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Malcolm Pein on…Shak’s Seventh Heaven

Malcolm Pein

June 24, 2021

Malcolm Pein on…Shak’s Seventh Heaven

Shak Mamedyarov scored a huge win in the seventh round of the Grand Chess Tour’s Superbet Chess Classic in Bucharest, as he outplayed world number two Fabiano Caruana with the black pieces.

Mamedyarov produced an opening novelty for the second successive game to secure his third straight win and take a one-point lead with two to play. The Azeri GM advanced to number five on the live rating list.

There were three decisive games, as Alexander Grischuk got into ridiculous time trouble against Levon Aronian, blundered twice, and lost. Anish Giri ground down Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

Mamedyarov’s round-six victory. White’s 18th move is Stockfish’s preference and a novelty but should not change the evaluation of the position. Aronian went wrong immediately.

S. Mamedyarov – L. Aronian
Queen’s Gambit Ragozin

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.Qa4+ Nc6 6.e3 0–0 7.Bd2 dxc4 8.Bxc4 Bd6 9.Qc2 e5 10.dxe5 Nxe5 11.Nxe5 Bxe5 12.f4 Bxc3 13.Bxc3 Ng4 14.Bd4 c5 15.Bxc5 Re8 16.0–0 Nxe3 (16…b6 is more often played and after 17.Bd4 Nxe3 18.Bxe3 Rxe3 19.Rad1 Qe7 20.f5 Bd7 White can play for f5–f6 but any resulting queen exchange produces a pretty-level endgame) 17.Bxe3 Rxe3 18.Rfe1 Rxe1+ (After 18…Qd4 19.Qf2 Rxe1+ 20.Rxe1 Qxf2+ 21.Kxf2 Kf8 Black should not come to serious harm) 19.Rxe1

19…Bd7? (Better 19…b5 and if 20.Bxb5?? Qb6+ wins the bishop; Also 19…b5 20.Qe4 Bd7 21.Bd5 Rc8 22.Qe7 Qe8 23.b4 Qxe7 24.Rxe7 Be6 25.Bxe6 fxe6 should hold) 20.Qb3 (A double attack on b7 and f7. Aronian had undoubtedly foreseen this and missed a tactical point later) 20…Qf6 (20…Be8 21.Qxb7 Rb8 22.Qe7) 21.Qxb7! Qd4+ 22.Kh1 Re8 23.Rxe8+ Bxe8 It looks like Black has good counterplay, as the queen threatens a back-rank mate as well as the f4 pawn.

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24.Bxf7+! Kf8 (24…Bxf7 25.Qa8+ Be8 26.Qxe8#) 25.Bb3! Qc5 26.Qd5 Qc1+ 27.Bd1 Qxf4 28.Qc5+ Kg8 29.Qxa7 (Covering …Qf1+ with Qg1) 29…h5 30.h3 Bc6 31.Bb3+ Kh7 32.Qf7 Qc1+ 33.Kh2 Qc5 34.Qg8+ Kh6 35.Qe6+ g6 36.Qf6 Bd7 37.h4 Qc7+ 38.g3 Qc8 39.Qf4+ Kh7 40.Qf7+ 1–0 After 41.Qf7-g8 resistance is futile.

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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