2024-04-22 15:52:04
In her last game at the Toronto Challengers Tournament, Nurgyul Salimova had the black pieces against Russia’s Alexandra Goryachkina. The Bulgarian again stopped at Zaschita Philidor in the debut, as well as in her match with Lei Tingjie in the ninth round.
The whites chose a more standard plan, in which the Bulgarian navigated very well, played fast and confidently and got a nice position.
Then he made some controversial decisions and gave some initiative to the rival. But with his familiar ingenuity and stability, Nurgül dealt with the concrete problems of the defense and even remained with an extra pawn, which turned out to be insufficient for victory.
Another good performance from our girl in a party looking outwardly a little calmer than her last hyper-exciting bouts.
As a summary, we can point out what invaluable experience Nurgül gained playing with the best female chess players in the world.
It is significant that she did not lose any of her four games against the representatives of the strongest chess nation in the world – the Chinese, and even had a winning position against the winner of the competition, Tan Zhongyi.
And now with confidence in her own strength, the talented Bulgarian must move forward in her career. She convincingly proved that she can not only compete as an equal with equals against the best female chess players in the world, but also outplay them.
If there are any weaknesses in her game, such as clumsiness and a certain lack of confidence in unfamiliar and uncertain positions, they are completely overcome with a lot of work, constant participation in strong tournaments and adequate coaching help. In conclusion, we can only say: Bravo Nurgul!
Here are the final women’s standings: 1.Tan Zhongyi 9 points, 2-4. Koneru, Tintze and Vaishali 7.5 points each. 5. Goryachkina 7 points, 6. Lakhno 6.5 points. 7-8 Salimova and Muzichuk 5.5 points each.
By the end of the year, we’ll be looking forward to the women’s title match between current world champion Jiu Wenjun and up-and-coming former world champion Tan Zhongyi.
In men, the maturing sensation took place. The youngest participant, Indian Domaraju Gukesh, won the Challengers Tournament and will play a title match against China’s Ding Liren.
If he wins, he will become the youngest ever world champion and the second representative of India to win the highest title in chess after Viswanathan Anand.
Gukesh started the race ranked sixth with an ELO rating of 2643 and finished as number 6, but now in the world rankings with a new ELO rating of 2763, symbolically just one point ahead of current world champion and future rival Ding Liren, who is seventh in the world with 2672 points.
The biggest drama in the men’s final round, watched with bated breath by the entire chess world, was in the Caruana-Nepomniachy match.
The white-playing American reached a fully winning position against the Russian, but was unable to take the point, which would have sent him into a tiebreak with Gukesh and an eventual tournament win.
This may be a personal tragedy for Caruana, who was the only one in the tournament and only the second chess player in the world along with Magnus Carlsen with a rating above 2800, but the chess goddess Kaisa has her own considerations.
Thus, chess in Asia achieved its triumph – the titles in the wisest game for the first time in history will be contested only by representatives of the largest continent.
Here is Nurgül’s last in the tournament and again multi-turn game:
Goryachkina – Salimova – 14 circles
1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e5 4.Nf3 Nbd7 5.Bc4 In this position, Lei Tingze played the extravagant 5.Rg1!? and after a contested fight, we remember that everything ended in a draw. 5…Le7 6.0–0 In games between amateurs, the cheerful continuation 6.Lxf7+ is encountered here?! Kxf7 and the knight goes berserk – 7.Sg5+ Kg8 8.Se6 Re8 9.Sxc7 Qg6 10.Sxa8, but after 10…Qxg2, White cuts him off. 6…0–0 7.a4 a5 8.Te1 c6 9.h3 exd4 10.Sxd4 Sc5 11.Sb3 Sfd7 12.Lf4?! Not quite a good novelty in this position. 12…Se5! Good line! 13. Lf1 Sxb3 14. cxb3 Le6 15. Se2 Sg6?! The knight stands well on e5. More precisely, it is 15…Bb6! 16.Lg3? The officer’s place is on “e3”. 16…Lh4?! Controversial exchange of unequal officers in the case. Again, 16…Bb6 was preferable!? 17.Lxh4 Dxh4 18.Sd4 Tae8 19.Sf5 Df6 20.Dxd6 Dxb2 21.Dc5 Lc8 The “b3” pawn is “poisonous”. Loses 21…Lxb3 22. Tab1 Dc2 23. Dd4 f6 (или 23… Te5 24. Tec1 Da2 25. Ta1) 24. Txb3 Dxb3 25. Lc4+. 22. Dxa5 Dxb3?! Risky taking. More precisely, it is 22…Te5! 23.Tab1?! He posed more serious problems 23.Sd6! 23…Da3 24.Te3 Da2 25.Tbe1
25…Te5! 26.Db4 c5 27.Db5 Lxf5 28.exf5 Txf5 29.T1e2 Da1 30.Te8 h6 31.Dd7 Tf6 32.Txf8+ Sxf8 33.Dc8 Te6 34.Txe6 fxe6 35.Dxc5 Dxa4 Black has one more pawn left, but the position is equal. Because of the pawn weaknesses in Black’s camp, White’s queen-knight tandem is stronger than Black’s queen-knight pair in this case. 36. Db6 Dc6 37. Dd8 Dd5 38. Db8 Kf7 39. Df4+ Ke7 40. Dg4 Kf7 41. Df4+ Kg8 42. Db8 An attempt to activate the linked horse failed. 42…Qc6 43.h4 b6 44.h5 Qc5 45.De8 Qf5 46.Le2 Qe5 47.Ld3 Qe1+ 48.Lf1 Dd1 49.g3 Dd7 50.Db8 Dd4 51.De8 Dd5 52.Lb5 Qf5 53.Le2 De4 54 .Bb5 Qf3 55.Bc4 Nurgül is making efforts in search of victory, but a draw is inevitable. 55…Dd1+ 56.Kg2 Dg4 57.Dc6 Dxh5 58.Lxe6+ Sxe6 59.Dxe6+ Df7
Remy