2024-04-10 15:10:16
In the fifth round of the Challengers tournament in Toronto, Nurgul Salimova had another very difficult test.
She had to face the black pieces against an extremely dangerous opponent – the leader in the provisional ranking and former world champion Tan Zhongyi.
Against the first move played by the Chinese 1.e4, Nurgül, with the black pieces, trusted his crowning debut – Defense Karo Kahn.
On the third move, the Chinese chose the most popular and modern in the last three decades continuation 3.e5!? This move, played by Aron Nimtsovitch against the great Jose Raul Capablanca in the New York tournament in 1927, was long almost discarded from the practice of leading players because of the brilliant positional masterpiece created by the Cuban with the black pieces in what has long become a Christomatous game.
In 1992, however, at the super tournament in Linares, the Englishman Nigel Short revived the variant by offering a new concept for white, defeating Anatoly Karpov himself.
However, our girl’s party stayed away from these historical references. Nurgül preferred on the third move to switch to a more reliable structure more characteristic of the French defense, even with the loss of one tempo.
A complex manoeuvrable struggle began, in which the impression was created that White was drawing an advantage and their pressure was becoming serious. However, on the 13th move, the Bulgarian performed an enterprising and brilliant sacrifice of her central pawn, with the calculation of good counterplay and long-lasting compensation.
Her brave decision was fully justified. White remained with a pawn for a long time, but Black created an unpleasant game on the white squares, which transformed first with a queen plus knight battery on the large white diagonal, then with a better piece ratio for Black – two rooks and a knight against two rooks and a knight. Nurgül was able to get the pawn back several times, but he preferred to play actively and not give his opponent additional chances.
The complex game required a lot of time consumption, and for the last 17 moves, Nurgül had exactly 17 minutes to think, but her calculations continued to be flawless. After the decisive 37…g5! black forced the transition to an equal rook endgame and to a legal draw on move 58.
A very classy party from Nurgül, which again shows her huge potential and keeps her good chances in the race.
The remaining games of the fifth round Tintze – Lakhno, Koneru – Goryachkina and Vaishali – Muzychuk ended with draws, but all after an uncompromising and long struggle. The ranking remains unchanged – Zhongyi leads with 3.5 points, ahead of Goryachkina with 3. Salimova shares third-fifth place with Lakhno and Vaishali with 2.5 points each.
Salimova’s next opponent is Alexandra Goryachkina. Our girl will be with the white pieces and we remember that she has “old” scores to settle with this opponent with whom they played the final match of the World Cup tournament.
On the men’s side, the youngest entrant, 17-year-old Indian prodigy Gukesh has caught up with Nepomniachy and both share first place with 3.5 points each, followed by rating favorite Caruana who has 3 points.
Here is perhaps Nurgül’s classiest game of the tournament so far:
Tang Zhongyi – Nurgyul Salimova, Toronto, Round 5
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.e5 c5!? 4.dxc5 e6 5.Sf3 Lxc5 6.Ld3 Se7 7.Sbd2 Sbc6 8.Sb3 Lb6 9.0–0 Dc7 10.Lf4 Sb4 11.a4 a6 12.Dd2 Sxd3 13.cxd3 d4!! Brilliant! The c8 officer applauds this top grandmaster decision, because he will become a main character soon and for a long time. 14.a5 La7 15.Sfxd4 0–0 16.Tfc1 Dd7 17.Le3 Dd5 18.f4 Ld7 19.Tc4 Tfd8 20.Tac1 Lb5 21.T4c3 Sc6 22.Sxc6 Lxe3+ 23.Dxe3 Lxc6 24.Df2 Db5 25.Dc5 h 6 ! Come on! Blacks adamantly let whites take responsibility for how to deal with the ladies. At that moment, one of the Russian online commentators exclaimed: “Болгарская девушка очень талендентая!” 26.Dxb5 axb5! This move highlights that White also has weaknesses. No, of course 26…Lxb5? 27.Nc5 Bc6 28.Rb3. 27.d4 Ld5 28.Kf2 b4 29.Td3 Tdc8 30.Tc5 Txc5 31.dxc5 Lc4 32.Te3 Td8 33.Ke1 Td5 34.g3 Kf8 35.Sd2 35…Txc5 36.Sxc4 Txc4 37.Tb3 g5! The best! Black shows that he doesn’t think about spending the rest of the party defending and forces things. 38.Kd2 gxf4 39.Kd3 Rc5 40.gxf4 Txa5 41.Txb4 Rd5+ 42.Td4 Rc5 43.b4 Rc1 44.Td8+ Kg7! 45.Rb8 Rf1 46.Ke3 Rh1 There is no more intrigue – the rook endgame is completely equal and Nurgül confidently brings the game to its natural end. 47.Txb7 Txh2 48.f5 exf5 49.e6 Th4 50.Kd3 Te4 51.exf7 h5 52.b5 h4 53.b6 Tb4 54.Kc3 Tb1 55.Kd4 h3 56.f8D+ Kxf8 57.Th7 Txb6 58.Ke5 f4
Remy