

At this point, perhaps Black should go the cautious route, and play 55...Kd5, to try to stop the passed c-pawn. Instead, Shabalov bravely pushes his e-pawn, which unfortunately is not enough to stop both the c and g-pawns.