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Malcolm Pein on…Shak the Invincible

Malcolm Pein

June 26, 2021

Malcolm Pein on…Shak the Invincible

Shak Mamedyarov won the Grand Chess Tour’s Superbet Chess Classic in after a quiet draw in the ninth and final round with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. This took him to an unassailable score of 6/9. A burst of three wins mid-tournament secured Mamedyarov $90,000 (£65,000) and the lead of the Grand Chess Tour.

Final scores: 1 Mamedyarov 6/9; 2-4 Grischuk, So, Aronian 5; 5-6 Giri, Radjabov 4.5; 7-8 Deac, Caruana 4; 9-10 Vachier-Lagrave, Lupulescu 3.5.

F. Caruana – S. Mamedyarov
Ruy Lopez Berlin

1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.d3 Bc5 5.Nc3 Nd4 6.Ba4 c6 7.0–0 d6 8.Nxd4 Bxd4 9.h3 g5!?

10.Ne2!? (After only three minutes reflection, yet this was the time for a long think as 10.Nd5! Rg8 11.c3 Bb6 12.Nxb6 axb6 13.Bb3 Be6 14.Bxe6 fxe6 15.f3! leaves White clearly better and if 10…Bd7 11.Bxg5!! cxd5 12.Bxd7+ Kxd7 13.Qf3 wins or 10…b5 11.Bxb5!; 10.Bxg5 Rg8 11.Bh4 Bxh3 12.Nd5 Rxg2+ 13.Kh1 is today’s puzzle) 10…Bb6 11.c3 (Caruana went into the tank for 23 minutes, having possibly noticed that 11.Ng3 Rg8 12.Be3 g4 13.h4 Nh5! 14.Bxb6 axb6 15.Nxh5 Qxh4! 16.Ng3 Rxa4 picks up the low hanging fruit. White has reasonable chances after 15.Bxc6+ bxc6 16. Nxh5 Qxh4 17.Ng3 when he can prepare d3–d4) 11…Rg8 12.d4 Nxe4 13.Bc2 d5 14.Bxe4 dxe4 15.dxe5 Qxd1 16.Rxd1 g4 17.h4 g3 18.Nd4 Bd8 19.fxg3 Rxg3 20.Re1 Rg4 21.Bg5 Bxg5 22.hxg5 Ke7 23.Rad1 Bd7 24.e6 (An ingenious try. SM commented: ‘I started to think if Fabi will draw this game, it will be with brilliant defence … different level!’) 24…fxe6 25.g6 hxg6 26.Nb3 e5 (26…b6 27.Rd4 c5 28.Rdxe4 Rxe4 29.Rxe4 Bc6 30.Rh4 Rf8 looks cleaner to me) 27.Na5 Be6 28.Rd2 Rb8 29.b4 Kf6 30.a4 (After 30.Re3!? Rf4 31.a4 g5 there is still a lot of work to do) 30…Rg3 31.Rxe4? (Black should prevail after 31.Rf2+ Bf5 32.Rxe4 Ke6 33.Rc4 b6 34.Nxc6 Kd5 35.Nxb8 Kxc4 36.Nc6 e4) 31…Bd5 32.Rh4 Rxc3 33.Rh7 b6 34.Nxc6 Bxc6 35.Rc7 Rc1+ 36.Kf2 Rf8 37.b5 Ke6+ 38.Kg3 Rc3+ 39.Kh2 Rh8+ 40.Kg1 Rh1+ 41. Kxh1 Bxg2+ 42.Rxg2 Rxc7 43.Rxg6+ Kd5 44.a5 (44.Kg2 Rc4 is easy) 44…Kc5 45.axb6 axb6 46.Re6 Kxb5 47.Rxe5+ Rc5 48.Re1 Rg5 0–1

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Malcolm Pein

Malcolm Pein is a British International Master, chess organizer, author and journalist. He was a child prodigy and a former British Junior Champion. He qualified for the International Master title in 1985. Malcolm is a distinguished writer, journalist and editor. He has been a chess correspondent of the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph for over 30 years, has written numerous chess books and is the Executive Editor of CHESS Magazine. In 1992, he founded the London Chess Centre, a games store in central London and the UK's only chess shop. He is also the founder and CEO of Chess in Schools and Communities, a UK charity whose aim is to introduce chess to state schools and has taught the game to over 250,000 children since its inception in 2009. Malcolm is also well-known for his chess event management. He was responsible for the pre-planning of the World Chess Championship match between Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik in London 2000. In 2002 he was appointed as Technical Director of the 'Brains in Bahrain' match between Vladimir Kramnik and the computer program Fritz. In 2009, Malcolm devised and organized the 1st London Chess Classic - the UK's first world-class elite all-play-all tournament since the 1980s which ran annually until 2019. Malcolm is also very active with the English Chess Federation. In 2016, he was appointed as the Manager and Captain of the England national team. He was also appointed as English Chess Federation delegate to the European Chess Union and FIDE and is the Director of International Chess. In 2018, he also stood for the post of Deputy President of FIDE. In 2021, Malcolm joined the ranks of Chessable authors by bringing the highlights of his column in the Daily Telegraph in the form of an interactive Chessable course, titled Telegraph Tuesday. Profile photograph © Lennart Ootes